244 The Churches of Purton and Wanborough. 
We were able, however, to successfully open out and secure (by 
pouring in thin cement) nearly the whole of a beautiful fresco to 
the west of the north doorway, near the font. It is of fifteenth 
century date, and is now a sort of palimpsest, having had a seven- 
teenth century or Elizabethan covering of scrollwork enclosing 
black lettermg, painted over it. The portion of the fresco left 
represents Our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. The upper part of the 
principal figure, who is riding on a yoked ass, is nearly obliterated, 
but the lower parts are sufficiently clear. To the right is a some- 
what indistinct figure laying down garments on the approach of 
the cavalcade, whilst above a figure is seen as if throwing down 
flowers or leaves; the latter is well preserved. The whole is en- 
closed under an arcade of two bays, which was apparently carried 
further westward, and the head of a second ass following is dis- 
cernible. 
A comparison of these two Churches will at once show that their 
both having a spire at the east end and a tower at the west end of 
the nave is an accident so far as the earlier features—the spires— 
are concerned, or at any rate that there was no intention of making 
the one like the other. Purton has a central tower, of ordinary 
construction, carried up directly from piers, and finished above the 
roof as a tower, and the spire placed within its parapet: whilst the 
corresponding feature at Wanborough is little more than a turret, 
resting on arches, not growing out of any direct support from the 
ground, and capped with a spire. They are, moreover, quite 
different in detail. It is curious, however, that the central feature 
and the western tower of each should be so similar in style, and by 
inference near in date, to the corresponding part of the other. The 
central and western steeples of each Church belong, however, to 
periods sufficiently far apart to entirely discredit the local legend 
which accounts for the double-steepled arrangement. This venerable 
fiction makes it the result of a compromise between two sisters, 
founders of the Church, one of whom wanted a tower, and the other 
a spire, the difference being happily settled by adorning the building 
with the favourite feature of each. 
