By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., F.S.A, 



12.9 



Church, as at Salisbury Cathedral and in many other English 

 Churches j and the recesses towards the west end for the tombs of 

 St. Mellon, the first Bishop of Rouen, and of St. Avitus, his suc- 

 cessor. 



The small apsidal Norman Church of Kilpeck, in Herefordshire, 

 presents an interesting variety of arrangements for prothesis and 

 diaconicon, as may be seen on the plan. 1 



This arrangement in the Church of St. Mellon, Rouen, St. Peter, 

 Manningford Bruce, and Kilpeck, is not strictly Greek, because the 

 recesses are outside the bema, but it registers an early variation of 

 the Latin Church from the Greek usage which prevailed throughout 

 the West till some way on in the third century. 2 If we could be 

 assured that a screen or curtain was used westward of the recesses, 

 so as to include in the sanctuary what now appears to be choros, 

 these Churches would be in close conformity with Greek usage. 3 



Before leaving the consideration of the ground-plan, it should be 

 noted that the piers of the chancel arch in Manningford Bruce 

 Church are similar in massiveness to those in the crypt Church of 

 St. Mellon, but much more lofty, the height from the nave floor to 

 the top of the abacus being 9ft. 7in. The chancel at Manningford 

 is defined on the west by these massive piers and on the east by 

 ashlar irregular quoins, internally and externally, at the springing 

 of the curve of the apse. It is difficult to assign a date to the 

 Manningford chancel arch, which is semi-circular, the diameter 

 being 12ft., and formed on the west side by dressed stones like 

 bricks, with gable-shaped ends, curiously fitted together. On the 

 east side the joints are laid in the ordinary way. 



2. The herring-bone arrangement of the flints of the external 

 masonry, with very coarse joints, is remarkable. Taken alone it 



1 See plan and description, Gents' Mag,, 1833, part i., p. 393. See plan and 

 perspective view in Fosbroke's Encyclopaedia of Antiquities. Compare plan of 

 Peterchurch, Herefordshire, Gents Mag., 1829, part ii., p. 496. 



2 See Milman's Latin Christianity, Bk. i., ch. i., quoted above, p. 126. 



3 Durandus, Bishop of Mende, in France, A.D. 1286, mentions three veils. 

 "Notandum est, quod triplex genus veli suspenditur in ecclesia, videlicet, quod 

 sacra operit, quod sacrarium a clero dividit, et quod clerum a populo secernit. 

 Durandi Eationale, Lib. L, cap. 3, p. 17 ; Lyons, 1672. 



