Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/109



there are any spots in England which do not afford to the lover of medieval architecture several objects of interest within the reach of moderate excursions, assuredly Cheltenham is not one of them. In its immediate vicinity are Gloucester and Tewkesbury; its own church, a fine cruciform structure, presents two specimens of art which are perhaps nearly unique, the rose window in the south transept, and the beautiful turret-shaped piscina in the chancel. And in every direction we meet with village churches, which will be found worthy of examination. It is to some of the least known of these that I propose to call the attention of the reader.

But I would first say a word or two upon Tewkesbury church, a building which I am not aware has received that amount of illustration it deserves. Its grand Norman features, as every one knows, are the magnificent arch in the west front, with the elegant turrets by which it is flanked, and its rich central tower. The arch is filled up with a late window, erected in fact in the seventeenth century, though probably in imitation of an early Perpendicular window which preceded it, over a pointed door, which from its inelegant form and proportions I cannot believe, in spite of its mouldings, to belong to a good period. The wall in which these stand, which is between six and seven feet in thickness, appears to contain no vestige of Norman work. Nor is this all. A vertical break in the masonry, close to the impost of the arch, in fact corresponding with the salient angles between the shafts, shews that at least the face of this wall does not coincide with that of the original wall; that this arch was deeper by at least a flat sur-