A HISTORY OF NORFOLK below by bands of thin foliage with a leafage of trefoil. Each episode of the legend was displayed by groups of three or four persons, ending with that of the miraculous fracture of the wheel, the decollation of the saint, and her burial on Mount Sinai, The figures throughout were poor in drawing, the faces caricatures, and the grouping childish.^ Another painting of the same subject, but more elaborately treated, is to be seen on the wall of the south aisle of the nave of the church at Sporle, near Castle Acre, in central Norfolk. Here, a rectangular panel 1 1 feet 5 inches in length by 7 feet 8 inches in height is marked out on the wall surface, having as a frame a border composed of a zigzag ribbon, red and white on a black ground. The space enclosed within this frame is divided by red lines into twenty-two squares and three double squares in chessboard fashion. Each square contains a separate scene of the story, which is illus- trated by the painter with an emphasis absolutely grotesque. The series of pictures is of some value as giving examples of the costume of the time ; but as a work of art it has no value. The prevailing colour is red and the general effect crude.' Yet these paintings at Limpenhoe and at Sporle represent the average merit of the pictorial art in the village churches of the period in question. Far more interesting were the paintings formerly to be seen in another of the churches of the district of the Broads, that of Catfield.' These were found in 1840, but at a subsequent period they were ruthlessly whitewashed over. The various compositions occupied the wall spaces over the nave arcades, on the north side somewhat irregularly disposed, but on the south side as a frieze in compartments, the depth of the frieze occupying the space between the cornice of the roof and the tops of the arches on that side. Most of the subjects depicted were of no unusual character, but the first three, which belonged to the class of moral allegories, were interesting and worthy of note, as also was the completeness and order of the scheme of pictorial representation. The first picture of the series on the north side, in the half spandril at the west end, represented Fortune, a crowned female figure in crimson robe and overmantle of green lined with fur, her hands resting on the spokes of a huge wheel in front of her, which she was in the act of turning. Within the wheel a part of an inscription remained, which, when perfect, evidently read fortunae rota. From the eastern side a king, in robes of light green and gold colour, is falling. He is still crowned, but his sword is dropping from his hand. A label near him has the word Regnavi upon it. Beneath, lying as if in death, is another kingly figure, a label beside it declaring non regno. The next spandril contained a picture, much damaged in the upper part, of what is known as the Tree of the Seven Deadly Sins. From a gigantic head with jaws armed with formidable teeth, occupying the point of the spandril, rose the trunk of a tree bearing seven branches, three on each side, with one upright formed by a continuation of the trunk. These branches ended in dragons with bats' wings and huge heads furnished with gaping jaws. Behind each head stood a fiend grasping 1 These wall paintings have been long since destroyed, but illustrations of them may be seen in Norfi Arch. (1859), V. 221. • Ncif. Arch. (1872), vii. 303, et. seq. ^ Norf. Arch. (1847), i. 133, et. seq., and the Dawson Turner collection. Add. MSS. B.M. 23027, pp. 149-168. 536
