206 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOHNE. 



lying in a very irregular manner, without any escutcheon or other 

 token to ascertain the names or rank of the deceased. The grave 

 was very shallow, and lined with stone at the bottom and on the sides. 



From the east wall project four stone brackets, which I conclude 

 supported images and crucifixes. In the great thick pilaster, jutting 

 out between this transept and the chancel, there is a very sharp 

 gothic niche, of older date than the present chantry or church. But the 

 chief pieces of antiquity are two narrow stone coffin-lids, which compose 

 part of the floor, and lie from west to east, with the very narrow ends 

 eastward : these belong to remote times ; and, if originally placed here, 

 which I doubt, must have been part of the pavement of an older 

 transept. At present there are no coffins under them, whence I con- 

 clude they have been removed to this place from some part of a former 

 church. One of these lids is so eaten by time, that no sculpture can be 

 discovered upon it ; or, perhaps, it may be the wrong side uppermost ; 

 but on the other, which seems to be of stone of a closer and harder 

 texture, is to be discerned a discus, with a cross on it, at the end of a 

 staff or rod, the well-known symbol of a Knight Templar.* 



This order was distinguished by a red cross on the left shoulder of 

 their cloak, and by this attribute in their hand. Now, if these stones 

 belonged to Knights Templars, they must have lain here many cen- 

 turies ; for this order came into England early in the reign of King 

 Stephen in 1113; and was dissolved in the time of Edward II. 

 in 1312, having subsisted only one hundred and thirty -nine years. 

 Why I should suppose that Knights Templars were occasionally buried 

 at this church, will appear in some future letter, when we come to treat 

 more particularly concerning the property they possessed here, and the 

 intercourse that subsisted between them and the priors of Selborne. 



We must now proceed to the chancel, properly so called, which seems 

 to be coeval with the church, and is in the same plain unadorned style, 

 though neatly kept. This room measures thirty-one feet in length, 

 and sixteen feet and a half in breadth, and is wainscoted all round, as 

 high as to the bottom of the windows. The space for the communion- 

 table is raised two steps above the rest of the floor, and railed in with 

 oaken balusters. Here I shall say somewhat of the windows of the 

 chancel in particular, and of the whole fabric in general. They are 

 mostly of that simple and unadorned sort called Lancet, some single, 

 some double, and some in triplets. At the east end of the chancel are 

 two "of a moderate size, near each other ; and in the north wall two very 

 distant small ones, unequal in length and height : and in the south 

 wall are two, one on each side of the chancel-door, that are broad and 

 squat, and of a different order. At the east end of the south aisle of 

 the church there is a large lancet-window in a triplet ; and two very 

 small, narrow, single ones in the south wall, and a broad squat window 

 beside, and a double lancet one in the west end ; so that the appearance 

 is very irregular. In the north aisle are two windows, made shorter 

 when the roof was sloped ; and in the north transept a large triple 

 window, shortened at the time of a repair in 1721 : when over it was 



* See DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. ii., where there is a fine engraving 

 of a Knight-Templar, by Hollar. 



