Bit C. E. Pouting, F.S.A. 



33 



appearance from the softness of the stone ; there seems to be no 

 reason to think that it was not made for the niche in which it stands. 

 The canopy of the niche cuts the cornice and parapet of the porch, 

 which latter is carried up with a cnrve on each side of the centre 

 and terminates in a modern cross. There appears to have been an 

 alteration in this part which has caused some confusion — the parapet 

 is continued round the stair- turret, but there is none to the north 

 aisle. The outside work of the porch is of green Wolverton stone ; 

 inside, the doorway and vaulting are constructed with Chilmark and 

 Doulting stone mixed. The inner doorway has two orders of 

 mouldings with a four- centred arch (the earliest instance of this 

 form in the Chinch), and over it is a niche with square head, 

 occupied by a figure which has a history so remarkable that it is 

 worth relating : — In the piece of ground to the east of the church- 

 yard, now forming a playground for the National Schools, the site 

 of the old Church-house, and in later years a farm-yard, was a 

 pond, afterwards filled up with earth. In digging a trench for the 

 foundations of the coal-shed at the south-west corner of the ground 

 this headless figure was brought to light and restored by the Yicar 

 to its present position, which it exactly fits. The figure had 

 probably been thrown into the pond either when the images in the 

 Church were destroyed in 1563, or when the town was visited by 

 Cromwell's troopers in 1645, when the renowned glass of the Church, 

 remarked upon by Aubrey, was broken up and the Vicar — Dr. 

 Chafyn — so brutally ill-used as to cause his death shortly after. 

 The figure appears to hold a model of a Church in the left hand, 

 which would indicate a founder. 



The porch has a lierne vaulted ceiling, with good foliated carving 

 in the bosses ; there are two stone benches with plinths and seats. 

 The room over has a window on the west and a smaller one on the 

 east ; the original oak door remains at the foot of the stairs, as also 

 that of the inner doorway of the porch, with its traceried head and 

 plain strap hinges. There is no peep into the Church, as on the 

 south side. This room is referred to in the churchwarden's accounts 

 as the " Treasurye Lofte over the Northe Porche " in the year 1636, 

 when the following inventory of its contents is given : — 



VOL. XXIX. — NO. LXXXVI. I) 



