By the Rev. J. Baron, D.B., F.S.A. 125 



peacock's tail.i This paintino- had been cut into and partly des- 

 tro^'ed by the insertion of three little round-headed windows, after- 

 wards plastered over. We therefore came to the conclusion that at 

 Swyncumbe the apse and the archaic painting were much older than 

 the Conquest and the so-called Norman Period. Westward of the 

 apse at Swyncumbe was a chancel with thirteenth-century details. 

 A reference to the little apsidal Church of Pritton, Suffolk, seems to 

 shew that an east window was thought necessary in the so-called 

 Norman Period. In that case there was one very small round- 

 headed east window, with chevron moulding ; and restorers, in the 

 present century, have added a similar window on each side of it, as 

 may be seen by comparing a photograph of the present interior of 

 the Church with the ground-plan, perspective view, and interior, in 

 Suckling's History of Suffolk.^ It is a noteworthy fact that 

 the original Church dedicated to St. Aldhelm, at Bishopstrow, Wilts, 

 a place which he is recorded to have visited as a missionary bishop, 

 was apsidal, and — like Manningford Bruce — had no east window ; 

 but the eastern part of the apse was an unbroken space of wall with 

 a window on each side. This space, doubtless occupied by a de- 

 votional picture in early times, was utilized by the rector and parishi- 

 oners in the last century as an advantageous position in respect of 

 light and acoustic effect for the pulpit. A ground-plan of the 

 original Church of S. Aldhelm, Bishopstrow, is given by Sir R. C. 

 Hoare,^ showing the position of the pulpit as it existed in his day, 

 and the two windows of the the apse placed N.E. and S.E., instead 

 of due N. and S, as in the Church of St. Peter, Manningford Bruce, 

 where the easternmost part of the apse was seized upon as a com- 

 manding position, not for a pulpit, but for a monument to Mary 

 Lane, wife of Edward Nicholas, lord of the manor of Manningford 



* In the Anglosaxon MS. of Caedmon, tenth century, the seraphs attendant on 

 Deity are represented with eyes on their wings. See Archseologia, vol. xxiv., 

 p. 340, plates lii., liv., Ixxxix. For a figure of Our Lord between two angels, 

 see Utrecht Psalter, ps. xix., (xviii. Vulgate). 



^ History of Suffolk, by Rev. A. Suckling, L.L.B., vol. i., p.p. 357 — 8 ; London, 

 1846. 



^ History of Modern Wilts, Hundred of Warminster, p. 74. 



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