54 Bewick Chapel. 



The plan of this Church is of the Romanesque type that 

 prevailed in the north of Europe ; it consists of a nave, 

 a chancel, and sacrarium in the form of an apse, with arches 

 forming a constructional separation between each of the three 

 divisions. There are south doors in the nave and chancel ; a 

 large aperture on the north side of the nave, probably indi- 

 cates the place of a north door. On the south side of the nave 

 are the remains of a window, which is partly destroyed by an 

 insertion of a later date, probably in the year 1695, when the 

 Church was roofed, and fitted up for the celebration of Divine 

 Service. The remains of a south porch exist, but the walls 

 consist only of rough masonry. There is no moulded work to 

 mark the date, though it is evidently a subsequent erection 

 to the Church, and judging from the plan, I think very 

 probably is of the time of Edward IT. There are three small 

 windows in the apse, all partly mutilated. 



On the south side is an insertion of the time of Edward II., 

 and at the same period apparently were added two buttresses, 

 which have been ingeniously, though rudely, attached to the 

 circular walls of the apse, and an attempt made to make the 

 external face of the walls, as far as possible, straight instead of 

 circular above a certain level. The apse is domed with a 

 rubble vault, which from want of some external covering is 

 fast falling into irretrievable decay. A few monumental 

 gravestones marked with the half obliterated incised cross, 

 and sometimes with the badge of the profession of him who 

 reposed beneath, lie scattered about. Two have been used 

 to form part of the chancel steps. On a large slab in the 

 Churchyard is this inscription : — 



THIS CHAPELL REPARED AT THE 



CHARG OF RALPH WILLAMSON 



ESQR ANNO DO 1695. 



So completely has that good work been destroyed during 

 the last 80 years, that this is the only monument now left to 

 record it. 



I may here mention that the cap of the north pier of the 

 chancel arch is ornamented in a similar way to some of those 

 in the Chapel in the crypt of the Castle at Durham. 



Picturesque and beautiful as this Church is, even in the 

 half-ruined state to which long years of neglect have reduced 

 it ; yet I cannot but deeply lament that it should be suffered 

 to remain exposed to irreparable injury from the weather, and 

 from mischievous or careless persons, who have already 

 carried away much of the fallen masonry, and I cannot too 

 strongly urge upon all those who are from any cause interested 



