6 ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF S, MARY AT CERXfi. 



st\le and workniansliip ha\c ob\iously no afllnity to those of 

 the nave— it is thoroughgoing, accurate, Perpendicular work. 

 Previously to the year 1870, a blank wall or partition rested on 

 this screen, reaching to the ceiling. Old parishioners tell us 

 that this wall, which bore painted upon it the Royal Arms and 

 the Ten Commandments, consisted mainly of lath and plaster, 

 and that the present cresting was placed upon it when the wall 

 was taken down. There are in this neighbourhood two similar 

 screens— one at Batcombe, which has a crest of much the same 

 pattern, and one at Bradford Abbas, which is finished at the top 

 with a moulding. 



It is difficult to form any opinion as to how this screen got 

 here. It may have been in the original nave, previous to its 

 reconstruction by the builders of 1626 ; or it may have been 

 brought from some other building — perhaps the old Abbey. 

 This idea is suggested by the fact that the great east window 

 appears to have been the upper part of a larger window, its 

 present sill being apparently a transom, through which the 

 principal mullions pass and become visible on the lower side. 

 Inside, the splay and soffit are panelled, and on one of the 

 panels is carved the date 1639. Does this mark a stage in the 

 demolition of the Abbey Church and the removal hither of half 

 its east window } At that time the manor had recently been 

 purchased by Sir Thomas Freke, to whose family it belonged 

 until it came into the hands of the Pitts. What is more likely 

 than that Sir Thomas followed the example of his illustrious 

 predecessor, and lavished some of his wealth upon the church 

 of his new home } Two later gifts deserve mention, for which 

 Ccrne may be also indebted to him — a finely-carved pulpit, with 

 a sounding-board, upon the back-piece of which is a good thistle 

 and rose design having the date 1640 ; and a handsome brass 

 candelabra of the pattern seen in some of our cathedrals. 



The church has an old (disused) Font-bowl resembling that 

 of Pydeltrenthide — probably of the 13th Century. Tliere is a 

 good piscina of Perpendicular date in the chancel, also two fine 

 oak chairs of Tudor workmanship. 



