THE CHURCH AND OTHER SUBJECTS

CONNECTED THEREWITH.

THE Church of Sleaford is a spacious and venerable edifice, well constructed or the fine stone with which the neighbouring parts of the county abound, and exhibiting in its architecture that luxuriant variety of style which the ancient builders of churches delighted to bestow upon their works; preferring it to the strict adherence to regularity, which hangs like a spell upon the imaginations of their timid imitators of the present day.

The steeple is much the oldest part of the building, and though not remarkable for loftiness, or elegance of proportion, in which particulars it must not be brought in comparison with the spires of Grantham, Louth, Newark, or even of some churches in the immediate vicinity of Sleaford, is, nevertheless, one of the most complete examples in the kingdom of a stone spire of so early a date; and, consequently, becomes interesting in the history of architecture. The arches of the windows, &c., vary in shape, some being semicircular, others pointed, and one or two containing more than half a circle in their curve; these, and the general style of ornament, correspond to attested specimens of the architecture of the twelfth century, when the Saxon or Norman style, with its circular arches, began to give place to what we usually call the Gothic style. The erection of this steeple has been attributed by conjecture to Alexander, bishop of Lincoln; and so far with probability, that the architecture is undoubtedly of his age, and that this