Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/270

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216
NOTES TO SUSSEX.

of the building appears certainly not to be generally known. The fact of this having been overlooked in an edifice standing in such a situation, close to one of the turnpike-roads from London to Brighton, from which latter place it is distant only seven miles: this fact may perhaps be accounted for by the extremely unattractive condition of the outside, and the small size of the whole: so that many might pass without pausing to examine it, as I should have done but for an accidental circumstance.—Hammond's Place, of which only a portion remains, was formerly a mansion of some importance. On the front, engraved in stone, is a shield with the arms of Michelbourne, the letters E M, and the date 1566. It is said, that Roman remains, such as a tessellated pavement, have been discovered in the vicarage grounds, but were immediately concealed again from observation. (Horsfield's Suss. I, 239, 240.)

62. Cliffe, St. Thomas at.—This church consists of chancel, nave, north and south aisles, west tower, and a strange little addition on the outside of the north aisle. The entire building is short, in style late Perp., the north wall being the only ancient portion, and that has been very much patched. The tower is square and massive, with a stair turret.

63. Climping.—Here stands a rather large cross church, having a south aisle, south porch, and square tower at the extremity of the south transept. The tower is Norm., apparently the remains of a former church in that style. It has three very narrow windows opened in buttresses, one on each side, ornamented externally with a zigzag border. These windows have been copied in the restoration of Old Shoreham church. In the western wall of the tower is a round-headed door with a double row of tooth mouldings, the inner being unusually large. On each side of the door, near the ground, is a perfectly plain niche, or sunken panel, and above, on the northern side a sunken circle having a tooth moulding within, on the other a diamond with a quatrefoil in the centre, the latter resembling four little balls joined together. The remainder of the church is very good E.E. with lancet windows, two in the west end, three in the north wall of the nave, and two in each side of the north transept. In the western gable is a circular window with eight foliations, with an oblong frame above it not in the centre, both now filled up; in the gable of the north transept is a circular window still glazed; and in the chancel gable is a quatrefoil with a quadrangular frame above, as in the west front, both