Canterbury No. 9

Noted in a letter to the editor of The Gentleman's Magazine (issue of May 1860: 495): "The font is a gem of art; it is of Bethersden marble and Kentish rag, elaborately carved in Gothic panels, and ornamented with roses and I. D. S. [?] alternately. Some fifty years since it was defaced by several coats of oil paint, by one of my predecessors in office, but this I hope soon to remove, and to restore the font to its original beauty." [the letter is signed: "William Welby, Churchwarden of St. Mildred, Canterbury"]. Noted in Wilson's Gazetteer of 1870-1872, without details. Noted in Glynne (1877). Font and cover are reported in Cross & Hall (1882): "Another genuine relic of old wood carving is the font-cover. The stone font is octagonal, each panel bearing a quatrefoil." Noted in Cox (1905): "The octagon font has a low crocketed cover with pulley." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907): "the octagonal 15th-cent. font of St. Mildred, Canterbury, is of Bethenden [Bethersden?] marble, and has roses and the monogram I.H.C. on alternate panels". Newman (1976) is not fully convinced of this font's pedigree: "Font. Perp[endicular}. Or is it Victorian?" [NB: perhaps Mr. Welby, churchwarden in 1860, did manage to scrape the paint off the font and left it looking too fresh for Newman's eye]. The Parish web page [http://www.stpeters-stmildreds.org.uk/churches/st-mildreds-thebuilding.htm] [accessed 22 March 2009] notes: "The font dates from 1420 and is one of the few surviving complete with the original cover and counter balance lifting system." [NB: the fabric of this building is said to go back to pre-Conquest times, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]