76 RESOURCES. 
deserted village of Fingest, its church tower rising up like a 
spectre in the valley; that Norman tower makes the lonely vale 
quite worthy of a visit. This pilgrimage should be taken first, 
then will be appreciated the better the rude grandeur of the tower 
of St. Alban’s church, reared, not improbably, by the same hands 
that built the little tower of Fingest. Pray do not be offended, 
my reader, if in my simplicity I treat you as amongst the unini- 
tiated in Architecture. Whilst on the Norman style, I might 
mention there is an interesting Norman doorway to the restored 
church of Bradenham; a delightful afternoon’s walk is that across 
the high ground of Downley and Walter’s Ash, down into the 
Bradenham Valley, and back to High Wycombe. Nothing how- 
ever, can be finer in Norman work in this neighbourhood, than 
the pillars and arches that remain to attest the early foundation 
of the Hospital of St. John, now the Wycombe Royal Grammar 
School. 
Then, next we have, here and there, interesting specimens of 
the early English style. A walk over Keep Hill to Little Marlow, 
would afford an opportunity to visit the village church; the 
north windows and the tower are well worthy of examination ; in 
another direction, a walk to the secluded village of Little Missen- 
den would reward the admirer of Early English work, there being 
at the east end of this church a triplet window with double plane 
of tracery; whilst, though beyond the limits of this locality, the 
beautiful tower of Haddenham church, with the arcading sur- 
rounding the belfry story, ought not to be left unnoticed. 
It is by carefully examining these humbler details and by be- 
coming acquainted with their distinctive beauties that we are able 
to realise the glories of the minster; that in visiting such churches 
as Lincoln, Salisbury, or Beverley,—those triumphs of Gothic in 
its purest and most lovely forms,—we do not take a mere bird’s-eye 
view of the building, and content ourselves with afew empty ex- 
clamations, but we are at first sight overpowered with the vast 
work of art before us, specially in our earliest and happiest 
days of travel, and then we gradually acquaint ourselves with 
the entire design—the grandeur of the proportions to the ex- 
quisite finish of the sculpture. 
