bodies or aisles, the northern one of which, by its external treatment, was evidently designed to supplant the old Norman fabric as the nave of the church. These two form the portion now retained for divine service, and they alone constitute a church of considerable dimensions, though naturally somewhat strange in its appearance and proportions. The inner face of the old arcade, its low massive arches, blank triforium, and clerestory above, must always have had a strange effect in the interior of a church; still stranger is it now, when the massive piers and arches just contrive to peep out from a mass of pews, galleries, staircases, and flimsy partitions. The clerestory windows are partially blocked; owing to the oddness of proportion thus induced, the effect is much more singular than if they had been wholly so. It is remarkable that, while so important and permanent an addition was made during the Early English period, so very little work of that style should actually exist. The south wall and arcade have been rebuilt and a new west window inserted, so that the porch doorways, pilaster, and piscina alone remain to tell their story. The porch seems to have been at this period designed for vaulting, which, as is so often the case, has never been added. The porch doorways are rather rich, with flowered capitals, but both mouldings and bowtells are oddly arranged, seeming to disregard the system of orders, and being somewhat shallow. They reminded me a little of some examples in Cardiganshire and Merionethshire, as at Strata Florida, Cymmer, Llanaber, and Llanbadarn-fawr; but they have nothing in com

3 For the effect of the clerestory, compare on a small scale St. Wollos at Newport.-Archæologia Cambrensis, vol. ii. New Series, p. 183. Since this was written, I have seen another instance, exactly similar to St. Wollos, except that the alteration was made during the Early English period, in the very remarkable church of Clun, which was visited in one of the excursions from Ludlow. Clun also bears a little on the addition of western towers, one having been built up against a pre-existing front, not much older than itself, just as in the parish church at Much Wenlock.

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. IV.

E

mon with the peculiar style of Early English stretching from Wells and Glastonbury to St. David's.*

The entire reconstruction of the east end at a later period prevents our ascertaining with certainty the manner in which these additions were worked into harmony with the transepts of the Norman church. It would have been nothing extraordinary if the south transept had been completely swallowed up, and the new building continued as far east alongside of the choir as its designers thought good to carry it. This, to compare small things with great, was done in the remarkable little church of Whitchurch near Bristol. But it does not seem to have been the case here; clearly not, if my supposed fragments of the south transept be authentic; and in any case, the extreme southern aisle seems never to have reached farther eastward than it does at present. According to my view it must have extended a good deal to the south of the south transept. The effect of this may be judged of by that of Wedmore Church in Somerset, which has a southern transept and attached southern chapel in exactly the relation in which I suppose these to have stood to one another.

I do not know if there is any record of the reason for these extensive additions to the church; but I cannot help suspecting that they must have arisen out of some of those dissensions which we know were, in such cases, too apt to take place between the monks and the parishioners. The latter might perhaps have desired a place of worship more distinct from the former than the old nave of the priory church, and may for that reason have erected this, which must have been then, as now, to all intents and purposes, a second nave. If so, there was an additional reason for confining the sphere of their operations to the space west of the transept. If the latter had a western aisle, it must have been swallowed up, like the south aisle of the nave, and the arcade would remain between the transept and the new work. If not, we are left to con

4 See History of St. David's, p. 64; Llandaff Cathedral, p. 28.

jecture what kind of arches, doorways, or screens, were employed to promote or hinder access from one to the other. Anyhow I fear we shall learn little from our friend the Guide, who informs us that "the interior was fitted up as a collegiate church, with stalls, chantries, chancels, and chapels." But it is perhaps too much to expect to extract information from an author who appears to consider that Bishop Burnet had some hand in the dissolution of Reading Abbey, a theory which I can match by one developed by a poet of an adjoining county to the effect that the destruction of such institutions in general was the work of that prelate's great patron.

DECORATED CHANGES.-During the later days of the Geometrical or Early Decorated style the extreme south aisle was rebuilt in a form of singular magnificence, being in fact one of the noblest examples in existence of that variety of Gothic architecture. The southern portion of the west front was now rebuilt, with a polygonal stair turret at the angle, and a bell-cot near the juncture of this work with the Early English. This last feature may possibly tend to prove that the contemplated Norman western tower had never been erected. This was evidently the bell for parish mass, leaving the monks in undisturbed possession of whatever peal may have existed in the central tower. The porch was now recast in the new style, retaining only its actual doorways. Three niches with ball-flower now appear, and we must remark the pinnacles, octagons set on squares, forming the exact miniature of a broach spire. This I conceive is a localism, as I find it in Decorated work in the very interesting churches of Bodenham and Marden. But the glory of this period is the south side of the church, with its series of five magnificent windows of equal size regularly arranged between buttresses. There being no clerestory in this part of the church, the aisle wall is the full height, an arrangement which, as I have observed in the case of Dorchester, is peculiarly

5 Page 91.

6 Archæological Journal, ix. p. 163.

adapted for producing ranges of splendid windows. It is almost impossible to avoid comparing Dorchester and Leominster in this respect; of course in point of detail the former sinks into utter insignificance, but I am not sure that its greater length does not give it a greater stateliness of general effect. The arrangement is one which demands length to be the predominant dimension, and Leominster certainly looks a little cut short. The windows themselves ought to be generally known, as appearing in Mr. Sharpe's work on Decorated Windows; their main lines are of the simplest Geometrical form, but the filling in with Foil figures is, as a mere matter of tracery, exceedingly rich, and appears to be a local variety. Similar examples occur in the tower of Hereford Cathedral, the north aisle of Ludlow Church, and the chancel at Marden. In the west front of Ludlow there still are, as was pointed out by Mr. Penson in his admirable paper on that church, the remains of a window which was probably identical with these at Leominster, being of four lights with ball-flower. This latter ornament does not occur in the smaller examples at Ludlow and Marden, but at Leominster the whole composition, jambs, mullions, and tracery, are profusely loaded with it. The lavish use of this beautiful enrichment seems to be a localism of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire; I need not do more than mention their respective cathedrals, in the south aisle of the one and the tower of the other. This at once distinguishes the Decorated of this district from Gower's variety at St. David's. Beautiful however as these windows are, I cannot help suggesting that the secondary mullions are too thin, and some of the eyes in the secondary circles would be better open; they produce a certain appearance of insecurity. The window in the west front is of the same kind; some parts of it have been creditably restored, more than I can say for two on the

7 I have to thank Mr. Penson for the remark, which ought to have occurred to myself, that this peculiarity is owing to the work being left unfinished, some of the eyes being open, others not.

south side, which were shorn of their magnificent tracery in 1812 and common intersecting mullions substituted. The pedimented buttresses between these windows are rather plain, being through a great portion of their height without any set off; the parapet is very good, pierced with trefoil arches cut in the solid. The Decorated strings go a little way round the east end, where they are met by the later work; the east window is a wretched affair, but the south transept must have always hindered the existence of one worthy to be the crowning point of such a series. Within, three beautiful sedilia, rich with ballflower, have been added to the Early English piscina ; they are now much disfigured by a modern partition cutting across them.

PERPENDICULAR CHANGES.--The great work of the Perpendicular æra was the completion or re-erection of the north-western tower, which seems to be early in the style, retaining something of Decorated character in its windows and still more in the use of the ball-flowers in the panelling of its parapet. The pinnacles also are of the broach-spire form already mentioned. There is nothing remarkable about this tower, which is the most purely parochial thing about the church, except the way in which it is fitted on to the Norman work below. Now there is a tradition that this tower supplanted a spire. This is mentioned by Price, but the author of the anonymous Guide improves upon his predecessor, informing us "that the lower part of the tower is of Saxon workmanship, and originally terminated in a short spire, on the top of which was fixed a long iron rod, supporting a gilt weathercock." Farther on we learn that some time between Henry I. and Henry III., a period during which, as the writer truly enough observes, "great alterations

8 The ball-flower in this district evidently came into use earlier, and was retained later, than was usual elsewhere. Of the latter phænomenon we have here an example; of the former I have again to thank Mr. Penson for calling my attention to the singular east window of the south aisle at Richard's Castle.