The stalls, situated on each side of the chapel, are of carved oak, the arms being in the form of bears, griffins, and lions with standards having carved finials. The altar–piece, which is in low relief, represents the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, and is by Collins of Warwick, who executed the work from a design by Lightoler in 1735. It is perhaps unfortunate that the altar–piece does not harmonise with the architectural scheme of the chapel, although the work is good; but the canopy above is of quite indifferent merit.
There are four monumental tombs of great antiquarian and artistic value: the centre one that of the founder, Richard Beauchamp, and the one next to it on the western side the tomb of Ambrose Dudley, known as the good Earl of Warwick. Against the northern wall is a fine monument to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth, and his Countess. The recumbent figures of the Earl and his wife are coloured, and placed on a tomb in front; whilst against the southern wall is the monument of “that noble impe, the young Lord Denbigh, their infant son and heir.” These monuments, which represent a period of some hundred and fifty years, are not only interesting from a historical point of view, but more especially to students as representing the changes which took place in the fashion of sepulchral monuments during that period. A record exists that during the Civil War in 1642 the Parliamentary forces, under the leadership of Colonel Purefoy, “did break into the chapel and beat down and deface these monuments of antiquity.” But it seems probable that their depredations were chiefly confined to the pulling down of the altar, as none of the tombs show signs of having been seriously damaged.
The great tomb of Richard Beauchamp, which represents such an excellent example of the art of the period, is constructed of grey Purbeck marble, with its sides divided in five compartments; each of the latter holding a large canopied niche, referred to in the contract as a “principall housing.” There is a similar niche above, and these divisions are flanked by sunk panel–work, the decorative part of which is beautifully carved. Underneath each of the principal niches is a carved quatrefoil within a square, bearing a shield charged with armorial bearings enamelled on copper. The principal niches, numbering fourteen, contain a like number of images, called “weepers and mourners”; these are made of latten, a variety of brass, and are gilded. Of these figures seven are males and seven females, and they represent persons of rank who were connected either by blood or marriage to Earl Richard.
GUY’S CLIFFE MILL.
The small niches, which number eighteen, contain images or angels cast in the same metal, which was generally used for sepulchral brasses and metal ornaments of tombs, and these also are richly gilt. They bear scrolls in their hands on which are engraved the following words, “Sit Deo Laus et Gloria, Defunctis Misericordia.” The metal–work of this magnificent tomb was carried out by one William Austen, citizen and brass–founder of London, who agreed to “cast and make an image of a man armed, of fine latten, garnished with certain ornaments, to wit with sword and dagger, with a garter, with a helme and crest under his head, and at his feet a bear musled, and a griffon perfectly made of the finest latten, according to pattern and layde on the tombe.” He also agreed to supply and erect a “hearse.” This hearse was an open metal canopy of bars and hoops, shaped very much like the rest used in hospitals to prevent the weight of the bedclothes troubling the patient, over which a pall was thrown, and that on the Earl’s tomb is one of the very few now remaining intact.
This beautiful memorial is fortunately almost as perfect as the day on which it was erected, more than four hundred years ago. On the moulded verge of the tomb runs a long English inscription in raised black letter characters, with the bear and ragged staff intermixed, setting forth how the deceased had been buried, when and where he had died, and his titles and accomplishments, and relating how his “bodye with great deliberacon and ful worshipful conduit bi see and by lond was broght to Warrewik the iiii day of October the yer aboueseid, and was leide with ful solenne exequies in a feir cheste made of stone in this Chirche afore the west dore of this Chapel according to his last will and Testament, therin to reste til this Chapel by him devised i’ his lief were made.”
It is in St. Mary’s Church that the Warwick doles of bread are distributed on Sunday mornings, irrespective of creed, by the parish sexton. The doles, which were instituted by Joseph Blissett in 1713, and a Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Smith about the same date, consist of thirty–two loaves, eight threepenny and twenty–four twopenny,—the former for the married, the latter for bachelors, spinsters, widows, and widowers. The providing source is derived from rent charges on houses in High Street and Church Street.