THE COMBERTONS. 97

only exception to the placid monotony of agricultural life hereabout. The fishing of the Avon is productive, especially of eels in flood-time, and the "aits" are sources of much labour and profit. Drainage has been generally introduced, and the products of the soil are wheat, beans, barley, and turnips. The population has not much more than doubled since the days of Elizabeth. Both parishes belonged to the church of Westminster, and then passed through various ownerships till now the lordship of the manor is vested in Mr. Hanford Flood, and the principal landowners are Mr. Shekell, Mr. Fletcher, Mrs. Whoods, the rector, and Miss Phipps. The Rev. C. H. Parker is rector and patron of Great Comberton; value of living, £317; church accommodation, 160, all free except the chancel. The Rev. W. Parker rector and patron of Little Comberton; value, £310; church accommodation, 140; free, 106.

But now as to the churches. That of Great Comberton possesses several peculiarities of arrangement, the nave being unusually wide for so comparatively short a structure, and on each side of the tower is a shallow projection under a lean-to stone roof, forming, as it were, incipient transepts, but not extending beyond the nave walls. Traces of Norman, if not Saxon, work may be seen in the walls and elsewhere, while the later styles are also represented; there is a fine cradle roof to the nave, and the old open seats are very perfect. A trefoil-headed piscina occupies an unusual position - in the east wall south of the altar. The chancel was entirely rebuilt in 1862. The church is merely an oblong building, with tower at the west end, under which is the entrance door. Little Comberton Church, nestling among beautiful trees, is small, without aisles or transepts, but has a handsome and lofty Perpendicular tower, and a late Norman doorway, on the tympanum of which is sculptured a cross, surrounded by eight curious objects, which have been described by some ecjelesiologists as clouds, by others as shells. They are nearly circular conical projections, having on them