Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/280

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��It is of three somewhat lofty lights, having ogee trefoiled heads, and is a thin edition of the west window of the tower at Cranleigh. In the apex of the head of both windows are three cusped vesica- shaped figures, and beneath these at Horley are six irregular flamboyant piercings, the whole tracery plane being recessed, within a moulded arch and jambs, and a hood-moulding with returned ends inclosing the head. 1 " In the north wall are four windows, much shorter and of quite different tracery, two on either side of the porch, which is about in the centre of the wall ; and in the west wall, within the space inclosed by the wooden tower, is another window of the same design, but loftier. These win- dows are of two ogee trefoiled lights, over which is a spherical triangle inclosing . a trefoil with 'split 'or ' curled ' cusps, and straight bars radiating to the angles of the triangle. The hood-moulding of these windows prior to 1881 used to terminate in the carved heads above mentioned. The tracery belongs to a type usually called 'flowing,' but its peculiar interest lies in its partaking also of a local form, called ' Kentish.' 1M The internal treatment of the splays is also unusual, as instead of running out to a plain angle, they are finished by a plain semi- octagonal member, which receives the rear-arch of the head, a very effective treatment.

The north porch, also of c. 1315, has a plain outer door with simply chamfered head and jambs, and in its side walls are small lancets with pointed heads, which in another situation might have been assigned to an earlier date. These have very flat splays on the inside, and below them are stone seats, apparently coeval. The inner doorway is peculiar in many of its details, and fortunately has not been touched in the restoration. Its arch has a springing line about 8 in. below the level of the top of the capitals, and as the outer order of mouldings is continuous, this leads to slight distortion. The shafts to the inner order are reduced to mere bead-mouldings, I in. in diameter, but they have complete and delicately moulded capitals and tiny bases very minutely worked. The arch mouldings are very good, and the wide hood-moulding terminated in carved heads now defaced, while there is a characteristic stop to the wave-moulding on the outer order of the jamb. The inner arch and jambs are chamfered.

The arcade of this aisle is of four slender arches, on peculiarly graceful hexagonal columns with re- sponds of semi-octagon plan. The arches, like that of the doorway, are struck from a line well below the level of the capitals, and are of two cham- fered orders with well-moulded capitals and bases, the latter, like the capitals, taking a hexagonal form, but brought out to the square in a plinth course by means of bold wave-like stops, similar to those in the doorway. At the east end of this arcade is a tomb- arch with pointed segmental head, between the respond and the east wall of the aisle. It is cham- fered in the same manner as the aisle windows, and adjoining it in the aisle wall are the remains of an image niche.

��At the west end of the north aisle, within the walls and the last bay of the arcade, is the remarkably massive wooden tower, standing upon great balks of oak, which rest upon huge squared blocks, braced together by arches of timber, above which is some elaborate oak framework. A date in the 1 5th cen- tury has been assigned to this tower, but there seems no reason for doubting that it is coeval with the aisle, i.e. about 1315. This supposition is strengthened by the general resemblance of the work to the timber tower of Rogate Church, Sussex, which is unques- tionably of early 14th-century date.

The roofs of the north aisle, nave, and chancel, are in the main composed of the ancient timbers, of great size and strength, the aisle roof being probably coeval with the walls, and the others perhaps of I 5th-century date. A beautiful and very perfect roof of c. 1315 re- mains over the porch, formed of rafters and collars with curved braces, which make a complete pointed arch.

Before 1881-2 there existed the lower part of a par- close screen, which inclosed the eastern end of the north aisle, in which is the fine Salaman tomb. This screen, which was of ijth-century date, had a return end to the respond of the arcade, and showed ' traces of its original colouring of red and green.' " 7 Also there were a good number of the old seats, ' disguised by the addition of a top-gallant bulwark to keep out draughts and curiosity, and facilitate a quiet snooze. One lofty pew with carved upper panels ' bore the date 1654, and the initials i F, which may indicate one of the Fenner family, who were people of some importance in the parish. 134 No relic remains of these old pews to which so much old parish history clung : pitch pine seats have taken their place. Galleries, which were comparatively modern, have been swept away, and are hardly to be regretted, especially one, ' handsomely painted to resemble mahogany.' ' The communion table, rails, and a wainscot against the east wall,' described as ' neat,' which were ' given in 1710 by the Governors of Christ's Hospital, the patrons of the living and lay rectors,' have also been removed from the church, together with a late 17th-century screen on the east side of the timber tower.

Remains of a simple pattern in red-brown, painted on the east respond of the arcades, still exist, but other traces of mural paintings uncovered in the chancel were not preserved. The north doorway shows signs of having been painted in black and other colours. Some rare fragments of painted glass in the trefoil figure of the tracery of the north aisle windows, after a temporary disappearance, consequent upon the restoration of 18812, have been recovered, and are now to be seen in their old places. They have a design of three fleurs de lis in rich flash-ruby glass, radiating from a circle in which is framed a golden leopard's head, the arms of the Salaman family. The pattern in the spandrels was in black and white, with a ribbon of light yellow beads inclosing a geometrical tracery pattern." 9 These seem to have disappeared, but there are other fragments such as roses, flaming suns, &c., in the west window of the aisle.

��1M C/. the east window of Old Dorking Church, illustrated in Surr. Arch. Coll. xvi, I.

1M Found at Chartham : but alo at Winchelsea, Sussex, and as far afield as Sandiacre, Derbyshire. The presumption

��is that a Kentish architect or masons, imported from that county, had to do with these windows. They are unlike anything else of the period in Surrey.

18 '~ Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 241.

188 Ibid, vii, 1 80. Major Heales gives

206

��the date as 1656 in a drawing of the lettering, and suggests that the initials are those of Thomas Saunders's ton or de- scendant, but they seem to be T r, not T s. 189 Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 171; paper by the late Major Heales, F.S.A.

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