236 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
of the charity children for ever. But observe the way in which 
the pew system demoralizes even churchwardens. In a very short 
time, although the gallery was intended for the exclusive use of 
the charity children, and so expressly dedicated, the churchwardens 
could not resist making a profit out of it, and we soon find the 
ominous entry, followed by others of the same kind, inserted in the 
most barefaced way, ‘‘ Received for sittings in the new gallery, 15s.” 
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of my account of the galleries. 
There is an amount of uncertainty about their history, but there 
is no doubt that up to 1826 there were three large galleries extend- 
ing from the west far into the Church, and on the north and south 
as far as the columns of the nave, the supporting beams being let 
into holes cut in the columns. On: the fronts were painted, as we 
have seen, the arms of the town and diocese, something in the 
way we find them at St. Budeaux. They were also ornamented 
with sentences, I suppose Scripture texts; for we find Philip 
Pearse was paid 16s. in 1721 “for new painting the sentences over 
the gallery and numbering several pewes.” 
There was up to the time of the 1826 alterations, over the south 
porch a parvise so frequently found in Perpendicular churches, and 
so well known as an adjunct to so many of our Devonshire ones. 
This was used as a vestry, but Mr. Foulstone destroyed it and the 
staircase leading to it. 
The rood-loft staircase is enclosed in a turret on the exterior of 
the southern chapel. It was until recently blocked up, and hidden 
on the inside by the Strelly monument. 
In the eastern pier of the same south chapel is a squint or 
hagioscope, measuring on the south 2ft. 44in. high by 12in. wide, and 
on the north 2ft. 7in. by 14in. wide ; and from its position and size, 
I am inclined to think that it could not have been intended to be 
used by any portion of the congregation, but by the ringer of the 
sanctus bell at the consecration. It is not large enough to allow 
of more than one person to look through at a time; and although 
there is nothing at present to indicate the existence of the bell-cot 
outside, I believe that originally one must have been there. At 
Tanfield, in Yorkshire, is a very remarkable squint, so constructed 
in a buttress as to enable the bell-ringer to command a view of 
three altars. The tolling of the bells at the present time at St. 
Andrew’s after matins is a relic of the sanctus bell, as the bell 
