ARCHITECTURAL STYLES IN FORDINGTON CHURCH. 173 



Many of the Romanesque forms would readily harmonise with 

 Norman work, and the form taken of their zigzag enrichment is 

 said to have been suggested by the Roman herringbone 

 masonry. 



The foundations hatched ))))))) on the plan coincide with 

 three lines of existing foundations revealed (the north and south 

 being exactly 20 feet apart), and are set out in length to the size 

 of the examples set by St. Patrick, giving the proportions of one 

 wide to two in length to the nave, and one to one to the chancel, 

 making a square compartment, the total being the sixty feet 

 in length. Such proportions it would be hard to improve 

 upon. 



The north face next the nave (which is most irregular and 

 undressed) of the irregular south pier nearest the pulpit, and 

 part of the spandrels over the south arcade, I verily believe to 

 have formed part of this pre- Norman structure. 



If the theory and assumption is wrong of its being the remains 

 of a Romano-British erection, and it ivas put up in Saxon times, 

 then the plan follows their models, i.e., two simple oblongs 

 joined by a small chancel arch, the chancel being square, ended 

 lower and smaller than the nave and distinctly marked as such 

 externally and internally. The Saxon Christians, if the erection 

 of a church was in contemplation, would have probably looked 

 about, ascertained, or enquired the usual size of such erections, 

 so as to have some precedent to go upon, as we should do now- 

 a-days, and the St. Patrick's model would probably have been 

 handed down. (The skeletons of a man and a horse with its bit 

 and bridle irons were dug up near the north transept. The bit, 

 etc., are said to be Saxon, and they are now in the Dorset 

 Museum.) 



Dorchester must have suffered very much towards the end of 

 the Saxon period, as it is said there were 172 taxable houses in 

 the time of Edward the Confessor, and only 88 according to the 

 Domesday Book in the time of William the First. This is 

 attributed to the devastation of the place by the Danes under 

 Sweyn. 



