Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/250

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NOTES TO SUSSEX.

Suss. I, 521.) Of that castle the outer walls, including the towers, are yet standing, and the moat is entire.

35. Bosham.—This church comprehends chancel, nave with north and south aisles, south porch, and western tower with shingled spire. The chancel arch is unusually lofty, originally round, but now depressed in the centre. The pier shafts are remarkably high, the upper portion of the capitals being square abaci, below them a round moulding resembling a shallow cushion, and beneath those the capitals of the several shafts. The entire contour of the arch is peculiar, but I should pronounce it more like E.E., than an earlier style. The chancel is E.E., very large and lofty. At the east end are five lancet windows, rising in height to the central, under arches, and divided by detached shafts, which with others at the sides are of Petworth marble. Three other original windows are double lancets, under single arches with side shafts of Petworth marble; one is Perp. with a transom; and another is a new Dec. imitation. The piscina is double under trefoiled arches. Corbels of heads generally perfect remain in the sides below the wall-plates. In the north wall is a simple, but good E.E. tomb, on which lies, loose, a small female effigy with the feet resting on a lion. There are some tiles brought from the north aisle, and a little Perp. stall-work. The exterior of the north wall shows traces of some addition there formerly. The interior of the nave and aisles seems early E.E., rather than Tr. Norm. They contain one original window, two Dec., one Perp., and the remainder are new, copies of the old Dec. The north door is E.E. in a Norm. wall. At the east end of the south aisle is a groined E.E. crypt, above which in the south wall is a piscina under a trefoiled arch. Between the crypt and the south door is a tomb with an ornamented arch and a plain Petworth marble slab. The font is octagon with plain round arches slightly sunk in the sides, and four E.E. shafts arranged round the stem, the whole of Petworth marble. There are several oak benches. The Norm. tower arch has a small window, straight-sided below, and terminating upward in a flat-sided arch, and also a kind of slit, above it. The walls are very massive, with several roundheaded windows. On the exterior are the remains of two stages of square-edged string-courses, resembling those in supposed Saxon examples, but not unlike Norm., and immediately below the spire is a Norm. corbel table. The original roof of the nave was very high, and