10 Notes on the Church of St. Mary 



and that another altar formerly stood in front of the archway into 

 it from the transept is shewn by the beautiful piscina with shelf, at 



F, Fig. 1, Plate I. 



The removal of whitewash from the walls of the transepts re-, 

 vealed paintings of a red stone-jointed pattern of thirteenth century 

 type. The vaulting of the chancel was somewhat similarly deco- 

 rated/' and, at a later date, star-points of scroll-work have been 

 painted over this pattern round the bosses. An aumbry, or locker, 

 was discovered in the south wall of the sacristy. 



The south porch has long been the subject of notice from the 

 richness and delicacy of its outer archway. My first impressions 

 of it are given in my report of 22nd October, 1881, of which the 

 following is an extract :— The walls and groining of the south 

 porch and the inner doorway are coeval with the earlier work of 

 nave and aisles, but the outer archway is an insertion of the 

 Decorated period. This archway, in its original state, must have 

 been exceedingly rich, it having possessed, in addition to the ball- 

 flower ornament, a pierced cusping to its inner members, but this 

 has been much mutilated. From the character of its pediment, and 

 the manner in which it has been inserted in the old work, it bears 

 the appearance of having been intended for an inner archway, 

 rather than for its present position as an outer doorway." The 

 opinion thus expressed has been fully borne out by subsequent in- 

 vestigation. During the execution of the works I had the privilege 

 of discussing this feature on separate occasions with Mr. William 

 White, F.S.A., and Mr. Henry Christian— both eminent archseolo^ 

 gists-and, although neither would at first admit that it was an 

 insertion, both, after having fully considered all the points I suto 

 mitted (and on one of the occasions I refer to some hours were spent 

 in the investigation), finally agreed in my view. On making 

 further research we discovered that it was the archway of an altar 

 tomb removed from its original position and inserted here, of cours<* 

 at a post-Reformation period. This was shewn by the discovery of 

 colour behind the mortar joints connecting it with the twelfth 

 century work, and of the section of the moulded mensa of the altae 

 at E, Fio-. 3, Plate II., on which the inner moulding of the jamb 



i: 



1 



