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fitted 68 an< ^ the beautiful wainscoting with which it isfixed V^’c-''" aS brought from Tittenhanger, where it had beenii q 7 ®ir Thomas Pope, in 1548.portn V6 v tb e principal doorway are the words, Domus Deiand oni ' ' ^ ouse God is the Gate of Heaven
e Um • the north and south side of the entrance: Laudateh>en • Venes ’ biudate eum virgines, ‘Praise Him, ye youngthe t^- ^tim, ye maidens,’ from Psalm cxlviii. 12. Onti°n f,° trans^verses of a beautifully carved door, is an inscrip-‘Xjjjg. 0 ® Tsalm cxviii. 20, Porta Domini, Justi intrabunt,teferen' 8 ® ate °f the Lord, the just shall enter in.’ Withw °rds °r t0 a nearer approach to the altar, we have thea ltar e ~r Lava b° inter innocentes manus meas, et circumdaboItl noeent ,Um Nomine : ‘I will wash my hands among thethe ai t ’ aa<1 J will compass thine altar, 0 Lord :’ and onfon n ,j ^ itself not only are the names of our blessed Lord,by P;[ at ^ e brew, Greek, and Latin , as they were inscribedHeb. y--° n b’ s cross, but also the following passages fromXi. 24 2 g » Matt. xxvi. 27 ; 1 Peter i. 12; and 1 Cor.Cram \ ' Habemus altare—Ex hoc omnes—in quie desid-
a n alt ar n °?J* Prospicere—Hoc in memoriam mei : ‘ We have
to l 0o j._ kat ye all of this—Into which the angels desire
?fifi>tion~ f * n remembrance of me.’ Even the singularjCscriptj 01 a ^knney-piece in this chapel, has its appropriate'Behold 011 ,' 'fi‘ cce ignis et lignum, ubi est victima holocausti?the \ v ) |( . ' e fire and the wood, but where is the victim ofSuch , urnt offering ?’ ”—Gen. xxii. 7.
Uor " as the decoration of the walls of our old churches,! ith cowr de , fails or furniture neglected, but all enriched1)688 Pro°l Ur ’ and the smaller parts with gilding. The rich-a PPeared UC< ‘ d ^7 this treatment, which might otherwise havewas chastened and softened down by8 tait), ;( ] Religious light shed through the storied panes of the'^Parted )tldows ' which, while they added to the general effect,duirob Chast( “ ness throughout the whole structure. Anv 0/' th e In ad its gloryq must have been truly beautiful,built of * >later ials. —Our old churches were most generallyf a <? <n- rubb? 6 ’ an< ^ the majority of them of rough unhewnJr °Uglit ft. 6 ’ built up into the fabric in the same state asilr «l not ali° ttl f t ' le 4 ua rry; the individual stones were small,1)01 beino- , . tbe same size ; they varied likewise in shape,t'UUy ;i ° up in regular courses, but fitted together ase '*ig f\ll e( j Clrt:urn, stances would permit; the longer spaces6t Uent, 'p, U P w ith smaller stones, and the lesser ones withJ^^.us masonry was bonded at intervals by longerUior e r( , rr ' n 8 through the work, and at the angles by coins®b as the ? ar ' vol 'bmanship. The dressings of the building,c ler ap er t. Jam b 3 and finishings of windows, doorways, andUrs eSj „ *j® 8 > as well as the pinnacles, water-tables, string-
». fi, u ' r ed n,, i n S s , and all other portions of the edifice which8 H as <x Uch lab -
st r .
1 as
Uct,
were of some more manageable stone,
eta j vUr es, 0 V bi some of the more highly embellishedSale 0 7 e d,'ms* kurbeck marble. In some localities, flint is’Uaii ’ Uot u 6 c d °fi fubble, more especially in Norfolk andin, '7 cas es c ,, u '’ e< l u ently in Essex and other counties; intvin'b’d in „ ? s kind, the walls are made
up of flints,which method,
^ ^ — awuuj uitJ wans arc mxb'
^ Uli the* 11 . a .biud of framework of freestone. -
a °t u npl ai .d °f good cement, produces a very durable and- lng stru cture. Nor are these tbe only matenalsln , tbe construction of churches ; we occasiona ySuently ^k.and wood as substitutes for stone, more
k°'v eVer J '•“an elsewhere, in the countyof ^ { ?* e c ^ les i as ticalnot used during tbe best pen t0 the
4 does it produce an effect “ ^
> i8 not the before-mentioned matenals ,^tl^ d ^ of
or so agreeable as the more g were
nubble. The walls, in all the above cases,
of great thickness, which tended not only to the greaterstability of tbe structure, but also to maintain an equabilityof temperature in the interior. A-good specimen of a woodenchurch is that of Greenstead, Essex , which has recently beenrestored, and of which the following description, previousto its restoration, is given in one of Weale’s QuarterlyPapers :—
“ The timber walls, which,” says the writer, “ I take tobe of oak, though some imagine them to be of chestnut-wood,are but six feet in height on the outside, including the sill;they are not, as usually described, ‘ half-trees,’ but have bada portion of the centre or heart cut out, probably to furnishbeams for the construction of the roof and sills ; the outsideor slabs thus left, were placed on the sill, but by what kindof tenon they are there retained, does not appear ; while theupper ends, being roughly adzed off to a thin edge, are letinto a groove, and which, with the piece of timber in whichit is cut, runs the whole length of the building itself; thedoor-posts are of square timber, and these are secured inthe above-mentioned groove by small wooden pins, still firmand strong—a truly wonderful example of the durability ofBritish oak. At the west end I had an opportunity ofexamining the very heart of the timber;'to the edge of anexceedingly good pocket-knife, it appeared like iron, and hasacquired from age a colour approaching to ebony, but of amore beautiful brown ; and if any conclusion may he drawnfrom the appearance of the building, I see no reason why itshould not endure as long as it has already existed. Theoutsides of all the trees are furrowed to the depth of aboutan inch into long stringy ridges by the decay of the softerparts of the timber, but these ridges seem equally hard as theheart of the wood itself; the north doorway, which measuresonly four feet five inches in height by two feet five inchesin width, is at present closed with masonry ; but the aperturemust have been original. It is generally thought that thewoodwork of the roof is coeval with the walls, and it wasmost likely formerly covered with thatch, as Bede describes,and as may still be seen on many village churches in thecounty of Norfolk .
“ The body of the church is lighted by windows in theroof, but these are decidedly of a recent date ; what littlelight its interior enjoyed in its primitive state, was probablyadmitted from the east end, if any windows existed at all.
“ How the interior was originally finished, cannot he nowdetermined ; at the present moment it is kept in a very neatand reputable state ; its walls and ceiling are plastered andwhitewashed, and its area affords sufficient accommodationfor the population of the parish.”
The nave is the portion of the church here alluded to, forthe chancel is not of the same material, and is of a later date ;the tower is also of wood weather-boarded, with luffer boardsfor the admission of light.
Since the above account was written, this unique littleedifice lias been restored, under the superintendence ofMessrs. Wyatt and Brandon ; and in an article on the sub-ject, to he found in “ The Builder,” a short period subsequentto its restoration, the following remarks occur. The writer,in combating Mr. Suckling’s opinions as to the timbers beingless than half-trees, says—“We see no evidence of this, forthe timbers were evidently left rough, and the dimensionsprove them to have been, as nearly as may be, ‘ halt-trees.’These uprights,” he continues, “ were laid on an oak sill,
8 inches by 8 inches, and tenoned into a groove H inch deep,and secured with oak pins. The sill on the south side waslaid on the actual earth; that on the north side had, in twoplaces, some rough flints, without any mortar driven under.The roof-plates averaged 7 inches by 7 inches, and had
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