112
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. 11. AUG. 6, iwi.
I have, however, always regarded the lines
as one of the " nonsense verses " repeated by
mothers and nurses for the amusement oi
young children. I remember hearing from
my father that a money-lender (Ismay, the
Mile-End miser, I believe) quoted the first
two lines,
A man of words, and not of deeds,
Is like a garden full of weeds,
by way of rebuke, to a person who had failed to repay him at a date agreed upon. Possibly in that case it had a double meaning, as referring to a loan upon mere personal security without note of hand or deposit of deeds, &c. W. I. B. V.
DESECRATED FONTS (10 th S. i. 488). An old- time font is to be found in the churchyard of Patterdale, in Westmorland. This I made the subject of a sonnet in my * Sonnets of Lakeland ' a dozen years ago.
The disused font from the parish church of Burtonwood, in Lancashire, is now used as a flower vase in an adjoining garden.
On 5 April of last year, whilst rambling through the old churchyard at Thornton, near this city, I discovered what at first appeared to be the fragment of a broken cross. With the aid of the sexton and a couple of gentlemen it was unearthed and set up, and, to our surprise and pleasure, we found that it was an old font, in an abso- lutely perfect state of preservation. It con- tained the following inscription, the engrav- ing being almost as clear as on the day it was first cut : " Michael Bentley and Jonas Dobson, churchwardens, 1687."
One of the most prominent of Bradford's historians, Mr. William Scruton, is the author of a valuable volume entitled ' Thorn- ton and the Brontes,' and in this work he writes :
" The old font in which all the Bronte children, except Maria, the eldest, were baptized has been removed to the new church, and placed in a position worthy of the great interest attaching to it."
I consider the font I found in the church- yard to be the one far more likely to have been used during the incumbency of the Rev. Patrick Bronte than the one now in the new church ; but, whether it is or not, it should certainly be removed to the inside of the new building.
A picturesque illustration of an old font is given on p. 158 of Hone's * Table Book ' for 1830, with the following comment :
"Some years ago the fine old font of the ancient ?u r l 8 h ,9^rch of Harrow-on-the-Hill was torn from that edifice and given out to mend the roads with, ihe feelings of one parishioner (to the honour of the sex, a female) were outraged by this act of parochial
vandalism, and she was allowed to preserve it from
destruction and place it in a walled nook at the
garden front of her house, where it still remains.
By her obliging permission a drawing of it was made
the summer before last, and is engraved above.
On the exclusion of Harrow font from the church,
the parish officers put up the marble wash-hand-
basin-stand-looking-thing which now occupies its
place, inscribed with the names of the church-
wardens during whose reign venality or stupidity
effected the removal of its predecessor. If there be
any persons in that parish who either venerate
antiquity, or desire to see 'right things in right
places, 3 it is possible that, by a spirited representa-
tion, they may arouse the indifferent and shame the
ignorant to an interchange ; and force an expression
of public thanks to the lady whose good taste and
care enabled it to be effected. The relative situation
and misappropriation of each font is a stain on
the parish, easily removable by employing a few
men and a few pounds to clap the paltry usurper
under the spout of the good lady s house, and
restore the original from that degrading destination
to its rightful dignity in the church."
It would be interesting to know if this old font has been replaced in Harrow Church.
I could inundate the valuable pages of
- N. & Q.' with similar instances of sacrilege ;
but perhaps the above will suffice for the present. CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.
Baltimore House, Bradford.
A series of articles on the ancient fonts of Hertfordshire is appearing monthly in the Hertfordshire Mercury. Five or six desecrated fonts have already been mentioned.
In the Builder of 14 September, 1895, it is stated in ' Notes on Ipswich ' that during excavations in the town ditch the remains of a Norman font were discovered.
In Knight's ' Old England,' vol. i. fig. 1309-, is an illustration of the broken base of a Perpendicular font, formerly in Stratford-on- Avon Church.
In Dr. Cox's l Churches of Derbyshire ' several instances of desecrated fonts are men- tioned. MATILDA POLLARD.
Belle Vue, Bengeo.
In July last year I saw lying in the church- yard of Polwarth, Berwickshire, a Norman
- ont. W. D. MACRAY.
About twelve years ago, at Sileby, in Lei- cestershire, I was shown a Saxon font which
- he vicar had recently rescued from a local
armer, who had been using it as a pig trough. ["he vicar had it set up in his private garden.
W. T. H.
For a good instance I would refer
D AGE to the case of the font at the pre-
tforman church of Deerhurst, Gloucester-
shire, which was long used as a washing-tub
n a neighbouring farm. In 1843 it was
removed to the church of Longdon, Worces-
