Page:County Churches of Cornwall.djvu/142

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H4 THE CHURCHES OF CORNWALL transept for the Port Eliot pew, with corridor lead- ing to it. This pew has since been turned into an organ chamber, and the corridor into a vestry. The most interesting detail of the interior is the fine late Norm, font of Purbeck marble, broken up and discarded in 1793. ^he fragments were, how- ever, replaced in 1840. The font, 33 in. square, and 39 in. high, has the 4 angles round the bowl at the top of the font filled with 3 three-leaved ornaments in slight relief and a circle or ring in fourth angle. N. side of bowl is carved with a round-headed arcade, and the other sides have much-worn patterns ; it stands on a central and four subsidiary shafts. In the aisle is a small, somewhat rudely carved and clumsily repaired stall. A good deal has been written and said about "the extraordinary anti- quity" of this piece of church furniture, and one antiquary of recent times has described it as " a penitential sedile with a carved record of the trespass thereon " ! The misericord is carved with figure of a sportsman carrying a couple of rabbits and surrounded by dogs. The subject is locally known as " Dando and his dogs," as to whom there are some amusing childish tales. But, after all, the date of this carving cannot be older than late 14th cent., and hunting subjects are quite common in such positions. It originally formed one of a set of small stalls. Another interesting fragment is a piece of the 15th cent, rood-screen. Part of stair- way to this screen is in S. aisle.