To speak of Barnes in these days of suburban expansion as a “village” may at the first mention appear to be unduly stretching a point, but although Suburbia spreads for miles in every direction, and although Barnes is completely enfolded by modern developments, the ancient village is still where it used to be. It is true that a frequent service of motor-omnibuses does by no means tend to the preservation of the old-time rural amenities of Barnes, nor do those who remember the Barnes of thirty or forty years ago welcome the sudden irruption of modern shops and flats opposite the old parish church; but very much of old Barnes is left embedded within these twentieth-century innovations; and while Barnes Common remains, it is not likely that the place will decline to the common characterless condition of an ordinary suburb. Of the original Barnes—the “Berne” of Domesday Book—the place owned by the canons of St. Paul’s, before the Reformation, nothing, of course, is left; and we may but dimly picture that rural riverside manor, then considered remote from London, with its great _spicaria_, or barns (the barns that were so much larger, or more numerous, than the usual type that they gave the place its name); but there is a half squalid, half quaint appearance in the narrow, winding streets and lanes that hints, not obscurely, of the eighteenth or even of the seventeenth century. The church, too, although an examination of the interior proves it to have been, in common with most other once rural churches round London, swept almost entirely bare of ancient features, is picturesquely placed, and its sixteenth-century red-brick tower, partly clothed with ivy, looks venerable. There is little of interest within the church, beyond the somewhat curiously-worded epitaph to a former parson, which deserves the tribute of quotation: Merentissimo Conjugi Coniux Moerentissima. To the best of hvsbands Iohn Sqvier the Late Faithfvll Rector of This Parish; the only Soñ to That most strenvovs Propvgnator of Pietie and loyaltie (both by Preaching and Svffering) John Sqvier, sometime Vicar of St. Leonards, Shoreditch near London: Grace Lynch (who bare vnto him one only Davghter) Consecrated This (such as it is) small Monvment of Theyr mvtvall Affection. He was invested in This Care An: 1660 Sept: 2, He was devested of all Care An: 1662, Jan. 9, Aged 42 yeares.