If the 200 churches mentioned in Mr. E. Peacock’s English Church Furniture be taken as a fair sample of _Lincolnshire_ churches, as they well may be, almost every one possessed a rood-loft, which may now be described. Westwards generally (but eastwards only at Worstead) from the beam, which often forms a kind of breast summer to the gallery about to be described, would extend a platform of varying width (at Selattyn in Shropshire it is 10 feet wide, usually about 4 feet), supported by a coved cornice, ornamented by ribs which intersect sometimes in a very complicated pattern, as at _Sleaford_, and with—as vignette—a band of carving, such as vine-leaf and grape, along the front. On very many screens, which have lost their gallery, traces can be seen where the ribs and springers for its support have been attached. The eastern portion of the gallery remains at _East Kirkby_, starting from the top of the screen, and being coved independently thereof. From both sides—east and west (or only one _west_)—of this platform would rise up a panelled screen, which sometimes, as at Upper Sheringham, consisted of open work. This gallery—the rood-loft—would be approached by one or more staircases in the piers of the chancel arch or in the north or south walls of the aisles. There are two of these staircases at _Boston_, _Sleaford_, and _Grantham_, while _Spalding_, _Heckington_, and most of the other churches in the county have but one. [Illustration: ROOD-SCREEN AND LOFT, ST. EDITH’S CHURCH, COTES-BY-STOW.] The only complete mediæval rood-loft in the county is in the little church of _Cotes by Stow_. It has been carefully repaired, with foliated and traceried panels, and a vignette of grapes and vine-leaves along the lower border. The central projection is interesting and original, and here is evidently not for the crucifix, as that would be fixed at the eastern side of the loft. A similar projection will be seen at _Sleaford_, and probably both were used for preaching. They are exactly reversed in position from those at _Lincoln Minster_ and _Tattershall_, and from that mentioned in the contract for the rood-loft at Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge, in 1521, “wyth a pulpete into the mydds of ye quyer.” There are several screens which yet retain the hang-over, making the floor of the rood-loft. The reason for this at _Sleaford_ is given in Mr. Peacock’s book: “Itm̅—the rode lofte taken downe all save the florthe wc̅h remayneth standing wc̅h we cannot take doune for yt is a waie frome one house to another so yt̅ we have noe passadge but that waie to ytt”—which may mean from chapel to chapel, or from aisle roof to aisle roof.