HOLY TRINITY. The earliest part of the church is the N chapel. It has a one-bay opening to the chancel which looks about 1275 (arch with two hollow chamfers). Of the same date may be the chancel N window E of the chapel. This has bar tracery with a quatrefoil, and that confirms c. 1275. The W tower is only a little later. It has an arch to the nave of one chamfer and two continuous chamfers, and in its mid-stage walls quatrefoil windows. No spire. But most of the church is Dec, i.e. the chancel fenestration with a large E window with elongated reticulated tracery, an ogee-headed chancel S doorway, two big odd niches in the S wall outside, and a length of ball-flower in the chancel S wall inside. In the W wall l. and r. of the chancel arch also two flat niches. They contain seats. The N aisle windows have cusped Y-tracery, the S aisle is very wide and has two E windows both with three stepped lancer lights under one arch, with the middle one to one’s surprise ogee-headed. The S windows have basket arches almost semicircular. In the N chapel there is an E window with two intersecting ogee arches. The three-bay arcades are Dec too, though the bases (with spurs) are older. Octagonal piers with capitals with polygonal projections or brackets, the brackets displaying some ball-flower and carrying the outer of the two chamfered orders of the arch. - FONT. Octagonal; plain decoration. - CHANCEL DOOR. Good original, i.e. early C14, scroll-work. - BELL. One with the stamps of John Walgrave,i.e. c. 1420-40. -PAINTING. St Christopher, early C16, good. Only the upper part is preserved. - STAINED GLASS. Fragments in the N aisle W and N and the tower W window. In the N aisle W window some C13 foliage scrolls. - PLATE. Cup of Britannia silver 1711-12; Paten on foot 1829-30. - MONUMENTS. Most of them in the N chapel. Effigy of a cross-legged Knight, late C13; damaged. - Elizabeth Talbot (Mrs Armyne), 1629. Black marble table-top on five alabaster legs. Back panel with arched head and inscription. No figures, but many armorial shields. - Lady Mary Seymour. By Chantrey, 1827. Rather cold compared with other monuments of his. Seated young woman against Grecian background. All white marble. - Countess of Aboyne d. 1839. Large standing Gothic monument, an extremely rich Dec tomb-chest with canopy. The inscription will be read with profit. The monument is for its date (unless it was made five or ten years later) surprisingly accurate in its use of the Dec style. - Lords Bertrand and Lewis Gordon d. 1869 and 1870. Tomb-chest with Gothic inscription. - FUNERAL HELM, early C17. - Monuments not in the N chapel: Sir Charles Cope d. 1781 . A charming tablet of coloured marbles. - Lord Douglas William Cope Gordon d. 1888. By H. H. Armstead. Portrait in a roundel set in a Quattrocento surround. - Marie Antoinette, Marchioness of Huntly d. 1893. Alabaster, in an interesting neo-1630. With two angels flanking the inscription.
ORTON LONGUEVILLE. It is one of those villages in which we are delighted so often to come upon a sculpture from a master hand. Here we meet the famous Chantrey, who has a memorial to Lady Mary Seymour. It shows a lovely seated figure of a woman in flowing draperies.
Five hundred years before Chantrey was born an English sculptor was carving another figure here, a knight in armour, perhaps the oldest single possession of the village, for the knight has been sleeping here since about 1280.
The village has rare treasures to keep these sculptures company, paintings on its walls and in its windows. On the wall is St Christopher, the colour of his rich red cloak protected by an oak shutter; a handsome old man he looks turning his head to gaze at the lovely Child on his shoulder. The painting is 16th century.
The ancient glass comes from four centuries, between the 13th and 17th century. There are fragments of green and ruby, and we noticed among them the interior of a church, faces of leopards, and, most precious of all, a rare 13th century gem of a saint.
The church, almost hidden by trees, is 13th and 14th century, the tower being 200 years younger at the top than at the base. The hinges of a door in the tower are 17th century, but the elaborate hinges of a chancel door are 600 years old. The graceful panelling of the font is 15th century. The little sanctus bell is still here, and still doing its duty is a bell which rang out in Plantagenet England. On one of the walls hangs a 17th century funeral helmet, and outside the chancel is a sundial of 1699.
The great house has been a neighbour to the church 400 years and has treasures of its own - much carved woodwork with panels showing Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and roundels of 16th century glass illustrating the months. The hall stands in a park of 40 acres, its lofty battlements showing above the trees. It was new when they laid to rest a villager whose gravestone is left on a mound close by, all that remains of the ancient church of Botolph Bridge; but young indeed is this stone and this mound in the story of this ancient place, for it is nearly 20 centuries since the first houses were built in Orton Longueville, and there have been found in Orton Park an iron knife and a bronze bracelet lost in Roman days.
Five hundred years before Chantrey was born an English sculptor was carving another figure here, a knight in armour, perhaps the oldest single possession of the village, for the knight has been sleeping here since about 1280.
The village has rare treasures to keep these sculptures company, paintings on its walls and in its windows. On the wall is St Christopher, the colour of his rich red cloak protected by an oak shutter; a handsome old man he looks turning his head to gaze at the lovely Child on his shoulder. The painting is 16th century.
The ancient glass comes from four centuries, between the 13th and 17th century. There are fragments of green and ruby, and we noticed among them the interior of a church, faces of leopards, and, most precious of all, a rare 13th century gem of a saint.
The church, almost hidden by trees, is 13th and 14th century, the tower being 200 years younger at the top than at the base. The hinges of a door in the tower are 17th century, but the elaborate hinges of a chancel door are 600 years old. The graceful panelling of the font is 15th century. The little sanctus bell is still here, and still doing its duty is a bell which rang out in Plantagenet England. On one of the walls hangs a 17th century funeral helmet, and outside the chancel is a sundial of 1699.
The great house has been a neighbour to the church 400 years and has treasures of its own - much carved woodwork with panels showing Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and roundels of 16th century glass illustrating the months. The hall stands in a park of 40 acres, its lofty battlements showing above the trees. It was new when they laid to rest a villager whose gravestone is left on a mound close by, all that remains of the ancient church of Botolph Bridge; but young indeed is this stone and this mound in the story of this ancient place, for it is nearly 20 centuries since the first houses were built in Orton Longueville, and there have been found in Orton Park an iron knife and a bronze bracelet lost in Roman days.
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