gods laughed at him, except Tyr indeed, who lost his hand.* Thereupon a sword was thrust into the Wolf's mouth in such wise that while it pierced up to its hilt his underjaw, its point reached his palate. And the sculpture on the font shows one of the gods preparing to do so, whilst the hungry raven is eager to devour the flesh of the doomed monster, whose knotted tail shows that he is hopelessly bound. The Scando-Gothic Monk has Christianised Tyr into Christ, Who, though He grievously suffered in His conflict with the Powers of Evil, was finally victorious, aided by His faithful followers, who are represented by the lower and smaller human form. Christ, raising His sword over the terrified head of a worse foe than a lion, is treading upon an asp.† His valiant disciple stands upon a single leaf, and its nervature and shape strengthen the assumption that it belongs to the Laurus nobilis. The branches of the Baytree have long been regarded as Victory's attribute. They graced the brows of Heroes. In Sicily they were a security against thunder and the thunder-bolt. Among the Greeks they were used as a charm against poison and witchcraft, and, as a token of the Resurrection, they are still strewn over the floors of churches on the day before Easter Sunday. And, not a little remarkable, in the present interpretation, is the statement made by Pliny that "the Laurel is the only one among all the trees a single leaf of which has a distinct name of its own, laurea.”‡ The three decorative interlacements may indicate a Byzantine influence. Such designs had much vogue in Italy during the VIII. Century, and were brought to the north of Europe by Italian Monks. The intreccio that runs * See also Loka-senna, 38; Corpus Poeticum Boreale I., 106. Naturalis Historia, xv., 30. round the rim of the font is threefold, and represents the Trinity in Unity; that on the (heraldic) right, having neither beginning nor end, means Eternity; whilst the other, an endless band interlacing a circle, teaches that Infinity is controlled by a Unity. And how effectively this Eternal Power coerces and restrains all pernicious beings, whether human or bestial, is made manifest by their tortured and woebegone faces. Quatrefoils and other floral details, when not purely decorative, may indicate the Rose of Sharon. Fishes, though pagan in origin, often find their place in Baptisteries and on fonts, since they represent the children of Regeneration.* Indeed, at Saint-Germain-des-Près, in the chapel which contains the font, are sculptured two sirens, one female and the other male and bearded. Both of them hold fishes in their arms, and other fishes play in the surrounding waters.† *Nos pisciculi secundum ICHTHUN nostrum Jesum Christum, in aqua nescimur, nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus.— Tertullian, De Baptismo, Cap. 1. † Didron's Christian Iconography, edited by Margaret Stokes, Vol. I. p. 346. Dorset Assizes in the Seventeenth Centurp. By F. J. POPE, F.R.Hist.S. THE fact that the Assize-Records of this period have been but little used for historical purposes is not surprising. So long as the books of the Court remained in the custody of the clerks of the various circuits, they seldom or never saw the light, and it is only within the last year or two that the transfer of the books to the Public Record Office has rendered them easily accessible. The maxim that "Record-makers are not good Record-keepers seems true at least as regards these books, of which only a remnant still exists. The Bail Books for Dorset do not begin till 1654, the Gaol Books not till 1670, while the Order Books cover only the period 1629 to 1687, with a gap during the Civil War, 1642 to 1646. The first are of no great value, merely containing the names of a certain number of Dorset people and indicating some of the less serious indictments. The Gaol Books are of greater interest, since they show the crimes prevalent in the county and the punishments inflicted. The Order Books deal with a great variety of subjects, including matters connected with general administration, and are perhaps the most valuable of the series. The material for this paper has been derived from these Assize-Books and from a few references to proceedings at the Assizes scattered through the Domestic State Papers. Of civil suits there are no records except some Postea Books, which, since they give only the bare titles of the suits, seem to be of no value for any purpose. There being a preponderance of references to crime in the records which survive, it will be desirable to deal first with such criminal matters as came before the Judges. It must be confessed that the Gaol Books form somewhat dry reading. At Assize after Assize comes the same dreary record of murder, stealing of sheep and horses, highway robberies, burglaries, and larceny, interspersed of course with entries relating to less common offences. Sometimes murder cases were especially numerous (there were seven in the Autumn of 1679), and at other times the criminal class seems to show a particular tendency to appropriate other people's sheep or horses. The most distressing feature of the tale of crime in Dorset at this period (no doubt it was the same in other parts of the kingdom) was the great frequency of murder of infants by their mothers, generally with the assistance of one or two other persons. The punishment meted out by the Judges naturally varied with the circumstances. The death sentence was carried into effect for murder, sheepstealing, horse-stealing, highway robbery, and burglary, and there are isolated instances of the same penalty for picking pockets and for stealing a watch; but there was no invariable rule, and many a perpetrator of grave crime escaped with his or her life. Some of the unhappy mothers to whom allusion has been made, and whose children presumably died of neglect, received no other punishment than a few weeks in the house of correction, and others who, since they were sentenced to be hanged, were surely guilty of wilful murder, were respited and either transported or pardoned after a few months in prison. Such commutation of the death-penalty was frequently granted to all kinds of felons, and a common method |