Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/356

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��the inner court, supported by two brass dragons, and having a lead-lined marble basin on three steps. A ' belcone ' in the middle of the privy gallery seems to have been specially designed to give a view of this fountain.

In addition to these two courts was a third and smaller kitchen court, adjoining the outer court on the east. The lay-out of the grounds is described. In front of the outer court was a stone balustrade with a bowling-green, ' railed with good postes, rails, and lattices of wood,' from which an avenue of trees led directly to the park gate. The privy garden, inclosed by a 1 4-foot brick wall, lay round and adjoining unto the three outsides of the inward court,' and was divided into 'allyes, quarters, and rounds set about with thorne edges,' rather neglected at the time, as was to be expected, but easily capable of repair. To the north lay the kitchen garden, also walled, and to the west a wilderness, its trees lately felled by ' one Mr. Bond, one of the contractors for sale of the late king's goods.' 6> North of the wilderness was an orchard.

In the privy garden, on the west side of the great turret at the west angle of the inner court, was a marble basin with a pelican through which the water was supplied, and near it a ' piramide ' or spired pin- nacle of marble. There were also two other marble ' piramides ' called the ' Fawlcon perches,' having be- tween them a white marble fountain set round with 'six trees called black trees, which trees beare no fruite but only a very pleasant flower.'

In the highest part of the park was a foursquare banqueting house, timber-built in three stories, with three cellars on the ground floor, a hall and three other rooms above, and on the top floor five rooms, with a lantern on the roof. Nearly all the rooms were panelled and amply lighted, and at each of the four corners of the house was a ' belcone placed for pros- pect.' The banqueting house was surrounded by a brick wall with projecting angle bastions. This wall is the only part now remaining. There were also a well-house, ' with a wheel for winding up of water,' and a wash-house close by.

Other buildings in the park were the under-house- keeper's house, with the saucery house for the yeomen of the saucer, and a well-house with a deep well, the stables, 'a little remote upon the north-east,' with barns and outhouses, and the keeper's lodge.

All the buildings were in a very good state, and ' not fit to be demolished or taken down,' and the value of their materials was estimated at 7,020.

By 1665 Evelyn speaks of the gardens as 'ruined,' and though he remarks upon the wonderful preserva- tion of the bas-reliefs in plaster, considering their age, he implies that they were perishing. The house must have needed a great outlay to keep it in repair. The description and the picture alike convey the idea of a somewhat barbaric magnificence overloaded with ornament.

The house was destroyed by orders of the Duchess of Cleveland, but not immediately after she received

��it. 43 That some of it, or of the separate banqueting house, was standing about the time of James II is proved by a MS. note in Aubrey's Wiltshire, by P. le Neve, Norrey, who writes : ' I saw it in James II's time or thereabouts. It was done with plaister work made of rye dough, in imagery, very costly.' " As late as 1757 the foundations of it could be traced round the courtyards. 643

Of the original church the exact site CHURCH cannot be determined at the present day. It was, with the old manor-house, at the foot of the downs between the villages of Cheam and Ewell." It was swept away with the rest of the vil- lage in the reign of Henry VIII to make room for the palace and park of Nonsuch.

The present church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN is an unfinished building dating from 1895, and situ- ated at Worcester Park. It is in the style of the I3th century, and has flint-faced walls with bands of red brick and dressings of stone. It consists of an apsidal chancel, with organ chamber, south chancel-aisle, nave and aisles of three bays out of the five requisite to complete the building, the west end being closed by a temporary brick wall and west porch. The chancel has a wood-vaulted ceiling ; its east walls are lined with marble ; the reredos is of white marble and alabaster. Carved oak screens span the chancel arch. The nave has a clearstory of lancets and a panelled oak ceiling. The roofs are tiled. Over the nave roof is an oak fleche with a spirelet covered with lead. The pulpit is of carved stone ; the font of stone with marble shafts. The churchyard is a triangular grass plot in which stands a tall elm and a few young trees. The communion plate is electro-plated, and consists of a cup, two patens, and a flagon.

The church of Cuddington was 4DVOWSON granted in the early I zth century by Hugh de Laval to Bernard the Scribe in trust for the Prior and convent of Merton, by whom it was retained from that date until the Dissolution. 48 By a charter dating between 1 186 and 1 198 the prior and convent granted to one, Master Hamo, a lease of the church for four years in consideration of 6 silver marks per annum." In 1284 Pope Martin IV, upon a petition from the prior and convent, pleading poverty, consented to their appropriating the church to their own uses, reserving, however, a suitable susten- tation for a vicar, and sufficient for the payment of ecclesiastical dues and other burdens, this appropriation being confirmed by letters patent in 1 309." The church was valued at 14. 131. ^.d. in the Taxation of 1 29 1. 5 * In 1311 an episcopal ordinance was issued for the endowment of a vicarage, and Low Thomas of Kingston, priest, was presented to the same. 60

In 1346 a suit took place between the king and the Prior of Merton, the king claiming the presentation to the vicarage by reason of the last vicar having resigned at a time when the temporalities of the monastery were in the king's hands during a vacancy of the priorship." The court adjudged the presentation to the king.

��45 Evelyn on his visit in 1665 re- marked on the destruction of trees.

48 The Duchess of Cleveland, sup- planted in Charles's favour by the Duchess of Portsmouth, resided abroad 1677 to 1684. It may have been after her return to England that she completed the de-

��struction to raise money. She survived till 1709.

54 Gent. Mag. 1837, ii, 1465 Aubrey, Wiln. ii, 218.

543 Pocock's Travelt in England (Camd. Soc.), ii, 262.

56 Survey communicated by Mr. Whate- ley to Mr. Manning.

270

��66 H. C. Heale, Rec. ofMtran Priory, 9. Ibid. 43.

48 Ibid. 166 ; Col. Pat. 1307-13, p. 162.
 * Pofc Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 270*.

60 H. C. Hcales, Rec. of Merton Priory, Ixviii.

61 Cal. Pat. 1345-8, pp. 168, 232 ; De- Banco R. 348, m. 4411.

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