Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/64

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��consisting of interlaced squares and circles, has been brought to view. The narrow, winding street, the irregular roof-lines and overhanging stories, with this beautiful piece of detail in the foreground, make the whole corner a delightful study.

Very different in character, but equally valuable to the lover of old domestic architecture, are the elabor- ately ornamented brick fronts of I jth-century date in the High Street. As Mr. Ralph Nevill, F.S.A., observes, ' They are good examples of how to treat rough stone with brick dressings, and are of a more graceful and fanciful character than the later work when affected by the intrusion of Dutch taste under William III.' " One of these has, in an oval panel, the date 1663, and very elaborate cornices of cut brick. This retains also its mullioned windows, with ornamental casement glazing. Another, also of local stone, with cut brick dressings and brick panel-work, has good curved and pedimental gables.

Besides these specially valuable examples there are numerous specimens of the sober brick houses of the 1 8th century, with excellent plain details both inside and out.

On the high ground to the north-west of the town stand the buildings of Charterhouse School, which was moved here from its old home in London in 1872. The main block, designed by Hardwick, is built round three sides of a great court open to the west, called Founder's Court, with the chapel on the south, the head master's house, ' Saunderites,' on the north, and a tall tower with a spire, Founder's Tower, on the east, flanked on the north by the school museum and part of the old foundation scholars' house, ' Gownboys,' and on the south by the other part of the same house. An archway under

Founder's Tower opens to the south walk of an arcaded cloister, Scholars' Court, leading directly to the west door of the school library, a fine room flanked by classrooms on the north and south, and opening on the east to a great hall, also flanked by classrooms, built in 1885 from the designs of Sir A. Blomfield. The cloister walk already mentioned is crossed at right angles by two other walks, one running at the back of the east block of the great court, and leading north- wards to ' Saunderites,' and southwards through ' Gownboys,' to another passage which ends in a lobby east of the chapel, and a second walk near the west end of the library, leading to a block of classrooms on the north, and to the east end of the passage just mentioned on the south. South of this passage is a third house, ' Verites,' forming the south front of the group of buildings, which are collectively known as 'Block.' To the west and south of 'Block 'lie the cricket and football grounds, with ' Crown,' the school pavilion, on the east, and the fives and tennis courts on the west. From Founder's Court a road leads west- ward down the hill past the rifle range to the racket courts and swimming baths, and beyond them to the River Wey, and the school bathing-place. The main

���CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOL. Or a cheveron between three rings gules 'with three crescents argent on the cheveron, which are the arms of Sutton, the founder.

��approach to the school from Godalming is by a road running up the valley between Frith Hill on the east and Charterhouse Hill on the west, which turning on itself passes westward over a bridge and reaches the level top of the hill on which ' Block ' stands just to the south-east of the great Hall. To the north is one of the outhouses as distinguished from those in ' Block ' ' Girdlestoneites,' with a group of classrooms and workrooms near it on the north-west, and to the south of the road is another house, ' Weeklies.' The remaining houses of the school lie to the east and south, standing picturesquely among their trees and gardens on the slopes of the hill.

A few relics from the old buildings in London were transplanted to Godalming in 1872, notably the arch of entrance to the old schoolrooms, carved all over with names of bygone Carthusians, which being placed in the lobby east of the chapel, together with a number of other similarly adorned stones, has caused a con- tinuance of the custom of name cutting, and all the walls of the lobby are covered with names, singly or in groups, of those who from time to time have made their mark in the school.

The general arrangement of the various houses is fairly uniform, consisting of a ' hall ' for the use of the upper boys, and a ' long room,' in ' Gownboys,' called ' writing school,' for the juniors, separate studies for the upper boys, and long dormitories with cubicles. In the halls are panels with the names of monitors and those who have represented the school in cricket, football, &c.

The chapel is a simple rectangle in plan, with a central passage and rows of seats facing towards it on the north and south, a south aisle at a higher level than the chapel proper, a west organ gallery and lobby, with canopied stalls on the east, and a south-west tower, under which is the main entrance. A cloister has lately been added on the south in memory of Dr. W. Haig-Brown, for many years head master, and is now filled with brass tablets and other memorials.

The library, originally a big schoolroom, contains a valuable collection of books, drawings, and pictures, and there are a number of pictures in the Great Hall, and the ' Orator ' and ' Gold Medallist ' boards from Old Charterhouse. The uses of ' Hall,' which is separated from ' Library ' by a movable wooden partition, are many and various, such as concerts, rifle corps drill, examinations, prize-givings, ' call over,' and the like.

Of late years, a new museum, surrounded by class- rooms, and new science classrooms have been built, and a wooden building with a central hall and classrooms at either end, familiarly called ' Barn,' has been taken down and set up again on a new site, to be used as a music-room. To former generations of Carthusians it chiefly recalls memories of a dreary ceremony known as 'extra school.'

The playing fields have been greatly extended in the last twenty years. ' Green,' south of the main buildings of the school, is devoted to school matches and first eleven cricket, while ' Big Ground,' west of the chapel, holds the same position in regard to foot- ball. On ' Under Green ' are eight cricket grounds, rather close together, and on ' Lessington ' are five football grounds. And there are a number of other grounds besides.

��11 Ralph Nevill, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., Cottage and Damatic Architecture of South-vilest Surr. (ed. z), 4.7

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