DATK OF .MELBOURNE I'AKISH CHURCH. yl 



Episcopate. It is uncertain whether the Rectory of Melbourne 

 was held by Bishop Aldulph ; though early mention in the 

 " Records of a Vicarage " implies an early appropriation of the 

 Rectory ; and if it was so held, it is more reasonable to presume 

 that it was selected for annexation to the Bishopric because the 

 Church was then a singularly grand one, than that its condition 

 was such as to cause Bishop Aldulph to erect a new Church. 



It has been thought that the galleries existing in Melbourne 

 Church may have been constructed for the passage of a religious 

 community using the upper Chancel, or perhaps of a guild. But 

 the passages in the triforia and the central tower are so narrow as 

 to allow with difficulty the passing of two persons in opposite 

 directions ; though that difficulty might be obviated by the care- 

 ful observance of the rule that those entering the Church should 

 use one of the two western stairs and the gallery on the same side, 

 and that those leaving the Church should use the other gallery 

 and stairs. In fact, however, there is not any trace in the Public 

 Records of the foundation, existence, or suppression, of any 

 religious community or guild established in Melbourne ; and 

 monks or nuns or guild members cannot be supposed to have 

 originated those galleries and to have left no other trace of their 

 existence. A sisterhood of Saint Bride had its house about a 

 mile and a half westward from Melbourne Church, just without the 

 limit of the Parish, and mention is made in an old deed of the 

 " Priests' way to Saint Bride's " ; but that sisterhood had its own 

 chapel, still traceable on the spot, and it can scarcely be supposed 

 that their rule would admit of their attending services so remote 

 from their abode, or that this Church should at its building have 

 been specially adapted to their use. 



And here it may be mentioned (if the departure from grave 

 discussion may be forgiven) that a belief exists in the minds 

 of some living inhabitants of Melbourne that the very old 

 buildings now standing near the western end of the Church, and a 

 large house that formerly stood where the house (now known as 

 '' Church House ") was built about sixty or seventy years ago, 

 belonged to a Nunnery ; a belief that seems to rest on the finding 



