to claim an explanation. There is no village of Wembury. A farm and four cottages a mile away are, though marked West Wembury, considered a part of Knighton, a hamlet of many houses some distance further on. The vicarage is as far away in another direction, and though near a good house, named Wembury House, the owner there has no control. South Wembury House, nearly another mile away, has nothing to do with the church. There is a Wembury Wood a mile further off than any I have named, but it belongs to three or four different people, one of whom, however, is the lord of Langdon Manor, on which the church stands.

Wembury does not appear in Domesday at all, nor in its antitheses, the modern map, or the present Post Office Directory; and one is forced to the conclusion that the name was originally bestowed on a given district or locality, much as the name Belgravia denotes a certain portion of London, and that the bay has been named after the locality. It has been indeed suggested in our Transactions-first, I believe, by the late Mr. Davidson, then by our equally valued and lamented member Mr. R. N. Worth-that the name is a variant of "Wickanbeorge," the site of a battle with the Danes in A.D. 851; and entirely in consequence Wembury beach has been hypothetically assigned as the scene of the struggle. It has, however, been well pointed out by Mr. Reichel that by no conceivable alteration could one name have supplied the other; and it has occurred to me that no such theory is necessary, the name of the patron saint, St. Werburgh, originally St. Wereburge, offering not only a natural origin, readily admissible from analogous alteration of Saxon wordsWerebury, Wenbury, an actual and historic spelling of the word-but supported as regards its source, viz. the saint honoured in the dedication of a church, by numerous instances. It seems, moreover, unlikely that the Danes would have selected such a storm-driven and rock-infested spot for attack when the Yealm river offered such an easy channel for exploring the sheltered interior.

I may here mention that there is another church dedicated to St. Wereburge, in which the name has gone through greater changes and become less easily recognizable. I refer to Warbstow, in Cornwall, mentioned by Mr. Kerslake as one of fourteen parishes all named after the patron saint of the church, remarking that if they were all founded

about the same time, they were all probably subsequent to A.D. 700, when St. Werburg died.

This conclusion, if accepted, proves indisputably what has hitherto baffled every attempt by historical record to find out, viz. that on the site of the present Wembury Church there stood, previous to the reign of Edgar, 959975, a Christian Saxon oratory; for in that period, and narrowed down to within sixteen years, it is clearly recorded, and confirmed by subsequent charter of Henry II, that Edgar gave land "in Wenbiria," the Latinized form of Wembury, to Plympton Priory (Reichel, Vol. XXX, p. 291, D.A. Trans.), and this land was so given on condition that the religious needs of the inhabitants of Wembury should be ministered to by the religious men then residing in Plympton Priory, which was at the time a collegiate establishment of what were termed "secular clergy."

The architecture of the present Wembury Church indicates the period of Edward III or IV, i.e. between 1327 and 1483, but about sixty years ago a description of it (Exeter Diocesan Arch. Soc. Trans., 1853, Vol. IV, old series) mentioned several remains which indicate a previous Norman church. Just within the entrance door of the north aisle is a granite stoup, about three feet high, on an octagonal shaft, the base of which is under the present floor. The ornaments at the foot are, however, visible, and fall on the corners of the plinth. It appears of Norman date. The wall of the church, just beyond this, also was much thicker at the base, and the north aisle generally more massively and rudely constructed than other parts of the building. The thicker base was then being utilized, by aid of a board, as a seat. Three-eighths of the stoup, which is still in situ, are built into the wall; its basin, of one block, is twelve inches in diameter, and its thickness three inches. It has no hole for a drain. In the south porch is a recess containing part of a similar basin, but much smaller, and a rudely carved granite pedestal, with octagonal angles, built into the wall over the arch in the church doorway there. There were remaining also a vestige of a screen, which had been destroyed, as so many others have been, without any apparent reason, and in this case in opposition to the wishes of the incumbent. The granite columns all across the church show clearly where and how it was erected and fixed.

There were also several portions of ancient oaken seats, a few carved gables, the ribs and part of a carved oaken cornice in the south aisle (still there), and on it a crowned figure, with a cross on front of the crown, and holding a shield, extending from breast to knees. In the south porch the very old oaken ribs of the roof are all carved with wheat-ears in wavy lines. In 1886, by the munificence of Mr. Cory, the lord of the present Langdon Manor, the church received a much-needed and extensive restoration, and was handsomely furnished with a beautifully carved oak pulpit and pews of modern form.1 The remains of the Norman wall base referred to have, however, been removed to make room for more seats; and, with the exception of two pairs of roof beams in the transept, and what I have detailed on the south side, there is very little old work remaining in the interior. The monumental slabs and tablets are comparatively modern. In the chancel, and occupying all of its north side, is a highly interesting and costly tomb of Corinthian design in memory of Sir John Hele, who was Serjeant-at-law in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. An early representative of the beneficent Elizaeus or Elize Heale or Hele, known from his farreaching charities as "pious purposes Hele." The tomb is a complicated structure, coloured artificially in subdued tones, but as far as can be seen, under this, mainly of grit or sandstone of a pale pink colour, very similar to the Corsehill stone near Bath, and which constitutes the bowl of the modern font now in the church. A dark grey-blue stone is also used with striking effect. Under a semicircular arch are the recumbent figures, life size, of Sir John and his wife, the latter having at her feet a very young child seated in a chair. On the front below kneel eight of their children, three of them in armour, and on the end facing west are two kneeling female figures. A brass plate in a central panel over the recumbent knight is inscribed: "Hic jacet Johes Hele, miles, serviens ad legem, Ser: 2 Dn. Eliz. Reg., et Jacobi Regs. Mag. Brit., obiit 4to. die Junii, An. Dni. 1608. Ætatis suæ 66."

A very large tomb, enclosed by ornamental iron railing, which stood in the chancel, in the space now occupied by the harmonium and choir, has since been moved to the west end of the south aisle, and was erected to the memory