236 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
VISIT TO LEYTON (558TH MEETING).
SATURDAY, 10TH 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 re-buildings 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 exaudi oracionem meum et clamor meus ad le venial."
The fifth is by William Wightman, 1694.
Five brasses remain, all of which are now mural, the earliest being a small
figure, with 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, is to Elizabeth, wife of Tobias Wood, 1620.