Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/52

36 The base of the stouter pillar is an acutely-pointed pyramid upon a flat square, vanishing in the diagonals of the octagon. A similar respond occurs in the north transept. The rood-screen and loft originally rested upon the N. side of the capital of this pillar, which is mutilated in consequence, and the pulpit now stands against its north side. This arrangement of the pulpit is general in the Lizard district. The original priest's door now forms the entrance into the modern vestry.

The position of the "low window" at Grade, Cury, and Landewednack, is the same as that of Mawgan, but the window itself is different in form; those of Grade and Cury being a small oblong opening, the former one foot nine inches by one foot four inches the sill being only one foot nine inches from the ground: the latter one foot by eleven inches, the sill being three feet four inches from the ground. At Landewednack, the window has two lights, square-headed, two feet six inches by one foot four inches, sill, four feet three and a half inches from the ground. A large block of serpentine rock is fixed in the ground beneath the window, in a position convenient for a person standing but not kneeling at the window. At Wendron, the window is more like that of Mawgan in form, though its position is different. At St. Helen's Hangleton, in Sussex, is a south low window, remarkably like that of Wendron, and provided with grooves and bolt-holes for an external shutter. The former (Hangleton) is five feet by thirteen inches, the latter, three feet nine inches by eleven. Each has a pointed trefoil head of Early-decorated character. Of the low windows of the Lizard district, the only one which is partly blocked at the foot is Grade; Mawgan is entirely so, whilst the others remain open and are still glazed.

Here two interesting questions arise, viz. the date of these windows and their use. 1st. It can scarcely be doubted that they are very nearly, if not strictly, contemporaneous; for, besides the exact similarity of their position and plan in four of the examples, there is a correspondence also in some of the details, for instance, the use of an octagonal pillar of five and a half inches on each face. Next, the arrangement is of so clumsy and unsightly a character that, it is impossible to imagine it to have been part of the original plan of any of these churches.