Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/221

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ON ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS IN IVER CHURCH, BUCKS. I HAVE been induced to draw up some account of the remains of early, and most probably Anglo-Saxon, work existing in Iver Church, chiefly because I find no allusion made to them in the Buckino;ham shire number of the Archi- tectural and Ecclesiastical Topography. In the mean time some mention has been made of them by a correspondent of the " Builder ; " but I thought, as I was shortly about to visit the place, that a more detailed account would not be unacceptable to the Institute. Iver Church is a very unpromising one on a general external view ; the outline is most thoroughly common-place, and there are very few individual features which can be called either singular or beautiful, while there are many which are decidedly the reverse of both. Internally, the case is very different ; there is a good store of interesting work of several dates ; I shall, however, only allude cursorily to the later portions, reserving detailed description for the remains of the earliest period. The church consists of a nave with Anglo-Saxon walls, through which the arches of a Norman aisle have been cut to the north, and those of a Perpendicular one to the south ; an Early English chancel with several Decorated and Perpendicular insertions, a tower also originally Early English, but much heightened and altered in Perpendicular times, when the side windows of the aisles were inserted, and a clerestory added. The individual fea- tures most worthy of notice are the font, chancel-arch, sedilia, and piscina, all Early English. But the great point of interest in the building is the north wall of the nave, where there is Romanesque work, palpably of two chfferent dates. This fact was brought to light during the progress of the excellent and most thoroughly conserva- tive restoration lately effected by Mr. Scott. From his original Report, an extract from which appeared as a small pamphlet, printed at Uxbridge in 1848, no traces seem then to have been visible of anything anterior to the Norman arches of the north aisle. " These records of the history of the building," Mr. Scott continues, " have during the progress of the restoration, received a very interesting addition, by