236 THE ESSEX NATURALIST. 
VISIT TO LEYTON (558th MEETING). 
SATURDAY, IOTH FEBRUARY, 1923. 
This visit was arranged by Mr. Z. Moon, F.R.Hist.S., Chief Librarian to 
the Leyton Urban District Council, with the two-fold design of enabling 
our Members to inspect the old Leyton Parish Church and the extensive 
collection of Essex prints belonging to the Public Library. 
The party, consisting of over 40 persons, assembled at the Central Library 
shortly after 2 o'clock and proceeded, under Mr. Moon’s guidance, to the 
Parish Church of St. Mary. Here, with the church-bells pealing in its 
honour, it was welcomed by the genial Vicar, the Rev. J. Glass, rural dean, 
who gave a chatty address on the sacred building ; he referred to the atmos- 
phere of the past evoked therein, and spoke of the great men who had been 
connected with Leyton in past times, such as the Hicks family of “ Ruck- 
holts,’’ John Strype, and the Bosanquet family, and there was a connec- 
tion with the family of Oliver Cromwell, some of whom were patrons of the 
living. Mr. Glass mentioned that the galleries which still exist in the Church 
originally accommodated the gentry’s servants, the men servants being 
placed in the west gallery, the women domestics in the south aisle of the 
chancel; he also remarked on the fact that the surpliced choir and organ 
are still placed, as in pre-Reformation days, in the gallery at the west end 
of the nave, instead of in the chancel as is so usual nowadays. The parish 
registers and the fine silver-gilt church-plate were shown. 
Mr. Minty, the honorary architect to the fabric, kindly conducted the 
visitors round the church, and pointed out the more noteworthy monuments, 
which include some elaborate 16th century ones to members of the Hicks 
family, and two charming sculptures by John Flaxman, R.A. 
Mr. S. J. Barns contributes the following account of— 
LEYTON CHURCH AND JOHN STRYPE. 
So far as the fabric is concerned successive rebuildings have completely 
destroyed all that is really ancient in the mother church of Leyton, dedi- 
cated to St. Mary-the-Virgin. Yet on entering the visitor is in a subtle, 
indefinable way, ushered into the very atmosphere of antiquity. The 
associations of the site and the many monuments from the earlier church 
contribute to this feeling. 
The church is a very ordinary building in the Perpendicular Style and 
consists of chancel, nave, north and south aisles, south porch and western 
tower. The tower is the oldest existing part of the present church, and was 
built in 1658, being one of the few extant examples of church building under 
the Commonwealth. The material employed throughout is brick, the tower 
being surmounted by a small wooden cupola. 
The fittings and associations of the church are of very great interest. 
The oldest thing in the church is one of the six bells, the sixth, which is of 
the fourteenth century, and is inscribed in Lombardic capitals— 
“ Domine exaudt oractonem meum et clamor meus ad te veniai.” 
The fifth is by William Wightman, 1694. 
Five brasses remain, all of which are now mural, the earliest being a small 
figure, w.th unbraided hair, of Ursula, daughter of Gaspar, 1493, now on the 
east wall, to which is also affixed an inscription to Lady Mary Kyngestone, 
1548 ; another, with the kneeling figures of man and wife in civil dress, with 
seven sons and five daughters, i to Elizabeth, wife of Tobias Wood, 1620- 
