Durham.
_Ruined Churches_ (Vol. iv., p. 261.).--The old church of St. John
in the Wilderness, near Exmouth, can hardly be said to be _in
ruins_, in the sense before implied with regard to marriages, &c.
It is _dilapidated_, and almost deserted; but on visiting it a few
days since, I found it securely locked, the nave weather tight,
and sufficiently furnished for baptisms, marriages, and burials,
with surplice, two Prayer Books, Bible, table, font, bier, and
bell. They had certainly all seen their best days; but on that
account perhaps they are supposed to be more in keeping with the
general state of the venerable fabric.
It is, in fact, the mother church of others in the vicinity, which are
only chapels of ease; but as the population increased around them, and
fell away, from some cause or other, from the precincts of the old
church, it seems to have been deserted and dismantled of everything but
what is barely necessary for burials, and an occasional wedding and
baptism. It is the south aisle only which has been removed, and that by
authority, many years ago; but certainly, it has on that side, and from
the want of glass in the fine tower window, a desolate and ruinous
appearance. In the churchyard there is a most venerable specimen of a
noble yew-tree.