Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/226

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��structed in the rudiments of learning from the age of four years by one Frier by name in the porch of Wotton Church, applies in all likelihood, not to the prede- cessor of this porch, but to the tower, which is spacious, and forms a sort of porticus, or lobby, to the nave.

In the south wall of the tower, within the porch, is a very remarkable doorway. It is wide, with a pointed head of somewhat distorted shape, and of two orders with a hood-moulding and shafts to the jambs. The hood-moulding has a member of pear-shaped section, and there is another such member in the outer order, flanked by quirked hollows. The inner order has a chamfer on the edge, but projecting from its angle, worked on the face of the chamfer are a series of minutely-carved little busts, each only about 3 in. in height, representing laymen and ecclesiastics, four on either side of the arch. The bottom one on each side is a modern restoration ; the others appear to represent a pope (with the tall extinguisher-shaped head-dress of the period), a king, a priest, a nobleman, a queen (with crown and wimple), and a pilgrim. The voussoirs on which these are carved are of green fire- stone, and the alternate voussoirs are chalk, the sand- stones alternating in the outer order. The impost moulding is carried round the chamfer, and forms the abacus of the shaft capital. This is circular with moulded upper part and necking, the intervening space being filled with vertical concave flutings, in this detail and the alternation of the arch stones recalling the south arcade of the nave at Alding- bourne Church, Sussex work of the same date c. 11901210. The shafts have moulded annulets and bases. 86 The inner jambs and arch of the door- way appear to have belonged to an earlier opening, the arch being semicircular and a good deal worn, but it is possibly of the same date as the outer arch. A hideous cast-iron gate, apparently put here at the restoration of 1858, disfigures this curious and beautiful doorway, and every time it is opened cuts into its arch-stones.

Of the original chancel arch, destroyed in the same disastrous period to make way for the present wide and lofty arch, no very full information is attain- able, but it would appear to have been a narrow, square-edged opening, perhaps not more than 6 ft. in width, and, flanking it on either side, tall pointed- arched altar recesses were found, of which the outline of half of the arches can still be seen. They were then blocked up so that the original depth, which was probably not more than a foot, can only be guessed.

The church seems to have been largely remodelled, the chancel practically rebuilt, and the aisle with its chancel or chapel added on the north side about 1210. The existing triplet of lancets in the east wall of the chancel is entirely modern, replacing a three-light probably of the 141)1 or 1 5th century, but portions of the original group of three lancets that preceded this were found in the wall at the 1858 restoration. In the south wall of the chancel is a small sedile under a plain, pointed arm, and in the southern part of the east wall a simple piscina, both of c. 1 2 10. Above the sedile is a two-light window, a pair, of lancets, under one arch internally, worked

��in firestone, and now opening into the modern vestry. These are shown in an old engraving of the church prior to 1858. Beyond them, to the west, is a single lancet, shown in the same engraving, beneath which, and divided from it by a sill transom, is a wider square or oblong opening rebated for a shutter, which is one of the best instances in Surrey of the low side window. Unfortunately the firestone of this and the lancet window over it was exchanged for Bath stone at the ' restoration," at which time the low side window was brought to light and unblocked. 67 There is now no iron grate in the opening, and the present shutter is modern and fanciful in design.

The chancel of c. 1210 opened to the north chapel by a wide pointed arch, which, since about the beginning of the I yth century, has been blocked up and used as a screen for displaying the monuments of the Evelyn family within the chapel. This arch is of two orders, with narrow chamfers to arch and piers, and with an impost moulding of very peculiar section carried round the chamfers, the piers standing upon a moulded plinth similarly treated. In the restoration of 1858 the blank wall within the arch was filled with tracery in stone and marbles of very inappropriate character. The arch that opens from the nave into the aisle is of the same date and character, and its imposts are of the same sec. ion. There was a third arch of this period between the aisle and the eastern chapel of which the outlines are still traceable in the wall. Possibly it showed signs of failure or was inconveniently large, for at about the same time that the arch in the chancel was blocked up this was partly filled in, and a small arch, preserving something of the character of the original, but clumsily imitated, was inserted within it, the older imposts redressed, or copies of them, being used.

The chapel beyond has two blocked lancets in its northern wall and three in the east, all of c. 1210, and the latter are particularly good and well-preserved examples of the period. They are rebated externally for a wooden frame, and have obtusely pointed external heads, with the internal splays radiating equally round the jambs and heads a mark of early date. The central lancet is slightly higher than the others. In the western part of the north wall of this chapel is a small square recess, perhaps an aumbry, but it is simply chamfered without any rebate. There is above this, and beneath the sill of the lancets, a string- course of semicircular section, which is also carried along the walls of the aisle. Instead of being mitred where it jumps to a higher level here, the horizontal portion of the string-course is butted up against the vertical strip in a very unusual manner. In both the north and west walls of this aisle is a lancet of similar character to the foregoing, and, in the western part of the north wall, a nicely-proportioned doorway of two chamfered orders. All the masonry in this chapel and aisle is in the original firestone, delicately tooled with a broad chisel, and with extremely fine joints.

The nave, prior to 1858, had in its south wall a window of two lancets under one pointed internal arch, which still remains, towards the western end. Eastward of this was a three-light opening of ijth or

��66 For an illustration of this doorway see y.C.H. Surr, ii, 432. The resem- blance to the work at Aldingbourne is so marked, even to the use of firestone and

��chalk in the alternate voussoirs, that the tame masons must have been employed.

6 ' See a contemporary woodcut and account of the church in the Illus. Land.

160

��News for 1858. For a drawing of the low side window, see Surr. Arch. Coll, xiv, 96.

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