was cut away to form a ledge, on which a tall cover might firmly rest.
  The controversy as to the date of this interesting relic is too prolonged to be entered into on the present occasion. The character of the carving naturally suggests at first that it is of the later Norman period. But it does not necessarily follow that the carving is contemporary with the structure of the font; the fact of it being chiselled in a sketchy manner would suggest that it is not. I cannot but think that what I may call the composition of the font (i.e. its being built of various stones, laid in an irregular manner) is inconsistent with its alleged Norman date. And it is more than probable that the whole font is Saxon, chiselled out into the present patterns during the eleventh century; nor is it absolutely impossible that it is the very font in which Ethelbert, King of Kent, was baptized.
   Finally, among the miscellanea, I may mention that the length of the present chancel is about the same as that of the nave, i.e. about forty-two feet.
   The only monument of any interest in the church is

that of Sir John Finch, who was Baron of Fordwich, Chancellor of Queen Henrietta Maria, Speaker of the House of Commons, and Keeper of the Great Seal.
   In the pavement close to the altar-rails is a small white cross of a curious character, about eighteen inches long and two inches wide. The lower half of it corresponds with an illustration that appears in Hasted.
   Of brasses there is one of the beginning of the sixteenth century in the middle of the passage up the nave, inscribed with the name of Stephen Falkes and Alys his wife. There is also the effigy of Thomas Stoughton, of the date 1591, in the chancel; and another of Michael Fraunces and Jane his wife, who died in 1587.
   The bells are three in number. One has no inscription; the second bears the date 1641; and on the third, in old English characters, is, "Sancta Caterina, ora pro nobis."
The registers begin from the year 1662; they contain no entries of interest.
   Some Saxon beads have been found in the churchyard, as