rld. A hole was burnt
through 104 of its pages. It is said that Matthew Prior, the poet, was
reading it by candle light and fell asleep, and when he woke was much
distressed to find that the snuff from his candle had done the mischief.
He did his best to repair the damage, by placing a tiny piece of paper
over the hole in each page, and inserting the missing letters with pen
and ink. The book has since been rebound, leaves taken from another copy
having been bound in between the damaged pages.

[Illustration: THE CRYPT.]

[Illustration: THE FONT.]

The lower part of the west tower is used as a baptistery; this is
separated from the nave by a screen, formed of fragments of the old rood
screen. In the centre stands the octagonal late Norman #Font#, supported
by eight slender shafts of Purbeck marble, and a modern spirally-carved
central pillar of white stone, through which runs the drain to carry off
the water.

[Illustration: THE CLOCK IN THE WEST TOWER.]

In the inner southern wall of this tower, rather low down, is fixed a
curious old #Clock# made by Peter Lightfoot, a Glastonbury monk, in the
early part of the fourteenth century. The earth is represented by a
globe in the centre, the sun by a disc which travels round it once in
twenty-four hours, showing the time of day; the moon by a globe so
fastened to a blue disc that it revolves once during a lunar month; half
of this is painted black, the other half is gilt, and the age of the
moon is indicated by the amount of the gilded portion visible--when the
moon is full the whole of the gilt hemisphere is shown, when new the
whole of the black. This clock still goes, the works being in a room in
the tower above. It requires winding once a day. The same clock also
causes the Jack outside the tower to strike the quarters.

In the #Belfry# is a peal of eight bells. The tenor weighs about 36
cwts., the treble 7 cwts.

The tenor bears this inscription:

MR WILHEMUS LORINGE ME PRIMO FECIT,
IN HONOREM STAE CUTBERGAE.
RENOVABAR SUMPTU PAROCHALI PER AB,
ANNO DOMINI 1629.

The seventh bell is dated 1798.

The sixth bell 1600, and is thus inscribed: "SOUND OUT THE BELLS, IN GOD
REGOYCE."

The fifth 1698, "PRAISE THE LORD."

The fourth 1686, "PULSATA ROSAMUNDI MARIA VOCATA. SMV."

The third was originally the smallest bell of the peal, and bears the
Latin hexameter: "SUM MINIMA HIC CAMPANA, AT INEST, SUA GRATIA PARVIS,"
and the words, "