8 PARISH AND CHURCH OF PIDDLETRENTHIDE. 



paired with a grotesque animal, but in the eastward window an 

 angel is introduced. 



INSCRIPTION ON W. FRONT OF TOWER. 



The tower is the great glory of Piddletrenthide, and judging 

 from the curious description in Leonine Latin verse it was erected 

 by Nicholas Locke, vicar, a native of the village, in 1487. The 

 date is one of the earliest instances of the employment of Arabic 

 numerals. The first storey of the tower is pierced on the south 

 side only with a small pointed window ; the higher stage has on 

 each face a pair of graceful belfry windows of two lights, each 

 divided horizontally by a transom. The proportion of wall-space 

 to window could hardly have been arranged with better judg- 

 ment. The buttresses show the same masterly hand as those of 

 the south aisle, and the work probably is of the same date. 

 Within, the tower has fragments of a beautiful fan-traceried 

 vault, which may or may not have been completed. The great 

 arch opening into the nave is richly panelled and similar to 

 those at Cerne, Charminster, and (I think) Bere Regis. 



Contemporary with the chancel, or possibly a little later, is a 

 large chantry or chancel-aisle on the north side, of peculiar con- 

 struction, to describe which would be to state an architectural 

 problem too intricate for the present occasion, and unintelligible 

 without diagrams. I may some day, perhaps, appeal to the 

 Club for help in solving it. I will now be content with calling 

 attention to the curious way in which the builder of this chantry 



