Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/380

 272 SEPULCHUAL MEMORIALS AT ETCHINGHAM, SUSSEX. stone basements, pierced with quatrefoils. The screen has been much defaced : this and the reading-desks are well carved, in trefoiled apertures or quatrefoiled jDanelKng. The misereres also are well executed. The remainder of the church hardly requires to be described : it is encumbered ^itli unsightly pews, and dis- figured by whitewash ; but the windows deserve particular attention. The west window is much defaced, and througli- out the church the stained glass, of which so much remained in 1776, and eight ^^ears later, in 1784, when Grimm made his Sussex drawings, has since been completely removed, and few visitants are aware of its having existed. This act of wanton spoliation was completed in 1815, wdien, by per- mission, it is understood, of the parish authorities, the glass was sold or given to a resident in the neighbourhood. I do not think it was ever so complete as W. Hayley suspects, but rather conjecture, that some intended coats of arms were left, as well as the chantry on the north-east side, unfinished at the founder's death. The accurate description of what did remain in 1776 and 1784, contrasted with the present fragments, is sufficient to prove the injury which has been done to the church by the removal of these interesting examples of armorial decoration. Church monuments are for every reason to be respected. They are the memorials of great families, of times of historical interest ; they preserve indications of manners, costume, and of religious ceremonial. They are valuable illustrations of the progress and the condition of the arts, in architecture, sculp- ture, and architectural decoration, in each successive century ; and, were there no other reason, no mind well cultured would wantonly destroy, on any pretext, what the piety of a pre- ceding age had raised, either for the becoming embellishment due to a place consecrated to the worship of God, or out of respect to that feeling, common to all ages and creeds, which induces us to raise monuments " which may revive the affec- tions of the living by recalhng the memory of the dead." The foreign character of the decorative tracery of Etching- ham church well deserves the attention of the archaeologist. I am informed that it is general in this part of Sussex, of which examples may be seen in Winchelsea church, now under repair. To what influence this is owing, I am unaware, ^lany conjectures may be hazarded, but it would require