Small sculptured
representations of the rood, with the figures of St. Mary and St. John,
still exist on one of the buttresses near the west door of Sherborne
Church, Dorsetshire; over a south doorway of Burford Church, Oxfordshire;
and in the wall of the tower of the church of St. Lawrence, Evesham.
[Illustration: Sanctus Bell, Long Compton Church, Warwickshire.]
Outside the roof of some churches, on the apex of the eastern gable of the
nave, is a small open arch or turret, in which formerly a single bell was
suspended: this was the _sanctus_ or _sacringe_ bell, thus placed that,
being near the altar, it might be the more readily rung, when, in
concluding the ordinary of the mass, the priest pronounced the
_Ter-sanctus_, to draw attention to that more solemn office, the canon of
the mass, which he was now about to commence; it was also rung at a
subsequent part of the service, on the elevation and adoration of the host
and chalice, after consecration[171-*]; but though the arch remains on
the gable of the nave of many churches, the bell thus suspended is
retained in few; amongst which may be mentioned those of Long Compton,
Whichford, and Brailes, in Warwickshire, where this bell is still
preserved hung in an arch at the apex of the nave, with the rope hanging
down between the chancel and nave[171-+].
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