5471 
 
 Worth 
 Church 
 
 Sussex 
 
 ' O 
 
 By the Rev. 
 Arthur Bridge 
 
 M Rector of Worth . . 
 
 With Ilhistrations
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 Worth 
 Church 
 
 Sussex
 
 WORTH CHURCH.
 
 Worth 
 Church 
 
 Sussex . . 
 
 ■By 
 The Rev. Arthur Bridge 
 
 Rector of Worth 
 
 Author of "Poems," "Round- 
 heads and Cavaliers," "The 
 Bridal Bouquet "... 
 
 Second Edition, Enlarged and Revised 
 
 London : Fredk. Sherlock, Ltd, 
 
 Caxton House, Westminster, S.W. 
 
 MDCCCCXI
 
 THY COURTS. 
 
 Since Saxon king owned Christ his Lord and Head, 
 A thousand years (to God but as a day) 
 Within these courts have sped. But where are they, 
 
 Those worshippers, and whither have they fled ? 
 
 Where those bold master-builders vanished. 
 That once, like us, within these precincts trod. 
 To offer prayer and praises to their God ? 
 
 Where now the army of the saintly dead ? 
 Still in Thy Courts those happy spirits dwell 
 Of that fair city here invisible. 
 
 In worlds far off or near, below, above. 
 
 Alike the mansions of the Father's love — 
 
 There will our lost be found, and called to go, 
 A Guide be sent us too, the way to show. 
 
 Arthur Bridge, 1902.
 
 
 WORTH CHURCH, SUSSEX. 
 
 LEAVING Three Bridges station on 
 the London, Brighton, and South Coast 
 Hne of railway, a beautiful country foot- 
 path leads across the fields to the old Parish 
 Church of Worth, romantically situated upon 
 a knoll embosomed in trees. At the en- 
 trance stands the ancient lych-gate, as time- 
 worn and picturesque as any in the kingdom. 
 Passing thence down an avenue of limes, we 
 come upon the venerable edifice itself, which, 
 though centuries have rolled away, still retains 
 its pre-Norman form and features. Indeed, 
 Worth Church is perhaps one of the most 
 remarkable in England, both from its pecu- 
 liarity of form and great antiquit}', exhibiting 
 the earliest example of the purely English 
 cruciform churches, which afterwards became 
 
 7 
 
 872877
 
 "WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 so general throughout the country, attaining 
 their highest development and beauty in the 
 stately Gothic cathedrals that adorn our 
 land. 
 
 Its claim of " very ancient " is beyond 
 dispute, either by reason of the pronounced 
 style of its architecture, everywhere apparent 
 to the practised eye of the student in eccle- 
 siology, or the actual historical evidence of 
 its existence at and before the coming of the 
 Norman Conqueror to our shores, when it 
 and the lands around found an owner in 
 William de Warren, the choleric son-in-law 
 to whom the king, soon after his settlement 
 on the throne, made a grant in perpetuity. 
 Earl de Warren possessed forty-three lord- 
 ships or manors in Sussex alone. Long, 
 however, before the Conquest the church 
 had probably been in the possession of Saxon 
 kings for many generations ; for it is sup- 
 posed that Worth Church passed, with the 
 Manor of Worth, under the will of Alfred 
 the Great to his third son, Ethelward, if the
 
 ii:* life 
 
 ANCIENT LYCH-GATK.
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 Wyrth mentioned in Saxon is the Worth of 
 modern English ; or it may be that Ethel- 
 ward received it by deed of gift, for we know 
 Worth was a Royal manor in the reign of 
 Edward the Confessor ; and being royal, a 
 church probably existed in Alfred's time. 
 We also know that the Manor of Ditcheling 
 was bequeathed by Alfred to his cousin or 
 kinsman Osforth, with other places in Sussex, 
 which the will mentions, " are all that. I in 
 weal district have." The Manor of Ditche- 
 ling then embraced part of the parishes of 
 Chailey, Ardingly, Balcombe, and Worth. 
 It is important to remember that the manor, 
 not parish, was the boundary of a district 
 in Doomsday Book time. Manors are 
 often to be recognised in different parishes 
 as mentioned in Doomsday Book, although 
 the names of the parishes themselves may 
 not be. And so by some it is thought 
 that Worth, joining the Surrey border, was 
 included in the hundred of Churchfelle, and 
 appeared as " Orde " in the Doomsday Book,
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 the Norman scribes omitting the unfamiliar 
 letter \V ; and thus the entry therein reads : 
 "Sivvard holds of Richard, Orde. Oswol holds 
 it of King Edward." There is no mention of 
 the church, but neither is there in the Norman 
 survey of a church at Selsey, of St. Dunstan's 
 at Mayfield, nor of the nine churches at 
 Lewes, which, from the charters of that time, 
 we know were then in existence. The 
 Richard here mentioned was Richard Fitz- 
 Gilbert, who owned a hundred and seventy- 
 six manors, and was styled Richard de 
 Tonbridge, because he built the castle of 
 Tonbridge, and is supposed to have been 
 the first Earl of Clare. 
 
 To return to the De Warren family, whose 
 arms are emblazoned in the north transept 
 window, mention is frequently made of them 
 in English history. There is a notice of 
 the De Warrens in a record bearing date 
 26 Edward I., and again in the 6 Edward III. 
 We read that John de Warren, the eighth and 
 last Earl, died 21 Edward III., seised of the
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 Manor of Worth ; also, in the mem. of Warren 
 and Surrey (1255), that "afterwards the Earl 
 [John de Warren] came in the octave of St. 
 Martin at Cycester, and said that in Worth, 
 Cokefield, and Dychenyng he had parks, and 
 asked if the king had any claim in the said 
 parks, to which William de Gyselingham said 
 that for the present he claimed nothing there- 
 in." In a volume of the Burrell collections 
 mention is made of timber having been ex- 
 pended about the Church of Worth durinG" 
 the minority of one of the De Warrens, Earls 
 of Surrey. Mention likewise is made of 
 Worth Church in the taxation of Pope 
 Nicholas {c. 1291), 
 
 About the middle of the fourteenth century 
 the church and lands passed into the hands 
 of the FitzAlan family, through the marriage 
 of the daughter of the last of the De Warrens 
 with the Earl of Arundel ; and so to the 
 Nevills, Earls of Abergavenny, on the death 
 of the fifth Earl of Arundel in 1415 ; then 
 
 to the Lord Bergavenny, who died in 1476. 
 
 12
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 We now come to the church itself; and, as 
 we have said, the evidence of its great archi- 
 tectural antiquity becomes at once apparent. 
 Every one with an eye trained to observe 
 will perceive that the building has separate 
 and distinct courses of footings to all its walls, 
 some of them well above the ground-base. 
 This base, in two stages (the upper receding) 
 deserves a passing remark ; for rough and 
 rude though it be, it recalls to mind the 
 graduated plinths of classical architecture. 
 This plinth was usual in all buildings erected 
 by the Italian architects who dwelt in Britain 
 during the Roman occupation. 
 
 A string-course, now interrupted, was once 
 carried horizontally round the whole building, 
 rather more than half the height of the walls, 
 with vertical pilasters of rough short and long 
 work, resting on the projecting double course 
 of stone — the whole forming, perhaps, an 
 imitation of early churches, which were nearly 
 all built of timber where stone was scarce 
 and labour and transport costly. Hence, 
 
 13
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 perhaps, the origin of " wood-carpenter " and 
 " stone-carpenter" — the stone-carpenter copy- 
 ing in stone the wood-carpenter's timber-built 
 structures, just as the motor-car of to-day, 
 with a Hke absence of originality, takes its 
 model from the carriage. These pilasters, 
 whatever their origin, were very useful for 
 banding the rubble together. 
 
 The companions of Augustine erected 
 churches of stone, no doubt, in the Roman 
 style. Bede contrasts the Christians of 
 Scotland, who built entirely of wood {robore 
 secto), with the practice of the English, who 
 built of stone {Hist. Eaies., lAb. 3, c. 25). 
 These narrow ribs of stone give somewhat 
 the appearance of carpentry. 
 
 Before entering the building, the pleasing 
 surroundings are worthy of notice. The 
 natural beauty of the spot selected originally 
 for the site of the sacred building could 
 not well be improved upon, and the fine 
 belt of trees serves as a natural setting to 
 this gem of Anglo-Saxon church architec- 
 
 14
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 ture ; whilst the hardly altered level of 
 the soil about and around the church points 
 to the fact that at no time in the past 
 centuries, since the foundations of the church 
 were laid, has there been more than a sparse 
 community in the immediate neighbourhood ; 
 for, as a rule, in more densely populated 
 parishes the surface round the church has 
 grown swollen and turgid in appearance 
 as the years roll by. 
 
 The reason that the only evidence left 
 us of former mural decorations of diaper- 
 work in colours (still to be seen on the 
 jambs and walls of the south window close 
 to the chancel arch) is so meagre is not 
 far to seek. At various times, and in 
 seasons of serious epidemics of sickness, of 
 plague (from which, unhappil)', the country 
 was not in the old days exempt), of the 
 Black Death, and other national afflictions, 
 "orders" were sent time and again "from 
 the Council " to use copiously the white- 
 wash brush, especially in all public buildings 
 
 15
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 where people met to ask humbly on their 
 knees for some alleviation of their terrible 
 sufferings. Thus the fine, though perhaps 
 not artistic mural decorations according to 
 our modern ideas, with which most rural 
 churches were enriched in the early days of 
 Christianity in England, were covered up with 
 the sanitary slaked lime, or scraped away 
 bodily if the lime-wash would not adhere. 
 The semicircular apse at the eastern 
 end of the church, being of a very ancient 
 date, has been adopted in four of the 
 churches in Sussex of undoubted Anglo- 
 Saxon time. The term " Saxon " is here 
 used by us as applied to architecture before 
 the Normans, and was, we must remember, 
 an imitation of Romanesque architecture 
 of a debased kind. Regarding the apse, 
 there are churches of the fifth century at 
 Erivan in the Caucasus, and of a nearly 
 similar early period scattered through Ire- 
 land, with these same curious apses. It 
 
 may be noted that in all Mohammedan 
 
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 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 mosques there is towards the east, in the 
 interior, an apse, or, if the building only 
 admits of it, a slight dome-headed recess, 
 to which the worshippers face at prayer- 
 time. These mosques date from the seventh 
 century. The name " Worth " attests that 
 the church is of early Saxon times, and 
 seems to imply a closed place, " a resi- 
 dence of a personage," which, enclosed in a 
 ring-fence, often of very great extent, the 
 few retainers, farm-servants, and others, 
 crowded together in village form, or in 
 dwellings extending along the approach or 
 highway. Of these " Worths " there are 
 several similarly named places in England, 
 such as Handsworth near Birmingham and 
 Wandsworth near London, Colworth, Atting 
 Worth, Beach- Worth, Dan Worth, and others 
 that can be readily recalled to mind. 
 
 In St. Augustine's time, when churches 
 began to be dedicated to patron saints, 
 Worth was probably placed under St. 
 Nicholas, the patron of sea-fishermen ; but 
 
 I?
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 little heed, however, has been given to the 
 distinction, and the church to this day has 
 been known in all ecclesiastical records as 
 the Parish Church of Worth, and the 
 boundary usually surrounding such properties 
 may not have existed in this case, though 
 a neighbouring estate still records its 
 boundary in its name of Dich or Dyche- 
 ling or Dyke, like that of a locality near 
 Brighton. 
 
 The apse, viewed from the outside, attracts 
 the visitor's attention ; it has, on entering the 
 church, a peculiarly restful effect, as seen 
 through the stately pre- Norman arch, which at 
 once arrests the eye by its fine proportions 
 and solemn aspect. The arch is very 
 beautiful. For those who desire details, it 
 should be stated that it springs, at the 
 height of 15^ feet, from massive semi- 
 circular jambs or piers, with remarkable 
 pre-Norman capitals, each consisting of a 
 flat cushion and a square abacus. On the 
 eastern side of the arch two half-round 
 
 19
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 shafts descend to the pavement. The arch 
 is 14 feet I inch in span, semicircular, and 
 of a single order, measuring at its highest 
 point from the floor 22 feet 6 inches. Its 
 western face had a double square hood- 
 moulding, the under member being in lower 
 relief than the upper, but only a small 
 portion of the upper, next the north capital, 
 remains. The eastern face has a single 
 square hood-moulding, equal in width to the 
 double one on the other side. The piers 
 and arches are about 3 feet thick, and each 
 stone extends through the whole thickness. 
 The half-round descending from the capital 
 deviates considerably from the perpendicular. 
 The chancel, including archway, is 34 feet 
 9 inches by 21 feet. This great length of 
 chancel in proportion to the nave is remark- 
 able, and in contrast to Norman churches, 
 where it is not usual. A most striking 
 confirmation of the chancel arch of Worth 
 being pre-Norman will be found on com- 
 paring it with the chancel arch of Earl 
 
 20
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 Odda's Chapel at Deerhurst, which was 
 
 discovered in August 1885, forming part of 
 
 an old farmhouse called Abbot's Court. A 
 
 stone still preserved at Oxford bears a Latin 
 
 inscription, of which the English translation 
 
 runs thus : " Earl Odda ordered this royal 
 
 hall to be constructed and dedicated in 
 
 honour of the Holy Trinity for the good 
 
 of the soul of his brother Elfric, which from 
 
 this place quitted his body. Bishop Ealdred 
 
 dedicated it on April 12th, in the fourteenth 
 
 year of the reign of Edward, King of the 
 
 English." This chancel arch, with its 
 
 massive jambs and square hood-moulding, 
 
 bears, indeed, a remarkable similarity to the 
 
 one at Worth. 
 
 The transepts are really chapels — the 
 south transept being called " our Ladies 
 Chappell," and went by that name in the 
 year 1571. 
 
 In an old churchwarden's account-book 
 I discovered lately a memo, to that effect, 
 which runs as follows : " Memorandum
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 that in the yeare 1571 when John . . . was 
 elder Churchwarden that dyverse seats as 
 
 were in the Bodye of the Church were 
 
 the Chancle doare as also in our Ladies 
 Chappell on the south side of the Church 
 weareof were erected in such place as for 
 the moste parte no seats had been before. 
 And this was done at the generall charge of 
 the parishe for the moste parte." 
 
 The transepts then, or " chappells," though 
 resembling each other, do not coincide ex- 
 actly in proportion or position. They are 
 19 feet by 14 feet within the walls, ex- 
 cluding the space under the arches. Each 
 arch, 8 feet 8 inches in span, springs from a 
 square jamb, rising to 14 feet 7 inches 
 above the floor, and is quite plain. From 
 the square and plain capitals, the upper 
 projecting beyond the lower, a plain, square 
 moulding descended to the floor on the 
 inner side, in a situation corresponding 
 to the half-round on the eastern face of 
 the chancel arch ; but all these have been
 
 TRANSEI'T ARCHES.
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 removed, with the exception of small 
 portions on the jambs of both transepts. 
 The masonry is remarkable for its rudeness. 
 The jambs and imposts of the arch of the 
 south transept have been to a great extent 
 cut away to accommodate the occupiers of 
 some pews, which gives this arch a some- 
 what strange appearance. In our Lady's 
 Chapel, or south transept, there is a semi- 
 circular arch of good masonry in the east 
 wall partly built up. Probably an old altar 
 once stood there. The lower pointed arch 
 inserted in it probably belongs to the 
 thirteenth century, as does the pointed arch 
 in the north transept. The small light in the 
 head of this latter served to light the altar 
 beneath. Worth Church is perhaps one of 
 the very earliest buildings with examples 
 of true arches, where every stone radiates 
 from the centre, and is locked in with a 
 proper keystone. Many, if not most, of 
 the so-called Norman arches have no real 
 
 keystone at all. 
 
 24
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 The windows are of really great age and 
 most unique in design. They are well- 
 known to all students of architecture here 
 and on the Continent, and it was only quite 
 recently that, in examining some of the 
 older structure of Dover Castle, it was found 
 that there are some windows there of great 
 antiquity, and of a like character to those of 
 Worth. The church has, then, tJiree re- 
 markable windows in the nave — two on the 
 north and one on the south ; a perpen- 
 dicular window now occupying the place 
 where the Saxon one had once evidently 
 been. These Saxon windows are probably 
 unique. We are unaware of any others 
 like them to be met with in the nave of 
 a church. They are double, divided by a 
 baluster-shaft of turned stone, with neck- and 
 base-mouldings. The indications of grooves 
 in the jambs and baluster-shafts would per- 
 haps point to their being filled with horn, or 
 oiled linen, or mica, or glass, in frames 
 easily removable. There is evidence of glass 
 
 25
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 windows in churches in England before the 
 Conquest. These windows show the influ- 
 ence of Rome, and these two-Hght tower 
 windows, Hke those in the belfry towers 
 of Italy, point to the church's early con- 
 struction, and are placed high up in the build- 
 ing, almost close to the eaves of the roof 
 
 The importance of this arrangement and 
 its significance are not so self-evident in the 
 twentieth century as in the old turbulent 
 times before the Conquest. Then almost 
 every church was used as a fortress, and 
 the people had often to fly for safety for 
 themselves, their belongings, and their little 
 ones to the protection afforded by the solid 
 walls of the church. Hence, then, it is no 
 wonder that the windows were set high in 
 the walls. Others have supposed the reason 
 was to allow space for mural decorations, 
 of which remains are to be seen around 
 the window on the south side, near the 
 chancel arch. Another reason, equally good, 
 
 for putting windows out of reach was, that 
 
 26
 
 SAXON WINDOW.
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 the costly and rich stained glass they often 
 contained in their leaden frames was only 
 too frequentl}^ a temptation to thieves ; and, 
 besides this, all church glass might be 
 claimed by the heir of other property in 
 the parish, if he could prove ownership by 
 descent from the original donor. Executors 
 could " claim the right to dispose of the 
 glass, provided it was not made a fixture 
 by the use of nails in its setting." Speaking 
 of glass, although the Romans had glass, 
 it may interest the reader to note that 
 Sussex was one of the earliest places known 
 for the manufacture of glass, as recorded in 
 Charnock's Breviary of Philosophy : 
 
 As for glass-makers, they be scant in the land ; 
 
 Yet one there is, as I understand, 
 
 And in Sussex is now his habitation ; 
 
 At Cheddingford he works his occupation. 
 
 In the south window, to light the altar 
 formerly placed beneath the chancel arch, 
 may be seen on the jambs and the walls 
 
 remains of a diaper pattern in colours. The 
 
 28
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 many coatings of rough dash, or h'me and 
 
 sand, apph'ed to the exterior of the church 
 
 during some thousand years have succeeded 
 
 in concealing the arrangement of the 
 
 stone-work, which is seemingly of rough 
 
 square stone, with quoins of the local 
 
 sandstone ; but since the sixteenth century, 
 
 as we know from *' Orders in Council " 
 
 issued in the time of plague, the Black 
 
 Death, and other frightful epidemics, all 
 
 churches were required to be rough dashed 
 
 on the outside, and completely covered on the 
 
 interior walls throughout with lime-wash, as 
 
 a protection from contagion, when people 
 
 met together in numbers for public prayer. 
 
 In this way all surface-decoration was 
 
 obliterated, so that early frescoes illustrating 
 
 Bible history in bright colours, which added 
 
 greatly to the splendour of the Roman 
 
 ritual, were quite done away with. 
 
 Properly applied, fresco would probably 
 
 survive, but the colours in the time of the 
 
 Van Eycks would hardly retain their 
 
 29
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 brilliancy. To a later period (i486) would 
 belong the famous wood-carvings and 
 panels, which, after all, were a revival of 
 older times, when wood in the North of 
 Europe entered so largely into the scheme 
 of structure and decoration of ecclesiastical 
 buildings ; but there are projections still 
 existing which prove their former presence. 
 
 Tapestry, also a revival, was introduced 
 in the sixteenth century for festivals and 
 other religious observances. In the accounts 
 of the sacking and plundering of the stately 
 houses which stood in the parks and en- 
 closures around Worth Church at the time 
 of the Civil Wars, valuable silver plate and 
 tapestries from the Low Countries are enume- 
 rated. Of these great houses, that of the 
 family of Gale of C rabbet, to whom there 
 is a marble monument in the church, was 
 the greatest sufferer. We have mention of 
 a very fine piece of embroidery and 
 decorated garment left by the will of the 
 
 Rector of Shere, in Surrey (dated May 14th, 
 
 30
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 141 2), to the Church of Worth. It was " a 
 vestment of bkie cloth of gold, worked with 
 large birds in gold, containing a chasuble, 
 lined with green cord : a white cope, with 
 an orphrey of red velvet, embroidered with 
 a star of gold." 
 
 The above-mentioned window with diaper 
 pattern, and the one at the north end of the 
 north transept, may be about the thirteenth 
 or fourteenth century. The window over 
 the west doorway is probably fourteenth 
 century, the glass being modern. The glass 
 in the south transept is modern and tawdry, 
 and the vulgar and pretentious tiles in the 
 chancel quite out of keeping with the edifice. 
 Alas ! too often in our English churches 
 restoration means only the transformation 
 of beauty to ugliness ; and the epitaph said 
 to have been written over a certain architect 
 would equally well apply to many a so-called 
 restorer : 
 
 Lie heavy on him, Earth, for he 
 Lfiid many a lieavy load on thee, 
 31
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 The sum of £^,St,i was spent on the 
 restoration of the church from 1869 to 1872. 
 During this time the chancel-screen was 
 taken down, and, unfortunately, not replaced. 
 If any interested reader would like to supply 
 the deficiency, and give as a memorial a 
 handsome carved oak screen to fill the 
 vacant place, he would obtain the gratitude 
 of all lovers of old churches — of those who 
 desire to keep them as much as possible 
 in conformity with their original design. 
 The stone bracket close to the chancel arch, 
 near the south window, clearly indicates 
 where the rood-beam once rested. The 
 windows in the apse are modern, restorations 
 perhaps of traces of earlier openings. 
 
 In the south transept is a very ancient 
 church-chest or coffer, iron-bound and treble- 
 locked, for the minister and two church- 
 wardens. The Synod of Exeter in 1287 
 ordered that every parish should provide 
 " a chest for the books and the vestments." 
 No church-hutches probably date as late as
 
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 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 the Jacobean or any after-period. Plain 
 deal boxes were held good enough then 
 for the purpose of a church-coffer. 
 
 Some of the old carved pew-heads will 
 be found forming a panelling on the west 
 of the south transept wall. 
 
 Between the north and south ancient 
 doorways stands a very old and curious font, 
 of the same material of which the church 
 is built. It really consists of two fonts, placed 
 the one on the top of the other (like that of 
 S. Mary, Wareham, Dorset, which seems to 
 be composed of two fonts). The upper font 
 is a single square stone, rudely carved at 
 the sides. On the west side there are eight 
 quatrefoils, almost worn smooth with the 
 surface. Perhaps at one time the font 
 stood against a wall. On the south side 
 are figured in high relief six pointed quatre- 
 foils, three and three, probably mason-marks, 
 which may some day give a clue to its date 
 and place of origin. On its east face there 
 is a double arcade of pointed arches, the 
 
 34
 
 OLD KON'l'.
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 lower plain, the upper trifoHated ; and on 
 the north side or face a double cross-mouHn. 
 In order to make the edges of the upper 
 and lower stones correspond somewhat, the 
 over-excess on the east edge of the upper font 
 has been chamfered off, which may be an 
 additional proof that this upper font was not 
 originally designed for the position it now so 
 strangely occupies. I'he lower or font proper 
 is of great age, being i foot 6 inches high, 
 and square, resting on a short cylinder be- 
 tween four columns, upon a square base. 
 This severely classic form in the font 
 now doing duty for a support to the more 
 ornate one above would indicate its antiquity 
 as coeval with the church, whilst no higher 
 claim than to the end of the twelfth century 
 can with any certainty be fixed for the upper 
 Gothic decorated stone, which would also 
 serve to indicate its age, and the certainty 
 almost of its having been brought to its 
 present position, not necessarily from some 
 other church of the time of Henry III., as 
 
 36
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 some suppose, but from that part of the 
 church itself near the altar where such 
 piscinae stood as a rule in pre-Reformation 
 times, either unsupported or inserted in the 
 main wall of the apse itself or close to it. 
 Hence it was removed at some very late 
 period of removal or alteration, perhaps at 
 the Reformation ; and there being no other 
 place handy for its reception, it found a 
 resting-place upon the older one, making 
 the lower baptismal font of a more con- 
 venient height for the officiating clergy ; or 
 it may have been, as some suppose, the 
 original Saxon bowl ornamented about 1250. 
 The visitor will not fail to observe the 
 position of the font, standing as it does 
 between the two doors. To the east side 
 of the south door is a stoup for holy water. 
 
 Like most ancient churches. Worth has 
 a north or " Devil's Door." This ancient 
 door is now blocked up, but inside the church 
 the reveals and arch of the original door are 
 still to be seen intact, although from the 
 
 37
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 outside no traces are apparent. Why the 
 north door was so named is, according to 
 the ancient legend, accounted for by the 
 supposition that, when the babe was baptised 
 and received into the congregation of Christ's 
 flock, the old Adam or evil spirit was 
 exorcised in the Holy Name to depart from 
 the child, the north door at the time being 
 opened to allow its departure, and the door 
 immediately slammed to again as soon as 
 the invocation to depart was pronounced. 
 The quickness with which the door was 
 shut prevented, it was supposed, the return 
 of the devil to influence the child's career. 
 
 In later times, as people became more free 
 from superstition, but less hardy, the bitter, 
 biting wind from the north caused this door 
 to be walled up, as we see it now. But even 
 yet traces of this superstition still cling to the 
 north of the church, all suicides till recently 
 being invariably buried on the north side. 
 
 In the chancel are a piscina and a Tudor arch. 
 
 The piscina is recessed in the wall, covered 
 
 38
 
 DEVILS DOOR.
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 with a shelf to serve as aumbry. The Tudor 
 arch has a plain stone bench for sedilia. 
 
 The carved oak rails, representing subjects 
 from the Old and New Testaments, may 
 probably date from the same time as the 
 pulpit, or a little later. These carvings are 
 we should think, of foreign origin, German 
 or Dutch, and are admirably executed out 
 of the solid oak. Perhaps they came from 
 some abbey, as the coat of arms depicts 
 in the centre an abbot's staff veiled, which 
 thus distinguishes it from a bishop's. Could 
 we trace to whom this coat of arms and the 
 one on the pulpit belonged, no doubt it 
 would help to elucidate their origin. 
 
 The belfry, containing six bells, is 
 modern, rebuilt in 1869. Formerly there 
 were four bells of " very great age " ; but 
 these four bells were recast by C. Oliver, 
 of Bethnal Green, in 1844, and the metal, 
 weighing 8 cwt. i qr. 19 lbs., was recast 
 into the present peal of six bells.^ It may 
 
 ' An old manuscript discovered by me, dated 1684, gives 
 
 40
 
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 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 be safely said that from the first estabh'sh- 
 ment of Christianity in England, and long 
 
 us an interesting detail of the fourth bell of Worth ; it runs 
 as follows : 
 
 April the 21, 1684. 
 
 Received them of John Mills 
 
 Churchwardens Tho. Ellis 
 
 ye full sum of twenty four pounds, three r / 
 
 shillings and threepence in full for casting their \i". ^1 f^l 
 fourth bell of Worth and for adding two Hundred | ^ ^ 
 and one quarter and six pounds weight of metle 
 to her. 
 
 Received by me, 
 
 Christo Hodson. 
 
 The condition of this present obligation is such that if 
 the above bounden Christopher Hodson, his heirs, executors, 
 administrators or assigns do well and truly secure, make 
 good and cast the bell which belongs to the said parish of 
 Worth according to his Bargaining that is to say that if the 
 said bell should break or any way prove faulty or unser- 
 viceable by reason of default or any neglect in him in 
 casting of the said Bell that she remains not firm and secure 
 one whole year after the hanging of her up that the said 
 Christopher Hodson is to make her good and new cast her 
 which if he, his executors, administrators, assigns do well 
 and truly perform then the obligation is to be void and of 
 none effect or else stand and remain in full strength and 
 virtue. 
 
 Sealed and delivered 
 in the presence of 
 John Botching Christo Hodson 
 
 John Langridge 
 The O mark of 
 William Tayne. 
 
 42
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 before the coming of Augustine, down to our 
 own day, " bells have been the distinguishing 
 feature of our country and peal-ringing our 
 national peculiarity." The towers of Anglo- 
 Saxon and Norman churches show peals of 
 cast bells, some of very large size. Ingulph, 
 speaking of bells in his time, says that at 
 Crowland Abbey " Nee erat tunc tanta 
 consonatia Campanarum in tota Anglia." 
 This peal was destroyed by fire in 1091. 
 
 An earlier instance of direct evidence is 
 given in the MS. of St. /Ethelwold's Bene- 
 dictional. In this MS. a tower is shown 
 in which hang four evidently cast bells of 
 sugar-loaf form. Other illuminated MSS. 
 al.so show bells hanging in towers, and 
 prove that they were in actual use for 
 ringing — not striking — at a very early date. 
 Egbert, in 750, commanded " every priest 
 at the proper hour to sound the bells of his 
 church, and then to go through the sacred 
 offices of God." 
 
 St. Augustine came in 596, not to intro- 
 
 44
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 duce Christianity, but the rule of the Roman 
 Pontiff, into these islands ; and Odsceus, 
 Bishop of Llandaff, in 550, removed the 
 bells from his cathedral during the troubles 
 of that year ; and St. Patrick, who died A.D. 
 493, rang his bells in Ireland for many 
 a long year before the foreigner came to 
 impose a power so alien to the spirit of the 
 nation. 
 
 There is no evidence that the earliest or 
 Celtic or British Church, which sent no less 
 than seven bishops to meet St. Augustine 
 at Aust Clift, overlooking the Severn, ever 
 acknowledged submission to the Holy See 
 or its supremacy in these islands. On the 
 contrary, Abbot Adamnan, in his Life of 
 Columba, says the answer given to the 
 requirements of submission was short and 
 decisive — " We will do none of these things," 
 and " We will not have you for archbishop " 
 ("At illi nil horum se facturas neque ilium pro 
 archiepiscope habituras esse respondebant ") ; 
 for they naturally argued among themselves, 
 
 45
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 "If he would not now rise up to receive 
 us courteously, how much more will he look 
 down upon us, as not worthy of consideration, 
 if we should acknowledge ourselves as subject 
 to his authority." 
 
 The old oak gallery, which originally ex- 
 tended all along the north side of the nave, 
 contains the inscription : " This Gallerie is 
 the gift of Anthony Lynton, late Rector 
 of this parish, who deceased the xv day 
 of June Anno Domini 1640"; and in the 
 Rectory study there is a glass window, with 
 his name, 1592. 
 
 The two beautiful candelabra of twelve 
 lights of the seventeenth century are worthy 
 of attention. 
 
 The two stone brackets on the outside 
 of the west door seem to indicate that it 
 once had a porch. On the walls and floors 
 there are inscriptions to the memory of 
 individuals of the families of Bysshe, Shelley, 
 Leonard Smith, Blunt, Bethune, and Gale 
 
 of Crabbett ; and a finely carved oak lectern, 
 
 46
 
 .^>'*^' 
 
 OAK PULPIT.
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 designed by the Rev. A. Bridge, to the 
 memory of the Rev. W. Banks, the former 
 Rector. 
 
 The Pulpit 
 
 is of beautifully carved oak, and has five 
 panels, each with a carved figure and in- 
 scription beneath, carved in Low German 
 character — the central panel being that of 
 our Lord, with the inscription, " Ich bin 
 allene di here unde godt " (" I am alone thy 
 Lord and God "). The first panel represents 
 St. Matthew with the inscription, " der evan- 
 gelist Sante Mateus " ; that of the second, 
 " der evangelist Sante Marcus " ; the fourth, 
 " der evangelist Sante Lucas " ; and the fifth, 
 " der evangelist Sante Joannes." 
 
 The following couplets are carved above 
 the panels in German letters, of which the 
 upper lines must be read first in succession, 
 then the lower ones : 
 
 I. II. 
 
 wol mi levet de werth min 
 
 who me loves the same will my 
 48
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 III. IV. 
 
 wordt holden iind min vader 
 
 word hold and my father 
 
 V. 
 
 vveith en leve 
 will him love 
 
 Anno Dni 1557 
 
 VI. VII. 
 
 vnd wi werde tho em kame 
 
 and we will to him come 
 
 VIII. IX. 
 
 vnd een wannige bi em make IOA: 14. 
 
 and a dwelling with him make John 14. 
 
 D. J. Bugenhagen was a Pomeranian 
 pastor of the Church at Wittemberg. He 
 assisted Luther in translating the Scriptures, 
 and among the Low German Bibles in the 
 British Museum there is one by him, under 
 the title " Biblia ; dat ys de gantze hillige 
 Schrifft. Gedruckt dorch Hans Lufft tho 
 Wittemberg. M.D.XL.I [1541]." In this 
 Bible the chapters are not separated into 
 verses ; and the words on the Worth pulpit 
 4 49
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 are found in it, which, like that Bible, only 
 refer to chapter S. John 14. 
 
 This pulpit was bought by the Rev. G. C. 
 Bethune, Rector of Worth, from Street & 
 Son, Antique Furniture Warehouse, Brewer 
 Street, Golden Square, London, and erected 
 in Worth Church September 29th, 1841. It is 
 similar to the pulpitsof the Protestant churches 
 of North Germany ; and over the whole of 
 North Germany Low German was spoken. 
 
 It may interest the reader to know 
 somewhat of the neighbourhood around 
 Worth Church. Although the Thames is 
 not without its poets, who have sung its 
 praises in all ages on nearly every occasion, 
 it does not seem to have had such serious 
 votaries as its modest tributary the River 
 Mole, which has its first origin in the 
 vicinity of Worth Church. Spenser, the 
 favourite of Queen Elizabeth and the author 
 of the Fa'cric Queen, writes : 
 
 And Mole that like a mousling mole doth make 
 His way still underground till Tliames he overtake. 
 
 so
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 Drayton thus writes : 
 
 Mole digs herself a path by working day and night 
 According to her name to show her native right, 
 And underneath the earth for three miles space doth 
 
 creep, 
 Till gotten out of sight quite from her mother's keep 
 Her foreintended course the wanton nymph doth run, 
 As longing to embrace old Thame and his son. 
 
 Milton also : 
 
 Tlie sullen Mole that hides his diving flood. 
 
 In Thomson's Se^so>is : 
 
 The soft windings of the silent Mole. 
 
 The three bridges that cross the river Mole 
 and give a name to the locality Three Bridges 
 recall the fact that at various periods of the 
 history of the nation the woods of Worth 
 played a very prominent part, owing to 
 the abundance of iron in the locality and 
 the teeming woods for the supply of fuel. 
 Camden, the historian, speaking of Sussex, 
 says : " Full of iron-mines it is in sundry 
 places, where for the making and founding 
 
 SI
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 thereof there be furnaces on every side, and 
 a huge deal of wood is yearly burnt, to 
 which purpose divers brooks in many places 
 are brought to run in one channel, and 
 sundry meadows turned into pools and 
 waters, that they might prove sufficient to 
 drive hammer-mills, which, beating upon the 
 iron, resound all over the places adjoining," 
 And Drayton, in his Polyolbion, published 
 in 1 612, in Song xvii., makes the woods 
 of Worth complain of the injury done them 
 by these iron-works, in what may be con- 
 sidered the finest passage of his poem. We 
 quote a few of the lines : 
 
 When as the axe's stroke fetched many a grievous 
 
 groan. 
 The anvil's weight and hammer's fearful sound 
 Even rent the hollow woods and shook the queachy 
 
 ground, 
 So that the trembling nym.phs, oppress'd through 
 
 ghastly fear, 
 Ran madding to the Downs with loose dishevelled 
 
 hair. 
 
 The working of iron in the locality is 
 of great antiquity, and in the cinder-beds 
 
 52
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 the Roman coins of Nero, Vespasian, and 
 Tetricus have been found. In the sixteenth 
 century the quaint old belted cannon were 
 founded here, and hence came the present 
 iron railings around St. Paul's. As late 
 as 1788 cannon were made at Worth. 
 
 The timber here grows particularly fine ; 
 the oak, elm, and ash arrive at great 
 perfection ; indeed, the oaks have been 
 renowned from time immemorial ; so much 
 prized were they that the Navy contracts 
 used to specify that Sussex oaks should 
 be used. Worth Church stood then almost 
 surrounded by the great forest which in 
 Saxon time occupied nearly the whole 
 of Sussex and part of Kent and Surrey, 
 being one hundred and twenty miles long 
 by thirty broad. This forest was called 
 by the Britons " Coet Andred," from its 
 exceeding greatness, and by the Saxons 
 weald or woody country, or " Andredes 
 Weald," probably from Anderida Sylva 
 in the Roman itineraries. The whole 
 
 53
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 weald was rendered almost impermeable 
 by reason of the great groves of oak and 
 thickets, and for many a year was famous 
 for its wild hogs and herds of deer. 
 
 All was one wild inhospitable waste, 
 Uncouth and horrid, desert and untraced, 
 Hid by rough thickets from the face of day, 
 The solitary realms of beasts of prey. 
 
 So wrote Evelyn, the author of Sylva. 
 
 The Norman right of " free warren " first 
 occasioned districts to be marked out and 
 called " forests " or " chases." In Tilgate 
 Forest, in Worth, part of the great Forest of 
 St. Leonards, those marvellous creatures of 
 the ancient world, the crocodile, iguanodon, 
 plesiosaurus, megalosaurus, and hylaeosaurus 
 have been discovered. From a calculation 
 of the bones, the iguanodon would appear 
 to have been 70 feet long, 9 feet high, and 
 14I feet round the body. Ages and ages 
 ago these enormous reptiles lived in our 
 country under forests of palms and tree- 
 
 54
 
 WORTH CHURCH. 
 
 ferns, enjoying a tropical climate like that 
 of India now. 
 
 The great dragon or serpent of St. 
 Leonard's Forest, though not so renowned 
 as the dragon of Wharncliffe, has yet not 
 been without admirers. The reader will 
 find an account in the Harleian Miscellany, 
 from an old pamphlet, printed at London 
 by John Trundle, 1614.
 
 GROUND-PLAN OF WORTH CHURCH.
 
 Cron'H Zvo (printed af the Chisjcick Press J, price y. dd. 
 
 ROUNDHEADS AND CAVALIERS. 
 
 Bn Ibtstoiical ©lama bv Bithur JSri^gc. 
 
 Truth says, — "Taking up the book by chance, I was soon struck by 
 the ingenious new turn it gives to the hackneyed story of Charles I. and 
 Cromwell, and I read it through with considerable interest. The scene 
 in Act III. in which Cromwell soliloquises at midnight by the side of 
 the coffin containing the dead King would be highly dramatic if well 
 acted. I was struck with several of Mr. Bridge's conceits, as, for 
 instance, when a lover, speaking of his sweetheart, exclaims : 
 'Yea, in her presence Time itself stood still, 
 
 And wished itself Eternity, to be 
 
 Ever with her." " 
 
 The Scotsman says, — " Mr. Bridge's drama is one considerable 
 merit. Mr. Bridge has constructed his work in a manner that will 
 please the reader — written in a Crisp bright style. We quote two pas- 
 sages. There are many passages of even a more striking character, 
 as, for instance, those which describe the last hours and execution of 
 Charles I." 
 
 The Glas.gow Herald says, — " Some parts of the speeches might have 
 been spoken by Milton, Cromwell, and Charles, and certainly show con- 
 siderable skill on Mr. Bridge's part. Mr. Bridge shows marked skill in 
 the handling of dramatic verse." 
 
 The Civil and 3[ilitary Gazette sse^s, — "A drama that will be read 
 with much pleasure. Mr. Bridge shows great skill in the handling of 
 blank verse, and the work is full of noble lines and passages of great 
 beauty. Cromwell's dialogue with Milton in the first scene and the 
 lines in praise of Truth and Liberty are very fine. Courtland's descrip- 
 tion of his first meeting with Helen is beautiful, whilst the scenes 
 depicting the last day of Charles' trial, the King in his cell on the 
 eve of execution, are striking, though perhaps Cromwell's soliloquy at 
 midnight by the side of the dead King's coffin is still more grand and 
 impressive. Any one reading the first page will feel they have a treat 
 in store." 
 
 London : 
 GEORGE BELT. & SONS, York Street, Covent Garden.
 
 PRINTEI-) liY 
 
 IfAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LI)., 
 
 LONDON AND AYLKSHURY,
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-50»i-7,'54 ( 5990 ) 444 
 
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