202 St. Mary's Church, Marfboronr/h. 



carried down the jambs, indicates a late date. There are diagonal 

 buttresses at the western angles, base mould and plinth, embattled 

 parapet and pinnacles — the latter diagonal on square bases, an 

 arrangement which was clearly indicated by the remains, and 

 which was consequently followed in the restoration of the tower 

 twenty-one years ago. The pinnacles set up after the fire were, 

 according to Mr. Carrington, taken down at about 1800. An 

 examination of the Norman doorway will show that it is not in 

 sitit. A disastrous change took place in the church on its re- 

 habilitation after the fire, which devastated Marlborough in 1653. 

 The outer walls of the church do not appear to have been greatly 

 injured — the fire probably caught hold of the roofs, and when 

 these fell in, burnt out the interior, doubtless (as shown by the 

 existing respond) rendering the Norman arcades so dangerous, 

 that they had to be taken down ; and it will be seen from the 

 proportions of the stones, that the existing arches are built of the 

 inner order of the Norman ones, and the stones are much discoloured 

 by fire. Before the tower arch was restored its jambs had been 

 rounded off in plaster, covering up the calcined masonry ; the 

 inner jambs and arches of the aisle windows are formed in cement, 

 owing to the same cause. The change made in the re-construction 

 is very characteristic of the period in which it occurred. In order 

 to square off the plan the north aisle was lengthened eastward to 

 the line of the south chapel, the part of the chancel projecting 

 beyond this was lopped oft' and the remainder pulled down and 

 thrown into the nave. On the outside the evidences are very clear 

 that the diagonal buttress which existed on the diagrams was 

 re-built at another point, and a square one erected in its place, 

 and the wall of this bay is faced with flint and rubble, instead of 

 green stone like the rest, and there is no plinth ; the window in it 

 is a modern copy of the others, and it is the only one which 

 has stone inner jambs and arch. Instead of the former 

 arrangement of nave and north and south aisles, with two arcades, 

 a single arcade was erected, not exactly on the line of either, but 

 nearer to the centre, thus making a wide nave with south aisle. 

 The pillars and arches are very interesting examples of the period 



