SOME DORSET CHURCH TOWERS. 253 



different parts. The west front has a peculiar arrangement of 

 niches, the central figure representing the Blessed Virgin and 

 Child. On her right stands the figure of a man with large flow- 

 ing beard, supposed to represent St. James, and on her left 

 St. George subduing the dragon. Above these is a square- 

 headed window, corresponding with those on the other faces, 

 but in this instance walled up, as a part of the original design, 

 and having beneath the traceried heads of these dummy lights, 

 the cross forming a mullion, a small sculpture of the Cruci- 

 fixion, with figures standing on each side under the horizontal 

 arms of the cross intended to represent the Virgin Mary and 

 St. John. Above this, again, is a second group of niches and 

 pinnacles representing the Resurrection and the Ascension. On 

 each side are figures in the costume of the times. All this only 

 occupies one storey, and is the outcome of an evidently well- 

 thought-out scheme by the architect, commencing with the 

 Birth, then the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ. 

 This tower is discerned for miles around, and at once attracts 

 the attention of a visitor to Beaminster. 



The towers at Pydeltrenthide and Whitchurch Canonicorum 

 are important representatives of Dorset towers ; but they are 

 already dealt with and illustrated in other pages of this volume. 



