LETTER III 



FROM the silence of Domesday respecting churches, it has 

 been supposed that few villages had any at the time when 

 that record was taken ; but Selborne, we see, enjoyed the 

 benefit of one : hence, we may conclude, that this place was 

 in no abject state even at that very distant period. How 

 many fabrics have succeeded each other since the days of 

 Radfredrus the presbyter, we cannot pretend to say ; our 

 business leads us to a description of the present edifice, in 

 which we shall be circumstantial. 



Our church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, 

 consists of three ailes, and measures fifty-four feet in length, 

 by forty-seven in breadth, being almost as broad as it is 

 long. The present building has no pretensions to antiquity, 

 and is, as I suppose, of no earlier date than the beginning 

 of the reign of Henry VII. It is perfectly plain and un- 

 adorned, without painted glass, carved work, sculpture, 

 or tracery. But when I say it has no claim to antiquity, 

 I would mean to be understood the fabric in general ; for 

 the pillars, which support the roof, are undoubtedly old, 

 being of that low, squat, thick order, usually called Saxon. 

 These, I should imagine, upheld the roof of a former church 

 which, falling into decay, was rebuilt on those massy props, 

 because their strength had preserved them from the in- 

 juries of time. 1 Upon these rest blunt gothic arches, 

 such, as prevailed in the reign above mentioned, and by 



1 In the same manner, to compare great things with small, did Wykeham when 

 he new-built the cathedral at Winchester, from the tower westward, apply to his 

 purpose the old piers or pillars of Bishop Walkelin's church, by blending Saxon 



and Gothic architecture together. See Lowth's " Life of Wykeham." [G. W.] 



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