244 Downton Church. 
the tracery of the original"window could have been at all like the 
new tracery, which is of a different character from the design of 
the side windows. 
The westernmost of the three windows on the south side of the 
chancel is, I think, the finest specimen of a “low side” window 
that I have ever seen : it is not opposite to the corresponding window 
on the north side, but placed nearer the tower, perhaps with the in- 
tention of keeping it as far as possible from the high altar. The 
low opening is formed by continuing down the west light of this 
window, and introducing in it a transom in the line of the sill of 
the other light: this opening was, I believe, discovered and un- 
blocked at the restoration, and the original hinges of an external and 
an internal shutter were found 7# situ, and upon them a new shutter 
has been hung. Of the other windows on the south side, the central 
one corresponds with those on the north, but the sill of the eastern 
one is higher, in consequence of the coincidence with it in position 
of the sedilia on the inside, and the string-course which runs beneath 
the windows externally is raised also. 
On the north side of the chancel, there is the “ priest’s door,” 
with fine mouldings, and to the east of it another door,' walled up, 
from which a passage projected, which communicated with some 
other building. I think it likely that it may have led to a vestry, 
slightly detached from the chancel; for though in general vestries 
adjoin chancels without any interval, such a position entails a dimi- 
nution of window space in the chancel wall, which in this instance 
it may have been considered desirable to avoid. 
Externally, the walls of the chancel are faced with squared flints? 
and freestone dressings: on the north side, adjoining the tower, 
1This could not have been the door of a mere recess or closet. There has 
been a passage, on the removal of which, a stone left projecting on a buttress 
of the chancel has been cut away to match the adjacent string, as may be seen 
on examination. 
2The flints in the chancel walls are approximately, but of course not very 
exactly, squared: in the transept walls they are not squared at all. The put- 
log holes in the chancel are formed by three pieces of dressed freestone, on 
the sides and top, accurately squared: in the north transept they seem to have 
been formed in a similar manner, but more rudely. 
