12(> Notes oh Churches in the Neighbourhood of Marlborough. 



It is remarkable that this Chapel is built across the line of the 

 inner vallum of the camp, and by what looks like one of its gate- 

 ways. 



The Chapel was formerly within the parish of Great Bedwyn, 

 and Mr. Ward, in his paper written on the occasion of a former 

 visit of the Society refers to it as a Chapel-of-Ease to the mother 

 Church. Mr. Mackenzie Walcott, in his " Inventories of Chantries," 

 refers to it as Free Chapel in the parish of Little Bedwyn and as 

 belonging to the Abbey of S. Denis in Hampshire (near South- 

 ampton) . 



The building is a simple parallelogram, the walls constructed of 

 the local material — flint — with Bath freestone for the worked parts, 

 and without buttresses. It was probably erected during the last 

 quarter of the thirteenth century, when the more severe Early 

 English style had fairly yielded to the inroad of the Decorated. 

 The east window is of two lights, with an early form of geometrical 

 tracery — the arches of the lights and the pierced circle over having 

 originally (apparently) had no cusps. There are somewhat similar 

 windows in the north and south sides of the sanctuary, with some im- 

 portant differences, e.g., the east window has wider (unusually wide) 

 inside splays, and whilst in the north and south windows the jambs 

 are plain and the inner arches are carried on shafts about l^in. in 

 diameter, supported by corbel heads, those of the east window were 

 supported by detached angle shafts (which were probably of Purbeck 

 marble, but are now missing, although the caps and bases remain) , 

 set in a hollow formed in the jambs — the hollow being flanked on 

 each side by a roll moulding ; the east window has also an inner 

 roll moulding at the junction of the splay with the window proper, 

 dying out on to a splay provided to receive it on the sill, whilst 

 these features are absent from the side windows. The outside label 

 of the east window is richer than the others. The carving of the 

 caps is freer and less conventional than the usual Early English 

 type, such as is seen at Salisbury. All three windows have labels 

 over and the mouldings of both arches and label assume and die 

 out on to a cylindrical section above the caps. A string-course is 

 carried across the east end below the window. The north, south, 



