6 



Notes on the Church of St. Mary 



opening-, however, was built up with masonry so nearly assimilated 

 to the outer facing — the circular head and splays of jamb and sill 

 having- been cut away and squared off for this — that until the 

 existence of a window had been found on the inside it was almost 

 impossible to trace it outside. The stone-work of this window is 

 also rebated for a shutter, and has the marks of hooks to which it 

 might, have been hung, but no holes for either vertical or cross bars. 

 Both windows have deep splays on the inside, the upper opening 

 out to 3ft. 10in., and the lower one to 4ft. 9in., and both have 

 chamfered segmental inner arches, that of the lower one being 

 depressed as if to allow the sill of the upper one to be kept down. 

 Above the lower window, on the inside, and at a height of 9ft. 6in; 

 from the floor, against the north jamb of the upper window, and formed 

 of the same stones, was found an aumbry, 1ft. Tin. high, 1ft. 7^in. 

 wide, and 12iin. deep from the face of the wall. A rebate of about 

 an inch is carried round the opening, and there are marks of hinges 

 on each side of it, as if for folding doors. On the inside there are 

 grooves which might have received a thick wood lining, and the 

 bottom of the aumbry is carried below the sill, as shewn on the 

 section given. That these three features are coeval is clear from 

 the identical character of the stone of which they are constructed; 

 and from the inner sill of the upper window being carried along to 

 support the masonry of the aumbry, the surrounding walling being 

 of rubble. The low window and the aumbry, and especially the 

 inaccessible position of the latter, offer ground for much speculation 

 as to their use. 1 In considering this subject it must be borne in 

 mind, that the archway at the east end of this aisle (H, Fig. 1, 

 Plate I.) did not exist when these features were constructed, but 

 that probably an altar stood in this position, of which the lower 

 window would command a full view. My conjecture was that the 

 aumbry was employed as a receptacle for the reserved Host, used in 

 communicating persons outside through the low window, and that 

 its elevated position was for the better security of its contents from 



1 Whatever use was made of these features, it apparently came to an end in 

 the fifteenth century, for the stone " filling " of this low window is shewn by 

 my oyster shell test to be of that date. 



