A chapel was afterwards built on the
spot, but the exact site is uncertain. The Bishop's fault was that,
being constantly with the Court, his diocese was neglected and his
flock suffered.
The church was both conventual and parochial; the nave, as usual in
such cases, being the people's portion. The chancel, both in
proportions and detail, is a very fine example of the Decorated style.
In the south transept is a beautiful altar tomb with a richly carved
canopy; the occupant is unknown. So is the resting-place of Bishop
Ayscough. Another fine monument is that in the nave to Sir Ralph
Cheney (1401). The beautiful and original fourteenth-century glass
should be noticed and also the Jacobean pulpit. Of the conventual
buildings nothing remains, but a few fragments of the succeeding
mansion of the Pauletts are now incorporated in a neighbouring
farmhouse. A magnificent yew in the churchyard probably antedates the
present church, and may have been contemporary with an earlier parish
church of which all record has been lost.
[Illustration: WESTBURY WHITE HORSE.]
The road goes onward through the charming villages nestling under the
northern bastions of the Plain that is still on the right hand as it
was at Heytesbury.
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