It is not uncommon in England to find the chapel attached to the manor
house of an estate used as a parish church for the neighbourhood. This
is true of the family chapel at Gatton Park, Surrey, just north of
Redhill, off the road leading to London. This chapel stands close to the
mansion, and is connected with it by a passage. Finer carved wood than
the wainscotting of this small interior is far to seek. The wooden
pulpit, too, is of skilful workmanship, and together with the panelling,
is said to have come from Germany, and to be the work of Albrecht Duerer;
its beauty is certainly due to some great craftsman, if not to this very
man. The principal illumination of the narrow edifice is derived from
two large windows, one over the altar at the east end and the other of
similar size in the south wall; there is none in the north one. Both
these embrasures are glazed with Renaissance work of considerable
excellence; the one to the east dates from about 1500, and the southerly
one from about eighty years later. This latter, as is to be expected,
shows a liberal use of enamel painting, something entirely absent in
the earlier one, and each of its three lancets contains a different
subject, against elaborate landscape backgrounds. The delicately
outlined trees in the extreme distance are drawn upon a white field
instead of upon the light blue then used in France. Such architecture as
appears in the design is, of course, Renaissance. Across the whole of
the easterly window is stretched one large picture, the "Eating of the
Passover," which is pleasantly brightened by the golden staves held by
the figures who, with their raiment girded up and their feet shod by
sandals, carry out to the full the Mosaic law, "And thus shall ye eat
it; with your loins girded, with shoes on your feet and your staff in
your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover"
(Exodus xii. 2).
When about to leave this beautifully panelled charmingly glazed
interior, note the small window in the west wall of the entrance
vestibule. It is of a domestic type familiar during the Perpendicular
epoch. In the centre are the arms of Henry VII. between two supporters.
Across the quarry background are bands slanting from the left down to
the right bearing the motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." Some of the
quarries show small leaves, and others an H surmounted by a crown. This
window is similar in style to those already remarked at Salisbury, in
John Halle's hall, and others maybe seen in many private houses dating
from that time.
Although of modest size and possessing but two windows, Gatton Chapel is
as delightful a bit of complete Renaissance glazing as one will see in
England.