40 



The Parish Church, of 8. Michael, Merc. 



with foiir-centred head, the spandrels having undercut carving of 

 exquisite design. The rail at the top of the lower panelled stage 

 is sunk and carved like the transom, and the panels beneath it are 

 traceried, each being treated as a flat ogee-crocketted canopy ; this 

 occurs on the nave side only, the east side being plain for the 

 returned stalls. The lower open stage has tracery under the 

 transom, and the heads of the five main bays are filled with tracery 

 of a fully-developed " Perpendicular " type. The cornices on both 

 sides remain intact, and are richly moulded and carved — that on 

 the nave side has two orders of inserted carving, besides a small 

 member carved on the solid, and that on the east has two orders of 

 carved paterae in addition to a lower "fringe." The parapet was 

 taken down in 1562, when an oak cover-mould was put on the 

 cornice, but on removing this I found the mortice holes indicating 

 a central panel 1ft. 7in. wide (this only being grooved into the sill 

 ■piece of the parapet), with nine panels on each side, in groups of 

 three ; the mullions forming the main divisions were supported on 

 corbels morticed in horizontally. The holes from which the beam 

 forming the top of the parapet was taken were evidently left for 

 the purpose in building the clerestory walls, and filled up round the 

 beam afterwards : they indicate the height of the parapet as 3ft. 9in. 

 from the loft floor. The east parapet was divided by mullions into 

 eleven equal panels of 12Jin., and does not appear to have touched 

 the arch at each end. The width of the loft is 6ft. Tin. 



The means of access to the rood-loft (after it had been raised to 

 its present height and the staircase which led to the earlier and 

 lower loft blocked up) was by a wooden ladder in the north-west 

 angle of the north chapel, through a doorway in the wall forming 

 the east end of the aisle (this was obviously cut through after the 

 insertion of the present arch), across a bridge to the east respond 

 of the north arcade of the nave, and through the respond to the 

 loft. Both openings in the walls are 2ft. wide, large enough to 

 admit an adult (which is not often the case), and in the 2ft. 3in. in 

 thickness of the respond, through which the upper doorway is cut ? 

 four steps are arranged in an ingenious way, giving llin. tread to 

 each. Both openings appear to have had doors. I have met with 



