The niche next to Adam contains a figure 14 ins. high, standing on a slight elevation, with his left hand upraised, using the same sign language as the policeman on point-duty does to-day. He holds in his right hand a sword, which passes up obliquely over his right shoulder. Its blade is broad, with irregular edges. He is bare-headed, bearded, and was probably barefooted, but his toes are too worn to allow us to be sure of this. He wears a long-sleeved ungirded tunic and on each side of him are long flattened objects reaching from his shoulders to his ankles. They are no doubt intended for folded wings. He is always recognised as the cherub with flaming sword expelling the erring couple from the garden. The sculpture is very crude, especially of the left arm. The tip of the sword points to one of the pairs of holes for the lock staples now broken away.

The figure under the next canopy is also 14 ins. high, but stands at a much lower level: so much so that his feet come into contact with the snake below, which at this point has a head. The figure holds in both hands a spear, which he is driving into the serpent's open mouth. He wears a long, loose ungirdled coat, or tunic, with very wide sleeves, so wide at the wrists that they would nearly touch the ground. He is, I think, bearded, and has a lot of hair, which seems to be confined by a sort of fillet. Behind his head is something that sometimes looks like a small nimbus, but it is very doubtful. His shape is very peculiar, and it is suggested that the idea was to give him a round back to indicate the force he is using in his spear-thrust. This figure is generally believed to be in reference to the passage of Genesis iii., 15, translated in the A.V. as: "I will put enmity between thee and the

woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel"; and Romans xvi., 20: "And the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." But, as the serpent is being speared as well as trodden on, it has been suggested to me that this figure is meant for St. Michael, who by overcoming the Devil reverses the office of the adjacent cherub.

This seems to me to be the better interpretation. The subject was certainly a favourite one. either case, the idea is the same, but the view

In

St. Michael. Cherub.

The Fall.

P. 7.

here adopted is, I think, more in keeping with the mentality of the period.

This head of the serpent is a good deal worn, but suggests that the sculptor tried to make it so as not to appear upside down whichever way it is looked at.

The next niche commences a series of seven figures which have certain points in common. They all wear an outer sleeveless garment with a hole for the head and which hangs in a median

1 At Parwich (Derbyshire) is an early Norman tympanum (illustrated in Reliquary, 1880) in which the Agnus Dei (symbolising Christ) and a hart (symbolising true believers) are shown treading serpents under their feet.