158 



Notes on Aldbourne Church. 



The handsome Jacobean pulpit of wood, which stands against the 

 north pier of the chancel arch, was brought here from Speen, when 

 that Church underwent restoration in 1860. 



We now come to the chancel ; the three-light east window is 

 modern, but one of the two single-light Early English windows on j 

 either side is old, and the other a restoration. Against the north 

 w'all is an altar-tomb bearing an incised slab ; the inscription which 

 runs round the edge of the slab has been much mutilated. I have 

 been told that a workman rested a ladder on the slab when the new 

 roof was placed on the chancel, and so caused the damage. This 

 incised slab is undoubtedly the finest specimen of this class of! 

 memorial to be found in Wiltshire, and represents John Stone, 

 Yicar of Aldbourne, who died in 15 — . A John Stone was col- 

 lated to the stall of Axford, in Salisbury Cathedral, in 1509, 

 but resigned it two years later, when he accepted the stall of 

 Warminster, which in turn he gave up for the stall of Chardstock 

 in 1517 ; in 1524 we hear of him for the last time as holding the 

 stall of Fordington. The effigy on the slab is that of a priest fully 

 vested, his head resting on a richly-worked cushion, having heavy 

 tassels at three of its corners, his hands supporting a chalice, the 

 bowl of which is unusually large. 



On the floor close by this monument is a small brass to Henry 

 Frekylton, chaplain of a chantry in the Church, who died the 10th 

 of September, 1508, the symbols of his priestly office — the book of 

 the gospels and a chalice — are depicted on separate pieces of metal 

 let into the stone slab ; the bowl of the chalice has been wrenched 

 off and taken away. 



Cut into the south wall is a square-headed aumbry. 



The eastern pier of the arch between the chancel and the north 

 chapel is pierced by a double squint which enabled both the people 

 worshipping and the priest serving at the side altar to see the high 

 altar. In this chapel, which was of old used by the Gruild or Fra- 

 ternity of " Our Lady in Aldbourne," immediately under the double 

 squint just described, is a piscina, the bowl of which is destroyed. 



In the angle made by the north and east walls is a niche for the 

 figure of the patron saint ; beneath the bracket are carved three 



