OF SELBORNE 265 



honour of young women of the parish, reputed to have 

 died virgins ; and recollect to have seen the clerk's wife 

 cutting, in white paper, the resemblances of gloves, and 

 ribbons to be twisted into knots and roses, to decorate 

 these memorials of chastity. In the church of Faringdon, 

 which is the next parish, many garlands of this sort still 

 remain. 



The north aisle is narrow and low, \^ith a sloping 

 ceiling, reaching within eight or nine feet of the floor. It 

 had originally a flat roof covered with lead, till, within 

 a century past, a churchwarden, stripping off the lead, in 

 order, as he said, to have it mended, sold it to a plumber, 

 and ran away with the money. This aisle has no door, for 

 an obvious reason ; because the north-side of the church- 

 yard, being surrounded by the vicarage-garden, affords no 

 path to that side of the church. Nothing can be more 

 irregular than the pews of this church, which are of all 

 dimensions and heights, being patched up according to the 

 fancy of the owners : but whoever nicely examines them 

 will find that the middle aisle had, on each side, a regular 

 row of benches of solid oak, all alike, with a low back- 

 board to each. These we should not hesitate to say are 

 coeval with the present church : and especially as it is to be 

 observed that, at their ends, they are ornamented with 

 carved blunt gothic niches, exactly correspondent to the 

 arches of the church, and to a niche in the south wall. 

 The south aisle also has a row of these benches ; but some 

 are decayed through age, and the rest much disguised by 

 modern alterations. 



At the upper end of this aisle, and running out to the 

 north, stands a transept, known by the name of the North 

 Chancel, measuring twenty-one feet from south to north, 

 and nineteen feet from east to west : this was intended, no 

 doubt, as a private chantry ; and was also, till of late, 

 divided off by a gothic frame-work of timber. In its 

 north wall, under a very blunt gothic arch, lies perhaps 

 the founder of this edifice, which, from the shape of its 

 arch, may be deemed no older than the latter end 

 of the reign of Henry VII. The tomb was examined 



