Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/194

110 KEMARKS ON THE CHURCH OF the windows on their north sides were inserted when the Church was rebuilt, and pinnacles were then added to their buttresses, in order to harmonise their design with that of the rest of the building. Another most remarkable alteration, for the sake of obtaining uniformity, occurs in the old Congregation House. That building (as we have seen) is groined in stone, with a room of the same extent above it ; thus rendering windows in two tiers necessar}^ These still remain on the south side, where they owe their preservation to the obscurity of their situation ; they are also indicated in the lower room on the north side, but in order to destroy this character on the exterior, windows of large dimensions, wuth tracery, have been inserted, which are pierced for light in the upper room, but blanked between the mullions in the lower part to the exclusion of light from the apartment forming the lower story. On the south side the windows of the lower chamber are walled up. Those of the room above have sustained scarcely any injury ; but two of the number at the east end were destroyed in the fifteenth century, in order to the insertion of a bay window, which has since been rendered useless by the erection of the present sacrist}^ The gradual development of a more extended plan, com- menced in the earliest part of the fourteenth century, is very observable. But the intervals in carrying on the work allowed time for various changes in the styles of the architec- ture. Nearly two centuries elapsed from the erection of the Tower to the rebuilding of the chancel, of which the uncommon grandeur of proportion and studied simplicity have procured very general admiration, and have placed the genius which produced it in favourable comparison with that which a few years later designed and constructed the nave and aisles as they now stand. From east to west the low leaden roofs are concealed by parapets. The parapet of the chancel retains its original form ; that of the clerestory of the nave Avas enriched with panel work, of which some traces are still visible, but was neither embattled nor pierced. The buttresses are all terminated with pinnacles ; not one of which, however, is a specimen of original workmanship. Portions of several may be distinguished, and there is no difficulty in detecting those which were restored after the havoc made by the storm in the end of the fifteenth, or