GUSSAGE s. MICHAEL'S AND GUSSAGE ALL SAINTS' CHURCHES. 81 



Ponting, to whose report I shall frequently allude, e.g. I shall 

 give his opinion as to a Norman buttress, in the centre of the 

 W. wall of the Tower, which wall has no window or doorway ; 

 indeed, there is no external doorway anywhere in the Tower. He 

 considers this buttress to have supported the gable roof, which ran 

 E. and W. to cover the Norman, or lower and second storey, part 

 of the Tower. 



You enter the Church by an old door riddled with notice nail- 

 holes, with good ironwork about it, and if you have any archeeo- 

 logical feeling, you are bound to exclaim, " Here is an old un- 

 restored Church well worth seeing !" The chief part of the fabric 

 consists of a nave of two bays, opening into N. and S. aisles, of 

 Anglo-Norman style, circa 1180. I feel bound to give Mr. 

 Ponting's opinion, however, " That the arcades between nave and 

 aisles date from about 1320." The Tower ground floor, \vith its 

 arch opening into the nave, all agree to be the oldest part of the 

 church. The perfectly plain imposts of the piers of this round 

 arch, also the narrow window slits, with rounded heads originally, 

 though now cut square, to carry the beams of the ringing-loft, are 

 proofs of this. They are of the early Norman style. Within the 

 Tower is a wooden staircase, leading across the W. wall to the 

 ringing-stage ; well worth noticing. The tower is so dark that I 

 am indebted to Mr. Ponting's report for the information, that this 

 staircase is of oak of Jacobean date. He calls it a "most 

 picturesque arrangement," and so it is ; but it cannot compare in 

 picturesqueness with the wooden winding staircase that serves the 

 same purpose inside the tower of Stratton Church. 



You should look at the round axle of wood, with holes in it, for 

 the insertion of levers, between the two front uprights of the 

 staircase. This is said to have been used in lifting the bells into 

 the Belfry. It could not, however, have been so used, when 

 occupying the precise place, where it now is found ; but it may 

 easily have been removed to that place. The nave bays date from 

 the next period of work in this church. One (or two) of their 

 columns rests on a huge mis-shapen base, five or six inches high, 



