Wilton nr. Salisbury No. 2 / Wiltunie

There are two entries in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SU0931/wilton/] [accessed 3 July 2022] neither of which reports priest or church in it. Described and illustrated in Buck (1951): "The font, like much of the interior decoration of the church, was made up from pieces of antique carved marble brought over from Italy. The bowl is oval quatrefoil shape both outside and inside, and on the outside of each foil is a grotesque head (lion?), holding in its mouth a large brass ring [...] The font is in accord with the sytle of the building, which has been referred to [...] as exotic." The Victoria County History (Wiltshire, vol. 6, 1962) notes the building of this church in 184 but does not mention its font. Noted in Pevsner & Cherry (1975): "Font. Of Italian marbles, more sensuous in shape than the rest. The font is called 'of ancient Italian workmanship' in The Illustrated London News, 4 August 1849." Described in Jenkins (2000) as "copied from a Baroque original, it is of black marble carved to represent vine leaves, a wonderfully flowing composition". Jenkins (ibid.) informs that the font was a gift of the Herberts' governess (the Russian-born dowager Countess of Pembroke and her son, Sidney Herbert). The architects of this church were, according to Jenkins (ibid.), the partnership Wyatt & Brandon. The brown-marble basin is quatrefoil and totally covered in foliage except for the four devil-like heads at the salient of each lobe, their mouths holding large rings; the leaf motif is prominent in the deeply carved lower base, and even in the white inserts which depict bunches of grapes as well. [NB: Only one other font brings together this type of prominent head and large rings, a 15th-16th baptismal font at Aoiz, in Navarre, Spain [cf. Index entry]]. [NB: the church of St. Peter, Fugglestone, on Salisbury Rd., has a late baluster font not entered in this Index]. [NB: cf. Index entry for Wilton nr. Salisbury No. 1, for an earlier baptismal font in the now redundant and semi-ruined old church of St. Mary]