London No. 7

Noted in Allen (1839?): "The font, situated in a ballustrade against the west wall of the church, is an octagonal basin of white marble; the cover is a handsome composition of carved oak, ornamented with four small statues of saints." Described and illustrated in Blatch (1995) as "a small furnishing dating from Wren's time, of good quality and with the unusual feature of havind a semi-circular balustrade round it and of being placed in the south-west corner. The cover is decorated with gilded figures of four of the apostles out of the original twelve." The font appears to be of white marble; the octagonal basin shows a protruding upper rim followed down by a scotia; the lower part of the bowl curves up with large-leaf motif, wrapping over the narrow ribbing pattern of the basin. The pedestal base is a slender baluster-type, also octagonal with large-leaf motif at the bottom; it rests on a dark marble lower base/plinth, also octagonal. The wooden font cover has several levels: the lowest is octagonal with vertical sides ornamented at the top with a vine or garland; the next level is a round dome separated from the one below by a protruding octagonal ledge; atop the dome is a cluster of foliage motif serving as the base for another ledge on which the four white marble Apostles stand. The font has a pulley mechanism affixed to a bracket on the wall (?), which allows for raising the lid. Bond (1908) refers that "in St. Paul's Cathedral the Puritans baptized colts in the fonts" [NB: the reference must obviously refer to an earlier font at the Cathedral]. [cf. Index entry for London No. 96 for another font said to have been moved from West Meon to this church]