Illustration: Seventeenth-century Boot, in the possession of Ernest
Crofts, Esq., R.A.]

[Illustration: Chapel de Fer at Ockwells, Berks]

Ockwells was built by Sir John Norreys about the year 1466. The chapel
was not completed at his death in 1467, and he left money in his will
"to the full bilding and making uppe of the Chapell with the Chambres
ajoyng with'n my manoir of Okholt in the p'rish of Bray aforsaid not
yet finisshed XL li." This chapel was burnt down in 1778. One of the
most important features of the hall is the heraldic glass,
commemorating eighteen worthies, which is of the same date as the
house. The credit of identifying these worthies is due to Mr. Everard
Green, Rouge Dragon, who in 1899 communicated the result of his
researches to Viscount Dillon, President of the Society of
Antiquaries. There are eighteen shields of arms. Two are royal and
ensigned with royal crowns. Two are ensigned with mitres and fourteen
with mantled helms, and of these fourteen, thirteen support a crest.
Each achievement is placed in a separate light on an ornamental
background composed of quarries and alternate diagonal stripes of
white glass bordered with gold, on which the motto

Feyth-fully-serve

is inscribed in black-letter. This motto is assigned by some to the
family of Norreys and by others as that of the Royal Wardrobe. The
quarries in each light have the same badge, namely, three golden
distaffs, one in pale and two in saltire, banded with a golden and
tasselled ribbon, which badge some again assign to the family of
Norreys and others to the Royal Wardrobe. If, however, the Norreys
arms are correctly set forth in a compartment of a door-head remaining
in the north wall, and also in one of the windows--namely, argent a
chevron between three ravens' heads erased sable, with a beaver for a
dexter supporter--the second conjecture is doubtless correct.

These shields represent the arms of Sir John Norreys, the builder of
Ockwells Manor House, and of his sovereign, patrons, and kinsfolk. It
is a _liber amicorum_ in glass, a not unpleasant way for light to come
to us, as Mr. Everard Green pleasantly remarks. By means of heraldry
Sir John Norreys recorded his friendships, thereby adding to the
pleasures of memory as well as to the splendour of his great hall. His
eye saw the shield, his memory supplied the story, and to him the
lines of George Eliot,

O memories,
O Past that IS,

were made possi