ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF S. MARY AT CERXE. 3 



the Abbey Church, of which no trace *now survives ; and the 

 people's devotions maintained at S. Mary's. The Abbot would 

 still be responsible, as Rector of the parish, for the appointment 

 of vicars and (possibly) the care of the building. 



Perpendicular Work. As it now stands, S. Mary's looks like a 

 1 5th Century Church. It is goft. long ; tower, nave, aisles, 

 window tracery, stone screen internally, no trace appears of any 

 earlier structure. On further examination, however, it becomes 

 evident that the fabric is of a composite character, and belongs 

 (in addition to the E. E. work already described) to at least four 

 different classes or periods : 



1. Original work in the aisles. 



2. The tower, completed somewhat later. 



3. Work imported from other buildings. 



4. The rebuilt nave, part of north aisle, and south porch. 



In various parts of England, the latter portion of the i5th 

 Century was signalised by the great development of the wool- 

 growing industry. The old common-field system of farming was 

 generally falling into decay, and up-to-date landowners strained 

 their powers to the utmost to turning the ancient " acres " into 

 pasture, in many cases to great financial advantage. There was, 

 to use a modern expression, a "boom " in wool, and some of the 

 monasteries, as well as many private lords of manors, became by 

 this means exceedingly wealthy. It is probable that this fact 

 had a considerable bearing upon the development of the fashion 

 for building and endowing chantries, which became universal at 

 the termination of the Wars of the Roses. In the neighbourhood 

 in which we are writing it is not easy to name any Church which 

 failed to gain an aisle or a chapel at this period. Sometimes the 

 old nave was left standing, as at Charminster and Bere Regis ; 

 often it was replaced by a new structure. In Dorset, the 

 Norman chancels disappeared ; a few Early English ones, as 

 here and at Buckland Newton, were allowed to remain. Every- 

 where, Perpendicular aisles were built. 



