REIGATE HUNDRED
��REIGATE
��and gold running above, being coloured cobalt, is divided by gold paterae, each space being charged with two silver palm branches with the stems together. The foliated crest is gilt. The buttresses and pedestals of the four large niches,' i.e. those right and left of the window, ' are painted murrey colour, and have silver panels on them, ending in ogee heads, with singularly ugly tracery and silver flowers spring- ing from the apex of each ogee. The triangular cinquefoil heads above terminate with a buttress and crocketed finial in the centre, and terminate below in a gilt rose. The backs of these four niches are painted blue, . . . with a diaper composed of thin gold embossed, four leaves making a pattern, which was again powdered with silver stars of an inch and a half diameter, having six rays, each ray embossed and laid on separately ; * under these four niches were apparently the names of the saints whose images they were made to contain, the letters RIE probably part of the name MARIE being visible under one of them. ' On one of the twelve small niches, that to the right of the centre, the letters me are very plainly to be seen in gold upon the pedestal.' ' A very fine encaustic tile was found in the rubble work with which the niches were stopped up, and an octagonal column and capital of about six inches in diameter painted all over each surface of the octagon, having flowers and crosses alternately of red and silver, and upon the angles between them lozenges of blue.' The canopied niches of the north chancel, remains of which were brought to light in 1845, and also a fine stoup to the east of the south door in the aisle, in 1873, were found to have been richly coloured and gilt. The shields with painted coats of arms on the chapel ceiling are modern.
There is no ancient glass remaining in the church, and the modern stained glass is not of a very high class ; the east window in particular, which dates from 1845, is interesting as an early essay in the revived art of glass painting, but in itself is very ugly, and the same may be said of the east window of the south chapel.
The font, at the west end of the south aisle, is modern, and copied from an unfortunat: model, the octagonal bowl and stem being carved with flamboyant tracery and the bowl with twenty- four grotesque heads leering and putting out their tongues. In old work this sort of thing might be deemed quaint, but in a modern font it is surely rather childish. The pulpit, lectern, altar, and quire- stalls are modern, but some carvings imported from Belgium are worked up into the latter. The large organ almost fills the western part of the north chapel, hiding the large monument on its northern wall. All the seating in the church is modern. The oldest monument in the church is a stone coffin lid, of 1 3th or 14th-century date, now lying in the tower.
The John Skinner who helped to build the vestry had an inscription in his memory, no longer to be found : ' Orate pro animS JohfS Skynner generosi qui obiit 8 die mensis Martii, 1516, anno regis Henrici octavi octavo, cujus anfe propicietur Deus. Amen.' Another formerly existing inscription ran :
��' Here lieth buried Mary, the wife of George Holme- den, of Longfield, in the Countie of Surrey, gent., and one of the daughters of John Skynner, late of Rigate Esq., deceased, while he lived, who departed this mortal life at Riegate, 1578.' There was also formerly a monument containing various escutcheons, viz., Skinner, impaling Colcoke, the same impaling Barley, Newdigate, Poyntz, &c., and bearing the inscription on brass :
' This monument was erected by Alice, one of the daughters of John Poyntz, of Alderley, in the County of Gloucester, Esq. in memorie of hir loveing husband Joh Skynner, Esq., the onely sonne of John Skynner Esq., one of the Clerk-con trovlers of the household to the high and mighte Prince Queene Elizabeth, which John deceised the 19 day of May, A.D. 1584.'
This John Skinner represented Reigate in the Parliament of 14 Elizabeth, and his monument is referred to again by Manning and Bray ai as follows : ' At the east end of the north chancel is a large altar tomb of Sussex marble, on each side are 3 coats of arms, and one at the end, but entirely defaced. The inscription also round the edge (if in reality there ever was one) is totally illegible.' *** On a brass plate in a gravestone in the chancel, prior to 1804, was inscribed: 'Orate pro Anima Katherine Skynner Vidve, nuper uxoris Johannis Skynner Armigeri que obiit viii. die Septembris Ao. 1545. Cujus a'ie propicietur Deus. Amen.' Another bore the follow- ing : ' Pray for the soule of Elizabeth Skynner, second wife of James Skynner, of Rigate, Esq., which Elizabeth deceased the 29 of Avgvst in the yeare of ovr Lord God 1549. On whose soule Christ have mercy. Amen.' And on another were the words : ' Here lieth buried James Skynner of Rigate in the Countie of Surrey, Esquire, which died the xxx. day of July in the year of ovr Lord God 1558. Upon whose sovle ovr Lord have mercy. Amen.'
None of these inscriptions are now known to be in existence. The Skinners became possessed of the impropriation of the rectory of Reigate shortly after the dissolution of the Priory of St. Mary Overy, Southwark.
The Elyots of Reigate and Albury, who were connected by marriage with the Skinners, left a tomb which till 1845 stood against the north wall of the sacra- rium, but was then taken down, its beautiful canopy de- stroyed, and the remains, in- cluding the recumbent figures of the two Richard Elyots, father and son, who lived at the mansion called the Lodge and died respectively in 1608 and 1612, placed in the north chancel.'" The statue of the father, with hands joined in
prayer, is a good piece of work. Upon the front of this tomb were the kneeling figures of Rachel, widow of Richard Elyot, senior, daughter of Matthew Poyntz, of Alderley, Gloucestershire, and their six surviving daughters.
���ELYOT. Aaure afesu
��*" Hilt. ofSurr. i, 319.
- Rev. J. W. Pickance (' Reigate
Church and Monuments,' Surr. Arch. Cell, xi, 195) quotes from an annotated
��copy of Manning and Bray, Surr., a pencil note by Ambrose Glover to the effect that this monument was * taken down by Mr. (Bryant), the antiquary mentioned in the preface to Manning and Bray, and
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��literally broken to pieces. The inscription was then gone.'
m > Richard Elyot the younger was in the service of Henry, Prince of Wales, elder brother of King Charles I.
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