38 Opening Address to the Section of Architecture 
frequent in Wiltshire. Some of these are on rather a large scale 
and of considerable dignity, such as Edington, Amesbury, Westbury, 
‘Tisbury, Heytesbury, Downton, Bishopston, All Cannings, Bishops 
Cannings, and Great Bedwyn, and several more, while others are 
small and unpretending. The nave at least is commonly provided 
with aisles, but the noble Church of Potterne, one of the finest in 
the county, has none, and the Churches of Winterbourne Stoke and 
Britford are also aisleless). The Church of Bratton may be men- 
tioned as a perfect specimen of an aisleless cruciform Church with 
a central tower on the smallest scale. A singular line of cruciform 
Churches runs along the Vale of Chalk, where Bishopston, Broad 
Chalk, Bower Chalk, Alvediston, and Berwick St. John, in suc- 
cession, exhibit the same plan. A central tower is essential to the 
completeness of the outline of a cruciform Church. This is seldom 
wanting in the Wilts cross Churches, and in some, as at Chilmark, 
and Bishops Cannings, which is crowned with a stone spire, at 
Potterne, Westbury, Cricklade St. Sampson’s, and others, it is of 
considerable dignity. Corsham Church had till recently a central 
tower, but when it was restored by the late Mr. Street he pulled it 
down and built a new tower and spire in a different position; we 
may suppose that there were sufficient reasons for that treatment. 
While speaking of towers it should be mentioned that two Churches 
near the north-east border, Purton and Wanborough, both cruciform 
in plan, present the unusual feature of two steeples, a square tower 
at the west end of the nave and aspire in the centre. This arrange- 
ment, it will be remembered, is also found at Wimborne Minster, 
the western tower being the later belfry of the parochial nave, that 
at the intersection the early lantern of the Collegiate Church. The 
western steeples at Purton and Wanborough are also later additions 
for the reception of a peal of bells, for which the existing central 
spire was inadequate. 
Stone spires, though by no means numerous, are not very un- 
common. Passing over that of Salisbury Cathedral, confessedly 
without a rival in England, and for the union of simple majesty and 
exquisite grace almost without a rival in the world, these spires do 
not generally take the first rank for height or beauty. There are, 
