FONT IN ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, SOUTHAMPTON. THE Church of St. Michael forms the eastern side of a square of the same name, and is an ancient and curious building. It consists of a nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a low tower rising from the centre, and finished by a lofty and well-proportioned octagonal spire. On each side of the west window the Saxon masonry of the original front is still discernible; in the eastern front the same masonry is also visible, together with a fragment of a small angular column, and a portion of the billeted moulding; but what principally attracts the attention of the antiquary is the curious Font contained in this Church; a full description of which having been given by sir H. E. Englefield, in his "Walk through Southampton," we have taken the liberty to extract it. "The Font consists of a block of black marble three feet four inches square and one foot six inches deop, supported in its centre by a cylinder of the same material, ornamented with horizontal rings, so as much to resemble a barrel, and at each angle by a plain pillar of white stone, one foot six inches high and about six inches diameter. The whole stands on another marble block of about three feet square and about seven inches deep, out FONT IN ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH. of which are cut bases for the small columns, consisting of a flat ring on a large round cushion: these rest on a plain square plinth of about three inches high; a plain leaf falls from the bases of the columns on each angle of the plinth. The top stone is excavated into an hemispherical basin, two feet six inches diameter, round which runs a scroll of foliage of very rude execution, but not ill designed; and the angles are filled with an imitation of the ancient ornament, now generally called the honeysuckle. The sides of the Font, of which three only are now visible, as the Font stands against the wall, are each divided into three circular compartments, with a sort of winged minotaur in each, something like a griffin, except one, which has an angel in a long robe of linen, covered with a shorter tunic; his hands are folded on his heart, and round his head is the nimbus or glory; behind his shoulders are two wings, which reach to his feet. These sides are one foot one inch and a half deep; the remaining four inches and a half of the thickness of the block slope away to the central cylinder in a sort of fluting or broad leaves, now much defaced. The workmanship of the whole is in the very modest style of Saxon sculpture." |