Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/170

132 at first have been applied to some such purpose, having no light: that likewise under the small chamber must have had some similar use". Above the ancient entrance, within the washhouse of the dwelling added to the old mansion, is a large stone corbel in shape three very short clustered columns, with carving on the lower portions bearing some resemblance to that on the bracket in the chapel. This corbel probably supported, or assisted in supporting, the roof of a porch over the door. The hoods of the windows are greatly dilapidated, but in one instance, in the northern face, the termination is perfect. The curious ornament, here found, presents occasionally the appearance of a mask, and prevailed "from the end of the twelfth century to the middle of the fourteenth." (Gloss of Archit. ed. 1840, I, 52, noteu, and ib. II. pi. 28. exam, from Warmington.) (Perhaps some modified specimens of later date might be collected in some parts of Sussex.) The hood corbel of Sore Place possesses one of the earlier forms. It may be noticed, that the above description contains no allusion to a kitchen. As however the simple cookery of the age would have been performed in a separate building, if in any, it is not surprising, that no vestiges of such an appendage are now visible. It will also be remarked, that the accommodation for a family at Sore Place is sufficiently scanty; but we must recollect how rude, in some respects almost brutal, were the domestic habits of our ancestors when this building was erected. The inmates, when within doors, would assemble in the great hall, the members of the master's family retiring at night to the small chamber, and the servants, to whose comfort little or no attention was paid, sleeping according to their own fancy in the hall. The alterations, in order to render the ancient mansion useful to the tenant of the farm, have disfigured it, but do not prevent tracing the original arrangements.

My attention was first attracted to Sore by reading Hasted's account, namely: "There is an antient and very remarkable chapel still remaining in the mansion-house of Sore, which was probably made use of by the inhabitants of this district in general, before the present chapel of Plaxtool was erected." The common idea, which appears to have been Hasted's, from whose work it may have been derived, is, that the hall was formerly a chapel. That however the construction and evident application of the apartment utterly disprove, while those of the smaller chamber equally demonstrate the sacred uses for which it