[1795, Part I., pp. 113-114.] DEPTFORD. The Church of St. Nicholas at Deptford (Plate III.) has, in its present state, a strange disjointed exterior. The tower is evidently of very great age, and most probably will not long remain a testimony of the antiquity of Deptford, as it seems in a situation that will, in a few years, render rebuilding or considerable repair necessary. The earth round it appears to have been raised, as there is a descent of several steps, contrary to the usual manner of entrance into such places. Nothing, surely, can exceed the monstrous incongruity of the church and its tower, stone and brick, Gothic, and a defiance of every order, jumbled together; yet the person employed in rebuilding the church must have been a man of taste, as the inside plainly demonstrates, for that is elegant. On the south side, between the windows under the pediment, are two inscriptions: "Rebuilt, and the organ erected, 1697,-below—and obliged to be supported." The weather has taken so much effect on the letters which follow that, without a ladder, I could not with certainty read the rest. In 1780 the steeple was repaired and the great bell recast. It appears that Isaac Loader, Esq., must have contributed very largely, and exerted himself greatly, in erecting the church, from the following handsome memorial on a pillar in the church : "In thankes to so generous a benefactor and for the encouragement of others to imitate good works of Piety and Charity this Parish have thought fitt att their own charge to perpetuate the memory of the voluntary contributions of Isaac Loader esq. preasant high sherriff of this county towards the rebuilding and beautifying this church. Given by subscription for building the church ... s. d. £ 125 O If any of your correspondents should have it in their power to give a sketch of the life of Mr. Loader, it would no doubt be acceptable to the readers of this article. The chancel is small and railed off from the church. It is richly ornamented with carvings of foliage, figures, etc., and two paintings of Moses and Aaron. Over the Commandments there is an oval of painted glass, representing the adoration of the infant Jesus, that has considerable merit. A whole length portrait, sitting, of Queen Anne hangs on the right side of the altar; below it, on a tablet, the following: "There lieth buried nere this place the body of Jane Edisbury widow mother of Kenrick Edisbury gent. (pay-master of the Kings Majesties Navie under Sir William Russel Knight Treasurer) she died on the 16 day of March, 1618." On the north side of the chancel there is a small monument, the inscription too distant to read with certainty. A man at prayers before the desk seems to have left his bed to the possession of a figure representing the angel of death, as a skull lies by him; or possibly an administering angel. The above tablet and monument were certainly removed from the old church, as well as some others in different parts of the building. Nearer the altar is the following long inscription : "Sacred to the memory of George Shelvocke esq. late Secretary of the General Post Office and F.R.S. who at a very early period of life attended his father Captain George Shelvocke in a voyage round the world; during the course of which he remarkably experienced the wonderful protection of divine providence, and ever retained a grateful remembrance thereof. In his life he was most amiable; in his death he is most lamented: in him his kindred regret the greatest ornament, his acquaintance their best companion, his intimates their dearest friend. Learned without pride, pious without ostentation, he fulfilled the duties of his office with the utmost integrity, and shewed the goodness of his heart in repeated acts of benevolence. He died the 12th of March, 1760, aged 58 years; and is buried with his father. This monument is erected at the particular desire of his widow, who did not long survive him." There are many tablets round the church. I have copied such as appeared to me most worthy of attention. The inside of this structure is well proportioned, and the general effect highly pleasing. The pillars that support the roof are not too massy, though sufficiently so to remove the idea of weakness. If one were inclined to look for imperfections, the chancel is almost the only one that occurs; it has more the appearance of a recess than, I think, so dignified a part of the church should have. A handsome organ is a noble ornament, and that which decorates a church contributes much to the beauty of it. The pulpit, too, claims some share of praise. J. P. MALCOLM. ELTHAM. [1812, Part I., pp. 13-14.] Among the many venerable remains of the once magnificent dwellings of Princes, there cannot be one more deserving of notice than that of Eltham in Kent. This extensive place was surrounded by a large and deep moat with two bridges, one on the north and the other on the south side of the palace. That on the north is very perfect; the other has been entirely demolished. The bridge that is left is composed of four very large pointed arches, and is groined with stout plain ribs, the ends of which die into the piers; usually they rest on brackets. An angular buttress with a base divides these arches. The bridge terminates with a straight parapet, which does not appear to be its original finish, as the wall above the points of the arches is brickwork. At the south end of this bridge was originally a gateway, but not a vestige of it is left. The two ancient brick houses that are left, one on each side of the bridge, show every appearance of there having been one by several stone brackets that are left in the wall. On entering this gate, the noble hall (all that now remains) and the palace attached to it present themselves to view. From the south side of the palace is to be seen the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London; but in its feudal grandeur a much nobler object was in view-the heaven-directed spire of old St Paul's. The habitable parts of this mansion appear to have been at the east and west ends of the hall, by the fragments of the walls that join in different places and the plastering which it left on the west end. A few paces from the south-west angle of the hall is an arched conductor, for water and other purposes; it is nearly filled with rubbish, but is still large enough to admit a person on his hands and knees. In its original state it would admit a person standing upright; it is of considerable length. Such conductors are very often mistaken for subterraneous passages communicating from one town to another. At Woodstock such a passage is said to have communicated with Oxford. The hall is now the only remains, and a sufficient proof of its original grandeur. Its principal entrance was under a pointed arch on the south side, between the two last buttresses at the east end; this door led under the music-gallery, and from thence into the hall. The south side consists of five bays, in each of which are two windows, joined together by the sweeping cornice which covers them. The heads of these are flat-pointed arches; the width is divided by a mullion, and has no transom (or cross-bar); the mullion turns off at the top, as high as the springing of the arch which encloses them, and joins the large one above half-way, whereby two small pointed arches are formed, in which are five turns. The space between these points and that of the large arch is occupied by four other turns of the same description. In the pier, between every two windows, are handsome buttresses; at the splay of the window the buttresses project farther, and continue down within 3 feet of the ground, and finish with a base, which runs along the whole of the south side. The dado, or blank space of wall under the windows, is entirely plain, which is nearly two-thirds the height to the parapet line. On the south side, in a line with the west end, projects the oriel. This beautiful addition occupies the space of one of the bays. The front of the oriel is filled by two lofty windows, the whole of which up to the heads of these arches has been cut away to admit a waggon or cart to load or unload. The interior of the sides of it are suffered to remain very perfect; the west side has in it a window of the same description as those in the front, but no lower than the transom, which divides the height of all the openings. Under it are two small compartments, the pointed heads of which are ornamented with double turns-that is, small sweeps within larger, like the openings of the windows-and under these compartments is a flat-pointed head doorway, without any ornaments, resting on very slender columns with lofty bases. It does not appear to have been ever used as an entrance, as the dwelling-rooms joined the wall. The east side of the oriel has a single window divided by a transom, which is ornamented at the top with small battlements. The width of this end was hardly sufficient to admit of a pier and window as wide as one of those in the front; to ease this, the internal lines of the window came flush with the wall of the hall, and the sweeping cornice over the arch of it dies into the wall. At a distance it has the appearance of little more than half a window. Over the points of the windows is a cornice; at the angles are two grotesque heads, and one in the middle. The same cornice continues the whole of the south side, but has no heads. Over this, about eighteen years since, was a battlement (the finish of the wall), but probably it was destroyed when the roof was repaired. [1812, Part 1., pp. 110-111.] C. B. The north side is much the same as the corresponding one, excepting the oriel. In this the windows of the front are not in the centre, owing to a staircase introduced into the western pier; being the widest, a small square-headed window admitted light to it, and is to be seen on the outside. This staircase was undoubtedly for a room, as it has no communication whatever with the hall, and is not to be seen in the inside. The interior of this oriel is entirely perfect, excepting the bosses and groins, which are very much defaced-unlike those in the south, where the leaves and figures of the bosses and the mouldings of the groins are as perfect as if just carved. It is boarded up for the convenience of a barn. The cornice on this side above the windows is entirely perfect (not a stone wanting), with the grotesque heads left. The principal entrance to the palace being on the north side, the cornice was ornamented with grotesque heads, as it was more seen than the south, which has none. The buttresses are very perfect, and, with the exception of the battlements, as whole as when first built. Those on the south side are very much defaced. The walls are brick, and cased with very fine stone; but the buildings that attached themselves to it appear to have been solid stone by the fragments that are left. In its original grandeur the interior of the hall must have had a very fine effect. Its elaborate roof is as perfect and the mouldings as sharp as if they had been but lately carved. It consists of seven large arches, the ends of which die into the wall below the projecting cornice. They are between every two windows, as are the buttresses on the exterior, which not only support the wall, but these arches. Out of the cornice projects a beam, about 7 feet, with the same mouldings, from which hang very elegant pendentives; and out of those spring small arches, resting on ornamented stone brackets, as high as the springing of the arches of the windows. The spandrels, formed by these arches against the wall, are occupied by the curious intersection of the mouldings of the large arches. Out of these pendentives rise small, slender, perpendicular shafts up to the large rafters over the arches. Their height is divided about midway by a band moulding, and they have a base. They were originally ornamented with small pinnacles. At the top of these shafts a beam goes across which is cut into mouldings, and under them are the principal arches of the roof. The space formed by the shafts and the slope of the roof is an acute angle. In this is another portion of the large arches, the mouldings of which intersect with the principal arches of the roof at the inside of the shafts and rise together in the cross-beam. Between this and the ridge of the roof is another smaller beam cut into mouldings; the spaces are filled in with open compartments-the lower into nine and the upper into five, the heads of which are richly ornamented with perforated tracery work. The space left between each of the arches in the slope of the roof is occupied by three divisions, separated by clusters of mouldings; the middle division being larger than either of the others, is filled with ogee arches, and the smaller ones with half arches. The spandrels are raftered. In the centre of this roof was originally (as in most other halls in the kingdom) a lantern, to give light in the centre of the room. It was in the form of a hexagon; the framework of it is left, but the roof covered in. At the east end of the hall is the music-gallery, which has been very much defaced; it was entirely perfect when the battlements adorned the exterior parapet, and appears to have been a very magnificent gallery by the clusters of delicate columns that are left, which support it. On the north side, under the gallery, is a very perfect square-headed doorway, under which is a flat-pointed arch; the spandrels of it are ornamented with roses, and as perfect as if just carved. The hall is now let to a farmer, and used for the housing and threshing of corn; one of the gorgeous oriels cut away (as before observed) to admit of waggons, carts, and such-like abuses, and the windows patched up with brickwork, with loopholes left to admit air and light. The floor has been raised above a foot for convenience. Under the splays of the windows have been made holes in the walls, and corresponding ones also in the west wall, by which a floor was probably intended to have been carried across, but the want of light in the lower story may have prevented it. C. B. |