Shorter Notes

SHORTER NOTES UPPER BUSH HALL HOUSE AN account of this structure, now known as 'Barrow Hill House', has previously appeared in this journal, 1 and useful supporting evidence of the dating postulated therein (p. 157) has since been obtained by excavation. EXCAVATION The house has been restored by the present owners Mr. and Mrs. D. G. Knott, and during the course of restoration in 1965 it was possible to excavate an area within the limits of the hall (Fig. 1) before the builders laid down a new concrete floor. A hearth was found in the position likely to have been used for a central fire in an open hall, and with the hearth were associated two clay floors and a layer of ruBbish 'sandwiched' between them (Fig. 2). The hearth was evidenced by a quantity of packed hard clay, burnt red and associated with a dark rubbish layer containing tile fragments, oyster shells and .. sherds. The hearth was contiguous with the earliest clay floor found which overlaid a close-packed layer of flints. The sherds from the rubbish layer are datable to a period extending from the mid-fourteenth to the fifteenth century, and being contemporaneous with the hearth seem to confirm the suggested date of the fourteenth century for the erection of the extant hall-house. This is based on the assumption that the hearth discovered was in fact used in the existing house and not in some earlier structure; this unfortunately cannot be archreologioally proved for the following reason: The earlier, and lower, clay floor designated I in Fig. 2 cannot be related to the groundsills of the house since they have not survived. Without exception, all the ground floor walls were removed in fairly modern times to be replaced by brickwork.2 The foundation trenches for these later brick walls not only destroyed the groundsills and their presumed dry footings, but would have also cut through the point of abuttal of clay floor and original wall. There is therefore no strict evidence to show that the hearth belongs to the present building other than its position in relation to the hall plan (Fig. 1). It is, however, unlikely that the hearth served any other structure since it was the 1 .Arch. Cant., 1xxix: (1964), 149. 2 ibid., 149. 235 Parlour illEEJ - 􀀁 Areo excavated ASCD Rubbish layer Hearth Hall y Serens FIG. 1. Plan of original Hall-house showing Area excavated in 1965. Buttery N t Pantry 0 1 2 3 4 Ft r-..--... Yr=--=-=-=-=-=---=-==-=-=---==========----=========:---=􀀭􀀮􀀯􀀰􀀰􀀱􀀲􀀳􀀴􀀵􀀶---=-=-=-=-=--=---=-=-=-=-=-=-􀀷􀀸 x -Brick floor 0 I Flo. 2. Section through Clay Floors and Hearth. l 2 Ft '-. iE 􀀇 .. Ill I SHORTER NOTES only example found, and it can legitimately be assumed to be in the same context as the extant building. All the sherds in the rubbish material were sealed by clay floor 2, which evidently effected a much-needed repair to the lower floor which showed signs of wear and unevenness when excavated. No datable material was found above floor 2, which seemed to have been cleaned or levelled before being covered with sand as a base for a later brick floor. No datable material was found below floor I. It was hoped to find a secondary hearth in the east bay of the hall used after sub-division of the latter,8 but the complete absence of such a hearth must presuppose that a brazier was used in the resulting confined space. POTTERY The small number of sherds discovered were, with one exception, recovered from the rubbish layer between floors I and 2. COARSE w A.RES There are two rims of cooking pots. One, a sandy buff ware with a grey core and low content of shell filling, is comparable with an example found at Pivington.4 The other is a :fiat horizontal rim also but it is wedge-shaped tapering in sharply with a concave exterior curve. The fabric is a harder sandy grey substance containing no shell filling; unfortunately the sherd is too fragmentary to be drawn usefully and with any certainty of alignment. A body sherd and a fragment of a pot base both have a similar fa.brio to the first rim described above, with a small amount of shell filling; all three fragments could belong to the same vessel. There are sherds belonging to at least three other pots and these seem to have included a large bowl, with sagging base, of a gritty grey fabric with external pink slip, and another of pink fabric with an internal white slip and the exterior bearing horizontal scored bands. FINE WARES Part of a jug handle was found,. but insufficient to show whether any decoration or pricking was used. The fabric. is hard, sandy pinkbuff with a grey core. As a group these sherds appear to indicate use of the lower clay floor I from at least 1350 to sometime in the fifteenth century. The sole sherd actually found in floor 2 is part of a small handle, 3 ibid., 155. 4 Aroh. Oant., lxxvii (1962), 39, V. 238 SHORTER NOTES oval in section, perfeotly smooth and blaok throughout. It was perhaps an intrusion from some later date. All the sherds remain in the possession of the present owner, Mr. D. G. Knott, by whose kind permission the excavation was made. E. R. SWAIN 289 SHORTER NOTES as 'that ingenious Artist, Mr. Thomas Robinson at Hide-Park Corner'.2 Starkie Gardner says of him: 'His style, though undoubtedly influenced by Tijou's splendid works, remains completely distinct. In him they inspired emulation rather than imitation, and he clearly remained from the outset more Tijou's rival than pupil. He was a fine designer with a real sense of proportion, balance, fitness and restraint, and should undoubtedly be honoured as the actual creator of the English style of smithing.'3 A borrowing from Tijou may, however, be detected at Hall Place in the use of interlacing initials, a,n innovation effectively introduced by Tijou, as in his screen to the Fountain Garden at Hampton Court where the royal monograms of William and Mary are so displayed. Mr. Raymond Lister,4 managing director of the firm which carried out the restoration of the Hall Place ironwork, informs me that although he would not be prepared to make a final attribution of the gates and screen to Robinson without documentary evidence, the work is admittedly more like his than any of the other known eighteenth-century smiths. Apart from the features already mentioned, Mr. Lister points out that the cresting above the flanking panels is in conception and execution remarkably close to that on the New College screen, known on documentary evidence to be by Robinson. The scrollwork and construction in other minor respects are very close to the New College work and also the gates and screen at Wootton House, Bucks. The first Austen baronet who lived at Hall Place was Sir Robert who died in 1666, but on stylistic grounds the gates are unlikely to have been erected as early as this. More probably the monogram refers to either the third or fourth baronets who were both named Robert. According to Canon Scott Robertson's notes in Arch. Gant., xviii (1889), 370-2, they died in 1706 and 1743 respectively. P. J. TESTER 11 John Ayliffo, The Antient and Present State of the University of O􀄻ford, 3 Op. cit., 228. 'Author of Decorative Wrought Ironwo-r1o in Great Britain (1057). 240 SHORTER NOTES HENRY AIJ,AR,D AND THOMAS CORYATE When Thomas Coryate (1577-1617), the fomous traveller, author of Ooryate' s Crudities and friend of Donne and Ben Jon.son visited the Holy Places at Jerusalem in 1614, he was accompanied by another Englishman, Henry Allard. They had left Aleppo on 15th Maroh with a caravan of Armenians, and a transcript of the register of pilgrims at the monastery of San Salvatore records: 7 Apr. Thomas Coriato Henricus Ellard do Paroohin, Biddenden in Comit. Ohansie. 11 John Ayliffo, The Antient and Present State of the University of O􀄻ford, 3 Op. cit., 228. 'Author of Decorative Wrought Ironwo-r1o in Great Britain (1057). 240 SHORTER NOTES There seem to have been only three other Western visitors during the month. Coryate and Allard (though Protestants) were courteously received by the Franciscans and their feet were washed according to custom. Allard returned to England, bearing letters from Coryate, who had set out on his astonishing walk to India and the court of the Great Mogul. In Biddenden church is a brass to Richard Allarde, Alderman of Rochester, died 1593 aged 60, and his three wives, Helen, Joan and Thomasin. By his first wife Helen he had three sons-Henry, Richard and John. There is a brass inscription to Richard, son of Henry Allarde, 1593, aged 2¼, It seems probable that this Henry was Coryate's companion at Jerusalem. I find nothing on him in the Dictionary of National, Biography. Hasted says the Allards were established for many generations in Biddenden, where they had a mansion of the same name. The last of them, Francis, left an only daughter in the time of Charles I. She married Terry Aldersey of Swanton Court in Bredgar. REFERENCES STRA.OHAN, MroRAEL, The Life and Adventures of Thomas Ooryate. (Oxford U.P., 1962.) GRIFFIN, RALPH, and STEPHENSON, MILL, Monumental, Brasses of Kent. (Headley Bros., 1922.) HASTED, HistonJ of Kent, Vol. vii. RICHARD c. STONE 241 SHORTER NOTES ANGLO-SAXON CHURCHES IN KENT I RA.VE been asked to write a note for Arclireologia Oantiana to draw the attention of members of the Society to the publication in 1965 of a national survey of Anglo-Saxon churches (H. M. Taylor and Joan Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 2 volumes, Cambridge University Press) and to mention the Kentish churches which are included therein. As is stated in the preface of the survey, no list, however carefully prepared, can be hoped to be complete, and I shall always be grateful for notices from readers who believe that there is evidence of preConquest workmanship in churches which are not included in our lists. The descriptions in our lists are all based upon personal observation, since only careful inspection on the spot can settle outsta.nding questions of date. It would greatly help me in deciding to arrange for any necessary further visits if readers reporting additional churches would give brief accounts of the features which lead them to believe that there are pre-Conquest features that deserve inspection. 241 SHORTER NOTES D of Anglo-Saxon Architecture, and with the addition of Kemsing and Otford as noted above, is as follows: Kemsing Minster-in-Thanet (remains of Abbey) Otford No doubt there will need in due course to be further additions to both lists. • Meantime, as indicated in the preface to the first two volumes of our book, I am at work on a third volume which will attempt to build up an architectural history of England from the seventh to the eleventh centuries on the basis of the evidence provided by the buildings and their recorded history. The third volume will also attempt to relate English architectural history more closely to Merovingian, Carolingian, and Ottonian architecture on the Continent than has been done in the past. It will also contain brief notices of churches that were omitted from volumes I and II but which (like those mentioned above) I now believe should be included. H. M. TAYLOR 243 21 SHORTER NOTES WILLIAM HARVEY: A CORRECTION The reference to the parents of William Harvey (1578-1657) on p. 106 of Vol. lxxx (1965), should read that Thomas Harvey married Joan, the daughter of John and not Thomas Hallee of Hastingleigh. A similar mistake is recorded in the Dictionary of National Biography: 'Joane, daughter of Thomas Ha.lke of Hastingleigh'. The marriage entry, quoted from a photostat of the contemporary Transcript of entries for 1576-1577 from the Parish Register of Hastingleigh (by the kindness of Dr. W. G. Urry) reads: 'Thomas Harvie of Folston maried Joane Havke the dawghter of John Hauk Januari 21 (1577).' A brass above the tomb of Joan's parents, Johannes and Amia {Amy) Halke is in the nave pavement of St. M ary the Virgin, Hastingleigh, and a brass tablet on the north wall of the chancel of the parish church at Folkestone is inscribed to the memory of Joan as a wonderful wife, mother and friend. M.W.H. 243 21