Some of the Nave Monuments and their Sculptors, 18th-19th century

February 3, 1948 The Friends of Rochester Cathedral

Rupert Gunnis explores the sculptors behind some of the fine Renaissance-era marble monuments around the Nave. Extract from The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1948.

This article from the Friends Report of 1948 has been kindly edited and amended byJohn Physick, who has also provided the illustrations and added a biographical note on Rupert Gunnis. Dr. Physick is a member of our Fabric Advisory Committee.

The Cathedral of Rochester is not as rich as the majority of English cathedrals are in sepulchral memorials. This is chiefly owing to the fact that our Cathedral is not the burial-place of any rich or powerful county family, nor was there an important local school of statuaries and masons who could supply monuments and tablets for the wealthier citizens.

Worcester, Bristol, Exeter, and Gloucester, to mention only four of our cathedral cities, were fortunate enough during the eighteenth century to possess a school of local sculptors whose work was nearly equal to that of their brother masons in London.

Here, in Rochester Cathedral, we find that, save for the ledgers on the floor, all monuments of any importance are the work of London sculptors.

It is true that the neighbouring town of Chatham was the burial-place of two of the most distinguished of the seventeenth-century English sculptors, the brothers John and Mathias Christmas, sons of Gerard Christmas (died 1639), statuary and pageant master to the Lord Mayors of London. These two brothers were craftsmen of outstanding merit. Perhaps the most magnificent monument they were responsible for is that of Archbishop Abbot at Guildford, one of the noblest seventeenth-century monumental effigies in England, but tombs by these two brothers can be found in nearly every English county.

It is somewhat surprising that as John and Mathias Christmas lived and worked at Chatham, there is no monument in the Cathedral which can be ascribed to them although they sign the memorial to Thomas Rocke, 1635, in the adjacent church of St. Nicholas.

The Christmases, while at Chatham, were mostly employed in the Royal Dockyard, carving the elaborate woodwork of His Majesty's warships, those superb, fantastic, and almost baroque carvings which decorated the poops and prows of Jacobean and Carolean men-of-war and are so familiar to us from the naval pictures of the period.

Mathias died in 1654 'aged about 49 years', and Thorpe states that he was buried in the nave of Chatham Church with his son-in-law, Thomas Fletcher, who was also 'a master carver in His Majesty's Yard at Chatham'.

Of the monuments now remaining in Rochester Cathedral, the most important, from an artistic point of view, is that in the Lady Chapel of Sir Richard Head, Bart.

(Fig. 1), for it is the work of one of the most famous of English sculptors, Grinling Gibbons. The monument itself is not signed, but Collins, writing in 1741, and quoting the Baronet's sons, says: 'Sir Richard Head died Sept. 18, 1689, as appears by a fair monument, with an elegant bust, carv'd by Gibbons, erected to

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his memory, in the fourth iste of Rochester cathedral, where he lies interran Unfortunately, the monument suffered badly early in 1993, when the portrai relief, of white marble, fell and broke into several pieces. It is hoped that when repaired, the damage will be hardly noticed, (Fig. 2).

When the terrified James It fled from London at the approach of William III, he was sheltered by Sir Richard, or, as Collins rather more tactfully puts it, 'King James It was entertained at Sir Richard's house when he judged it necessary to retreat from his capital'.

Sir Richard's son, Francis, died in his father's life-time and in his will 'bequeathed a very good and pleasantly situated house Bishopscourt to the Bishops of the See of Rochester for ever'. Sir Richard was three times married, and at his death, at the age of 80, in 1689, was succeeded by his grandson.

The next two monuments to be noticed in the Nave are those of Lady Henniker and John, First Lord Henniker, both conspicuous from their size, though neither really are first-class examples of the works of their respective sculptors - Banks and the younger Bacon.

The monument of Lady Henniker is a curious muture, for the two large figures of Time and Eternity are the works of Coade, and made at her terra-cotta manufactury at Lambeth, while the rest of the monument is the work of Thomas Banks. This monument had puzzled me for some years. That the two figures were Code terra-cotta was obvious, but who was responsible for the rest of the monument? That was not so easy to decide. However, looking through the Gentleman's Magazinefor 1794, I found a letter to the Editor from an anonymous correspondent, giving a description of the monument. The letter begins: 'May 12th. Sir, A monument by Mr. Banks has been lately erected to the memory of the late Lady Hennicker in the South aisle of Rochester Cathedral', and the writer goes on to give a description of the monument, with its 'lofty Gothic arch in a chaste style, the pillars and groining embellished with roses and foliages', and ends by pointing out a curious error in the inscription which he maintains should read: 'Of Newton Hall in Stratford' and not 'Of Newton Hall and Stratford'.

Thomas Banks, who was possibly responsible for all the monument save the carving of the two figures, was born in 1735, studied with the sculptor Scheemakers, and after exhibiting both at the Academy of Arts and the Royal Academy, went to Rome, where he remained for seven years, returning to England in 1779. He next visited Russia, where he carried out various works for the Empress Catherine. He stayed only a short time in St. Petersburgh, and returned to England in 1781.

In 1785 he was elected an R.A., and as his Diploma work presented his finely conceived and imaginative figure 'The Falling Titan' to the Academy. The rest of his life was chiefly spent in producing busts and monuments. Of the latter perhaps the most important are those of Dr. Isaac Watts, William Woollett the engraver,

1 Collins, English Baronetage, vol, in, p. 599.

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and Sir Eyre Coote in Westminster Abbey, and Captains Hutt, Westcott, and Burgess in St. Paul's. Banks died in 1805 and was buried in Paddington Churchyard.

Next as to figures of Time and Eternity on Lady Henniker's monument (Fig. 3). In the middle of the eighteenth century a Miss Eleanor Coade of Lyme Regis revived the art of making terra-cotta, or more properly artificial stone, and founded a manufactury at Lambeth in 1769. The Coade Manufactury was in Belvedere Road, and the site was cleared for the Festival of Britain, of 1951. Known as 'Coade's Manufactury of Artificial Stone', it at once found popular favour, and from the workshops issued an almost unending stream of monuments, vases, urns, fonts, statues, screens, and reliefs, for the Coade terra-cotta was not expensive, it was more durable than stone, and the owner was enterprising enough to employ only the best designers, and Flaxman, Rossi, and John Bacon the elder were all employed on models for the works.

That Code's terra-cotta has stood the test of time cannot be denied, and it is interesting to notice that, while the stonework of the Nelson Monument at Yarmouth has been corroded and affected by the sea air, the terra-cotta statue of the Admiral himself is almost as fresh and sharp in detail as it was when it was first shipped from Code's Wharf at Lambeth, nearly 150 years ago.

Banks, too, was employed for a short time making models for Coade, but Lady Henniker's monument is the only example I can at the moment recall of Banks's designs in terra-cotta being used for a monument. We must regret that Lord Henniker did not employ Banks to carve in marble the two figures for his wife's tomb. Indeed, it is curious that, so large and important a monument having been ordered from a distinguished sculptor, the two main figures were done, so to speak, 'on the cheap'. The only explanation I can put forward is that Lord Aldborough, who had married Lady Henniker's only daughter, was a patron of Coade, and had employed him on the exterior decoration of his house in Dublin, and it may be that it was he who persuaded his father-in-law to allow Banks to design, but not to carve, the two figures. The attribution to Thomas Banks was taken from a note in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1794. Pt. 1, page 410. Rupert Gunnis received a letter in which the writer stated that this reference was to Henry Bankes, son-in-law of The Revd. James Upton, Baptist minister of the Blackfriars Road, London.

West of Lady Henniker's monument is that of her husband John, first first Lord Henniker (Lady Henniker died before her husband was raised to the peerage).

Large, massive, and important though the monument may appear, it is a dull and uninspired work by an artist who was, at his best, a great sculptor. The workmanship is excellent, the details well carved, but the effect left on one is that of a stock piece in a showroom (Fig. 4).

The author of this work, John Bacon, junior, was born in 1777, the second son of John Bacon, R.A., the sculptor. He entered the Academy's school when he was only twelve and exhibiCa his first work when he was but fifteen. His father died in

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1799 and John succeeded him in his business and in his studio, completing his father's unfinished works and attracting at the same time to himself, ample pat smart, and his work it obalound seatising flood of monuments, both tags and small, and his work is to the found scattered over churches in every counage England. There are massive monuments by him both in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, but the work which is most often seen by Londoner's is his equestrian statue of William III in St. James's Square.

Beyond the fact that he was a wealthy man and a large landowner in England, there seems very little reason why he should have received a barony, though the year 1800 was notorious for its profuse creations in the Irish Peerage, no less than forty-six Irish peers being created in nine months.

Lord Henniker owned no land in Ireland at all, and on his elevation purchased one acre in the village of Stratford-upon-Slaney from his son-in-law, Lord Aldborough, to furnish a local habitation and name for his Irish Peerage Opposite the monument of Lord Henniker, and in the North Aisle, is the attractive memorial of Francis Barrell (died 1724), which is the work of Robert Taylor, the elder. Father of a more distinguished son, Taylor was a London statuary who made a large fortune from his business, but wasted it by living beyond his means at a country residence in Essex, where he died about 1734, leaving his son penniless.

This son, afterwards Sir Robert Taylor, started life in the same business as his father, but is 1753 he abandoned sculpture to take up architecture. In his new profession he was not only very successful, but much sought after, and soon became the fashionable architect of the day, and built, among other houses, Gopsall in Warwickshire for Lord Howe, Gorhambury in Hertfordshire for Lord Grimston, and Clumber for the Duke of Newcastle. He was appointed Architect to the Bank of England and made considerable additions to that building. He died in 1788 leaving a fortune to his son for life and then to the University of Oxford.

Robert Taylor the elder's monumental works are not frequent; indeed, I have found only about a dozen monuments signed by him. Two of these are in Kent;

Mrs. Jane Brewer (died 1716) at West Farleigh and Abraham Hill (died 1721) at Sutton-at-Hone. Both these monuments are similar to the one in Rochester Cathedral. Far and away the most important work of the elder Taylor is his superb monument in Peterborough Cathedral to Thomas Deacon (died 1721), with its noble and superbly carved life-sized reclining figure.

There is only space to mention one more monument, that in the Lady Chapel (now in the south-west transept), of Sir William Franklin, who died in 1832. The bust of Sir William is the work of that excellent but forgotten artist, Samuel Joseph. For some reason or other Joseph has never received the recognition his work merits, for his busts are well finished and careful and accurate likenesses. Joseph was the son of the Treasurer of St. John's, Cambridge, and started life as a pupil of the sculptor Peter Row.

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In 1815 he won the gold medal of the Royal Academy for his group 'Eve Supplicating Forgiveness'. He started practice in London, but in 1823 he removed to Edinburgh, where he met with great encouragement as was elected a member ofthe Royal Scottish Academy. He returned to London in 1828, and there in 1850 he died. His two chief works are the fine full-length figure of Wilberforce in Westminster Abbey and the statue of Sir David Wilkie in the National Gallery. His works in Kent include two tablets at Otterden and a very lovely relief to Agnes Wilberforce at East Farleigh. This shows a mourning husband holding a child in his arms while another kneels at his feet. To my mind this relief is quite the most touching and charming nineteenth-century memorial in Kent.

There remains one last monument which I must mention in the hope that some reader can throw some light on the history of the sculptor. Once in the Lady Chapel is a Neo-Hellenic wall tablet with a medallion relief to James Forbes (1779.

1837), Inspector-General of Hospitals. Brisley, the sculptor, signs on the side of the monument. This is now on the east wall of the south-west transept. But who was Mr. Brisley? Beyond the fact that he also signs the formerly neighbouring monument to William Burke (died 1836), now on the wall of the north nave aisle, I know nothing of him. That he was a competent artist is clear from the medallion of Forbes: yet I have never found any other works by him or any printed reference to his life. Was he a local artist? Or a gifted amateur? I should be more than grateful if any reader could give me any information, however slight, about Mr. Brisley. Later Gunnis found out that Thomas William Brisley was the son of Thomas Brisley a mason, who became a Freeman of Rochester by purchase in 1795. Besides the two monuments in the Cathedral, the younger Brisley made also a chimney-piece for the Earl of Darnley at Cobham Hall, in 1834.

The sculptors of England are a strangely neglected race. Volumes have been written on our painters, but the books on English sculptors would fill one small shelf, and yet they were both numerous and their work important. Such knowledge as we do have of their lives and works is very largely owing to the labours of Mrs. Katharine Esdaile, who has devoted many years to rescuing from unmerited oblivion English sculptors and masons. Much yet remains to be done, for nearly every church in England probably contains monuments which are the work of English craftsmen.

It must be remembered there is no published work one can consult, and it is only from stray references in periodicals, books, documents, and; most important of all, by visiting churches and looking carefully at the monuments in the hope of discovering the statuary's signature, that one can slowly build up information concerning the sculptor and his life.

Rupert Gunnis, of Hungershall Lodge, Tunbridge Wells, for many years Chairman of both the Rochester and Canterbury Diocesan Advisory Committees for the Care of Churches, eventually took the iniative. He journeyed all over the country with a photographer and visited almost every church and museum. A former pupil at Eton, his College friends opened their family archives to him. In 1953, he was able to publish his magisterial Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851. A result of this was that he received letters, not only from the United Kingdom, but from Australia, India, the United States of America, and other places, as well. So much new information came in that, early in 1965, he asked me if I would help him to

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prepare a second edition of his Dictionary. Sadly, he suddenly died only two months later, while staying with the Duke of Wellington. Since that time, I have been carrying on adding to his work. However, as the general interest in sculpture is still so slight and the recession of recent years has meant that no publisher would consider a second edition, I decided in August 1993 to pass the whole archived the Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, at Leeds, where, at least, itwill be available to all students of British sculpture. J.P.

Fig. 1. Grinling Gibbons. Monument to Sir Richard Head, Bart. (c. 1689).

Fig. 2. Grinling Gibbons. Sir Richard Head's monument in May 1993, after the fall of the portrait relief.

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Fig. 4. John Bacon, the younger. Monument to John, Lord Henniker (c. 1803).

Fig. 3. Thomas Banks, R.A. (?). Monument to

Ann, Lady Henniker (c. 1792).

The Cathedral of Rochester is not as rich as the majority of English cathedrals are in sepulchral tonathedial is hot the birds places a ty - Go that our ful county family, nor was there an important local school of statuaries and masons who could supply monuments and tablets for the wealthier citizens.

Here, in Rochester Cathedral, we find that, save for the ledgers on the floor, all monuments of any importance are the work of London sculptors.

It is true that the neighbouring town of Chatham was the burial-place of two of the most distinguished of the seventeenth-century English sculptors, the brothers John and Mathias Christmas, sons of Gerard Christmas (died 1639), statuary and pageant master to the Lord Mayors of London. These two brothers were craftsmen of outstanding merit. Perhaps the most mag nificent monument they were responsible for is that of Archbishop Abbot at Guildford, one of the noblest seventeenth-century monumental effigies in England, but tombs by these two brothers can be found in nearly every English county.

It is somewhat surprising that as John and Mathias Christmas lived and worked at Chatham, there is no monument in the Cathedral which can be ascribed to them.

Mathias died in 1654 "aged about 49 years", and 'Thorpe states that he was buried in the nave of Chatham Church with his son-in-law, Thomas Fletcher, who was also "a master carver in His Majesty's Yard at Chatham".

Of the monuments now remaining in Rochester Cathedral, the most important, from an artistic point of view, is that in the Lady Chapel of Sir Richard Head, Bart., for it is the work of one of the most famous of English sculptors, Grinling Gibbons. The monument itselt is not signed, but Collins, writing in 1741, and quoting the Baronet's sons, says: "Sir Richard Head died Sept. 18, 1689, as appears by a fair monument, with an elegant bust, carv'd by Gibbons, erected to his memory, in the fourth isle of Rochester cathedral, where he lies interr'd."1

Grinling Gibbons (1648-1720) is too well known for me to write of here, but a brief word on Sir Richard may not be out of place. Born in 1609, he was created a Baronet in 1676, having been the Member for Rochester in several Parliaments. When the terrified James II fled from London at the approach of William Ill, he was sheltered by Sir Richard, or, as Collins rather more tactfully puts it, "King James II was entertained at Sir Richard's house when he judged it necessary to retreat from his capital"

Sir Richard's son, Francis, died in his father's lifetime and in his will "bequeathed a very good and pleasantly situated house to the Bishops of the See of Rochester for ever". Sir Richard was three times married, and at his death, at the age of 80, in 1689, was succeeded by his grandson.

1 Collins, English Baronetage, vol. ii, p. 599.

The monument of Lady Henniker is a curious mix-ture, for the two large figures of Time and Eternity are the works of Coade, and made at his terra-cotta manufactury at Lambeth, while the rest of the monument is the work of Thomas Banks. This monument had puzzled me for some years. That the two figures were Coade terra-cotta was obvious, but who was responsible for the rest of the monument? That was not so easy to decide. However, looking through the Gentleman's Magazine for 1794, I found a letter to the Editor from an anonymous correspondent, giving a description of the monument. The letter begins: "May 12th. Sir, A monument by Mr. Banks has been lately erected to the memory of the late Lady Henniker in the South aisle of Rochester Cathedral", and the writer goes on to give a description of the monument, with, and ends by pointing out a curious error in the inscription which he maintains should read: "Of Newton Hall in Strat-ford" and not "Of Newton Hall and Stratford"

Thomas Banks, who was responsible for all the monument save the carving of the two figures, was born in 1735, studied with the sculptor Scheemakers, and after exhibiting both at the Academy of Arts and the Royal Academy, went to Rome, where he remained for seven years, returning to England in 1779. He next visited Russia, where he carried out various works for the Empress Catherine. He stayed only a short time in St. Petersburgh, and returned to England in 1781.

In 1785 he was elected an R.A., and as his Diploma work presented his finely conceived and imaginative "The Falling Titan" to the Academy. The rest of his life was chiefly spent in producing busts and monuments. Of the latter perhaps the most important are those of Dr. Watts, Woollitt the engraver, and Sir Eyre Coote in Westminster Abbey, and Captains Hutt, Westcott, and Burgess in St. Paul's. Banks died in 18o5 and was buried in Paddington Churchyard.

Next as to figures of Time and Eternity on Lady Henniker's monument. In the middle of the eighteenth century a Miss Coade of Lyme Regis revived the art of making terra-cotta, or more properly artificial stone, and founded a manufactury at Lambeth in 1769.

Known as "Coade's Manufactury of Artificial Stone", it at once found popular favour, and from the workshops issued an almost unending stream of monuments, vases, urns, fonts, statues, screens, and reliefs, for the Coade terra-cotta was not expensive, it was more durable than stone, and the owner was enterprising enough to employ only the best designers, and Flax-man, Rossi, and John Bacon the elder were all employed on models for the works.

To give even a brief list of the various works carried out by Coade, or Coade and Sealey, as the firm shortly became, is impossible here. Their work ranged from the statue of Lord Hill at Shrewsbury to the font at Chelmsford Cathedral, from the screen at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, to the reliefs on the County Hall of Lewes. That Coade's terra-cotta has stood the test of time cannot be denied, and it is interesting to notice that, while the stonework of the Nelson Monument at Yarmouth has been corroded and affected by the sea air, the terra-cotta statue of the Admiral himself is almost as fresh and sharp in detail as it was when it was first shipped from Coade's Wharf at Lambeth, nearly 150 years ago.

Indeed, it is curious that, so large and important a monument having been ordered from a distinguished sculptor, the two main figures were done, so to speak, "on the cheap". The only explanation I can put forward is that Lord Aldborough, who had married Lady Henniker's only daughter, was a patron of Coade, and had employed him on the exterior decoration of his house in Dublin, and it may be that it was he who persuaded his father-in-law to allow Banks to design, but not to carve, the two figures.

West of Lady Henniker's monument is that of her husband John, first Lord Henniker (Lady Henniker died before her husband was raised to the peerage).

Large, massive, and important though the monument may appear, it is a dull and uninspired work by an artist who was, at his best, a great sculptor. 'The workmanship is excellent, the details well carved, but the effect left on one is that of a stock piece in a showroom.

The author of this work, John Bacon, junior, was born in 1777, the second son of John Bacon, R.A., the sculptor. He entered the Academy's school when he was only twelve and exhibited his first work when he was but fifteen. His father died in 1799 and John succeeded him in his business and in his studio, completing his father's unfinished works and attracting at the same time to himself, ample patronage. He turned out an almost unceasing flood of monuments, both large and small, and his work is to be found scattered over churches in every county in England. There are massive monuments by him both in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, but the work which is most often seen by Londoners is his equestrian statue of William III in St. James's Square.

Of Lord Henniker himself, there is very little that can be said; son of a wealthy London merchant who was also a freeman of the City of Rochester, John Henniker was born in 1724 and was High Sheriff of Essex in 1757. He later sat as 'Tory Member for Sudbury and afterwards for Dover, and was in 1800 raised to the Irish Peerage by the title of Lord Henniker of Stratford-upon-Slaney, County Wicklow. Beyond the fact that he was a wealthy man and a large landowner in England, there seems very little reason why he should have received a barony, though the year 180o was notorious for it profuse creations in the Irish Peerage, no less than forty-six Irish peers being created nine months.

lord Henniker owned no land in Ireland at all, and on his elevation purchased one acre in the village of Stratford-upon-Slaney from his son-in-law, Lord Ald-borough, to furnish a local habitation and name for his Irish Peerage.

Opposite the monument of Lord Henniker, and in the North Aisle, is the attractive memorial of Francis Barrell (died 1724), which is the work of Robert Taylor, the elder. Father of a more distinguished son, Taylor was a London statuary who made a large fortune from his business, but wasted it by living beyond his means at a country residence in Essex, where he died about 1734, leaving his son penniless. This son, afterwards Sir Robert Taylor, started life in the same business as his father, but in 1753 he abandoned sculpture to take up architecture. In his new profession he was not only very successful, but much sought after, and soon became the fashionable architect of the day, and built, among other houses, Gopsall in Warwick-shire for Lord Howe, Gorhambury in Hertfordshire for Lord Grimston, and Clumber for the Duke of New-castle. He was appointed Architect to the Bank of England and made considerable additions to that build-ing. He died in 1788.

Robert Taylor the elder's monumental works are not frequent; indeed, I have found only about a dozen monuments signed by him. Two of these are in Kent;

There is only space to mention one more monument, that in the Lady Chapel, of Sir William Franklin, who died in 1832. The bust of Sir William is the work of that excellent but forgotten artist, Samuel Joseph. For some reason or other Joseph has never received the recognition his work merits, for his busts are well finished and careful and accurate likenesses. Joseph was the son of the Treasurer of St. John's, Cambridge, and started life as a pupil of the sculptor Peter Rouw.

In 1815 he won the gold medal of the Royal Academy for his group "Eve Supplicating Forgiveness". He started practice in London, but in 1823 he removed to Edinburgh, where he met with great encouragement and was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Academy. He returned to London in 1828, and there in 18 so he died. His two chief works are the fine full-length figure of Wilberforce in Westminster Abbey and the statue of Sir David Wilkie in the National Gallery.

His works in Kent include two tablets at Otterden and a very lovely relief to Agnes Wilberforce at East Far-leigh. This shows a mourning husband holding a child in his arms while another kneels at his feet. To my mind this relief is quite the most touching and charming nineteenth-century memorial in Kent.

There remains one last monument which I must mention in the hope that some reader can throw some light on the history of the sculptor. In the Lady Chapel is a Neo-Hellenic wall tablet with a medallion relief to James Forbes (1779-1837), Inspector-General of Hos-pitals. Brisley, the sculptor, signs on the side of the monument. But who was Mr. Brisley? Beyond the fact that he also signs the neighbouring monument to William Burke (died 1836), I know nothing of him.

That he was a competent artist is clear from the medallion of Forbes: yet I have never found any other works by him or any printed reference to his life. Was he a local artist? Or a gifted amateur? I should be more than grateful if any reader could give me any informa-tion, however slight, about Mr. Brisley.

Esdaile, who has devoted many years to rescuing from unmerited oblivion English sculptors and masons.

Much yet remains to be done, for nearly every church in England probably contains a monument which is the work of an English craftsman.

It must be remembered there is no published work one can consult, and it is only from stray references in periodicals, books, documents, and, most important of all, by visiting churches and looking carefully at the monuments in the hope of discovering the statuary's signature, that one can slowly build up information concerning the sculptor and his life.

The writer has a card index of the names of nearly two thousand English sculptors, statuaries, masons, and carvers, but many, alas, like Mr. Brisley, remain but a name. But he is full of hope that some kind reader of this article will be able to give him at least the Christian name, or dates, of this artist, so that he can add something to the card which at present so bleakly and so barely has nothing on it save the single word "Brisley'.

Rupert Gunnis

Extract from The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1948