£1.7m 'religious' book with a trouserless man pulling a dragon's tongue, a dog dressed as a bishop urinating into a chamber pot held by a deformed giant BY JAYNE ATHERTON Above: What's going on here then? Below:A skate swimming over the page IF you thought medieval Britain was a grim place where people were condemned to a miserable life of toil and an early death from smallpox, this hook will make you think again. For, although the Macclesfield Psalter is a prayer book, it is the art-work that really catches the eye. In among the psalms are images of grotesque figures with their faces on their bottoms, naked wild men, a dog dressed.as a bishop, a trouserless man pulling a dragon's tongue and a giant skate swimming across a page. The meaning of the drawings is a mystery. Historians think they were intended to ward off evil - or possibly to hold a bored reader's attention. The book was unearthed last year when a family dispute forced the Earl of Macclesfield to auction off the contents of a library at Shirburn Castle, his seat in Oxfordshire. The 252-page illuminated work is considered one of the most important of its kind and is thought to have been made in Norfolk in about 1320. It contains 14 miniatures of religious scenes, chiefly from the life of King David, but they also depict the patron saints of Suffolk and Gorleston Church. The manuscript was sold at auction in  June to the Getty Museum in theUS for £1.68million - but Arts Minister Estelle Morris deferred its export to the US to give British bidders a chance to raise lunds to buy it. Campaigners managed to oollect the money in just two weeks. The psalter will now go on display at the Fitzwilllam Museum, Cambridge. Beck's vandal 'let off' A christian law lecturer who vandalised a Madame Toussaud's nativity scene starring Posh and Becks as Joseph and Mary was let off yesterday. Father-of-two james Anstice,39, pushed over the England captain figure and ripped the former Spice Girl's head off in 'a protest against offensive crap'. He admitted £2,500 of criminal damage last month. Anstice,of West Haddon,Northamptonshire, was given a 12-month discharge. [The Metro Jan 25 2005] New clue to mystery of Holy Grail IT LOOKS like a Countdown conundrum and has defied some of the greatest minds for 250 years. But ten letters D OUOSVAVV M - etched on a tablet at a stately home could reveal where the legendary Holy Grail is buried. Retired experts from Bletchley Park, the centre which cracked Nazi codes during World War II, were asked to decipher the inscription on the Shepherd's Monument at Shugborough, Stafordshire. The message, featured in the best-seller The Da Vinci Code, has now been deciphered as 'Jesus (As Deity) Defy'. Experts think this is a message from the Priory of Sion, a 14th-century religious sect which believed Jesus was an earthly prophet not a divine being. The group had strong links to the Knights Templar, the noblemen said to have guarded the grail in the 11th century. The grail is the cup Jesus is reputed to have used during the Last Supper and which caught some of his blood during the Crucifixion. [The Metro Nov26 2004] Who's Who of the Bible unearthed A UNIQUE l7th century manuscript containing details of everyone m the Bible has been discovered. The document, which has been likened to something from Dan Brown's best-seller The Da Vinci Code, was unearthed at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. The first half features the family trees of everyone in the Bible, the second a 'Who's Who', which lists all their biographical details. College warden Peter Hogan said: 'It is painstakingly researched. It is just a phenomenal piece of literature.' The 59-page book believed to be written by William Spenser, is being analysed at Christie's to determine if it is a hoax. Mr Hogan said: 'I would imagine it will have a very, very high commercial value. I'm slightly nervous thinking what it is worth.' [Metro Apr29,2005]