“South Transept, second pier (from the south end). Two men are stealing grapes, one holds the basket full, the other plucks grapes, holding a knife in his other hand: The farmers in pursuit, one carries a spade and
the other a pitchfork: The man with the fork, a vigorous figure, catches one thief: The man with the spade hits the other (whose face is most woe-begone) on the head.
“Third pier.—Woman pulling thorn out of her foot: Man with one eye, finger in his mouth: Baboon head: Cobbler; this figure shows very plainly the method of shoemaking at this time; the cobbler in his apron, sits with the shoe on one knee, his strap passes over the knee and round the other foot, his foot is turned over so as to present the side and not the sole to the strap: Woman’s head with long hair.
“Fourth pier.—Head perfectly hairless: Elias P. (the prophet) with hand on cheek as if he, too, has the toothache: Head in hood, with tongue on the one remaining tooth.
“It may be well here to say a word about the general classification of these earlier capitals, since their date is a matter of great architectural interest. I would venture to divide them into five groups—
“(1) Those of the three western bays of the choir: simple carved foliage of distinctly Norman character, as in the north porch: these belong to the time of Reginald (1174-1191).
“(2) The four eastern bays of the nave and its aisles. Some of these may belong to the first period, though later than the choir: they are more advanced in the foliage, and teem with grotesque birds and beasts. Some, however, of the caps in these bays are of quite different character; they contain genre subjects of perfectly naturalistic treatment, very different to the St. Edmund of the north porch capital; but exactly similar to the figure caps of the transepts. They must therefore have been carved later than the death of Saint William Bytton.
“(3) The western bays of the nave. These, which are of much less interest, belong to the period of Jocelin’s reconstruction (1220-1242). They are characteristic examples of rich stiff-leaf foliage, freer than that of the earlier work, but much less varied and without either human figures or grotesques.
“(4) On the eastern range of transept piers. These would seem also to come within Jocelin’s period, with the exception of the third pier of the south transept.