OF SELBORNE. 287 



And if in any particular he followed more invariably 



the steps of his blessed Master, 



It was in his humility. 



His parishioners, 



especially the sick and necessitous, 

 as long as any traces of his memory shall remain, 



must lament his death. 



To perpetuate such an example, this stone is erected ; 

 as while living he was a preacher of righteousness, 



so, by it, he being dead yet speaketh. 

 He died April 8 th . 1784. *Aged 66 years*. 



* [It was not until long after the < Antiquities of Selborne ' was 

 written, that any knowledge of ecclesiastical architecture became general j 

 and the account of Selborne church in the text is a remarkable proof of 

 the ignorance which at that time prevailed both with regard to the 

 principles of church-building, and the details in which those principles 

 were developed. The church at Selborne still retains a large portion of 

 the original structure, and exhibits an interesting and consistent example 

 of the architecture of the period of its erection, which is sufficiently 

 marked to preclude any considerable error. The arches, the pillars with 

 their bases and capitals, the windows which remain, and other details, 

 point to the close of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century, and 

 the reign of Henry III. as the true date of the present structure, which 

 is therefore of the Early English period, just as the Norman style was 

 becoming extinct. I can find no traces of an earlier building remaining, 

 although it is very clear that at the time when Domesday book was 

 composed there was a church here. 



The pillars of the nave are of that simple and massive form which 

 belongs to the transition from the Norman to the Early English style. 

 The base of the pillars is a simple square plinth with round mouldings, on 

 which rests the massive body of the pillar, the diameter of which is 

 2 ft. 7 in., and its height from base to capital 5 ft. 7 in. The capital is 

 square, plain and bold ; and from it springs a nearly equilateral pointed 

 arch of 10 ft. span. There is still remaining in the south wall to the 

 west of the doorway a single well-proportioned lancet window ; and there 

 is a double one of nearly similar proportions 'in the west wall. The south 

 aisle terminates eastward in what was a chapel, dedicated probably to 

 the tutelar saint of the church, with a tine well-proportioned triplet 

 window, to the left of which is a handsome niche, which doubtless con- 

 tained a figure of the saint ; and on its base is a neat strip of diaper- 

 work. In the south wall of this chantry is a piscina belonging to the 

 altar of the chapel. Of this piscina Gilbert White makes the curious 

 mistake of supposing that it formerly held a statue of some saint. Al- 

 though all traces of a screen separating this chancel from the aisle have 



