GRAVESEND. 



403 



We saw afterwards another Church [the description 

 applies to Shorne Church], which similarly, was for the 

 greatest part built of Flints, flintor, yet that Portland 

 stone was here and there built into the wall. The 

 window frames and tracery as well as the door-posts 

 were always, in all such old Churches, of Portland stone ; 

 also frequently the angles of the Church walls and the tower. 



The windows were mostly small enough. For which 



west side of the lane opposite to the house marked Mr. Maplesden's in the 



Map, the traveller will probably 

 notice an ancient Chapel or Oratory. 

 There can be no doubt of its having 

 been a sacred edifice, because in 

 digging for the foundation of the 

 contiguous building a stone coffin 

 and many human bones were dis- 

 covered. In Mr. Thorpe's Antiquities 

 is an engraving of the North- West 

 view of this Chapel, but it is left to 

 the researches of future antiquaries 

 to ascertain when and by whom it 

 had its original, no deed or other 

 historical evidence having yet been 

 met with relative to its institution 

 or endowment." The Map referred 

 to in the above note is on the scale 

 of one inch to a mile in the K. T. Mr. Maplesden's house is now called Pipes 

 Place, and a little cross-lane into the above lane from the west and passing 

 south of the ruin is called ' Malthouse Lane.' I have not been able to find 

 the alleged view in any of the thirteen plates in Thorpe's Antiquities. On 

 August 10th, 1887, I visited the ruin, when Mrs. Cheesman, set 84, told me 

 that when she was young it was always called 'the Malthouse,' but that she 

 did not know that it had ever been used as such. Kalm's description is 

 accurate. The windows are all two-light, but the mullions are gone. This 

 was a true Church ; A Piscina and two sedilia are to be seen on the south side 

 interior. The architecture is pure Early English, probably early 13th century. 

 The curious history of the extinct Merston Church close by, leaves room 

 to suppose that this too was once a parish church. This venerable ruin forms 

 part of a modern residence known as Ivy Cottage, and seems to be totally 

 unknown to modern Archaeologists. [J. L ] 



2D 2 



Wallers 

 tins. t> a MUts 



