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VILLAGES ON THE PLAIN 127
round-headed lights, a shaft between, under a pointed arch. The parapet is much later, dated in bricks 1661. The one-handed clock is probably of about the same period, two-handed timepieces having been introduced into England about 1670; but it is only a Sussex work by naturalisation, having been given here a home after being ignominiously turned out of the church at Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire. Just a little later than the south arcade is the north transept, with a hagioscope to the chancel and part of the rood stair; it has original arches opening into nave and aisle, but the north arcade otherwise consists of two wide moulded Perpendicular arches, their pillar unfurnished with a capital. On the north, and against the tower, are plain old timber porches. A bas-relief that seems part of an Elizabethan monument represents Christ standing before the cross, from whose arms hang a scourge and what seems meant for a bunch of hyssop.
The next village is Preston, once the property of the See of Chichester, and from one of the letters of his steward Simon of Seinliz to Bishop Ralph Neville (p. 85), we gather that the language of modern society was not wholly unknown to the thirteenth century. " The Archbishop is moving about Sussex. He will stay one night at your manor of Tarring, and thence proceed to your manor at Preston. He means to be lodged there at his own cost, but you had better offer to defray his expenses; it will look well, and I know he will not accept." The church is long and narrow, without a chancel arch, on the north is a Norman door, the east window has an arcade of three lancet arches, the shafts and abaci of Purbeck marble, the rest, including foliage capitals, of |
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