liar capitals, the square and double square hood-mouldings, the descending half-round, the plain jambs of the transept arches, their double square imposts, the descending square moulding, and the peculiar masonry of those jambs, all accord with Anglo-Saxon architecture better than with Norman. The great length of the chancel in proportion to the nave is remarkable, and not usual in Norman churches; but I place no reliance upon it, for the like is found at Sompting; where the position of the communication between the Anglo-Saxon tower and the later nave is adverse to a supposition that the present nave and chancel occupy the site of the earlier church.10

It may appear strange, that, if this church be Anglo-Saxon, there should be no unquestionable trace of any original doorway or window. But, as the original church must have had a doorway and windows, this objection would be equally applicable to the assignment of any date to it prior to the thirteenth century; yet the church is certainly older than that period. A comparison of the intervals of the pilasters on the south side makes it probable that an original doorway occupied the site of the present south door. The absence of all such traces may be accounted for, not only by the plaster and whitewash, but by both the doorways occupying the places of the former doorways, and some of the windows being enlargements of those which preceded them.

It has been noticed that the roofs of the transepts spring from the stringcourses. Seeing that the earliest windows in the nave and chancel are lancets, and are above the stringcourse, and no pilaster appears there, I have been led to consider whether it is likely that the original roofs of the nave and chancel also sprang from the stringcourses, and whether the walls may not have been raised above the stringcourse in the thirteenth century, and those lancet windows made in the new work. The walls of Stanton Lacy Church do not appear to have ever been lower than these now are, and those of Corhampton but little so; and, if the roofs of this nave and chancel ever sprang from the stringcourses, they must have been low, especially the chancel, as the stringcourse on it is not so high as that on the nave. Still it is remarkable, that the string

10 See a plan of Sompting Church, Archæol. Journal, vol. xi, p. 141.

course of the nave and the capitals of the piers of the chancel arch are nearly on a level, as if designed with reference to each other; and, if the roof had a pitch not greater than might be expected on an Anglo-Saxon church, there would have been ample room for that arch, which we have seen is 22 feet 5 inches in the opening above the floor, the radius being about 7 feet, and the piers about 15 feet: add to which, that the walls of Dunham Church, Suffolk, which are reputed to be Anglo-Saxon, are, if I mistake not, no higher than these would be if they did not rise above the stringcourse. Had these been raised, the upper part of the quoins would be later than the lower; and at the south-west corner of the nave a few stones near the top, but no more, look later than the rest: on the other hand, however, the quoin at the south-east corner has all the appearance of being original to the present roof, and if this be so, the wall cannot have been raised as supposed. On the whole, I am induced to think the walls are of their original height; but, should indubitable traces of similar pilasters above the stringcourse be hereafter discovered, the question would be settled beyond all reasonable doubt.

A supposed difference in the stringcourse on the north side of the nave, and the absence of pilasters below it, led Mr. Hussey to conclude the north wall had been rebuilt, though on the old foundation. If so, it must in all probability have taken place when or before the lancet window was formed. But that stringcourse is in fact chamfered like the one on the south side, and in other respects bears a great resemblance to it, and is as near as may be of the same height. Pilasters have been removed, we know, either wholly or in part, from other portions of the building, and therefore there is nothing improbable in supposing that those on the north side of the nave may have been taken away when some great reparation was effected; which may have been when the buttress was erected at the north-west corner. Whatever traces of them remained would now be concealed by the plaster.

In conclusion, I would observe, that though I concur in the opinion that this church is substantially Anglo-Saxon, I see no good reason for believing it to be of earlier date than the first half of the eleventh century. I incline to think the nave and chancel were not built at once; for the difference in the height

of the stringcourses upon them, not to mention the variation in form, suggests that the chancel was first erected. Being a forest country, there may have been a temporary wooden nave which was shortly afterwards replaced by the present, for the interval cannot have been long. The stringcourses on the transepts resemble that on the chancel; but then they were never free and independent strings, but were, I conceive, originally introduced merely to carry the roofs, or at least to mark to the eye the roof-bearing lines. Etheldred II married in 1002 a Norman princess, who afterwards became the queen of his successor Canute. She was the mother of Edward the Confessor by Etheldred. A Norman influence in architecture began to be experienced, it is believed, in this island several years before the Conquest, and it is said to have been encouraged by the Confessor, who had spent some years in Normandy. Still, if the inscribed stone found on the site of Deerhurst Church, Gloucestershire, recorded the erection of that church,11 as seems most probable, the AngloSaxon peculiarities had not, it is manifest, become extinct at that period of the Confessor's reign. Opinion will always outrun assignable evidence and logical inference; and, if I were required to state more definitely when I think this church was built, I should say that it was commenced and the chancel completed, I conceive, in the latter part of the troubled reign of Etheldred II, or in the somewhat more quiet one of Canute, and the nave was added in the reign of Edward the Confessor, not long after his accession.

11 Companion to the Glossary of Architecture, p. 26.

VIII.

32

EXTRACTS FROM THE "ITER SUSSEXIENSE"!

OF DR. JOHN BURTON.

TRANSLATED

BY W. H. BLAAUW, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A.

READ AT HORSHAM, JULY 12, 1855.

AMONG the witnesses to the almost inaccessible condition of Sussex in former times, few are more remarkable than Dr. Burton, who, little more than a hundred years ago, wrote an account of his occasional visits to the county, partly in Latin, but principally in Greek.

The bad roads then made a journey across the country so slow and difficult, that this learned scholar seems to have thought himself entitled to impart something of the same character to any attempt to follow his footsteps through the Sussex mud, and, by composing his "Essays of a Traveller” in Greek and Latin, effectually impeded any frequent or popular intercourse with his remarks. He avowed, indeed, his contempt, as we shall presently see, for the opinion of those who could not understand his Latin. The natural result has been that his description of Sussex men and manners has remained almost unknown, and, although written with much liveliness and shrewdness of observation, requires, and, it is hoped, justifies the present attempt to introduce it to wider notice.

Dr. John Burton's connection with Sussex was only accidental, as he was born, in 1696, at Wembworth in Devonshire, where his father was rector. While yet only seventeen, he went to Oxford, and was elected a scholar of Corpus Christi College, and, after becoming B.A., continued there as tutor and Greek lecturer for fifteen years, superintending also the Clarendon press.

1 Οδοιπορούντος Μελετήματα sive Iter Surriense et Sussexiense.-Peregrinantur, rusticantur. Londini, prostant apud J.

et J. Rivington, in Cemeterio Paulino, et J. Fletcher, Oxon. MDCCLII.

Although not an Etonian by education, he was in the year 1733 elected a Fellow of Eton College, a favour he owed to having had many Etonians as his pupils. When he went to take possession of the vicarage of Mapledurham, to which he had been appointed in 1734, he found there Mrs. Littleton, the widow of the former vicar, with her three daughters, and they were compassionately allowed by him to remain. This intimacy, after one of his visitors, a neighbouring clergyman, had found the lady acting as his barber and shaving him, soon resulted in his marrying her. The daughters continued his guests even after his wife's death in 1748, and he then resided principally at Eton College. He seems to have acquired a nickname there, as in a satirical pamphlet of 1749, he is styled "Jack of Eton, commonly called Jack the Giant.' He took the degree of B.D. and D.D., and published many sermons. He became rector of Worplesham in Surrey in 1766; and dying at Eton on February 11, 1771, at the age of seventysix, was buried at the entrance of the inner chapel of the college. There is, however, no monumental record of him there.

All his works were printed at Oxford, and occupy five volumes, of which-1st and 2nd are Sermons, 1764; 3rd, Remarks on Clarendon, 1744; 4th, Opuscula Miscellanea Theologica, without date; 5th, Opuscula Miscellanea Metricoprosaica, 1771. This last contains vorovvTOS μEλETYμATAνοσούντος μελετηματα οδοιπορούντος μελετηματα-Iter Sussexiense-απο Σετσηξίας, carmen epistolare-αποδημούντος μελετήματα, ο Journey in France-a Lamentation over his Dying Wife.2

Before passing on to his Sussex travels, this account of the author may be fitly concluded by the critical remarks, with which the learned Provost of Eton, Dr. Hawtrey, who had been personally informed of the character of Dr. Burton by a late Etonian, remembering him as a contemporary, has been good enough to furnish this brief sketch:-" He was a very remarkable man. Among the many very curious MSS. he left, one was an 'Essay on Projected Improvements in Eton School,' never printed, and since lost.

2 The details of his life, in Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary, are mainly taken from a Memoir, written by his friend and cousin, Dr. Edward Bentham, Canon of Christ Church, and published at the time.

It is said that he grew unpo

In Watts's Bibliotheca Britannica, 1824, he is erroneously described as "M.D. and Antiquary," and many medical works are wrongly ascribed to him.