Journal oj L'roceedin(/s. xlix 



architecture was not appreciated, its beauties were ignored by those who 

 ought to have upheld them, and he could not endorse the opinion of a 

 recent historian who said that the present Church was " a monument of 

 liberahty and taste." The liberality of the inhabitants was undoubted, 

 and was well worthy of emulation, but the taste in which the work was 

 executed was most questionable. 



For three hundred years, — extending from the commencement of the 

 16th to the commencement of the l'.)th century, — although surrounded by 

 the most exquisite examples, our ancestors appeared to have been insen- 

 sible to the charms of Gothic architecture, and to have ridiculed it in 

 every conceivable manner ; brighter days had dawned upon them, and 

 Gothic architecture, like a Phoenix, had risen from her ashes and was 

 re-asserting her power over the length and breadth of the land. 



The monuments in a Parish Church frequently form the chief materials 

 for the history of the place ; and in the small and unpretending Village 

 Church, where the surrounding lands have passed from father to son for 

 generations, we find the most magnificent specimens of these memorials ; 

 but in a town, where exchange of property is more frequent and where 

 the family monuments are left without natural protectors, they are 

 destroyed or mutilated without remorse. Considering the wealth and 

 power of the neighbouring lords, there could be no doubt that formerly 

 many memorials existed of those who once held sway over the district, 

 but they were all gone, and three brassless stones alone remained as 

 representatives of the early monumental history of the fabric. The 

 oldest monument was that to Thomas Mildmay, of the date of 1571, 

 which bears a very quaint Latin inscription. Upon one of the walls of 

 the north chancel aisle was an interesting inscription on a brass tablet, 

 compiled, he believed, by the late Archdeacon Mildmay, which set forth the 

 names of those members of the Mildmay family who lay buried either in 

 the old Mildmay vault or in the precincts of the Church, together with the 

 dates of the burials. Mr. Chancellor referred to the imiDrovements which 

 had been effected since 1867 in the removal of the galleries ; the addition 

 of a second north aisle and the north transept ; the remodelling of the 

 chancel by the construction of a new east window ; the addition of a 

 clerestory and new roof ; and concluded by saying that the party had 

 travelled round, over, and he might almost say under the Church, and he 

 believed that he had directed attention to every part of it to which any 

 interest was attached. Hidden from view in the walls of the Church 

 itself, or on the bookshelves of great public libraries, much information 

 might still exist, and if any person would undertake the task of tho- 

 roughly searching old records and volumes, many curious facts might be 

 discovered, and much light thrown upon the character of the original 

 structure, at the existence of which he had only been able to glance. 



The paper was listened to with great interest and attention throughout, 

 and after a thorough inspection of the Church — not forgetting the remains 

 of the Kuightsbridge library, now fast hastening to decay by reason of 



9 



