By the Rev. J. Baron, D.D., FS.A. 



133 



and the sill is lift. 3in. above the floor line. Internally they are 

 deeply splayed, and the base of the splay of the one is Sft. above 

 the floor line, and of the other 8ft. 6in. The original window on 

 the north side of the nave is externally also 4ft. x 1ft. 9in., and 

 the height of the base of the splay above the floor internally is 

 10ft. I'm. 



I remember having 1 heard Mr. Street, about twenty-five years 

 ago, enunciate in conversation the maxim, that Church windows 

 ought to be well elevated, in order that the worshippers may 

 look heavenward rather than be distracted by terrestrial objects. 

 This practice has material as well as devotional advantages, e.g., in 

 diffusion of light, moderation of temperature, and economy of sound, 

 but the elevation of the original Norman windows in the Manning- 

 ford Bruce Church is greatly in excess of the usual mediaeval or 

 modern practice. These windows, in size, shape, and elevation, 

 singularly coincide with those depicted in the illustration of a 

 Church in course of consecration in the Saxon Pontifical referred 

 to above, p. 130, in Archseologia, vol. xxv., p. 251. 



The windows were probably so placed partly for security, and to 

 lessen the effect of draught. It is evident that window is a Danish 

 word, meaning wind-eye: the Anglosaxon equivalent is " eh thirl/ 3 

 eyehole. 1 



5. The fifth early feature is the absence of ornament. In many 

 of the smallest village Churches of the so-called Norman period we 

 find, not only the chevron moulding, but a profusion of ornament, 

 as in Iffley Church, Oxfordshire. The term Norman, as applied to 

 round-headed windows and doors is misleading. The term Saxon is 

 not much better, because it is difficult to name any features which 

 are distinctively Saxon, unless the long and short quoins and the 

 baluster pillars, insisted on by Rickman and Parker, be such. I 

 therefore much prefer, at least for the earlier specimens of the round 

 arch style the term Romanesque, advocated long ago by Mr. Freeman. 



1 Cf. Windauga, Clcasby's Icelandic Diet. Windue, Gen. xvi., C. Danish Bible, 

 Ehthirl, Gen. xvi., 6. Anglo-Saxon Tr. ed. Grein. 



