TARRANT RUSHTON CHURCH. 57 



Over the south door is a very old rudely-sculptured slab. The 

 centre figure is a lamb bearing a cross, with something of a 

 serpentine form proceeding from the mouth. On the right is the 

 figure of a man with uplifted right hand,* as though teaching or 

 blessing, and an open book in the left hand. On the left is another 

 human figure with a bird in the right hand and a closed book 

 under the left arm. Both these figures are seated. 



The stoup is at the right hand side on entering the door, on the 

 outside, under the porch. On the south side of the west face of 

 the chancel arch above the pulpit is a perfect corbel, and in the 

 corresponding place on the north the sunk portion of another 

 corbel. On these there probably rested a beam for the support of 

 the rood. There is also a corbel or stone bracket in the south 

 transept, on which the image of the patron saint, St. Mary, may 

 have Iseen placed. The windows, arches, and three hagioscopes 

 are originals, with the exception of the east chancel window, 

 the two-light south chancel window and that in the east wall of 

 the south transept. These have been restored, but only in those 

 parts which absolutely required to be renewed, and there has 

 been no departure from the original patterns. In cleaning the 

 porch a corbel was biought to light and two openings in the wall, 

 apparently for joists, from which I should infer that there was once 

 a bell chamber over the porch, as at Rawston. There is one bell 

 to the church, with the inscription "William Baines, Richard 

 Arner, Churchwardens, 1675, R.F." (The initials R.F. are those 

 of R. Flower, or Flowry, bell founder, of Salisbury.) The walls 

 at the west end appear to have been raised after the completion of 

 the nave to form a belfry. They were not strong enough to bear 

 the swinging of a bell, not having been originally intended for 

 anything of the kind, and as a consequence the west wall even 

 recently exhibited several serious cracks. In 1874 a considerable 



* Not necessarily the attitude of one blessing. Apuleius thus describes 

 the action of a speaker: " Porrigit dextram et ad instar oratorum 

 conformat articulum, duobusque infimis conclusis digitis ceteros 

 eminentes porrigit. 



