de is octagonal
in form and of 13th century date, but it has been somewhat restored.
Ancient fonts were always large enough to allow for total immersion,
and our present custom of baptism by affusion, or sprinkling, is only
permitted, not enjoined by the rubric. In early days the sacrament of
baptism was only administered by the bishops at the great festivals of
Pentecost and Easter, for the reason that this afforded the greater
convenience for immediate confirmation, but with the increase in the
number of churches the rite was administered by the priests in every
village. The font was required by the canon to be of stone, but there
are a few Norman fonts made of lead, among them those at S. Mary's
Church, Wareham, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, and at Edburton, Parham,
and Pyecombe, Sussex. A remarkable font is that at Dolton Church, Devon,
made up of fragments of the churchyard cross, and there is also a
somewhat similar one at Melbury Bubb, Dorset. By a constitution of
Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury (1236), fonts were required to be
covered and locked, and at first these covers were little more than
plain lids, but they afterwards became highly ornamental and were
enriched with buttresses, pinnacles, crockets, etc. It is doubtful if
any fonts exist which can reasonably be supposed to be Saxon, although
a few, like that at Little Billing, Northants, may possibly be of that
era. Of Norman fonts we have large numbers. They are sometimes plain
hollow cylinders; others are massive squares with a large pillar in
the centre, and small shafts at the corners. These fonts are generally
ornamented with rudely executed carvings, consisting of foliage and
grotesque animals.

[Illustration: An Example of a Leaden Font of the late Norman period.
Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey.]

The one in Winchester Cathedral is a good example, and there are three
other very similar ones in Hampshire. Early English fonts are very often
circular, and sometimes square, and they are often supported in much the
same way as the Norman ones. In the Decorated and Perpendicular styles
they are, with few exceptions, octagonal, and the details generally
partake of the character of those used in the other architectural features
of the period. There are hexagonal fonts of Decorated date at Rolvenden,
Kent, and Heckington, Lincs. The font is usually placed close to a pillar
near the entrance, generally that nearest but one to the tower in the
south arcade, o