240 WORTH MALTRAYER8. 



and pure, and so far as its internal arrangement is concerned, 

 well adapted to the worship of a Christian congregation. 

 Like most other churches of its date, which are situated on 

 the sea-coast, it is dedicated to Saint Nicholas,* and is con- 

 veniently situate in nearly the centre of the parish. It is 

 built of Portland stone, and the style is Transition Norman; 

 the chancel is probably Early English. The nave and tower 

 are Norman, supposed about the time of King Stephen. In 

 the north wall of the nave there are two original Norman 

 windows, and also, close to the chancel arch, and low enough 

 down to reach out of, an ancient window, out of which the 

 sancte bell was most likely rung at the elevation of the host, 

 a signal to all within reach of the sound to fall down and 

 Worship. Over this last mentioned window, is another,' a 

 square Elizabethan, inserted to give light to the pulpit. Just 

 opposite the south entrance there are the remains of a door- 

 way of unusual construction placed in the centre of a shallow, 

 arch-formed buttress; these northern doorways are supposed 

 by some to have been intended for the special use of the evil 



* Said to have been Archbishop of Myra, in Lycia, to which office he 

 "was appointed by Constantino about a.d. 342, whose patronage he is 

 reported to have gained by his exemplary piety. Historians aver that 

 he was born at Pattera, a city of Lycia, of respectable parents ; and it 

 has been stated that when quite an infant, he insisted on fasting every 

 \Vednesday and Friday, and hence was spoken of as " a pattern to all 

 future infants," whose patron saint he became. He Avas called "the boy 

 Bishop," and the Popish farce of the "same name" is said by some to 

 have originated from this Saint's infantine piety. Dean Collet required 

 ^he scholars of St. Paul's school, "to go to Paull's church and hear the 

 Childe Bishop's sermon." A Boy Bishop lies buried in Salisbury Ca*^e- 

 dral, at all events the ef&gy of one is to be found there. In the Salisbury 

 Missal of 1534, fol. 27, we find a prayer of St. Nicholas, before which 

 is an engraving in wood (see PI. 28) of the Bishop and two boys 

 rising from a tub. The following account is given of it. "He raised to 

 Jife two boys whom the host of the Inn at which they lodged, had killed, 

 cut in pieces, salted, and put into a pickling tub. The boys had been 

 ordered by their father to call upon the Bishop, on their way to Athens 

 for education, and ask his benediction." 



Many more legends are recorded, such as of his recovering from the 

 ))ottom of the sea, a child who had fallen into it ; delivering sailors by 

 his prayers from a dreadful storm ; raising to life a sailor killed by the 

 fall of a mast, &c. He is said to have died at Myra, a.d. 342. His 

 relics were kept with great honor, till carried off by some mercbaiitS 

 into Italy ^d deposited in one of the Cathedrals there a.d. 1087. 



