a pupil of the famous sculptor Roubillac, and was nominated
as one of the forty original members when the Royal
Academy was founded in 1768.
The third monument is on the South wall and shows a
woman in Grecian robes beside an urn. This was carved by
Sir Richard Westmacott in 1811. He was, next to Chantry,
the most popular sculptor of his day, and had studied in
Rome under Canova. He executed the reliefs on the northern
side of Marble Arch.
Dividing the chancel from the nave is the rood screen
which is particularly worthy of notice. Though the rood itself
was destroyed by the Puritans, and some filigree work along
the top of the traceried rail is missing, this remains one of
the most elaborate rood screens to be seen in Essex. The tall
divisions with big crocketed ogee heads, and the panel
tracery beneath the straight top are particularly fine. It was
the work of Leacock, a woodcarver who worked for de Vere,
the Earl of Oxford, at Castle Hedingham.
No less worthy of note is the screen in the South aisle. This
is of an earlier date and was probably erected at the time the
aisle itself was built in the 13th century. The ogee arches and
the tracery are very graceful, nor, on any account, should
one overlook the figures carved below the straight top. At
both corners little men are playing pipes: a double flute
perhaps, on the left, and bagpipes on the right. There are
also two fabulous animals and separating them two caricature
masques which may portray greed and a scholar going mad
through a surfeit of learning.
The screen divides the South aisle from the Berners chapel.
This has been, to a regrettable extent, swamped by the
organ, which was moved here when the restorers of 1865
took down the gallery in the West end of the nave. It blocks
the East window of the chapel entirely, and covers a brass
with an inscription to John Meade, dated 1629. But it only
slightly impinges on the fine tomb-chest of Sir John Berners
(the space for the date of his death is left blank) and of his
first wife Elizabeth, who died on the 26th January, 1523. The
sides carry eight niches, each fitted with a monastic figure,