All Saints, Milford, consists to-day of chancel with north
and south chapels west of it, transepts, nave with north and south
aisles, and a western chapel on either side the western tower, and a
south porch. It is a most beautiful and interesting building. Doubtless
there originally stood here a twelfth-century Norman church, consisting
of nave with aisles and chancel, of which two arches remain in the
south arcade of the nave. Then in the thirteenth century the church was
rebuilt, as we see it, and very beautiful it is, in its Early English
dress, passing into Decorated, in the chancel and transepts.
From Milford, through a whole spring day, I went on by the coast as far
I could, westward to Christchurch. All the way, the sea, the sky, and
the view of the island and of Christchurch bay closed by Hengistbury
Head in the west, and the long bar on which Hurst Castle stands in the
east were worth a king's ransom. They say all this coast has strong
attractions for the geologist; but what of the poet and painter? Surely
here, when the wind comes over the sea and the Island, showing his
teeth, to possess the leaning coast, one may see and understand why
England is the England of my heart.
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