130 NOTES ON FENNY BENTLEY CHURCH. 



in shrouds, and incised in the panels of the tomb, are very un- 

 usual, both in number and for treatment. There are other 

 Beresford monuments fixed on the north and south walls of the 

 chancel. They have some merit. 



The screen dividing the vestry from the north aisle has 

 probably formed part of a parclose ; some of its component 

 portions are old. The ends of the modern sedilia are those of 

 choir-stalls of about 1450; the tops, or "poppy-heads," have 

 been cut off. The seat at the end of the church under the tower 

 is partly made out of a nave seat frontlet of the same period. 

 The font is rude work, and may be of almost any date before the 

 Reformation, though it probably is not earlier than 1450 ; and 

 the same remark applies to the chest close by it. The modern 

 paving speaks loudly enough for itself, and it is the less bearable 

 because we know it replaces a most valuable and interesting 

 ancient tile floor, replete with the reliable history that heraldry 

 gives.* 



The stone-roofed porch should be noticed, and immediately 

 facing it, in the churchyard, is a good example of an out-door 

 panelled altar-tomb. It is much sunk and hidden in the grass. 

 It is of about the date of 1480. Precisely similar examples may 

 be seen in the churchyards of Thrapstone and Newland. The 

 only other features outside that call for the attention of anti- 

 quaries are the windows at the east end and the south side of the 

 church. The east window is old, with strange, straggling tracery; 

 perhaps some of the original upper work is missing. Of the three 

 windows on the south side, the first to the east and the second 

 are good Late Decorated work, and the third, though different in 

 style, is apparently not much so in date ; perhaps, like the 



* Mr. F. J. Robinson has been kind enough to bring under my notice, since 

 the above paper was read, some drawings of this pavement made by him- 

 self many years ago. These show a border of tiles in sets of four, laid 

 square, with geometric patterns, and enclosing a space of plain tiles set in 

 lozenge, and each alternate row containini; tiles with shields, in the following 

 order : — (i) Three crosses botonee 'fitchee, in chief two mullets of six points 

 pierced ; (2) a lion passant to the sinister ; (3) the See of Lichfield (counter- 

 changed per bend sinister) ; (4) a rose ; (5) a cross fimbriated. Evidently 

 Nos. 2 and 3 are reversed by the tile maker. 



