30 



The Parish Church of 8. Michael, Mere. 



north aisle) . It is worthy of note that whilst the north wall of the 

 chapel is of squared ashlar, the east wall is faced with rubble, as 

 though to harmonise with the Early English rubble of the east 

 wall of the chancel, against which it was built. Each bay has a 

 four-light square-headed window with cavetto moulding on all 

 members and a segmental inner arch which is" moulded like that of 

 the east window ; the tracery is of reticulated design, with cinquef oil 

 cusping — the cusps having a slight tendency to the square form of 

 the later period. Three eyes of the tracery of one window contain 

 old glass 1 , viz., in a quatrefoil five roses and an eight-pointed star, 

 in a trefoil three estoils and a floriated centre with a border of 

 guilloche pattern, and in another trefoil three leopard's heads and 

 a centre composed of a quatrefoil with five roses. 



The arch between the chapel and north aisle was inserted at this 

 time, and spanned the whole width of the aisle, the outer face of 

 the wall of which can be seen on the inside Sin. from the north-east 

 angle of the present aisle. The north jamb has the moulding 

 carried down and stopped on the east face, but not on the west, 

 where there is no jamb of worked stone. This is conclusive as to 

 the insertion of this arch before the widening of the north aisle. 

 The drip-course built over the then lean-to roof of the aisle when 

 the west wall of the chapel was erected is also clearly distinguishable. 



The contemporary roof remains, and is a waggon-head vault 

 divided into twenty panels by oak ribs plastered between : it retains 

 some of the original carved bosses at the intersections, but the 

 wall-plate has been re-modelled and some J acobean scroll brackets 

 added at the springing of the ribs, also a good shield bearing 

 the date 1604 with a and opposite to it a poor copy with 

 the date 1791, in which year the chapel was ceiled and white- 

 washed, Robert Still paying one fourth of the exjjense. A hatch- 

 ment of the Still family impaling Skrine, of Warleigh, Co. Somerset, 

 is preserved in this chapel. 



The only piscina in the chapel is that previously noted near the 

 doorway into the chancel, which I assume to have been in use in 

 the sacristy. 



Sir William Stourton, who (like Johannes de Mere) was (in 



