1896-97.] 339 



evidence." It will be noticed from this plan the great extent 

 and importance of the south transept, and on the exterior face 

 of the present west wall can be seen the voussoirs of the arches 

 which are buried in it. This completed the thirteenth century 

 church, and, coming to 1303, we find the present chancel added 

 to the church by one Robert de Mercer, no doubt one of the 

 wealthy merchants of the town, whose piety prompted the 

 undertaking. All this work bears the mark of the advancement 

 that a century had made in passing from the severe early 

 English to the more " gentle " lines of the decorated period. It 

 occurs to me that it was never the intention to extend this 

 proportion eastward as a chancel — as it is absurd and meaning- 

 less to set the high altar back so far and out of all harmony 

 with the accepted system of church ritual — but that it was 

 added as a Lady chapel behind the high altar, of which there 

 still exist numbers of fine examples. The importance and 

 wealth of the church at this time may be gathered from the fact 

 that in the famous Papal taxation of 1306, which the late Bishop 

 Reeves has given us, it is rated at an amount exceeding by far 

 any church in Down, Connor, and Dromore — viz., 20 marks 

 per annum, the tithe whereof was £j 7s 2|d, a large sum when 

 represented by the currency of the present day. Coming to 

 the next century, 1400, the church had undergone some alter- 

 ations and changes ; large Tudor windows of poor design were 

 inserted, which were removed in 1872, and work of a more 

 suitable character inserted. Passing over the troubled times of 

 the Dissolution, and the changes wrought by stormy political 

 movements, and Puritanical attempts to wipe out all evidence 

 of a former ritual, during which time the church fell almost 

 into ruins and got patched up almost anyhow, we come down 

 to 1 6 14, when we find the Chichester family in possession and a 

 system of jerrybuilding going on which was no doubt considered 

 very beautiful in those days. You can see the stone bearing 

 the inscription, "This work was begun a. 1614 — Mr. Cooper 

 then maior — and wrought by Thomas Paps, Freemason, Mr. 

 Openshaw being parson. Vivat Rex Jacobus" Paps built up 



