OLD PORTLAND. 237 



arch with a 17th century inscription from Psalm cxxii., placed 

 in modern days over the existing ruins of this chancel door- 

 \va.y, certainly belonged to the Norman doorway, the prin- 

 cipal entrance, on the south side of the nave. Additional 

 windows in the chancel were added in later times ; and 

 there was a stone cross on the east-end gable. The floor 

 of the church was composed of thick brick-coloured tiles 

 with an " old gold " glaze (no pattern discernible) and 

 similarly glazed bricks ; the roof was tiled, but thick 

 slates seem also to have been used. There were frescoes 

 in the church, and the glass of the windows was of a curious 

 transparent mother-of-pearl tint which must have looked 

 very beautiful in the sunlight. The seating of the church 

 in its latter days was effected by a gallery and by move- 

 able high-backed " settles " in the nave ; they were in a 

 very decayed condition. The lectern Bible dated 1634, 

 and Prayer Book dated 1706, belonging to the church are 

 in the Dorset County Museum. The latter book was presented 

 to the church in 1708 by Queen Anne, and contains her 

 autograph . 



Mr. Merrick Head, in his earlier article on Portland, 

 in Vol. XII. of the Dorset Field Club's Proceedings, gave 

 a list of the tombstone inscriptions from 1670 onwards 

 in the old churchyard ; and in Vol. XIX. (p. 126) a photo- 

 graph is reproduced of one of the several existing grave-slabs 

 nearly contemporaneous with the later portions of the 

 Norman church of S. Andrew. They seem, however, to 

 be of too early date to have had any connection with 

 the " Chapel " in Wakeham Street (see infra) as has been 

 suggested, and they are not necessarily memorials of 

 ecclesiastics. 



It may be of interest to record that " Under-hill " funeral 

 processions to the churchyard did not come through Easton 

 and Wakeham, as would have been expected, but up the 

 Verne Hill and along the East Cliff to the church-path gate. 

 Traces of this entrance can still be seen in the wall near 

 the modern " Bow and Arrow Cottages." 



