ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 297 



LETTER IV. 



WE have now taken leave of the inside of the church, and shall 

 pass by a door at the west end of the middle aisle into the belfry. 

 This room is part of a handsome square embattled tower of forty- 

 five feet in height, and of much more modern date than the 

 church ; but old enough to have needed a thorough repair in 1781, 

 when it was neatly stuccoed at a considerable expense, by a set of 

 workmen who were employed on it for the greatest part of the 

 summer. The old bells, three in number, loud and out of tune, 

 were taken down in 1735, an ^ cast mto f ur '> to which Sir Simon 

 Stuart, the grandfather of the present baronet, added a fifth at his 

 own expense : and, bestowing it in the name of his favourite 

 daughter, Mrs. Mary Stuart, caused it to be cast with the following 

 motto round it : 



" Clara puella dedit, dixitque mihi esto Maria : 

 Illius et laudes nomen ad astra sonj." 



The day of the arrival of this tuneable peal was observed as an 

 high festival by the village, and rendered more joyous, by an order 

 from the donor, that the treble bell should be fixed bottom upward 

 in the ground and filled with punch, of which all present were 

 permitted to partake. 



The porch of the church, to the south, is modern, and would 

 not be worthy attention did it not shelter a fine sharp gothic 

 doorway. This is undoubtedly much older than the present fabric ; 

 and, being found in good preservation, was worked into the wall, 

 and is the grand entrance into the church : nor are the folding- 

 doors to be passed over in silence ; since, from their thick and 

 clumsy structure, and the rude flourished-work of their hinges, they 

 may possibly be as ancient as the doorway itself. 



The whole roof of the south aisle, and the south side of the 

 roof of the middle aisle, is covered with oaken shingles instead 

 of tiles, on account of their lightness, which favours the ancient 

 and crazy timber-frame. And, indeed, the consideration of 

 accidents by fire excepted, this sort of roofing is much more 



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