The English ancestry of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford, Ct ...

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The English Ancestry of
laid aslant." In this tower are five bells. Originally of
Norman architecture, it is now partly in the Decorated
style. When Morant described it (in 1768), its nave and
chancel were of " one pace, and the whole tiled ;
" it was
then but " partly ceiled, the chancel not at all : at the west
end was a gallery," and there was "a porch on the south
side, in a ruinous state/'
The Church was restored in 1874 ;
the chancel retains two
niches at the east end, and on the south side is a priest's
doorway, — now built up on the inside but visible on the
exterior. In the porch are the remains of a " holy-water
stoup ;
" and a part of the old staircase to the rood loft is
still in existence.
The doorways and arches on the north and south of the
nave were deemed worthy of careful description by Had-
field, in his "Churches of Essex," and he gives detail
drawings of both, from which I compile the following de-
scription : the north doorway has an arch of eleven stones,
sculptured with three rows of ornaments like a four-pointed
star, the key-stone having six rows ; the face of the arch is
flush with the wall ; there are no pillars on the sides of this
door, but these are laid up with large squared stones, —
those at the base of the arch with volutes. The arch of the
south doorway springs from quaint corbels or brackets ; that
on the left is a grotesque demon's head, with pointed ears,
the eyes widely separated, the nose broad and flat with large
nostrils, and the mouth open, displaying pointed teeth ; the
one on the right has a man's head, his hair profuse and