Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/281

 REIGATE HUNDRED

��HORLEY

��The font, of Sussex marble, small and square in form, on a circular stem and plinth, may be of ijth-century date, but it has lost its angle shafts, and has been otherwise mutilated.

The monuments are of exceptional interest, the earliest being a very finely carved and well-preserved stone effigy of a knight of the Salaman family, which lies beneath the arch at the east end of the north aisle. It used to lie upon the pavement, but has been very properly set upon a stone base. ' It is upon a table slightly ridged en dos tf&ne, forming doubtless the lid of the coffin or tomb, and is recumbent in the usual manner, the head resting on a cushion, with a lion at the feet.' 14 The figure, which is life-size, is in Reigate stone, in a free and unconventional attitude.

4 The shield, of an intermediate size between the small heater-shape and the long one almost covering the body, is incurved and emblazoned with a double- headed eagle displayed, charged on the breast with a leopard's head.' The arms are those of the Salaman family, who held land in the parish, but which member of that family is represented is uncertain probably the father of Roger Salaman, who died 1343-4, seised of the manor of Imworth next Kingston, and of land in Horley held of the Prior of Merlon. 140 * His Christian name is unknown. The date of the effigy is about that of the aisle c. 131 5.'"

The fine brass of a lady beneath an elegant canopy, which formerly lay in the north aisle, afterwards in the floor of the chancel, and which has lately been embedded, with its slab, in a vertical position in the north wall of the chancel, is also in all probability a memorial of another member of the Salaman family, its date being about a century later than the stone effigy, viz. c. 1415. The inscription at the foot does not belong to it. Her hands are con- joined in prayer, and she wears the horned head-dress looped up in an unusual manner at the back, with pads or inclosures for the hair projecting considerably on either side. On her neck is a collar of S S. 1 " The canopy is of a single cusped arch, from which rises a crocketed pediment, surmounted by a finial, and the whole supported by long shafts ending in pinnacles.

On the south wall of the chancel is now fixed a small brass figure of a man, the inscription being lost. He is in the civilian costume of the end of the 1 5th century, and has a long furred dress, girdled at the waist. The inscription wrongly attached to the other brass has been also mistakenly associated with this. It runs: 'Of yo' charite pray for the soule of JohaTI fFenner late wyf of Joiin ffenner gent' which Johan deceased the ij day of Juley in the yere of our Lord m'v'xvj on whose soule Jfiu have mercy, amen.'

On a small stone let into one of the buttresses of the modern south aisle is the following in capital letters :

4 Here lyeth Alyce theldest daughter of .... Gilmyn gent : late wife of Thomas Taylor of Horly the yovnger. Bvried the 18 day of Janvary : 1615 :

��and Thomas the sonne of her and of Thomas Taylor above writen her husband buried the I day of Febrya : 1615.'

On a stone of the north wall of the chancel inside is the curious inscription on a sunken panel with a moulded border to William Brown, 1613, 'pastor ' of Horley 50 years, and his two wives, Magdalen, 1 604, and Margaret, 1 6 1 1. Below is a table of his descendants.

There is a small cross upon the east jamb of the north door, and several others more rudely scratched. Also on the same jamb is a very curious little un- finished carving, 5^ in. high, of the design of a traceried window, coeval with the doorway on which it has been cut.

In the inventory of the commissioners of Edward VI there were : ' In the steple iiij belles and iiij hand belles.' Now there are eight, dated 1812 and 1839, by Thomas Mears of London, with the exception of the fifth, which is inscribed, 4 Henry and John Shove gave the original 3 d Bell 1673 James P Brazier John Newnham Church Wardens.'

The church plate is not of much interest. It com- prises a silver cup, paten and flagon, of 1714, each bearing the letters IHS and the inscription ' Sam Billingsley, vicar. Jn Humphrey, James Wood, Church Wardens. Jn Charington, Tho. Beadle, overseers. Anno Domini 1714.'

The registers date from 1578. More interesting are the churchwardens' accounts, from 1507 to 1702, now at the British Museum.'" There are, however, disappointingly few references to the church fabric, and these chiefly consist of repairs to the glazing and leadwork, a ' lok,' and 'yerns' (irons). One entry has : ' The su' of the Rynggs a pon the crose, is Iiij,' and another, ' Of the syln' that is a pon the crose, ij* j rf iiij pessis of a whope ' [? hoop]. These probably refer to a processional cross.

Later entries (1604 and 1934) contain interesting memoranda as to the appropriation of the seats, showing that they went with the estates and farms in the parish, and 'the repaire of the church and steeple' (1669), which cost 40 1 3;. 43'., a further repair (1686) costing 6 i\s. id. In 1632 'John Ansty is chosen by con- sent of y* minister & Parishoners, to see y* y 8 younge men & boyes behauve themselves decently in y e church in time of Diuine service & Sermon, and he is to have for his paines ij'.' There are several records as to ap- prentices ; and some of the earlier entries refer to the parish cow and to the 'stock,' or common funds of parochial gilds, which was to be placed in the treasure chest.

In 1 190 Pope Clement III granted ADVOWSON permission to the Abbot and convent of Chertsey to retain in their own hands the parish churches of Horley, Epsom, Bookham, &c., reserving the benefices thereof to their own use ' provided that they elect vicars thereto.' lu This permission was recited in a licence for the appropria-

��140 Fully described in a paper by the late J. G. Waller, F.S.A., Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 184.


 * > Chan. Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. Ill, no.

45-

41 Thii remarkable effigy, undoubtedly the most interesting and the finest as a work of art remaining in Surrey, should be compared with the mutilated effigy of a knight in St. Peter's, Sandwich, with

��the brass of Sir John Northwode at Minstcr-in-Sheppey, and with that of Sir John d'Abernon the younger, in Stoke d'Abernon Church, Surrey, 1327. See Stothard, Monumental Effigies ; and Arch, Journ. viii, 231.

"" Fully described by the late J. G. Waller in Surr. Arch. Call, vii, 189. Mr. Waller compares with this brass as an example of female costume of the

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��period the brasses of Lady Peryent, at Digswell, Herts., 141$, and Millicent Meryng, East Markham, Notts. ; also the brass to Robert Skerne's wife in Kingston Church, Surrey, 1420, and Sir Nicholas Carew's lady, at Beddington, 1432.

" Add. MS. 6173. Published by Mr. A. R. Bax, in Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 243.

Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 1 1 ; Exch. K.R. Misc. Bks. xxv, fol. i6d.

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