A HISTORY OF SURREY 



with remains of the pilasters dividing the bays. 

 The windows have for the most part 18th-century 

 sashes, but some of the cut-brick heads and sills 

 remain, and the first-floor window in the gable, 

 though possibly not original, has an arched head and 

 square-faced wooden mullions and transom, with 

 leaded casements. The remainder of the exterior is 

 of no great interest, a new wing has been added on 

 to the east end, and the whole of the west wall, in 

 which is the entrance, is modern. 



The hall is now quite small, being only a fragment 

 of the original. At the top of the north wall is a 

 wooden balustrade, which is now blocked up on one 

 side. All the doors opening into the rooms from the 

 hall are panelled and hung in solid carved frames. 

 The landing above is supported by a massive beam 

 which rests on carved and moulded pilasters, and at 

 the end of the hall is a massive staircase with large 

 square-carved newels and moulded tops, and in the 

 place of balusters there are carved pierced panels of 



winged amorino in a wreath, and others occur in the 

 ceiling, among swags of fruit, gryphons, &c. The 

 tympanum at the east end has similar strapwork and 

 a shield bearing the arms of Shiers with helm, crest, 

 and mantle. 



The bedroom over the dining-room has a flat ceil- 

 ing with a moulded dentil cornice and wide moulded 

 ribs enriched with running patterns of fruit and 

 festoons, and in the centre is a large oval wreath con- 

 taining a female figure holding a palm branch in her 

 right hand and some uncertain object in her left. 

 The room over the kitchen, used as a nursery, has 

 also an ornamental ceiling with flowered ribs. 



The out-buildings to the north-west of the house 

 are L-shaped, built of brick with the exception of the 

 lower portion of the north side, which is of flint. 

 They appear to be of somewhat earlier date than the 

 rest, perhaps c. 1600, and retain a good deal of Gothic 

 character. 



The front is divided into two stories by a moulded 



OUTBUILDINGS, SLYFIELD HOUSE, GREAT BOOKHAM 



strapwork. At the foot of the stairs are original dog- 

 gates. 



The drawing and dining rooms on the south side 

 of the ground-floor are panelled, and the former has 

 also a fine plaster ceiling with fleurs de lis, swags, &c., 

 in guilloche borders, and in the centre is a figure of 

 ' Plenty.' Over the fireplace of this room are the arms 

 of Shiers carved in oak, impaling those of Rutland of 

 Mitcham, which are Gules a border engrailed or with 

 an inescutcheon of the like coat. The dining-room 

 fireplace has . plain black marble jambs and white 

 marble moulded shelf, and is apparently original. 



On the first floor all the rooms are panelled, and 

 several of them have very fine ceilings, the best one 

 being in the south-west room over the drawing-room 

 and entrance. It is coved and has an intricate strap- 

 work design with a central cartouche containing a 



brick frieze with architrave and cornice, the lower 

 story having at the east end a pair of rusticated brick 

 pilasters with Ionic capitals and moulded bases, pre- 

 sumably marking one jamb of an opening now other- 

 wise destroyed, the building having been cut short at 

 this point and made up with later brickwork. The 

 windows in both stories are nearly square with moulded 

 brick labels and wood frames with leaded casements, 

 the labels in the upper story being continuous, break- 

 ing up over the windows and over shallow round- 

 headed recesses which alternate with the windows in 

 the eastern part of the range. There is a deep 

 modillion cornice under the eaves as on the principal 

 building. The west front is like the north, but is of 

 brick throughout, and has a plainer cornice and a 

 doorway with a three-centred head. 



The Domesday Survey mentions a mill at Great 



330 



