A HISTORY OF SURREY 



which is entirely native to the soil. The hall door- 

 way, flanked by three-light windows and distinguished 

 by a double row of terra-cotta amorini above its head, 

 is framed by a pair of half-octagonal terra-cotta but- 

 tresses running up beyond the general lines of the 

 elevations, and capped by domed pinnacles, having 

 between them a high embattled parapet, forming as 

 it were the centrepiece to the whole design. Yet the 

 very centre of the composition, the facade of the first 

 floor over the hall doorway, where a Palladian archi- 

 tect would have put forth his full strength, is a blank 

 expanse of brickwork. 



The original windows are all of three lights, except 

 in the projecting bays, and are worked in terra-cotta. 

 All have transoms with trefoiled heads beneath them, 

 but the upper lights on the first floor are trefoiled, 

 while those on the ground floor are cinquefoiled. 

 Heads, sills, and mullions are enriched with a line of 

 Italian ornament in low relief, adding a peculiar dis- 

 tinction to the work. The line of the first floor is 

 marked by a string-course of Gothic section decorated 

 with tuns (a Weston rebus) set in Italian floral 

 scrollwork, and there is a similar string-course at the 

 base of the parapet, but without ornament, except 

 on the fa9ade of the hall. On the east and west sides 

 of the courtyard this string runs just over the first- 

 floor window-heads and below it and between the 

 windows is a line of lozenge-shaped panels with leaf 

 ornament. On the hall fa9ade, as formerly on the 

 south front of the gatehouse range, the string is at a 

 higher level, and the line of lozenge-shaped panels 

 runs unbroken over the windows. The parapet itself 

 is solid, ornamented with similar lozenge panels or 

 with quatrefoiled panels ; its outline was originally 

 broken by pinnacles, of which only the stumps now 

 remain, while the higher parapet above the hall 

 door has a further band of trefoiled panels containing 

 amorini, and lozenge panels on the battlements. The 

 masonry of the half-octagonal buttresses which flank 

 it is moulded with cusped panels containing the 

 initials of the builder, R.W., or bunches of grapes, 

 and the same detail occurs on the bays at either end 

 of the fa9ade of the hall, and on the north ends of the 

 east and west wings ; otherwise the external eleva- 

 tions of the house have no ornament, except the south 

 elevation, where the existing parapet of the hall block 

 is, however, of mid-iyth-century date. The model- 

 ling of the floral ornament leaves little to be desired; 

 but that on the quoins is markedly inferior, and the 

 amorini are very stiff and clumsy and evidently some 

 way from their Italian originals. That a good deal 

 of this renaissance work was carried out by English 

 workmen is known, as at Hampton Court, where, 

 however, Richard Ridge and his fellow workmen 

 wrought the pendants of the great hall roof of 

 Henry VIII in masterly style ; but here at Sutton 

 it must be confessed that the lesson has not been so 

 thoroughly learned. 



The terra-cotta work has, with little exception, 

 stood nearly four centuries of English weather in a 

 wonderful way. A good deal of the window tracery, 

 especially on the external elevations, was at one time 

 or another taken out and replaced by sash-windows, 

 but these in their turn have nearly all given way to 

 modern copies of the original work. 



It seems probable that the principal alterations to 

 the house, other than those of quite recent date, took 



place in the iyth century, after the sale of Clandon 

 in 1641, and of Gatton in 1654, when John 

 Weston had command of money. The parapet on 

 the south side of the hail, with its large mill-rind 

 crosses, is clearly of this time, the crosses being the 

 arms of Copley, whose heiress married John Weston 

 in 1637. A great deal of panelling in the house is 

 also of this time, and the impaled arms of Weston 

 and Copley are painted over the fireplace in the small 

 hall in the west wing. The second or kitchen court 

 was doubtless added at this time ; being set against 

 the west side of the house, it is quite unpretentious, 

 and makes no attempt to harmonize with the 16th- 

 century work. 



The partition walls dividing the original house 

 were as usual of timber, the only internal masonry 

 walls being those which separated the north and south 

 wings from the eat and west. Apart, therefore, from 

 the fire of 1560, the chances of alteration of the 

 original arrangements must have been many, particu- 

 larly as regards the staircases, none which now exist 

 being older than the lyth century. The disposition 

 of the house at present is that the principal entrance 

 is from the court at the south end of the west wing, 

 the doorway opening to a narrow lobby which leads 

 directly to the small hall on the north, and going 

 northward from the hall are successively a staircase, 

 the dining-room, and the smoking-room. The dining- 

 room is furnished with very good oak panelling, a 

 recent importation, but the stair, which is good 

 18th-century work, has its south wall covered with 

 early 17th-century panelling which seems to be in 

 situ. The drawing-room is on the ground floor at 

 the south-west angle of the old building, a fine 

 modern room, and between it and the great hall is 

 a lobby opening to a staircase in a projecting bay, the 

 woodwork showing its date to be c. 1 700. This with 

 the other staircases is doubtless part of the work of 

 John Weston, 1701-30. 



The great hall is approximately two squares on plan, 

 and its arrangement, as already noted, is abnormal, as 

 its entrance doorways on the north and south are two 

 bays east of the line of the screens, and could never 

 have opened into anything of the nature of a passage. 

 The present panelling is in part of Jacobean date, 

 and the rest of later 17th-century work with 18th- 

 century alterations. From the inventory of 1542 

 it is clear that the hall was hung with tapestry, and there 

 was probably no panelling in the first instance. But 

 the principal attraction of the hall is its glass ; a great 

 deal of this was evidently put in after the marriage 

 of Richard Weston and Mary Copley in 1637, but 

 some pieces are of earlier date, and may be in their 

 original position, in which case they must have been 

 made about 1530. Some also, which may have come 

 from the royal manor-house at Woking, are apparently 

 older than this, and there are Onslow arms and others 

 which are doubtless added from various sources. 



The set of Tudor arms and badges is extremely 

 good, and the arms of Richard III as Duke of 

 Gloucester also occur. The glass was repaired in 

 1724 by John Weston, and again in i844. 66a The 

 fireplace is part of the original work, and has in its 

 spandrels the Weston rebus and the pomegranate. 



The east wing, as already noted, was practically 

 abandoned for a long time, and only partly refitted 

 early in the 1 8th century by John Weston, to whom 



664 For a complete and thorough description of it see Mr. Frederic Harrison's Annals of an Old Manor House, 



3 86 



