In spite, however, of their astonishment and fright, the workmen eventually summoned up sufficient courage to convey them back to their original position; and, this accomplished, and night having drawn nigh, laid their foolish heads to sleep again. But in the morning the strange sight again met their eyes; not so much as a stone chip remained in the close, while in the adjoining field their work was spread out with amazing skill and precision. Who had done it? Certainly no human being! Angel or devil? Some of the builders, comparing the traditional activity of the latter with the pertinacity evinced by the midnight toiler, were inclined to ascribe the deed to Satanic agency, and in consequence strongly objected to have anything more to do with the work. It would be unpleasant, to say the least of it, to have so disreputable a fellow-labourer. Again, it was not sufficiently clear what end was to be obtained by conveying stones from one field to another by day when they would be supernaturally removed by night; whilst were they to build on the site preferred by the spirit, would they not be acting in accordance with the will of the Evil One, and thereby be consigning themselves to his keeping for ever? Happily, however, the more numerous party perceived, as did the priests, that this occurrence could be none other than a message from heaven, and, therefore, proposed to build the church on the ground thus miraculously indicated. Happily, too, the other workmen, unable to refute the arguments of the majority, honestly acknowledged the weakness of their own theory, and once more resumed their chisels and hammers; so, working together with one heart, in due time the present church and steeple of Olney were completed.

Similar traditions have attached themselves to at least two other churches in this county, those of West Wycombe and Quainton, and also to several churches of Northamptonshire. At West Wycombe the edifice was originally intended to stand at the foot of a hill, "but as fast as a portion of the building was erected it was removed during the night by some invisible agency, which deposited the materials at the top of the hill. The nearest priest came with bell, book, and candle, and began an exorcism, when a weird unearthly voice promised to abstain

from further annoyance if the church should be erected upon the spot to which the materials had been removed. This being done, the work proceeded without further interruption." The people of Olney and Wycombe do not appear to have carried the stones back more than three or four times at the outside, but those at Stowe, or Stowe-Nine-Churches, as it is frequently called, a village near Northampton, had the pertinacity to replace them as many as nine times before they desisted and acquiesced in the desire of the night-fiend or goblin. From this occurrence the adjunct "nine-churches" is said to have been obtained. To the people of Stowe, moreover, an idea occurred that does not appear to have struck those at Olney : they set a man to watch at night; but they might have saved themselves the trouble, for his report was so vague and unsatisfactory that they could make neither head nor tail of it.

The origin of such traditions may sometimes be ascertained. That of West Wycombe seems to have been invented to explain the somewhat unusual fact that its church is built on a high hill.

As regards the adjunct "nine-churches" applied to Stowe, Baker, the Northamptonshire historian, asserts that it was received "because there were nine advowsons appendant to the manor." And perhaps the origin of the legend concerning Olney Church is to be found in the fact that many foundations, and these in all probability the remains of some religious house, are known to exist in the Lordship Close.

1 A paper on West Wycombe by Mr. R. S. Downs.

IV.

OLNEY CHURCH.

IN the Christian and literary world Olney Church is chiefly known as the sanctuary wherein Newton and Scott preached and Cowper worshipped, and as being the most conspicuous object in a district whose meadow and woodland beauties are stereotyped in "The Task;" but to all persons intimately acquainted with the neighbourhood, this ancient and noble structure, whose history is almost commensurate with that of the town itself, has naturally in numerous respects besides these a peculiar interest, not unmixed with love and veneration.

Olney Church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, is almost entirely of the Decorated style of architecture, and was erected between 1325 and 1350; but by whom we cannot say. There is, however, in the north wall of the chancel an arched recess which is supposed by some to belong to the tomb of this unknown founder, but according to Mr. H. Gough it is the "Easter Sepulchre "--a usual appendage to a church of the Middle Ages. Olney Church in many respects resembles that of Emberton, and "there is much reason," thinks Mr. Storer, "to ascribe them both to the same masterly designer, one of the great though nameless architects of old, whose worksmarred and disfigured though they be-still bear traces of an unearthly beauty." The nave, which had formerly a fine roof and a small clerestory of the Perpendicular era (destroyed about 1800), is divided from the aisles by five arches. At each end was originally a handsome latticed screen, one dividing it from the tower, the other from the chancel. Above the latter, called the rood-screen, was a gallery, the rood-loft, from which the Gospel was read at the morning service. On the rood-loft was raised the rood or figure of our Lord on the

cross. Surprisingly beautiful were these screens of our ancient churches, for the artists and craftsmen of old spared neither time nor trouble so only they could produce a rich though cobweb-like appearance; and wrecks as most of them are of their former glory, those remaining in more favoured churches

OLNEY CHURCH. (From a photograph.)

than ours enable us to form an idea of their pristine wealth of splendid tracery and interlacing foliage, and their paintings of saints and confessors, kings and queens, bishops and apostles. The most interesting in this neighbourhood are perhaps the

screens at North Crawley and Felmersham, the "Pride of Bedfordshire," as the latter beautiful church has admiringly been styled.

In former times there were doubtless in Olney Church at least two altars besides the high altar, and it is very possible that the image of the Trinity which was formerly in Olney Church, and before which Sir Thomas Digby willed to be buried in 1516, belonged to one of them. The small doorway through which the rood-loft was attained, which was in the wall northward of the chancel-arch, just under the tablet to John Thompson, was done away with at the beginning of the present century; and the last remains of the screen itself, some painted panels-representing probably, not, as was said, Elijah fed by ravens, but the legend of some saint-were destroyed in 1854.

The chancel, instead of being in a direct line with the nave, inclines considerably to the north, "a peculiarity mystically referring to our Lord's bowing down His head on the cross; and the chancel-arch, like that at Emberton, dies into the side walls of the nave.

The two westernmost windows of the chancel, which are brought lower down than the others, are called Leper Windows or Lychnoscopes, because by means of them persons afflicted with leprosy could see the elevation of the host without entering the church; but, according to some, this peculiarity in the windows of churches has reference to the piercing of our Saviour's heart at the time of His crucifixion; hence they are also called Vulne windows.

On the epistle side of the altar, that is to say, in the south wall of the chancel, are, as is usual, the sedilia, or seats for the priests, and the piscina, or niche in Catholic churches, having a small hole at the bottom into which the priest emptied the water in which the chalice had been rinsed; and in the north wall is the ambry, or recess in which used to be kept the chalices, basins, cruets, and other sacred vessels.

There are now no brasses in Olney Church, but there were formerly at least two: one in the north aisle to the memory of "Elizabeth Parker, a woman whilst shee lived, lovinge to