Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/140

102 for building or restoring other churches. In the walls of the present fabric, particularly of the chancel, are Roman bricks; which however can only intimate, at most, that some materials from the original Roman building might have been used in constructing the existing church. (See Bloxam's Goth. Archit. 5, and 33 note l .)—A bishop of St. Martin's acted as suffragan to the archbishop for a long period, but the office becoming vacant in Lanfranc's time, he would not fill up the appointment, but instead thereof instituted the archdeaconry of Canterbury (Somner): or rather revived the office, which is mentioned as existing in earlier times. The font here is very curious. It is composed of several pieces of carved stone, but the pattern, though generally alike, does not join correctly; which however more probably may have been caused by the pieces being wrought separately, perhaps by different individuals, without a previously prepared model or drawing, than that the font should not have been placed here originally. See the remarks on the font in St. Anne's Church in the Note on Lewes, Sussex. In this parish, at the Moat, anciently the Wyke, was formerly a chapel, which was licensed by Rich. Oxenden, prior of Christ's Church, A.D. 1333. (Harris.) There was also a park at the Moat. (Hasted.)

215. .—Brasses: Matilda Jamys, 1499; Will. Gregory, 1502. (Hasted.) Under the title of "Romney Marsh" St. Mary's is attached to Old Romney. (Clergy List.)

216. .—The Textus Roffensis, f. 144, (or Hearne's edition, 110 to 115) contains the will, written in Saxon, of an inhabitant of this place; which is given, with a translation, by Harris (Hist, of Kent), who, from the name there mentioned of the then Bishop of Rochester, computes the date to be in the later half of the tenth century. From the value of the bequests and the property he possessed in distant places, the testator appears to have been a person of considerable wealth and importance. The will names the church, "mynstre," of " Wolknestede," apparently as in the neighbourhood of Meopham. If it did stand in that vicinity, possibly the modern Nutsted may be meant; but if the spot must be sought farther off, it may perhaps be recognised in Godstone in Surrey, the distance of which is not sufficient to constitute an insuperable objection, and of which the early appellation, as will be observed from the List of names, bears much resemblance to that of the Saxon will. N.B. In very ancient documents, e.g. the Saxon Chronicle, the