130
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
object. The dedication is to St. Mary the Virgin and All Saints, but the present
structure is not of great antiquity. The church consists of a nave, chancel, and an
additional chapel, opening from the chancel on the north side, with two arches,
supported by a central octagonal pillar. This addition was made in 1834 by sub-
scription, and at the time foundations were discovered indicating that a side chapel
had anciently existed on the site. The nave and chancel are built of hard red-
brick, and the east window, of three lights, is carefully moulded in these and super-
mullioned. The chancel was rebuilt 1621, and the initials of the churchwarden of
that period R.E. 1621 (Robert Elleitt) may be seen on the north wall over the
pillar. The nave was rebuilt 1666, and this is recorded by the following inscription
in iron Roman letters "THOMAS RICHARDSON. JOHN ELLEITT, 1666,"
on the north wall.
The pretty timber spire and bell-turret was renewed in 1842, the cost being
defrayed by a church rate of five shillings in the pound, which Mr. Squier said
was paid to the last penny. The parishioners appear to have been always extremely
loyal, and over the entrance to the chancel is a large painting of the Royal Arms,
in distemper, with an appropriate text in black letter with red initials:—"My
son, fear thou the Lord and the King, and meddle not with them that are given
to change.—Prov. xxiv. 21. John Elliett, churchwarden." This was doubtless
put up as a memorial of the restoration of Charles II., and, as Mr. King says, it
is also interesting as a "late example of decorative wall-painting, however
incongruous the substitution of the lion and unicorn for Jesus in Glory and the
Final Doom which anciently occupied the position in many churches." Another
inscription, which also reflects the loyalist traditions of the place, is to be found on
a slab partly within the Communion rails, and which is quaint enough to merit
reproduction:—
"Beneath this stone lie treasured up the reliques of Thomas Richardson, late
of Clement's Inn, gentleman. One whose but half-spun time was rightly fraught
with the accomplishments becoming a man, who in these late unhappy times,
when tyranny had usurpt the throne, and schism too farre prevailed in this pulpit
so justly steered 'twixt each extreme, that when death came to take him hence,
with joy he could (which few can) truly say that soverainety knew not a more
loyal subject, nor the church a sincearer son. He departed this life ye 24th day
of November, in the yeare of grayce, 1669.''
The oldest memorial is a very large and long slab in the centre of the nave, with
matrices of an all-round inscription, and two others, probably made for shields or
arms, or other cognizances.
A plain white marble tablet, on the eastern wall of the chancel, records the
death in 1821 of the Rev. John Moore, LL.B., a former rector of the parish,
minor canon of St. Paul's, and "one of the priests of His Majesty's Chapel
Royal," well known in his day for his high attainments in Hebrew, biblical,
and ecclesiastical literature. The church also contains a memorial to another
rector, the Rev. Robert Collier Packman, minor canon of St. Paul's and "the
genial associate of Sidney Smith." In the new chapel is a white marble tablet,
with a beautifully carved shield of arms, in memory of Susanna Hatton, fifth
daughter of Sir Thomas Hatton, bart., of Long Stanton and Conington, Cam-
bridgeshire, who died unmarried, 1842, in her 82nd year. She is buried in the
vault beneath, and close by is a large hatchment quartering ten coats of arms,
which was brought here after attachment to her residence for the usual period.
She lived for many years in this parish in the house known as "Goldsmith's Farm,"
on the road towards Horndon-on-the-Hill. When the church was repaired and