England -- Description and travel; Wales -- Description and travel
Does not Alonzo of Aragon say that the recommendations of age are
"old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old
authors to read"? and I should like to add old inns to rest at, and by
preference those inns of the candle or lamp, mahogany or oak furniture,
and wood-fire-on-the-hearth period, and these, the Fates be praised,
are still to be found by the diligent searcher, and when found the
wise traveller will not tell everybody about them. In this respect
selfishness is a virtue, a moral obligation for the benefit of other
quiet-loving travellers; for it is so easy to convert the old into
the new, but the new cannot be converted into the old. I was tempted
to photograph one of these ancient little inns I chanced upon, on
account of its artistic signboard, for it is rare to meet with such
artistic creations, though a few may be found to delight the eye of the
wayfarer. My photograph, here reproduced, will show the skilful and
effective painting of this signboard.
Having still an hour or two of daylight left, I took a stroll round the
little town; it did not take me long; then I came to the church, and in
the roadway before it I discovered, carefully roofed over, its ancient
stocks and whipping-post; evidently the Odiham people prize these
relics of "the good" or bad "old days." Then I took a glance within the
church, where I found much to interest me; there I noticed seven old
brasses in an excellent state of preservation--for old brasses--and
these were kept both bright and clean; they were fixed against the
south wall all in close order, being doubtless removed from the floor
at some former restoration. Though removed thus from their proper place
over the dust they commemorate, and where they should rightly be, they
certainly are seen to better advantage where they are--and their dead
owners are not far off. All the brasses but two happily retain their
inscriptions; the earliest bears date of 1400; one to a priest in his
vestments that of 1498; and there is one to a man in armour, roughly
but effectively engraved. The piscina, I noticed, had an ornamented
pillar support; I do not remember having seen such an arrangement
before. I noticed also the finely carved Elizabethan or Jacobean
pulpit, and besides, a thing you seldom nowadays see in churches, an
oak gallery, of considerable antiquity, upheld by stout oak posts. Then
I became aware that I was not alone in the building, for I heard quiet
footsteps, and looking round observed a man at the font, apparently
examining it with considerable interest, so too I needs must go and
examine it. Said the stranger to me, "This is a curious font and a
very ancient one." "It certainly looks it," I replied. "Perhaps you
may not know," he continued, "but it possesses a peculiar feature only
to be found in one other font in England, and that is at Youlgrave in
Derbyshire. Permit me to point out to you the cup-like projection on
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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