Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/471

 WOKING HUNDRED

��MERROW

��In the nave hangs a very good brass chandelier said to have been presented by William III ; it bears the following inscription : ' Martin Kaisinx et Anne Chacon son epouse, 1652 : Pour parvenir au roiaume sans fin j'esper en Dieu. Fai a Namur par Pierre Rock maistre fondeur de cuivre et potin.' In the south chapel is an ancient chest with plain iron bands around it.

In the east window of the chancel are two small panels of 13th-century glass, one of the martyrdom of St. Katherine, and the other of the Last Supper, and in the 14th-century north window is the kneeling figure of a man wearing a mail hauberk, plate arm and leg defences, and a surcoat of his arms ; below is the inscription : 'Jacobus Berners patronus istius eccl'ie.' Above is his crest, a lion standing. The date must fall between 1361 and 1388, when James Berners was beheaded.

On the east wall of the nave is a small panel of English alabaster of I 5th-century date ; it represents the Nativity. On the floor are two small brass inscriptions ; one is inscribed : ' Pray for ye soules of Martyn Whyth and Annes his wyf ye which Martyn decessid ye xi day of May ye 3ere of oure Lord MCCCCC & vi on whos sowles ihtl have mercy Amen,' while the other reads : ' Hie jacet Henricus Darckam qui obiit ix die August! A dni Mviui"cui' ie ppicietur deus.' There are two large monuments in the south chapel, one on the east wall to Edward Nicholas, 1669, and the other on the south side to John and Penelope Nicholas, who died in 1 704 and 1703 respectively.

There are three bells, hung in an old cage ; the first is by Bryan Eldridge, 1645, the second by Wil-

��liam Eldridge, 1687, and the third by Bryan Eldridge, 1621 ; the last is cracked and disused.

The communion plate comprises a silver cup and stand paten of 1634 and a large flagon and stand paten of 1666.

The first book of the registers contains baptisms from 1605 to 1754, marriages from 1 600 to 1754, and burials from 1600 to 1686 ; the second repeats the baptisms and burials from 1653 to 1660, and the mar- riages for 1654. The third has burials from 1682 to 1783, of which ten years were omitted. The fourth has marriages from 1754 to '7^3> the ^^ tn baptisms from 1755 to 1783, the sixth continues them to 1812 ; and the seventh has marriages from 1784 to 1812 ; the eighth has burials to 1812.

The churchyard surrounds the building and runs a long way to the south, evidently a modern extension. The roadway passes to the north of the church and along it are some tall elm trees.

There was a church at West Hors- JDrOWSON ley at the time of Domesday. Ed- ward II claimed the presentation in 1309, and actually presented twice, 53 but the arch- bishop ordered the Bishop of Winchester to institute the nominee of Christina Berners. 54 This rector, Roger de Berners, a relative clearly, was removed for dilapidating the church and rectory and for marriage in 1317." The lord of the manor has presented since. Smith's Charity is distributed as in CHARITIES other Surrey parishes.

The Rev. Weston Fullerton in 1817 gave 3,200 in the 3 per cents, for the relief of three men and three women, housekeepers of sixty years of age and upwards.

��MERROW

��Merwe and Merewe (xiii cent.) ; Merroe (xviii cent.).

Merrow is a village 2 miles east of Guildford. The parish is bounded on the north-west by Worplesdon, on the north-east by Send and Ripley, on the east by West Clandon, on the south by Albury and St. Martha's, on the west by Stoke. It measures about I J miles from east to west, and 2 miles from north to south. It contains 1,792 acres. The southern boundary of the parish is on the ridge of the chalk down. It extends northward over the Woolwich and Thanet Beds to the London Clay. The village is just on the lower border of the chalk.

Merrow Common is open roadside land, with many trees upon it, in the northern part of the parish. The Guildford and Cobham line of the London and South- western Railway intersects it. Merrow Downs, to the south, are a fine expanse of chalk down, partly covered by trees and brushwood. Newlands Corner, where the road from Albury passes up the down, is famous for the view. St. Martha's, crowned by the church, is to the right ; the valley at the foot of the chalk escarpment runs eastward with the spire of Shere Church appearing among the trees. The Leith Hill range is across the south-eastern horizon. In front the rising ground of the sand, at a lower level than the chalk, is backed by the woodlands of

��the Weald, with the Sussex Downs beyond. Hind- head and Blackdown are to the south-west, Crooks- bury Hill and the high ground near Farnham to the west.

Further north upon the downs the old Guildford race-course can still be traced. The races used to take place on the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after Whitsunday. William III gave a King's Plate of 100 guineas, which, having apparently lapsed under Queen Anne, was renewed by King George I. The races used to fill Guildford with a crowd of visitors, but the growth of Epsom and establishment of Ascot, near the same time, diminished this popularity. The Plate, however, was given as a Queen's Plate in Queen Victoria's reign. The grand stand was taken down more than sixty years ago, and the last meeting was held in 1870.

At a very early period Merrow was clearly an inhabited place. Neolithic flints are not un- common. There is one large round barrow, or possibly two barrows, rifled, at Newlands Corner. In the valley in the downs, called Walnut Tree Bottom, are earthbanks and a barrow opened by General Pitt-Rivers, in which a sepulchral urn was found. Near here the remains of an extensive ceme- tery with Roman-British urns was found in 1895. Unfortunately much of the find was lost or destroyed

��Pat. 2 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 7, 3.

��" Winton Epii. Reg. Woodlock, fol. lit.

357

��M Ibid. Sendale, fol. 170, zok, 13*.

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