Page:Bruton parish church restored and its historic environments (1907 V2).djvu/56

 form and feeling of the past. Over $27,000 has been spent for the structural preservation and restoration of the building. The foundations and roof timbers have been renewed; a shingle tile roof covers the building, and an iron and concrete floor safeguards it from dampness and fire. The tower woodwork, together with the clock, originally in the House of Burgesses, have been restored, and the bell, engraved, "The gift of James Tarpley to Bruton Parish, 1761," again rings out the passing hours. The high pulpit with overhanging sounding-board stands again at the southeast corner and is memorial to the Rev. Commissary James Blair. D. D., and the other clergy of the colonial period. The chancel has regained its place in the east, and with the aisles, is paved with white marble in which are set tombstones appropriately inscribed to mark the graves discovered during the process of excavation. Of the twenty-eight graves found in the aisles and chancel, nine were identified by letters and dates made by driving brass tacks in the wood of the coffin. Among the graves thus marked with marble slabs are those of Governor Francis Fauquier, Governor Edmund Jenings, and Dr. William Cocke, Secretary of State. The pews restored in colonial style have all been made memorial: those in the transepts, to twenty-one of the patriots of the Revolution; those in the choir, to the Surveyors-General and the Presidents of the College of William and Mary, and those in the nave, to the vestrymen of the parish during the colonial period. Each pew has upon the door a bronze tablet, inscribed with the name of the person memoralized. Over the Governor's pew has been placed a silken canopy, emblazoned with the name of Governor Alexander Spotswood, and affixed to the wall is a bronze tablet inscribed with the names of the colonial governors who worshipped here.

The Bible to be given by King Edward VII, and the Lectern to be presented by the President of the United States, are in memory of the three hundredth anniversary of the