In a recess on the eastern side of the transept there is a monument to #Elizabeth Freshwater#, whose effigy, in the costume and ruff collar of her time, is shown kneeling at a small _priedieu_, with English and Latin inscriptions beneath:
Here lyeth interred the body of Elizabeth Freshwater, late wife of Thomas Freshwater, of Henbridge, in the County of Essex, Esquire; eldest daughter of John Orme of this parish, Gentleman, and Mary his wife. She died the 16th day of May Anno Domini 1617, being of the age of 26 years.
Mors properius, quali tinxisti tela veneno Ut sic trina uno vulnere praeda cadat? Unam saeva feris; sed et uno hoc occidit ictu Uxor dulcis, amans filia, chara soror.
(=O hasty death, how hast them so contrived Thy darts with venomous poison to direct That, by one cruel stroke, not one but three are killed, Sweet wife, a loving daughter, sister dear!)
The doorway beneath the monument opens on the staircase to the south triforium.
#The Choir#, now restored as nearly as possible to its original state, consists of five bays on each side, with an apsidal termination of five arches, distinguished from the others (mainly semicircular) by their "stilted" form and much narrower span, which, in fact, measures no more than the diameter of the intervening columns, and gives an appearance of extra massiveness to the east end of the church. All the arches display some approximation to the "horseshoe," in a slight inward inclination on either side towards the capitals on which they rest; but the shape is very definitely assumed in each of those immediately contiguous to the transverse curve. These are of the genuine "horseshoe" pattern characteristic of Arabian or Moorish buildings; and their exact similarity in detail, with their position facing one another at each extremity of the apse, would seem to indicate a structural necessity, or deliberate intention in the design, which, neither here nor elsewhere in the arcading, is to be attributed to any subsidence, or imperfect workmanship, sometimes held to account for the deflection as a mere accident.
[Illustration: THE FONT AND THE FRESHWATER MONUMENT _E. Scamell. Photo._]
[Illustration: INTERIOR FROM THE EAST, SHOWING PRIOR BOLTON'S GALLERY _E. Scamell. Photo._]