ortable, shaped like coped boxes,
covered with precious metal, enamels, and engraving. Sculptured stones
in the walls of our churches often mark the spot in the building where
relics were stored.

It is evident from the existence of niches and piscinas in other parts
of the church, besides in the south wall near the high altar, that there
formerly existed many altars in the sacred building. At the east end of
each aisle we usually find these indications of the existence of an
altar, which belonged to a chantry chapel, separated from the rest of
the church by a screen. Here a priest said Mass daily for the soul of
the founder of the chantry, his ancestors, and posterity. Ancient stone
altars still remain in some of our churches. Sometimes they have been
removed from their place, and used as tombstones, or in paving the floor
of the church. They can be recognised by the five crosses engraved on
them, one at each corner, and one in the centre of the stone.

Hagioscopes, or squints, are openings in the thickness of the wall,
enabling worshippers in the chantry chapels to witness the elevation of
the Host at the high altar. They are usually plain; but in some churches
we find these curious apertures moulded and decorated with architectural
designs.

Pre-Reformation churches had several wooden images of saints, most of
which were destroyed by the iconoclastic zeal of the Reformers or
Puritans. The brackets on which these figures stood often remain, though
the images have disappeared.

[Illustration: LOW SIDE WINDOW, DALLINGTON CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE]

Low side windows, commonly called "Lepers' windows," are very frequently
found in our churches, and usually on the south wall of the chancel.
Their object has been, and is, much disputed among antiquaries. The
vulgar idea is that poor lepers used to come to this window to see the
celebration of the Mass; but unfortunately it is quite impossible in
many cases to see the high altar through this window, and moreover
lepers were not allowed to enter a churchyard. Another idea is that
they were used as confessionals, the priest in the church hearing the
confession of the penitent who knelt on the grass in the churchyard.
A more inconvenient arrangement could not have been devised; and this
idea might be at once dismissed, were it not that one of Henry's
commissioners for suppressing monasteries and chantries wrote: "We think
it best that the place where these friars have been