NOTES ON MOORLAND CHURCHES. 193 
On a slab inserted in the chancel floor: ‘‘ Here lieth Mary the 
daughter of Oliver Whiddon, Esquire, who died the 22nd day of 
October, 1641. 
“ Reader, wouldst know who here is laid ? 
Behold a matron, yet a maid; 
A modest looke, a pious heart, 
A Mary for the better part. 
But drie thine cies; 
Why wilt thou weepe? 
Such damsels doe 
Not die, but sleepe.”’ 
The tower is of considerable height, and has a plain, but good, 
arch opening into the nave at the west end. Externally the tower 
is also plain, and has four short pinnacles at the top. There are six 
bells, which were cast by Bilbie in 1766. 
The Church of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, dedicated to St. Pancras, 
is, on account of its size and the beauty and importance of its 
tower, sometimes called ‘‘ the Cathedral of the Moor.” 
The romantic scenery around, with the rugged tors of Honeybag, 
Bel, and Chinkwell, rising above the village, is made still more 
picturesque by the noble granite tower of the parish church, and 
the quaint and thoroughly old English almshouses on the north 
side of the village green. What true artists were the medieval 
architects! whose works, so far from detracting from the beauties 
of nature, actually emphasize and supplement them, and are points 
of interest in almost any English landscape. 
Widecombe Church is throughout Perpendicular in style, the 
eastern portions of early character for the most part, and the 
tower and much of the work in the north and south aisles, includ- 
ing the square-headed windows, late Perpendicular. The extreme 
internal length is nearly 104 feet, and the plan consists of nave, 
west tower, north and south aisles and transept, chancel, with 
north and south chantry aisles. Vestry on north side of north 
chantry. Porch on south side. Excepting, perhaps, some frag- 
ments of masonry in the transept, there is no existing work earlier 
than that of the fifteenth century. 
The chancel is 23 feet in length, by 153 feet in width, and has 
an east window of four lights, with double tracery and a quatrefoil 
in the head. The roof is of the cradle kind, so usual in Devonshire, 
and has many of the original bosses, which are carved and painted. 
The subjects are heads, flowers, and leaves: one has a half figure 
