A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



north chapel, a nave with north aisle and south porch, 

 and a wooden bell-turret at the west end. The 

 chancel arch and the two bays of the north arcade 

 of the nave date from c . 1 1 60. the walls in which 

 they are set being 3 ft. 2 in. thick. The arcade, with 

 its heavy octagonal central pillar and half-octagonal 

 responds, and its round arches of a single square order 

 on scalloped capitals, gives the impression of having 

 been cut through an older wall, and it may well be 

 that the north and east walls of the nave contain 

 masonry older than the middle of the twelfth century, 

 belonging to an aisleless nave which measured about 

 30 ft. by 1 5 ft. within the walls, and had a small 

 chancel, now entirely destroyed. The present chancel 

 appears to have been set out, with a slight lean to the 

 south, in the first half of the thirteenth century, and 

 the nave seems to have been lengthened westward and 

 its south wall rebuilt about 100 years later. The 

 north chapel is a fifteenth-century addition, opening 

 by an arch of that date to the chancel, but in its west 

 wall is a plain round arch, edge-chamfered, with a 

 chamfered string at the springing, which suggests a 

 date not later than the twelfth century for some 

 building formerly on the site of the chapel. This is 

 very difficult to bring into line with the rest of the 

 history of the church, and it has even been suggested 

 that the arch belongs to a pre-Conquest building, 

 having opened to its chancel. But the details, such 

 as they are, do not give the slightest ground for the 

 idea, nor indeed has the masonry any of the character 

 of normal twelfth-century work. The north aisle, to 

 which it opens, seems to be a late mediaeval re-building 

 of a former aisle, and the twelfth-century doorway at 

 its north-east angle is clearly not in its original 

 position, so that it may well be that the western arch 

 of the chapel is of a much later date than at first sight 

 it would seem to be. 



The chancel has a fifteenth-century east window 

 of three lights with tracery and a transom, and in the 

 south wall two widely-splayed lancets, the eastern of 

 which dates from c. 1220, while the second has been 

 widened, the outer stonework of both being com- 

 paratively modern, though the jambs and rear arches 

 are old. The sills of both are carried down, the one 

 to serve as a sedile, and the other for a low side 

 window. On the north side of the chancel is a 

 pointed arch of two hollow-chamfered orders, on 

 splayed and recessed jambs with moulded capitals, of 

 fifteenth-century date ; it opens to the north or 

 Hampton chapel, which has a square-headed north 

 window of three cinquefoiled lights, and an east 

 window of two lights with tracery and a moulded 

 rear arch, on the label of which is a shield with the 

 arms of Hampton. 



The chancel arch is a very pretty piece of twelfth- 

 century work, round-headed and of two orders, the 

 inner plain and the outer with a roll and a band of 

 horizontal zigzag, and having a moulded label. The 

 capitals are foliate, and there are nook-shafts to the 

 outer order with spreading moulded bases. To the 

 north of the arch is a wide squint opening both to 

 the north chapel and the chancel. 



The north arcade of the nave has been already 

 noted, and at the south-east of the nave is a two- 

 light window of c. 1320, with a four-centred tomb- 

 recess partly below its sill and partly to the west 

 of it. The south door is plain fourteenth-century 

 work of two chamfered orders, under a modern porch, 



and from it four steps lead down to the floor of the 

 nave. The west window of the nave is like that 

 on the south, the tracery in both having been 

 repaired. The north aisle has a square-headed west 

 window of two quatrefoiled lights, which looks like 

 fourteenth-century work renewed, and a modern 

 north window of two lights. The doorway already 

 mentioned at the north-east angle is round-headed, 

 with a line of zigzag in the head. 



The nave roof is in two bays, with moulded wall- 

 plates and arched principals, to which are fixed turned 

 pendants of seventeenth-century style ; this probably 

 shows the date of the roof. The west bay of the 

 nave is taken up with the beams of the bell-turret, 

 which do not come down to the floor, though they 

 may have done so in the first instance. The roof 

 of the north aisle is plain, but preserves some old 

 timbers, while that of the north chapel is a good 

 piece of fifteenth-century work, of low pitch with 

 arched principals and a deep embattled cornice on 

 the north side, with two rows of carved bosses ; 

 the corresponding cornice on the south side has been 

 cut away. In the east wall of this chapel is a plain 

 image bracket to the north of the site of the altar, 

 which was that of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and in 

 the north-east angle a fine piece of fifteenth-century 

 carving representing the mass of St. Gregory. The 

 saint stands at the north end of an altar, with his 

 server in a cope at the south end, and over the altar 

 is a large figure of Christ under a canopy, typifying 

 the Real Presence, which the story was intended to 

 vindicate. 



On the sill of the north window of the chapel is 

 a square twelfth-century foliate capital with angle 

 volutes, and a vine-trail pattern below. It is made to 

 fit a round shaft 6J in. in diameter, and has on the 

 top a sinking 7 in. square by 3 Jin. deep. There 

 being no drain, it has not been part of a pillar piscina, 

 but may be an early example of a holy-water stone. 

 At the south-west of the chapel is part of a fifteenth- 

 century canopied niche and pedestal, not in position, 

 and part of a second pedestal, and in the east window 

 of the chapel is a little old glass, with our Lady and 

 Child, and a border with the letters T and H, for 

 one of the two Thomas Hamptons who were lords 

 of the manor here in the second half of the fifteenth 

 century. 



The font at the west end of the north aisle has a 

 plain round bowl and stem, the top of the bowl being 

 cut to an octagon ; it is old but of uncertain date, the 

 bowl looking as if it had been cut down. 



There are six incised sundials on the south window 

 of the nave, and two on the south-east angle, and at 

 the south-west angle of the chancel, just beneath the 

 eaves, a stone carved with a small bearded head is in- 

 serted in the wall. 



Beneath the arch opening to the Hampton chapel, 

 and against its eastern respond, is set the altar tomb 

 of Thomas Hampton, 1483, and Elizabeth (Doding- 

 ton) his wife, 1475, having on a Purbeck slab their 

 brass effigies with those of their two sons and six 

 daughters. The lower half only of Elizabeth's figure 

 is preserved. On scrolls from the mouths of the 

 principal figures are ' pat*] de celis miserere nobis ' and 

 ' sc5 tnitas un' de' miserere nobis,' and above them a 

 fine representation of the Trinity. Below the figures 

 is an inscription giving the record of their deaths on 

 St. Simeon and St. Jude's Day and St. Andrew's Day 



450 



