By the Rev. Canon W. II. Jones, F.8.A. 



309 



still remaining as a structural portion of the wall — the eastern por- 

 tion having been a chantry chapel of the Blessed Virgin, founded by 

 one of the Horton family, whose brass, recording the last fact, is still 

 preserved. As is the case with all ancient Churches, there have 

 been alterations and additions made from time to time. Fragments 

 of an earlier Church have been found, and are to be seen still 

 treasured up in the porch of the Saxon Church. The present 

 structure no doubt originally consisted simply of a chancel about 

 two-thirds of its present length, and a nave, and there was a row 

 of Norman windows both above and below, the latter being* more 

 accurately described as clere-story windows. Two of the larger 

 Norman windows in the chancel have lately been re-opened. To- 

 wards the end of the thirteenth century the chancel would seem to 

 have been lengthened, and the two recessed tombs inserted, one on 

 the north and the other on the south side. Next followed the aisles, 

 originally, as has been said, two, but now joined in one. In the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century followed the tower ; and then 

 the mortuary chapel of which mention has been made. 



The Church contains memorials of the families of Hall — the 

 maternal ancestors of Earl Manvers — of Methuen, Tidcomb, Stewart, 

 Thresher, Shrapnell, Clutterbuck, Tugwell, Cam — the maternal an- 

 cestor of the late Lord Broughton — and Bethel — a family ennobled 

 in the late Lord Chancellor Westbury. 



3. Leaving the Church, and passing up the steps on the western 

 side of the tower, we stand before a house of some interest. It 

 belonged once to Edward Orpin, 1 the parish clerk of Bradford, and 

 was probably built by some of his family. He was the "Parish 

 Clerk " whom Gainsborough, the artist — a frequent visitor to this 

 neighbourhood — painted. The portrait was given by him to Mr. 

 Wiltshire, and became the property of his descendant, who lived 



1 Edward Orpin, the parish clerk, died in June, 1781. The name-" Orpen," 

 or " Orpin," as the clerk himself always spelt it, occurs frequently in our registers 

 during the previous century-and-a-half, but after his time we lose traces oj. it 

 altogether, and he seems to have been one of the last — if not the last —of his 

 family. The stone lying just within the rails, opposite the house, is said to cover 

 his remains. 



