6 The Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Salisbury. 



" Agreed that the Lord Chief Baron Eyre be allowed a sufficient 

 quantity of ground at the east end of the south aisle for the erecting of 

 a vault for himself and family with liberty to enclose the same." 



Sir Eobert Eyre's remains were placed here in 1735 and also 

 the remains of his wife and his son, both of whom predeceased 

 him. Many of his ancestors were buried in the choir, some of 

 whom were wealthy woolstaplers and members of the guild, in- 

 cluding Eobert Eyre, who was Mayor in 1558, and his son, Thomas 

 Eyre, who filled the same office in 1587. 



The present porch opening into Swayne's aisle is a modern one, 

 a reproduction of an old example at Bishopstone. The date when 

 the nave aisles were added is uncertain, probably 1470 — 1490, but 

 it is supposed that the work of building was continuous, though 

 slow. It will be noticed that the line of the completed chancel 

 aisles was continued, making the north side of the tower a part of 

 the wall of the south aisle ; but as this brought the door and the 

 two staircase lights of the tower and the two buttresses into the 

 Church, the architect overcame this difficulty by blocking up the 

 door and windows and making new ones outside, and by cutting 

 away the buttresses on the north side. The roofs of these aisles 

 were made to match the roofs of the chapels of Swayne and 

 Godmanstone, and the pillars and arches in the nave, which were 

 made to agree with those previously erected in the choir, replaced 

 the walls and early windows which had hitherto lighted the nave. 



A little later, either at the end of the fifteenth or at the he- 

 beginning of the sixteenth century, the clerestory, the great west 

 window, and the beautiful carved Tudor roof, were added to the 

 nave. This roof is of much the same date and style as the roof of 

 the nave in St. Cuthbert's, Wells. The corbels which carried the 

 beams of the old roof of the nave are still in position. After the 

 new roof was completed, the remarkable " Doom" painting over 

 the chancel arch was executed. The two large figures in this 

 painting, sometimes alluded to as SS. James and Thomas-a-Becket, 

 are more generally supposed to represent St. Osmond, who was 

 canonized in 1457, and the pilgrim who caused the painting to be 

 placed there to commemorate his safe return from a pilgrimage. 



