the armillary
sphere, now unfortunately quite broken off. But even more interesting
than this pulpit itself is the comparison between its details and those
of the nave or Coro added about the same time to the Templar church on
the hill behind. Here all is purely Gothic, there there is a mixture of
Gothic and renaissance details, and towards the west front an exuberance
of carving which cannot be called either Gothic or anything else, so
strange and unusual is it.

[Sidenote: Villa do Conde.]

Another church of almost exactly the same date is that of Sao Joao
Baptista, the Matriz of Villa do Conde. The plan shows a nave and aisles
of five bays, large transeptal chapels, and an apsidal chancel
projecting beyond the two square chapels by which it is flanked. As
usual the nave and aisles have a wooden roof, only the chancel and
chapels being vaulted. There is also a later tower at the west end of
the north aisle, and a choir gallery across the west end of the church.
Throughout the original windows are very narrow and round-headed, and
there is in the north-western bay a pointed door, differing only from
those of about a hundred years earlier in having twisted shafts. One
curious feature is the parapet of the central aisle, which is like a row
of small classical pedestals, each bearing a stumpy obelisk. By far the
finest feature of the outside is the great west door. On each side are
clusters of square pinnacles ending in square crocketed spirelets, and
running up to a horizontal moulding which, as so often, gives the whole
design a rectangular form. Within comes the doorway itself; a large
trefoiled arch of many mouldings of which the outermost, richly
crocketed, turns up as an ogee, to pierce the horizontal line above with
its finial. Every moulding is filled with foliage, most elaborately and
finely cut, considering that it is worked in granite. Across the
trefoil at its springing there runs a horizontal moulding resting on the
flat elliptical arch of the door itself. On the tympanum is a figure of
St. John under a very elaborate canopy with, on his right, a queer
carving of a naked man, and on his left a dragon. The space between the
arch and the top moulding is filled with intricate but shallow
panelling, among which, between two armillary spheres, are set, on the
right, a blank shield crowned--probably prepared for the royal arms--and
on the left the town arms--a galley with all sails set. Lastly, as a
cresting to t