Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/271

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NOTES TO SUSSEX.
217

closed. The chancel arch is lofty, springing from corbels, with good bold mouldings: on each side of the chancel are three windows, and in the east end also three under separate arches with intervening light shafts having capitals of foliage; above, between the canopies, quatrefoils are sunk in the wall. Beneath these windows are two niches, or ambries; there is a piscina, rather mutilated, and an ambry in the north wall, The string-course round the chancel is entire. The piers between the nave and aisle stand on high square bases, all apparently in excellent condition. The pulpit is of stone, that and the font being of the same period, late Dec, or early Perp.? There is some damaged Perp. screen-work, and also many oak benches. In the northern side of the west end a door has been closed. The south door has been too much altered for any explanation, and the porch has been partially rebuilt. This is an extremely interesting church, the Norm. portion being curious, and the E.E., which appears all of the same date, would be very beautiful if cleaned from whitewash. The upper part of the tower is much dilapidated, but the body of the building seems perfectly sound. In the chancel are two oak chests, one of them remarkable for its antiquity. Cartwright (Rape of Arundel, 15) calls it "coeval with the building," and it may be with the E.E. erection, but his representation is inaccurate, the carving showing as if in high relief, whereas it is little deeper than mere lines.—At Atherington was a religious house, said to have been a cell to the abbey of Seez in Normandy: it was suppressed by K. Henry V. (Horsfield's Suss. II, 112.) The most probable conjecture is, that the second Domesday church here was that of Cudlaw; which see.

64. Coates.—The rectory of Burton with the curacy of Coates form one cure, the former containing seven, the latter sixty-seven, inhabitants, the aggregate income being £113. (Clergy List.)

65. Cocking.—There is stated to have been "a cell here, belonging to the abbey of Seez until the suppression of alien priories, and then transferred to the college of Arundel." K. Edward I seems probably to have remained here two days, A.D. 1305. (Suss. Arch. Coll. II, 155, 156.)

66. Compton.—Joined with Up Harden in (Val. Eccl.) and (Clergy List). "Cumptune" occurs in King Alfred's will along with many other estates in Sussex. (Asser's Alfred, by Wise, 77.)