6 PAPEKS, ETC. 



belfiy-stage ; but still the Square portion rises a whole 

 stage above the roof of the church, and has its own parapet, 

 pinnacles, and flying-buttresses. At Nassington the belfry- 

 stage itself suddenly becomes octagonal at about half its 

 height. At Barnack, the octagon, an Early Gothic one, 

 is added to the old Saxon tower, or possibly has supplanted 

 its belfry-stage. Still the latter rises a stage above the 

 church, and the octagon, as at Nassington, is merely a base 

 for the spire. At Milton Malsor the spire and its octagonal 

 base are such mere additions to the predorainant Square 

 tower, that I had almost forgotten to include this example 

 in my list. At Helpstone alone have I found a North- 

 amptonshire tower on the Somersetshlre model ; here the 

 Square base is of the height of the church, where it turns 

 into an octagon of two stages, very like Ilchester or Puddi- 

 more, save that it again supports within its parapet a dwarf 

 octagon and spire. But even here, where the octagon is 

 decidedly itself the tower, and not a mere finish to 

 the Square, I suspect that before the existing clerestory 

 was added, the original roof abutted whoUy against the 

 squai'e portion, whereas at Puddimore, and still more at 

 Ilchester, it comes up against the octagon. 



Of distinctive detail I have not observed much in these 

 earlier churches, except an elegant practice, not indeed 

 altogether distinctive of Somersetshlre, thougb certainly 

 far more common there than elsewhere, that of foliating 

 the rear-arches of windows. I was glad to find that my 

 friends who are rearing the gi'aceful new church at King- 

 weston have introduced this beautiful local feature : I could 

 wish they had also preferred the local coved ceiling to a 

 form which, though good in itself, belongs to Sussex and 

 not to Somerset.. 



I will now mention those churches of the district and 



