uilding; that the
capitals of the pillars throughout the church are destitute of
sculpture; and that the walls of the clerestory are altogether without
buttresses. This last peculiarity is likewise observable in the nave of
the church at Tollevast, an edifice of the plainest and earliest
architecture. At Than, the clerestory is externally decorated with
twenty-nine arches, of which every sixth (reckoning from the westward,)
is narrower than the rest, and is pierced with a window. The surface of
the blank ones is cut into squares, which are alternately depressed. On
the corbels are not only represented grotesque heads, but some of the
simplest heraldic charges, as the chief, chief indented, pale, bend,
bendlets undy, fess, saltier, crosses of various kinds, chevron, &c.
Such ordinaries occasionally occur in similar situations on other Norman
religious edifices, but only on the most ancient. They are to be seen at
Tollevast, Martinvast, the church of St. Croix at St. Lo, St. Matthieu,
and Octeville. At St. Matthieu, they are found in conjunction with other
sculptures, fit only for a temple dedicated to Priapus; and at
Octeville, with what is probably the earliest representation of the
Lord's Supper, that is known to exist from the hand of a Norman artist.

B. _Elevation of the west front._

The lower part of the door-way is considerably sunk in the ground.

C. _Elevation of the east end._

The irregularity of the architecture of this part of the building
requires to be noticed. In the two lower compartments, the southern
portion is left quite plain, while the northern is decorated with a
double tier of arches, very much resembling those which still exist in
the outer wall of the chancel, and which, most probably, were originally
continued along the wall of the nave that is now destroyed. The broad
shallow buttress which divides the east end into two parts, is not
placed in the centre. Here, and indeed throughout the building, each
small arch is hewn out of a single block of stone. One of the upper ones
in this front, is surmounted with a broad square band, made in the
imitation of a drip-stone, composed of quatrefoils, of a form not known
to exist in Norman architecture, though of common occurrence in the
succeeding style.

D. _Portion of the clerestory in the nave._

E. _Portion of the clerestory in the chancel._

F. _Capital and part of the arch of the western door-way._

G.G.G. _String-mouldings._

PLA