originally the abbey church, to which was united the parochial place of worship. "Since the suppression," says Leland, " one a great rich man, dwelling in the town of Dorchester, bought the east part of the church for 1401. and gave it to augment the parish church." This venerable pile has a square and weighty, but rather low, west tower, with a turret at three of the angles, and an embattled parapet at the top. Near to the porch of entrance, and adjacent to the remains of the abbey, is a projection of stone-work, which contains four pointed, but vacant, recesses. In the church-yard, not far distant from the division of building thus ornamented with niches, is a mutilated cross; the shaft taper, and three ranges of kneeling places at the base. On the north side of the church are the traces of a cloister, which formed a communication with the abbey by a door at the west end of the north aisle, now stopped. The interior of the building is seventy-s -seven yards from east to west, by seventy, in width, including the aisles; and the height about fifty-five feet. The whole is divided by two rows of Gothic arches, and at present consists of a nave, chancel, and north and south aisles. Both the aisles have distinct marks of an altar, and places for the holy water, &c. at the east end. The mullions of the north window of the present chancel are carved to represent a tree of sacred genealogy. At the root lies the prostrate figure of Jesse, and from his body the tree is made · to proceed. On the branches are carved twenty-four figures; and at the top, beneath a rise of flowers, was a figure of Jesus, long since removed. There are, likewise, sixteen figures painted on the glass, fifteen of which have a name appended. In the compartments of the great east window, over the communion table, are various paintings, describing, in the old Saxon style, different passages in the History of Birinus. These curious relics of early church-decoration were formerly in the north window of the nave; but were removed, about four years back, to their present situation, under the superintendance of Captain Kennett, then residing at the contiguous parsonage house. The oc casion of removal was the danger from wantonness to which the glass was exposed; and much taste has been evinced in the mode of their novel arrangement. Under the south window of the chancel are four canopied recesses, divided only by slender square pillars. Three of these were probably intended for the reception of the priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, during some parts of the high, or solemn, mass which was performed in the chancel. The fourth contains the Piscina used for the washing, or purifying, of the hands; and another receptacle for water. The compartments of glass immediately above are filled with paintings, one of which has the inscription Sanctus Birinus * under the figure of a bishop receiving a cross from a king, another king standing bebind. This, probably, represents the investiture of Birinus by Cinegils, at which Oswald, King of Northumberland, assisted. The colours of this curious little piece are rich and vivid. The chancel within the rails is paved with glazed tiles, and the wall, on both sides, has been painted with various emblematical figures. The whole of these pictorial embellishments, have been long whitened over but the design may be easily traced through fissures Birinus, according to Bede, was esteemed a miracle of sanctity by the people whom he had converted. Camden observes, that the very old poet, who wrote his life in Latin verse, honours him with commendatory lines, which, translated, stand thus: A nobler theme than Hercules of old, Victory o'er both, and then a greater gain'd Over himself; and conquer'd, Conqueror reign'd. The author of the History of Alchester at the end of Kennet's Parochial Antiquities, mentions a round hill on which a shrine was erected to St. Birinus, and to which the superstitious resorted for miraculous succour when their cat, tle were distempered. fissures made by time in the covering. Lions, griffins, and various fantastical effigies, which, if they have not an heraldic meaning are trifling and misplaced, were the only subjects submitted to the severity of the white-washer's brush. On the third pillar from the entrance of the church, a pillar now shut from the nave by a recent inclosure, is a carving called the five foolish virgins. This has evidently formed the bracket to a statue. The sculpture is much obliterated, and the design scarcely to be ascertained. The "virgins" are in various postures, sitting, kneeling, and crouching. Over the shoulders of each seems the rude representation of a veil; and to one is united a small figure, which Gough calls "an angel sounding a trumpet." This baby-semblance is unattired, and we could not perceive any vestige of a musical instrument. Perhaps some examiners might be tempted to believe the whole intended as a satire on an order of nuns that chanced to be objectionable to the black canons of St. Augustine. The church of Dorchester is mournfully affluent, through all its precincts, in the ashes of exalted churchmen, and other persons of important rank, On the south side of the church, in a part separated from the aisle by a screen, is placed the mutilated figure in freestone of a bishop, which was dug from the northern aisle, and is supposed to be bishop Aeschwine. In different parts are "four stones, with a cross and brasses for abbots. A white stone, with a figure of a bishop, and inscription cut in black strokes, for Roger, Prior of Ranton, co. Stafford, abbot here, and Episcopus Lidensis, 1510. Another for Abbot Sutton, 1349, a hand holding a crosier; and another for Abbot Richard Beauforest.” * On the south side of the chancel is the effigy of a knight drawing his sword, a round helmet on the head, and a pointed shield on the arm. The legs crossed. At the foot of this effigy is a tomb, concerning which both Leland "Ther lyith land and Dr. Stukely fell into a strange mistake. at the feet of the knight," says Leland, "one Stoner, sometime a Judge, (as apperith by his habit) in the reign of King Edward III." The figure thus described is evidently that of a Lady, recumbent on an altar-tomb. The effigy is small; the hands folded, as in supplication, over the breast. The drapery of the attire is three folds deep, the outer garment descending only half way down the leg. The sleeves of the dress come nearly to the wrist, and are scolloped above the elbow. A kind of cloak is fastened round the neck by a band, and descends not much lower than the shoulders. The face is clearly feminine. On the canopy at the head is a cross fleure, and on the tomb four shields, with two bars indented, and a chief. On the north side of the choir is a narrow and high altar-tomb, with the effigy, in alabaster, of a knight in armour, his head on a plain helmet, and a lion at his feet. On the surcoat is a lion, or griffin, rampant. Concerning this monument Leland says "Ther lyith a Knight on the north side of the Quier, whom the late abbot took to be one of the Segraves; the image was of alabaster; but, after, the abbot told me that he heard one say of late that there was one Holcum a knight buried." To this uncertain intelligence communicated by the abbot, nothing can now be added. It may, however, be mentioned, as an instance of the vanity of sepulchral honours, that the slabs of the monument are partly in a disjoined state, and nothing appears within but a very few bones thrown unceremoniously into one corner. About the year 1750, a stone coffin was dug from the middle of the chancel, containing a body in gilt scolloped leather, with a pewter chalice; and a second coffin of a similar description, enclosing nothing but mould. A stone coffin was, also, dug from the south side of the church some time after the above; and, in the present year (1813,) another has been taken up, which is six feet four inches in the clear, and contained a skeleton, the skull resting in a head-place. The Font is supposed to be of Birinus' time, and has been said said to be "the most ancient, and perhaps only one of its kind, in the world.” * This interesting vestige is of cast lead, and is not very large. On the sides the twelve apostles are represented, each sitting in a separate stall. The figures are in tolerable preservation, with an exception of the faces, which have received some injury from wantonness. In consequence of the former privileges of the abbey, Dorchester church has a peculiar jurisdiction over eleven parishes, and is exempt from episcopal visitation. According to the returns made to Parliament in 1811, the number of houses in this decayed town is only 151. In the same account the total number of inhabitants is stated to be 754. A new bridge is now building, with Headington stone, over the river Thame, in such a direction as will considerably improve the approach to the town, while it frees the high road from an inconvenient curve. The ancient bridge is a mean and narrow structure, with recesses on one side to enable foot passengers to avoid the real danger threatened by the transit of carriages. At the distance of a quarter of a mile from the east end of the embankment, termed Dyke Hills, is the conflux of the Thame and Isis, a circumstance so prolific of poetical allusion with the romantic writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. * Near the conflux is a spot called the Prince's Castle. Here Chaucer By Stukely and Gough The poetical origin of the word Thames (Tamisis) from this junction is said by Camden to have been first noticed by the author of the Eulogium Historiarum. Camden's own poem on the fanciful subject is well known, and it certainly does him little credit as a chorographer. The "marriage of the Isis," and Drayton's verses on the subject in the Polyolbion, have entirely led to the present popular error. It is singular that the two poets differ in opinion as to the propriety of Sex bestowed on their allegorical personages. Describing the approach of the nuptials, Camden says Now Tame had caught the wisht-for social flame |