34 The Parish Church of S. Michael, Mere. 
“Three Great Pypes of the Organes. 
“One Barrell of Gunpowder weyinge ij° weighte. 
“More of Gunpowder of severall pounds made up in paper xiiij!’. 
* More in that lofte Twoo olde Greate Chests. 
“More of Soader in one of those Coffers w was the Remeynder of the 
Soader bought this yere ix!‘ and xix yards of matche.”’ 
This room is now fitted up as a museum, and an inventory of its 
contents is given at the end of this paper!: it is to the present 
time used for vestry meetings. 
We now come to the period of the great work of the re-modelling 
of the centre of the Church, which had become almost inevitable from 
the raising and widening of the north and south aisles and chapels. 
Although the nave was of good height—for the early structure, of 
which traces are preserved at the west end, doubtless remained, but - 
re-roofed after the fire—we may assume that it was very much cut 
off from the aisles by low Norman arches (for there would hardly 
have been Saxon aisles) which would seem to the men of the 
fifteenth century (who were very much given to re-modelling 
everything to suit more modern ideas) quite out of harmony with 
the lofty proportions of the aisles, whilst the low thirteenth century 
chancel must have been quite buried between the two chapels. The 
three-light square-headed window on the south side of the sacrarium 
may be assigned to the end of the fourteenth century, and its low 
position, beneath the Early English eaves corbels, seems to show 
that it was inserted before the chancel was raised, although its 
inner arch and jambs are similarly treated to those of the later 
windows; this may have been an alteration in the re-modelling. 
Gilbert Kymer was Dean of Salisbury—and by virtue of this 
office, Rector of Mere—from 1449 to 1463, and we find his arms? 
on two of the bench-ends in the chancel, which are (with the two 
fronts of the north and south book desks) contemporary with the 
screens, and the character of the whole work so exactly fits in with 
ee ee ee ee ee ee eee 
1 See Appendix G. 
2 Hoare (Hund. of Mere, p.11): “ Kymer, or Keymer, of West Chalborough, 
Co. Dorset. Argent, three wolves in pale azwre, within a bordure sable 
bezanteé.” 
