IV.] OF SELBORNE. 167 



LETTE11 IV. 



WE have now taken leave of the inside of the church, and shall 

 pass by a door at the west end of the middle aisle into the 

 belfry. This room is part of a handsome square embattled tower 

 of forty-five feet in height, and of much more modern date 

 than the church ; but old enough to have needed a thorough 

 repair in 1781, when it was neatly stuccoed at a considerable 

 expense, by a set of workmen who were employed on it for the 

 greatest part of the summer. The old bells, three in number, 

 loud and out of tune, were taken down in 1735, and cast into 

 four ; to which Sir Simeon Stuart, the grandfather of the 

 present baronet, added a fifth at his own expense : and, bestow- 

 ing it in the name of his favourite daughter, Mrs. Mary Stuart, 

 caused it to be cast with the following motto round it: 



" Clara puelia dedit, dixitque inihi esto Maria : 

 Illius et laiuk'8 noiuen ad astra sono." 



The day of the arrival of this tuneable peal was observed 

 as a high festival by the village, and rendered more joyous by 

 an order from the donor that the treble bell should be fixed 

 bottom upward in the ground and filled with punch, of which 

 all present were permitted to partake. 



The porch of the church, to the south, is modern, and would 

 not be worthy attention did it not shelter a fine sharp Gothic 

 doorway. This is undoubtedly much older than the present 

 fabric; and being found in good preservation, was worked into 

 the wall, and is the grand entrance into the church : nor are the 

 folding doors to be passed over in silence; since from their thick 

 and clumsy structure, and the rude flourished work of their 

 hinges, they may possibly be as ancient as the doorway itself. 



The whole roof of the south aisle, and the south side of the 

 roof of the middle aisle, is covered with oaken shingles instead 

 of tiles, on account of their lightness, which favours the ancient 

 and crazy timber frame. And indeed, the consideration of 

 accidents by fire excepted, this sort of roofing is much more 



