de in Chelsea. The tower was built between the years 1667 and
1679."

The interior is so filled up with tombs and a great gallery, that the
effect is most strange, and the ghosts of the past seem to be whispering
from every corner. There are few churches remaining so untouched and
containing so miscellaneous a record of the flying centuries as Chelsea
Old Church. A great gallery which hid Sir Thomas More's monument was
removed in 1824. Soon after the church was finished it was enlarged by
the addition of what is now known as the Lawrence Chapel on the north
side. This was built by Robert Hyde, called by Faulkner 'Robert de
Heyle,' who then owned the manor-house. In 1536 the manor was sold to
King Henry VIII., who parted with the old manor-house and the chapel to
the family of Lawrence. There are three monuments of the family still
existing in the chapel. The best known of these is that against the north
wall, representing Thomas Lawrence, the father of Sir John, kneeling with
folded hands face to face with his wife in the same attitude. Behind them
are respectively their three sons and six daughters. This is the monument
which Henry Kingsley refers to through the mouth of Joe Burton in his
novel "The Hillyars and the Burtons."

Not far from this is a large and striking monument to the memory of Sarah
Colvile, daughter of Thomas Lawrence. She is represented as springing
from the tomb clothed in a winding-sheet. The figure is larger than life
and of white marble, which is discoloured and stained by time. Overhead
there was once a dove, of which only the wings remain, and the canopy is
carved to represent clouds. The third Lawrence monument is a large tablet
of black marble set in a frame of white marble, exquisitely and richly
carved. This hangs against the eastern wall, and is inscribed to the
memory of Sir John Lawrence. A hagioscope opens from this chapel into the
chancel, and was discovered accidentally when an arch was being cut on
the north wall of the chancel to contain the tomb of Lord Bray. This tomb
formerly stood in the "myddest of the hyghe channcel," but being both
inconvenient and unsightly, it was removed to its present position in
1857. It possessed formerly two or three brasses, which have now
disappeared. This is the oldest tomb in the church, dated 1539.

The Lawrence Chapel was private property, and could be sold or given away
independently of the church. Between it and the nave--or, more
accurately,