THE SIX CHURCHES
Of the six churches, St. Mary's and All Saints have spires.
St. Mary's, on a hill which slopes to the river, is a fine arcaded
Early English tower with a broach spire of later date, but full
of beautiful work in statue and canopy, very much resembling
that at Ketton in Rutland. There are three curious round
panels with interlaced work over the porch, and a rich altar
tomb with very lofty canopy that commemorates Sir David
Phillips and his wife. They had served Margaret Countess of
Richmond, the mother of Henry VII., who resided at Collyweston
close by. The body of the church is rather crowded
together and not easy to view. In this respect All Saints,
with its turrets, pinnacles and graceful spire, and its double
belfry lights under one hood moulding as at Grantham, has the
advantage. Moreover the North Road goes up past it, and the
market place gives plenty of space all round it. Inside, the
arcade columns are cylindrical and plain on the north, but
clustered on the south side, with foliated capitals. This church
is rich in brasses, chiefly of the great wool-merchant family of
Browne, one of whom, William, founded a magnificent hospital
and enlarged the church, and in all probability built the handsome
spire; he was buried in 1489. The other churches all
have square towers, that of St. John's Church is over the last
bay of the north aisle, and at the last bay of the south aisle
is a porch. The whole construction is excellent, pillars tall,
roof rich and windows graceful, and it once was filled with
exceptionally fine stained glass. St. George's Church, being
rebuilt with fragments of other destroyed churches, shows a
curious mixture of octagonal and cylindrical work in the same
pillars. St. Michael's and St. Martin's are the other two, of
which the latter is across the water in what is called Stamford
Baron, it is the burial place of the Cecils and it is not far from
the imposing gateway into Burghley Park. This church and
park, with the splendid house designed by John Thorpe for the
great William Cecil in 1565, are all in the diocese of Peterborough,
and the county of Northampton. We shall have to
recall the church when we speak of the beautiful windows
which Lord Exeter was allowed by the Fortescue family to take
from the Collegiate Church of Tattershall, and which are now in
St. Martin's, where they are extremely badly set with bands
of modern glass interrupting the old. Another remnant of a
church stands on the north-west of the town, St. Paul's. This
