Lullingstone Church of St Botolph

100 CHTJBCH OP ST. BOTOLPH, LULLINGSTONE. In the year 1614 Sir Percyvall Hart restored part of the church. In the north window of the north chancel or chapel I read these words : " Re-edified by Sir Percyvall Hart, knight, Anno Domini 1614." A century later another restoration took place. This was due to the care and liberality of Percyvall Hart, Esq., an ardent Jacobite, devoted to Queen Anne, who visited him at Lullingstone. Several personal relics of that Queen, kept by Mr. Hart, are still preserved in Lullingstone Castle by his descendant Sir William Hart Dyke. Mr. Hart died in 1738, having been a "munificent repairer and beautifier of this church," as his epitaph declares. His monument, with 50 escutcheons, occupies the west wall of the north chapel. The ceilings of the church were his work. In the decorative plaster on the chancel arch, the alternation of mitres with royal crowns suggests Mr, Hart's devotion to " Church and Queen." His generous interest in this house of prayer was continued by his son-in-law Sir Thomas Dyke, who caused the south window, of three lights, in the nave, to be repaired and restored. The subject chosen by him for the centre was Our Lord's Ascension. On either side of it are figures of St. Luke and St. Botolph. The artist was W. Peckatt, and the work was completed in the year 1754. The forty-four quarterings of the Harts' armorial bearings appear in this window, impaled with the Dyke coat (Or, three cinquefoils sable). As Sir Thomas Dyke's arms are placed in both the northern windows of the nave, we must suppose that he did something towards their restoration also. In the apes of the easternmost of the two appear the arms of his father-in-law Percyvall Hart (Party per chevron azure and gules, three harts tripping or); and in the dexter light at base, below the figure of Elijah the Prophet, are the Hart arms, with the eagle coat of Mr. Hart's wife Sarah Dixon. The arms of Sir Thomas Dyke, bearing those of his wife Ann Hart on an escutcheon of pretence, appear at the base of the sinister light, beneath the figure of St. John the Baptist. We must therefore infer that this north-east window of the nave was probably filled with its present glass