partly illegible manuscript, its long story. The restorer, more
ruthless than Age or Time, has, with the best intentions, laid his
heavy hand upon it, and obliterated much of its character and history;
but enough remains to interest us, though pleasure is now mingled with
much vain regret. In the simple Norman arch through which we pass as
we enter the nave, and perhaps the western wall with the small
round-headed windows, we find the earliest records. The slight tower
with its sharply-pointed windows and delicate spire was added,
probably supplanting an earlier and simple porch, in the time of the
Edwards. The arches and northern clerestory of the nave belong to a
rather later period when the church was found too narrow for the
increasing population; while the arches on the southern side with no
clerestory above, are probably later still. The choir and north wall
of the nave are the work of the restorer, and tell us nothing but a
tale of culpable neglect and mistaken zeal! The head of the north door
of the chancel is, however, a relic of the original building, and this
should be carefully examined. It is beautifully cut with double rows
of cusps, and is of fourteenth century workmanship. The latest Gothic
additions are the work of Clement Lichfield. To this Abbot we owe the
outer porch so deeply panelled, with its two entrance doorways, its
pierced battlements, and finely carved timber roof; to him also do we
breathe our thanks as we stand looking up at the lovely vaulting of
the Lichfield Chapel built by him in his younger days when Prior of
the Monastery. Here was Lichfield buried, and beneath the floor his
body lies; formerly a memorial brass engraved with effigy and
inscription marked the spot, but this has long since disappeared. The
inscription, however, can be read on a tablet lately erected by pious
hands to perpetuate his memory. Over the entrance we may still see the
initials of the builder carved upon an ornamental shield. The windows
are now filled with modern glass, not unworthily telling the