Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/295

 REIGATE HUNDRED

��MERSTHAM

��pointed arch a slightly horse-shoed form. This arch is of two orders with unequal chamfers, and retains a good deal of its original colour decoration in patterns. The capitals are very curious, being of an irregular outline, not semicircular on plan, but waved in form and having a tall bell, upon which are three separate sprays of peculiar foliage resembling the classical acanthus. These so closely resemble the carving on the stone seat-elbows in the chancel of Chipstead Church and a scallop-shell ornament on the chancel arch piers at Letherhead both works of the same date as to render it almost certain that all were carved by the same hand. Taken with the palm- branch foliage at Reigate hard by, they point to the influence of Eastern art through the Crusades. In the chancel itself the only traces of the work of this 1200 period are the partly destroyed blind arcades in the eastern part of the south wall and the beautiful double piscina. The wall arcades are lofty, with plainly chamfered arches, and resemble those in the chancel of Merton Church, and a group of other examples in Surrey and Kent. One capital of the shafts between the blank arches remains on the south side, circular in form and of good moulded section. 80 The piscina, which is certainly one of the best remaining of an early series in Surrey, 81 has a ' shouldered ' head, boldly moulded, a credence shelf, and two drains in the form of projecting bowls beautifully carved in undercut foliage of a somewhat uncommon type. The small plain piscina in the south chapel, with pro- jecting chamfered sill, is of the same period. It is almost triangular, with arched sides, measuring I z in. wide by 7 in. and 4 in. deep. Part of a lancet win- dow of this date remains in the west wall of the north aisle, beneath a modern two-light opening. The corresponding two-light opening in the south aisle is an insertion of c. 1 340.

The two-light window, inserted perhaps in the place of an earlier lancet, in the wall-arch on the south side of the chancel, with cusped heads and a pointed quatrefoil under an inclosing arch, dates from about 1340, and is the only other feature of that period. To c. 1 390 the porch in the end bay of the south aisle may be ascribed. It has a lofty outer archway of pointed form under a square label, with plain heater-shaped shields within quatrefoils in the spandrels, the jambs having a shaft with capital and base and good mouldings, repeated on the inner side. The doorway within is a plain example of the same date, and in the side walls, set very low down, are quatrefoil windows. The porch would appear to have been higher originally, and perhaps had a parvise over it. An image niche over the entrance is blocked by a sundial. This porch should be compared with the south porch of Oxted Church.

Slightly later, about 1450, the north and south aisles were remodelled if not rebuilt on a wider plan,

��and to this date may be ascribed the windows and other features. The south aisle has square-headed two-light windows in its south wall, while those in the north aisle are of three lights under pointed seg- mental heads. The north chapel, perhaps dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, was probably also built at this time, and has similar windows to those in the north aisle. In its north wall is the arched tomb recess of John Elinebrygge (Elingbridge), i473. M To the same period belongs the very large and handsome east window of the chancel. It is of five lights, doubled in the head, in which two quatrefoils of the width of the lower lights are placed. The arches dividing the north chapel from the chancel are of very unequal spans and coarse design. The south chapel, which appertained to the manor of Alderstead, and is dedicated to St. Katherine, dates from c. 1500. It is faced exter- nally with ashlar, has a small priest's door in the south wall, with four-centred arch, the jambs and head of which stand out from the wall in an unusual manner ; and right and left tall two-light windows with moulded jambs and square heads, having four-centred arches to the lights. Its east window of three lights under a pointed head is of more ordinary type. On the east wall to the left inside are the remains of an image niche with a good deal of ancient red colour, and there are other indications that this wall was richly decorated with a reredos of carved stonework, and coloured and gilt. The arches between the south chapel and chancel are of the same period, and are more elaborate than those on the opposite side ; the pier and respond have attached shafts, quatrefoil fashion, alternating with hollows, the capitals, bases and arches being characteristically moulded. The same inequality of span is observable in these as in those opposite, the smaller arch to the west being doubtless reduced in span in order to minimize the thrust upon the east wall of the nave. The arches at the east end of the aisles opening into these chapels are of four-centred form, set very high up on moulded corbels, and belong to the dates of the chapels respec- tively ; that to the north having two hollow-cham- fered orders and the southern plain chamfers.

The aisle roofs are modern, but those of the nave, chapels, and chancel are mainly composed of the old timbers, the chancel roof being ceiled with plaster over the timbers, but showing one tie-beam and moulded wall-plates as evidence of antiquity. The north chapel has a roof with tie-beams, and octagonal king-posts having curved braces to the principal and ridge. The porch roof has trussed rafters of good design. Except in the aisles, which are covered with lead, the pitches of the roof are somewhat steep. Oak parclose screens of ijth or early 16th-century date have been destroyed within the last fifty years, but fragments of one have been made into a lobby to the priest's door. 81 All the seating in the body of the

��~* For illustrations of all three see y.C.H. Surr. i, 451.

80 Ibid. 453. These lofty blind wall- arches, as part of the wall construction, are not to be confounded with ordinary wall arcades of a more or less decorative character, and usually about 5 ft. or 6 ft. high. They occur at the following Surrey churches : Blechingley, Chaldon, Chad- wood, Merstham, Merton, and Coulsdon the last being later (c. 1260), and all the others quite early in the ijth century. The late Mr. G. E. Street first drew attention to the connexion of some of

��these Surrey churches with a group in Kent, where the same blind arches occur, as at Cliffe-at-Hoo and Brasted, and the writer has discovered other examples at Hartlip, St. Mary Cray, Horton Kirby, Dartford, Rainham, Upchurch, Newington and Sittingbourne, also in work of the early part of the I3th century.

81 Good double piscinas of the period, c. 1190-1220, occur at Carshalton, Cob- ham, Ockham, and Okewood Chapel ; and single-drain examples at Fetcham, Chip- stead, Chiddingfold, and Godalming.

83 His grandson, Thomas Elinerugge or

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��Elyngbrigge (he is called by both names on his brass, post), directed by his will that he should be buried in the 'North Chauncell w< in the church of Meryshm afore the pictur of Mary Magdalen.' He bequeaths to the ' high aultar of or lady of Merysthfn, jt. $d. and to the repacTSn of the church, io.' This It dated 1507, and may assist in fixing the time when St. Katherine's Chapel was built.

88 The screen between the north aisle and the north chapel is said to have been even later than these perhaps of 17th- century date, like that at Wotton.

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