78 BKADBOURNE CHURCH. 



have been set up about 1450, at which time, with scant chivalry, 

 they took out of the church the effigy of a lady of the time of 

 Edward II., and turning it upside down, scooped out the back 

 and degraded it to a water spout. Then also was carried up the 

 stair turret to the roof. 



The next thing that happened was also a considerable work. 

 The roof of 1350 was taken down, the internal string course cut 

 off, the clerestory set up, a north doorway put in, and some 

 rebuilding done at that point from the ground upwards. The 

 chancel walls were raised from the line of the top of the windows, 

 the nave and chancel re-roofed with tie-beams, and parapets 

 added to those portions of the church. At the same time a porch 

 was planted against the south wall to bolster up this side. All 

 these works are clearly evident from their style and the nature of 

 their building, and the church remains at the present day, as far 

 as the outside is concerned, in precisely the same condition as it 

 was left when the mediteval builders departed about the year 1490. 



As far as we antiquaries are concerned we have now done 

 with the church. It is no strict part of our business to blame or 

 commend what has been done since. You may depend upon it 

 that the church's history did not stop in 1490 ; indeed, we know 

 that later men, and particularly the Buckstons, left their mark 

 upon the church inside I hear of carved seats and a handsome 

 oak gallery, an incised alabaster slab of a man and his wife in 

 the chancel, and church plate Hall-marked with Britannia, and 

 in excellent condition. We only know that these things have 

 gone as much beyond recall as last week. We can only regret 

 that a better spirit did not prevail when this ancient church 

 was swept and garnished at the bidding of a committee of local 

 wiseacres ; for, remember, we might have had the building in 

 seemly order, and with a " proper sense of the fellowship of 

 humanity," have retained those items, good in themselves, which 

 came naturally to the church, and have a far more human interest 

 than rubble-pointed walls stripped of their original plaster, 

 distracting tile pavements, or tawdry altar decorations. I hope I 

 am not a crochety fanatic, but I am afraid if I ventured to say 



