THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 151
description given by the respective, exhibitors, were greatly appreciated
by the guests.
After tea had been taken, opportunity was seized by our President,
before inspecting the nearby church, to thank our kindly host and hostess
for their hospitality and our conductors for their untiring assistance as
guides. Dr. Campbell in reply, hoped that the present would not be the
last occasion on which the Club would visit Layer Marney Hall, and
Miss Campbell also briefly replied to the vote of thanks which was warmly
accorded by the visitors.
A move was next made to the church, which adjoins the Hall grounds,
and here the party was welcomed by the rector, the Rev. Horace Serjeant,
who gave a succinct account of the history of the fabric. Mr. Barns'
account is as follows:—
LAYER MARNEY CHURCH.
There is little doubt that the present church is the successor of an
earlier Norman one, which was demolished by Henry Marney and rebuilt
by him wholly, or in part, as a portion of the scheme which included
his proposed residence, and it probably proceeded concurrently with
the building of that edifice. Perhaps the church was in a more advanced
stage at the time of his death than the house, and it seems reasonable
to suppose that the completing parts, added after his death, and that of
his son, John, were the aisle and the chapel, which would mean that the
chancel, nave, porches and west tower were finished, or nearly so, when
Henry, Lord Marney, died in 1523, for in his Will, dated 22nd May in that
year, he says:—"First I will that with the profits of all my landes that
"the Chapel which I have begun adjoining to the Chauncell of the Parish
"Church of Layer Marney foresaid be new maide and fully fynysshed
"according to the same proportions in length, bredith and heith as it is
"begun, with a substantial fiat roof of tymber." His son, John, died
the year following and by his Will, dated 24th March, 1524, it is manifest
that the work was still in progress for it says:—"I give and bequeath to
"the buildings of the said Church (Layer Marney) Two Hundred Pounds
"sterling yf it be not bulded and fynshed in my lyfe time and then the
building thereof to be done by the oversight of my executors." So that
here we have a church begun and probably finished in the first quarter
of the 16th century. As in the adjoining "Towers" the material em-
ployed is red brick and the same diapering of black brick is introduced,
but it is not unlikely that the filling of the walls is the debris of the de-
molished church. With the exception of the Tower, the whole of the
church was covered with a thin coating of plaster which has flaked off
very considerably, leaving the underlying brickwork exposed. The
embattled west tower is a fine example of Tudor brickwork. Perhaps the
most interesting features in the church, which is dedicated to St. Mary
are the three splendid monuments to the Marneys. The earliest in date
is that to William Marney, who died in 1414, which stands in the centre
of the North, or Marney, Chapel. The altar tomb and effigy are both
of alabaster, and it is now surrounded by posts and chains of 16th century
date, the posts surmounted by carved lybards, or heraldic leopards.
Originally placed in the chancel of the old church, in accordance with the.