By C. H. Talbot, Esq. 



29 



the north side, and were lit by round-headed single-light windows, 

 one in each bay, under which ran an ornamental wall-arcade in- 

 ternally, and another such arcade of intersecting arches externally on 

 the south side. The original clerestory is seen externally to have 

 had single-light round-headed windows, ornamented with medallions 

 running round them. There is a remarkably fine south porch which 

 has been cased over externally in the fourteenth century, but inter- 

 nally all the original Norman work remains. It is richly adorned 

 with sculptures which I shall not attempt to describe, further than 

 to notice that the sculpture is not all of one date. The porch was 

 intended to have been vaulted, but probably the vaulting was never 

 erected, for there seems no reason why, if completed, it should ever 

 have been removed. On the side walls of the porch, above a wall- 

 arcade and below the intended vaulting, are some rather rude sculp- 

 tures believed to represent the twelve apostles, six on each side, 

 with two angels over. It is evident, at a glance, that these are 

 - earlier than the rich carvings of the great arch of entrance. The 

 fact is that the latter have been cut out of the original plain mould- 

 ings of the arch, and in the west doorway of the nave some of the 

 mouldings were so treated and some remained plain. 



The west end of the church was an example of that peculiar taste 

 which, disregarding the features that the nave and aisles would have 

 presented when seen from the west, erected a great show front or 

 architectural screen which concealed them, and Mr. Freeman has 

 suggested, with great probability, that this west front of Malmes- 

 bury may have been the prototype of the west front of Salisbury 

 Cathedral. There was one door only in this front the remains of 

 which show that it was of a very ornamental character. 



I now come to the great works of conversion in the fourteenth 

 century. It is a well-ascertained and rather regretable fact that our 

 ancestors, like ourselves, were often not inclined to let well alone. 

 It is only to be hoped that the liberties we take with their works 

 will be as interesting to our successors as their alterations are to us. 

 The period of these works is the reign of Edward the Third, and the 

 style what we call late Decorated. The clerestory has been com- 

 pletely remodelled. It is probable that up to this time, the church, 



