The old Church-Tower 61 



coarse kind, doing the work at home in their cottages ; 

 but the occupation is now chiefly carried on nearer to the 

 great business centres than this. Another extinct trade 

 is that of the bell foundry. One village situate in the 

 hills hard by was formerly celebrated for the church bells 

 cast there, many of which may be found in far distant 

 towers ringing to this day. 



Near the edge of the hill, just above the washpool, 

 stands the village church. Old and grey as it is, yet the 

 usage of the pool by the shepherds dates from still earlier 

 days. Like some of the farmhouses further up among the 

 hills, the tower is built of flints set in cement, which in 

 the passage of time has become almost as hard as the flint 

 itself. The art of chipping flint to a face for the purpose 

 of making lines or patterns in walls used to be carried to 

 great perfection, and even old garden walls may be seen so 

 ornamented. 



The tower is large and tall, and the church a great 

 one ; or so it appears in comparison with the small popula- 

 tion of the place. But it may be that when it was built there 

 were more inhabitants ; for some signs remain that here 

 as in many other such villages the people have decreased 

 in numbers : the population has shifted elsewhere. An 

 adjacent parish lying just under the downs has now not 

 more than fifty inhabitants ; yet in the olden time a church 

 stood there long since dismantled : the ancient church- 

 yard is an orchard, no one being permitted to dig or plough 

 the ground. 



Entering the tower by the narrow nail-studded door, 

 it is not so easy to ascend the winding geometrical stone 

 staircase, in the confined space and the darkness, for the 

 arrow slits are choked with cobwebs and the dust of years. 

 A faint fluttering sound comes from above, as of wings 



