A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



The south aisle is nearly as wide as the nave, and a 

 fine though much restored building. It is gabled at 

 east and west, and has an east window of three lancets 

 under a containing arch. In the south wall is a wide 

 three-light window, an insertion off. 1500 to give 

 more light on the altar in the aisle ; its stonework is 

 mostly modern. West of it are the built-up jambs of 

 a second wide window, with a modern lancet set in 

 the blocking, and beyond this a second modern lancet 

 just east of the south doorway, which has a good 

 moulded outer arch with jamb shafts. 



Near the west end of the wall is an original lancet, 

 and in the west wall an original window with two 

 lancet lights under a segmental head. At the north 

 end of the wall is a doorway of the same date, but, 

 like the window, its external stonework is modern. 

 The south porch is probably of the seventeenth 

 century. The west wall of the aisle is faced in the 

 small ironstone rubble with regular ashlar quoins, and 

 has had a buttress, now destroyed, at its south end. 

 In the gable is the date 1730 and initials G. W. 

 for Gilbert White, grandfather of the naturalist. On 

 the north side of the east window of the aisle is a fine 

 niche, c. 1320, with an ogee head and a band of four- 

 leaved flowers on the projecting sill. Near the south- 

 east angle is a trefoiled piscina, and a roll-string goes 

 round the aisle below the window sills, returned 

 downward to pass underneath the piscina, but 

 breaking up over the heads of the south and west 

 doorways. 



The tower opens to the nave by a pointed arch of 

 two continuous chamfered orders, which may be 

 fifteenth-century work. The quoins of the internal 

 western angles of the tower look more like thirteenth- 

 century work, and the jambs of the west doorway 

 seem ancient, but its square head and the two-light 

 square-headed window over it date from the repairs of 

 1781. The tower is covered with cement externally, 

 including its parapet, and the belfry windows are 

 single lights trefoiled, except that on the north, which 

 has a plain round head. Within the tower is a solid 

 timber framework resting on a set-back above the first 

 stage and carrying the bell frame. It is strongly 

 braced together and looks as if it had been intended 

 to stand alone. 



The roofs of the church are modern, except that of 

 the chancel, which has coupled collars with arched 

 braces below ; it has been plastered at one time, and 

 the roughness of its timbers suggests that this was the 

 original arrangement. In the south aisle the plate 

 on the north side is old, carried on wooden corbels 

 and strutted. There are a few old bench ends at the 

 west of the nave, and one on each side of the south 

 porch, with trefoiled arched panels of late fifteenth- 

 century date. The south door of the nave is 

 probably contemporary with the doorway, and is 

 made of I in. oak planks set upright with rounded 

 battens nailed horizontally to the back of the door. 

 The original wrought-iron strap-hinges remain, and 

 are beautiful specimens of their date. A few traces 

 of wall-painting exist at the north-east of the south 

 aisle, and the south doorway and north window of 

 the north transept have traces of red paint. 



At the east end of the south aisle are collected a 

 number of glazed tiles with single patterns of griffins, 

 lions, double-headed eagles, lis, &c., and several of finer 

 work, with a quatrefoil inclosing a shield bearing a 

 double-headed eagle between two birds. The quatre- 



foil is set in a lozenge and the corners of the tiles 

 filled with palmettes. The tiles belong to the 

 fifteenth or perhaps the end of the fourteenth 

 century. The font stands at the west end of the 

 south aisle and is plain, with a cup-shaped bowl on a 

 thick round stem. Two stone coffins and several 

 coffin lids of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 

 are placed in the south aisle. On two specimens 

 there are rings on the stem of the cross carved on the 

 lid just below the head. A few pieces of twelfth- 

 century masonry, with zigzag, earlier than any work 

 now standing in the church, are also preserved here. 



The plate consists of a silver cup and cover paten 

 of 1638, quite plain. 



There are five bells; the treble of 1735, given 

 by Mary daughter of Sir Simeon Stuart, bears the Stuart 

 arms in a lozenge on the waist, and is inscribed : 



Clara puella dedit dixitque michi csto Maria 

 Illius et Inudes nomen ad astra sono. 



The second, formerly of 1735, was recast by 

 Mears & Stainbank in 1904. The fourth and tenor 

 are also of 1735, all the bells of this date being cast by 

 Samuel Knight, and the third is by Thomas Janaway, 



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Tnere are no monuments of interest in the church 

 except the mural tablet to Gilbert White, the 

 naturalist, who died here in 1793. 



The earliest parish register is a book with no cover, 

 half paper and half parchment. It begins with the 

 baptisms from 1562 to 1600. From 1578 the 

 register seems to be copied from smaller books by 

 Vicar White, since the previous handwriting ends in 

 December, 1577, and the next 'Here I begin' is in 

 his handwriting, with the heading ' Anno Dno ' 

 instead of ' Anno Dni.' The next section gives the 

 burials from 1556 to 1594, with the same change in 

 the writing in 1577. The writing changes in I 594, 

 and then there is a gap filled up by a small register, 

 roughly bound up with the big, covering the dates 

 15881631 for baptisms, marriages, and burials. 

 There is also another small register bound up in part 

 of this giving baptisms from 1577 to 1587, marriages 

 from 1572 to 1586, and deaths from 1572 to 

 1587. Here the paper half of the book ends and 

 the parchment begins, giving baptisms from 1632 to 

 1678, and burials from 1632 to 1641. The last few 

 pages, written the wrong way of the book, give the 

 marriages from 1632 to 1633, burials from 1654 to 

 1678, and three or four entries of marriage in 1637 

 and 1639. This is all the record that exists until 

 after the period of the Civil War. The second book 

 is of paper and leather bound, and contains a list of 

 incumbents from 1673 to 1681 made by Vicar 

 Gilbert White, who was inducted at the latter date, 

 and the register of baptisms from 1679 to 1718. 

 Under the year 1695 a mention is made of ' ye act of 

 Parliament passed for granting to His Majesty certain 

 rates and dues upon marriages, births, and burials and 

 upon Batchelors and Widdowers for the term of 

 five years, commencing from I May, 1695." A stray 

 entry under the year 1688 states that a certificate 

 was given by the vicar for Mrs. Susanna Green 

 on 8 October and for Stephen Green on I I Novem- 

 ber, ' to be touched for the King's evil.' The third 

 book, of paper and leather bound, registers the burials 

 from 1718 to 1783 and the baptisms from 1719 to 

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