HILTON CHURCH, 113 



several interesting details, and near it on the outside, and plinth 

 high, is a large slab of stone supposed to have been used as a 

 "Dole Table." 



Two leaden plates which were formerly on the roofs of the 

 aisles are now affixed to the walls of the vestry. They bear the 



I W MA 



initials S F and I D. 



1722 1741 



The south porch, which projects into the Church in a very 

 unusual manner, has a beautiful groined Perpendicular roof of 

 Ham Hill stone, in the fan-tracery of which are the arms of the 

 Abbeys of Milton and Abbotsbury. The present position of the 

 porch may probably thus be accounted for : The aisle at some 

 time has been widened since the porch was built, for at the time 

 of the restoration of the Church in 1892 a short length of the 

 moulding of the parapet was discovered which had been left 

 inside the walls of the aisle at the west side of the porch. This 

 moulding in every way corresponded with that on the outside, 

 and had evidently at one time been outside the wall, and the 

 point where the moulding stopped against the former wall could 

 plainly be seen when the plaster was removed. The effect 

 produced by this projection of the porch into the church is very 

 peculiar. I think it not improbable that the widening of this 

 aisle took place in the year 1569, as high up on the outside of 

 the wall are three sets of initials W F, H W, T I, to the latter 

 two of which this date is attached. If this is so, it is an inter- 

 esting fact, as very little church building was done during the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth. Hutchins thinks the initials H. W 

 are those of Henry Williams, who was lessee of the manor in the 

 time of Elizabeth. From the peculiar position of the porch it 

 has been suggested that at some time it may have been a chantry, 

 but this is untenable from the fact that it has wide doorway 

 openings, both of which evidently exist as originally built, except 

 that the outside opening was not intended to have any door ; and 

 the double-moulded jambs and arch show that the porch was 

 originally an open one. A niche and the pedestal and part of 



