Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/768

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A HISTORY OF SURREY

��by name | of London in good fame | departyd in his best lust | the XIII th daye of Julye | on whose soule god have mcy | and send hym life Eternall | amongst godf true Elect | to have his prospect | in the place celestyall | .'

Near the east end of the north wall is a large marble cenotaph to 'Speaker' Onslow, who died in 1768 and was buried at Merrow. On the top is the reclining figure of a man in Roman costume.

On the south wall of the nave is a brass to Maurice Abbot and Alice his wife, parents of the archbishop. She died on 15 September 1606 and he died ten days later. Above they are both represented in out- line together with their six sons, all kneeling. Near this is a large marble monument to James Smythe, who married Elizabeth the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Parkhurst of Pyrford. He died in 1711 and his wife in 1705.

In 1486 a chantry called Norbrigge's and Kynges- ton's Chantry was endowed in the Lady chapel. From the inscription 16 Henry Norbrigge, formerly Mayor of Guildford, who died in 1512, it appears that he was the chief founder. He was buried in the Lady chapel. Another chantry was founded for the term of twenty years by Sir Richard Weston of Sutton Place in 1 540.

The iron screen across the entrance of the south- east chapel was erected in memory of Canon Valpy, formerly rector, who died in 1909. The colours of the ' Queen's ' Royal West Surrey Regiment are laid up in the north-east chapel. In 1910 the north- west porch was converted into a baptistery, and an alabaster font has been erected in it. The iron rail- ings between the church and the street, dated 1712, are a fine piece of Wealden ironwork.

The communion plate includes a cup and paten, both made at Norwich about 15/0, but having no hall mark. Round the cup is engraved ' HALE WES- JEN,' the old name of a village near St. Neots, Hunts. It was sent from there to London to be melted up into a new cup, but the silversmith kept the old one intact and made the new one of entirely fresh metal. After passing through various hands the old one was bought for use at Guildford. The next oldest piece of plate is a silver alms-basin of 1675 ; there is also a silver-gilt paten of 1691 ; a cup and cover paten of 1730 ; a silver-gilt flagon of 1757 ; a cup of 1873 ; and two silver-gilt cups and patens of 1888. Besides these there are six pewter plates.

There are two small wooden collecting boxes with handles measuring over all 9^ in. by 2f in. On the tops is a circle of geometric incised ornament. Simi- lar ones are to be found at Chobham.

There are five books of registers ; the first con- tains baptisms, marriages, and burials from 1558 to 1693 ; the second contains the same from 1693 to 1783, but the marriages stop at 1 739. The marriages between the years 1739 and 1754 and from 1758 to 1763 were entered in the St. Mary's register owing to the rebuilding of this church ; the third book contains marriages from 1754 to 1812 ; the fourth has baptisms from 1784 to 1794 and burials from 1784 to 1795 ; and the fifth continues the baptisms from 1794 to 1812 and burials from 1 701; to 1812.

��The church of ST. NICHOLAS is a large build- ing comprising a chancel with an apsidal end, tower, north organ chamber, south chapel or extension of the south aisle, vestry, nave, north and south aisles, south-west porch, and a private chapel (called the Loseley chapel) to the south of the chancel aisle and west of the vestry. Excepting the Loseley chapel, the church was rebuilt in 1870-2."' The original building was on a lower level, and was often damaged by floods. It had been much repaired, but was entirely rebuilt in 1836-7 in churchwardens' Gothic. This church was higher than the original, but was still liable to floods. The present is raised still more. The Loseley chapel, which is of the 1 5th century, is closed off from the church by a glazed stone screen, and its floor level (doubtless that of the earlier church) is much below the floor level of the present church. There are two prints hanging in the vestry portraying the two former churches. The earlier, dated 1834, is a north-west view showing two gabled ends, probably of two aisles with a west tower of three stages between them. The second print shows the church after the first rebuilding, with chancel, nave, and aisles and a west tower ; this building was how- ever rendered unsafe by floods from the river and was replaced by the present church in 1872.

In the churchyard is a 13th-century capital of a pillar, much perished, from the first church. The Loseley chapel has a modernized south window under a traceried head of 15th-century style and a west doorway with a four-centred arch in a square head. It contains many monuments of the More and More-Molyneux family. In the south wall is an altar tomb to Arnold Brocas which has been removed from the north wall of the former chancel. On it lies the effigy of a priest, with feet to the west, in a red cope, or possibly the gown of a bachelor of laws, above his other vestments, which appear to consist of an alb, rochet, and stole. A part only of the original brass inscription remains along the top edge of the base, and reads : ' Hie jacet Arnald(us) Brocas baculari' ut'usqi iuris canonic' lincolfi & welfl & qSdm Rector isti' loci qui obiit vigilia (asstlpcSis be Marie Anno Domini Millesimo ccc nonagesimo quinto) ' : the words in brackets are a modern restora- tion, in paint, of the text. The front of the base has five bays with quatrefoil panelling, each inclosing a shield ; the first or easternmost is charged with a leopard rampant, for Brocas, with the difference of a border engrailed ; the second is Brocas quartering Roches, with a label over all for difference ; the third, in a border a lion ; the fourth as the first ; and the fifth the undifFerenced coat of Brocas. The recess over the tomb has panelled sides and a vaulted soffit divided into three bays by cinquefoiled arches terminating in the two middle ones with carved bosses ; in the two inner angles the vaulting springs from shafts with moulded capitals and the two intermediate main ribs from carved corbels, one repre- senting an angel's head with hair bound by a circlet, from which rises a small cross in front, and the other a bearded man's head also with a circlet, enriched by small flowers ; at the intersections of the vaulting ribs are carved bosses, some as flowers and others as lions' faces with protruding tongues ; the

    • In 1797 the old church was largely reconstructed, having been damaged by floods. The interior arcades were apparently

replaced by cast-iron pillars.

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