Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/78

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��out to a narrow chamfered edge, without rebate or groove for glazing. The rough plaster of the splays is cut into patterns round the circular internal head, such as zigzag, fret, and saw-tooth ; Ki and both on the plastering and stonework are painted well-preserved coeval patterns in red and white. The somewhat later transept windows are not so ornamented. In the south wall of the south transept is a 1 2th-century piscina and the remains of what may have been sedilia.

In the west wall of the south transept is the arch of 1 1 90, with characteristic mouldings and a slightly

���PAINTED DECORATION IN GODALMING CHURCH

incised cheveron ornament on the bell of one of its capitals. The two eastern arches of the north and louth nave arcades are set upon unusually lofty piers, those on the south being circular, while the north are octagonal, an alteration of later, date. The north and south arches of the tower are perfectly plain, and possibly a little earlier.

The nave roof is ancient the eastern part perhaps even of I 3th-century date but the flat panelled ceil- ing added in the reign of Henry VII was in 1 840 turned into one of canted shape ; the old painted shields, bearing local and other coats of arms, which were fixed at the ir tersection of the ribs of the panel- ling, were preserved and re-used in the new work. Similar wooden shields, displaying general and local heraldry, initials of benefactors, &c., existed up to the same date in the south chantry and the adjoining transept. In both transepts, in the south chapel, and in the main chancel, are ancient roofs, parts of which may be as old as the I 2th or 1 3th century, but with considerable reconstruction at different dates. The south chapel roof has somewhat elaborate mould- ings on many of its timbers, of very much later date. This roof was always a span roof ; but that of the north chapel, prior to 1 840, when the extension took place, was a lean-to, as was also that of the north aisle of the nave.

��Among smaller features may be noted the early 14th-century sedilia, piscina, and aumbry in the south wall of the chancel; the early 13th-century piscina and aumbry in the north chapel ; and the unusually large double piscina, with two aumbries over, in the south chapel of the same date. The two piscinae are divided by a small octagonal shaft with cap and base. Beneath these is an altar-tomb of marble on chalk and brick base, 236 and a disused font also of late charac- ter and quite plain.

In the same south chapel, on the partly unblocked splays of the destroyed lancets, are some very valuable and well-preserved fragments of painting, coeval with the lancets themselves (c. 1200). These, which are somewhat elaborately executed in several colours, show figures of about life-size within trefoil-headed canopies. On the east splay of the easternmost lancet on the south side St. John the Baptist is shown, with hairy mantle, and bearing a disc on which is the Agnus Dei. Having been covered up from about half a century after the date of execution until 1879, these paintings are exceptionally well preserved. It is said that in 1 840 many others, on the general wall surfaces, were uncovered only to be destroyed.

Aubrey mentions one or two coats of arms in the glazing of the chancel and south chantry windows, in- cluding those of England and France, but these no longer exist. There is a part of a lion, or, in the east window of the south chancel, and a rose with diamond quarters in the north transept.

A very large and solid oak chest, of the same date as the chantry, 5 ft. 7 in. by I ft. 9^ in. and 2 ft. 4 in. high, has lately been placed here. It belongs to the pin-hinge group of the 1 3th century, and has a pierced quadrant to the standards, and a money- hutch inside with a secret well below. 137 A good oak railing, which formerly fenced three sides of the sacrarium, was removed in 1867, and parts of it used as stair balusters in a house known as the ' Square.'

The pulpit is Elizabethan. There are two com- munion tables ; one of Elizabethan or Jacobean date, which formerly had extending leaves, now stands in the north chancel, cruelly mangled to suit modern taste, and concealed by upholstery ; the other, a good but more modern table, has now been placed in the vestry.

Besides the altar tomb above mentioned, there are no monuments of importance,* 373 and, what is rather surprising in a church of this size and antiquity, prac- tically none of pre-Reformation date. In the chancel are brasses to Thomas Purvoch and wife, 1 509, and John Barker,! 595, in armour; and there are slabs, some with brass plates, escutcheons, and carved armorial bearings. The inscriptions to Thomas and Isabella Westbrook no longer exist, but the old family of the Eliots of Busbridge are largely represented : and on the south side of the chancel is an alabaster and black marble tablet, with a kneeling figure, to Judith Eliot, wife of William Eliot, 1615. The inscription is of

��^ Similar to the cut plaster edges at Compton Church in this neighbour- hood.

988 To John Westbrook 'Squyer' and Elizabeth his wife, as recorded in Manning and Bray's Surrey : the brass inscription strip and coats of arms are now missing, as is also a monument to William Westbrook

��of the same family (to whom the south chantry belonged), dated 1437, according to Symmes's MS. The inscription, quoted in Mr. Welman's book, reads like one of a century later, and describes the deceased as ' Catholike of Faith.' Vidt sufra, note 207.

"'This chest closely resembles others

40

��of the same date and class at Rogate and Bosham churches, Sussex ; all described and illustrated in the Arch. Journ. Ixiv, 243 -306, and in Surr. Arch., Coll. xx, 68-89.

M ' a This is owing to the fact that the lords of the hundred and manor were absentees.

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