Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/169

Rh within, but without the upper corners are so chamferred as to present the appearance of a square-headed trefoil. The sides of both the large windows still contain hooks for shutters; but all the mullions and tracery have been removed. Possibly the glass might have been fixed in those shutters, as it was not reckoned a fixture in early times. The fireplace is slightly damaged; opposite thereto has been a window, and between that and the corner of the room is a small cupboard or ambry in the stone wall. In one angle of the hall a spiral stone staircase leads downwards to what was the entrance, passing that into the vaulted cellar or storeroom beneath the hall; which vaulting springs quite plain without ribs from the side walls, and is formed of irregularly-sized pieces of ragstone laid in mortar, the last retaining impressions of the boards used in the frame-work, whereupon the vaulting was constructed. This vault was lighted only by an oylet, and had, in the opposite end to the entrance, a wide, low, segmental-headed door, now walled up. Two very substantial tie-beams cross the hall, with kingposts and braces, all moulded, and in good preservation; the roof is steep, and the gables prove, that it retains nearly, if not quite, its original form, but the eaves now covering the remains of the chimney, it is manifest, that some alteration must have taken place here. The floor of the hall is now simply the vaulting of the cellar beneath. In one angle of the hall is an opening into a small chamber, and on the opposite side, corresponding to the position of the latter, is the chapel, which formerly had in the end a window, now altered into a door, resembling the larger ones of the hall. On each side was a small segmental-headed window, and near the entrance passage an opening was originally formed, but for what object is not apparent. In the usual position is a cinquefoil-headed piscina, of which the hexagon basin is perfect, with a crocketted canopy (somewhat injured) but the workmanship is inferior. On the northern, or, to speak more correctly, the eastern, side of the great window, about six feet from the floor, is a stone bracket, with carving of leaves in rather low relief. The dimensions of the chapel are fourteen feet and a half by nearly ten; the end window facing south, rather than east. The small chamber was lighted only by oylets, one in each side, of which the stone frames are rebated for shutters, and some of the hooks for those shutters yet exist. Both this chamber and the chapel had boarded floors. The room below the chapel, now a cellar, must