140 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



its name. It was in Domesday Book " Merstan " = 

 Mere-stan, the stone (house) by the lake. 



Beyond the brook, above the tall trees, is seen the 

 shingled spire of the church, an Early English building 

 dedicated to St. Catherine, not yet spoiled, despite 

 restorations and the scraping which its original lancet 

 windows have undergone, in misguided efforts to 

 endue them with an air of modernitv. 



The church is built of that limestone or " fire- 

 stone " found so freely in the neighbourhood — a famed 

 speciality which entered largely into the building and 

 ornamentation of Henry the Seventh's Chapel at 

 Westminster. Those wondrously intricate and 

 involved carvings and traceries, whose decadent 

 Gothic delicacy is the despair of present-day architects 

 and stone-carvers, were possible only in this stone, 

 which, when quarried, is of exceeding softness, but 

 afterwards, on exposure to the air, assumes a hardness 

 equalling that of any ordinary building-stone, and has, 

 in addition, the merit of resisting fire, whence its 

 name. From the softer layers comes that article of 

 domestic use, the " hearthstone," used to whiten 

 London hearths and doorsteps. 



Merstham Church is even yet of considerable 

 interest. It contains brasses to the Newdegate, Best, 

 and Elmebry gge families, one recording in black letter : 



"Uir is*** go^isiCInubrgggf, anuiaer, qui obiit bu\ lit 

 ffrfcniarij &° §ni ^°cctc°lml ** 3«abrIIa uxor tin* 

 qvixt fwt filia |prln .lamgs ■quon&a Unions *t 

 Qlbttrnxn 'gonton : qua* ohiit bi'f lit £fjpirmbris 

 &° §ni ffiucflxxii tt guman uxor ri : qua* 

 fait filia $oIks ^xogbttt totilman quae obiit , . , 

 &° §ni $& ccc°. , ♦ . quoru aniraabus 

 puinrtur gnus." 



The date of the second wife's death has never been 

 inserted, showing that the brass was engraved and set 

 during her lifetime, as in so many other examples of 

 monumental brasses throughout the country. The 



