216 EVOLUTION OF THE TOWN CHURCH. 



hands. This was only possible where the material used lent 

 itself to elaborate work, such as the softer sedimentary stones 

 or brick. But with our Granite, all idea of elaborate and intri- 

 cate mouldings had to a large extent to be abandoned. Even 

 the simplest chamfer or moulding represented an amount of 

 labour quite out of proportion to the result obtained, and hence 

 it was impracticable for the craftsman to, as it were, sign his 

 work, as he could do in softer stone. 



Still, by carefully examining the stone of which the 

 Church is built, the manner of building the walls, the texture 

 of the stone and the manner of handling it, one can divide the 

 building into epochs, each having its special features. And 

 by marshalling these various groups together, and studying 

 small details of construction and design, one can in time 

 deduce a considerable amount of useful information. 



Thus on a careful examination of the windows at the 

 East end, one notices that the centre window stands by itself 

 as regards the three The mouldings on this, simple as they 

 are, are of quite a different pattern to those on the other two, 

 which are similar. Thus one can deduce that the centre 

 window was put up at a different period to the other two, 

 which were probably put up together. This is borne out by 

 two other pieces of evidence. First, the arcading of the 

 interior was obviously carried out at the same time and by the 

 same craftsmen. Second, the masonry is similar in the two 

 outside parts, which are both in uncoursed rubble, but in the 

 centre portion the walling is entirely of dressed and squared 

 stones. So it is in other parts, and though we may not arrive 

 at the date of building with any degree of certainty, we can 

 certainly follow the sequence of events in the assembling of 

 the various constituent parts of the Church. 



The commencement of the many epochs of building 

 operations which have resulted in the Church as we see it 

 to-day is difficult to arrive at with any degree of certainty. 

 It will suffice for our purpose (and there is nothing to prevent 

 its being the actual case), if we take that our forefathers 

 followed the rule, which prevails to the present day, and set 

 up for themselves a rude chapel, simply of four walls and a 

 roof of the type of the Chapel of St. Apolline, as a nucleus 

 of a larger building, and that it was destined to be the Holy 

 Place of the Church of the future. At the present day we 

 find this is almost invariably the case, when for financial or 

 other reasons it is necessary to put up a church piecemeal. 

 The Sanctuary is built first, and later the nave and aisles, the 

 original small building becoming the Choir and Chancel. So 



