The most elementary form of decoration consists in merely panelling the door, as is the case in numberless instances; occasionally the panels themselves are carved, as on the "Thoresby Door," at Lynn, or the door of S. Mary's, Bath; or tracery, as in a window, is introduced, as at Alford, Lincolnshire. These are but a few of the many instances which might be cited. Another striking form of decoration is produced by hammering out the long hinges into a design covering, more or less, the surface of the door. The west door at Higham Ferrers, already noticed, has on each of its leaves three hinges, which are formed into wide spreading scrolls. Sempringham Abbey has very fine beaten ironwork spread over almost the entire face of the door. A more curious example is afforded by Dartmouth church; where a conventional tree with spreading branches covers the door, and across this the hinges are laid in the form of two heraldic lions. The date is added in the middle of the work, 1631. [Illustration: DOOR AT LYNN CHURCH.] In the decoration of the church door the mediaeval blacksmith proves himself in a thousand instances, at home and abroad, to have been an artist. Free from the hurry of the present age, he could work according to that canon of Chaucer's, "There is no workman That can both worken well and hastilie, This must be done at leisure, perfectlie." With him it was not the hand only that wrought, nor even the hand and head; but the soul within him gave life to both. Of the contrast between old ways and new, few examples are more striking than the hinges of the door at S. Mary Key, Ipswich; where we have a simple but graceful scroll of ancient date, and a clumsy iron bar of to-day, lying side by side. For a beautiful design in beaten iron the doors of Worksop Priory may claim to have not many rivals. [Illustration: SOUTH PORCH, SEMPRINGHAM ABBEY.] The most splendid doors in the world are probably the bronze doors of the Baptistery at Florence. Other bronze doors there are on the Continent, and all of them fine; Aix-la-Chapelle, Mayence, Augsburg, Hildesheim, Novgorod, all have doors of this kind; at Verona, too, in the church of San Zeno, are ancient examples, whereon are set forth in panels a number of subjects from Holy Scripture and from the life of the patron saint. All, however, fall into insignificance beside the "Gates of Paradise," as the Florentines proudly call their doors. [Illustration: DOOR AT DARTMOUTH CHURCH.]