The sexton showed us a rubbing of them on paper. Under the slab, which,
supported by the low stone pillars, forms a canopy for them, lie two
sculptured figures of stone, of life size, and at full length,
representing the same persons; but I think the sculptor was hardly equal
in his art to the engraver.
The most-curious antique relic in the church is the font. The bowl is
very capacious, sufficiently so to admit of the complete immersion of a
child of two or three months old. On the outside, in several
compartments, there are bas-reliefs of Scriptural and symbolic subjects,
--such as the tree of life, the word proceeding out of God's mouth, the
crown of thorns,--all in the quaintest taste, sculptured by some hand of
a thousand years ago, and preserving the fancies of monkish brains, in
stone. The sexton was very proud of this font and its sculpture, and
took a kindly personal interest, in showing it; and when we had spent as
much time as we could inside, he led us to Southey's grave in the
churchyard. He told us that he had known Southey long and well, from
early manhood to old age; for he was only twenty-nine when he came to
Keswick to reside. He had known Wordsworth too, and Coleridge, and
Lovell; and he had seen Southey and Wordsworth walking arm in arm
together in that churchyard. He seemed to revere Southey's memory, and
said that he had been much lamented, and that as many as a hundred people
came to the churchyard when he was buried.
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