Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/413

Rh here, that Welsh ale obtained celebrity very early, the Saxon Chronicle recording (ut sup. 75) that ten "mittan" (by Gibson rendered sextaries, about a pint and a half each, altogether about two gallons) of Welsh ale were to be paid yearly by one of the tenants of the monastery of Medeshamstede, A.D. 862. The beverage must have been highly valued to account for this stipulation, considering the small quantity demanded, together with the long, and in those days very hazardous, transit it had to undergo. Another authority, quoting from Fleta, 1. 2, c. 12 (Suss. Arch. Coll. II, 153) states "the sextary of wine" to have comprised four gallons. This amount seems much more likely to have been intended, than the very trifling one, suggested above; though still it sufficiently proves the high estimation, in which Welsh ale was then held.

In a distant part of this parish, toward Guildford, stands Sutton Place, a remarkable brick mansion. The outside of the building is highly ornamented in patterns, which were impressed upon the bricks in the mould. The bricks are said to have been made in, and imported from, Flanders. The house was erected by Sir Rich. West on in 1529 or 1530. "In this manor was formerly a chapel, subordinate to the church of Woking, the vicar of which provided a chaplain to officiate therein three days in the week." The chapel is named in Reg. Wickham, 7 December, 1381. (M.&B.)

111. .—This church is described as being only about thirty feet long by seventeen wide, the interior divided by a screen, standing in a lonely situation in a wood. (M. & B.)—Since the above was written, the church must have been rebuilt, the present being a very modern structure of flint with brick dressings, without a single old stone visible in any part of it. Neither is there any screen. In fact the building comprises only a single room, without any mark of separation for a chancel, the pulpit and reading-desk being placed against the wall of the east end, in the south corner. The dimensions are still extremely small, but the situation does not coincide with the statement of the Surrey historians, the churchyard lying between two open fields, remote certainly, but not far from a road (such as it is) nor does the appearance of the ground indicate any recent grubbing of wood.

112. .—This church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt toward the end of the last century by the then Lord Grantley, the patron, whose residence immediately adjoins. The new fabric is constructed of brick, in very bad taste, being also