GUSSAGE s. MICHAEL'S AXD GUSSAGE ALL SAINTS' CHURCHES. 83 



You should all go into the tower to see the staircase and bell- 

 lifting apparatus ; also please look at the rude sitting arrangement, 

 if such were intended, round the S.W. column and font, while the 

 experts will kindly give me their opinion on the date, whether 

 ancient or modern, of the mouldings of the two archways on the S. 

 side of the Chancel wall. 



GUSSAGE ALL SAINTS' CHURCH. 



Mr. Stent wishes me to take his place as describer of his church. 

 The task is not a difficult one. jSTo one need be told how well this 

 church stands a veritable city set on a hill. Its length and the 

 position of its Tower, rising on its S. side, and about a quarter of 

 the nave's length from the W. end, are unusual. Its style the 

 Decorated the richest of the Gothic or pointed styles, and its 

 being built, with one exception, in one style, are other, not common 

 features about it, in village churches, in this part of England, 

 certainly. I may as well point out the exception I allude to at 

 once. The two storeys of the tower are undoubtedly of the E.E. or 

 preceding period. But the top storey is Decorated. The newel 

 external staircase to the belfry is an architectural gem. On the 

 other hand, the finials (or pinnacles), on the top of the tower, are 

 uncomfortably supported on projecting corbels and look as if they 

 would at any moment topple over. The builders seem to have 

 been mightily afraid of a settlement in the W. wall of the Isfave, 

 which they have buttressed up, not, as usual, with one angle 

 buttress at each corner, but with double buttresses run up, at 

 right angles to each other, and with an additional support in the 

 middle, carried as high as the window sill. 



Passing through the porch, which is formed out of the ground 

 storey of the tower, the four large corbels should be noticed with the 

 emblems of the Passion. You should look at the jambs of the 

 entrance door ; they are very bold, yet simple. You may notice 

 some mason marks or dedicative crosses on them, 



When I went into the church the other day it struck me that I 

 was entering a handsome college chapel, rather than a village church, 



