OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER IV. 
w E have now taken leave of the infide of the church, and fhall 
pafs by a door at the weft end of the middle aile into the belfry. 
This room is part of a handfome fquare embattled tower of forty- 
five feet in height, and of much more modern date than the 
church ; but old enough to have needed a thorough repair in 1781, 
when it was neatly ftuccoed at a confiderable expenfe, by a fet of 
workmen who were employed on it for the greateft part of the 
fummer. The old bells, three in number, loud and out of tune, 
were taken down in 1735, and caft into four ; to which Sir Simeon. 
Stuart, the grandfather of the prefent baronet, added a fifth at his 
own expenfe : and, beftowing it in the name of his favourite 
daughter Mrs. Mary Stuart, caufed it to be call with the following 
motto round it : 
*' Clara puella dedk, dixitque mihi efto Maria: 
*' lUius et laudes nomeii ad allra fono." 
The day of the arrival of this tuneable peal was obferved as an 
high feftival by the village, and rendered morejoj^ous, by an order 
from the donor, that the treble-bell fhould be fixed bottom upward 
in the ground, and filled with punch, of which all prefent were 
permitted to partake. 
The porch of the church, to the fouth, is modern, and would not 
be worthy attention did it not fhelter a fine fliarp,^o//'/V door- way. 
This is undoubtedly much older than the prefent fabric ; andj 
Tt being: 
