34 



The Parish Church of 8. Michael, Merc. 



" Three Great Pypes of the Organes. 



" One Barrell of Gunpowder weyinge ij c weighte. 



"More of Gunpowder of several] pounds made up in paper xiiij 11 . 



" More in that lofte Twoo olde Greate Chests. 



" More of Soader in one of those Coffers w ch was the Remeynder of the 

 Soader bought this yere ix 1 ' and xix yards of matche." 



This room is now fitted up as a museum, and an inventory of its 

 contents is given at the end of this paper 1 : it is to the present 

 time used for vestry meetings. 



We now come to the period of the great work of the re-modelling 

 of the centre of the Church, which had hecome almost inevitable from 

 the raising and widening of the north and south aisles and chapels. 

 Although the nave was of good height — for the early structure, of 

 which traces are preserved at the west end, doubtless remained, but 

 re-roofed after the fire — we may assume that it was very much cut 

 off from the aisles by low Norman arches (for there would hardly 

 have been Saxon aisles) which would seem to the men of the 

 fifteenth century (who were very much given to re-modelling 

 everything to suit more modern ideas) quite out of harmony with 

 the lofty proportions of the aisles, whilst the low thirteenth century 

 chancel must have been quite buried between the two chapels. The 

 three-light square-headed window on the south side of the sacrarium 

 may be assigned to the end of the fourteenth century, and its low 

 position, beneath the Early English eaves corbels, seems to show 

 that it was inserted before the chancel was raised, although its 

 inner arch and jambs are similarly treated to those of the later 

 windows ; this may have been an alteration in the re-modelling. 



Gilbert Kymer was Dean of Salisbury — and by virtue of this 

 office, Eector of Mere — from 1449 to 1463, and we find his arms 2 

 on two of the bench-ends in the chancel, which are (with the two 

 fronts of the north and south book desks) contemporary with the 

 screens, and the character of the whole work so exactly fits in with 



1 See Appendix G. 



2 Hoare (Rund. of Mere, p. II) : " Kymer, or Keymer, of West Chalborough, 

 Co. Dorset. Argent, three wolves in pale azure, within a bordure sable 

 foezantee." 



