328 
ANTiaUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
no claim to antiquity, 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 mentioned, and by which, as a 
criterion, we would prove the date of the building. 
At the bottom of the south aisle, between the west and south 
doors, stands the font, which is deep and capacious, and consists 
of three massy round stones, piled one on another, without the 
least ornament or sculpture : the cavity at the top is lined with 
lead, and has a pipe at bottom to convey off the water after the 
sacred ceremony is performed. 
The east end of the south aisle is called the South Chancel, 
and, till within these thirty years, was divided oiF by old carved 
gothic frame-work of timber, having been a private chantry. In 
this opinion we are more confirmed by observing two gothic 
niches within the space, the one in the 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 re- 
member when its beams were hung with garlands in honour of 
young women of the parish, reputed to have died virgins ;t 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 garlands 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- 
* In the same manner, to compare great things with small, did Wykeham, when he new-buili 
the cathedral at Winchester, from the tower westward, apply to his purpose the old piers or 
pillars of Bishop Walkelin's church, by blending Saxon and Gothic architecture together. — See 
Lowth's Life of Wykeham. 
t Virgin garlands were originally formed of real flowers, and garlands so made are alluded to 
by our old dramatists and " metre-ballad-mongers." Garlands of the description given by Mr. 
White are still common among the peasantry of the mountains of Craven in Yorkshire and 
Westmoreland. 
