A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



south wall of the south transept, while the west 

 window is of three lights with modern tracery of 

 fifteenth-century style, but early fourteenth-century 

 window and rear arches of good detail. The original 

 north-west window is a plain round-headed light, like 

 those in the south transept. 



The west doorway is of four orders, with a round- 

 headed arch, and nook-shafts to the second and third 

 orders. The outer order is shallow and of square 

 section, while the second order has an edge-roll 

 between square fillets, the third a double line of 

 horizontal zigzag, and the inner order is plain, as is 

 also the rear arch. Of the nook-shafts, those to the 

 second order have leaf-capitals, and those to the third 

 order scallops. The abacus, which has a square upper 

 edge and a hollow chamfer below, does not project 

 beyond the outer wall face. The south doorway is 

 of similar character, but has only one pair of shafts, 

 and being set in a wall thinner than that in which it 

 originally stood, its rear arch projects from the inner 

 face. Even so it must have lost some of its masonry, 

 as it is now only 3 ft. 4 in. deep, and must have been 

 4 ft. deep at the first. 



The south arcade is of three bays, with octagonal 

 columns, moulded capitals and bases, and pointed 

 arches of three orders, the inner and outer orders 

 chamfered, while the second order has an edge-roll. 

 The western respond of the arcade has a semi- 

 octagonal shaft, and the eastern respond is plain and 

 square. At the east end of the south aisle is a half- 

 arch of the same detail and date as the south arcade, 

 and close to its south respond a plastered recess with 

 a low arched head of sixteenth-century date. In the 

 south wall, east of the south porch, are two windows, 

 each of two lancet lights, the eastern of the two 

 having a quatrefoil above the lights and a flatter rear 

 arch than the other. The masonry of the rear arch 

 is also in larger stones, and it is possible that the 

 quatrefoil is an addition, the arch being rebuilt when 

 it was made. The west window of the aisle is' of 

 modern stonework, with a quatrefoil over a pair of 

 lancets. The external south-west corner of the aisle 

 is ashlar-faced, and has a bowtel on the angle. 



The woodwork of the church is not ancient, and a 

 great deal of new work has just been set up (1906), 

 including new quire seats, and screens in the arcade 

 between the chancel and south chapel. The altar 

 has been brought forward from its former position 

 against the cast wall of the chancel, and a second 

 altar fitted up in the south chapel. 



A painting of the Doom over the west arch of the 

 tower, discovered at a former repair of the church, 

 has now entirely disappeared, and the only traces of 

 ancient wall-decoration now existing, beyond remains 

 of red colour in several places, are on the faces of the 

 east responds of the north and south tower arches. 

 They seem to be of thirteenth-century date, that on 

 the north being a Crucifixion, while the other, which 

 is very faint, shows nothing clearly except a crowned 

 head. 



The font, at the west end of the south aisle, is 

 one of the best examples of a class of black marble 

 fonts, almost certainly of foreign origin, which occur 

 in three other Hampshire churches, Winchester 

 Cathedral, St. Michael's Southampton, and St. Mary, 



Bourne. It is fully described in V.C.H. Hants, ii, 

 244. There are no monuments of importance 

 in the church, but two wall tablets of rather 

 unusual character are to be seen in the south wall of 

 the chancel and the west wall of the south transept. 

 Both are framed in a moulding of late Gothic section, 

 and have inscriptions in somewhat heavy Roman 

 lettering the former in Latin to the wife of Richard 

 Downes, 1659, and the latter in English : 



Here lyeth the body of Richard Smyther, 

 Who departed this life in hope of a better. 



March 1 6, 1633. 



In the pavement of the south transept is set a small 

 piece of stone, inscribed in eighteenth-century lettering 

 ' Amens Plenty,' to explain which a local legend ha 

 arisen that it commemorates some soldiers killed in 

 the Civil Wars, and buried here hurriedly, with no- 

 more funeral rites than the repetition of many Amens. 

 There is a ring of eight bells, the treble, second, 

 seventh, and tenor, by Taylor of Loughborough, 

 1890, the third by Chapman & Mears, 1782, the 

 fourth and fifth by Thomas Mears, 1834 and 1819, 

 and the sixth by William Tosier, 1722. 



The plate consists of a silver-gilt communion cup 

 of 1 747, with a paten of the same date, both given 

 by Ambrose Dickins ; a silver paten of 1751, and a 

 plated flagon and spoon, the latter having a bowl 

 embossed and gilt. 



The first book of the registers runs from 1560 to 

 1676, the second from 1677 to 1742, and the third 

 from 1743 to 1812. 



THE CH4PEL OF ST. NICHOLAS, fTEST- 

 BURT, was annexed to the parish church of East 

 Meon. In an account of the parish written in 1703 

 there is the following description of the chapel : 

 ' There is also another chapel at Westbury, but there 

 is no service in it. Upon a loose gravestone in this 

 chapel, narrower at the feet than at the head, is an 

 ancient portraiture of a priest or a woman deeply 

 carved but much defaced, which if taken up shows it to 

 have anciently been a place of sepulture.' 145 The ruined 

 chapel still stands in the grounds of Westbury House, 

 and can be seen from the road leading to West 

 Meon. 



It is in plan a simple rectangle, 1 " 3 5 ft. by 1 6 ft. 

 within, and appears to belong to the end of the 

 thirteenth century. A curious variation in the thick- 

 ness of the walls is noticeable, the north wall being 

 thicker than the rest, and the east wall markedly 

 thinner. The entrance is by a doorway in the south 

 wall of which the outer arch is destroyed, but the 

 semicircular rear-arch remains. East and west of it 

 are two-light windows, uncusped, with an uncusped 

 opening in the head, that to the east being well pre- 

 served, 147 while the other is blocked. In the east wall 

 are the jambs of a wider window, said to have been 

 formerly of three trefoiled lights, and in the north 

 wall the lower part of a two-light window correspond- 

 ing to the eastern of the two windows in the south 

 wall. Near the west end of this wall is a square- 

 headed opening low in the wall, with a wooden 

 lintel, and evidently not in its original condition. 

 The chapel is roofless and encumbered with destruc- 

 tive ivy, and preserves nothing of its ancient contents 



> Stowe MS. 845, fol. 56. 

 Seo paper by Mr. N. C. H. Nisbett 

 in the Proc. Hants Field Club, ii, I. 



14 7 What appears to be the east jamb of 

 another window shows in the wall a little 



74 



to the cast of the existing window, with 

 a recess below it. 



