54 



WH1TECHURCH CANONICORUM. 



In the walls of the church are embedded many fragments of 

 carved stone which have been preserved from former buildings 

 probably on the same site. On the south side of the tower, and 

 high up, is an interesting stone carving of an archaic ship and an 

 axe. On a separate panel, and a little higher on the right, will 

 be seen another axe and an ancient weapon resembling an iron 



socketted celt. On the north side is a perfect, unweathered 

 specimen of the same curious weapon. The ship has been 

 supposed by some to indicate that the donor of the tower was a 

 merchant who had obtained, by the traffic of his ships, the 

 wealth which enabled him thus to dignify and adorn his parish 

 church, but a more probable explanation will be found later on. 



A "spoked circle," supposed to be an old sun dial, but, more 

 likely, a mystic symbol which had to do with solar myths, will be 

 seen built into the south-east side of the diagonal buttress of the 

 south transept. The most interesting fragment, however, and 

 deserving of a paragraph all to itself, is fixed in the south wall 

 between the tower and the porch. 



It represents a two-handled 

 cup and is supposed to be a 

 figure of the Holy GraiL It 

 is similar in design to the 

 Holy Grail as seen by Bishop 

 Arculph in the Church of the 

 Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem 



THE MO.IY GRAIL. '" about A.D. 680. The Holy 



Grail, in mediaeval legend, 

 is the Holy Cup used by Our Lord at the Last Supper, originally 



