Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/744

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��chalk mantelpieces with straight-sided four-centred heads and some good late 16th-century panelling of a plain kind. The usher's wing retains its old beams, moulded with a quarter roll and an ogee. In this wing is a chained library, containing a considerable number of volumes, but the fittings are all new. The two wings last described are of three stories, the ground floor being somewhat lower than that of the south wing. The library wing is a rough-cast half- timber structure with a stone front, and the back wall is carried upon two heavy chamfered posts. The

���HIGH STREET, GUILDFORD

ground floor of this wing, originally intended to be open to the court, is now inclosed to form cloak- rooms, &c. On the court side of the library are two windows with ogee moulded jambs, heads, and wooden mullions which were discovered under the rough-cast during some recent repairs. The main front on the street consists of the gabled ends of the east and west wings and the wall connecting them, which is gabled in the centre and is of Bargate stone. The two side wings are buttressed and string-courses are run across the elevation and serve as labels to the

��windows. In the middle of the wall is a doorway to the court with a four-centred head and its original door of oak in small panels with a fluted lunette. Over the door is a carved stone panel with the royal arms and the inscription : ' Schola Regia Gram- maticalis Edwardi Sexti." Over this is the library window of six mullioned and transomed lights with a square label. The two side wings have had similar windows, but not transomed, and of four lights, on four stories. There are also two-light attic windows in the three gables. The gables have brick-coped parapets and small terra-cotta balls upon iron spikes as finials.

Besides the important build- ings in the High Street just described there are many others of early 17th-century date, and even earlier. Several houses, however, were re- fronted about 1700. No. 25 is an interesting example of domestic architecture of the early part of the 1 7th century, remodelled at the end of the century, only the staircase and some panelling being left of the original work. The street front belonging to the later date has been much damaged by the insertion of a com- paratively modern shop win- dow, but above this is com- plete. The two upper stories are treated with a single order of Doric pilasters set upon pedestals mainly in plaster, and with wood-framed mul- lioned and transomed windows. At the first-floor level is a simple iron balcony. The rear elevation is hung with tiles made in imitation of brickwork and set in mortar, after a fashion not uncommon in the south of England in this period. On the ground floor is a projecting bay, with rounded corners, 6 decorated with plaster-work. The front room of the ground floor is completely modernized and is occupied by a shop. This opens at the back into the staircase, and beyond this is a back room which is panelled

with oak in small butted panels of the earlier work. The ceiling is cut up by moulded and enriched ribs of late 17th-century date. The mantelpiece has been removed. The bay has wooden frames and iron casements with leaded glass in square panes. The staircase is of deal ; it is set in a square well and is divided into three short flights with two half landings between each floor. The newels are square, surmounted by enriched urns, and have carved pen- dants. The handrail is heavy, simply moulded, and is without ramps. In place of balusters there

��See r.C.H. Surr. ii, 475. 552

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