Malcolm, James Peller: First Impressions Or Sketches from Art and Nature, Animate and Inanimate (London, 1807)

KILPEC. l6l

THE CHURCH OF KILPEC
is one of the mo st: lingular and perfect of the
Saxon style : and, in truth, a little cabinet os
antient sculpture, very perfect, but very vilely
white-washed within. The architect has divided
it into a nave, choir, and chancel, by two arches.
The first, most fantastically decorated with pillars
on the sides, covered by reliefs. Those on the
North have three caryatide figures, who Jland on
each other s heads ; the upper, in a mantle and
cap, bears a book and four-leaved flower ; the
next a book and cross ; the third a book and
branch of palm. These are repeated on the
South pillar, which has an interlaced capital.
The arch with a double moulding is sculptured
into lozenges and zigzags. The second arch is
plain. The chancel, three sides of a sexagon,
has double llender pillars on the angles, from
which ribs os lozenges and semi-lozenges ascend
to a groupe of hideous masks in the vault. The
three arches, from the masks to the walls above
the windows, are pointed ; but those of the
windows are semicircles of double zigzags from
small pillars. The windows are similar to loop-
holes, contracting in the depth os the wall, which
is of very great thickness.
The