isle.

[Illustration: THE WESTERN TOWER.]

The level of the churchyards, as in the case with most old
burying-grounds, is considerably above the level of the floor of the
church. Hence steps have to be descended on entering the porches, and
again in passing from the porches into the church. On the south side
some levelling of the ground has been done, and the upright head-stones
have been laid flat, but the altar tombs have been allowed to remain as
they were. There are few trees in the churchyard to impede the view of
the building; those there are, are as yet small, and serve only to
pleasantly break the bareness of the ground without hiding the
architectural features of the building.

CHAPTER III

THE INTERIOR

The North Porch, which no doubt from the days of its erection in the
fourteenth century has formed the chief entrance into the church, is
opposite to the westernmost Norman bay of the nave arcading. The porch
itself is vaulted in two bays, the vaulting springing from slender
shafts of Purbeck marble which rest on the stone seats on either side of
the porch. The bosses in which the ribs meet are carved with foliage.
Over the porch is a small room to which no staircase now leads; one
which formerly led to it was removed in the seventeenth century. This
room is lighted by a small two-light Decorated window facing north.

[Illustration: THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST.]

The two #Aisles# are of the same length as the nave, and are
divided from it by an arcading on either side, each containing six
pointed arches. The easternmost arches consist of two plain orders, and
are much narrower than the rest. These arches spring on the east side
from brackets on the western face of the tower piers: the bracket on the
north side is plain, that on the south side is ornamented with a kind of
scale carving. These bays were probably of the same date as the tower,
and it is not unlikely that the arches were at first like those of the
tower, of the usual round-headed form. If they were altered when the
remainder of the nave was built, the wall above was not removed. The
piers which support the western side of these arches consist each of a
semi-cylindrical pillar set against a rectangular pier, on the other
side of which another semi-cylindrical shaft is set to support the next
arch; the next two pillars on each side are cylindrical, perfectly plain
in the shafts with very simple bases and capitals. The latter may be
se