_little_, and so useless." There are portions remaining earlier than George
Herbert's time, whose work may be readily distinguished by at least four
centuries; whilst at one end the porches, and at the other the piscina, of
Early English date, the windows, which are of different styles, and the
buttresses, afford sufficient proofs that the existing walls are the
original, and that in size the church has remained unaltered for ages. As
George Herbert new roofed the sacred edifice throughout, we may infer this
was the chief structural repair necessary. He also erected the present
tower, the font, put four windows in the chancel, and reseated the parts
then used by the congregation.

Except a western organ gallery erected in 1840, two pews underneath it, and
one elsewhere, these parts, the nave and transepts, remain, in all
probability, exactly as George Herbert left them. The seats are all
uniform, of oak, and of the good old open fashion made in the style of the
seventeenth century. They are so arranged, both in the nave and in the
transepts, that no person in service time turns his back either upon the
altar or upon the minister. (See "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. ii., p. 397.)
The pulpit against the north, and the reading-desk, with clerk's seat
attached, against the south side of the chancel-arch, are both of the same
height, and exactly similar in every respect; both have sounding-boards.
The font is placed at the west end of the nave, and, together with its
cover, is part of George Herbert's work; it stands on a single step, and a
drain carries off the water, as in ancient examples. The shallowness of the
basin surprised me. A vestry, corresponding in style to the seats, is
formed by a wooden inclosure in the south transept, which contains "a
strong and decent chest." Until the erection of the gallery, the tower was
open to the nave.

The chancel, which is raised one step above the nave, is now partly filled
with high pews, but, as arranged by the pious prebendary, it is believed to
have contained only one low bench on either side. The communion table,
which is elevated by three steps above the level of the chancel, is modern,
as are also the rails. There is a double Early English piscina in the south
wall, and an ambry in the north. A plain cross of the seventeenth century
crowns the eastern gable of the chancel externally.

No doubt there were originally "fit and proper {179} texts of scripture
everywhere painted;" b