Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/402

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336
NOTES TO SURREY.

a Lord Cobham of Sterborough, near the end of the fourteenth century. Of the stalls for the members of the college, noticed below, eleven still remain, together with a Perp. oaken lectern, and good, though simple, Perp. oak screens; there are also some carved panels, of which two contain heads. Many fragments of coloured glass have been collected from other windows, and placed in those of the east and west ends of the nave. The piscinse and ambries have been plastered up. Effigies, one on a Perp. altar-tomb, called that of the builder of the church. Two alabaster, similarly placed, called Cobham and wife, much later. Brasses, several male and female; one of John Hadresham, 1458; others Cobhams.—A college was founded in this church by Regin. Lord Cobham at the beginning of the reign of K. Henry VI. (Hasted's Kent.) The college stood at the western side of the churchyard; the site is now occupied by a farm-house.—There are some ancient timber houses in Lingfield; and one, at a distance from the church to the south-east, was described as having possessed peculiarities of construction well deserving attention; it is still moated.—In the village street, about half a mile by the road from the church, stand the remains of a cross, under a most venerable and picturesque oak, or rather skeleton of an oak. The cross itself is gone, but below the foot of it, covered by a modern tiled roof, is a small sandstone building, barely large enough to shelter two, or possibly three, worshippers. This yet retains the appellation of St. Peter's cross, the parish church being dedicated to St. Peter.

Brasses: half-length, John Wache, 1445; John Swetecok, 1469 (both priests). In this parish "there is a field called Chapel Field, where it is said there was formerly a chapel dedicated to St. Margaret. An adjoining field is called St. Margaret's Field." (M. & B.) John Wiche (or Wache, as above) and John Sweetcote (comp. above) are supposed to have been the only masters of Lord Cobham's college. (Monast. VI, 1469.) The Cobham brass, called that of Sir Regin. de C., 1403, is described in (Monum. Brasses, 59, 60).

66. Maldon.—In (D. B.) this church is styled "capella." In (Val. Eccl.) "Cheselden," meaning Chessington, is annexed to Maldon. About A.D. 1263 Walter de Merton founded here a college, which in a few years was removed to Oxford in augmentation of Merton college. (Tanner, Surrey, xii, in Monast. VI, 1469.)

67. Merrow.—A.D. 1842 this church underwent a thorough