south side is the representation of a subdued fiend; and under the other is a lamb, on the back of which a man is seated, his arms elevated and in the attitude of ascending. The remaining figures are so mutilated that it is impossible to conjecture whom they were intended to represent.

66

The accompanying plate shows signs of careful observation, as may be seen from the variations in the vaulting lines, and also from the two panels of the wainscot which then retained their head tracery. Some forty years later the heavy hand of the improver" was laid upon it, with results which are now before us new pinnacles were placed upon the buttresses, additions made to the statuettes, and new fronts, gabled and crocketed, provided for the tabernacles. Experiment was further made to crown the tabernacles with newly invented openwork spires, one of which has been allowed to remain, perhaps as a warning to those who come after.

The screen, which is of unusual character and construction, is rectangular, and comprises an opening 3 ft. 2 in. wide fitted with doors, between two compartments on either side centring at 2 ft. 3 in., and divided into two lights apiece; the total length of the moulded plinth, or ground-sill, which is continuous across the screen, being exactly 16 ft. The middle-rail, 7 in. high by 3 in. wide, is not continuous at the sides, but consists of short tiepieces tenoned into the standards, being ornamented with sunk cresting overstepping the joints, but stopped at intervals so as to allow free course for the standards, which at this point are marked by the deep polygonal capitals of triple-moulded shafts, whose bases grow out of the ground-sill. The treatment of these standards is lithic in character, the shafts, capitals, moulding, and ornament in each case being carved out of a solid piece which is 7 in. wide up to the top of the middle-rail and then

reduced to 4 in. Above this level, which is 4 ft. 4 in. from the floor, the standards thus reduced in width are shaped so as to present buttressed fronts in two stages set square below and diagonally above, both containing sunk panels on their faces, and supporting brackets, beneath each of which is a carved subject. The brackets carry statuettes, four of these being original but all more or less mutilated. Each possesses a diminutive tabernacle, square on plan and square-headed, all these details, which are carved, be it noted, out of the solid throughout, including the statuettes, being quite captivating. A similar tabernacle likewise adorns the centrepiece over the doorway, the "rare and exquisite ' figure of St. George resting on a pendent bracket, beneath which a monster's head appears. The muntins carry on the front a boutel shaft, which is applied, and runs straight through from its base on the ground-sill to its capital at the vaulting level. The fenestration openings are 5 ft. 9 in. high by I ft. 1 in. wide, and have head tracery in two orders measuring 1 ft. 3 in., the main member being a rather flattened crocketed ogee, cusped and feathered. The doors, which are omitted in Palmer's drawing, are original, but considerably repaired.

The canopies overhang back and front to a total depth of 1 ft. 6 in., and are divided alternately by continuations of the buttresses and shafts of the standards and muntins respectively.

The vaulting, consisting of imitation groining, varying in each canopy and adorned with rosettes, grows curiously out from behind the finials of the arches, thus forming spandrels, which are treated with vigorously carved subjects, foliated and grotesque, including some of those quaint fabled creatures, halfhuman, half-animal, "whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." Each head-piece of the vaulting, it should be noticed, is fashioned out of a solid