Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/230

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��These were the arms of the celebrated John Evelyn and his wife. He was not then the owner of Wotton House, as he did not succeed his elder brother George till 1699. Another paten, inscribed : 'The gift of Lee Steere Steere, Esq'. To the Parish of Wootton,' is probably of the date 1724. A third dates from 1857. There is a cup of 1753, and a handsome silver flagon of 1706, tankard-shaped, with a high lid, and bearing the arms of Evelyn and Browne as on the paten of 1685, encircled by stiff feathering, with the inscription : ' The Gift of Mary Evelin, widdow of John Evelin Late of Wootton Esq.' It was presented in memory of her husband, who died in 1705.

The pierced cast-bronze plate, now used as an almsdish or collection-plate, is a beautiful but very unsuitable ornament of the church, being adorned with figures of nude gods and goddesses riding on dolphins and sea-monsters. It is a recent gift to the church.

The bells are three in number, the first inscribed :

(J( ORA MBNTE PIA PRO NOBIS VIRGO MARIA. The

second has : ^ >J< tjf o ffc t%f IOHANNES CHRISTI

���PLAN OF OKEWOOD CHAPEL

CARE DIGNARE PRO NOBIS ORARE. Both are of the

latter part of the I4th century, and Mr. Stahlschmidt considers that they were cast by a Reading or London founder. The third bell, by Richard Eldridge, bears the inscription : OUR HOPE is IN THE LORD 1602 RE.'

The ancient CH4PEL of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, OKEWOOD, is practically shut in by a small oak wood, except on the south side. It is perched upon the top of a hillock, round which winds a tiny stream, and is approached on one side by a rustic bridge. The churchyard is very picturesque, and contains many old trees, and some cypresses of more recent growth. There are a few wooden ' bed- heads ' and a number of 18th-century headstones and table-tombs. The chapel itself is most picturesque, especially as viewed from the south-west or south-east, and is built of local sandstone rubble, plastered with the original coat of yellow-coloured mortar, the windows and other dressings in the old part being in hard chalk and firestone, the roofs covered with Horsham slabs, diminishing in size towards the ridge,

��and the wooden bell-turret at the west end being of oak boarding, crowned by a squat spirelet of oak shingles. The modern parts are quite in keeping with the old.

The plan, as originally built in about 1220, was a simple parallelogram, of nave and chancel, under one roof, without structural division, 56ft. 6 in. long by 20 ft. wide internally, the side walls being 2 ft. 6 in. and the east and west 3 ft. in thickness. There were, till the modern alterations, a door on the north and four lancet windows, the same number and a priest's door on the south, while in the west wall were a door and window of three lights, and in the east wall another three-light window of 15th-century date. In the western part of the south wall is a rudely-formed window of 18th-century date. 68 The original roof, with massive tie-beams and wall-plates, still remaining, is probably of the later period ; the popular tradition being that Edward de la Hale, whose brass remains in the chancel, in thankfulness for the escape of his son, who, while hunting in the forest, was attacked by a wild boar and nearly killed, founded the existing chapel on the site of the averted tragedy. This, however, is an incorrect version, as there is a record of the presentation of Sir Walter de Fancourt to the chapel in 1290, and there can be no doubt that the little chapel had then been standing for some seventy years. What is fairly certain is that Edward de la Hale en- dowed the chapel with lands, re- roofed and repaired it, and put the windows and a door- way in the end walls. In the early years of the 1 8th century, about 1709, the chapel is re- corded to have fallen into a condition of dilapidation, when if was repaired, and a num- ber of rough buttresses added (some of which still remain), by the care of two neighbouring yeomen, Mr. Goffe and Mr. Haynes, who sold three of the bells to help the work. John Evelyn is stated to have had a hand in an earlier reparation. 69 His representative, the late Mr. W. J. Evelyn, restored the building in 1867, and it was further restored and enlarged at his cost by the addition of a north aisle and a vestry in 1879. Although this extension was necessary, and was carried out with unusual respect for the ancient windows, door, &c., which were re- built in the same relative positions in the new wall, it is to be regretted for the unavoidable destruction of some very interesting early wall-paintings found on the walls and window-splays.

The south wall shows the original work, particu- larly in a pair of well-preserved lancet windows in the chancel. Beneath these on the inside, and apparently originally round the entire chapel, is a string-course of keel or pear-shape section. The windows have peculiar heads internally, i.e. straight-sided, or tri- angular, instead of arched, as in the chancel of Chipstead Church, Surrey, of slightly earlier date. They are rebated externally to receive the glass. There is a good piscina near to these with a credence shelf over, beneath a trefoiled head. It has two drains, dished in a square form. The opening is bordered by a bold bowtel moulding between two hollows, and is i ft. S in. wide, while that of the credence niche over it, which is simply chamfered on the edges, is

��* 8 Probably made in 1709.

��" In Evelyn'j Diary is the entry, under 14 July 1701 : 'I lubicrib'd towardi re-

162

��building Oakwood Chapel, now after zoo years almost fallen down.*

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