xliii. 



A drive of less than a mile brought the party into Mere, which lies under the 

 shelter of towering chalk downs, and has a population of just under 3,000. The 

 carriages drew up at the church. Walking down the pleasant avenue of pollard 

 limes, with closely interlacing branches, the party entered the church, and were 

 welcomed by the Vicar (the Eev. J. A. Lloyd), who enumerated the chief features 

 of the fine building. The tower is 90 feet in height to the battlements, and at 

 each corner is a large spire-like pinnacle. It is much like St. Peter's tower, 

 Marlborough. The greater part of the church, Mr. Lloyd said, was built in the 

 15th century, being finished in 1463. One of the chief features of the church is a 

 splendid rood screen in carved woodwork. All is original work except the 

 parapet of the rood loft, which has been added in recent years at the expense of 

 Mrs. Morrison ; but the panels fit into the original mortices. In the panels 

 originally were pictures of the Twelve Apostles, but they were washed over in 

 1561. Mr. Lloyd said that to his mind the most interesting part of the church 

 was the piece of stone over the tower arch, which they believed to be a part of 

 the wall plate of the original church burnt in 1220. The dimensions were not 

 Norman, but pre-Norman, and therefore they took it to be a Saxon piece of wall. 

 In this theory some of the experts present could not concur. Mr. Lloyd next 

 called attention to the beautiful woodwork of the roof, with angels with out- 

 stretched wings doing duty as corbels. This was hidden by plaster ; but the 

 plaster was removed in 1893, and the woodwork was found in such good 

 condition that it was only needful to restore some of the bosses. At the sides of 

 the chancel are also some exquisite wooden screens, the proportions and carving 

 of which are in every way admirable, and which have the merit of being 

 untouched original work. A beam in the sci'een work in the north side is pierced 

 with a hagioscope or squint. Indeed, Mere church is exceptionally rich in 

 ancient and beautiful carved woodwork. The elaborate wooden roof of the 

 baptistry is said to be the finest specimen of wood -carving in Wiltshire. 

 The wooden pews were made at Maiden Bradley in 1625, and are also of 

 excellent workmanship. Besides the woodwork the church was also noted at one 

 time for its stained glass. In 1645 the Vicar was so severely kicked by 

 Cromwell's soldiers that he died a fortnight later, and all the beautiful glass in 

 the windows was knocked in by the soldiers with the butt ends of their muskets. 

 Some fragments of the old broken glass have lately been found. The Vicar 

 sounded a note on the Sanctus bell in the rood loft. It is not the original bell, 

 but it was recast out of the metal of the original bell. It was discovered, 

 singularly, in a coalhole in the house where his junior curate lived and thus 

 restored to the church. There are three altars in the church, dedicated to 

 St. Thomas, the Virgin Mary, and St. Mary Magdalene. In the chancel are six 

 stools with miserere seats, but the carvings under them are not of the usual 

 grotesque type. There is also a recess for the Easter sepulchre, the Vicar 

 explaining that all churches which adopted the Sarum use had to have this 

 among other things. There are also two piscinae. The club inspected the 

 nucleus of a museum of relics which the Vicar has got together. Among the 



