MOORLAND AND BORDER CHURCHES IN DEVON. 407 
and the original mouldings parodied. What were no doubt timber 
cradle roofs have been converted into coved plaster ceilings spring- 
ing from compo cornices, such as one often sees round a three-feet 
passage in some " Myrtle cottage," and the decorations of the in- 
terior are so smart and anti-church like that they would appear to 
be almost fresh from the hands of a West End house painter, with 
a knowledge of ecclesiastical interiors limited, say, to St. George's, 
Hanover Square, or any other fashionable church of the Georgian 
period. There is something very incongruous in all this, as though 
a Cockney church had been transplanted to the borders of Dart- 
moor. 
I am not aware when this building was so altered and defaced, 
or by whom, but on the tenor bell in the tower (there are six bells) 
is this inscription : " These bells re-hung and the tower heightened 
and beautified, 1828." This probably points to the time when the 
rest of the " beautifying" was done. That was a bad time — a very 
bad time — what we architecturally call a "dark age," when, not- 
withstanding the introduction of gas, deformity was commonly 
mistaken for beauty in things aesthetic. 
The church has more recently been reseated and refloored, in 
a way which contrasts favourably, with the miscalled restorations 
already alluded to. 
Only one or two fragments of ancient masonry have been suffered 
to remain uncovered ; one of these, a portion of the chancel arch on 
the eastern side, which appears to be of Early English character, 
and an original stoup attached to the first pier of the nave as you 
enter at the south porch. 
The church had formerly a very elegant rood-screen and a south 
rood turret. There is a low screen now at the entrance to the 
chancel which is, no doubt, a part of the original high one. The 
squint has been restored in plaster. There is said to be some good 
plate belonging to this church of the date of 1639. 
Lidford is more famous for its castle than its church ; for its 
law, I was going to say, than its gospel. Its law at any rate was 
peculiar. As Brown, the Devonshire poet, says : 
" I 've ofttimes heard of Lidford law, 
How in the morn they hang and draw, 
And sit in judgment after." 
But we have nothing to do with the Castle of Dartmoor, its Stan- 
nary Court, and the unpleasant historical associations connected 
