Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/55

Rh further description. This belfry serves as a key to all the rest. The wall over the chancel-arch is crossed by a block of masonry projecting eastward and westward, and forming each way a sort of corbel or bracket. This gives support to the eastern and western faces of an octagonal spire, the other two cardinal sides resting on imposts raised upon the wall itself, two spaces or apertures being thus left for the bells. The diagonal faces of the spire are supported only by their connection with the others; but from the small size of the belfry it is plain the stone may easily have been cut in such a manner as to obviate any difficulty in the construction. The whole is strengthened as well as enriched by octagonal pinnacles at the cardinal sides, and at present it is banded with iron. The style of the church appears to be early Decorated; the windows consist of single lancet lights, but foliated; the west window is modern; the font has an Early English character. This church stands at a short distance to the west of the road between Gloucester and Stroud, about six miles distant from the former; it is not easily visible, as it lies in a deep hollow.

In the next specimen, the church of Acton Turvill, in Gloucestershire, the transverse block of masonry supports piers or imposts similar to those on the north and south sides; and the addition of shafts renders these sufficiently large to meet all the angles of an equilateral spire, its cardinal faces being supported by their corresponding imposts, and its diagonal ones resting between them, like the entablature of a colonnade. The cardinal sides have round pinnacles. This belfry, which stands over the chancel-arch, is of an Early English character. Some Perpendicular insertions have been made in the body of the church. The village of Acton Turvill is about ten miles westward of Malmsbury in Wiltshire.

At Leigh Delamere the design is improved upon by the introduction of a beautiful pointed