Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/229

 WOTTON HUNDRED

��WOTTON

��16th-century date, with a square head and hood- moulding ; and beyond this to the east was another three-light window, transomed, under a segments! arch, and apparently of late 1 7th-century date. The two large windows of 13th-century design in the eastern part of the south wall replace those last described.

To the end of the 1 7th century belongs the brick vestry, or mortuary chapel of the Evelyn family, on the north of the chapel proper. It is of thin bricks, and has a circular window in its east gable, and a door between it and the chapel, a modern doorway, lately inserted, being pierced in its northern wall.

The roofs of the nave and chancel are modern and incongruous. The seating, pulpit, font, and all other fittings are also modern, with the sole exception of an interesting oak screen, with bannisters, and iron spikes or prickets for candles at the top, separating the chapel from the aisle. This bears the date 1632, and is almost the only bit of screenwork of its period ' remaining in Surrey. Within the chapel is preserved a font of white marble, with circular fluted basin on a tall baluster stem of about the same date, but possibly as old as the date of John Evelyn's birth in 1620. Cracklow records that 'in one of the south windows was formerly this fragment in black letter, " Orate pro anima Johannis de la Hale." '

John Evelyn's tomb in the north chapel is coffin- shaped and quite plain, about 3 ft. from the floor in the eastern part of the chapel, and his wife's, of the same plain design, is to the westward and close to the south wall. Their coffins are said to be inclosed in these tombs above ground. He died on 27 February in 1705-6, in his eighty-sixth year, and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Browne, ambassador of Charles I at Paris, on 9 February 1 708-9. The inscrip- tions are upon the white marble covering slabs, and that on John Evelyn's runs thus : ' Here lies the body of John Evelyn, Esq., of this place. . . Living in an age of extraordinary events and revolutions, he learnt, as himself asserted, this truth, which pursuant to his intention is here declared : that all is vanity which is not honest, and that there is no solid wisdom but in real piety.' Evelyn's own desire was to be buried ' within the oval circle of the laurel grove planted by me at Wotton,' or, if this were not possible, in this chapel, where his ancestors lay : ' but by no means in the new vault lately joining to it.'

Besides these there are several inscribed ledgers upon the floor with heraldic panels, one, in brass, near the east end, bearing the griffon and chief of Evelyn and the bars and martlets of Ailward with a fine piece of mantling. On the south wall, near its west end, is the beautiful monument of George Evelyn, the purchaser of Wotton, who died in 1603, aged seventy-seven. It is of alabaster, with panels of black slate or ' touch,' on which are the inscriptions, now hardly decipherable, and is divided into three com- partments. In the centre, high up, under a circular arch, is the kneeling figure in armour of George Evelyn. Above the cornice is a medallion bearing his coat-of-arms, and a helm and mantling, and the crest of a griffon passant. On the rounded pediments of the side compartments (within which are skulls) are draped urns, and within the recesses below, under heavy entablatures and circular arches, are the figures of his two wives kneeling and facing towards him. Rose, the first, bore him ten sons and six daughters,

��and Joan, the second, six sons and two daughters. Beneath each figure is an inscription panel, and below is a long panel on which the twenty-four children are carved in low relief, all kneeling ; a narrow inscription panel and some carved scrolls and con- soles completing the design. The whole monument, an excellent example of the taste of its time, retains the original colouring and gilding.

Adjoining this, to the east, is the very fine monu- ment (alabaster, coloured, with slate panels) of Richard Evelyn, fourth son of George Evelyn, high sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 1634, and his wife Eleanor Stansfield, with their five children. Richard, the father of the celebrated diarist, died in 1640. Fat nude boys in contemplation support the upper pedimented entablature over the principal cornice, and in the centre at the summit is a draped female figure, blindfolded ; other ' virtues ' in attitudes of grief flank the boys. Two large and beautiful draped angels, one holding a flaming heart and the other an open book, are drawing back the curtains to display the kneeling figures of Richard Evelyn and his wife. He is habited in the doublet, trunk-hose, and heavy cloak of his time, with his hair falling in curls over a deep collar. He kneels on a cushion with hands joined in prayer before a draped prayer-desk, facing his wife, whose flowing head-dress, falling in long folds behind, and gracefully-gathered gown, are charming examples of the lady's dress of the period. Their three sons and two daughters, in the panel below, kneel on cushions before another desk, the centre figure of the boys being the celebrated John. All the heraldry which includes a very fine coat with mantling and a helm bearing the griffon crest in the panel at the top and the smaller architectural orna- ments, such as the consoles and scroll-work at the bottom, are models of delicate and spirited carving, and the figures of the angels and the husband and wife are among the best of that age. The original colouring is very perfect.

Opposite to these is the monument of Elizabeth Darcy, daughter of Richard Evelyn, who died in 1634. It is in the same taste as the foregoing, and probably by the same sculptor, who may well have been the celebrated Nicholas Stone. The bust of the lady, weeping, looks out from a curtained recess, and below her is the recumbent figure of her dead babe in its cot.

On the south side of the chancel is a tablet to Dr. Bohun, 1716, presented to the living in 1701 by John Evelyn. The inscription tells us that he left the sum of 20 for the poor of Wotton, and a similar sum for the decoration of the altar. He is described by Evelyn as 'a learned person, and excel ent preacher.' Elsewhere in the chancel and nave are a number of later 1 8th and 19th-century monuments, and in the brick mortuary chapel of the Evelyns is a large white marble monument, by Westmacott, to the memory of Captain Evelyn, who died in 1829, bearing a striking inscription by Dr. Thomas Arnold of Rugby.

On the jambs of the door in the north aisle are a few early marks, such as a small cross.

The registers of baptisms and burials date from 1596, and of marriages from 1603.

The communion plate is chiefly of 1 7th and 1 8th- century dates. The oldest piece is a silver paten of 1685, bearing the arms of Evelyn impaling Browne.

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