OF SELBORNK. 523 



side of the churchyard, being surrounded by the vicar- 

 age garden, affords no path to that side of the church. 

 Nothing can be more irregular than the pews of this 

 church, which are of all dimensions and heights, being 

 patched up according to the fancy of the owners : but 

 whoever nicely examines them will find that the middle 

 aisle had, on each side, a regular row of benches of 

 solid oak, all alike, with a low back-board to each. 

 These we should not hesitate to say are coeval with 

 the present church : and especially as it is to be 

 observed that, at their ends, they are ornamented with 

 carved blunt Gothic niches, exactly correspondent to 

 the arches of the church, and to a niche in the south 

 wall. The south aisle also has a row of these benches; 

 but some are decayed through age, and the rest much 

 disguised by modern alterations 2 . 



At the upper end of this aisle, and running out to the 

 north stands a transept, known by the name of the 

 North Chancel, measuring twenty-one feet from south 

 to north, and nineteen feet from east to west : this was 

 intended, no doubt, as a private chantry; and was 

 also, till of late, divided off by a Gothic frame work of 

 timber. In its north wall, under a very blunt Gothic 

 arch, lies perhaps the founder of this edifice, which, 



2 Considerable alteration has taken place in the fittings of the interior. 

 The pews, although still of various dimensions, are now of uniform height 

 throughout. The oaken benches have been removed from the situations 

 which they formerly occupied ; and most of them have altogether disap- 

 peared. But there yet remain portions of them in various parts of the 

 church. One, of a very solid and substantial make, has been fixed under 

 the more modern bench along the wall of the north aisle : and the upright 

 at its west end, coeval with the bench supported by it, exhibits the deeply 

 carved Gothic niche referred to in the text. Others will be found in the 

 lower part of the south aisle, one of which has the Gothic niche ; and a 

 similar niche is observable on three of the moveable benches near the 

 south door. These relics of the accommodation provided in remote times 

 for those who frequented the church of this retired district, have attached 

 to them a degree of interest as connected with the simplicity of the days 

 in which they were originally placed. E. T. B. 



