Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/766

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��winged demon is endeavouring to depress, while a figure between the two scales, representing the soul whose merits and offences are being weighed, turns towards St. Michael for help. On the left stands an angel who has driven out the condemned souls, which are being carried off by a demon to the fires of hell, seen below. The great interest of this series, however, lies in its lower portion, which consists of six round medallions. 189 These may be divided into two sets, three to the right of the 'Majesty ' (the north) and three to the left (the south). The three on the right relate to the history of St. John the Evangelist, in whose honour this chapel was probably dedicated. 1 ' 9 Reading from the centre outwards, the first of these shows a man of hideous aspect with a pitchfork holding the saint down in a large tub, evidently the vessel of boiling oil into which he was cast by com- mand of Domitian. Only the head and shoulders of the saint are visible, and his joined hands pointing towards a seated figure of Christ, who extends His right hand in benediction.' On the knees of the seated Christ, resting his head against His shoulders, is the sleeping figure of St. John as ' the disciple who leaned upon Jesus' breast ' at the Last Supper. 1 * The second medallion of this series shows St. John at Ephesus. In the centre the apostle is shown raising to his lips the cup of poison, which he drank unharmed, while in front of him are the bodies of two men who died from the effects of the same poison and were afterwards raised to life by the apostle's cloak being cast upon them. On the left of the picture is a seated, cross-legged figure holding a staff of office, either the proconsul or the priest of Diana, both of whom were concerned in the trial and converted as a result of the miracle. On the right of the picture is a figure seated on a chair before a lectern on which is a book in which he is writing, holding in his left hand the knife used by the scribes for erasing purposes ; this is evidently St. John as evangelist. The third medallion, again, contains two subjects. On the right the apostle extends his hands in benediction over three rods and a number of stones. Mr. Waller identified this as part of the miracle of St. John and ' Crato the philosopher.' In this legend certain young men having been persuaded by St. John to sell their jewels and other possessions and give the price to the poor, repented having so done ; the apostle then took certain rods and stones and converted them into gold and gems of miraculous purity, bidding the young men choose between these and heavenly riches. The remaining portion of the medallion is taken up with another miracle. The saint is shown standing beside a square altar, upon which is a cup or chalice ; his right hand is extended in benediction over a figure lying in front of the altar with joined hands ; over the saint is the Hand of God, in benediction, issuing from clouds. This, Mr. Waller suggests, represents the raising of Drusiana, a lady of Ephesus, who, ardently desiring to see St. John, died just before his arrival in the city and was by him restored to life.

Of the second or left-hand series of medallions, the middle one shows a king with crown and sceptre, seated cross-legged upon a throne, pronouncing sentence upon a bearded prisoner, who is led by a

��rope round his neck by a hideous gaoler ; on the right a still more hideous executioner is shown striking off" the same prisoner's head. This is no doubt, as Mr. Waller suggests, St. John the Baptist and King Herod. In the next medallion Christ is seen standing with right hand stretched in benediction over a font, from which issue the head, shoulders, and joined hands of a man with a pronouncedly Jewish nose ; on the right the same man is shown committing a parchment with two seals to the flames (shown as alternate wavy streaks of red and white). 131 This shows, no doubt, the conversion of a usurer. In the last medallion we again see Christ standing ; at His feet kneels an adoring figure, over whose head are two demons of unintentionally humorous aspect ; behind these is a figure with its hands tied behind its back, being pulled forward by two more demons by a rope round its neck ; a man with a sword, evidently in charge of the bound figure, appears to be accusing his prisoner to Christ, whose left hand is raised in admonition. The most probable explanation seems to be that the prisoner is the 'woman taken in adultery,' while the kneeling figure may possibly be Mary Magdalene, ' out of whom He had cast seven devils.'

The explanation of the whole series seems to be that, instead of the usual representation of the blessed souls of the righteous on the right hand of the ' Majesty ' and the tormented souls of the wicked on the left hand, the artist portrayed on the right three scenes from the life of St. John, the patron of the chapel, as typical of good works, and on the left three scenes relating to the vices of Anger, Usury or Greed, and Lust.

The church contains no ancient monuments, but standing in the nave is a stone slab on which are the small brass figures of a man and woman in early 16th-century dress ; this is said to have been dug up in the roadway east of the church, and no doubt had been previously removed therefrom. The man has long hair and wears a long cloak with fur collar and loose sleeves, and from his belt is suspended a purse ; the lady has a tight bodice, loose skirt, long belt, and long head-dress. The only other stone of note is a slab lying in the south chapel, near the organ, to one Zelotes Parson, son of Nicholas Parson, who died in 1673 aged ninety-four years and two months.

There are six bells, all cast by Lester and Pack in

'754-

The communion plate comprises a silver flagon and a large paten, both of 1829, a small chalice and stand paten of 1 88 1, and a small thin circular concave plate without a date-letter, but stamped with the head of George III. There are also four pewter plates.

The registers begin in 1 540 ; the second book contains baptisms, marriages, and burials arranged in columns from 1653 to 1699. On loose sheets at the end is a list of those not baptized ; the third contains baptisms, marriages, and burials from 1689 to 1753, and the baptisms and burials to 1812 ; the fourth has marriages from 1754 to 1812.

The churchyard falls from east to west and sur- rounds the building, but lies chiefly to the north and south, at the east and west being mere passage-ways.

��Drawn and described by Mr. J. G. Waller, F.S. A., Archaeologiajdix, 199-212.

129 A chapel of St. John occurs in a will of 1547 ; Manning and Bray, Hist. ofSurr.

��" Mr. Waller's suggestion that ' the reclining figure must symbolize St. John at Patmos ' is unsatisfactory.

566

��181 Mr. Waller takes the red and white as symbolic of blood and water, and bases thereon his interpretation.

�� �