By the Rev. W. C. P lender leath. 



265 



and this, allowing for the fact o£ each stage being 7in. wider than 

 the one above it, and noting the height of the whole structure to be 

 47ft , indicates a divergence of the central line from the perpen- 

 dicular of as much as three degrees. 



There is one curious piece of furniture in the Church, a piscina 

 in the south wall of the sacrarium which is unprovided with any 

 drain. The explanation of this very singular construction I take to 

 be, that it was the work of some churchwarden of the last century 

 who had seen piscinas in Churches, and thought one would look 

 well here, but had not the least idea what purpose they were in- 

 tended to serve ! 



The bells are four in number, three in sequence and sounding a 

 minor third, and the fourth probably an old sanctus bell. Two of 

 them are dated respectively 1641 and 1679. The third, which is 

 undated, but evidently much older, bears the inscription " Sancta 

 Maria, ora pro nobis/' an inscription which I am informed that my 

 venerable predecessor used to be careful to tell visitors- was not 

 placed upon it by him ! This rather reminds me of a story which 

 I have heard, of a schoolmaster asking his class et Who signed 

 Magna Charta ? " and being answered by several eager voices, " O, 

 please, Sir, I did'nt ! " 



I am unwilling to leave the precincts of the Church without very 

 briefly referring to one matter which I have brought forward more 

 than once at meetings of the members of my own profession, but 

 which comes, I think, no less within the purview of antiquarians 

 than it does within that of clergymen. And this is the extreme 

 importance, in the case of all churchyards, of making and keeping 

 copies of those memorials of former generations which are furnished 

 by sepulchral inscriptions. Nobody who has not had his attention 

 called to the subject would believe the extraordinary unsuitability 

 of the stone often used for the purpose of these inscriptions, and 

 the great rapidity with which many of them consequently disappear. 

 And I need scarcely inform the members of an archaeological society 

 that we can never guage the value which may attach at some future 

 time to any record of the past, however little may that value appear 

 at the time when the record was made. Some half-dozen years ago 



