Page:A History of Horncastle from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.djvu/218

Rh The registers date from 1561, but contain no entries of any particular interest. The church, dedicated to All Saints, has undergone several transformations. This was one of the 222 parishes which possessed a church before the Norman conquest, and it still contains a fragment (to be noticed later on) which is apparently of Saxon origin. Both Weir in his History (1828), and Saunders (1834) agree in stating that in the early part of the 19th century the church was "totally destitute of interest." The Gazetteer of 1863 describes it vaguely as "a " [sic]Gothic structure." It was rebuilt in 1864, from designs by Mr. James Fowler, Architect, of Louth, at a cost of £1,100, defrayed by J. Banks Stanhope, Esq., Lord of the Manor; and was further repaired in 1891, by public subscription. It consists of nave, chancel, vestry, north porch, and small square tower at the north-west angle, with low spire containing one bell. It is built chiefly of brick with facings of Ancaster stone.

In the north wall of the nave are a couple of two-light windows, in the Perpendicular style; in the south wall are three two-light windows; all these having bands of red and black brick alternately. In the west wall are two single-light lancet windows, with an ox-eye window above. In the chancel there is a small lancet window in the north wall, and a square aumbrey. The east end has a three-light plain lancet window; beneath which is a stone reredos, having three compartments filled with encaustic tiles, having, as their designs, in the centre a cross in gilt, and Alpha and Omega, within ox-eyes, on either side. In the south wall in front of the vestry is a lancet-shaped doorway, and, west of it, an arcade of two lancet apertures, supported by four columns of serpentine. Within the vestry is a two-light lancet window; and let into the eastern wall is a small slab, having four grotesque figures, one blowing a kind of bagpipe, the others dancing. This is said to have been a portion of a "minstrel pillar," it is apparently Saxon, and is probably a relic from the original fabric. The chancel arch is of red and black bricks, in alternate bands, the capitals nicely carved in stone, supported by small seprentine columns. The pulpit is of Caen stone, having a cross within a circle on the front panel, and one serpentine column. The chancel choir stalls are of good modern oak; the sittings in the nave and the roof being of pitch pine.

The font is the most remarkable feature of the church. It has a large square bowl; the device on the east side is a skeleton being drawn from the tomb by two angels, doubtless emblematic of the "death unto sin and new birth unto righteousness," accomplished in baptism. On the north face is the virgin and child, with the sun and moon in the corners above. On the south side is a figure in long vestment, apparently sitting on an altar, much defaced. On the west are six figures, much defaced, in the attitude of prayer. At the four angles are quatrefoiled niches, having at their bases, alternately, a crowned head and a mitre. This may have been of the 14th century. The shaft is square and modern, with columns at the angles.

The communion plate is modern, except the paten, which bears the inscription "Matthew Sympson, M.A., instituted Rector of Moorby, Feb. 28, 1705, collated Prebendary of Lincoln, June 25, 1718, Rector of Wenington, May 29, 1728." The present Rector is the Rev. R. C. Oake, late Vicar of Broughton, Manchester. The rectory of Moorby is consolidated with the vicarage of Wood Enderby.

By deed dated Nov. 24th, 1855, the guardians of the poor, by consent of the ratepayers, gave certain land in Moorby for the site of a parish school to the minister, churchwardens, and overseers, and their successors; and more