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for it; and had been built into some other erection. Yet
the freshness of the stone, and its freedom from weather stains, shew that
such other erection had but a short existence. The numerous fragments of
ashlar, more or less wrought, found mixed with the flints, also lead to
the inference that the walling is constructed with materials derived from
some demolished building. The wooden mullion in the circular window
suggests that the original, of stone, had been rendered useless, and that
no proper material was procurable for a new one. This was to be expected,
in an age when ashlar was ordinarily used in very small pieces; but the
window would not have been designed, unless originally sufficient
materials for its completion were at hand. The irregularity in the setting
of the arches, at the sides of the chancel arch, seems to shew that the
Barfreston
mason
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did not know the proper arrangement, and could not have worked them,
nor have been guided by any competent supervisor. The forming of the
string mouldings with finished and uninjured corbels proves that more
corbels were at hand than were needed in the construction of the church,
which it is not credible there would have been if they were originally
provided for this building. The two external arched recesses, at the lower
part of the East end (rather anomalous features in a building of this
kind), were found to have been built against the wall, without any bonding
connection with it, as if they might have been erected for the purpose of
using up refuse materials, after the church was finished. The arch stones
of the niches, outside the nave, are prepared for arches of curves
different from those in which they are now seen.
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