id the Holy Mass, the very altar tomb maybe where,
upon Maunday Thursday Christ Himself was laid in the sepulchre, an old
rood loft, too, certain ancient screens complete, a little ancient
glass. What more can a man want or at least expect from England of my
heart? And if he demand something more curious and more rare, at Horn's
Place, not a mile away, is a perfect chapel of the fifteenth century
which served of old some great steading, where, for a hundred years
Mass was perhaps said every day and the Marsh blessed. Or take Snargate
with its church of St Dunstan. It, too, has a fine western tower of the
fifteenth century, but much of the church dates from the thirteenth,
and upon the north chancel roof-beams are heraldic devices, among them
an eagle and the initials W.R. And here is a piece of fine old glass in
which we may see the Lord Christ. Or take Ivychurch; so noble and
lovely a thing is the church that even without it catches the breath,
while a whole afternoon is not enough to enjoy its inward beauty. Or
take Brenzett, where, it is true, the church has been rebuilt, but
where you will still find a noble seventeenth century tomb with its
effigies in armour.

It is, however, at Romney, Old Romney and New, that we shall find the
best there is to be had I think in this strange country from which the
waters have only been barred out by the continual energy of man. We are
not surprised to find that New Romney is older than Old Romney, it is
almost what might have been expected, but no one can ever have come to
these places without wonder at the nobility of what he sees.

At New Romney there were of old five churches, dedicated in honour of
St John Baptist, St Laurence, St Martin, St Michael, and St Nicholas,
for Romney was, in the time of Edward I., the greatest of the Cinque
Ports. It fell when, as we are told, in a great storm the course of
the Rother was changed so that it went thereafter to serve Rye, and
New Romney fell slowly down so that to-day but one of those five
churches remains, that of St Nicholas. But what a glorious church it
is, and if the rest were like it, what idea must we have of the
splendour of New Romney in the thirteenth century? This great Norman
church of St Nicholas with its partly fourteenth century nave, its
clerestory, its fine chancel with sedilia and Easter sepulchre, and
noble pinnacled tower is perhaps the greatest building in the Marsh.
It belonged to the Abbey of Pontigny and was