Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/356

280 THE ABBEY CHURCH OF DORCHESTER. worked up again. There is some extent of the former at the S. E. angle, against which the west front of the aisle is built up. The round-headed windows may possibly be the original ones built up again, but they cannot be in their original position, as the break in the masonry is visible enough. The octagonal turrets of alternate flint and stone-work are, if I mistake not, a localism, not indeed of the country about Oxford, but of a district more to the south ; at least they occur again at Reading and Wal- lingford. Their effect would be good, except that they stop in a most awkward manner just below the battlement. The belfry windows are hideous, and the tower, on a near inspection, is altogether poor and clumsy ; yet it is not without efiect in a distant view ; its low and massive pro- portions are by no means out of character with the general appearance of the church, and I am sure it would be very ill exchanged for a loftier and more elaborate specimen. It has always struck me as having somehow or other a very monastic air ; from many points of view any one would suppose it to be central. ( To he continued.) i