84 



It is the absence of aisles, very rare in an English church of this 

 size, that gave me this impression. Then the bold string course, 

 running shoulder high along the walls of the nave, ar:d surmounting, 

 by gradual steps, both existing and disused doorways, is remarkable. 

 The Font is contemporaneous with the church ; it is of Purbeck 

 marble, well worn, and lined with lead. The internal hood 

 mouldings to the windows deserve special notice. Perhaps I 

 should call them the headings of the internal arches of the windows. 

 They are ornamented with five, and, in the case of the W. window, 

 with seven short cusps. You should observe the two piscinae in 

 the nave, as well as the one in the south chancel wall. The former 

 were discovered in the course of the restoration in 1865. So the 

 beading, with knops at its end in both cases, must have been added, 

 and so probably was added the projecting portion of the chancel 

 piscina, and its supporting angel corbel. For the account of the 

 church furnished to the last editors of Hutchins, by the Incumbent 

 (and it was the use of this mode of getting information from the 

 Incumbent of each parish, about his church, that makes some of 

 the descriptions of churches in this edition of our County history 

 so much better than others), tells us " This Chancel has been 

 wholly rebuilt." This was under the superintendence of the late 

 Mr. Ewan Christian. The late Mr. Hicks, of Dorchester, was the 

 architect employed for restoring the nave. 



About the floors lie two brass plates, with inscriptions dated 

 1508 and 1574 respectively. You should especially observe the 

 canopied arch overhanging a slab now in the N. wall of the Nave 

 towards the E. This is probably the Founder's tomb. At the 

 restoration of 1865 the skeleton of a large-sized man was found 

 beneath it. 



The arch over the opening to the organ chamber was once the 

 chancel arch. If this be the case, to be consistent with what I 

 gave as my opinion before you, in the somewhat parallel case of the 

 Charminster Chancel arch, I ought to condemn such a removal ; but 

 I am bound to say that had that arch, with its contracted height 

 and span, been rebuilt in its old position, you would have lost, in 



