Risby, Suffolk

St Giles, open, is a Norman round tower church - so that's a winner in itself - but in addition to that it's full of interest; an east window of re-used medieval glass, wallpaintings, a good chancel screen and a fantastic font. I think on a normal day this would have been my church of the day but so many today had been outstanding it falls into the class of the best last church I visited.

ST GILES. Norman round tower. Two tiers of arched openings at the top. Rude arch with one order of shafts into the nave. Norman nave  - see the top of one former window visible inside. The windows mostly c. 1300; also of that date the doorway. Norman chancel arch, or at least Dec chancel arch in which Norman imposts and abaci and a whole order of Late Norman arch decoration are re-used. To the l. and r. of the wide pointed arch richly Dec niches, two l. and two r., with crocketed ogee gables. The chancel is clearly Dec. The tracery is of the reticulated kind. To the l. and r. of the E window niches with ogee arches. Also ogee-arched PISCINA. Contemporary a small and pretty N doorway with hood-mould on head-stops. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with the Signs of the Evangelists and the Annunciation. - PULPIT. Jacobean.-SCREEN. Narrow but uncommonly fine. l. and r. of the entrance one three-light division (three-light divisions are unusual in Suffolk). Crocketed ogee lights with a trellis of cusped tracery over. - BENCHES. With poppy-heads and decorated seat-backs. - WALL PAINTINGS. A memorable series, though only dimly recognizable. On the N wall, near the W end, a large Ecclesiastic, c. 1200 or a little later. Of the same time scenes in arcades a little further E: the Nativity Story above (e.g. Massacre of the Innocents, Flight into Egypt), Lives of Saints below. Much scroll-work of the C13. Noli me tangere, W of the w window, late C14. - ALTAR CROSS, designed by Pugin. - STAINED GLASS. Chancel SE many C14 fragments. - Nave SE by Kempe, c. 1892. —PLATE. Silver-gilt Paten c. 1580 ; silver-gilt Chalice 1633.

RISBY. It is delightful with shady lanes and lovely gardens, a pool by a row of trees, and a pleasant green; and it has a long narrow church chiefly built when the Norman style was turning into English but the round tower, with its narrow window slits, is Norman. There are old crosses on the gables, and a scratch dial on the 15th century porch, which shelters a good doorway. The Normans built the tower arch and decorated the columns of the chancel arch, which was finished by their successors. On either side are carved niches coloured blue and gold, one having a modern figure of the church’s patron, St Giles, with a fawn. The 15th century screen is delicately carved, and with it still are the doorway and stairs to the roodloft. There are richly carved old benches with poppyheads, a 500-year-old font, an ancient ironbound chest, and traces of painting done in the 14th century when the chancel was built and most of the windows were made. What is left of the old glass is collected in two chancel windows, where saints and kings look out among the brilliantly coloured fragments.

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Westley, Suffolk - St Thomas A Becket

St Thomas A Becket, ruined, is a lovingly maintained but ultimately dull remnant - the ivy covered partial east and west end walls are all that remain and are of little interest.

Of the medieval church of ST THOMAS A BECKET there remains in a field, 1 m. W of the new church, the E wall with the void of the E window.

WESTLEY. It has seen the Romans come and go, and the museum at Bury St Edmunds has a Roman burial urn broken here by an English plough. One of its leafy lanes runs past charming thatched cottages to an orchard and a field where the ruined walls of a church stand, forlorn but hallowed by centuries of prayer. Not far away is a concrete church a little over a century old, with one relic of the mother church - a piece of oak from the ancient chancel screen, carved with a curious face.

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Westley, Suffolk - St Mary

On paper an 1835 concrete church should be appalling but actually St Mary, locked, no keyholder, is a triumph of style over substance. Having checked with Suffolk Churches I didn't miss much inside but the exterior more than made up for it being LNK. I think Pevsner is unduly harsh.

ST MARY. 1835 by W. Ranger. Roman cement, in the lancet style, with a SW tower and a very crude and ignorant spire. - PLATE. Paten 1564; Flagon 1703.

WESTLEY. It has seen the Romans come and go, and the museum at Bury St Edmunds has a Roman burial urn broken here by an English plough. One of its leafy lanes runs past charming thatched cottages to an orchard and a field where the ruined walls of a church stand, forlorn but hallowed by centuries of prayer. Not far away is a concrete church a little over a century old, with one relic of the mother church - a piece of oak from the ancient chancel screen, carved with a curious face.

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Fornham St Martin, Suffolk

St Martin, open, is so thoroughly restored that I took it for a Victorian build - it's not, only the south aisle is from 1870, the nave is old. It's a very dark interior although to be fair by the time I got here storm clouds were gathering. The highlights of the interior are the misericords, unusually re-used in the lectern and reader's desk, and some good stained glass [for the record I don't recall Pevsner's gilded altar putti and if the brass is extant I missed it, also I'm not sure how Mee could misread the misericords so badly]. Despite first impressions I came away feeling that this was really rather special.

ST MARTIN. Perp with a S aisle of 1870. The W tower has unusually tall two-light bell-openings with a transom and battlements with flushwork chequerboard decoration. Nave tracery with straight-sided arches. N porch of brick with a stepped gable. - FONT. Perp, octagonal, simple. - MISERICORDS. Two, re-used in lectern and reader’s desk. They represent St Martin and the Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket. - SCULPTURE. On the altar two small gilded praying putti from some Baroque altar, perhaps in Germany. -  COMMUNION RAIL. Mid C17. - PLATE. Cup c. 1566. - (BRASS. To a man in academic dress; c. 1460. LG).

FORNHAM ST MARTIN. Its 15th century church has a sturdy tower, chequered at the top and with gargoyles under the battlements. There are windows with good pictures of the life of Our Lord, carved stalls, a cherub on each side of the altar, and a font carved about 500 years ago. But we remember more especially two quaint little carvings here, one of a man and a woman on horseback between two winged figures, the other of a knight beheading a lady who is kneeling between a bishop and another knight. There is an inscription to a faithful servant of the church who came to blow the organ Sunday after Sunday for 40 years, and another to Sir Harry St George Ord, who last century gave the best years of his life in the service of the Empire. It was in memory of him that his friend the Sultan of Johore built the village hall. Sir Harry was the first Colonial Governor of the Straits Settlements, and, though a man of Kent, he settled down here for the last few years of his life, which began in 1819 and ended in 1885.

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Timworth, Suffolk

It took me a while to find St Andrew, locked, no keyholder, and as I drove down through the fields I was fairly sure it was going to be LNK. I've visited remoter churches and found them open but with no houses nearby I knew this church would either be locked or permanently open - sadly it's the former. The location is stunning and the south west tower is a relative rarity. It's a shame it's inaccessible because this is a lovely place. Pevsner's so short I wonder if he even visited.

ST ANDREW. Though called rebuilt in 1868, much is clearly of the old building, especially the S porch and the early C14 doorway. Dec nave, E.E. chancel. - COMMUNION RAIL. With twisted balusters.

Another one Mee missed - have I mentioned before that he's very unreliable?

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Ampton, Suffolk

St Peter, locked, keyholders listed but they're all in Great Livermere and I couldn't be arsed to turn around and seek, possibly futilely, them out - searching on Flickr and reading Pevsner this was a mistake so a revisit is required.

I revisited [Mar 2019] and found the keyholder and can confirm this is a wonderous interior.

ST PETER. Nave and chancel and W tower. Much restored by Teulon about 1848. The only interesting part is the N chantry chapel, built, according to its inscription, as a Capella Perpetue Cantarie Johis Coket. The foundation was granted in 1479. Four-centred arch from the church with cresting over. The arch is panelled inside. Nice boarded chancel roof with painted bosses, etc., re-discovered in 1889. - COMMUNION RAIL. Late C18. - PLATE. Paten 1631; Cup 1637; Flagon 1639; Almsdish 1714. - MONUMENTS. Brasses probably of Cokets: kneeling Civilian and Wife, c. 1480 (18 in.); Lady of c. 1480 (17 in.); Lady c. 1490 (12 in.; palimpsest of portion of a lady of c. 1460); two Sons (only 6 in.) c. 1490. All nave floor, except the Lady of c. 1490. This brass is on the N wall of the nave. - William Whettell d. 1628 by Nicholas Stone. Rather flatly modelled frontal bust in an arched niche. Good. - Sir Henry Calthorpe, by John and Matthias Christmas, 1638. Two frontal demi-figures holding hands; in a circular niche. Small figures of children in the ‘predella’ below. Two columns support an open segmental pediment. - Dorothy Calthorpe d. 1693. Kneeling figure in an arched niche, a conservative motif. - James Calthorpe d. 1784. Oval medallion with head in profile, before an obelisk. Attributed to Bacon in Suff. Arch. Soc. vol. I, but not signed.

AMPTON. A lovely village along a quiet road, it is best approached from Ingham by a way through wonderful pine woods where it is dark at noonday. The hall stands in nearly 700 acres of woods and meadows, and has a splendid lake; in its park, among many other fine trees, are Chilean pines, cedars of Lebanon, cork trees, and tulip trees. The great house itself is modern, but its predecessor was the birthplace of Ampton’s famous man, Admiral Fitzroy, one of our pioneer meteorologists. He was born in Trafalgar year in the home of the Calthorpes, and entered the Navy at 14. He was on the famous voyage of the Beagle in which Darwin started his career, and he became interested in forecasting the weather, beginning the first official forecasts in 1861.

There is much to remind us of the Calthorpes in the little 15th century church. A massive marble monument shows Henry Calthorpe of 1536 holding hands with his wife while their sons and daughters kneel below; and near by is a marble bust of Sir Henry of 1628 in his fur-collared robe and ruff. An 18th century tablet shows the profile of James Calthorpe, and an elaborate monument shows Dorothy who founded the charming almshouses in 1693. We see her at prayer, and her inscription begs us to let her rest::

I troubled no man's dust; let others be to me as just.

The chancel has a painted roof, part of which is Jacobean, and an attractive east window of Christ and four saints, Peter, Paul, Edmund, and Ethelred. The chantry was built at the beginning of the Tudor Age by John Coket, and has a fine arch with modern mosaics at the sides, one of St Christopher and one of St George. In the nave are three 15th century brasses with figures of a man, two women, and six children, all unknown; on the wall is an inscription to Jeremy Collier, rector here from 1679 to 1684, historian of the Church and a great controversalist. Macaulay said, “he was, in the full force of the words, a good man.” ‘The rare treasure of the church is its “Sealed Book,” of which neither the British Museum nor the Bodleian has a copy. It is a revised Prayer Book of 1661, with a signed and sealed certificate at the end to prove that it had been examined and found to be a perfect copy of the original parchment Prayer Book attached in 1662 to the Act of Uniformity and called The Book Annexed.

The churchyard has some very old tombstones, one near the porch being to William Sakings of 1689, who during his 78 years was in the service of three Stuart kings. The lovely rectory has a walled garden with a charming cottage and a riotous profusion of flowers.

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Great Livermere, Suffolk

St Peter, open, is a delight but I'm not quite sure why! It's partly the location, partly the wallpaintings, a lot to do with the pulpit and largely the sanctuary altar rails [what at first sight appears to be a pub sign hangs in the west end but on further examination transpires to be a memorial to William Sakings, falconer to Charles 1 & 2 and James 2 - I've never seen anything like it, so that also helps].

ST PETER. The W tower stands only to roof-height. Above that a weatherboarded top with pyramid roof. The stone parts are Dec, see the W window and the tower arch. Dec also the chancel in its present form, though blocked lancet windows tell of an earlier, C1I3, state. Dec E window of three lights. Four-centred arch. The tracery consists of arch-heads upon the three arch-heads of the lights and in the two main shapes thus produced two small cusped reticulation motifs one below the other. Inside, niches l. and r. of the window. The nave windows are Dec too, though the simple N doorway seems to be of c. 1200. A large niche inside, in the N wall, Perp. Also the outline of a Perp Easter Sepulchre in the chancel N wall. The chancel roof has beautifully carved broad wall-plates with various leaf and tracery patterns. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with tracery patterns. - PULPIT. A three-decker of the rare date c. 1700; with acanthus foliage. - BENCHES. One end with elaborate tracery. Three later ones with very coarse, under-developed poppy-heads. One of them is dated 1601. - SCREEN. With broad one-light divisions and ogee tops. - COMMUNION RAIL. Three-sided. Very thin, twisted balusters; Georgian. - WALL PAINTING. Two standing C14 figures, perhaps part of the story of the Three Quick and the Three Dead (nave N wall). Also a Noli me tangere, much faded (nave S wall), and some scroll-work (chancel S wall). - PLATE. Paten c. 1690 ; Cup 1809 ; Almsdish 1823.

GREAT LIVERMERE. It has all the charm of the cottages Suffolk delights in, peeps of a park, and a thatched church which preserves a scratch dial which told the village the time in the days before clocks. The 700-year-old chancel is oldest of all; the chancel arch was made by the 14th century men who built the tower with its odd cap of grey tiles showing just above the nave. The font is 14th century and the porch 15th. On the walls are traces of old paint. By the altar are two canopied niches. There is a 500-year-old screen, and we found here a great rarity, a box-pew with two piscinas in it. The chancel roof is finely carved, but the best possession is the attractive three-decker pulpit, rich with foliage and standing near a vaulted recess in the wall.

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Little Livermere, Suffolk

SS Peter & Paul, ruined, sits in a farmyard and there's a very prominent sign on the gatepost reading PRIVATE PROPERTY KEEP OUT which is, of course, perfectly reasonable but it does mean that it is, sadly, inaccessible. Inaccessible is probably the wrong word as it's ruined but you know what I mean.

ST PETER AND ST PAUL. In ruins. The W tower was heightened, it is said, to be seen from the Hall, no doubt in the C18. Nave and chancel in one with Y-tracery in brick surrounds, i.e. also C18. The N chapel is an C18 addition with a Gothic plaster vault. The N doorway, however, has a decorated Norman lintel, and the NE corner Saxon long-and-short work. The former BOX PEW arrangement is described by Cautley.

Mee missed it.

Troston, Suffolk

St Mary, open, is not just an attractive building in aa attractive setting but it is full of interest with good poppyheads, a Jacobean pulpit, a fine chancel screen, an excellent Harry Stammers east window, a James I set of arms and, it's crowning glory, a very good set of wallpaintings. On top of all that it also was sporting There but not there silhouettes in the pews. On a day of good churches it could easily be the church of the day. Annoyingly I missed the rood screen dado behind the altar.

ST MARY. E.E. chancel with lancet windows N and S (broad rere-arches inside) and an E window with three stepped lancet lights. W tower of c. 1300. Fine, steep tower arch. Dec nave, the two-light windows have in the tracery head the favourite figure of the four-petalled flower. The nave roof has scissor-bracing above as well as below the collar-beams. Perp S porch with flushwork panelling. Entrance with fleurons etc. Three niches above it. Battlements with initials. - PULPIT. Two decker, made up of various parts. The pulpit itself Jacobean, the reader’s desk with parts which may be Italian. - SCREEN Of one-light divisions, with ogee arches and tracery over.* - ROOD LOFT. The E front re-used behind the altar, a rare survival. - COMMUNION RAIL. Jacobean. - BENCHES. With poppy-heads and animals on the arms. - WALL PAINTINGS A large C15 St George, a large C15 St Christopher, a smaller St George of c. 1250, and a Martyrdom of St Edmund. Fragment of a Doom over the chancel arch. - STAINED GLASS. Canopies etc. in the N windows. - PLATE. Almsdish inscribed 1715; Set 1778.

* A will proved in 1459/60 leaves 6:. 8d. to the new making of the candle beam (ARA).

TROSTON. It has many things that make a village charming: timbered cottages in the shade of great trees, delightful gardens, an old barn, a quaint round house with flint walls, and an ancient church with a magnificent medieval porch. The door itself is ancient, its ironwork being 600 years old. The tower and the nave are 14th century and the chancel 13th. The nave has windows with fragments of old glass; the chancel has a double piscina and two rare rings once used for hanging the Lenten veil.

There is a 15th century screen, tall and richly carved; a 13th century font on a big round base; a modern pulpit with a reading desk beautifully carved, and a collection of old and new seats with poppyheads among them, a monkey and a dog and one or two odd beasts. The stairs to the roodloft have gone, but the doors are still here. On some of these walls medieval paintings can still be seen, though most of their glory has vanished. Over the chancel arch is part of a Doom picture, and elsewhere we see a quaint St Christopher with two fishes between his feet, a spirited St George with his horse leaping forward as he slays the dragon, and a scene of the martyrdom of St Edmund with two 13th century soldiers.

The village has two houses each with a memory in the realms of literature. One is the rectory among its fine trees, where Thomas Carlyle came to see an old pupil; the other is Troston Hall on the road to Ixworth, a charming Elizabethan house of red brick with two gables, twisted chimneys, and clipped yew hedges. It has some fine plaster ceilings, a richly carved frieze in the library, and its original hall and staircase. At the beginning of last century it was the home of Capell Lofft, one of the first patrons of Robert Bloomfield.

Edward Capell was one of the earliest commentators on Shakespeare and spent 20 years on a ten-volume edition of the plays. He is said to have transcribed the whole of Shakespeare ten times and he quarrelled with Garrick for speaking many speeches without understanding them. His nephew Capell Lofft inherited Troston Hall at his uncle’s death in 1781, and not only helped Robert Bloomfield but was one of the staunch supporters of Wilberforce in his fight against the Slave Trade.

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Sapiston, Suffolk

St Andrew, open, is in the care of the CCT and is therefore, as you'd expect, rather special. The Norman south door is spectacular, the interior whilst spartan, again as expected, is fantastic [I particularly liked the nave roof] and the location is stunning - it's almost alone out in the fields away from the village. All in all lovely.

ST ANDREW. Nave, chancel, and W tower; S porch. All c. 1300 and a little later. The only older element is the S doorway: Norman, with two orders of shafts, single-scalloped capitals, and arch with an unusual ornamental motif.

SAPISTON. It was here that little Robert Bloomfield did his first day’s work. Suffolk’s nature poet, he was a very small boy when he came to live on William Austin’s farm, half an hour’s walk from the cottage he was born in at Honington. A peaceful spot was the village then, and it seemed to us peaceful now, for we passed through it seeing only one man, and he asleep in his garden. Sapiston has a few pleasant houses on a wooded hill, where we look to Honington over green fields. It has a bridge over the Blackbourne stream, a group of ancient elms, and a 15th century church sharing the loneliness of a beautiful farmhouse. It has a fine Norman doorway with a stone face Robert Bloomfield must have looked at many times, and a Norman font with part of the iron ring to which the lock was fastened when the holy water was guarded against witches. The pulpit and oak reredos are 19th century, but the ancient stairs to the roodloft are still here, and the piscina is curious for having a big opening and a little one, a sort of pigeon-hole 500 years old.

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Culford Heath, Suffolk

St Peter, redundant, has been converted in to a house. This is an extraordinarily remote building and was missed by both Pevsner and Mee. Whilst trying to find a postcode for it I came across this site which documents its conversion. Simon Knott did some research on it and his discoveries can be found here.

Barnham, Suffolk - St Gregory

Whilst it is true to say that St Gregory, open, has suffered from a brutal restoration and that there's not much internal interest, I really liked this church. I may have been influenced by a] they had really gone to town on the 100th armistice remembrance décor, b] the lovely, chatty Vicar who was bustling around when I arrived and c] after the disappointment of finding Elveden LNK it's welcoming open status. Whatever, I really liked this charming church and its rather good AK Nicholson east window, even if Pevsner is sniffy. Whilst writing this I find I've altogether missed the ruins of St Martin - I'll have to go back.

ST GREGORY. Slate roofs. Altogether the church is far too restored to have an architectural story to tell. The only reason for the architectural traveller to enter is the PISCINA of the late C13 with a pointed-trefoiled arch and a pointed trefoil in bar tracery over it. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup; Flagon 1755; Almsdish c. 1756.

BARNHAM. Set among stately firs and by lonely heaths, it is like a corner of Suffolk centuries behind the times, with some of its best possessions tucked away where no car can take us. We came down a lane by a thatched house and the old forge to find a cottage with a vine laden with grapes, and the ruined tower of a vanished church, which has been standing among all this loveliness for 700 years.

Barnham’s quaint houses, not far from the Little Ouse, are as enchanting now as when Robert Bloomfield came this way; he loved it all so much that he put it into a poem in this way:

Fresh from the Hall of Bounty sprung
With glowing heart and ardent eye,
With songs and rhyme upon my tongue,
And fairy visions dancing by,
The midday sun in all his power
The backward valley painted gay;
Mine was the road without a flower,
Where one small streamlet crossed the way.

The old windmill was working in his day, but its long years of service were just over when we called. Close by is the small church, its simple tower in among the trees, its nave sheltering a 13th century font, and in the chancel an exceptionally fine piscina, with tracery above beautiful shafts.

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Elveden, Suffolk

SS Andrew & Patrick, locked, no keyholder, is an astonishing building with two towers and a cloister. It's essentially new build having been enlarged by Duleep Singh in 1869 and then embellished by the first Lord Iveagh in 1904-6. Despite it being new build it is, as I say, atsonihing and full of external interest. Looking at Simon Knott's entry the interior is even better....so of course its kept LNK!

ST ANDREW AND ST PATRICK. Lord Iveagh behaved as lavishly to the church as to the Hall. There was an old church N of the Hall. It had a Norman nave, see one S window, a W tower of c. 1300, with flushwork panelling at the foot, a Dec S chapel (four-light E window with flowing tracery, shafted inside), and a Late Perp S aisle. This was enlarged by Duleep Singh in 1869. Then, in 1904-6, Lord Iveagh employed Caroe to raise this to the standard of the Hall. Caroe added a new N nave and chancel, and in 1922 a new S tower connected with the old church by a long cloister-walk. All his detail is of the most ornate Gothic, that version of c. 1900 which can be called Art Nouveau Gothic. It is full of unexpected and unauthorized turns. The new front e.g. has a small NW turret to balance on the S the projecting tower of the old church. The piers between the end and the old nave defeat description. The roof is of the double-hammerbeam type, but the chancel is so low that the effect is completely different from that in medieval predecessors. The new S tower is more correct, though again sumptuously decorated with flushwork. - STAINED GLASS. E window of the old church by Kempe, 1894; W window of the new church by Sir Frank Brangwyn, 1937. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup ; Paten 1724; Set of 1863-5.

ELVEDEN. Here a Maharajah walked and an admiral was laid to rest, and there are two fine sights for the pilgrim, a church as lovely as any of its kind built in our own day, and a great house with something of the splendour of an Eastern temple.

A mile or so away is a Corinthian stone column 113 feet high, an imposing peace memorial to the men of Elveden, Eriswell, and Icklingham; it is crowned by an urn and inside is a stairway of 148 steps. From this great column the road passes among thousands of stately firs until it brings us to Elveden’s lovely little almshouses by the park gates. Between Elveden and Brandon are miles of heath where the Stone Age men were knapping flints before the dawn of history. (We have seen men doing it still at Brandon.)

The park is glorious with immense firs and pines, and very imposing in it is the great brick house with its stone parapets and balustrades, and with scores of windows looking over lovely lawns and a lake, avenues, and a noble company of cedars. The home of Lord Iveagh, it has a handsome south doorway and a majestic north portico on great columns; but the most striking feature is the immense copper dome above a wonderful hall built last century by the Maharajah Duleep Singh, who rebuilt Admiral Keppel’s old house and lived here long enough to find England as much a home as India. It was he who had the Indian Hall made of richly veined marble, with 28 columns and three big galleries and remarkable doors covered with beaten copper strangely ornamented. For four years 150 men were working here and today the hall with its many treasures is one of the most surprising sights in Suffolk.

Not only the great house, but the church, he lavishly restored; and he lies in a tomb in the churchyard. The church had been here 100 years when Chaucer was a boy, but of the old building only the 14th century chancel arch, the 15th century tower, and fragments of the nave and south porch are left. The rest has been changed into something rich and strange, something Elveden will be proud to show for many years to come, a masterpiece of modern building, notable even in Suffolk where fine churches are everywhere.

The grand tower with its old flintwork looks down on a west doorway with a porch under a fine window, the buttresses panelled, the wall enriched with a saint in a niche, and stone saints and angels taking the place of pinnacles. It is all fine, and the stone and flint patterns delight the eye. A modern arch outside the chancel wall shelters an ancient stone coffin, and at the south side are charming cloisters bringing us to a detached tower where the churchyard meets the park. The cloisters and tower were built in 1922 in memory of Lady Iveagh, and the tower is very beautiful, one of the noblest sights for miles around, a massive pile of stone and flint with panelled buttresses and lovely windows. It has a peal of eight bells and a vaulted roof over an entrance whose archway frames a delightful picture of the hall and its grounds.

Within the church are an east window with fine tracery, a choice piscina and a stone seat, and a south arcade with four arches on panelled pillars with curious capitals. Among a host of elaborate modern things is a simple Norman window, and two other windows are remarkable for curious stone bridges, from which spring the wooden beams of the beautiful roof.

Nearly everything is enriched with excellent ornament. There are two arches from the chancel to the south chapel, where a door brings us to a curious little vaulted room, a sort of lobby for the cloisters. The chancel floor is black and white marble; and the alabaster font is crowded with decorations that have a touch of the East about them and a richness that must have delighted the Maharajah. Another treasure is the alabaster reredos, with canopied niches and a panel showing the Twelve Apostles and 32 smaller saints. There is a lovely screen in the south chapel; a group of oak stalls with delightful carvings showing a man writing, one reading, a king, and a little boy holding a book for his master; and, finer still, the nave roof with its hammerbeams exquisitely carved and its choir of over 30 angels.

There are memorials to men of Elveden who gave their lives for peace, and to heroes who came back, and a window of the Wise Men in memory of Prince Duleep Singh, who also brought rich gifts to the service of the Lord. But the name most honoured here (there is a small wall-monument) is that of Admiral Augustus Keppel, who sleeps amid all this splendour that he never saw. He had seen much fighting abroad and had suffered at the hands of his enemies at home, but his last months were spent in the quietness of Elveden, where he died in 1786. Edmund Burke said that he had ever looked upon him as one of the greatest and best men of his age, and that he loved him accordingly.

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