G8 CHURCHES IN THE RURAL DEANERY OF DORCHESTER. 



glass. The medallions of which it is composed are described in the 

 first edition of " Hutchins' History of Dorset" as having been in the 

 east windows of the church with others which have disappeared. 

 From a sketch of the old church in the possession of Mr. H. B. 

 Middleton it appears that the chancel was of the 13th century 

 (Early English) style, and from the remark of Hutchins that this 

 glass was in the east windows of the church there is ground for 

 assuming that the east windows were an Early English triplet, or 

 two single light windows, perhaps divided by a flat pilaster buttress 

 which carried the cage of the sanctus bell above the gable. As 

 architectural styles are oftentimes much later in remote places than 

 in large towns, it is not too much to assume further that the church 

 though Early English in style was built very early in the 14th 

 century. Now, the subjects of the pictures are outlined and shaded 

 in enamel brown and tinted with yellow stain the yellow stain 

 was discovered circa 1310 ; that these paintings were made soon 

 after the discovery seems certain from the character of the outline 

 and shading. There is good reason, therefore, for thinking that 

 these windows were painted circa 1315 and that the chancel was 

 built at that time. It seems the more likely that the glass was 

 coeval with the church, since the subjects appear to relate to the 

 " Assumption of the B. V. M.," to which the church is dedicated. 

 Of the four medallions, one is a modern imitation of the old, one 

 is original, of the other two the head of one and the base of 

 another are modern, and so is the border. 



The glass of the east window has a history. In September, 

 1845, a meeting of the Koyal Archaeological Institute was held at 

 "Winchester, and a short notice of the painted glass in Winchester 

 and the neighbourhood was read by C. Winston, an expert in 

 stained glass. In the cloisters of Winchester College were two 

 boxes of ancient glass which had been removed Mr. Winston was 

 informed from the west wind^v of New College Chapel, Oxford,* 



* The Warden of New College states that the contents of these chests 

 were given to Winchester College, the glass to be employed in the 

 reparation of the chapel windows, and that subsequently the glass was 

 granted for the decoration of Bradford Peverell Church, 



