1915.] EVOLUTION OF THE TOWN CHURCH. 219 



The last part of all to be built was the South-Eastern 

 Aisle, which was carried out as in the case of the parts round 

 the Tower, by piercing the side wall towards the East, and 

 putting in the very fine arcading, the finest and loftiest we 

 have in Guernsey, and adding an exterior buttress for 

 strength. In this aisle we have, as 1 mentioned before, the 

 only dated piece of work in the whole Church — 1466. One 

 may well say this date is not authentic, and it is impossible to 

 gainsay this, but there is no reason at all to doubt this, as 

 close to the door which now leads to the Vestries a piscina 

 is built into the wall, still in a very fine state of preservation, 

 which makes it certain that it was erected before the 

 Reformation. And in connection with this, we should be 

 grateful to those in authority at the time of the Reformation 

 for having walled up this and other features, and thus 

 preserving them to the present clay, instead of ruthlessly 

 destroying them as they might well have done. Would that 

 it had been possible to have had the figures which at one time 

 occupied the corbels in the North Porch preserved in similar 

 fashion. 



At the same time as, or soon after the completion of the 

 South Aisle, the Parvise and the staircase leading to it, and 

 also the other leading to the Tower, were built. The use of 

 the Parvise as a kind of workroom, and even in some cases as 

 a sleeping apartment for those engaged about the Church, is 

 common to both England and France, and it was easily 

 constructed by taking oft" the fiat roof over the Porch and 

 building on the walls already there, the roof being formed by 

 continuing the slope of the main roof of the North Transept. 

 The means of nccess to it was a more difficult affair. The 

 space between the jamb of the large window on the North 

 wall and the w r all of the Porch was not wide enough to allow 

 the smallest staircase, so in order to gain space, the builders 

 cut down the width of the window by one light, or perhaps 

 two, as the tracery is all modern and we cannot definitely 

 ascertain the width of each light as originally spaced, and 

 built the staircase in the angle, also piercing the wall and 

 inserting lancet Avindows to give light to it. This cutting 

 down of the wundow on one side only has brought the centre 

 of the window x away from the centre of the gable, and has also 

 altered the proportions for the worse. The other staircase 

 was a comparatively simple piece of work and calls for no 

 comment. (See No. 6.) 



This completes the Church as we see it to-day, with the 

 exception of the modern Vestries, which call for no remark, 



