• 10 PARISH CHURCH OF WEAVERHAM

and dry" can only be appreciated thoroughly by those who knew the reverend gentleman. His habit of writing his sermons on loose sheets of paper and his propensity for getting them in the wrong order was responsible on many occasions for his " losing the thread " of his discourse and " mangling the text" and his unconscious indulgence in mixed metaphor. Should I be forgiven if I related one amusing but true story of him in this connection ?

A terrible disaster had occurrcd in Holmfirth owing to the bursting of a reservoir there, and as Mr. Stanhope was a native of that district lie was in great demand as a preacher in aid of relief funds. On this occasion he was preaching at Holy Trinity, Northwich, and was well under weigh with his subject when disaster overtook him. With the words " the furniture went floating down the stream " lie got to the bottom of one of his " sheets " and turning it over he found to his consternation that lie had got thcni mixed and the next one was not in its proper order and he proceeded " like pots and kettles."

The Stone Font. The old stone font which now stands in front of the tower arch was placed there in 1927 and was used again (after a period of fifty years of relegation to the scrap heap) on Sunday, March 6th. A new marble font was given in 1877 and stood in the south-west corner by the south door. It was felt by many to be quite out of keeping with the architecture of the church, and when the Rev. P. A. Miller became vicar he obtained a faculty for its removal and for the old stone one to be fixed in its present position. A glance at the old font reveals the fact that the lower part, that is the round shaft and the moulded base, are of a much earlier period than the upper part, and this fact was verified when it was being fixed, for the masons who fixed it identified the tooling of the beds and face as being of an earlier date. It is quite possible that this part is a portion of the font of the Norman period. The cover is a quaint and beautiful example of Jacobean