th its terrible footsteps nearly all
that might have remained of our humble and yet so glorious past, and it
was still early morning when I crossed the Hampshire boundary and came
into the little town of Emsworth, once famous for its trade in foreign
wines, now, I suppose, best known as a yachting station. Emsworth was
originally of far less importance than Warblington, of which it was a
hamlet. There the fair was upon the morrow of the feast of the
Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury, to which saint the parish
church of Warblington is dedicated. This is a very beautiful and
interesting building, but it is obvious at once that it cannot always
have stood in the name of St Thomas, for part of its central tower--the
church consists of chancel, and nave, with a tower between them, north
chancel, vestry, north and south nave-aisles, and north porch--is of
Saxon workmanship. Only one stage of this, however, now remains, the
lower part having been altogether rebuilt. This tower was originally a
western tower, the Saxon church standing to the east of it. There is no
sign of Norman work here, and it seems probable that the Saxon church
remained until in the first years of the thirteenth century a new nave
and aisles were built to the west of the old tower, the lower part of
which was then removed and the tower supported by arches in order to
open a way into the nave of the old church, which thus became the
chancel of the new. It was then in all probability that the church was
newly dedicated in honour of St Thomas. The whole of the old church,
nave and chancel together, however, was destroyed before the end of the
thirteenth century, and a large new chancel built with a chapel or
vestry at the eastern end upon the north; at the same time the aisles
of the nave were rebuilt. Later in the fourteenth century the eastern
arch bearing the tower was rebuilt, and thus appeared the church which
in the main we still see. The difference in the north and south
arcades of the nave is, though, very striking here, because of the
great contrast between the exquisite and delicate beauty of the south
with its clustered columns of Purbeck and the plain round stone columns
of the north, common enough. Tradition has it that the church was built
by two maiden ladies who lived in the old castle near the church, and
that each built a side of the church according to her taste. One is
said to lie in the chapel at the east end of the south aisle, where