Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/249

 ARCHITECTURAL NOTICES. 139 abacus ; the arches have a torus, forming a continuous impost where they are not stopped by the capital of the dividing shaft, there being no corresponding shafts in the jambs. The angles of this stage, and the upper half of the stage beneath it, have a torus. The tower is finished with a course of Norman corbels or brackets, and is roofed with a low shingled broach spire. The interior of the tower, above the arches which support it, is quite plain, and appears never to have been open as a lantern. The arch of the belfry window internally does not correspond with that of the window in the lower stage, from which it seems reasonable to suspect that they are of different dates. The western arch of the tower is of one order, square, but having a torus on its western edge, which is also carried down, though not in quite a direct line, below the abacus of the impost. The eastern face of the same arch has a label and two plain orders without the torus, the impost having Norman shafts at the edges. The western fiice of the chancel is similar to this, with the addition of a torus on the outer edge of each order. The eastern face of the chancel arch has only one order, square and plain, and without a label, but the impost has a torus on the edge. It is evident there have never been transepts, but north and south windows with large splays. The apse is nearly semi- circular. It had originally three small Norman windows, which are now stopped up ; two pointed side windows are now inserted in different positions from the old ones, and breaking through the old string-course ; at present there is no east window open. This apse, and the low^er part of the tower, with its arches, may, I should think, be assigned to an early Norman period. The nave is modern, though a part of its south wall, retaining no architectural features, may be original. Between Newhaven and Lewes (a distance of less than eight miles) are two churches with the round western tower ; there is one also in the town of Lewes. And I am not aware if this feature, so common among the flint churches of Norfolk and Suffolk, occurs elsewhere in Sussex. The convenience of such a form to the builder, in a flint count}', as dispensing with angular dressings of stone, is evident. The tower of Piddinghoe Churcli, little more than a mile from Newhaven, is Norman ; it is not divided by string-courses into stages, but tapers slightly. Two small round-headed windows, one above the other, ffice westward; tlie belfry