GILLINGHAM, MERE, AND STOURHEAD. Xlvii. 



MERE CHURCH. 



A pleasant drive of four miles, in brakes supplied by Messrs. 

 Burnell and Sons, of the Phoenix Hotel, brought the party to 

 the rather isolated town of Mere, lying under a commanding 

 spur of the chalk downs of Wiltshire. On their way they 

 could perceive, cutting into the sky above the surrounding 

 woods, the familiar landmark known as Stourton Tower, 

 erected at the point of junction of the " three shires " 

 Dorset, Wilts, and Somerset to the honour of our royal 

 Alfred. Attention was of course attracted by the bold bluff 

 of Castle Hill, which used to be crowned by the castle built 

 there in 1253 by Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Of that castle, 

 perierunt etiam ruince ; but excavations, covered in again, 

 have, as at Old Sarum, revealed the substantial masonry of 

 the foundations. The Club had not time to visit, as on the 

 last occasion, the remains of the ancient manor house of the 

 Doddingtons, now forming part of the farmhouse of Wood- 

 lands about a mile away, with its two-storeyed 14th Century 

 wing and domestic chapel. At Mere they confined their 

 attention to the church, where they were met by the Vicar 

 (the Rev. F. E. Trotman). 



Mr. TROTMAN said modestly that it was with no little diffidence that 

 he addressed a body which contained a number of antiquarian and 

 architectural experts. He could have wished that his predecessor had 

 been there in his stead, for Mr. Lloyd spent 19 years there in restoring 

 the church. They claimed to possess Saxon work in the church, 

 although he admitted that the claim might be contested. He pointed 

 westward to the rubble walling in which the tower arch was inserted. 

 The lines of a high-pitched pointed roof could there be discerned. 

 The discovery was made in 1895, when they removed the plaster. It- 

 was Mr. Ponting's belief, and also Mr. Lloyd's, that this was formerly 

 the western nave wall of a pre-Norman church. At the time of the 

 discovery they also found the charred end of a beam which represented 

 the wall-plate of that early church. The charred end has been care- 

 fully preserved, and is visible through a small piece of glass let into 

 the masonry. The height of the rubble walling was 25 feet at the 

 sides, and 37 to the apex of the roof, proportions consistent with the 

 theory of Saxon work. A member of the party objected that this 

 s^rmed exceptionally high for a supposed Saxon church in such a place. 



