Journal of Proceedings. xlix
architecture was not appreciated, its beauties were ignored by those who
ought to have upheld them, and he could not endorse the opinion of a
recent historian who said that the present Church was "a monument of
liberality and taste." The liberality of the inhabitants was undoubted,
and was well worthy of emulation, but the taste in which the work was
executed was most questionable.
For three hundred years,—extending from the commencement of the
16th to the commencement of the 10th century,—although surrounded by
the most exquisite examples, our ancestors appeared to have been insen-
sible to the charms of Gothic architecture, and to have ridiculed it in
every conceivable manner ; brighter days had dawned upon them, and
Gothic architecture, like a Phoenix, had risen from her ashes and was
re-asserting her power over the length and breadth of the land.
The monuments in a Parish Church frequently form the chief materials
for the history of the place ; and in the small and unpretending Village
Church, where the surrounding lands have passed from father to son for
generations, we find the most magnificent specimens of these memorials;
but in a town, where exchange of property is more frequent and where
the family monuments are left without natural protectors, they are
destroyed or mutilated without remorse. Considering the wealth and
power of the neighbouring lords, there could be no doubt that formerly
many memorials existed of those who once held sway over the district,
but they were all gone, and three brassless stones alone remained as
representatives of the early monumental history of the fabric. The
oldest monument was that to Thomas Mildmay, of the date of 1571,
which bears a very quaint Latin inscription. Upon one of the walls of
the north chancel aisle was an interesting inscription on a brass tablet,
compiled, he believed, by the late Archdeacon Mildmay, which set forth the
names of those members of the Mildmay family who lay buried either in
the old Mildmay vault or in the precincts of the Church, together with the
dates of the burials. Mr. Chancellor referred to the improvements which
had been effected since 1867 in the removal of the galleries ; the addition
of a second north aisle and the north transept; the remodelling of the
chancel by the construction of a new east window; the addition of a
clerestory and new roof; and concluded by saying that the party had
travelled round, over, and he might almost say under the Church, and he
believed that he had directed attention to every part of it to which any
interest was attached. Hidden from view in the walls of the Church
itself, or on the bookshelves of great public libraries, much information
might still exist, and if any person would undertake the task of tho-
roughly searching old records and volumes, many curious facts might be
discovered, and much light thrown upon the character of the original
structure, at the existence of which he had only been able to glance.
The paper was listened to with great interest and attention throughout,
and after a thorough inspection of the Church—not forgetting the remains
of the Knightsbridge library, now fast hastening to decay by reason of
g