2-914-016 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Font in which Edward the Confessor was baptised, at Islip, 1854. 'The interior is circular, whereas the external shape is octagonal, with specimens of sculpture on each side in style differing one from the other...this piece of sculptured stone [was] the receptacle of the holy fluid used at the baptism of the Confessor 850 years ago'. The font was removed from the Royal Chapel at Islip '...about five miles from Oxford...' and changed hands multiple times. 'Hearne has recorded "that an old lady kept meat to cram her turkeys in this font, but that the turkeys all died"'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.