Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/213

 THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY, GUILDFORD. 177 the perpendicular style of the fifteenth century, with the corbels carvel in the usual grotesque manner ; they had loni; been concealed by ])lastcr ceilings, and have been very judiciously brought to light. The exterior of the -svhole church is covered with flint and stone dressings well restored. The divisions between the chapels were probably of wood only, what are called pardose screens, which were formerly common in our country churches, but are fast disappearing among the many modern restorations. SUMMARY. This church is built at the foot of the hill on which the castle stands, on steep sloping ground just above the river, and steep cliffs or vertical banks of hard chalk traverse the ground on which it is built. These have rather the appearance of having been the outer trenches of the earthworks of the castle, which would probably extend to the river. The bank nearest the river is a little to the west of the church, and now has a road in it ; the next bank goes across the church, and there are steps up it from the nave to the choir, and from the aisles to the transepts. The old tower stands on the top of this bank, and it seems probable that the original small early church was of three bays only, with a western tower, and that the nave and aisles at a lower level were entirely an addition, not a rebuilding of earlier work. It seems probable that the early church of stone, or rather flint and chalk, was built by the Testards immediately after the Conquest, and replaced an old one of wood, accord- ing to the custom of the earlier period. There probably would be a church at Guildford almost as soon as the castle was built ; but as long as the castle itself was of wood, as Mr. Clark lias shown to have been originally the case, the church would probably remain of W'Ood also. The style of the early churcli is certainly not Norman, notwithstanding which it may very well have been built after the Conquest, or it may be of the first half of the eleventh century. The flat pilaster strips cut off by the early Norman arch, on each side of the tower, belong clearly to the earliest style of Mnglish architecture. The small windows in the midtllc of I lie wall s])layed both outside and inside, are another indica-