Farther north the images and paintings on the screens,
and even the woodwork, had been badly disfigured, but some of the old
work in Devon had been well preserved. The screens had been intended to
protect the chancel of the church from the nave, to teach people that on
entering the chancel they were entering the most sacred part of the
church, and images and paintings were placed along the screens. The same
idea, but in another direction, was carried out on the outside of the
churches; for there also the people, scarcely any of whom in those days
could read or write, were taught, by means of images and
horrible-looking gargoyles worked in stone placed on the outside of the
church and steeple, that everything vile and wicked was in the world
outside the church. The beautiful pictures and images inside the church
were intended to show that everything pure and holy was to be found
within: the image of the patron saint being generally placed over the
doorway.
[Illustration: BELVEDERE TOWER.]
[Illustration: KENTON CHURCH.]
The village of Kenton was hidden in a small dell, and possessed a
village green, in the centre of which were the remains of an old cross.
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