264 Cherhill Gleanings. 



then a man of 84, solemnly exhorted me never to think of driving d 



over the downs without both my servant and myself being well the 



provided with firearms I if 



To return, however, to our village. The oldest building in 

 Cherhill is the Church, a portion of the chancel of which I imagine 



to be early fourteenth century work. Of this nothing remained but io 



the masonry of the east wall, and some shafts, mouldings, and fa 



imposts, which have been worked into the inner face of the much k 



more modern window. The imposts consist of two heads, repre- ft 



senting respectively a king and a bishop, and are, apparently, about w 



the date of the first or second Edward. The wall is no less than ta 

 four feet in thickness, and I remember that, when I showed a ground 



plan of the Church to an architect whom I went (shortly after i 



coming to Cherhill) to consult about the restoration^ the excellent It 



man pointed out with a pitying smile the " obvious errour 33 which w 



in my ignorance I had committed in drawing the wall of such \\ 



dimensions. And he was very much astonished when he found by his yi 



own subsequent measurement that my drawing was exactly correct, j 



The tower and south aisle are somewhat later work. I am disposed I 



myself to assign them to the beginning of the fifteenth century, 1 



and attribute also to this period the remains of the old manor house j 

 of which I have already spoken. I am bound, however, to add that 



Mr. Talbot, oi Laeock, whom I admit to be a much better authority \ 



than myself, places the tower earlier than this. He believes it to tl 



be thirteenth century work, altered in the fourteenth century. Of i 



this, however, I can myself see no trace, for the only portion of the f 



tower which appears to me to have been in any way altered is the j \ 



west window, the sill of which clearly at some time or other came ( 



down lower than it does at present. The tower is considerably out 1 



of the perpendicular, owing, no doubt, to its having been built ( 



simply upon big sarsen stones with little or no other foundation, as ( 

 is not uncommon in this county. It seems to have given out to 

 the west during the building of the first stage. The second stage 

 was then raised perpendicularly, but that sank also. Then the third 

 stage was built, again true to line, and this has so remained, or very 

 nearly so. The tower overhangs its base no less than 1ft. lOin., 



