410 
ANTIQUITIES 
LETTER III. 
ROM the silence of Domesday respecting 
churches, it has been supposed that few 
villages had any at the time when that 
record was taken ; but Selborne, we see, 
enjoyed the benefit of one : hence we may 
conclude that this place was in no abject state, even at that 
very distant period. How many fabrics have succeeded 
each other since the days of Radfredrus the presbyter, we 
cannot pretend to say ; our business leads us to a descrip- 
tion of the present edifice, in which we shall be circum- 
stantial. 
Our church, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, 
consists of three aisles, and measures fifty-four feet in length 
by forty-seven in breadth, being almost as broad as it is 
long. The present building has no pretensions to anti- 
quity; and is, as I suppose, of no earlier date than the 
beginning of the reign of Henry YII. It is perfectly plain 
and unadorned, without painted glass, carved work, sculp- 
ture, or tracery. But when I say it has no claim to anti- 
quity, I would mean to be understood of the fabric in 
general; for the pillars which support the roof are un- 
doubtedly old, being of that low, squat, thick order, usually 
called Saxon. These, I should imagine, upheld the roof 
of a former church, which, falling into decay, was rebuilt on 
those massy props, because their strength had preserved 
them from the injuries of time.^ Upon these rest blunt 
Gothic arches, such as prevailed in the reign above-men- 
^ In tlie same manner, to compare great things with small, did Wyke- 
ham, when he new built the cathedral at Winchester, from the tower 
westward, apply to his purpose the old piers or pillars of Bishop Walke- 
iin^s church, by blending Saxon and Gothic architecture together. — Sec 
Lowth's " Life of Wykeham."— G. W. 
