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ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



SELBORNE CHURCH AND VICARAGE. 



LETTEE 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 aisles, 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 

 unadorned, 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 injuries of time.* 



* 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. 



