III.] 
469 
Gothic niches within the space, the one in tlie east wall and 
the other in the south, near which there probably stood images 
and altars. 
In the middle aisle there is nothing remarkable : but I 
remember when its beams were hung Avith garlands in honour 
of young women of the parish, reputed to have died virgins ; 
and recollect to have seen the clerk's wife cutting, in white 
paper, the resemblances of gloves, and ribbons to be twisted into 
knots and roses, to decorate these memorials of chastity. In 
the church of Faringdon, which is the next parish, many gar- 
lands of this sort still remain. 
The north aisle is narrow and low, with a sloping ceiling, 
reaching within eight or nine feet of the floor. It had originally 
a flat roof covered with lead, till, within a century past, a 
churchwarden stripping off the lead, in order, as he said, to 
have it mended, sold it to a plumber, and ran away with the 
money. This aisle has no door, for an obvious reason ; because 
the north side of the churchyard, being surrounded by the 
vicarage garden, affords no path to that side of the cliurch. 
lN"othing. can be more irregular than the pews of this church, 
which are of all dimensions and heights, being patched up 
according to the fancy of the owners : but whoever nicely 
examines them will find that the middle aisle had, on eacli 
side, a regular row of benches of solid oak, all alike, with a 
low back-board to each. These we should not hesitate to say 
are coeval with the present church : and especially as it is to 
be observed that, at their ends, they are ornamented with 
carved blunt Gothic niches, exactly correspondent to the arches 
of the church, to a niche in the south wall. The south aisle 
also has a row of these benches, but some are decayed through 
age, and the rest much disguised by modern alterations. 
At the upper end of this aisle, and running out to the north, 
stands a transept, known by the name of the ^orth Chancel, 
measuring twenty-one feet froin souih to north, and nineteen 
feet from east to west: this was intended, no doubt, as a private 
chantry ; and was also, till of late, divided off by a Gothic frame- 
work of timber. In its north wall, under a very blunt Gothic arch 
lies perhaps the founder of this edifice, which, from the shape 
