Editorial note — Chapter I · OF A CHURCH AND ITS PARTS

[Footnote 168: The fact that in many unaltered and unmutilated churches the chancel is lower than the nave, appears to have been unnoticed by ecclesiologists. Wherever it occurs, William Dowsing, or some of his puritanical coadjutors, have been supposed agents in the matter. But there exist chancels, which, whether from the height of the piscina and sedilia, or on other accounts, cannot have been lowered, to which nevertheless there is a descent from the nave. Such an one is that of S. Giles's at Cambridge: and the arrangement is very common in the little churches of the south-west part of Sussex.] [Footnote 169: This is another very remarkable passage: and one which proves that the injunction of Abp. Laud for the erection of altar rails was not a novelty. And though their abolition is much to be wished, as well from the ugliness of all existing specimens, as from the irreverence which they seem to pre-suppose, the Church in England can scarcely be charged with the adoption of an innovation in giving her sanction to them.]