_The Font at Islip._--
"In the garden is placed a relic of some interest--the font in which it
is said King Edward the Confessor was baptised at Islip. The block of
stone in which the basin of immersion is excavated, is unusually massy.
It is of an octangular shape, and the outside is adorned by tracery
work. The interior diameter of the basin is thirty inches, and the
depth twenty. The whole, with the pedestal, which is of a piece with
the rest, is five feet high, and bears the following imperfect
inscription:
'This sacred Font Saint Edward first _receavd_,
From Womb to Grace, from Grace to Glory went,
His virtuous life. To this _fayre_ Isle _beqveth'd_,
_Prase_ ... and to _vs_ but lent.
Let this remaine, the Trophies of his Fame,
A King baptizd from hence a Saint became.'
"Then is inscribed:
'This Fonte came from the Kings Chapel_l_ in Islip.'"--Extracted from
the _Beauties of England and Wales_, title "Oxfordshire," p. 454.