aisles, no clerestory, and no tower. Later authorities, including Mr. Doran Webb, who for many years has closely studied everything connected with the fabric of this Church, are of opinion that it was originally cruciform, and with a south porch, and that the south end of this porch was incorporated in the north side of the tower, when the latter was built. The earliest addition to the Church appears to have been St. Stephen's Chapel, which stood parallel with the Church, in the two bays of the then east end of the south wall. There is amongst the ancient wills in the City Muniment Room the testament of George Meriot, Esq., dated Aug 28th, i.e., Thursday in the feast of St. Augustine, the Doctor, 1410. He desired to be buried in the Church of the Friars Preachers of Fisherton. His benefactions included one set of scarlet ecclesiastical vestments to the altar of St. Stephen's in St. Thomas' Church, and he directed his executors to sell certain properties, and to pay "To the fabric of the Chapel of St. Stephen on the south side of St. Thomas' Church £10 provided it shall be faithfully begun, and fully constructed anew within 3 years of my death." This appears to show that St. Stephen's Chapel had stood long enough to require very extensive repairs, or rebuilding, in 1410. The next addition to the Church was Godmanstone's Chapel, which was built during the latter part of the fourteenth century; this chapel stood on the north side of the choir. In the visitation of Bishop John Waltham, in 1395, Robert Elyon and John Styll are named as holding chantries in St. Thomas' Church, and in 1404 William Burgeys was appointed to the chantry of St. Bartholomew in the same Church. The Bishop's Registry of Institutions records that in 1415 Johannes Smyth was presented to the chantry of Robert Godmanstone.

The bell tower appears to have been commenced in 1400. The will of Thomas de Boyton, which is in the City Corporation Muniment Room, shows that he bequeathed in 1400 "XX Merkes" to the new fabric on the south side of St. Thomas'.

In 1403 the Rectory of St. Thomas was ceded by the Bishop to the Dean and Chapter, this arrangement received the sanction of the King, and was formally confirmed by Pope Boniface the Ninth

in 1404, later in the same year the Dean and Chapter granted “XII Merkes" towards the work of the Campanile of St. Thomas' Church, the amount to be advanced from the Treasury of the Cathedral till it should be repaid from the fruits and profits of the Church.

After its completion people had to pass beneath this tower through an open arch into the Church. You probably have noticed on the top of the tower a mushroom-shaped erection of lead, which covers what one might describe as an incipient spire. Undoubtedly it was originally intended to finish off the tower with an open lace-work spire, but-as Mr. Doran Webb suggests the builders finding that the thrust of the spire, with the rather thin walls, would be too much for the building, never carried the work beyond this small fragment of an octagonal spire. Old pictures of the Church show pinnacles upon the tower; these were a constant source of trouble and expense to the churchwardens, and they were removed early in the nineteenth century.

The next information we get respecting the Church is that in the year 1447 the chancel or a part of it fell down, destroying in its fall one of the aisles, the latter being probably the Chapel of St. Stephen. An old deed dated 1448 (Dean and Chapter records) shows that the Dean and Chapter, who were under the rectorial obligation of seeing to the maintenance of the chancel, had decided to rebuild it upon the old lines, but the parishioners, amongst whom were the wealthy merchants, William Swayne, John Halle, Henry Swayne, and members of the Godmanstone family, were anxious to have a larger and more noble chancel than the old one, and they showed their devotion to the fabric of their Church by their eagerness to take a share in the work of increasing its size and its beauty. Consequently, on the 4th June in the 26th year of Henry VI., an agreement was signed between the Dean and Chapter and certain parishioners duly elected for the purpose, by the commonalty of the parish, including Willm. Swayne and John Halle, by which agreement the parishioners undertook to do all that the Dean and Chapter would not do to complete the enlarged

building. The Dean and Chapter undertook to lengthen the chancel on the north side, in accordance with the work done on the south side by the parishioners (probably one additional bay). They also promised to build the pillars, arches, and clerestory, on the north side to correspond with the work of the same kind done by the parishioners on the south side of the choir. The capitals of the pillars on the south side bear inscriptions, one being "The founder of this peler was art John Nichol," another has the merchant's mark of John Webb upon it. The spring of the ancient arch, which was only uncovered a few years since, is undoubtedly a portion of St. Stephen's Chapel, and this part of the Church, viz., the south chancel aisle, William Swayne undertook to rebuild and to make it 59 feet long, to correspond with the new chancel; members of the Godmanstone and Hungerford families promising to make the Godmanstone or north chancel aisle the same length.

When in the years 1445-6 the affluent merchant, William Swayne, was mayor of the city, he became the patron and friend of the Tailor's Guild. This fraternity, from its earliest days, had an altar in St. Thomas' (probably in St. Stephen's Chapel), but in 1447, that is, the year in which St. Thomas' chancel fell down, and possibly owing to this disaster, the guild obtained a charter from Henry VI. which gave them licence to found their chantry in St. Edmund's Church. In 1448, however, that is, after the agreement to rebuild St. Thomas' had been made, the guild petitioned the King to revoke these letters patent, and to grant them a fresh charter, which would empower them to found their chantry of St. John the Baptist, in St. Thomas' Church. Their petition was successful, and a new charter was granted to them in 1449. The result was that William Swayne built, at his own cost, the enlarged south chancel aisle as a guild chapel, and in this chapel he founded two chantries, one an altar to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the other to St. John the Baptist, for the fraternity of tailors. Swayne's Chapel was completed during the episcopacy of Bishop Beauchamp, and we read that Richard Betan was admitted to the chantry of the Blessed Mary there devoutly founded on the presentation of

William Swayne, merchant. The chapel is said to have been beautifully decorated and ornamented; the east window, which was larger than it is at present, was filled with stained glass, the topmost tracery lights exhibited a representation of the Assumption of the Virgin, and the lower lights various saints, beneath canopies of enriched tabernacle work, with shields bearing the merchant marks of William Swayne, John Webb, and other patrons or masters of the guild. The ornaments and the greater part of the stained glass and decorations of this chapel were destroyed at the time of the visitation of the Commissioners, in 1548, but the mutilated remains of this window have recently been carefully arranged and re-leaded. The walls still show considerable remains of the original mural paintings, including the three well-preserved frescoes on the spandrils of the arches, "The Annunciation," "The Salutation," and "The Adoration." It has been suggested that there were originally six of these paintings, three on either side of the chapel, and that they represented the three joyful and the three sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary; there are also a number of representations of the conventional pot of lilies which accompanies the subject of the Annunciation, and also of the badge of the Garter, the latter being used, presumably, in honour of Bishop Beauchamp, who was chaplain, and who in 1475 became chancellor of this noble order.

The beautiful Perpendicular roof of this chapel was built above the old corbel table, which originally was seen on the exterior wall of the choir, above the roof of St. Stephen's Chapel. The transverse beams of the roof are ornamented on each side with shields, bearing, respectively, the sacred emblems of "The Passion," the symbol of "The Trinity," the arms of Swayne," and Swayne's merchant's mark. The beams also bear inscriptions in Latin, "Pray for the soul of James the father of William Swayne," and Pray for the souls of William Swayne and Chrystian his wife." The two painted alabaster monuments to members of the Eyre family were removed from the choir, where the old family vault stood, and the beautiful ironwork and carved woodwork were placed here to enclose a new vault for the same family in 1724. The resolution of the vestry reads :

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"Agreed that the Lord Chief Baron Eyre be allowed a sufficient quantity of ground at the east end of the south aisle for the erecting of a vault for himself and family with liberty to enclose the same."

Sir Robert Eyre's remains were placed here in 1735 and also the remains of his wife and his son, both of whom predeceased him. Many of his ancestors were buried in the choir, some of whom were wealthy woolstaplers and members of the guild, including Robert Eyre, who was Mayor in 1558, and his son, Thomas Eyre, who filled the same office in 1587.

The present porch opening into Swayne's aisle is a modern one, a reproduction of an old example at Bishopstone. The date when the nave aisles were added is uncertain, probably 1470-1490, but it is supposed that the work of building was continuous, though slow. It will be noticed that the line of the completed chancel aisles was continued, making the north side of the tower a part of the wall of the south aisle; but as this brought the door and the two staircase lights of the tower and the two buttresses into the Church, the architect overcame this difficulty by blocking up the door and windows and making new ones outside, and by cutting away the buttresses on the north side. The roofs of these aisles were made to match the roofs of the chapels of Swayne and Godmanstone, and the pillars and arches in the nave, which were made to agree with those previously erected in the choir, replaced the walls and early windows which had hitherto lighted the nave.

A little later, either at the end of the fifteenth or at the bebeginning of the sixteenth century, the clerestory, the great west window, and the beautiful carved Tudor roof, were added to the nave. This roof is of much the same date and style as the roof of the nave in St. Cuthbert's, Wells. The corbels which carried the beams of the old roof of the nave are still in position. After the new roof was completed, the remarkable "Doom" painting over the chancel arch was executed. The two large figures in this painting, sometimes alluded to as SS. James and Thomas-a-Becket, are more generally supposed to represent St. Osmond, who was canonized in 1457, and the pilgrim who caused the painting to be placed there to commemorate his safe return from a pilgrimage.