GODALMING HUNDRED 



COMPTON 



western part of the chancel proper are windows, one 

 in either wall, of like date, within plainly splayed 

 pointed heads. That on the south has, however, 

 been altered externally in the I 3th century, so that 

 it is now a low side window of two lights. Hard by 

 a very carefully finished squint (c. 1 1 60) pierces the 

 chancel arch pier. Its other end is blocked by the 

 pulpit. In either wall to the east is a small doorway 

 with a pointed head. The western jamb of the south 

 door stands on an early base. That on the north 

 now gives access to the modern vestry, but no doubt 

 originally opened to a stair which led to the upper 

 chapel, a purpose at present served by a modern 

 staircase placed within the small building on the 

 opposite side, which is entered by the other door. 

 A wide lancet, of date about 1250, is found on either 

 side of the chancel, westward of these doors, and a 

 two-light window of about the same date remains in 

 the south wall of the lower sanctuary. 



The anchorite's cell, or watching-place, whichever it 

 be, on the south side of the chancel has several interest- 

 ing features : a tiny round-headed window apparently 

 of 1 2th-century date ; a door opening outwards sug- 

 gesting that there was a porch or out-building of 

 timber attached to the southern side ; and a squint 

 with a peculiar cross-shaped opening to the chancel. 

 This squint, which would command a view of the 

 altar, is high enough for a person to kneel within 

 it on the cell side, and the oak board on its sill shows 

 a depression worn by constant use. The squint also 

 looks towards a nameless tomb, quatrefoil panelled, of 

 15th-century date, beneath a window of the same 

 period in the north wall of the sanctuary, which prob- 

 ably served as an Easter Sepulchre. In the recent 

 underpinning of the chancel walls several male 

 skeletons (one having abundant bright red hair on 

 the skull), buried one above another, were found 

 beneath this tomb, and it has been suggested that 

 these were successive occupants of the anchorite's 

 cell. 



The present east window of the upper chapel is 

 modern, and replaces one of three lights with four- 

 centred or elliptical heads, probably of late 1 6th-cen- 

 tury date. Standing upon a beam above the low arch 

 which forms the entrance to the lower sanctuary is the 

 unique piece of early wooden screen-work or balustrad- 

 ing, placed here when the vaulting was constructed, 

 about 1 1 So. 1 " It consists of nine semicircular arches, 

 cut out of a single plank, resting upon octagonal shafts, 

 having foliate capitals and moulded bases. A modern 

 deal capping now crowns the top. The chancel roof 

 is covered with modern boarding on the inside. In 

 the nave and north aisle the roof timbers are ancient, 

 perhaps of the I zth century : the south aisle roof has 

 been largely renewed. Few churches possess such 

 interesting early lyth-century fittings as the com- 

 munion-table, rail and gates, with pierced scroll- 

 carving, newels and balusters, the pulpit and sounding- 

 board, also elaborately carved, and the chancel screen, 

 now placed at the west end, and also enriched with 

 pierced scroll-work and circular arches on baluster 

 shafts. The seats in the chancel and body of the 

 church are all modern. 



In the southern window of the sanctuary is a beau- 

 tiful fragment of early 13th-century glass representing 

 the Blessed Virgin and Child. Other ancient frag- 



ments of grisaille or pattern-work have disappeared 

 within living memory. The glass now in the west 

 window of the south aisle, but originally made for 

 the east window of the sanctuary, appears to be of I yth 

 or 18th-century date, and its subject is the Baptism of 

 our Lord. 



The chancel walls have been re-plastered, but there 

 may be ancient paintings under the whitewash in the 

 nave. 



Resting within the blocked north doorway, outside, 

 is part of a late 1 2th-century coffin lid, bearing a 

 floriated cross. 



In the centre passage of the nave is a slab bearing 

 the brasses of a civilian and his wife, dated 1508. 

 The man wears a long fur-lined coat, with a girdle, 

 from which hangs a gyfxtire. His hair is long and 

 he has square-toed shoes. The lady is attired in a 

 pedimental head dress and a tight-fitting gown with 

 fur cuffs of a somewhat unusual shape, her waist being 

 confined by a long ornamented girdle reaching to the 

 feet. Beneath the husband are the figures of two 

 sons, and one of a daughter, as appears by the indent, 

 was originally below the wife's effigy. The inscription 

 reads : 



' Pray for the sowllis of Thomas Genyn and 



Margaret hys wyfe, 



the whych decesyd the yere of our Lord MCCCCC 

 and VIII, on whos sowllis Ihu have marcy. Amen.' 



Above the figures was a shield, now gone, but 

 which, according to Manning, bore Argent on a 

 fesse gules three bezants, for Jennings, quartering 

 Gules a bull's head cabossed argent armed or. 



From Manning we learn that a marble stone bore 

 the following inscription, lost at the time when he 

 wrote : 



' Hie jacet Robertus Soule et Margareta uxor ejus, 



quorum 

 animabus propicietur Deus. Amen.' 



Besides these, there are several slabs and monu- 

 ments of the 1 7th and l8th centuries, including a 

 stone at the east end of the nave inscribed to ' Eliza- 

 beth wife of Peter Quynell, Esq., daughter and sole 

 heiress to Edmund Grey, Rector of Woolbeding, 

 1684.' 



Her husband, according to an entry in the register, 

 was buried at Compton on 7 May 1666. 



On a tablet in the south aisle are inscriptions to 

 members of the Fulham family, 1 7th and 1 8th cen- 

 turies. In the churchyard is the fragment of a coped 

 coffin-slab bearing a cross, of izth or 13th-century 

 date. 



On a jamb-stone of the small blocked window in the 

 south aisle is an incised sundial. 



A rare detail is some ancient ridge- or crest-tiles 

 on the nave roof. The registers date from 1639. 

 The churchwardens' accounts begin 1570, and the 

 book is bound up with part of an old processional 

 belonging originally to the Abbey of Hyde, near 

 Winchester. 



The plate includes a fine communion cup and cover 

 or paten, of 1569, with a somewhat unusual form of 

 ornament on the paten ; another paten and a flagon 

 of 1683 and 1687, given to the church by Dr. Edward 



13> Illustrated in V.C.H. Surr. it, 433. 

 23 



