In default of a cathedral church within the borders of Derbyshire, the tendency would be to emphasize the dignity and importance of its greater churches. Among these the grand collegiate church of All Hallows was foremost, and as such it came to be regarded as, in some sort, the minster and mother church of all the southern part of the county. Thus it would, perhaps, be but natural that All Saints’, Derby, should supply the model for numbers of churches round about, and that its individual features should reproduce themselves even in some of the furthest corners of the shire. The love of generations of Derbyshire men for the fabric of this glorious church, and the jealous pride with which they defended its ancient privileges, are matters of history; and if it is not possible now to trace to a common original the distinguishing features of the churches of the county in general, which would, in all probability, have had their prototype in All Saints’, the ever-to-be-regretted reason is that the whole of the venerable building, with the exception of the tower at the west end, has disappeared—wantonly and wilfully destroyed in February, 1722–3. This irreparable loss was brought about solely through the guile and strategy of one unscrupulous tyrant, the then minister in charge, Rev. Michael Hutchinson, D.D., the memory of whose deed and name deserves to be handed down in undying opprobrium. Neither plan nor any satisfactorily complete description of the mediæval church of All Hallows is extant; but this much is known, that it comprised nave and aisles and quire, with a chapel on the south, and that it contained, besides other altars, a chantry of Our Lady and one, also, of St. Nicholas. Both of these—the fact is established by a process of elimination, the south chapel having been appropriated to St. Katherine—were situated in the body of the church, and would almost certainly have been enclosed within screens such as survive in a number of Derbyshire churches to this day. And here, before proceeding further, it is necessary to point out how largely the ground plan favoured in the churches of mediæval Derbyshire has affected and determined the conditions of their screening system. At the same time, I would add that what I am about to say does not pretend to universal application in every individual church throughout the county; for, in the nature of things, there are bound to be plenty of exceptions. Nevertheless, that the main trend of development proceeded along the lines indicated will not, I think, admit of dispute.