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CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
Large crown Svo. 14s. 
 
 THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN 
 MONASTICISM. 
 
 By the Rev. Canon I. Gregory Smith. 
 
 London: A. D. INNES & CO., 
 
 (late Walter Smith & Innes), 
 
 31 & 32, Bedford Street, Strand. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.prg/d6tkifs/bh(jrchl6'regleani00dyerrich 
 
1. Salhouse, Norfolk. ' ' 2. St. Michael's, St. Xlbags. 3. St. Alban's, Wood Street. 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 ,V ; |. JPlirfft^n, 6uflWkj 
 
 • • •* 
 
 • ••••*• 
 
 5. I^eigh, Kent. 
 
 {Page 205.) 
 
CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS 
 
 BY 
 
 T. F. THISELTON DYER. 
 
 I' 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 A. D. INNES AND CO., 
 
 31 & 32, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND. VV.C. 
 1892. 
 
G-7T6' 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
 ! I« : « • « r • • • *€• . 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Church-building Legends ... ... ... i 
 
 II. Some Curious Church Traditions ... i6 
 
 III. Strange Stories and Tales of Wonder ... 26 
 
 IV. The Church Porch ... ... ... 39 
 
 V. Church Discipline ... ... ... ... 53 
 
 VI. Church Pigeon-houses ... ... ... 67 
 
 VII. Acoustic Jars and Horses' Skulls ... ... 70 
 
 VIII. Bells and Belfries ... ... ... 75 
 
 IX. Consecration Crosses ... ... ... 108 
 
 X. Baptismal Customs ... ... ... iii 
 
 XI. The Marriage Cere.mony ... ... ... 118 
 
 XII. Burial Customs ... ... ... ... 128 
 
 XIII. The Churchyard ... ... ... ... 153 
 
 XIV. Memorials of the Dead— Garlands, Funeral 
 
 Armour, Flags and Banners ... ... 161 
 
 XV. The Right of Sanctuary ... ... ... 173 
 
 XVI. Pews and their Lore ... ... ... 184 
 
 XVIi. Jack of the Clock, etc. ... ... ... 197 
 
 XVIII. Lychnoscopes, or Low Side Windows ... 209 
 
 227719 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XIX. The Easter Sepulchre ... ... ... 219 
 
 XX. Curious Church Peculiarities .. ... 231 
 
 XXI. Churchwardens ... ... ... ... 242 
 
 XXII. Parish Clerks ... ... ... ... 251 
 
 XXIII. Parish Bulls and Cows ... ... ... 264 
 
 XXIV. Wells and Well-chapels ... ... 273 
 
 XXV. Church Libraries ... ... ... ... 284 
 
 XXVI. Books in Chains ... ... ... 296 
 
 XXVII. Some Church Superstitions ... ... ... 306 
 
 XXVIII. Hats worn in Church, etc. ... ... 314 
 
 XXIX. Church-ales and Rush-bearings ... ... 322 
 
 XXX. Some Curious Relics ... ... ... 333 
 
 Index ... ... ... 339 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 TO FACE PAGE 
 
 Hour-glass Stands ... ... ... Frontispiece 
 
 The Pedlar and his Dog, Lambeth Church ... i8 
 
 Pigeon-houses in Churches: Birlingham, near Per- 
 
 shore ... ... ... ... ..• ... 68 
 
 Consecration Crosses ... ... ... ... 109 
 
 Lich-gates ... ... ... ... ... ... i55 
 
 Funeral Wreath, and Maiden's Funeral ... 162 
 
 Jack o* the Clock, South wold ... ... ... 200 
 
 The Willingales, Essex ... ... ... ... 232 
 
 Witch's Caldron, Frensham Church ... ... ... 308 
 
 St. Wilfrid's Needle, Ripon Cathedral ... ... 312 
 
 Finger-stocks, or Pillories ... ... ... -335 
 
CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. 
 
 Mysterious invisible agency, interfering with the work of 
 building, has formed the subject of many curious church 
 legends. According to the general conception, underlying 
 most of these traditions, a supernatural obstacle — to coun- 
 teract which human power was helpless— frustrated the 
 erection of certain churches on the sites originally selected. 
 Hence, what was built during the day was persistently 
 removed at night-time by unseen hands ; this process having 
 been repeated until the founders of such sacred structures 
 submitted to the will of the higher powers by adopting the 
 spots which they evidently considered more suitable. 
 
 Many conjectures have been suggested to explain the 
 antecedent history of this extensive group of legendary 
 tales ; but they may probably be traced back to a primitive 
 period of ignorance and superstition, when a deep-rooted 
 belief in all kinds of supernatural agencies originated most 
 of those stories of wonder which survive in our midst to-day. 
 What more natural than to invest with a halo of supernatural 
 romance many of those churches which are situated in 
 somewhat wild and inaccessible spots, and whose existence 
 
 B 
 
 H 
 
CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 in such localities has often been a matter of comment and 
 surprise ! 
 
 Stories of supernatural interference, too, when told of any 
 particular neighbourhood would, like other folk-lore stories, 
 in process of time be adapted to other places as occasion 
 demanded ; although it has always been a difficult matter 
 to decide when and how this happened. But as most of 
 our counties have always been jealous of their traditions 
 and legendary lore, it is easy to conceive how, in the old 
 days prior to steam, when fairies, witches, and other 
 unearthly beings were commonly supposed to have a voice 
 in so important an event as the building of a church, 
 similar weird and strange stories would be recorded of 
 different localities — most of which have been preserved by 
 the local antiquarian with more or less pride. 
 
 Curious tales, too, are told in Cornwall of the selection of 
 sites for churches, and of their erection. It is said, for 
 instance, when a church was finished, its patron saint stood 
 on the tower, and taking the builder's hammer, swung it 
 round his head, and let it take what direction it might. 
 Wherever it fell, there was the next church to be erected. 
 The hammer thrown for St. Madron alighted on a pleasant 
 place. The church stands on the brow of an eminence, 
 which slopes gradually down for about two miles to the 
 shores of Mount's Bay.* 
 
 In many of our church legends, the devil is represented 
 as having caused the sacred edifice to be placed on a 
 high hill instead of at its foot ; his idea being, it is said, 
 that worshippers would be less inclined to visit it. In the 
 village of Churchdown, about four miles from Gloucester, 
 the church dedicated to St. Bartholomew is built on the 
 summit of Churchdown Hill, — the ascent to it being steep 
 and tortuous. The legend runs, that "the church was 
 ♦ GentlemarC s Magazim ^\Z^7.), pt. i. 527. 
 
CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. 
 
 begun to be built on a more convenient and accessible spot 
 of ground, but that the materials used in the day were con- 
 stantly taken away in the night and carried to the top of 
 the hill, which was considered a supernatural intimation 
 that the church should be built there." * 
 
 The site of Rochdale church was removed, we are told, 
 from the banks of the Roach up to its elevated position. 
 Roby, in his " Traditions of Lancashire," gives a tale 
 entitled ''The Goblin Builders," relating how "Gamel, the 
 Saxon thane, lord of Recedham or Rached — the present 
 Rochdale — intended to build a chapel unto St Chadde, 
 nigh to the banks of the Rache or Roach." But his 
 intentions were frustrated ; for three times were the found- 
 ations laid, and the same number of times conveyed by 
 invisible hands to a more lofty site, where the present 
 church was eventually builtf There is a similar legend 
 connected with Holme Church, in the East Riding of York- 
 shire, which is built on the top of a hill ; but, in this case, 
 the work of obstruction was the result of fairy agency. 
 "Some persons," the story goes, "commenced to build the 
 church at the bottom of the hill, and they were warned by 
 the fairies to build it at the top ; but they took no notice. 
 When the church was nearly finished, it was found all in 
 ruins. They recommenced to build, but the church was 
 found in ruins again. And they started a third time, when 
 it was again spoiled by the fairies. They then built it at 
 the top." The fine Norman church of Godshill, in the 
 Isle of Wight, was to have been in the valley; but the 
 builders each morning found the previous day's work 
 destroyed during the night, and the stones carried mys- 
 teriously to the top of the hill ; and so they reared it on 
 
 * Rudder's "History of Gloucestershire " (1779), 339. 
 t See Harland and Wilkinson's " Legends and Traditions of Lan- 
 cashire," 52. 
 
CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 that green knoll, where to-day it is an object of beauty for 
 miles round. And the parish church of St. Matthew, 
 Walsall, Staffordshire, situated on a high hill above the 
 town, was to have been built in a field called the " Church 
 Acre," but since corrupted into *' Chuckery." The little 
 church of Brent Tor, a lofty conical hill on the north- 
 western borders of Dartmoor, has the same tradition, it 
 having been intended to erect the sacred structure at the 
 foot of the Tor, whereas it is now on the summit. Another 
 instance in the same county is the church at Buckfastleigh. 
 The church hill is ascended by one hundred and forty steps, 
 and it is said that "the devil obstructed the builders by 
 removing the stones ; and a large block, bearing the mark 
 of the * enemy's ' finger and thumb, is pointed out on a 
 farm about one mile distant." 
 
 Similarly, a curious legend is attached to Mayfield Church, 
 Sussex, which was originally constructed of timber. St. 
 Dunstan, it is said, observing that it did not stand east and 
 west, applied his shoulders to the edifice and screwed it 
 into its proper " orientation." Whether the error had 
 originated from the ignorance of the village wights, or from 
 the malice of St. Dunstan's ancient enemy, the devil, is not 
 certain. It is supposed, however, to have been the latter, 
 for it is added that, at a subsequent date, when the wooden 
 church was replaced by a stone one, Satan used every night 
 to set wrong what had been done the day before. For ages 
 the prints of his feet were shown in a neighbouring quarry, 
 where he was accustomed to resist the workmen in procuring 
 stones for the new edifice.* 
 
 But, in some cases, supernatural interference altered its 
 
 tactics, as happened in the building of the church at 
 
 Plympton St. Mary, in Devonshire, where the foundation 
 
 stones were mysteriously removed from high ground to 
 
 * Sussex Archseological Society, xiii. 227. 
 
CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. 
 
 the low land beneath it. At the village of Duffield, a few- 
 miles from Derby, there is the site of an ancient castle, 
 formerly belonging to the Ferrars, Earls of Derby. The 
 site is still known by the name of Castle Orchards, and at 
 a very short distance from the hill, on which the castle 
 stood, is another eminence, where some ancient cottages 
 are standing. There is a tradition current in the neigh- 
 bourhood, writes the late Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt,* "that 
 the church was originally intended to be built upon this 
 eminence ; but that, after the work had been commenced 
 and proceeded to some extent, the devil, for some unex- 
 plained reason, removed the whole of the work in one 
 night to the site it now occupies, in a field by the side of 
 the river Derwent, at quite the opposite side of the village. 
 The workmen, surprised at finding that their work had all 
 disappeared, after solemn prayers, again began laying the 
 foundations ; but to be carried away by the devil on the 
 succeeding night Day after day the same thing took place, 
 and at last the arch-fiend so completely triumphed over the 
 patience of the workmen, that they went down to the place 
 where he had carried the material, and completed the church." 
 With this legend may be compared one told of the parish 
 church at Kidderminster. It appears that the original design 
 was to erect it on the brow of the rising ground, on the Bewd- 
 ley side of the river Stour ; but the day's work was always 
 demolished in the night. As, therefore, it was evident that 
 their plans were obstructed by the evil one, the builders 
 " left him in full possession of his territory, and removed 
 the site of their church to the rising ground on the opposite 
 side of the Stour. There they finished their work without 
 further interruption, and named the scene of their failure the 
 * Curst Field,' which has become corrupted into * Cussfield.' " t 
 
 * Notes and Qturies^ 2nd series, iv. 357. 
 t Ibid., 19. 
 
CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 When the workmen were engaged in erecting the ancient 
 church of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire, upon a small hill 
 called Bissau, their work was impeded by supernatural 
 ODstacles. At length the Spirit of the River was heard 
 to say — 
 
 ** It is not here, it is not here, 
 That ye shall build the Church of Deer ; 
 But on Taplillery, 
 Where many a corpse shall lie." 
 
 The site of the edifice was accordingly transferred to Tap- 
 tillery, an eminence at some distance from the place where 
 the building had been commenced. 
 
 Shropshire affords several examples of the same form of 
 legend. When Worfield Church, near Bridgnorth, was 
 built, the site selected was on the brow of a neighbouring 
 hill ; but the devil, it is said, fearing lest, if it were placed 
 in such a conspicuous spot, the spire should attract too 
 much attention, and draw too many worshippers to the 
 church, carried the stones to the place where the church 
 now stands. The site chosen for Baschurch Church, was 
 on the top of Berth Hill,^ but as long as the work was 
 carried on here, ** however hard the men worked during 
 the day, * something,' they knew not what, always pulled 
 their work down again during the night, and threw the 
 stones into the Berth Pool, until at last the disheartened 
 people tried a fresh site, and then their work was allowed 
 to remain." The same story is told of Stoke-upon-Tern 
 old Church, north of Newport — rebuilt 1874 — and of 
 Broughton Church, the ruins of which may be seen in a 
 low marshy hollow, near Yorton railway station, between 
 Wem and Shrewsbury.* 
 
 St Brelade's Church, Jersey, close to the tide-mark in 
 the beautiful little bay, was to have been built on a spot 
 • Miss Jackson, *' Shropshire Folklore," pp. 8, 9. 
 
CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. 
 
 overlooking St. Peter's Valley from the summit ground of 
 the island ; but the materials were in the same mysterious 
 manner removed to the spot on which the church was 
 eventually built. 
 
 In many parishes where the church is at some distance 
 from the village, or has been built in some awkward situ- 
 ation, we find the same kind of legends current to explain 
 this curious peculiarity. But the inconvenient position of 
 many old churches may probably be attributed to the fact 
 that such structures were, in days of old, built by the lords 
 of manors, or the great landed proprietors, who invariably 
 erected them near their own houses, which usually stood 
 in the middle of large parks, and consequently at some 
 distance from the village. In the same way many old 
 churches owe their position on the top of some high 
 eminence to the circumstance that they were used for 
 pilgrimages, and hence were made as difficult of access as 
 possible. In the parish of Talland, in S.E. Cornwall, is a 
 spot locally known as Pulpit, about which the following 
 legend is told : " When it was decided to build the parish 
 church. Pulpit was selected as its site, and the foundations 
 were commenced. But on the following night a phantom 
 voice was heard repeating these warning words — 
 
 *' * If yott will my wish fulfil, 
 
 Build the church on Talland Hill.' 
 
 And at daybreak it was found that all the stones had been 
 removed to the spot selected by the spirit Finding it 
 useless to oppose the superior power, the builders ultimately 
 erected the church on Talland Hill, near the sea-shore, and 
 far from the centre of the parish." 
 
 The parish church of Wendover, which is about half a 
 mile from the town, was to have been built in a field known 
 as the " Witches' Meadow," but the same difficulty was 
 
CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 encountered. Near Thornton-le-Moor, in the parish of 
 North Otterington, Yorkshire, there is a sHght eminence, 
 on which, it is said,* in all probabiHty stood at one time 
 an ancient village, though no trace of either the village or 
 its name now remains, except the designation of the adjoin- 
 ing fields as " the Tofts," and the socket of an old cross, 
 known as " Perry Trough." At this place, tradition tells 
 us, the church was to have been erected, but invisible 
 opposition so persistently impeded the labours of the 
 builders, that at last they gave up the idea, and erected 
 the church at the place indicated at North Otterington, 
 where for nigh a thousand years it has stood as the old 
 parish church dedicated to St. Michael. A similar legend 
 is found in the neighbouring parish of Leake, accounting 
 for the present remote position of the ancient church of 
 that parish. The intention was to have erected it on the 
 top of Borrowby Bank, convenient to the village of Borrowby, 
 but their plans were frustrated by the same agency. 
 
 The church of Over, in Cheshire, stands about a mile 
 from the more populous part of the village, its present 
 position being thus explained. Years ago the devil being 
 alarmed at the religious zeal of the villagers in attending 
 the services of their church, and fearful thereby of losing 
 his influence over them, he determined to rob them of the 
 sacred edifice by removing it bodily. But the prayers of 
 the monks so far prevailed that he was obliged to drop his 
 burden, when it fell where it now stands. A poetical 
 version of this legend is given by Major Egerton Leigh in 
 his " Ballads and Legends of Cheshire." 
 
 The Church of Ste. Marie du Castel, which is incon- 
 veniently situated, is said to occupy the site of a castle, 
 which, long before the conquest of England by the Normans, 
 
 ♦ Rev. T. Parkinson, " Legends and Traditions of Yorkshire " 
 (1888), 120. 
 
CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. 
 
 was the abode of a piratical chief traditionally known as 
 " le grand GefFroy," or " le grand Sarrazin." A field almost 
 in the centre of the parish, called " les Tuzets," is pointed 
 out as the spot originally fixed on for the church, but the 
 same mysterious removal of the building materials took 
 place. Hence its present position. In this case fairies 
 are accused of being the agents, though some say it was 
 the work of angels.* 
 
 At Udimore, near Rye, the church was to have been 
 built on the opposite side of the river Ree to that where 
 it was eventually built. But unseen hands removed nightly 
 what had been built during the day, while a ghostly voice, 
 in warning and reproachful tones, was heard to cry, " O'er 
 the mere ! o'er the mere ! " f 
 
 Among the numerous other instances in which the enemy 
 of mankind displayed his active zeal in opposing church 
 building, the story runs that, as the masons built up the 
 towers of Towednack Church, near St. Ives, the devil 
 knocked the stones down, hence its dwarfed dimensions. 
 Similarly we learn from the Oswestry Advertiser (May 28, 
 1878) that, in days of old, "repeated attempts were made 
 to build a church at Godrefarth, near Llanddewi, but the 
 walls fell down as quickly as they were built ; and it was 
 not till the present time was fixed upon that a church could 
 be erected. There is a saying that, in the building of the 
 tower two men brought the stones from the Voelallt rock. 
 One of them died, and the other, lamenting his dead com- 
 panion, bowed three times, and the rock at once was 
 shattered, and thereafter no difficulty was experienced in 
 fetching the stones for the tower." 
 
 Sanderson, in his ** Antiquities of Durham Abbey," gives 
 a similar legend of the Galilee at Durham Cathedral, with 
 
 * See Notes and Querus^ 2nd series, iv. 298. 
 t Sussex Archaeological Collections, xiii. 227. 
 
lo CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 the exchange of St. Cuthbert for the devil. The story 
 goes that preparations were made ** to erect a New Work 
 at the east angle of the said cathedral, for which seven 
 pillars of marble were brought from beyond sea. The 
 work, being advanced to a small height, began, through 
 great chfts visible therein, to fall down, whence it mani^ 
 festly appeared unacceptable to God and holy St. Cuthbert, 
 especially for the access women were to have so near his 
 Feretory ; whereupon that work was left off, and a new one 
 begun, and soon finished, at the west end of the said church, 
 in which it was lawful for women to enter, there being 
 before no holy place where they might have admittance for 
 their comfort and consolation. It is called the Galiley by 
 reason, as some think, of the translation thereof — being 
 once began and afterwards removed." * 
 
 When the church at Inkberrow was rebuilt on a new site 
 in olden days, it was supposed that the fairies took umbrage 
 at the change, as they were believed to be averse to bells, 
 and accordingly endeavoured to obstruct the building. But 
 as they did not succeed, the following lamentation was 
 occasionally heard by the startled peasantry — • c 
 
 " Neither sleep, neither lie, 
 For Inkbro's ting- tangs hang so nigh." 
 
 Occasionally, the opposition to church building has taken 
 another form. When the founder of Winwick Church, 
 Lancashire, had fixed on what he considered an appropriate 
 spot, and after some progress had been made in the founda- 
 tions, at night a pig was seen running hastily to the site of 
 the new church, screaming aloud, " We-ee-wick, we-ee-wick, 
 we-ee-wick." Then, taking up one of the stones in its mouth, 
 the pig carried it to the spot sanctified by the death of St. 
 
 • Similar church legends are found on the continent. See Marryatt's 
 "Jutland and the Danish Isles," ii. 358; Thorpe's "Northern 
 Mythology." 
 
CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. ii 
 
 Oswald, and in this manner removed all the stones which 
 had been laid by the builders. The founder, considering 
 himself justly reproved for not having selected that sacred 
 spot as the site of the church, at once yielded to the wise 
 counsels of the pig. Then it is said the pig not only decided 
 the site of the church, but gave a name to the parish. 
 In support of this tradition there is the figure of a pig 
 sculptured on the tower of the church just above the western 
 entrance, and also the following Latin doggrel — 
 
 " Hie locus Oswalde, quondam placuit tibi valde, 
 Northanumbrorum fueras Rex, nunc que Polorum, 
 Regna tenes, prato passim marcelde vocato." * 
 
 There is a similar legend of " Burnley Cross and the 
 Demon Pigs." It appears that, prior to the foundation of 
 any church in Burnley, religious rites were celebrated on 
 the spot where this ancient cross now exists. But upon 
 the attempt being made to erect an oratory, the materials 
 were nightly removed by supernatural agents in the form of 
 pigs, to where SL Peter's Church was afterwards erected.t 
 Another tradition relates that the church of Breedon, 
 Leicestershire, which stands on a hill above the village, was 
 to have been erected in a central situation. But when the 
 builders began to build the fabric, their work was carried 
 away by *' doves" in the night-time, and built in the same 
 manner on the hill where the church now stands. 
 
 At Alfriston the foundations of the church were originally 
 
 laid in a field on the west side of the town, known as the 
 
 Savyne Croft, but every night the stones were violently 
 
 hurled over the houses into a field called "The Tye," 
 
 where the church now stands. It is further added that a 
 
 certain wise man observed in the field four oxen lying asleep, 
 
 rump to rump, in the form of a cross — a strange incident. 
 
 * Harland and Wilkinson's " Lancashire Legends," 76, 77. 
 t Ibid., 8. 
 
12 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 which suggested the cruciform arrangement which was 
 ultimately carried out in the building.* 
 
 A correspondent, writing to the Wrexham Advertiser 
 (April 1 6, 1881), gives a local legend connected with 
 Wrexham Parish Church : " After Christianity was intro- 
 duced to this country, it became necessary to have churches 
 built ; and when that question came before the inhabitants 
 of this locality, according to tradition Bryn-y-ffynnon was 
 the spot fixed upon, and the work was begun in earnest ; 
 but owing to something, believed then to be supernatural, 
 what was built in the day was thrown down at night, and 
 caused much alarm and fear among the inhabitants. 
 
 " At last valiant and sturdy men are found with sufficient 
 courage to watch and see whether the walls were thrown 
 down by an invisible being, or by a being possessing flesh 
 and bones like themselves. While thus watching, the walls 
 that were built the day before were thrown down, and the 
 watchmen were unable to see anything near them; but, 
 immediately afterwards, they fancied there was something 
 hovering over their heads, which repeatedly cried, * Bryn-y- 
 grog,' with no other explanation. When they related the 
 next morning what had taken place in the night, it was 
 decided at once that Bryn-y-grog was the place the church 
 was to be built upon. Bryn-y-grog was then the name of 
 the place where the church now stands, but was in the 
 possession of a person that was unwilling to part with the 
 inheritance of his father; but upon hearing of the 
 mysterious being crying in the air, indicating the place where 
 the church was to be built, his heart was melted, and he 
 agreed to give up possession, upon condition that another 
 place was provided for him instead, and the present Bryn-y- 
 grog was given him instead, and he carried the name with 
 him there." 
 
 ♦ Sussex Archgeological Collections, xiii. 226. 
 
CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. 13 
 
 " When St. Patrick," writes Mr. Kennedy, in his '' Fire- 
 side Stories of Ireland" (p. 153), "was building the great 
 church on the Rock of Cashel, the workmen used to be 
 terribly annoyed, for whatever they put up by day was 
 always found knocked down next morning. So one man 
 watched, and another man watched, but about one o'clock 
 in the night every watcher fell asleep." At last it was 
 arranged that St. Patrick himself should sit up, and, just as 
 the clock struck one, *' what did he see but a terrible bull, with 
 fire flashing from his nostrils, charging full drive up the hill, 
 and knocking down every stone, stick, and bit of mortar 
 that was put together the day before." 
 
 " * Oh, ho,' says the saint, ' I'll soon find one that will 
 settle you, my brave bull ! ' Now who was this but Usheen 
 (Oisin) that St. Patrick was striving to make a good 
 Christian? . . . 
 
 " The day after St Patrick saw the bull, he up and told 
 Usheen all about what was going on. 
 
 " * Put me on a rock or in a tree,* says Usheen, * just by 
 the way the bull ran, and we'll see what we can do.' 
 So in the evening he was comfortably settled in the bough 
 of a tree on the hill-side, and when the bull was firing away 
 up the steep like a thunderbolt, and was nearly under him, 
 he dropped down on his back, took a horn in each hand, 
 tore him asunder, and dashed one of his sides so hard 
 against the face of the wall that it may be seen there this 
 day, hardened into stone. There was no further stoppage 
 of the work, and in gratitude they cut out the effigy of 
 Usheen riding on his pony, and it may be seen inside the 
 old ruins this very day." 
 
 In other ways animals have been associated with church- 
 building. Thus the Church of St. Neot, Cornwall, which is 
 celebrated for its beautiful painted glass, has not escaped 
 the influence of tradition. St Noet, the reputed brother 
 
14 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 of King Alfred, lived some hundreds of years before the 
 present church dedicated to him was erected. But folk- 
 lore has it that it was built at night entirely by his own 
 hands, and that he drew from a neighbouring quarry, by 
 the help of reindeer, all the stones he used in the buildings 
 He is described as a man of short stature, and tradition 
 adds that, after the church was finished, he found that he 
 was not tall enough to reach the keyhole of the door, and 
 could not, therefore, unlock it. To remedy this defect^ 
 he put a stone opposite (still pointed out) from which, 
 when he stood on it, he could throw the key into the lock 
 with unerring precision. 
 
 This legend reminds us of one told of St. Kieran,* 
 who is said to have built the church which bears his 
 name, and to have possessed extraordinary powers, little 
 inferior to those of Orpheus and Amphion. But whilst 
 their influence extended to the moving of the very stones, 
 and arranging them into architectural order, his only went 
 so far as to provide the means of doing so. The saint 
 possessed but one ox, which during the day drew the 
 materials for the building, and in the evening was 
 slaughtered to feed the workmen. There is a well at the 
 foot of the hill on which the building is erected, which still 
 retains its character for miraculous powers. Into this well 
 the bones of the ox were thrown each evening, and every 
 following morning he appeared ready for his daily labour. 
 One evening,' however, when nothing but a small part of 
 the eastern gable remained to be finished, one of the work- 
 men, named McMahon, broke one of the shin-bones to get 
 the marrow, and, though every care was taken to collect the 
 splinters, the next morning the ox appeared with his leg 
 broken, and totally incapable of continuing his share of 
 the work. So melancholy a spectacle overcame the 
 * Mason's ** Statistical Account of Ireland," iii. i6i, 162. 
 
CHURCH-BUILDING LEGENDS. 1 5 
 
 patience of the saint, and he prayed that the gable should 
 never fall till it crushed a McMahon. Most part of it, how- 
 ever, has fallen, and hitherto it would seem no McMahon 
 has been the victim of its final ruin. 
 
 The church at Braunton, Devonshire, is reported to have 
 been built by St. Branock, who was directed in a dream to 
 erect it on a spot where he should first meet a sow with a 
 litter of young ones. There is an ancient carving on the 
 panel of a seat in the church, representing a litter of pigs. 
 With this tradition, we may compare that told of Llangar 
 Church, in the *' Gossiping Guide to Wales." " There is a 
 local legend that this church was to have been built where 
 the Cynwyd crosses the Dee, but after the work done by day 
 had been destroyed in the night, the builders were warned 
 supernaturally that they must seek a spot where, on hunt- 
 ing, a * Carw Gwyn ' (white deer) should be started. They 
 did so, and Llangar Church is the result. From this cir- 
 cumstance the church was called Llan-garw-gwyn, and from 
 this name the transition to Llangar is easy." Numerous 
 other similar legends exist throughout the country, but they 
 are gradually becoming forgotten under the influence of the 
 new life, which has been quickened in so many of our rural 
 parishes by railway communication. 
 
i6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SOME CURIOUS CHURCH TRADITIONS. 
 
 The central feature of Southwark is the Church of the 
 Priory of St. Mary Overie, now called St. Saviour's, the 
 early history of which is all cased in the mists of ancient 
 tradition. Whenever the churchwardens and vestry meet 
 over their cups, the first cup, it is said, is to their church's 
 patron saint, " Old Moll." This Old Moll was, according to 
 Stow, Mary, the daughter of a ferryman, concerning whom 
 he records the following story, which has been much dis- 
 credited, connecting as it does the building of the original 
 London Bridge with the Church of St. Mary Overie. 
 
 "A ferry being kept in the place where now the bridge 
 is builded, at length the ferryman and his wife deceasing, 
 left the same ferry to their only daughter, a maiden named 
 Mary, who with the goods left her by her parents, as also 
 with the profits of the said ferry, builded an House of 
 Sisters on the place where now standeth the east part of 
 St. Mary's Church, above the quire where she was buried, 
 unto which house she gave the oversight and profits of the 
 ferry. But afterwards, the said house of sisters being con- 
 verted into a college of priests, the priests builded the 
 bridge of timber, as all the other bridges of this great land 
 were, and, from time to time, kept the same in good repara- 
 tion, till at length, considering the great charges which were 
 
SOME CURIOUS CHURCH TRADITIONS, 17 
 
 bestowed in the same, there was, by the aid of the citizens 
 and others, a bridge builded with stone." 
 
 There is still existing at the Church of St Overie, a 
 skeleton effigy, which some affirm to be that of Audery the 
 ferryman, father of the immortal Moll.* The story amus- 
 ingly tells how the miserly old man counterfeited death in 
 order that his household might forego a day's victuals, 
 thinking their sorrow would make them, at least, fast so long. 
 But no sooner had the ferryman been laid out, wrapped in 
 a sheet, with one taper burning at his head, and another at 
 his feet, than the half-starved servants, overjoyed at seeing 
 their master apparently dead, danced with delight around 
 his body, broke open the larder, and fell to feasting and 
 merry-making. For a short time, the old ferryman restrained 
 his feelings ; but, suddenly springing from his bed, he 
 rushed forth to chastise his servants, when one of them, 
 thinking it was the devil himself, struck his master dead. 
 
 The corpse of the old miser was denied Christian burial 
 — for he had been deemed by the clergy a wicked and ex- 
 communicated man ; but the friars of Bermondsey Abbey, 
 in the absence of their father abbot, were bribed to give the 
 body " a little earth for charity." The abbot, on his return, 
 enraged at this act of the friars, had the corpse dug up and 
 thrown on the back of an ass, which was then turned out of 
 the abbey gates. The animal carried the body up Kent 
 Street, and eventually shook it off near the small pond once 
 called St. Thomas \ Waterings, where it was roughly 
 interred. t Mary, the fair-haired heiress of the ferryman's 
 wealth, shrouding her beauty in a cowl, retired into a 
 cloister for life, and devoted her money to the establish- 
 
 * The effigy is really supposed to be of fifteenth century. 
 
 t It has been suggested that the religious house was originally founded 
 in honour of St. Audrey, or Etheldreda of Ely. A probable derivation 
 of Overie is from " Over the rie," that is, " Over the water." 
 
 C 
 
l8 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 ment of a House of Sisters, as mentioned above. Thus 
 runs the tale of the early history of St. Mary Overie, being 
 one, however, upon which little or no reliance can be 
 placed.* 
 
 The parish of Lambeth has long been proverbial for the 
 familiar legend of the " Pedlar and his dog." The story 
 runs that a piece of land known as *' Pedlar's Acre " was 
 bequeathed to the parish by a grateful pedlar on condition 
 that the picture of himself and his dog should be preserved 
 for ever in painted glass in one of the windows of the parish 
 church. This piece of ground, consisting of one acre and 
 seventeen poles, adjoins to the river, and is situate near to 
 the east end of the Surrey abutment of Westminster Bridge. 
 It first occurs as the possession of the parish in 1504, when 
 the rents arising from it were carried to the churchwarden's 
 accounts. It was then called the "Church Hoppys" or 
 " Hope " (signifying an isthmus or neck of land projecting 
 into the river, or an enclosed piece of marsh land), which 
 name it retained in 1623, when it was denominated the 
 Church Osiers, probably from its swampy situation. It was 
 first called Pedlar's Acre in a lease granted by Dr. Hooper, 
 the rector, and the churchwardens, dated August 6, 1690. 
 It is now built over.f 
 
 At what time the memorial was put up in Lambeth Church 
 is uncertain, but such a portrait existed in 1608, there being 
 in the churchwardens' account for that year an entry of 
 " two shillings paid to the glazier for the window where the 
 picture of the pedlar stands." A " new glass pedlar " was put 
 up in 1703 at the expense of ;£"2, and the curious picture 
 may still be seen in the church. Whatever truth there may 
 be in this popular tradition, it should be added that the 
 parish register records the fact of the land in question 
 
 * " Old and New London," ii. 9 ; vi. 20, 21. 
 
 t John Tanswell, " History of Lambeth " (1858), 104. 
 

 " , » . > » 
 
 THE PEDLAR AND HIS DOG. LAMBETH CHURCH. 
 
 Fa^t 1 8. 
 
SOME CURIOUS CHURCH TRADITIONS. 19 
 
 having been bequeathed by some person unknown.* On 
 Pedlar's Acre was formerly a public-house, with the sign of 
 a pedlar and a dog, and on a pane of glass in one of the 
 windows in the tap-room the following lines were written 
 with a diamond — 
 
 " Happy the pedlar whose portrait we view, 
 Since his dog was so faithful, and fortunate too ; 
 He at once made him wealthy, and guarded his door. 
 Secured him from robbers, relieved him when poor. 
 Then drink to his memory, and wish fate may send 
 Such a dog to protect you, enrich, and befriend." 
 
 An early legend connected with the Church of All Hallows 
 Barking, relates to Edward I. That king, it is said, had a 
 vision which commanded him to erect an image of the 
 Virgin at All Hallows Barking, under the promise that if 
 he did so, visited it five times every year, and kept the 
 chapel in repair, he should be victorious over all nations, 
 and should ascend the throne when his father died. To 
 the truth of this vision Edward swore before the Pope, and 
 obtained a dispensation of forty days' penance for all true 
 penitents who should contribute towards the lights, orna- 
 ments and repairs of the chapel, and should pray for the 
 soul of King Richard, whose heart was, it is said, buried 
 before the high altar. The pilgrims and worshippers of Our 
 Lady of Barking continued numerous till the Reformation 
 abolished the practice. 
 
 The following tradition relating to the building of the 
 Church of St. Moorin, Morwenstowe, Devon, has been pre- 
 served among some old manuscripts belonging to the Coffins 
 of Portledge. *' Moorwinstow, its name, is from St. Moorin. 
 The tradition is, that when the parishioners were about to 
 build their church, this saint went down under the cliflf and 
 
 * There is a similar tradition of a pedlar being a benefactor to the 
 parish of Swaffham, in Norfolk. 
 
20 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 chose a stone for the font, which she brought up upon her 
 head. In her way, being weary, she lay down the stone and 
 rested herself, out of which place sprang a well, from thence 
 called St. Moorin's Well. Then she took up the stone, and 
 carried it to the place where now the church standeth. The 
 parishioners had begun their church in another place, and 
 there did convey this stone, but what was built by day was 
 pulled down by night, and the materials carried to this place. 
 Whereupon they forbare, and built it in the place they were 
 directed to by an order." * 
 
 The situation of the Church of St. Antony in Kirrier, 
 Cornwall, is very peculiar, and is accounted for by the follow- 
 ing tradition. It is said that soon after the Conquest, as 
 some Normans of rank were crossing from Normandy into 
 England, a tempest drove them on the Cornish coast, where 
 they were in momentary danger of destruction. In their 
 distress they called on St. Antony, and vowed, if he would 
 save them from shipwreck, they would build a church in his 
 honour on the spot where they should first land. The ship 
 was wafted into the Durra Creek, and there the pious 
 Normans as soon as possible fulfilled their vow. A similar 
 legend is told of Gunwalloe Parish Church, which tradition 
 says was erected as a votive offering by one who here 
 escaped from shipwreck, "Where he had miraculously 
 escaped from the fury of the waves, he vowed that he 
 would build a chapel in which the sounds of prayer, and 
 praise to God, should blend with the never-ceasing voice of 
 those waves from which he had so narrowly escaped. So 
 near to the sea is the church, that at times it is reached by 
 the spray. The waves have frequently broken away the 
 walls of the churchyard." But, according to another tradi- 
 tion, it is said that the builders intended to erect the church 
 nearer the centre of the parish, at Hingey, but the materials 
 * The Antiquary (1890), 144, 145. 
 
SOME CURIOUS CHURCH TRADITIONS. 21 
 
 by some mysterious agency were removed during the night 
 to the present site.* 
 
 Local tradition says that when the architect of Shottes- 
 brooke Church, six miles from Maidenhead, was placing the 
 last stone on the top of the spire, he called for wine to drink 
 the king's health. After drinking it he immediately fell to 
 the ground, was dashed to pieces, and buried on the spot ; 
 also that a cofhn-shaped stone was placed over his remains, 
 the interjection " O ! O I " which he uttered when dying, 
 being the only thing engraven upon itf 
 
 A curious old story tells how the priests of St. German's 
 persuaded Sir John de Daunay to build a church on his 
 lands at Sheviock. He commenced the work, but, not- 
 withstanding his great wealth, his heart failed him, and he 
 curtailed the fair proportions on which he had at first de- 
 cided. His wife. Lady Emelyn, was enraged at this ; and, 
 prompted, it is said, by the devil in visible presence, she 
 resolved to build a barn which should exceed in beauty 
 the house of God. The bam rose with astonishing rapidity, 
 and the work proceeded as if the most lavish expenditure 
 had been bestowed upon it. The church progressed but 
 slowly, and was a very inferior structure to the barn, the 
 devil, it is commonly supposed, having assisted Lady 
 Daunay in her wicked work. % In Gilbert's " Cornwall," 
 this legend is thus told : " There runneth a tale among the 
 parishioners how one of the Daunay family's ancestors 
 undertook to build the church, and the wife the barn ad- 
 joining; and they, casting up accounts on finishing their 
 work, the barn was found to have cost i^d. more than the 
 church." 
 
 An amusing tradition belongs to the detached tower of 
 
 ♦ Gentleman's Magazine (1862), ii. 25, 539. 
 
 t Murray, Berks, 40. 
 
 X Hunt's " Popular Romances of West of England," 442. 
 
22 CHURCH^LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 the church of West Walton, Norfolk, near Wisbech. During 
 the early days of that church the fenmen were very wicked, 
 and the evil one hired a number of people to carry the 
 tower away. They set it well on their shoulders, but could 
 not get it over the churchyard wall, and they ran round and 
 round with it until they found themselves unable to get it 
 out of consecrated ground at all, and so they left it at the 
 gate. 
 
 The north transept of York Cathedral has long been 
 famous for the five very lofty and narrow lancets, best known 
 as the " Five Sisters" — a name which, it has been suggested, 
 arose from the equal dimensions of the five windows. Ac- 
 cording to Gent's " York Cathedral " there is a tradition 
 that five maiden sisters were at the expense of these lights 
 — the painted glass in them, representing a kind of em- 
 broidery or needlework, might perhaps give occasion for 
 this story. According to another story, four young orphans, 
 wards of St. Mary's Abbey, agreed to fill the lancets with 
 memorial glass, in patterns taken from their embroidery 
 frames, which they had long laid aside for sorrow, in re- 
 membrance of a dead sister. Here they are reported to 
 have knelt and prayed, until, one by one, they passed 
 away and were laid in a common grave. This window has 
 also been called the Jewish window, but for what reason is 
 unknown, although it has been conjectured that the cost of 
 the window may have been defrayed by exactions from the 
 Jews of York.* 
 
 It may be noted there are numerous traditions scattered 
 here and there over the country, recording how we are 
 indebted to the co-operation of sisters for some of the 
 churches which still exist. 
 
 The parish churches of Albrighton and Donington, Shroj)- 
 
 * R. J. King, ♦* Handbook to the Northern Cathedrals " (1869), 
 pt. i. 22. 
 
SOME CURIOUS CHURCH TRADITIONS. 23 
 
 shire, stand curiously near together "on the high banks, 
 overhanging one of the picturesque dingles containing a 
 pretty sheet of water, which are common in that part of 
 the country. The two churches are of different styles and 
 dates, but legend tells that they were built by two sisters 
 in a spirit of rivalry, and that this is the reason why Don- 
 ington Church is so far from any village, and so much in 
 one comer of the parish." * 
 
 A similar legend was formerly current of the churches of 
 Owthorne and Withernsea, Yorkshire, known as the "Sister 
 Churches." They were said to have been built by two 
 sisters, who at first said that a single church would be suffi- 
 cient for the adjoining manors, but they quarrelled as to the 
 respective merits of a tower or spire, and each sister at last 
 built her own church. 
 
 Similarly, the churches of Putney and Fulham, which 
 stand opposite each other on the banks of the Thames, are 
 said to have been built by the individual manual labour of 
 two sisters. They possessed but one tool between them, so 
 they agreed to work and to rest alternately for an hour. 
 The plan of transferring the tool was to fling it across the 
 river ; so when the hour for work arrived to the lady of Putney, 
 she called out lustily to her sister, " Put it high ; " while the 
 Fulham lady's watchword was, " Heave it full home." 
 
 A strange legend is told of the building of Linton Church, 
 which is situated on a little knoll of fine compact sand, 
 without any admixture of stone or even pebbles, and widely 
 different from the soil of the neighbouring heights. The 
 sand has, however, hardened into stone, yet the particles are 
 so coherent that the sides of newly opened graves appear 
 smooth as a wall, and this to the depth of fifteen feet 
 This singular phenomenon is thus accounted for by the 
 local tradition. "Many years ago," runs the legend, "a 
 * Miss Jackson's *' Shropshire Folklore," loo. 
 
24 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 young man killed a priest in this place and was condemned 
 to suffer death for murder, and sacrilege. His doom seemed 
 inevitable, but by the intervention of his two sisters his life 
 was granted him on condition that they should sift as much 
 sand as would form a mound on which to build a church. 
 The maidens readily undertook the task, and in process of 
 time the church was built, although, it is added, one of the 
 sisters died immediately after her brother's liberation, 
 either from the effects of past fatigue, or overpowering joy. * 
 
 A note in Beesley's "Banbury" records that "the three 
 churches of Bloxham, Adderbury, and King's Sutton were 
 built by three masons, who were brothers; that the devil 
 served them each as a labourer ; and that one day he fell 
 down with a hod of mortar and made Crouch Hill." 
 
 A local tradition represents Ormskirk Church, Lancashire, 
 as having been erected at the cost of two maiden ladies 
 (? sisters) named Orm, who, being unable to decide whether 
 it should be a tower or a spire, accommodated their differ- 
 ences by giving it both. But Roby discredits the story, 
 remarking that the old ladies might each have had her way, 
 by building a tower and surmounting it by a spire. A 
 more probable tradition states that the spire was attached 
 to the original edifice, and that, on the suppression of 
 Burscough Priory, the tower was built for the reception of 
 eight of the bells taken thence, the remainder of the priory 
 bells being removed to Croston church. 
 
 Another Lancashire tradition states that, during the 
 building of Ashton-under-Lyne Church, whilst the work- 
 men were one day amusing themselves at cards, a female 
 unexpectedly presented herself. She asked them to turn 
 up an ace, promising, in case of compliance, that she would 
 build several yards of the steeple, upon which they luckily 
 turned up the ace of spades. But, says Roby in his " Tra- 
 * Henderson's "Folklore of Northern Counties,*' 298. 
 
SOME CURIOUS CHURCH TRADITIONS. 25 
 
 ditions of Lancashire," this tale may owe its origin to the 
 following circumstance : " Upon the marriage of Sir Thomas 
 Assheton with the daughter of Ralph Stayley, a considerable 
 accumulation of property was the consequence. This might 
 induce him to repair the church, and perform sundry other 
 acts of charity, and beneficence. Whilst the work was going 
 on, Lady Elizabeth Assheton, it is not improbable, surprised 
 the workmen at their pastime, and might desire that her 
 arms should be fixed in the steeple, impaled with those of 
 her husband. The shape of an escutcheon, having a con- 
 siderable resemblance to a spade ace, in all likelihood gave 
 origin to the fable." 
 
 In the south transept of Gloucester Cathedral is the so- 
 called *' Prentice's Bracket " in form, representing a builder's 
 square. Two figures support it, curiously placed, the 
 lower with a bag at his waist. It is traditionally said to be 
 a memorial of the master-builder and his son, or prentice, 
 but was, in all probability, a bracket for light* At Lin- 
 coln, the south window is called the Prentice Window, 
 from a tradition which has been told in reference to the 
 " princes pillar " of Roslyn Chapel, and the spire of Norrey, 
 that it was erected by an apprentice in the absence of his 
 master, who on his return, being fired with a sudden im- 
 pulse of jealousy, killed the unfortunate youth with a blow 
 of his mallet. Furthermore, " the country folk," says 
 Fuller, "have a tradition that the master-workman built 
 Salisbury and his man Chichester; whilst the one served 
 as a guide across the interminable plains, the other is the 
 only cathedral spire visible at sea." f 
 
 ♦ R. J. King, " Handbooks to Cathedrals of England " (1864). 
 t See Mackenzie Walcott's " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 
 222, 223. 
 
26 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 STRANGE STORIES AND TALES OF WONDER. 
 
 Legends commemorative of supernatural and ghostly deeds 
 have clustered round many of our cathedrals and parish 
 churches. In connection with Durham Cathedral the story 
 goes that years ago a phantom army suddenly appeared, and 
 rescued a certain devout worshipper from the hands of 
 assassins, just as he had finished his orisons for the repose 
 of departed souls. Unexpectedly surprised, he fled into the 
 burial ground for refuge, when " the graves bristled with 
 swords and spears, starting out of the earth in his defence, 
 and the long-buried captains for whom he had prayed rose 
 up and came together clad in armour, their weapons in their 
 fleshless hands, but without a sound, and so the ghostly 
 band closed round him against his terrified enemies." * A 
 similar story is told of St. Bristan, a bishop of Winchester, 
 who was in the habit of singing a psalter at midnight in the 
 churchyard for repose of departed souls. On one occasion, 
 at the completion of his devotions, " up from the graves came 
 the voices of the dead, and a great army, numberless, making 
 answer, * Amen.' " 
 
 A strange tale is told by an old writer f of a remarkable 
 
 * Mackenzie Walcott, "Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals " 
 (1872), 214. 
 t Barthol. de Cotton, 457, 458. 
 
STRANGE STORIES AND TALES OF WONDER. 27 
 
 event which happened about the close of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, in Hereford Cathedral. To quote his words, " it was 
 a marvel almost inconceivable," for " a demon in the choral 
 act of a canon sat in a stall after matins had been sung, and 
 a canon came up to him to inquire the reason of his sitting 
 there, thinking that he was one of his brother canons. The 
 demon was dumb, and said not a word. The canon was 
 beyond measure terrified, thinking it was the foul fiend 
 himself; but he conjured it by the holy name of St. Thomas 
 of Cantilupe not to stir from that place ; he at once brought 
 assistance and bound it." The late Prebendary Mackenzie 
 Walcott, who quotes this story, says it was harmless com- 
 pared to the wrestling match at night between St. Wolstan 
 and the devil, in the gown of his servant, before the very 
 altar of Worcester Cathedral, leaving the prior breathless 
 and exhausted after three bouts. The fiend vanished, but 
 " the sight of that servant's face ever after made his stout- 
 hearted antagonist tremble and turn pale." 
 
 Stories of strange encounters with terrible animals are 
 still remembered in some parishes, memorials of which, it is 
 said, are occasionally preserved in effigies and monuments. 
 
 The monster-slaying hero, for instance, makes his appear- 
 ance in an old legend connected with Berrington Church, 
 near Shrewsbury. In the south aisle there is a cross-legged 
 effigy, representing some unknown knight of the late 
 fourteenth, or early fifteenth, century. The Rev. W. A. 
 Leighton, visiting the church, inquired of the parish clerk if 
 he had ever heard whom the figure represented. " No," 
 said he; "but the people of the neighbourhood always 
 called him 'Owd Scriven o* Brompton.' The story goes 
 that once upon a time when Scriven was going from 
 Brompton to visit his lady-love at Eaton Mascott — two 
 hamlets in Berrington parish, — ^just by the stile at the bottom 
 of the * Banky Piece,' he met with a great lion, * the terror 
 
28 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 of the neighbourhood.' But Owd Scriven happened to have 
 his sword with him, and he attacked the lion, and, after a 
 terrible tussle, overcame the beast, and cut him in two. 
 And," added the clerk, ** you may see a lion, cut in half just 
 the same, lying under the feet of the image, and on the man's 
 face you may see where the lion gave Owd Scriven a terrible 
 scratch with his forepaw, and tore away half his cheek." * 
 
 In Nunnington Church, Yorkshire, there is an ancient 
 tomb, by traditional account said to be that of Peter Loschy, 
 a famous warrior, whose last exploit was killing a huge 
 serpent or dragon, which infested the country round about, f 
 A similar legend is current at Slingsby, in the same county, 
 where the villagers point to the effigies of Wyvill and his 
 dog yet remaining in their church. The story runs, as told 
 by Roger Dodsworth, the antiquary, that " between Malton 
 and Slingsby there was some time a serpent that lived upon 
 prey of passengers, and which this Wyvill and his dog did 
 kill, when he received his death wound. There is a great 
 hole half a mile from the town, round within, three yards 
 broad and more, where the serpent lay. In which time the 
 street was turned a mile on the south side, which does still 
 show itself if any takes pains to survey it." 
 
 Another story of the same kind tells how at Sexhow, a 
 small hamlet four miles from Stokesley in Cleveland, a 
 terrible worm or dragon one day made its appearance, and 
 had so voracious an appetite that it took the milk of nine 
 cows daily to satisfy its cravings. When " not sufficiently 
 fed, the hissing noise it made alarmed all the county round 
 about, and its breath was so strong as to be absolutely 
 poisonous, and those who breathed it died." But *' at 
 length the * monster's ' day of doom dawned. A knight 
 
 * •' Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society," iii. 149. 
 t See "Leisure Hour," May, 1878; Parkinson's "Legends and 
 Traditions of Yorkshire," I70-I73- 
 
STRANGE STORIES AND TALES OF WONDER. 29 
 
 clad in complete armour passed that way, whose name or 
 country no one knew, and, after a hard fight, he slew the 
 monster, and left it dead upon the hill, and then passed on 
 his way. The inhabitants of the hamlet of Sexhow took 
 the skin of the monster worm and suspended it in the 
 church, over the pew belonging to the hamlet of Sexhow, 
 where it long remained a trophy of the knight's victory, and 
 of their own deliverance from the terrible monster." 
 
 In commemoration of another curious dragon legend, the 
 owner of the manor of Sockbum, held under the bishopric 
 of Durham, was required by the terms of his feudal tenure 
 to meet every new bishop of that See upon the centre of the 
 bridge at Croft which spans the river Tees, that separates 
 Yorkshire from Durham, and there present before him an 
 ancient sword, at the same time repeating these words : 
 ** My Lord Bishop, I here present before you the falchion 
 wherewith the champion Conyers slew the worm, dragon, or 
 the fiery-flying serpent, which destroyed man, woman, and 
 child, in memory of which the king then reigning gave him 
 the manor of Sockbum to hold by this tenure, that upon 
 the first entrance of every bishop of Durham into the 
 county, this falchion should be presented." Upon which 
 the bishop took the weapon into his hand, and immediately 
 returned it, wishing the Lord of Sockbum health and long 
 enjoyment of his manor. This service is said to date from 
 the time of Bishop Pudsey, who purchased from Richard L, 
 for himself and his successors, the title of Earl of Sadberge. 
 The falchion, it may be noted, appears in painted glass in 
 a window of Sockburn Church, and, together with the worm, 
 is sculptured in marble on the tomb of the ancestor of the 
 Conyers family. A fragment of verse, too, well known in 
 the neighbourhood, tells of — * 
 
 * Mr. Henderson thinks these lines may be safely ascribed to Mr. 
 Sartees. See " Folklore of Northern Counties " (1876), 284, 285. 
 
30 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 *• Sockburn, where Conyers so trusty 
 A huge serpent did dish up, 
 That had else ate the Bishop ; 
 But now his old falchion's grown rusty, grown rusty." 
 
 This legend relating to Sockburn is not unlike one told 
 of the Pollard worm. It appears that long ago a huge worm 
 — probably a wild boar — inhabited the woods of Bishop 
 Auckland, all attempts to kill or drive it away being in 
 vain. After several knights and others who went to 
 encounter it had been slain, the king issued a proclamation 
 that whoever brought the boar's head to Westminster should 
 receive a reward, and the bishop promised he would give a 
 princely guerdon to any champion who was brave enough to 
 get rid of this monster. Accordingly, a member of the 
 Pollard family, after ascertaining its usual track, ascended 
 a large beech tree, and shook down a quantity of ripe 
 beechmast, patiently awaiting the creature's approach 
 
 As he foresaw, it was arrested by the rich repast, and 
 having eaten voraciously for some time, it moved away 
 drowsily. At this crisis its antagonist suddenly appeared 
 from his hiding-place, and, after a desperate struggle, 
 vanquished his foe, severing the boar's head from the trunk. 
 Worn out with fatigue, the brave hero fell into a deep sleep, 
 but on awaking found the boar's head was gone, and with 
 it the proof of his victory. But, undaunted, he rode off to 
 Auckland, arriving at the gate just as the bishop was sitting 
 down to dinner. After he had made known his exploit, 
 the good bishop, true to his promise, sent word that he 
 might take for his guerdon as much land as he could ride 
 round during the hour of dinner. Thereupon the Pollard 
 turned his horse's head and rode round Auckland Castle, 
 thus making it, and all it contained, his own. His claim 
 was acknowledged by the bishop, who gladly redeemed 
 castle, goods, and chattels on the best terms he could 
 
STRANGE STORIES AND TALES OF WONDER. 31 
 
 granting the champion a freehold estate, still known as the 
 Pollard's lands, with this condition annexed : the possessor 
 was to meet every Bishop of Durham on his first coming to 
 Auckland Castle, and to present him with a falchion, say- 
 ing, ** My Lord, I, on behalf of myself, as well as several 
 others, possessors of Pollards' lands, do humbly present 
 your lordship with this falchion at your first coming here, 
 wherewith, as the tradition goeth, he slew of old a mighty 
 boar which did much harm to man and beast. And by 
 performing this service we hold our lands." * 
 
 Then there is the story of the Linton worm, the sculptured 
 effigy of which may still be seen, with the champion who 
 slew it, at the south-western extremity of Linton Church. 
 
 A stone, writes Mr. Henderson,! evidently of great 
 antiquity, is built into the wall. It is covered with sculpture 
 in low relief, and bears figures which, though defaced by time, 
 can yet be made out pretty clearly. A knight on horseback, 
 clad in a tunic or hauberk, with a round helmet, urges his 
 horse against two large animals, the foreparts of which only 
 are visible, and plunges his lance into the throat of one. 
 Behind him is the outline of another creature, apparently of 
 a lamb. The heads of the monsters are strong and power- 
 ful, but more like those of quadrupeds than of serpents. 
 Popular tradition connects this representation with the 
 Linton worm, and avers that the inscription below it — now 
 quite defaced — ran thus — 
 
 " The wode laird of Larristone 
 Slew the Worme of Wormestone, 
 And wan a' Linton parochine. " 
 
 But whether "this effigy really represents some doughty 
 deed by which the first Somerville won the favour of William 
 the Lion, and was presented by him with the barony of 
 
 • •* Folklore of Northern Counties," 287. 
 t Ibid, 295-297. 
 
32 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Linton, or visibly embodies the great conflict between 
 Paganism and Christianity, has been a matter of dispute 
 with antiquarians." 
 
 At Mordiford Church, Herefordshire, a dragon is repre- 
 sented in a painting as a winged serpent, about twelve feet 
 long, with a large head and open mouth. It is in memory, 
 says tradition, of a famous combat in the river Lug between 
 a dragon and a condemned malefactor, who was promised 
 pardon on condition that he destroyed his antagonist. He 
 did so, but fell a victim to the poison of its breath.* 
 
 Hyssington Church, Shropshire, is remarkable for several 
 cracks in the walls, caused, according to a local legend, by 
 an enormous bull, which was the terror of the surrounding 
 county, and which grew bigger and bigger every day. At 
 last the people got the parson of Hyssington to exorcise 
 him; whereupon, by constant reading of texts, the beast 
 shrank into dimensions sufficiently small to allow of his 
 being driven into the church. But, unfortunately, before he 
 was completely extinguished, the parson's candle burnt out, 
 and, ere the morning came, when the reading could be 
 resumed, the bull swelled out again until he burst the 
 church walls. 
 
 Miss Jackson, in her "Shropshire Folklore" (1883, 108), 
 gives the story as taken down in 1881 from an old farmer 
 named Hay ward : " There was a very bad man lived at 
 Bagbury Farm, and when he died it was said that he had 
 never done but two good things in his life; and the one 
 was to give a waistcoat to a poor old man, and the other 
 was to give a piece of bread and cheese to a poor boy ; and 
 when this man died he made a sort of confession of this. 
 But when he was dead his ghost would not rest, and he 
 would get into the [farm] buildings in the shape of a bull, 
 and roar till the boards and the shutters and the tiles would 
 • See ** Folklore Record." 1878. 
 
STRANGE STORIES AND TALES OF WONDER. 33 
 
 fly off the building, and it was impossible for any one to live 
 near him. He never came till about nine or ten at night, 
 but he got so rude at last that he would come about seven, 
 or eight, at night, and he was so troublesome that they sent 
 for twelve parsons to lay him. And the parsons came, and 
 they got him under, but they could not lay him ; but they 
 got him in the shape of a bull all the time, up in Hyssington 
 Church. And when they got him into the church, they all 
 had candles, and one old blind parson, who knowed him, 
 and knowed what a rush he would make, he carried his 
 candle in his top-boot. And he made a great rush, and all 
 the candles went out, all but the blind parson's, and he 
 said,* * You light your candles by mine.' And while they 
 were in the church, before they laid him, the bull made 
 such a burst that he cracked the wall of the church from 
 the top to the bottom, and the crack was left as it was for 
 years, till the church was done up ; it was left on purpose 
 for people to see. I've seen it hundreds of times. 
 
 " Well, they got the bull down at last, into a snuff-box, 
 and he asked them to lay him under Bagbury Bridge, and 
 that every mare that passed over should lose her foal, and 
 every woman her child \ but they would not do this, and 
 they laid him in the Red Sea for a thousand years." 
 
 Another version of the strange story, as told by Mr. 
 Wright in his '* Collectanea Archaeologia " (vol. i. pt. i) 
 runs thus : " There was a wicked squire who lived at 
 Bagley {Bagbury)^ and who made his men work over hours, 
 swore at them, and gave them nothing to drink. At last 
 one of them wished that he might be turned into a bull, and 
 the wish took effect. But such a monstrous and wicked 
 bull as he, did more harm than a dozen wicked squires ; 
 and, as there were no churches or parsons in that county 
 then, the people were entirely at his mercy. At length 
 Hyssington Church was built, and the people resolved to 
 
 D 
 
34 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS,' 
 
 try and get the parson to talk to the bull and quiet him. 
 So they assembled all round for miles, and drew closer and 
 closer till they got him up to the church. The parson read 
 texts to him all the way, and he continually grew smaller 
 and tamer. Once inside the church, the parson began to 
 preach, and the bull was slowly but steadily decreasing, 
 when night came on before the work was finished. Only a 
 small bit of candle could be found, and when it was burnt 
 out the parson could see no longer, and was obliged to stop 
 reading. The bull was then about the size of a dog, but as 
 soon as the parson ceased he began to grow again, till he 
 was larger than before. The church was not big enough to 
 hold him, and the walls cracked around him. Next day 
 the parson came again, and this time the people brought a 
 good store of candles, and the reading went on without 
 interruption, till the bull was so small that they could bind 
 him up in a boot, which one of the congregation gave up 
 for the purpose. They then buried him deep under the 
 door-stone, where he lies to this day. There are believers 
 in this story who affirm that were the stone to be loosened 
 the bull would come forth again, by many degrees worse 
 than he was at the first, and that he could never be laid 
 again." 
 
 A curious illusion which has, at different times, excited a 
 good deal of interest and excitement, is the phantom nun 
 of Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate, York ; a full description 
 of which is given by Mr. Baring Gould in his *' Yorkshire 
 Oddities." According to a legendary explanation of this 
 strange scene, it is said that during the suppression of 
 religious houses before the Reformation, a party of soldiers 
 came to sack the convent attached to this church. But 
 having forced an entry, they were confronted by the abbess, 
 — a lady of great courage and devotion — who declared that 
 ^hey should only pass in pver her body, and that should 
 
STRANGE STORIES AND TALES OF WONDER. 35 
 
 they slay her, and succeed in their errand of destruction, 
 her spirit would haunt the place, until the time came that 
 their sacrilegious work was expiated by the rebuilding of the 
 holy house." * 
 
 Among the many accounts published of this apparition, 
 we quote the following from the Ripon and Richmond 
 Chronicle (May 6, 1876): "In the middle of the service, 
 my eyes, which had hardly once moved from the left or 
 north side of the [east] window, were attracted by a bright 
 light, formed like a female, robed and hooded, passing from 
 north to south with a rapid gliding motion outside the 
 church, apparently at some distance. There are four 
 divisions in the window, all of stained-glass; but at the 
 edge of each runs a rim of plain transparent glass, about 
 two inches wide, and adjoining the stone-work. Through 
 this rim especially could be seen what looked like a form 
 transparent, but yet thick (if such a term can be used) with 
 light. The robe was long and trailed. About half an hour 
 later it again passed across from north to south, and having 
 remained about ten seconds only, returned with what I 
 believed to have been the figure of a young child, and 
 stopped at the last pane but one, and then vanished. I did 
 not see the woman again ; but a few seconds afterwards the 
 woman reappeared, and completed the passage behind the 
 last pane very rapidly." 
 
 It is said to appear very frequently on Trinity Sunday, 
 and to bring two other figures on to the scene, another 
 female, called the nurse, and the child. Similarly at one of 
 the windows of the Abbey Church, Whitby, was seen on 
 certain occasions 
 
 •' The very form of Hilda fair. 
 Hovering upon the sunny air." 
 
 • Rev. Thomas Parkinson, "Yorkshire Legends and Traditions" 
 (1888), p. 144. 
 
36 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 an effect, it is said, of light and mist which is still sometimes 
 visible. 
 
 In connection with the building of Durham Cathedral, a 
 curious legend is told about an effigy which lies near the 
 north porch ; and Sir William Brereton, who travelled in 
 the county in 1685, thus writes : " In the churchyard is 
 the tomb of him that was steward, and disbursed the money 
 when the church was erected, of whom it is reported that 
 his money being paid over-night, his glove was by a spirit 
 filled and supplied, so that, though it was empty over-night, 
 it was replenished next morning. His hand is made hold- 
 ing a glove stuffed with money, and by this means was that 
 great work built" But, according to another version of 
 this legend, the figure is said to be in memory of a certain 
 brave and daring man, who leaped from the great tower to 
 the ground to win a purse of gold. 
 
 Then there is the familiar story of the milkmaid and the 
 dun cow, which are carved on the north front of the cathe- 
 dral. The story, as commonly told, is that, while St. 
 Cuthbert was still undetermined as to his final resting-place, 
 " it was revealed to Eadmer, a virtuous man, that he should 
 be carried to Dunholme, where he should find a place of 
 rest. His followers were in distress, not knowing where 
 Dunholme lay ; but as they proceeded, a woman, wanting 
 her cow, called aloud to her companion to know if she had 
 seen her, when the other answered that she was in Dun- 
 holme. This was happy news to the distressed monks, 
 who thereby knew that their journey's end was at hand, and 
 the saint's body near its resting-place. As a sequel to this 
 story, it appears that the after-riches of the See of Durham 
 gave rise to the proverb, " The dun cow's milk makes the 
 prebends' wives go in silk." 
 
 In the porch of St. Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, is, or 
 was, preserved a whale's bone, popularly reputed to be the 
 
STRANGE STORIES AND TALES OF WONDER, 37 
 
 rib of a monster cow, which once supplied the whole city 
 with milk. There are sundry versions of this story. At 
 Grimsargh, near Preston, Lancashire, tradition says that in 
 a time of drought the inhabitants were supported on the 
 milk of a gigantic dun cow, until an avaricious old woman 
 milked her into a sieve, through which the milk passed into 
 a succession of vessels constantly removed. At last the 
 cow died, either of exhaustion, or of distress on discovering 
 the imposture ; and she was buried in a spot known as the 
 Cow Hill, where it is said that huge bones have been dis- 
 interred. A Warwickshire legend tells of a dun cow having 
 been driven mad by the over-milking of a witch.* 
 
 Many curious stories are told of the appearance of his 
 Satanic majesty in the course of a thunderstorm, the truth 
 of which was fully credited in olden days. 
 
 Stow records, for instance, a strange legend, telling us 
 how the devil came down to the belfry of St. Michael's, 
 Comhill, in a storm of lightning: "Upon St James's 
 night, certain men in the loft nest under the bells, ringing 
 of a peal, a tempest of lightning and thunder did arise. 
 An ugly-shapen sight appeared to them coming in at the 
 south window, and lighted on the north. For fear whereof 
 they all fell down, and lay as dead for the time, letting the 
 bells ring and cease of their own accord. When the ringers 
 came to themselves, they found certain stones of the north 
 window to be raised and scratched, as if they had been so 
 much butter printed with a lyon's claw; the same stones 
 were fastened there [again, and so remain till this day. I 
 have seen them oft, and have put a feather or small stick 
 into the holes where the claws had entered three or four 
 inches deep." In August, 1577, a terrible thunderstorm 
 occurred at Bungay whilst the people were in church; 
 during which, according to a contemporary pamphlet, "a 
 
 * C. Hardwick, "Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore," 112. 
 
38 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 black dog, or the divel in such a likeness," ran down the 
 body of St. Mary's, "with great swiftness and incredible 
 haste," and wrung the necks of two men. It is also reported 
 that the " divel " once appeared in the somewhat inappro- 
 priate form of a Minorite friar, during a thunderstorm at 
 Danbury, in Essex, in 1402, when the nave and great part 
 of the chancel were destroyed. But such " straunge shapes " 
 have, in our days, been exorcised by lightning-conductors. 
 
 In a line due north of the east end of Walsingham Church 
 was a portal admitting to the precincts, called the " Gate- 
 way of the Knight," from a story that a knight on horseback, 
 pursued by his enemies, was on the point of being taken at 
 the door, far too narrow for his passage, when he called on 
 the Virgin for protection, and suddenly found himself safe 
 within, horse and all. A brass figure of a mounted knight 
 was fastened to the portal. 
 
 There is the "Speaking Stone" at St. David's Cathedral. 
 The little River Alan is crossed by two or more bridges * 
 within the walls of the Close. " These bridges," writes Mr. 
 King, " are all ancient and interesting. The most remark- 
 able is that near the west front of the cathedral. This 
 bridge, replaced a stone known as the Llechllafar, or 
 " Speaking Stone," described by Giraldus as a slab of 
 marble polished by the feet of wayfarers. It was not lawful 
 to carry a dead body into the cemetery across this stone, 
 which, when that indignity was on one occasion offered to 
 it, lifted its voice in remonstrance, and split with the effort 
 A prophecy of Merhn foretold that a king of England, on 
 his return from the conquest of Ireland, should die on this 
 stone, wounded by a red-haired man. The prediction was 
 applied to Henry II. by a woman whose petition the king 
 had rejected. But before setting foot on the stone, Henry 
 addressed it solemnly, and passed over unharmed to make 
 his offerings before the shrine of St. David. 
 
 ♦ " Handbook to the Cathedrals of Wales " (1873), 215. 
 
f 39 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CHURCH PORCH. 
 
 In days of old the church porch was an important place, 
 and many things that required publicity were usually done 
 there. Thus it was at the church porch that the sheriff 
 performed one of the preliminary processes in outlawry, and 
 a writ of right was proclaimed there by his bailiffs with 
 blast of trumpet. Upon the same principle, lists of voters, 
 allowance of poor rates, notices of assessed taxes, etc., are 
 still affixed on the church doors, that the parishioners may 
 have an opportunity of seeing them if they go to church.* 
 
 In 1395 the Lollards fixed "their heretical conclusions 
 on the doors of St. Paul's and Westminster, with various 
 insolent verses. Bishop Hacket, on the doors of Lichfield, 
 wrote up a Latin verse forbidding candidates for holy orders 
 to wear long hair." f 
 
 In the same way payments of legacies and annuities in 
 the church porch were no uncommon occurrence, and an 
 early instance of this practice tells us how one Vincent 
 Tuke, Vicar of Sunning, Berks, in 1592, left by will sundry 
 sums of money, among others a legacy to each of his 
 daughters " to be paid in the church porch." At Goosnargh 
 in Lancashire, we find an entry of the seventeenth century 
 
 • Notes and Queries^ 3rd series, xii. 359. 
 
 t *• Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," III, 112. 
 
40 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 relative to the transfer of some land. The deed is dated 
 1 64 1, and tells how Alice Sidgreaves agrees to relinquish 
 to James Sidgreaves certain lands on condition that he 
 pays ;£i3o on a certain day "att or within the south porch 
 of the p'ishe church or chappell of Goosnargh." At 
 Preston a similar case is recorded : " Articles of agree- 
 ment, dated 20th Feb. 1650. Item, the sum of ^£'200 
 to be paid at or in the south porch of the parish church of 
 Preston, between the hours of ten and two of the clock on 
 20th March, 1652." Mr. North, in his ** Church Bells of 
 Leicestershire," quotes an entry dated April 14, 1462, 
 whereby John Lea of Lutterworth, in consideration of 
 ds. M, paid to him annually in the south porch of the chapel 
 of Market Harborough, bound himself to keep the chimes 
 there in "good, sweet, solemn, and perfect tune of 
 musick." 
 
 In the "Sussex Archaeological Collections" (ix. 36) an 
 extract illustrative of this custom is given from the will of 
 John Miller, proved at Lewes, May 3, 1654. The testator 
 leaves to his son Richard Miller certain property "upon 
 condition that my said son Richard pay to my daughter, 
 Anne Miller, ;£ioo on her attaining the age of twenty-one, 
 such sum to be paid at or in the south church porch of 
 Chittingly." In some of the earlier deeds of property in 
 Rye, Sussex, the rent reserved was made payable in the 
 south porch of the church of Rye. In the will of one of 
 the rectors of Maresfield, by which he bequeaths a small 
 sum to be applied to educational purposes in the parish, he 
 directs the owner of the property in Ringmer, on which 
 it is charged, to pay it on a particular day, at twelve 
 o'clock at noon, to the trustees, in the porch of the 
 parish church of Maresfield.* A correspondent of The 
 East Anglian (new series, i. 63) whilst making researches 
 * " Sussex Archaeological Collections," xxii. 132. 
 
THE CHURCH PORCH. 41 
 
 at the Ipswich Probate Registry, found in the will of 
 William Falckward, of Winston, Suffolk, yeoman, the follow- 
 ing : " I give and bequeath to my sonne, Sill Reve, with 
 Elizabeth, his wife, one shilling, to be paid to him or his 
 wife, at the church porch of Winston by my executrix. 
 Proved, 18 Oct, 1684." 
 
 Occasionally the church porch was supplied with a stone 
 ledge, or dole-table, by way of counter, such as may be still 
 seen in the south porch of St. Peter and St. Paul, Eye, with 
 the remains of a suitable inscription. 
 
 In the time of Henry VII. it was no unusual occurrence 
 to make money payments in the church itself in fulfilment 
 of contracts. In an old deed quoted in the ** Sussex 
 Archaeological Collections " (xxii. 119) we read how one 
 John Archer, of Alfryston, left certain landed property on 
 the understanding that his " attorneys, heirs, executors, or 
 assigns, shall at the feast of St. Michael the Archangel in 
 the Church of Alfriston, make payment of ten pounds 
 sterling, and at the same feast of St. Michael then next 
 following, in the aforesaid church, nine pounds sterling." 
 Payment of money in a church, writes a correspondent of 
 Notes and Queries (5th series, xi. 432), " is the practice in the 
 Isle of Portland. Having completed the purchase of several 
 strips of land, I gave notice that on a certain day I would 
 attend in the church to pay over the purchase-money, and 
 take in exchange the deed of 'church gift,' which was 
 duly signed in the church, coram populo. The act is 
 supposed to give due notoriety, and to have a peculiarly 
 binding effect. I found the witnesses (not attesting), some 
 fifteen or twenty in number, expected to have their presence 
 acknowledged by some small payment in money." 
 
 Referring to business transactions performed in the 
 church itself, it is worthy of note that, in times past, court 
 rolls were occasionally kept in churches. Hallam, in his 
 
42 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 "Middle Ages" (1872, ii. 283), translates from Hickes a 
 document of the reign of Canute, relating to a dispute 
 about the ownership of certain lands. The case was heard 
 in the county court at Agelnothes-stane (which Hallam 
 says is Alyston, in Herefordshire), and Thurkil, husband of 
 one of the parties concerned, " rode to the -church of St. 
 Ethelbert, with the leave and witness of all the people," and 
 had the result " inserted in a book in the church." 
 
 About 1542 John Dodington writes to William Plompton 
 thus : " The cofer wherein your said court rowles lieth is 
 nought, and the lock thereof not worth a pene, and it 
 standeth in the church at Sacomp [Sacomb, county Hert- 
 ford], wheare every man may come at his pleasure." In 
 1809 the court rolls of the Manor of Howden were kept in 
 Howden Church.* 
 
 In 1326 the tithe com of Fenham, Fenwick, and Bede 
 was collected in the chapel of Fenham, and a manor-court, 
 called Temple Court, was held in the Church of St. John 
 Baptist, Dunwich, annually on the feast of All Souls. 
 Wool was stored in one of the churches of Southampton, 
 and a law-suit settled in St. Peter's Church, Bristol. Mr. 
 Sparvel Bayly, in his " New Studies in Old Subjects," 
 relates a case in Essex, where the non-resident incumbent 
 came into the neighbourhood, and expressed a wish to 
 perform service in his parish church. The principal farmer 
 < — the churchwarden — was consulted, but a difficulty pre- 
 sented itself. It was harvest-time, the weather had been 
 showery and uncertain, and the churchwarden was obliged 
 to reply that there had been deficiency in barn accommo- 
 dation, and the church was full of wheat. 
 
 The Rev. D. R. Thomas, in his " History of the Diocese 
 of St. Asaph" (297), writing of the town of Newmarket, in 
 Flintshire, says, "The registers, which date from 1698, 
 ♦ Notes and Queries, 7th series, viii. 305. 
 
THE CHURCH PORCH. 43 
 
 mention, under 17 12, the interest of ;£5 given by Mr. 
 Wynne, of Coppa'sheim, for the purchase of flannel for 
 four old men and women, who were * to draw lots * or 
 * throw dice' for it in the church porch." 
 
 A mode of punishment for robbing the churches in former 
 days consisted in flaying the offender, and in affixing his 
 skin to the church door. This penalty for sacrilege appears 
 to have had the sanction of the law in the Anglo-Saxon 
 period, when money was often paid by the offender to save 
 his skin, called " hide gold," a ransom for one's skin. 
 
 There is an old tradition that the skin of a sacrilegious 
 Dane was often nailed upon a church door. According to 
 a story current in Worcester, the skin of a Dane, who stole 
 the Sanctus bell, and was flayed in consequence, was placed 
 on the doors of the north porch of Worcester, a portion 
 of which remains in the crypt. Mr. Albert Wray, in the 
 "Archaeological Journal" (v. 185), thus writes on the 
 subject: " Having heard that one of the doors of Worcester 
 Cathedral had skin upon it, I wrote to Mr. Jabez Allies, of 
 that city, and received a portion, and a drawing of the doors 
 which had been removed into the crypt." And he adds 
 that the skin on examination proved to have been taken 
 from the body of a light-haired person. So at Westminster, 
 the doorway leading into the revestry was lined with the 
 tanned skin, as a memorial, it is said, of the deliverance of 
 England from their rule ; but, in all probability, this leather, 
 it has been suggested,* was made, as in the preceding 
 case, from the skins of persons executed for sacrilege, 
 and set up as a terror to less hardened thieves. Pepys in 
 his Diary, under April 10, 1661, has this entry: **To 
 Rochester, and there saw the cathedral . . . observing the 
 great door of the church, as they say, covered with the skins 
 of the Danes." Morant mentions a similar tradition re- 
 * " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 114. 
 
44 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 specting the Church of Copford, Essex, to the effect that 
 the- building "was robbed by the Danes, and their skins 
 nailed to the doors." 
 
 In 1789, Sir Harry Englefield exhibited before the Society 
 of Antiquaries, a plate of iron from the door of Hadstock 
 Church, Essex, with a portion of human skin upon it In 
 1846, the north door of Hadstock being much damaged, 
 was removed ; but part of the original woodwork, with the 
 massive nails used to attach the skin, is preserved at Audley 
 End. 
 
 Frequent notices of the right of refuge in the church 
 porch occurs in old documents ; a curious entry appearing 
 in a corporation book of Norfolk, under 1662 : "Thomas 
 Corbald, who hath a loathsome disease, have with his wife 
 and two children layne in the Porch of St. Peter's per 
 Mountegate above one year ; it is now ordered by the Court 
 that he be put into some place in the Pest-houses during the 
 pleasure of the Court, until the Lazar-houses be repaired." 
 In an old church book in the parish of Diss, Norfolk, 
 among the disbursements of Samuel Foulger, one of the 
 churchwardens in 1687, is the following : " To the Wench 
 Ellener, that laye in the Church Porch, at several times, 
 ;£"oo 7^. od" 
 
 Chambered porches are found in many English churches, 
 chiefly during the Early English and Decorative periods. 
 It has often been asked, What was the use of these 
 chambers ? A query to which many answers have been 
 given. Sometimes they have been designated "priests' 
 chambers ; " and other names for them are muniment 
 rooms, vestries, and libraries, from the local uses for which 
 they have been employed. But the chambered porch was 
 probably intended for the sacrist and guardian of the 
 church — a necessary official where there were very valuable 
 relics, and other things, to be protected. Pugin, in his 
 
THE CHURCH PORCH 45 
 
 "Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture" (1843, 20), 
 describes the chambered porch as " usually occupied by the 
 sacristan, and sometimes provided with tracery apertures 
 through which the church could be watched at night." This 
 is confirmed by the records at Southwell, which require the 
 sacrist " to be within the church," and to be " ready to ring 
 the bells," etc. At Lincoln, Canterbury, and Rochester, 
 " the watcher's door and chamber are still remembered by 
 name, which were used by men who patrolled the church at 
 night, to see that all was safe from robbers and fire. At 
 Worcester, Oxford, and Lichfield the galleries used for this 
 purpose still remain." * 
 
 The chambered porch has also been called the " leper's 
 gallery," where persons suffering from loathsome diseases 
 could join in the divine offices without offending the con- 
 gregation. But this seems an improbable explanation ; for, 
 as it has been pointed out, "'the approach to them is 
 generally by a stair communicating with the interior of the 
 church, so that a -leper, or other sufferer, would first have to 
 enter the sacred building." 
 
 Occasionally the chambered porch is described as a 
 " schoolroom," and numerous instances occur of its having 
 been used for this purpose. The old charity school of 
 Cheltenham was formerly carried on over the north porch 
 of the parish church, f and the following entry occurs in 
 the minute book of the chamber of Feoffees of Colyton, 
 A.D. 1660 : " Ordered alsoe that Edward Clarke have notice 
 that hee shall departe from keepinge of schole from the 
 chamber over the church porch." \ A clause in the will of 
 John Gines, citizen of London, haberdasher and school- 
 master within St. Sepulchre's Church, 1592, directs that his 
 
 * " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 114. 
 
 t See *' History of Cheltenham " (1863), pp. 156, 424. 
 
 X See Notes and Queries^ 5th series, passim. 
 
46 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 body be buried in the " lower end of the church, at the 
 stayre foote that goeth up to my school." In St. Michael's 
 loft in the [Priory Church, Christchurch, Hants, a school 
 was formerly held; and a correspondent of Notes and 
 Queries (5th series, xii. 37), writes : *' I was at Malmesbury 
 on Tuesday, May 27, 1879, and on ascending the stairs to 
 the chamber above the grand Norman porch of the Abbey 
 Church, I discovered a school of about thirty children being 
 conducted there. It is called the Abbey School." Another 
 correspondent, 1879 (5th series, xii. 197), says, *' being at 
 Selby Abbey Church two or three weeks ago with a friend, 
 we scented out the bluecoat school of the place, which is 
 carried on in a chamber over the chapel, or, as some think, 
 chapter house, now used as a vestry. A newel staircase 
 connects the school-room with the outer air, so the boys 
 have no right of way through the church as they go to and 
 from their daily tasks." 
 
 A paragraph in the manuscripts of Lord Coleraine in 1697, 
 speaking of the church porch at Tottenham, Middlesex, 
 says, " It has a good square room with a chimney, leaded 
 on the top, with brick battlement for the teacher." This 
 room has in recent years been used for the Sunday school ; 
 as also the chambered porch at Colby Church, Norfolk; 
 and some years ago the one at Berkeley Church, Gloucester- 
 shire, was used for the same purpose. 
 
 Dr. Lee, in his *' Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical 
 Terms" (1877, 268), defines "parvis" as a church porch 
 over which is erected a chamber; and hence the term, 
 '• keeping school in the parvise." But there has been some 
 difference of opinion on this point, and Mr. J. A. Picton 
 writes : * "It seems to be admitted on all hands that there 
 is not the slightest evidence that a church porch, or the 
 room oyer it, was ever called a parvise in mediaeval times, 
 * Notes and Queries^ 5th series, xii. 49. 
 
THE CHURCH PORCH. 47 
 
 and that the derivation of the word, * parvis pueris ibi 
 edoctis,' is utterly untenable. There is no record to be 
 found of any school having been kept in the parvise, where- 
 ever and whatever that may be." He would regard the 
 term parvis as a survival of the *' paradisus " of mediaeval 
 cathedrals — an enclosure in front of the sacred building. 
 And he adds, "it was used for various public purposes. 
 The sacred relics were occasionally exhibited there while 
 the chapter intoned the , Gloria from the exterior arcades of 
 the church. Here also was erected the scaffold or pillory 
 for the punishment of delinquent clerics. There is evidence 
 that a parvis formerly existed at the west end of St. Paul's, 
 and it is no doubt to this that Fortescue (De laudibus 
 Legum. Angl., iii. 124) alludes when he describes the 
 students from the Inns of Court after dinner, " Se devertunt 
 ad pervisum et alibi consulentes cum servientibus ad legem 
 et aliis consiliariis suis." The law students attended there 
 to consult the Serjeants who frequented the parvis as a place 
 of general resort to see there clients, and bring themselves 
 before the public. It is in this sense that the hackneyed 
 quotation from Chaucer's prologue is to be understood — 
 
 " A Serjeant at law, ware and wise. 
 That had often been at the parvise." 
 
 In the absence of any real parvis in the English churches, 
 the church porch and the room over it, where there 
 happened to be one, might occasionally be called by the 
 name. Cotgrave, writing in the early part of the seventeenth 
 century, interprets Fr. parvis as " the porch of a church," 
 but adds, "more properly, the utter part of a palace." 
 But that schools were often held in some part of the 
 church is clear from " Twelfth Night " (act. iiu sc. 2), 
 where Maria speaks of "a pedant that keeps a school i' 
 the church." 
 
48 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Many of these chambered porches are of special interest. 
 The north porch of St. Mary's, RedcHffe, is hexagonal, and 
 has perhaps no equal for beauty in England. There are 
 two chambers, an upper and a lower. The small upper 
 room has been made famous as the place where the un- 
 fortunate Chatterton professed to have discovered in an old 
 chest, which went by the name of "Canynges' Cofre," 
 manuscripts attributed by him to Rowley, a monk. The 
 fragments of the coffer are still preserved in their original 
 place in the attic of the porch. 
 
 Fine specimens of Early English chambered porches 
 exist at Norwich, at Christ Church, Hampshire, where the 
 chamber is lighted by two pairs of couplets on each side, 
 the access being by a circular stone staircase leading from 
 the north aisle, and at St. Cross, near Winchester. At 
 Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire, the lower part of the 
 porch is Norman, but the chamber is later, with a pointed 
 window. 
 
 Perpendicular examples are to be met with at Gloucester, 
 where the chamber is over the south porch ; and at 
 Hereford, where it covers the north porch, and is lighted 
 by three large windows with rich tracery. At Berkeley, the 
 porchls Decorated, but the chamber Perpendicular. A late 
 instance occurs at St. Peter in the East, Oxford ; and in the 
 small but fine Perpendicular example at St. Mary, Bridport, 
 there is a beautiful little oriel of two lights, filled in with 
 modern stained glass. The chamber here is approached 
 from the south aisle of the church, as in St. George's, 
 Doncaster, which was destroyed by fire in 1883. 
 
 Until the time of Edward VI., marriages were performed 
 in the church porch, when it was discountenanced, the 
 ecclesiastical reformers ordaining that the ceremony should 
 be solemnized in the body of the church. In the Anglo- 
 Saxon ritual, the parties to be married came to the porch of 
 
THE CHURCH PORCH. 49 
 
 the church with their attendants, where they were met by 
 the priest, who first blessed the ring, and then gave it to 
 the bridegroom, who placed it on the middle finger of the 
 bride's left hand. Then the priest recited a form of blessing 
 over the parties, after which he led them into the chancel, 
 where they remained during the Mass. 
 
 The mode of procedure, as directed by the Sarum Missal, 
 was thus. The parties standing at the church door, the 
 priest published the banns thrice. The woman was given 
 by her father, or friends, having het hand uncovered, if 
 single ; if a widow, covered. The man said, " I N, take 
 thee N to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this 
 day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in 
 sickness and in health, till death us depart, if holy Church 
 will it ordain, and thereto I plight thee my troth." The 
 woman said as above, " to be boner and buxom in bed and 
 at board till death us depart," etc. The man then gave the 
 ring to the priest, who, having blessed it, and sprinkled it 
 with holy water, returned it to him to put on with his three 
 fingers and thumb, repeating at each, " In the name of the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen." After saying some 
 prayers, they went into the church to the steps of the altar, 
 the priest saying other prayers as now.* 
 
 It was at the church porch that Chaucer's wife of Bath 
 was wedded to the five husbands she survived — 
 
 " She was a worthy woman all her live. 
 Husbands at the church dore had she five." 
 
 In September, 1299, the primate solemnized the marriage 
 of Edward and Margaret at the church door of Canterbury, 
 towards the cloister, near the door of St. Thomas the 
 Martyr. The practice was not confined to this country, 
 and that it prevailed in France much later than in England 
 
 ♦ See Cough's ••British Topography" (1780), ii. 321. See i. 412. 
 
so CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 is shown by Charles I.'s marriage (by proxy) with Henrietta 
 Maria at the door of Notre Dame. 
 
 At St. Oswald's Church, Gruseley, the old customs of 
 "porch marriages" and "horse marriages," writes Mr. 
 W. H. Hatton, in his "Churches of Yorkshire," p. 32, were 
 formerly observed. ** One reason for performing the cere- 
 mony at the church porch may have been through the 
 custom of the wedding-party going to church on horseback. 
 At Gruseley, the bride and bridegroom, on horseback, 
 preceded by the village pipers and fiddlers, went in proces- 
 sion along the lanes. There was a long strap fastened to 
 the bride, which the bridegroom held fast in order to 
 prevent her from falling off the horse. If there was not a 
 sufficient number of animals in the village to accommodate 
 the whole of the guests, then two would ride on the back of 
 one horse. The custom, somewhat modified, was occasion- 
 ally carried out at Gruseley at the commencement of the 
 present century." 
 
 It was formerly, also, customary to pay a bride's dower, 
 or to deliver the deed by which land or money was secured 
 to her, at the church porch — a practice which continued as 
 late as the seventeenth century. In Bridge's *' History of 
 Northamptonshire" (i. 135), we read how "Robert Fitz- 
 Roger, in the 6 Edward I., entered into an engagement 
 with Robert de Tybetot to marry, within a limited time, 
 John, his son and heir, to Hawisia, the daughter of the said 
 Robert de Tybetot, to endow her at the church door, on 
 her wedding-day, with lands amounting to the value of one 
 hundred pounds per annum." 
 
 It may be remembered, too, that in the early ages of the 
 
 Christian Church, it was customary to bury persons of rank, 
 
 or of eminent sanctity, in the church porch, none being 
 
 allowed to be buried within the church itself.* St. Awdry, 
 
 * See Brand's " Popular Antiquities," ii. 245. 
 
THE CHURCH PORCH. 51 
 
 who was a victim of the pestilence in 669, and St. Chad, who 
 died in 672, with others of reputed sanctity, were amongst 
 the first to be buried within the church porch. Among the 
 many legends told of St. Swithin, there is the well-known 
 one which relates how his corpse, not being allowed to enter 
 the church, was placed in the church porch, where it re- 
 mained forty days, during which time it rained incessantly. 
 
 Coming down to a later period, John Crouche, Mayor 
 of Rye in the years 149 1 and 1495, gave the following 
 directions in his will relating to his burial : " I leave my 
 soul to God the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, and my 
 body to be buried in the church burying-place, in the south 
 porch of the parish church of Rye." 
 
 Further instances of this mode of burial occur in the 
 churchwardens' accounts of Banwell, Somersetshire, where 
 we find these two entries: "15 21. Reed. Robert Cabzu, 
 for lyying of his wyfie in the porch, 3^. 4^. Reed, of 
 Robert Blundon, for lying of his wyffe in the church, ds. 8^." 
 
 In Yorkshire it was long customary for young people to 
 sit and watch in the church porch on St. Mark's Eve from 
 eleven at night until one o'clock in the morning. In the 
 third year — for this ceremony must be gone through three 
 times — it was supposed the ghosts of all those about to die 
 in the course of the ensuing year would pass into the 
 church. When any one was taken ill who was thought to' 
 have been seen in this manner, it was quickly whispered he 
 would not recover, " for that such a one, who has watched 
 St. Mark's Eve, says so." James Montgomery, in his ** Vigil 
 of St. Mark," has thus described this curious piece of 
 folk-lore— 
 
 ** * *Tis now,' replied the village belle, 
 * St. Mark's mysterious eve ; 
 And all that old traditions tell 
 I tremblingly believe. 
 
52 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 *• * How, when the midnight signal tolls 
 Along the churchyard green, 
 A mournful train of sentenced souls. 
 In winding-sheets are seen. 
 
 •' ' The ghosts of all whom death shall doom 
 "Within the coming year, 
 In pale procession walk the gloom, 
 Amid the silence drear.' " 
 
 Such are some of the principal uses to which the church 
 porch has been applied in times past. But, at the present 
 day, little of interest attaches to this once important spot. 
 Old customs have ceased to be observed, and with their 
 disuse the church porch has lost most of its romance of 
 bygone years. 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Many curious and instructive instances of the various ways 
 whereby the discipline of the Church was enforced, in 
 bygone times, are to be found in our old parish books 
 and registers. Thus persons convicted of "grievous and 
 notorious crimes" were required to make an open con- 
 fession of the same, and to make satisfaction for the scandal 
 caused by their evil example by doing penance in their 
 parish church. Attired in a white sheet, and carrying a 
 faggot, the offender was placed in some conspicuous place 
 in the sacred edifice until, in the presence of the parishioners, 
 a public acknowledgment of the wrong committed was made 
 in a prescribed form of words. 
 
 Among the early instances of this practice may be quoted 
 that of Agnes Black, in the church of Fen Ditton, Cam- 
 bridgeshire : ** Sexto die mensae Januarii, anno 1593. Parte 
 of penance injoyned unto Agnes Black, of Fen Ditton. 
 The saied penitent shall uppon Sunday, beinge the eighte 
 daie of February next cominge, clothed in a white sheete 
 downe to the grounde, and havinge a white wande in her 
 hand, resort unto the parish churche porche of Fen Ditton 
 aforesaid, and there shall stande from the second peele to 
 morninge prayers untill the readinge of the seconde lesson, 
 desiringe the people that passe into the cherche to praie to 
 
54 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 God for her, and to forgive her ; at which time the minister 
 there shall come down to this penitent and fetche her into 
 the churche, reading the psalm of Miserere in Englishe, and 
 place her in the middle alley, aparte from all other people, 
 where she shall penitently kneel until the readinge of the 
 ten commandments, at which time the minister there shall 
 come to this penitent and cause her to saie and confesse as 
 followethe, viz. : * Good people, I acknowledge and confesse 
 that I have offended Almightie God, and by my evill 
 example you all, for that I have broken His divine laws and 
 commandments, in committinge the most shameful and 
 abominable sinne of adulterie, or fornicacion, for which I 
 am most hartily sorry, and I ask God and you most hartily 
 forgiveness for the same, promisinge by God's helpe never 
 to offend hereafter in the like againe.' And at the end 
 of this confession, the first dale, the minister to rede the 
 homely against adultrie or fornicacion, and the third dale 
 to reade the homely of repentance, the penitent standinge 
 by all the while; and in like manner and form in every 
 point and condicion as above is prescribed, she shall doe 
 two other Sundaies or holy daies next ensueinge after the 
 first. And if the penitent doeing this uppon all the saied 
 three severall Sundaies or holy daies, she shall under the 
 hands of the minister and churchwardens there personallie . 
 certifie together with those present the xxvii dale of 
 February, at Greate St Maries church in Cambridge, and 
 then and there receave such further order herein as shall be 
 appointed. — Bennet Thorowgood. 
 
 "This penitent hath donne hir pennance three several 
 Sundaies or holy daies in the parish church of Fen Ditton, 
 according to the premis. Ita est ut testatum. Thomas 
 Godbed, Cur. ibid, church. — By me, Edward Warden Brady." 
 
 The register of Croydon, Surrey, under 1597, records 
 how "Margaret Sherioux was buried 23rd June. She was 
 
CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 55 
 
 enjoyned to stand iij. market days in the town and iij. 
 Saboathe daies in the church, in a white sheete, with a 
 paper on her back and bosom showing her sinne, . . . 
 She stood one Saturday and one Sunday, and died the 
 nexte." The offence of which she pleaded guilty having 
 been one of terrible immorality. 
 
 Archbishop Grindal ordered the guilty person to be " set 
 directly over against the pulpit during the sermon or homily, 
 and there stand bareheaded with the sheet, or other accus- 
 tomed note of difference, and that upon some board raised 
 a foot and a half at least above the church floor." Penance 
 of this kind was commonly performed after a judicial 
 sentence, the mode of procedure being given by Godolphin 
 in his * Repertorium Canonicum" (1680, Append., p. 18) : 
 " Besides these greater censures, ecclesiastical penance is 
 used in the discipline of the Church, which doth affect the 
 body of the penitent, by which he is obliged to give a 
 public satisfaction to the Church for the scandal he hath 
 given by his evil example." 
 
 In the visitation articles for Peculiars of Canterbury, 
 1637, an order is made "for you, the Churchwardens at the 
 charge of your parish, to provide a convenient large sheet 
 and a white wand, to be had and kept within your Church 
 or Vestry, to be used at such time as offenders are censured 
 for their grievous and notorious crimes." 
 
 Paul's Cross was sometimes appointed as the place of 
 penance ; and, occasionally, it was enjoined that the sinner 
 should do a public penance in the cathedral or in some 
 public market, bare-legged and bare-headed, in a white 
 sheet, and to make an open confession of his crime 
 " according to the quality of the fault and the direction of 
 the judge." In " Hierurgia Anglicana" (1848, p. 198) is a 
 "form of penance and reconciliation of a renegado" of the 
 date of 1635, quoted from Wilkins' "Concilia" (1737, iv. 
 
56 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 522) ; and further on (p. 333) we find a note of one Richard 
 Appleby, who did penance at Whorlton, Northumberland, 
 in 1626; and at (p. 343) is noticed the penance imposed 
 upon certain parishioners of Hulme Chapel, in 1689. 
 
 Constant reference is made to this practice of public 
 penance in parish documents, some of which are of com- 
 paratively recent date. In the eighteenth century such 
 notices are of frequent occurrence, and afford interesting 
 examples of church discipline. On November 25, 17 17, 
 at Sutton Vallence, Kent, the register tells how "Eliz, 
 Stace did public penance for y* foul sin of adultery com- 
 mitted with Thos. Hutchins, jun',, in Sutton Vallence 
 Church, as did Anne Hynds for y^ foul sin of fornication 
 committed with Tho. Daws. Sa. Prat., Vicar." At Ux- 
 bridge Church, Middlesex, this entry occurs : " 1728. N.B. 
 On July 7, Unity Winch did penance at morning service 
 for 26 May." In the parish register of North Aston, 
 Oxfordshire, we find this entry : " Memorandum. That 
 Mr. Cooper sent in a form of penance by Mr. Wakefield, of 
 Deddington, that Catherine King should do penance in y* 
 Parish Church of North Ashton, y® sixth day of March, 
 1740, and accordingly she did. Witness, William Vaughan, 
 Vicar. Charles May, John BailUs, Churchwardens." 
 The sin of the penitent seems to have been unchastity. 
 The following is from the parish register of Roxby, 
 Lincolnshire : " Memorandum. Mich". Kirby and Dixon 
 Wid had two bastard children, one in 1725, y® other in 
 1727, for which they did publik Penance in our P'ish 
 Church, Feb. y® 25th, 1727, for adultery." In the church- 
 wardens' accounts of Little Glemham, Suffolk, these items 
 occur under December 10, 1764: " P^ the 'Paritor when 
 the Widow Chrisp did penance, 5^. ; for y® use of a sheet 
 and washing it, 6^." 
 
 In the latter half of the last century, a young woman who 
 
CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 57 
 
 had been seduced did penance in Poulton Church, Lanca- 
 shire, and " barefoot, clothed in white, with a lighted candle 
 in each hand, she had to pass along the aisles, a spectacle of 
 mirth and jeering to an unfeehng crowd." Jane Breckul 
 was the last to undergo this painful exhibition at Poulton, 
 for the cries of this unfortunate girl, melting the hearts of 
 the well-disposed, raised a clamour against it, which led to 
 its discontinuance. In the belfry of Bispham parish 
 church was formerly to be seen " a simple-looking wooden 
 frame, formed of four pieces of wood with cross-bars, etc. 
 This was said to have been used as a penance stool ; the 
 offending parties having been fastened to it by means of 
 cross-pieces of wood." A woman who died in 1836, it is 
 said, was the last offender who performed penance in 
 Bispham Church and stood upon this stool.* 
 
 Coming down to the present century, an early case is 
 recorded in the "Annual Register " for 1838 : ** A woman 
 did penance in public at Walton Church, by order of the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts, for defaming the character of her 
 neighbour. The white sheet, however, was not enforced." 
 The following incident also occurred somewhere about the 
 same time : " A poor female, one Elizabeth Ripley, of 
 Skirethorns, in the parish of Linton, in Craven," writes a 
 correspondent oi Notes and Queries (5th series, iii. 154), " did 
 penance in the Parish Church of Linton, and was wrapped 
 in a white sheet; she had a lighted candle in one hand. 
 Her offence was having an illegitimate child." 
 
 A remarkable case of penance occurred in 1840, the 
 details of which were published in a chap-sheet, " Par- 
 ticulars of a most Singular Penance, performed in St. 
 Peter's Church, Liverpool, this (Wednesday) morning 
 (February 19, 1840)." "For some time past the Fish 
 Market in Liverpool has been in a state of the greatest 
 * Harland's " Lancashire Legends," 170, 174. 
 
58 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 confusion and uproar, owing to a dispute between two well- 
 known characters in the fish line. We are told that the 
 parties, some time since, had a regular row, in the course 
 of which Mrs. Hutton had the unwarrantable audacity to 
 call Mrs. Newton the very impertinent and opprobrious 
 
 name , for which offence Mrs. Newton instituted 
 
 proceedings against her in the Ecclesiastical Court. These 
 proceedings were last week brought to a trial, and Mrs. 
 Hutton was found guilty of scandal, and adjudged to pay 
 all expenses, and afterwards to stand in a sheet in St. 
 Peter's Church, and make a public declaration of her 
 assertion being false. Accordingly this day, Wednesday 
 [February 19, 1840], was appointed for the ceremony to 
 take place. For some time before the appointed time a vast 
 number of persons of all grades had assembled in the 
 neighbourhood of the church, and when the doors were 
 opened an immense number entered the church in order 
 to have a glimpse of the degrading ceremony. All was 
 suspense for a time, but at length the woman made her 
 appearance, attired in a white sheet, walked up the aisle, 
 and after some ceremony being performed by the officers of 
 the court, she made a public recantation of the expressions 
 she had made use of, and declared that she was sorry for 
 what she had said." 
 
 Penance was done in St. Bridget's Church, Chester, about 
 185 1. The sentence was that the individual convicted 
 should stand for about an hour in a white sheet within the 
 church, but the church doors were ordered to be locked, 
 that the penance might be private. As lately as 1882 a 
 case occurred at East Clevedon, and was thus noticed in 
 the local press: "An extraordinary scene was witnessed 
 on Sunday evening, July 30th, at All Saints' Church, when 
 a man named Llewellyn Hartree did public penance for the 
 seduction of a servant-girl, who now awaits her trial for 
 
CHURCH DISCIPLINE, 59 
 
 manslaughter. The church was crowded, and the vicar 
 having deHvered an address on church discipline, Hartree 
 confessed his sin, and promised to take his place in the 
 Assize Court, next to the unfortunate girl, upon her trial at 
 Wells." 
 
 But that offenders were not always willing to comply with 
 this mode of penance may be gathered from the following 
 extract from Middleham Register, which nms thus : 
 " Burials, October 29th, 1792. I enter under the head of 
 burials, as spiritually dead, the names of John Sadler, Clerk 
 to Mr. John Breare, Attorney-at-Law, of this place, and 
 Christopher Felton, Clerk to Mr. Luke Yarker, Attorney-at- 
 Law, of this place : first, for irrelevant behaviour in church a 
 second time after public reproof on a former occasion of 
 the same sort ; and secondly, when mildly admonished by 
 me not to repeat the same, they both made use of the most 
 scandalous and insolent words concerning myself, for which 
 I thought proper to pass a public censure upon them after 
 sermon (though they were wilfully absent) in the face of 
 the congregation, and enter the mention of the same in 
 this book that the names of those insolent young men may 
 go down to posterity as void of all reverence to God and 
 his ministers. — Witness my hand, Robert B. Nickolls, 
 Dean." 
 
 Cases of this kind were probably not uncommon ; and 
 even occasionally when the required form of penance had 
 been fulfilled it was an empty show. About the middle of 
 the present century a female did penance at St. Mary's 
 Church, Islington, for defamation of female character. " I 
 saw the virago," writes a correspondent of Notes and 
 Queries* " leave the church, and when clear of consecrated 
 ground, she acted in a most indecorous manner, which 
 proved that she was not either * sadder ' or * wiser ' for what 
 •_5th series, iii. 154. 
 
6o CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 she had undergone." We may also quote the following 
 entry from the register of Scotter, Lincolnshire : " 1667-8 
 Jan. 19. Mem. That on Septuagesima Sunday one Francis 
 Drury, an excommunicate person, came into the church in 
 time of divine service in y* morning, and being admonisht 
 by me to be gon, hee obstinately refused, whereupon y® 
 whole congregation departed ; and after the same manner 
 in the afternoon the same day he came againe, and refusing 
 againe to goe out, the whole congregation again went home, 
 soe y* little or noe service p'formed y* day. I prevented his 
 further coming in y* manner, as he threatened, by order 
 from the justice upon the statute of Q. Elizabeth concern- 
 ing the molestation and disturbance of public preachers. 
 — "Wm. Carington, Rector. O tempora ! O mores I'' 
 
 The vigorous exercise of discipline in olden times is 
 further shown by the excommunication of persons for trivial 
 rather than grave offences. Thus, in 1667-8, one " Matthew 
 Whalley of Scawthorp was excommunicated March 24, 
 "/' non solvendo taxat eccVice ;^'' and in the register of 
 Quorndon, Leicestershire, it is recorded that " an excom- 
 munication against Anne Turlington, the wife of Thomas 
 Turlington, in not sending an inventory by order of the 
 Ecclesiastical Court in Leicester was published this 4th 
 day of Feb. 1749-50 by me. Moor Scribo." 
 
 Even churchwardens did not always escape, for it appears 
 that at All Saints, Northampton, they were excommunicated 
 on Jan. 12, 1637-8, for disobeying the archbishop's monition 
 respecting the railing in of the communion-table. 
 
 The homily on keeping clean of churches, speaks of 
 " minstrelsy dogs and hawks profaning them." To prevent 
 any breach of church discipline by the intrusion of dogs in 
 the sacred edifice during divine worship, an official, known 
 as the " dog-whipper," was paid an annual stipend to keep 
 watch. Numerous entries illustrative of this practice occur 
 
CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 6i 
 
 in many of the parish registers and churchwardens' accounts. 
 It has been said that the custom of introducing dogs in the 
 church was due to the Puritan faction, to show their con- 
 tempt for consecrated places. In 157 1, as appears from 
 the church books of St. Mary's, Reading, John Marshall 
 was chosen clerk and sexton, and for the sum of 135. 4^. 
 he was " to see the church kept clean from time to time, 
 the seats swept, the mats beaten, the dogs driven out of 
 the church, the windows made clean, and all other things 
 done that shall be necessary for the good and cleanly 
 keeping of the church, and the quiet of divine service." 
 
 At Worksop, in 1597, the sum of ninepence was "paid 
 to old Verde for whipping of dogs," and "for whipping 
 dogges out of y* church one whole year," the sum of 
 twelve pence was given in 1616. In the churchwardens' 
 accounts of Smarden, Kent, this entry occurs under 1576 : 
 " Pd. to John Quested, for whipping dogs out of the 
 churche xij</. ; " and in the parish accounts of Ogbourn St. 
 George, near Marlborough, similar instances of such pay- 
 ments are given — 
 
 " 1632. To Looker for whippinge the doggs out of the 
 church for one quarter, xij^. 
 
 " 1633. To Looker for keepinge out doggs a whole 
 year, iiijj. 
 
 " 1639. To Looker for keepinge the dogs, etc., ijV." 
 
 The " dog-noper," an official appointed for this purpose, 
 still holds office at Ecclesfield; and in the records of 
 Goosnargh, Lancashire, it was ordered (April 10, 1704) 
 that the sexton, " so long as he demean himself dutifully, 
 do sweep the church, and whip the dogs out of it every 
 Lord's day. . . ." 
 
 The churchwardens of Trysull, Staffordshire, still receive 
 an annuity of one pound a year under the will of John 
 Rudge, dated April 17, 1725. He charged his lands for 
 
62 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 ever with the payment of five shillings a quarter to a poor 
 man, who was to walk up and down the parish church 
 during divine service, for the double purpose of driving 
 stray dogs out of the church, and of waking up any of the 
 congregation who went to sleep during the sermon. A similar 
 rent-charge of eight shillings a year is paid at Claver- 
 ley, in Shropshire, under a deed dated August 23, 1659. 
 According to Edwards's "Remarkable Charities" (222), 
 "ten shillings a year is paid by the tenant of Sir John 
 Bridges, as a charge on lands called " Dog-whipper's marsh, 
 containing about two acres, to a person for keeping order 
 in the church during divine service." In the churchwardens' 
 accounts of the parish of Bradeston Church, Norfolk, 
 under 1544 occurs this entry : " It. paid for a hesppe of 
 twynne for y« nette at y® church dore, ij ob," which, it has 
 been suggested, was placed in the church doorway during 
 service to keep dogs out. 
 
 It would seem that in 1644 Canterbury Cathedral either 
 had no dog-whipper among its officers, or that he performed 
 his work but negligently. Richard Culmer, in his " Cathedral 
 Newes from Canterbury," relates how ** one of the Great 
 Canons, or prebends [there], in the very act of his low 
 congying towards the Altar, as he went up to it, in prayer- 
 time, was (not long since) resaluted by a huge mastiffe dog, 
 which leapt upright on him once and againe, and pawed 
 him in his ducking saluting progresse and posture to the 
 Altar, so that he was fain to call out aloud, * Take away the 
 dog, take away the dog.' " At Chichester, the duty of the 
 verger, who has charge of the cloister, was formerly to 
 "purge the churchyard of hogs and dogs and lewd persons 
 that play or do noise therein." At St. David's and Durham 
 the dog-whipper is a statutable servant; and in 1632 it is 
 recorded how dogs ran into the choir of the latter and 
 disturbed the service. In the life-size portrait of old 
 
CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 63 
 
 Scarlett, the sexton, hung in the nave of Peterborough 
 Cathedral, his dog-whip is seen thrust through his waist- 
 belt. In the register of St. Mary-le-Bow, Durham, this 
 entry occurs : " Brian Pearson, the Abbey dog-whipper, 
 bur. 6 April." 
 
 Dogs, however, were probably not the only intruders. 
 The following entry, for instance, taken from a church- 
 warden's private book, is preserved in the " History of the 
 Church of Chester-le-Street : " "Aug. 10, 1834. In the 
 middle of the morning service Joseph Lewin's ass passed 
 through the church, and in the afternoon a hen and chickens. 
 Both occurred in time of divine service." 
 
 Irregularities of good behaviour, and order, during service- 
 time in church, were formerly regulated by rules for en- 
 forcing discipline which nowadays are practically obsolete. 
 Reverence in the house of God apparently was often lax. 
 According to a popular rhyme — numerous variations of 
 which occur in different parts of the country — the abuse of 
 church-going which much prevailed in bygone years, and 
 which, alas ! no doubt still exists to a large extent, is thus 
 summed up in the West of England — 
 
 ** Some go to church to fetch a walk, 
 Some go to church to have a talk, 
 Some go to church to meet a friend, 
 Some go there an hour to spend. 
 Some go there to hear the news, 
 Some go there to sleep in pews. 
 And yet, 'tis very strange and odd 
 How few go there to worship God." 
 
 A Suffolk version is slightly different — 
 
 ** Some go to church just for a walk, 
 Some go there to scoff and talk, 
 Some go there to meet a friend. 
 Some go there their time to spend. 
 
64 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Some go there to see a lover, 
 Some go there their faults to cover, 
 Some go there to doze and nod. 
 But few go there to worship God." 
 
 In 1736 the churchwardens of Prestwich, near Manchester, 
 resolved that " thirteen shillings a year be given to George 
 Grimshaw, of Rooden Lane, for y* time being ; and a new 
 coat (not exceeding twenty shillings) every other year, for 
 his trouble and pains in wakening sleepers in y* church, 
 whipping out dogs, keeping children quiet and orderly, and 
 keeping y^ pulpit and church walks clean." Later 'on, 
 these entries occur — 
 
 " P^ for a coat for George Grimshaw, y® new bobber, jP^i. 
 
 " P* George Grimshaw's yearly wages for bobbing, etc. 
 
 13/^." 
 
 What the term "bobbing" denoted may be briefly 
 explained by the following note : * " My mother, who was 
 bom at Warrington in the last century, can remember 
 Betty Finch, a very masculine sort of woman, being the 
 bobber at Holy Trinity Church in the year 18 10. She 
 walked very majestically along the aisles during divine 
 service, armed with a great long stick like a fishing-rod, 
 which had a bob fastened to the end of it ; and when she 
 caught any sleeping or talking, they got a " nudge." Her 
 son was engaged in the belfry, and often truthfully sang — 
 
 ** My father's the clerk. 
 My sister's a singer ; 
 My mother's the bobber, 
 And I'm a ringer." 
 
 This custom, whilst varying in different localities, gave 
 
 rise to many amusing incidents. On Midlent Sunday, in 
 
 1795, when the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Yates, Master of St. 
 
 Catherine's Hall, Cambridge, went over to Burwell, which 
 
 * A^oies and Queries ^ 3rd series, iv. 71. 
 
CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 65 
 
 is four miles from Newmarket, to preach the annual sermon, 
 a somewhat exciting scene took place, which is thus described 
 in Gunning's " Reminiscences of the University and town, 
 of Cambridge" (ii. 12): "The excellence of the tenant's 
 ale was apparent, not only in the red face of the vicar, the 
 clerk, and the sexton; but also in the vigour with which 
 two or three officials, furnished with white staves, exercised 
 them whenever they found any of the children inattentive. 
 Not contented with showing their authority over the younger 
 part of the congregation, one of them inflicted so heavy a 
 blow on the head of a young man who was sleeping, that it 
 resounded through the church. The person thus distin- 
 guished started up, and, rubbing his head, had the morti- 
 fication to find all his neighbours laughing at his expense ; 
 to use a fancy phrase, " he showed fight," and I believe he 
 was only restrained by the presence of the Vice-Chancellor 
 (who rose to see what was the matter) from giving the 
 peace-officer a hearty drubbing." 
 
 At Handsworth Church, near Birmingham, the beadle, 
 attired in his official costume, used to make the rounds of 
 the church during service, carrying a stout wand, surmounted 
 with a gilt knob. This instrument, we are told, " he used 
 in waking up sleepy boys and girls; the unruly ones he 
 admonished by a sharp tap on the head, which could be 
 distinctly heard all over the church." At Fleet parish 
 church, Lincolnshire, this practice having some years ago 
 fallen into disuse, a former rector expressed to the sexton 
 his wish that it might be revived, and provided him with a 
 new instrument for the purpose. The sexton seemed 
 reluctant to resume his old duties, remarking — 
 
 " Well, but, sir, be I to waken all of 'em ? Be I to nope 
 
 Mr. M on the head if I catches him asleep ? " (alluding 
 
 to one of the principal farmers in the parish). 
 
66 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 "Well, Mike," said the rector, "perhaps not Mr. M- 
 
 nor Mr. W , nor Mr. " (naming some three or four 
 
 others) ; "but if you see any one else sleeping, rouse him 
 up." 
 
 In Bishop Thirl wall's "Letters" (p. 185), there is an 
 amusing account of a custom observed at Kerry, fin the 
 county of Montgomery, for awakening sleepers in church : 
 " As I returned through the churchyard I was greeted very 
 respectfully by a person whose dress seemed to indicate 
 that he was a functionary of the church. I learnt that he 
 was the sexton, but that he also discharged another very 
 useful office, which, as far as I know, is peculiar to Kerry. 
 It appears that it is by ancient custom a part of his duty to 
 perambulate the church during service-time with a bell in 
 his hand, to look carefully into every pew, and wherever he 
 finds any one dozing to ring the bell. He discharges this 
 duty, it is said, with great vigilance, intrepidity, and im- 
 partiality, and consequently with the happiest effect on the 
 congregation ; for, as everybody is certain, that if he or she 
 gives way to drowsiness, the fact will be forthwith made 
 known through the whole church by a peal which will direct 
 all eyes to the sleeper, the fear of such a visitation is almost 
 always sufficient to keep every one on the alert." The 
 Sporting Magazine for July, 18 18, quoted from a local 
 paper a somewhat unique method of rousing sleepers. The 
 clergyman of a Welsh church, it stated, had a tame goat 
 that attended service, and if it saw a drowsy Cambrian 
 nodding, accepted it as a challenge, and made so effectual 
 a butt at its supposed antagonist, that he slept no more 
 while the service lasted. 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHURCH PIGEON-HOUSES. 
 
 Scattered throughout the country, there may still be 
 seen in many churches the remains of the pigeon-house 
 which would seem to have been an established usage as far 
 back as the thirteenth century. In an interesting paper on 
 the subject read before the Royal Archaeological Institute 
 (Aug. II, 1888), at Leamington, by Mr. J. T. Mickle- 
 thwaite, and published in the journal of the society,* some 
 curious examples are given, which we quote below. 
 
 In the north-west tower of Selby Church, a chamber 
 exists " which has in its walls a number of holes an inch or 
 so in diameter, and arranged in rows. In some of the 
 holes there remain, or did remain, the ends of wooden pegs 
 which had been broken off short at the surface of the wall." 
 As these pegs appear to " have been intended to carry some 
 rough shelving, which could easily be divided by upright 
 partitions," it is probable that this chamber was once upon 
 a time originally fitted up for a pigeon-house. 
 
 From the accounts of Denis Hyndolweston, Custos^ of the 
 cell at Yarmouth, we gather there was a pigeon-house in the 
 church roof at Yarmouth. Making up his accounts for the 
 year 1484-5, this Denis enters, " About three dozen 
 pigeons from the pigeon-house above the chapel vault 
 ♦ 1888, xlv. 374-378. 
 
68 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 bred in the household." This extract showing that the 
 pigeons were kept in the space between the vaulted ceiling 
 of the chapel and the wood roof. 
 
 The parish church of SS. Peter and Paul, Marlborough, 
 had a vaulted chancel of the fifteenth century, and in the 
 loft above it pigeons were, in olden days, kept But in 1863, 
 when the church was restored, " the east gable was rebuilt, 
 and a new window put in to light the loft over the chancel, 
 taking the place of the narrow slit through which the pigeons 
 entered, and which was fitted with alighting boards or flat 
 louvres." In a print of the church in Neale's "Views of 
 Collegiate and Parochial Churches," * both the pigeons and 
 the entrance to their house are plainly depicted. A similar 
 arrangement existed at Elkstone, in Gloucestershire, and 
 in the " Ecclesiologist " for 1865, p. 313, it is noted of 
 Overbury Church, Worcestershire, that " some twenty years 
 ago the space above the vaulting of the chancel was used as 
 a pigeon-house." 
 
 Professor J. H. Middleton, in a paper on Stanley St. 
 Leonard's Church, in the fifth volume of the " Transactions 
 of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society," 
 informs us that above the flat ceiling of the north transept of 
 that church " there is a boarded floor, and the space above 
 the roof has been used as a columbarium. The walls are full 
 of pigeon holes all around, and these have evidently been 
 built with the walls, and are not additions. Access to this 
 chamber was gained by a round-arched Norman door in the 
 north wall of the tower, leading from the ringing chamber." 
 As in the case of Selby, the pigeon-house was sometimes 
 located in the tower. Thus, at Birlingham, near Pershore, 
 is a church with a west tower, the middle story of which is 
 arranged for a pigeon-house. And in the " Ecclesiologist " 
 (xvii. p. 233), a further example is given at CoUingham 
 * 1825, vol. ii. 
 
' r'''. ", ', 
 
 T-C 
 
 '-7^-^ 
 
 PIGEON-HOUSES IN CHURCHES : BIRLINGHAM, NEAR PERSHORE. 
 
 Page 68. 
 
CHURCH PIGEON-HOUSES. 69 
 
 Ducis, Wilts. " The tower of this church, oblong in plan, 
 seems to have been originally constructed so that its middle 
 stage might be used as a dove-cote. A window, or rather 
 opening with a sill on which the birds might alight, is still 
 preserved." 
 
 There were pigeons, too, as Mr. Micklethwaite writes, " at 
 York Minster, in 1497, for the keeper of the fabric then 
 bought a net to catch them with for three shillings and 
 eightpence, and has duly entered it in his account. And to 
 this day pigeons, which perhaps descend from monastic 
 times, make their homes in the towers and roofs of West- 
 minster Abbey." 
 
70 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ACOUSTIC JARS AND HORSES' SKULLS. 
 
 The old jars found in various churches are supposed to 
 have been used for the purpose of improving the resonance 
 of the sacred edifice, after the manner of the brazen Echeia 
 noticed by Vitruvius as used in some ancient Roman 
 theatres. " It is certain," writes Sir E. Beckett,* "that the 
 Ancients had devices for improving the acoustics of large 
 buildings, besides their better knowledge of the requisite 
 proportions, which we have lost altogether ; for in the days 
 of the vast ancient theatres, such as the Coliseum at Rome, 
 ten times as many people could see and hear as in modern 
 churches. And they had a peculiar contrivance of horizontal 
 pots along the seats, which are understood to have augmented 
 the sound in the same way as a short and wide tube presented 
 to a hemispherical bell when struck augments its sound." 
 Hence, the jars which have been occasionally discovered 
 during the restoration of certain churches in different parts 
 of the country, have generally been considered survivals of 
 this old custom. 
 
 Mr. Gordon Hills f mentions two interesting finds — 
 one was at East Harling Church, Norfolk, where four jars 
 
 * ** Book on Building " (1880), 281. 
 t "Journal of Arch. Assoc," xxxv. 95. 
 
ACOUSTIC JARS AND HORSES' SKULLS. 71 
 
 were brought to light during repairs of the roof, arranged at 
 about equal spaces along the north side of the chancel, 
 and resting upon the top of the wall above the wall-plate. 
 
 The other discovery was at the church of Leeds, near 
 Maidstone, Kent, where forty-eight to fifty-two earthenware 
 pots were found in August, 1878, embedded in the top of the 
 nave wall on both sides of the church, immediately under the 
 wall-plate. Below the jars in the north side was discovered 
 a very remarkable arrangement consisting of two sound- 
 holes, made apparently for the purpose of carrying the effect 
 into the north aisle. These jars have been pronounced to 
 be of Romano-British make. 
 
 Some years ago, during the restoration of St. Peter's 
 Mancroft, Norwich, a singular arrangement was discovered 
 beneath the floor of the chancel, in front of the place 
 formerly occupied by stalls. A trough, about three feet 
 deep, and the same wide, was found to extend from end to 
 end of the chancel, on either side. In the walls of this 
 trough, were placed horizontally, and at equal distance 
 between the base and the surface, short pitchers, bedded in 
 mortar, the mouth of each pitcher (of glazed pottery with 
 fluted bands) being open to the trough. A similar arrange- 
 ment has been found at All Saints, Norwich.* 
 
 In other parts of England, the archaeologist has had 
 brought under his notice specimens of the same practice. At 
 Fairwell, Staffordshire — found while the church was being 
 pulled down in 1747 ; at Denford Church, Northampton- 
 shire, at St. Peter's Upton Church, near Newark, at St 
 Olave's, Chichester, and at St. Clement's Church, Sandwich, 
 high up in the chancel 
 
 Two cases were discovered in Devonshire, one at Luppitt 
 
 Church, and the other at Ashburton, where the jars were 
 
 * See Eastern Counties Collectanea, 1872-3. Notes and Queriesy 
 6th series, iii. 413, 147. 
 
72' CHl/RCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 found on the inside of the chancel walls in 1838, when the 
 old plaster in the course of repairs was removed. The 
 jars lay on their sides, their mouths directed to the inside of 
 the church, covered over with a piece of slate to each, and 
 that hid behind the plaster.* 
 
 The Norwich Mercury of December 3, 1848, in an 
 account of the restoration of St. Nicholas' Church, Ipswich, 
 described certain "flictile vessels found beneath the roof," 
 and adds how " on digging near the foundation of the wall 
 which has been removed to enlarge the church, several 
 earthen vessels were found carefully embedded in brickwork. 
 One was removed entire. Beneath the roof were also found 
 some vessels of red earth, and also some of half-baked 
 bluish material." In the south aisle of Newington Church, 
 Kent, there are or were three vessels in the east gable, and 
 some years ago a large jar, supposed to have been put down 
 for the same purpose, was discovered in the chancel of 
 Slaugham Church, Sussex. 
 
 At Fountains Abbey, several earthenware vessels were 
 discovered in removing the earth and stones from the floor 
 in the basement of the now destroyed choir screen, at the 
 entrance to the choir. These jars were laid in mortar on 
 their sides, and then surrounded with the solid stonework, 
 " their necks extending from the wall like cannons from the 
 side of a ship." This was, in all probability, an acoustic 
 contrivance similar to those already mentioned, but several 
 explanations have been suggested for their existence. 
 According to one conjecture, these jars were used to 
 burn incense, but their mouths must have been hidden when 
 the stalls were standing. Another solution is that they 
 were intended to receive the ashes of the heart, or some 
 other portion of the body, in case a canon attached to the 
 
 * **Jour. of Arch. Assoc," xxxviii. 38, 219; see Transactions of 
 Royal Institute of British Architects, May 29, 1854. 
 
ACOUSTIC JARS AND HORSES' SKULLS. 73 
 
 church should will that any part of his remains should be 
 so deposited.* 
 
 Acoustic jars were also found some years ago in the walls 
 of St. Mar/s Church, Youghal, in the course of restoration. 
 In the process of repairs the old plastering was hacked off 
 the walls, and there was discovered at the western end of 
 the north wall of the chancel, and at about twenty-five feet 
 from the ground, a series of orifices, five in number, each 
 formed in a piece of freestone, and varying from three to 
 six inches in diameter, and which were found to be vents of 
 an equal number of earthenware jars, placed immediately 
 behind them, and imbedded in the masonry; the vessels 
 were placed in irregular distances from each other. On 
 examination, the jars were found to be lying on their sides, 
 perfectly empty, some being well glazed, others unglazed. 
 Subsequently, five similar jars, but of a smaller size, were 
 discovered in the same position at the opposite side of the 
 chancel.t "These orifices are now open," writes Mr. 
 Richard Rolt Brash, J ''and the arrangement restored to its 
 original purpose, and I can testify to the effect produced by 
 these acoustic jars. I have frequently worshipped in the 
 church, and have been many times struck with the fact that 
 when kneeling at the extreme end of the north transept, I 
 could hear most distinctly the Communion Service, though 
 read by a person of very moderate power.. The voice 
 appeared to have a peculiarly sonorous and ringing tone. 
 The hearing in other parts of the church was equally 
 satisfactory." 
 
 Numerous instances of this practice have been found 
 abroad, as in Strasburg Cathedral In 1842, in the church 
 
 • See the "Yorkshire Archaeological and Typographical Journal," 
 (1875, 1-7). 
 
 t " Proceedings and Transactions of the Kilkenny and South East of 
 Ireland Archaeological Society" (1854-5), iii. 303. 
 
 X GentlematCs Magazine (1863), xv. new series, 752. 
 
74 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 of St. Blaise, at Aries, a number of horn-shaped earthenware 
 jars and pots were discovered built into the walls,* and in 
 the vaulting of St. Martin's, at Angers ; and in the walls of 
 St. Jacques et les Innocents, at Paris, similar jars have been 
 found, f 
 
 Occasionally the skulls of horses have been found in 
 sacred buildings ; the popular idea being that, like earthen- 
 ware jars, they were built in for acoustic purposes ; although 
 it has been suggested that the remains of sheep and horses 
 found under the floors of churches, indicate the traces of 
 heathen sacrifices on the spot in earlier times. Some years 
 ago, *'a horse's head was placed under the organ in a parish 
 church in Munster, to give increased effect to the music ; " 
 "a superstition," writes a correspondent of Notes and 
 Queries (4th S. iii. 564), " very prevalent in the county Clare. 
 Near the old mansion of R ', where I spent some of the 
 years of my childhood, was a field in which was a very fine 
 echo. This was invariably attributed to the skull of a horse 
 which had lived on the estate for thirty years, and which 
 was buried in that field. I remember well finding the skull, 
 and carrying it away from the field, with noninjury to the 
 powers of the echo." In the bell turret of Elsdon Church, 
 Northumberland, there were found built into the masonry 
 three skulls of horses. Horses' skulls, too, have frequently 
 been put into the sounding boards over the heads of Pres- 
 byterian ministers in Scotland ; and when an old meeting- 
 house in Bristo Street, Edinburgh, was taken down in the 
 early part of the present century, to make room for the 
 church, the old sounding-board above the pulpit was found 
 filled with horses' skulls. J 
 
 * ** Annales Archeologiques," vol. xxii. 
 
 t See Gentleman's Magazine^ Nov., 1863 ; and the Builder (1863), 
 xxi. 820; (1864), 1 7. 1 
 
 X Notes and Queries^ 4th series, iv. 66 ; 6th series, i. 424. 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BELLS AND BELFRIES. 
 
 For nearly fourteen centuries the bell has been employed 
 by the church ; and, consecrated to Christian purposes, its 
 sound has penetrated to the most distant regions of the 
 globe. From its airy height in the old church-tower, " it 
 gives a tongue to time which would otherwise pass over our 
 heads as silently as the clouds, and lends a warning to its 
 perpetual flight. It is the voice of rejoicing at festivals, at 
 christenings, at marriages, and of mourning at the departure 
 of the soul." * Hence, it is fraught with memorial associations 
 of every kind, and — 
 
 " O, what a preacher is the time-worn tower, 
 Reading great sermons with its iron tongue ! " 
 
 An important ceremony, in early times, was the bene- 
 diction or naming of the church bell ; and in this, we are 
 told, " the ecclesiastics followed all the ceremonies em- 
 ployed in the christening of children." It was carried to the ^ 
 font, it had godfathers and godmothers, was sprinkled witliP 
 water, was anointed with oil, and was finally covered with 
 the white garment, or chrisom, which in the Roman 
 Catholic ritual was put upon infants at the conclusion of 
 the rite, as an emblem of innocence. Nothing could exceed 
 
 * Quarterly Review (1854), xcv. 309. 
 
76 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 the pomp and solemnity of the service. "Costly feasts 
 were given, and even in poor villages a hundred gold 
 crowns were sometimes spent on the ceremony." The 
 custom continued in England down to the Reformation, 
 and an instance occurs in the churchwardens' accounts of 
 St. Lawrence, Reading, in 1499 • * 
 
 " Payed for halowing of the bell named Harry, v]s. viijV. 
 And over that, Sir William Symes, Richard Clech, and 
 Mistress Smyth, being godfaders and godmoder at the 
 consecracyon of the same bell, and berying all other costs 
 to the suffragan." 
 
 Superstition soon enlisted bells into her service, and it 
 became customary at their benediction to pray that they 
 might be endowed with power to drive away devils, and 
 dissipate thunderstorms, hail, and tempests. It was sup- 
 posed that evil spirits were the cause of foul weather, and 
 being terrified at the saintly sound of the bells, they pre- 
 cipitately fled. This was one of the delusions which 
 Latimer exposed at the Reformation. "Ye know," he 
 said, " when there was a storm or fearful weather, then we 
 rung the holy bells ; they were they that must make all 
 things well ; they must drive away the devil ! But I tell 
 you, if the holy bells would serve against the devil, or that 
 he might be put away through their sound, no doubt we 
 would soon banish him out of all England ; for I think, if 
 all the bells in England should be rung together at a certain 
 hour, there would be almost no place but some bells might 
 be heard there, and so the devil should have no abiding 
 place in England." Numerous allusions to the practice 
 occur in old manuscripts, and in various churchwardens* 
 accounts payments are to be found for ''ringing the 
 hallowed belle in grete tempestes and lightninges," for 
 " ringing in the thundering ; " for the ringers' refreshments 
 
 * Quarterly Review (1854), xcv. 315, 316. 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 77 
 
 for " ringeing att the tyme of gret thunder," and the like. 
 Aubrey, in his " Miscellanies," says that it was once cus- 
 tomary, whenever it thundered and lightened, to ring St. 
 Adh elm's Bell at Malmesbury Abbey; and Wynkin de 
 Worde tells us that bells were rung during thunderstorms, 
 to the end that fiends and wicked spirits should be abashed, 
 and flee and cease the moving of the tempest. 
 
 But that bells are no effectual charm against lightning, 
 writes Dr. Fuller, " the frequent firing of abbey churches by 
 lightning, confuteth the proud motto commonly written on 
 the bells in their steeples, wherein each entitleth itself to a 
 sixfold [efficacy." 1 The belief, however, was widespread, 
 and allusions, like in the following lines formerly suspended 
 in the belfry at Gulval, Cornwall, were frequent — 
 
 ** Good sirs ! our meaning is not small 
 That God to praise assemblies call ; 
 And warn the sluggard when at home, 
 That he may with devotion come 
 Unto the church and joyn in prayer ; 
 Of absolution take his share. 
 Who hears the bells, appears betime, 
 And in his seat against we chime. 
 Therefore I'd have you not to vapour, 
 Nor blame y* lads that use the Clapper. 
 By which are scar'd the fiends of hell, 
 And all by virtue of a bell." 
 
 On the eve of the feast of Corpus Christi, the choristers of 
 Durham Cathedral ascend the tower, and in their surplices sing 
 the Te Deum. This ceremony is in commemoration of the 
 miraculous extinguishing of a conflagration on that night, a.d. 
 1429. The monks were at midnight prayer when the belfry 
 was struck by lightning and set on fire ; but although the fire 
 raged all that night, and until the middle of the next day, 
 the tower escaped serious damage, and the bells remained 
 uninjured; an escape that was attributed to the special 
 
78 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 influence of the incorruptible St. Cuthbert enshrined in the 
 cathedral* So late as 1852, the Bishop of Malta ordered 
 all the church bells to be rung for an hour to allay a gale, 
 and in many places when the superstition had ceased, " the 
 practice was kept up from mere habit, there having grown 
 up in lieu thereof a notion that the ringing of bells dispersed 
 storms, or retained them at a distance by moving the air." f 
 
 The supposed potency of bells in terrifying spirits explains 
 other virtues and supernatural tales associated with them. 
 The bell of St. Fillan, which belonged to the old chapel at 
 Killin, in Perthshire, was reputed to cure lunacy. After 
 the patient had dipped in the well or pool of St. Fillan, and 
 passed a night in the chapel, the bell, if he survived, was 
 set on his head in the morning with great solemnity, and 
 his wits returned. It was further believed that if this in- 
 valuable specific was stolen, it would extricate itself from the 
 hands of the thief, and return from whence it was taken, 
 ringing all the way. The same power was attributed to a 
 bell in Leinster. A chieftain of Wicklow got possession of 
 it, and he was obliged to tie it with a cord to prevent its 
 escaping to its home, at St. Fillan's church, in Meath. 
 
 A similar story is told of the bell of St. Illtyd. The 
 legend runs that a certain king had stolen it from the 
 church, and carried it to England, tied about the neck of 
 one of his horses. For this deed, " the king was destroyed, 
 but, repenting before his death, he ordered the bell to be 
 restored to its place in Wales. Without waiting to be 
 driven, the horse with the bell about his neck set out 
 for Wales, followed by a whole drove of horses, drawn 
 by the melodious sound of the bell. The horse was even 
 able to cross the river Severn, and make its entry into 
 AVales, the other horses following. Then, hastening 
 
 • " Book of Days," ii. 49. 
 t Quarterly Review^ xcv. 329. 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 79 
 
 along the shore, and over the mountains, and through 
 the woods, it finally reached the banks of the river Taf, 
 when a clergyman, hearing the sweet sound of the bell, 
 went out to meet the horse, and helped in carrying the bell 
 to the gate of St. Illtyd's Church." Then the horse bent 
 down and loosed his precious burden from his neck, 
 and "it fell on a stone, from which fall a part of it was 
 broken." * 
 
 Another story tells how Clothaire II. carried off a bell 
 from Soissons, in Burgundy, which resented its removal in 
 an effectual manner. It became dumb on the road, and 
 when it arrived at Paris its voice was gone. On being sent 
 back to its old quarters, it no sooner approached the town 
 than it recovered its tone, and rang so loudly that it was 
 heard while yet seven miles distant. 
 
 Speaking of stolen bells, about 1830, the treble bell at 
 Cherington, Gloucestershire, was stolen and set up in 
 Avening Tower to make a ring of six. The culprits were 
 discovered, convicted, and punished. A vulgar error pre- 
 vailed in the locality that if a bell could be taken from one 
 tower and put up in another without the offender being 
 caught in the act, there was no redress. The following 
 song used to be sung in the village in memory of this 
 event — 
 
 " Those Cherington bells, those Cherington bells, 
 "What a sad tale their jingling tells ! 
 Alas ! their now imperfect chime 
 Proclaims our folly and our crime. 
 
 *' Our hours of sport have passed away, 
 Our hearts now droop that once were gay, 
 For we are confined in these dreary cells. 
 For taking one of the Cherington bells. 
 
 • Wirt Sikes, " British Goblins," 342, 343. 
 
8o CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 *• Little was it supposed by us, 
 The matter would have ended thus, 
 And doubtless all would have been well 
 Had we restored the furtive bell. 
 
 * ' But we, alas ! fools as we were, 
 Carried the silly joke too far ; 
 And this famed bell, tradition says, 
 Belonged to us in former days. 
 
 ** And was purloined from Avening Tower 
 A century ago or more. 
 And thence convey'd to Cotswold Hills, 
 And placed among the Cherington bells. 
 
 " This absurd story we believed. 
 But we're egregiously deceived, 
 For its inscription plainly tells 
 'Twas always one of the Cherington bells, 
 
 " Sorry we are for what we've done. 
 We're paying dearly for our fun ; 
 Oh, that we were out of the cells. 
 We'd ne'er again take Cherington bells." 
 
 In October, 1844, a bell was stolen from the church 
 steeple of Glyssop, Derbyshire; and, in December, 1856, 
 the fifth bell at Church Brampton, Northamptonshire, dis- 
 appeared. It was unhung at the time, and lay on the 
 tower floor. Some men broke open the door, rolled the 
 bell down the churchyard into a cart, and took it away, 
 nothing having been heard of it since. In May, 1803, a 
 bell was stolen from the Abbey Church of Pershore, Wor- 
 cestershire, and, on May 24, 1863, it was discovered that 
 the second bell, weighing about five cwt, was missing from 
 the tower of Worcester Cathedral.* 
 
 In Spelman's " History of Sacrilege " will be found some 
 curious stories relating to the sacrilege of bells. " When I 
 
 • H. T. EUacombe, "The Church Bells of Gloucestershire " (1881), 
 144- 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 8i 
 
 was a child," he writes, "I heard much talk of the pulUng 
 down of bells in every part of my country, the county of 
 Norfolk, then common in memory; and the sum of the 
 speech usually was, that in sending them over sea, some 
 were drowned in one haven, some in another, as at Lynn, 
 Wells, or Yarmouth. I dare not venture upon particulars, 
 for that, I then hearing it as a child, regarded it as a child. 
 But the truth of it was lately discovered by God himself, 
 for that in the year .... He sending such a dead neap 
 (as they call it) as no man living was known to have seen 
 the like, the sea fell so far back from the land at Hun- 
 stanton, that the people going much further to gather 
 oysters than they had done at any time before, they there 
 found a bell with the mouth upward, sunk into the ground 
 to the very brim. They carried the news thereof to Sir 
 Hamon L' Estrange, lord of the town, and of wreck and sea- 
 right there, who shortly after sought to have weighed up 
 and gained the bell ; but the sea never since going so far 
 back, they hitherto could not find the place again." 
 
 *' In the reign of King Henry VHI., there was a clockier, 
 or bell-house, adjoining to St. Paul's Church, in London, 
 with four very great bells in it, called Jesus bells. Sir Miles 
 Partridge, a courtier, once played at dice with the king for 
 these bells, staking ;£"ioo against them, and won them, and 
 then melted and sold them to a very great gain. But in the 
 fifth year of King Edward VL this gamester had worse 
 fortune, when he lost his life, being executed on Tower 
 Hill, for matters concerning the Duke of Somerset. 
 
 "In the year of our Lord 1541, Arthur Bulkley, Bishop 
 of Bangor, sacrilegiously sold the first five bells belonging 
 to the cathedral, and went to the seaside to see them 
 shipped away, but at that instance he was stricken blind, 
 and so continued to the day of his death." 
 
 Spelman further relates his discourse when dining with 
 
82 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 "my lord of Canterbury," who told him how, when he 
 was in Scotland, he visited certain churches, but found the 
 bells had disappeared from them. " In Edinburgh," he 
 added, " there was no bell in that city, save only in the 
 Church of St. Andrew. And inquiring what had become 
 of the rest, it was told him that they were shipped to be 
 carried into the low countries, but were drowned in Leith 
 haven." 
 
 But returning to the mystic powers belonging to bells, 
 it would seem that they strongly resent any sacrilegious or 
 profane act. " To this day the tower of Forrabury Church, 
 Cornwall, or, as it has been called by Mr. Hawker, " the 
 silent tower of Bottreaux," remains without bells. It ap- 
 pears that many years ago the inhabitants of Forrabury 
 parish determined to have a peal of bells which should rival 
 those of the neighbouring church of Tintagel. The bells 
 were cast, blessed, and shipped for Forrabury ; and as the 
 ship, after a favourable voyage, glided along the northern 
 shores of Cornwall, the pilot, on hearing the vesper bells at 
 Tintagel, thanked God for the safe and quick journey they 
 had made. The captain laughed at his superstition, and 
 swearing that all was due to himself and his men, laughed 
 to scorn the pilot's prayer. But while yet the captain's 
 oaths were heard, a huge swelUng of the ocean was seen, 
 and as it rolled in towards the shore, overwhelming every- 
 thing by its weight and force, the ship sunk in an instant 
 close to land, beneath its fury. As the vessel sank, the 
 bells were heard tolling with a muffled peal ; and ever since, 
 when storms are at hand, their sound is still audible from 
 beneath the waves. * 
 
 A similar legend is told of Jersey. Many years ago 
 " the twelve parish churches in that island possessed each a 
 valuable peal of bells, but during a long civil war, the bells 
 
 * Hunt's *' Popular Romances of the West of England," 438, 439. 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 83 
 
 were sold to defray the expenses of the troops. The bells 
 were sent to France, but on the passage the ship foundered, 
 and everything was lost, to show the wrath of Heaven at such 
 a sacrilege. Since then, during a storm, these bells always 
 ring from the deep ; and to this day the fishermen of St 
 Ouen's Bay always go to the edge of the water before 
 embarking, to listen if they can hear the bells, for, if so, 
 nothing will induce them to leave the shore." In the same 
 way, too, where churches have been swallowed up, their 
 bells are still said to send out their wonted music on 
 certain occasions from the depths of the earth, or from 
 beneath the waters. According to a tradition at Tunstall, 
 in Norfolk, the parson and churchwardens disputed for the 
 possession of some bells, which had become useless because 
 the tower was burnt. During their altercation, the arch- 
 fiend walked off with the bells, but being pursued by the 
 parson, who begun to exorcise in Latin, he dived into the 
 earth with his ponderous burden, and the place where he 
 disappeared is a boggy pool of water, called Hell Hole. 
 Notwithstanding " the aversion of the powers of darkness 
 to such sounds, even these bells are sometimes permitted to 
 favour their native place with a ghostly peal." 
 
 Near Blackpool, about two miles out at sea, tradition 
 tells us, once stood the church and cemetery of Kilgrimol, 
 long ago submerged. Even now, the melancholy chimes of 
 the bells sounding over the restless waters may oftentimes, 
 the sailors say, be heard, especially in rough and tem- 
 pestuous weather. 
 
 At Echingham, Sussex, there is a singular tradition. 
 The church was originally closed by a moat, a remarkable 
 appendage to a sanctuary, but turning to the rude old times 
 when in seasons of war and civil commotion men turned 
 the house of God into a fortress. At the bottom of this 
 moat there lies, says the legend, a great bell. How it 
 
84 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 came there is not known, nor will it ever be seen by mortal 
 eyes till six yoke of oxen shall be brought to the spot to 
 bring it again to daylight.* 
 
 At a place known as Fisherty Brow, near Kirby Lonsdale, 
 there is a sort of natural hollow scooped out, where, as the 
 legend runs, a church, parson, and congregation, were 
 swallowed up, and here the bells may be heard ringing on a 
 Sunday morning by any one who puts his ear to the ground. 
 A similar fate is said to have befallen the village of Raleigh, 
 in Nottinghamshire, and it was formerly customary for the 
 inhabitants on Christmas morning to go out into the valley, 
 and listen to the mysterious chimes of their lost parish church. 
 
 Whitby Abbey was suppressed in the year 1539, and 
 shortly afterwards dismantled. The bells were sold, and 
 were to be conveyed by ship to London. They were 
 duly placed on board, and, amid the lamentation of the 
 people, the sails were unfurled, and the anchor weighed. 
 But lo ! the vessel refused to bear away its sacred burden. 
 A short distance it moved out into the bay, and then sank 
 quietly beneath the waves ; and there under the waters, 
 at a spot within sight of the abbey ruins, the bells still 
 remain, and are still heard occasionally to ring by invisible 
 hands. This legend has been poetically described by Mr. 
 Phillips t— 
 
 " Up from the heart of the ocean 
 The mellow music peals, 
 "Where the sunlight makes its golden path, 
 And the seamew flits and wheels. 
 
 " For many a chequered century, 
 Untired by flying time, 
 The bells no human fingers touch, 
 Have rung their hidden chime." 
 
 * "Sussex Arch38ological Society," xiv. 227. 
 
 t Rev. Thomas Parkinson, " Legend and Traditions of Yorkshire." 
 
r 
 
 BELLS AND BELFRIES. *5 
 
 A pretty legend is told of the cathedral bells of Limerick. 
 It is said that the bells were cast by an Italian founder for 
 a monastery near his home, which was destroyed when his 
 three sons fell together on the fatal field of Pavia. Years 
 after, he came an exile to Ireland; on his reaching 
 the Shannon, the evening was closing in, when from the 
 square tower of St. Mary rang out a rich peal of melody. 
 One note was enough ; the aged stranger, with arms folded 
 on his beating heart, leaned forward to catch the magical 
 music of the chime ; it was the well-remembered sound of 
 his own dear bells, with their thousand agonizing memories 
 of Florence, that had arrested his ear. 
 
 The subjoined rhyme relating to the tower and bells of 
 Mevagissey, Cornwall, is current in the neighbourhood — 
 
 " Ye men of Porthilly, 
 Why were ye so silly ? 
 In having so little power ; 
 Ye sold every bell 
 As Govan men tell, 
 For money to pull down your tower." 
 
 The bell is hung above the lower stage of the tower, 
 which is the only part remaining. At Berwick, Sussex, out 
 of four bells in 1724, only one remains. In 181 1 three were 
 sold, one to Alfreston, and two as old metal. Hence it is 
 said — 
 
 *' The parson was poor and so were the people, 
 So they sold the bell to repair the steeple." 
 
 At Crosmere, near EUesmere, Shropshire, a chapel is 
 said to have stood on the banks of the lake, and according 
 to the superstitio loci^ whenever the waters were ruffled by 
 the wind, the chapel bells were formerly supposed to be 
 heard ringing beneath the surface. Many more such 
 traditions, slightly varied, might be mentioned, as, for 
 instance, one at Romford, Essex. The old church of St. 
 
86 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Andrew's, pulled down nearly four centuries and a half ago, 
 stood about half a mile from the town on a- site in some 
 meadows, still called "Old Church." The legend went, 
 that every year, on St. Andrew's Day, at noon, the bells 
 were still heard pealing merrily from Old Church.* To 
 quote another instance recorded by Mr. Hunt,t it appears 
 that once there stood on the northern shores of Cornwall, 
 a city called Langarrow, which in its best days possessed 
 seven churches, each of which was famous for its size and 
 beauty. The inhabitants were wealthy, deriving their 
 riches from the fertility of the land, which yielded them an 
 abundance of tin and lead, and from the sea, which was 
 overflowing with fish. To this city criminals were sent from 
 various parts of the country, and made to work in the 
 mines. Unhappily their proximity had a bad effect upon 
 the people, who gave way to sinful pursuits and pleasures. 
 Accordingly the wrath of God eventually descended upon 
 them, and one night a violent tempest arose, raging with 
 unabated fury for three days and nights : at the end of this 
 time the city had entirely disappeared, being buried beneath 
 the sandhills which the wind had heaped together on that 
 ill-fated spot. 
 
 Legends of this kind show how widely bells were regarded 
 with superstitious fear in olden times ; their occult powers 
 having suggested most of the tales of wonder related of them. 
 A legend of Trefethin tells how in the Church of St. Cadoc 
 was a remarkable bell. " A little child who had climbed to 
 the belfry was struck by the bell and killed — not through 
 the wickedness of the bell itself — but through a spell which 
 had been put upon it by an evil spirit. But though innocent 
 of murderous intent, the wretched bell became forfeit to the 
 demons on account of its fatal deed. They seized it, and 
 
 * Notes and Queries ^ 2nd series, xi. 421. 
 
 t ** Popular Romances of the West of England. " 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 87 
 
 bore it down through the earth to the shadowy realm of 
 Annism, and ever since that day, when a child is accident- 
 ally slain at Trefethin, the bell of St Cadoc is heard 
 mournfully tolling underneath the ground where it dis- 
 appeared ages ago."* 
 
 A Ledbury legend relates that St. Katharine had a reve- 
 lation that she was to travel about, and not rest at any 
 place till she heard the bells ringing of their own accord. 
 This was done by the Ledbury bells on her approaching the 
 town. At Abbot's Morton there is a tradition that the 
 silver bells belonging to the abbot are buried in the site 
 of his old residence there. 
 
 It was, it has been suggested, its reputed power in scaring 
 away evil spirits that caused the bell to be employed in all 
 the matters in which fiends were supposed to interfere. It 
 was the weapon with which St. Anthony fought the legion of 
 demons who tormented him during his long eremitical life, 
 and, in the figures drawn of him during the Middle Ages, he 
 is generally represented wnth a bell in his hand, or with one 
 suspended from his staff. Hence, too, the passing-bell, 
 which was formerly tolled for those who were dying, or 
 passing out of the world, as well as the peal which was 
 rung after their death, ** grew out of the belief that devils 
 troubled the expiring patient, and lay in wait to afflict the 
 soul at the moment when it escape from the body."t 
 Douce considers that the passing-bell was originally 
 intended to drive away any demon that might seek to take 
 possession of the soul of the deceased ; and Grose says it 
 " was anciently rung for two purposes : one to bespeak the 
 prayers of all good christians for a soul just departing ; the 
 other to drive away the evil spirits who stood at the bed's 
 foot and about the house, ready to seize their prey, or at 
 
 * Wirt Sikes, "British Goblins," 339, 340. 
 t Quarterly Review^ xcv. 331, 332. 
 
SS CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 least to molest and terrify the soul in its passage ; but by the 
 ringing of that bell they were kept aloof, and the soul, like 
 a hunted hare, gained the start." This would seem to 
 explain a Huntingdonshire superstition recorded in Notes 
 and Queries (ist series, v. 364): "An unbaptized child 
 was buried, a neighbour expressed great sorrow for the 
 mother because * no bell had been rung over the corpse.' 
 The reason she gave was * because when any one died, the 
 soul never left the body until the church bell was rung.' " 
 
 Prior to the Reformation, it was customary to toll the pass- 
 ing-bell at all hours of the night as well as by day, as the 
 subjoined extract from the churchwardens' accounts for the 
 parish of Walchurch proves : " Item, the clerke to have for 
 tollynge of the passynge-belle, for manne, womanne, or 
 childe, if it be in the day, iiijV. Item, if it be in the night, 
 for the same, viij^." At one time the sound of the passing- 
 bell was heard in every parish, and in most of the 
 visitation articles the custom was enjoined. The practice 
 was retained at the Reformation, " and the people were 
 instructed that its use was to admonish the living, and incite 
 them to pray for the dying. To discourage the fancy that 
 demons could assault the liberated soul, or that the jingling 
 of bells would deter them from their purpose, only a single 
 short peal was to be rung after death. In the articles of 
 inquiry in different dioceses at various periods, inquisition is 
 made both as to keeping up the practice of tolling the pass- 
 ing-bell, and the discontinuance of the former superstitious 
 ringing. The injunction began to be neglected towards the 
 close of the seventeenth century, and by the beginning of 
 the eighteenth the passing-beU, in the proper sense of 
 the term, had almost ceased to be heard. The tolling, 
 indeed, continued in the old fashion, but it took place after 
 the death instead of before. The short peal that was once 
 the peculiar signal to announce that some mortal had put 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 89 
 
 on immortality, is still rung in many places as the prelude, 
 or the conclusion, to the tolling, though it has no longer any 
 meaning." * 
 
 A melancholy instance of this custom was St. Sepulchre's 
 bell. In 1605, Mr. R. Dowe left J[,^o to this parish, on 
 condition that a person should go to Newgate in the still of 
 the night before every execution-day, and, standing as near 
 as possible to the cells of the condemned, should, with a 
 hand-bell (which he also left), give twelve solemn tolls, 
 with double strokes, and then deliver this exhortation — 
 
 ** All you that in the condemned hole do lie. 
 Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die ; 
 Watch, all, and pray, the hour is drawing near 
 That you before the Almighty must appear ; 
 Examine well yourselves, in time repent, 
 That you may not to eternal flames be sent, 
 And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls, 
 The Lord have mercy on your souls! 
 
 Past twelve o'clock." 
 
 Dowe likewise ordered that the great bell of the church 
 should toll on the morning, and that as the criminals passed 
 the wall to Tyburn, the bellman or sexton should look over 
 and say, " All good people pray heartily unto God for these 
 poor sinners, who are now going to their death," for which 
 service he was to receive £^\ ds, S^.f 
 
 The importance attached to the church bell from its 
 sacred use, and superstitious veneration, may be gathered 
 from the directions for the bell-ringers to be found in most 
 belfries. Most of these, set to rhyme, are much the same, 
 varying in phraseology rather than in detail, a few speci- 
 mens of which we quote below. On the south side of the 
 belfry of Homsey church these lines are written — 
 
 * Quarterly Review^ xcv. 331, 332. 
 t Mr. John Dowe according to Stow. 
 
90 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 ** If that to ring you do come here, 
 You must ring well with hand and ear ; 
 If that you ring in spur or hat, 
 A quart of ale must pay for that. 
 And if a bell you overthrow, 
 Sixpence is due before you go. 
 And if you curse or swear, I say, 
 A shilling's due without delay ; 
 And if you quarill {sic) in this place, 
 You shall not ring in any case. " 
 
 On the wall of the tower of Landnlph Church, Cornwall, 
 these rhymes occur — 
 
 ** Let awful silence first proclaimed be. 
 And praise unto the Holy Trinity ; 
 Then honour give unto our noble king. 
 So with a blessing let us raise this ring — 
 And Covering Tom comes rowling in the rear. 
 And now the bells are up, come, let us see 
 "What laws are best to keep sobriety. 
 "Who swears, or curses, or in a choleric mood. 
 Quarrels, or strikes, although he draw no blood ; 
 "Who wears his hat or spur, or overturns a bell. 
 Or by unskilful handling mars a peal ; 
 Let him pay sixpence for each single crime, 
 'Twill make him cautious 'gainst another time. 
 But if the Sexton's fault an hindrance be, 
 "We call from him a double penalty. 
 If any should our Parson disrespect. 
 Or "Warden's orders any time neglect. 
 Let him be always held in full disgrace, 
 And evermore be banished this place. 
 So when the bells are ceased, then let us sing — 
 God bless the Church — God save the King." 
 
 At All Saints, Hastings, the rules are dated 1756, and 
 supply another version — 
 
 " This is the belfry that is free 
 To all those that civil be ; 
 And if you please to chime or ring. 
 It is a very pleasant thing. 
 
} 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 BELLS AND BELFRIES. 91 
 
 " There is no musick, play'd or sung, 
 
 Like unto bells when they're well rung ; 
 Then ring your bells well if you can — 
 Silence is best for every man. 
 
 " But if you ring in spur or hat, 
 
 Sixpence you pay, be sure of that ; 
 And if a bell you overthrow. 
 
 Pray pay a groat before you go." 
 
 The following were the bell-ringing regulations at Hather- 
 sage Church, area 1650 — 
 
 *' You gentlemen that here wish to ring, 
 See that these laws you keep in everything ; 
 Or else be sure you must without delay, 
 The penalty thereof to the ringers pay. 
 
 " First, when you do into the bell house come, 
 Look if the ringers have convenient room ; 
 For if you be an hindrance unto them, 
 Fourpence you forfeit unto these gentlemen. 
 
 " Next, if you do here intend to ring. 
 With hat or spur, do not touch a string ; 
 For if you do, your forfeit is for that 
 Just fourpence down to pay, or lose your hat, 
 
 " If you a bell turn over, without delay 
 Fourpence unto the ringers you must pay ; 
 Or if you strike, miscall, or do abuse. 
 You must pay fourpence for the ringers* use. 
 
 " For every oath here sworn, ere you go hence, 
 Unto the poor then you must pay twelvepence ; 
 And if that you desire to be enrolled 
 A ringer here, these orders keep and hold. 
 
 ** But whoso doth these orders disobey. 
 Unto the stocks we will take him straightway ; 
 There to remain until he be willing 
 To pay his forfeit and the Clerk a shilling." 
 
 In the belfry of St Michael's, Gloucester, there are ten 
 panels, with an ornamentally painted frame, on which are 
 
92 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 written some doggerel verses in praise of ringing. From 
 internal evidence of the spelling, etc., the composition is 
 probably two hundred years old. They conclude thus — 
 
 ** Ring up, ringers ! make your Numbers, 
 Why so Clammes we say he slumbers, 
 For his rope-mates he much cumbers — 
 Nicholas. 
 
 " He that plyes his Rope aright. 
 And guides his Bell by ear, not sight, 
 He is (be it by day or night) 
 
 A ringer. 
 
 " Come, Boyes, cleanely in and out, 
 Keepe true Stroke at every Bout, 
 And then I'll say y'are out of doubt 
 
 True changers. " * 
 
 Whatever the origin of the Curfew, or Couvre-feu, which 
 was in olden times rung at eight o'clock as a signal for the 
 inhabitants to put out their fires and go to bed, its object, 
 as far as can be traced, was exclusively social or political, 
 and not religious. The most plausible conjecture as to the 
 origin of the introduction of the practice into England, 
 is that it was to diminish the risk of extensive conflagrations, 
 at a period when houses were principally of wood. Milton, 
 it has been remarked, has described it in a couplet sonorous 
 and musical as the bell itself — 
 
 ** On a plat of rising ground, 
 I hear the far-off curfew sound. 
 Over some wide, watered shore. 
 Swinging slow, with solemn roar." 
 
 It is an instance, too, of the tenacity with which we cling 
 to a practice once established, that, though for centuries its 
 only use has been "to toll the knell of parting day," it 
 
 • H. T. EUacombe, "The Church Bells of Gloucestershire" (1881), 
 144. 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 93 
 
 continues to be rung wherever there are funds to pay the 
 ringer, for which purpose we find many curious bequests. 
 Thus, at Barton, Lincolnshire, the tradition goes that an 
 old lady, being accidentally benighted on the Wolds, was 
 directed in her course by the sound of the evening bell 
 of St Peter's church, when, after much alarm, she found 
 herself in safety. Out of gratitude she gave a certain piece 
 of land to the parish clerk, on condition that he should ring 
 one of the church bells from seven to eight every evening, 
 except Sundays, commencing on the day of the carrying of 
 the first load of barley in every year, till Shrove Tuesday 
 next ensuing inclusive. At Ringwould, Kent, half an acre 
 of land, known as " Curfew Land," has always been held, 
 says Edwards, in his " Remarkable Charities" (226), by the 
 parish clerk, as a remuneration for ringing the curfew bell 
 every evening from the 2nd of November to the 2nd of 
 February. In the parish of St. Margaret's, in the same 
 county, the story goes that, in 1696, an order was passed to 
 ensure the proper application of the proceeds of five roods 
 of pasture land, which had been given by a shepherd, who 
 fell over the cliff, for ringing a curfew bell at eight o'clock 
 every night for the winter half-year, and which ringing had 
 fallen greatly into neglect. Many similar bequests occur 
 in different parts of the country, and, here and there, the 
 old custom still lingers on. 
 
 Then there was the Sanctus BelL According to Dr. 
 Rock in the " Church of our Fathers," at the celebration 
 of the Mass, **as the priest said the Sanctus, etc., the 
 custom was to toll three strokes on a bell, which was hung 
 in a bell cote between the chancel and the nave, that the 
 rope might fall at a short distance from the spot where 
 knelt the youth, or person, who served at Mass. From the 
 first part of its use, this bell got the name of the * Saints,' 
 * Sanctys,' or * Sanctus ' Bell, and many notices about it 
 
94 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 are to be met with in old accounts." It is very likely, he 
 adds, "in most places there were two distinct bells, one 
 for the * Sanctus,' the other for the * Elevation.' Some- 
 times it was made of silver, and was called the * Sacring ' 
 bell. On hearing the Sacring bell's first tinkle, those in 
 church who were not already on their knees knelt down, 
 and with upraised hands worshipped their Maker in the 
 holy housel lifted on high before them." 
 
 " In the Church of Brokenborough, Wilts," writes Aubrey, 
 " an old man told me that his father, who died twenty-four 
 years since, was one hundred and ten at his death, and 
 remembered in the time of the old law eighteen little bells 
 that hung in the middle of the church, which the pulling 
 of one wheel made them all ring, which was done at the 
 Elevation of the Host." At Yaxley, Suffolk, and at Long 
 Stratton, Norfolk, there are in pairs ornamental iron discs 
 of mediaeval character, supposed to be the remains of such 
 wheels. In the neighbourhood of Canterbury the Sanctus 
 bell was popularly known as the "Wakerell" or "Wagerell" 
 bell, in inventories of 1 5 5 2. In the churchwardens' accounts 
 of St. Andrew's are these entries — 
 
 " 15 10. Paid for a cord for the wakrell. 
 
 ''1517. For the makyng of a whylle to the wakrell." 
 
 In some parishes a bell is rung at noon, in others at 
 one o'clock, or on the close of morning service, respecting 
 the origin of which custom there is some uncertainty. Dr. 
 Rock * says, " The bell which is still rung in some parishes 
 in the morning, at noon, and in the evening — though 
 its origin is forgotten, and it now only serves to summon 
 the labourers to and from their work — is in reality a relic 
 of the Angelus. The length of the ringing was regulated 
 by the time it took the ringer to repeat the Ave and Fater 
 Noster. The Angelus, or midday bell, came into use early 
 * "Church of our Fathers," iii. 340. 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES, 95 
 
 in the sixteenth century." In Barker's " Wensleydale " 
 (42), the bell is spoken of as the ** Gabriel Bell," and we 
 are informed that "the sexton used to ring it morning, 
 noon, and evening every day, as a bidding to the people, 
 to the sick in bed, and to the healthy, to those at home and 
 to those abroad, that they should, as the sound floated 
 through the villages — the maiden in her cottage and the 
 labourer in the field — reverently kneel and recite the 
 allotted prayers, in remembrance of Christ's Incarnation for 
 us, viz. Angelus Domini^ etc. (hence it was called the Angelus 
 Bell), and Ave Marta, etc (hence called the Ave Bell)." 
 
 Another name for it was the " Pardon Bell," and, 
 according to Burnet, in his " Reformation " (iii. 147, fol. 
 edit), it was silenced by Shaxton, Bishop of Sarum, in 
 1538: "That the bell called the Pardon, or Ave Bell, 
 which of long time hath been used to be tolled three tymes 
 after and before Divine service, be not hereafter in any 
 part of my diocese any more tolly d." Mr. H. T. Ella- 
 combe, alluding to the custom, says : " I think it will be 
 found to have had its origin in early times, and for holy 
 purposes, well understood by the faithful of those days ; for 
 very early in the thirteenth century a bell entitled 'Ave 
 Maria ' was to be sounded mane^ meridie, et vespere. These, 
 from ancient custom, might have been continued after the 
 Reformation, though the purpose was changed." 
 
 One of the popular explanations for sounding of the 
 church bell, on the completion of Sunday morning service, is 
 that it was to inform the parishioners who had not been 
 able to attend that divine service would be celebrated in 
 the afternoon. In scattered villages, or where a single 
 clergyman had to perform the duties of more than one 
 church, this arrangement, it is said, was formerly requisite. 
 A correspondent oi Notes and Queries (2nd series, ix. 567), 
 writing from Normanton-upon-Soar, Notts, says, " This bell. 
 
96 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 which a very respectable old man, who was parish clerk 
 here for fifty-four years, called the * Sermon Bell,' is never 
 tolled unless there is a second service. If at any time the 
 morning service is not performed, the bell is tolled at twelve 
 o'clock at noon, to inform the parishioners that an evening 
 service will be held." * In some Lancashire parishes it is 
 nick-named the " pudding-bell," under an impression that 
 its use is to warn those at home to get ready the dinner. 
 Another reason was assigned by the late Prebendary Mac- 
 kenzie Walcott, who thus wrote : " When I was lecturer at 
 St Andrew's, Enfield, the bells rang out a short peal after 
 Sunday morning prayers. I always thought it was probably 
 designed to give notice to approaching funeral processions 
 that the church service was over, as in the country burials 
 — which are usually on a Sunday — immediately follow the 
 celebration of morning service." 
 
 A bell used to be rung every Saturday in Newbury at 
 three o'clock, a custom which is said to have originated 
 through the celebrated cloth- worker, " Jack of Newbury," 
 who built, or partly built, the Church of St. Nicholas in the 
 same town, and who died in 15 19. It was supposed to 
 be rung as a summons for the weavers to receive their 
 weekly wages, but this is not the true explanation. It 
 is simply a survival of the old custom of ringing the bell 
 on each Saturday, which was known as the "Morrow 
 Mass bell." \ 
 
 The gleaners' bell was once a familiar sound in harvest 
 
 * In the "Royal Injunctions" of 1547, we find this allusion to the 
 Sermon-bell : * ' In the time of the Litany, of the Mass, of the Sermon, 
 and when the priest readeth the Scripture to the parishioners, no 
 manner of persons, without a just and urgent cause, shall depart out 
 of the Church ; and all ringing and knoUing of bells shall be utterly 
 forborne at that time, except one bell in convenient time to be rung 
 and knoUed before the sermon." 
 
 t The ArchcEological Journal J xlviii. 54. 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 97 
 
 time. A correspondent of Notes and Queries (6th series, xii. 
 186) mentions the custom during the time of harvest in 
 Rutland for each parish church bell, called the gleaning bell, 
 to be rung at eight or nine o'clock a.m., when the women 
 and children go into the fields to glean. The bell is again 
 rung at five or six o'clock p.m., when they return to their 
 homes, after which no gleaning is allowed until the time at 
 which the gleaning bell rings on the following morning. 
 At Goddington, Oxfordshire, it has been customary to ring 
 one of the church bells after a coroner's inquest. 
 
 A small bell, about nine inches high, called the " Dag- 
 tale Bell," was formerly hung outside the tower of Frodsham 
 Church, Cheshire, about the height of the belfry. On 
 Sundays, and other holidays, after the bells had ceased 
 ringing, a man used to look outside the tower, and when 
 he saw the vicar coming instantly ring the little bell.* In 
 some places, writes Mr. H. T. Ellacombe, "it is not at all 
 uncommon to ring a little bell, called the * ting-tang,' or 
 parson's bell, immediately after the chiming for service 
 until the minister begins." Such bells have existed at 
 Long Compton, Warwickshire, St Mary Over, Cambridge, 
 Milverton and Wells, Somersetshire, and at Barton, Lin- 
 colnshire. 
 
 When Spur-money was originally demanded has been 
 matter of conjecture. It can be traced back to 1228, when 
 it was decided that the priors of Binham and Wymondham 
 might attend the synod at Norwich in copes and with spurs, 
 without changing their travelling garb. That it was a 
 custom extensively practised in the sixteenth century is 
 evident from the following passage, of the date of 1598 : 
 ** Wee think it very necessary that every quirister sholde 
 bring with him to Churche a Testament in Englishe, and turn 
 to everie Chapter as it is daily read, or some other good and 
 ♦ See Notes and Queries^ 4th series, v. 90, 238, 327, 437. 
 
 H 
 
98 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 godly prayer-book, rather than spende their tyme in talk 
 and hunting after spur-money, whereon they set their whole 
 mindes, and do often abuse dyvers if they doe not bestowe 
 somewhat on them." In our cathedrals, it was a fine for 
 entering the choir with spurs on, as their jingling interrupted 
 the service; if, however, the youngest chorister being 
 summoned failed to repeat his gamut, the fine could not be 
 levied. In the memorials of John Ray occurs this passage : 
 "July the 26th, 1661, We began our journey northwards 
 from Cambridge, and that day, passing through Huntingdon 
 and Stilton, we rode as far as Peterborough, twenty-five 
 miles. There I first heard the Cathedral Service. The 
 choristers made us pay money for coming into the choir 
 with our spurs on." In the ancient cheque-book of the 
 Chapel Royal is an order made by the dean of the 
 Chapel Royal in 1622, to this effect: "That if anie 
 knight or other person entituled to weare spurs enter the 
 Chappell in that guise, he shall pay to y^ quiristers the 
 accustomed fine ; but, if he command y® youngest quirister 
 to repeate his gamut, and he faile in y® so doing, the said 
 knight, or other, shall not pay y^ fine." It is stated that the 
 Duke of Wellington once entered the Chapel Royal booted 
 and spurred, and was called upon for the fine ; but, he calling 
 upon the youngest chorister to repeat his gamut, and the 
 boy failing to do so, the impost was not persisted in. One 
 reason, it has been said, for the introduction of this custom, 
 was the interruption of divine service, occasioned by the 
 ringing of spurs worn by persons walking, and transacting 
 business in cathedrals, and especially in St. Paul's, where, 
 it is reported, " they threatened imprisonment in the choir 
 for a whole night to all who refused them money. Bishop 
 Finch paid eighteen pence as an offender, but the Duke of 
 Cumberland pleaded successfully that it was hard if he 
 could not wear his spurs where they had first been buckled 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 99 
 
 on. At the installation of the Knights of the Bath, the 
 Cook of Westminster stands with a cleaver at the door, 
 threatening to strike off the spurs of any unworthy of their 
 honour. He receives a fee for his speech." * In most of the 
 rules for ringers found in belfries is the well-known one already 
 alluded to relating to the time-honoured prohibition — 
 
 '* If you ring in spur or hat, 
 Sixpence you pay, be sure of that." 
 
 There are many amusing doggerels on the tone and 
 quality of church bells. According to a Nottinghamshire 
 rhyme — , 
 
 ** Colston's cracked pancheons, Screveton egg-shells, 
 Bingham's * tro-rollers,' and Whatton merry bells." 
 
 Another version of which is current in Derbyshire — 
 
 "Barrow's big-boulders, Repton merry bells, 
 Foremark's cracked pancheons, and Newton egg-shells." 
 
 At Tolpuddle Church, Dorset, there were formerly only 
 three bells, which were supposed to ring, " My turf's out, 
 my turfs done," — turf being the principal fuel of the 
 peasants ; when their firing was done, they repaired to the 
 belfry to keep themselves warm by ringing.f 
 
 A Lincolnshire doggerel runs thus — 
 
 ** Brentingly pancheons, 
 And Wyfordby pans, 
 Stapleford organs. 
 And Burton ting-tangs." 
 
 The Bridgnorth bells are supposed to say — 
 
 *' Up Severn and down Morfe, 
 Says the bells of Bridgnorth." 
 
 Shipton-on-Cherwell and Hampton Gay, Oxfordshire, are 
 
 * "Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 91. 
 t Notes and Queries ^ 6th series, iii. 457. 
 
loo CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 very near together, although in different rural deaneries and 
 in different patronage. The metal in the two campaniles, 
 less than a quarter of a mile asunder, resounds, says the 
 local legend, after a wedding in this wise — 
 
 " Hampton bell and Shipton two, 
 Proclaim the joys of Tom and Sue." 
 
 And readers of " Tom Brown at Oxford " (ch. xlvii.) will 
 recollect how at Englebourn the church bells sounded 
 forth, " One more poor man undone." 
 
 At Rockingham, co. Rutland, we find this doggerel — 
 
 *' Rockingham ! poor people, 
 
 Nasty town, castle down ! 
 ^ One bell, wooden steeple." 
 
 The low square tower of Hornsea Church, Yorkshire, 
 once had a tall spire, which fell in a gale in 1773.' An 
 absurd superstition says that a stone was found when the 
 spire fell with this inscription — >^ 
 
 % 
 
 "Hornsea broch, I built thee, 
 Thou wast ten miles from Beverley, 
 Ten miles from Bridlington, 
 And ten miles from the sea." 
 
 % 
 
 1 
 
 To quote a further curious doggerel, current at Kinkell 
 Stratheam, of which there are several versions, the story I 
 
 goes that " the minister had been hanged, the precentor | 
 
 drowned in attempting to cross the Earn from the adjoining != 
 
 parish of Trinity Gask, the steeple had been taken down, and i 
 
 the bell had been sold to the parish of Cockpen, near 
 Edinburgh." Hence it was said — 
 
 " Was there e'er sic a parish, a parish, a parish. 
 Was there e'er sic a parish as that o' Kinkell ? 
 They've hangit the minister, drowned the precentor, 
 Drucken the bell,and dang down the steeple." 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. loi 
 
 Occasionally the local witticism takes the form of question 
 and answer. For instance, the first we hear of the nightly- 
 ringing of Bow bell, Cheapside, is in 1315. It was the 
 go-to-bed bell of those days; and two old couplets still 
 exist, supposed to be the complaint of the sleepy 'prentices 
 of Chepe, and the obsequious reply of the Bow Church 
 clerk. The rhymes are — 
 
 ** Clarke of the Bow bell, with the yellow lockes. 
 For thy late ringing, thy head shall have knockes." 
 
 To this the clerk replies — 
 
 " Children of Chepe, hold you all still, 
 For you shall have Bow-bell rung at your will." 
 
 The three bells at Bulwell, Notts, are supposed to say, 
 " Who rings best ? Who rings best ? " 
 
 Whereupon the two at Radford reply, " We do ! We do I " 
 which, however, is denied by the solitary bell of Hyson 
 Green, ringing out, " No ! No ! " 
 
 Similarly, the three bells at Burton Stather, on the brow 
 of the hill, overlooking the Trent, in N.W. Lincolnshire, 
 were supposed to ask, *'Who ring best? Who ring best?" 
 to which the two at Luddington, on the other side of the 
 river, replied, ** We two ! we two ! " 
 
 On the arrival at Derby, writes a correspondent of Notes 
 and Queries (6th series, iii. 175), of the London coach, 
 bringing fish, the news, it is said, was announced by the 
 church bells, each peal, as the coach passed, taking up the 
 tale. Thus St Peter's, six bells, stood near the entrance of 
 the town, and was the first to cry, ** Here's fresh fish come to 
 town j here's fresh fish come to town." Next came All Saints' 
 with its peal of ten, " Here's fine fresh fish just come into 
 the town ; here's fine fresh fish just come into the town." 
 Close by All Saints' stood St. Michael's, with but three bells, 
 
I02 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 and one of them cracked, enviously suggesting, " They 
 stink'n; they stink'n," but quickly answered, a furlong 
 further on, by the six of St Alkmund's, with, " Put more salt 
 on 'em, then ; put more salt on 'em, then." 
 
 Among the many old customs connected with the 
 calendar may be noticed the *' Pancake bell " — originally 
 the Shriving bell — which was rung in many parishes in the 
 forenoon of Shrove Tuesday, to call the faithful to con- 
 fession before the Season of Lent. In recent times the 
 " Pancake-bell " has been rung in numerous places ; and 
 at Daventry, Northamptonshire, the bell was muffled on 
 one side with leather, or " buffed," and was locally known 
 as the '' Panburn-bell." Jingling rhymes commemorative 
 of this day are still repeated by the peasantry, the bells of 
 the town being represented as sounding the following 
 jingle— 
 
 "Pancakes and fritters, 
 Says the bells of St. Peter's. 
 Where must we fry 'em ? 
 Says the bells of Cold Higham. 
 In yonder land thurrow (furrow), 
 Says the bells of Wellingborough. 
 You owe me a shilling, 
 Says the bells of Great Billing. 
 When will you pay me ? 
 Says the bells of Middleton Cheney. 
 When I am able, 
 Says the bells at Dunstable. 
 That will never be, 
 Says the bells at Coventry. 
 Oh, yes it will, 
 
 Says Northampton Great bell. 
 White bread and sop, 
 Says the bells of Kingsthrop. 
 Trundle a lantern, 
 Says the bells at Northampton." 
 
 That the bells of the Northampton, churches were rung 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES, 103 
 
 on Shrove Tuesday may be inferred from the following 
 similar bell-doggerel — 
 
 ** Roast beef and marsh mallows, 
 Says the bells of All Hallows. 
 Pancakes and fritters, 
 Says the bells at St. Peter's. 
 Roast beef and boil'd, 
 Says the bells of St Giles's. 
 Poker and tongs, 
 Says the bells of St. John's.* 
 Shovel, tongs, and poker. 
 Says the bells of St. Pulchre's." f 
 
 Formerly, too, on Shrove Tuesday, the inhabitants of 
 Derby had a football match between the parishes of All 
 Saints and St Peter's. The bells of the different parishes 
 rang their merry peals on the morning, a practice which 
 gave rise to the following jingle on the five parishes of All 
 Saints, St Peter's, St Werburgh's, St Alkmund's, and St 
 Michael's — 
 
 " Pancakes and fritters, 
 Say All Saints and St. Peter's ; 
 When will the ball come, 
 Say the bells of St. Alkmum ; 
 At two they will throw. 
 Says Saint Werabo' ; 
 Oh, very well. 
 Says little Michael." 
 
 Whilst alluding to customs of this kind, it may be men- 
 tioned that in some parishes it has been customary to ring 
 a muffled peal on Holy Innocents' .Day, as at Wells Cathe- 
 dral, and at Leigh-upon-Mendip, Somersetshire. 
 
 At Norton, near Evesham, it has been usual to ring first 
 a muffled peal for the slaughter of the Innocents, and then 
 
 • St. John's Hospital. 
 
 t Miss Baker's ** Northamptonshire Words and Phrases," ii. 92. 
 
104 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 an unmuffled peal of joy for the deliverance of the Infant 
 Christ. 
 
 There are the so-called "Sweet Bells" at Dewsbury, 
 Yorkshire. In *' Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica " 
 (i. 1 68), we read of these bells : *' One is known by the 
 name of * Black Tom of Sothill,' and the tradition is that it 
 was an expiatory gift for a murder. One of the bells is 
 tolled at Christmas Eve, as at a funeral, or in the manner of 
 a passing-bell ; and any one asking whose bell it was, would 
 be told that it was the Devil's knell. The moral of it is that 
 the devil died when Christ was bom. The custom was 
 discontinued for some years, but at Christmas, 1828, it was 
 revived by order of the vicar." 
 
 Among further bells may be noticed the "Virgin Chimes ; " 
 the peal rung on Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning," 
 having been so called. The "Judas Bell" was probably 
 used in the Easter Eve ceremonies, in connection with 
 which we find " Judas Candles " mentioned. And there were 
 the "Easter Bells," which could not be rung before the 
 bells of the cathedral, or mother churches, were sounded. 
 
 Once more, the church bell is the appointed voice of 
 public rejoicing, and sound for every festive event. It rings 
 in the new year, the new sovereign, the new mayor, the new 
 squire, and the new rector. But in the last generation, it 
 was sometimes employed on shameful occasions, such as 
 to celebrate the winning of a " long main " at cock-fighting. 
 The church bells were occasionally rung for successful race 
 horses. In the accounts of St. Edmund's, Salisbury, is this 
 item — " 1646. Ringing the race day, that the Earl of 
 Pembroke his horse winne the cuppe, v^" 
 
 One of the most popular applications is to proclaim that 
 two lovers have just been made happy ; but, as a writer in 
 the Quarterly Review (xcv. 333), has remarked, " there have 
 been sequels to such a beginning with which the knell ha4 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 105 
 
 been more in unison ! " So thought one, Thomas Nash, 
 who, in 1813, bequeathed jT^^o a year to the ringers of the 
 Abbey Church, Bath, " on condition of their ringing on the 
 whole peal of bells, with clappers muffled, various solemn 
 and doleful changes on the 14th May in every year, being 
 the anniversary of my wedding-day ; and also the anniver- 
 sary of my decease, to ring a grand bob major, and merry 
 mirthful peals unmuffled, in joyful commemoration of my 
 happy release from domestic tyranny and wretchedness." 
 In the village of Horningsham, Wilts, it was customary when 
 a young person died unmarried, to ring the "wedding-peals " 
 on muffled bells, immediately on the interment of the corpse, 
 the effect of which, it is said, was singularly impressive. 
 
 At the induction of a new vicar, it is customary for him 
 to ring himself in, by formally ringing the bell two or three 
 times. Some time ago, writes a correspondent of Notes and 
 Queries (6th series, iv. 307), "having to induct a newly 
 made vicar, when he had locked himself in the church and 
 gone up into the tower, as the custom is, to ring the bell, 
 a gentleman standing by said to me, * Let us see how many 
 strokes he will give, because there is an old saying that the 
 number of strokes a new incumbent gives will indicate the 
 number of years he will remain in the parish.' " 
 
 Many curious jugs or pitchers, the property of ringers, 
 are preserved in different parishes. At Hadleigh, in Suffolk, 
 a pitcher of brown glazed earthenware is kept, which holds 
 sixteen quarts, and bears this inscription — 
 
 " We Thomas Windle, Isaac Bunn, John Mann, Adam 
 Sage, Georg Bond, Thomas Goldsborough, Robert Smith, 
 Henry West," and below the names are these lines — 
 
 *' If you love me doe not lend me, 
 Euse me often and keep me clenly, 
 Fill me full, or not at all, 
 If it be strovng, and not with small " 
 
io6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 According to Mr. Glyde, in the Suffolk Garland (1866, 
 295), "it is still occasionally used by the ringers on the 
 occasion of any profitable wedding, and it has been intro- 
 duced into the belfry." It is said to be filled every 
 Christmas, when the ringers assemble for a " frolic," with 
 strong beer. 
 
 At Hinderclay, a ringers' pitcher is still preserved in the 
 church tower, with an inscription which tells how — 
 
 " By Samuel Moss, this pitcher was given to the Noble 
 Society of Ringers at Hinderclay, in Sufifolk," etc. And 
 afterwards are added these hnes — 
 
 *• From London I was sent, 
 As plainly doth appear : 
 It was with this intent, 
 To be filled with strong beer. 
 Pray remember the pitcher when empty." 
 
 At Clare, Suffolk, there is also a jug of a similar kind, 
 which holds more than seventeen quarts ; and also one at 
 Beccles, holding six gallons, less one pint, with inscription. 
 
 A correspondent of the East Anglian mentions a similar 
 pitcher, called the " Ringers' Pot," which was formerly 
 carried from house to house by the ringers of Ixworth, in 
 Sufifolk, to receive whatever beer the parishioners might be 
 disposed to bestow. It has these lines inscribed on it— 
 
 *' Here you may see what 
 I reqvst of Hanst [honest] gentlmen 
 My Baly [belly] Filed Of The Bast I com 
 Bvt now And Then." 1716.* 
 
 In a closet in the steeple of St. Peter's Mancroft, Norwich, 
 a ringers' jug has been kept, belonging to the "Norwich 
 Scholars." It holds thirty-five pints, is of brown earth, 
 glazed. 
 
 * See East Anglian^ i. 61. 273, 280. 
 
BELLS AND BELFRIES. 107 
 
 An inscription on a jug in the Norwich Museum, dated 
 1676, is — 
 
 "JohnW. 
 
 J- ^- 
 
 Come brother, shall we join ? 
 
 Give me your twopence — here is mine." 
 
 The ringers' jug at Swansea has this couplet — 
 
 " Come fill me full with liquor sweet, for that is good 
 When friends do meet. When I am full then, drink about : 
 I ne'er will fail till all is out." 
 
 Occasionally fines were levied for the omission of bell- 
 ringing on special occasions. In the churchwarden's 
 accounts of Bray, in Berkshire, for 160 1-2, we find this 
 entry : " It payd for not ringing when the Queen dyned at 
 Folly John, iii'. iiii'^." 
 
 And in the accounts of St Lawrence, Reading, for the 
 year ending Michaelmas, 1529 : " It to the queen's armersmt 
 for that the bells were not rong at her comyng into the 
 town, viij^" 
 
 And in the accounts of St Mary, Lambeth, 15 17-18, it 
 is recorded : " Itm. paid to yem a amyner for defawtts off 
 the rynginge oflf the bells at the kynge's comynge, ij'. iiij*." 
 
io8 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONSECRATION CROSSES. 
 
 One of the old ceremonies, connected with the consecration 
 of a church, both in this country and on the continent, con- 
 sisted in the officiating bishop marking upon the wall with 
 oil of chrisms twenty-four crosses ; three on the north, 
 south, east, and west walls respectively, both inside and 
 out.* It would appear that these crosses were made before- 
 hand — sometimes being carved in stone, modelled in wax or 
 plaster, painted, or by metal crosses affixed to the wall — 
 ready for the bishop to put the chrism on. Very many of 
 these interesting old crosses have disappeared through age, 
 and owing to the scraping of the walls in the process of 
 restoration. An important paper on these consecration 
 crosses was laid before the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. 
 John Henry Middleton (February 23, 1882), to which I am 
 indebted for the following facts. 
 
 A very early specimen is at Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucester- 
 shire, date about 1 190-1200, where it is very deeply cut into 
 a respond of the nave arcade. There is a consecration 
 cross of later date on each side of the west door, for the 
 church was re-consecrated in the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century, when the choir was lengthened, and the high altar 
 moved eastwards. Occasionally, as in this case, " a conse- 
 * " The Archseologia " (1885), xlviii. 456-464. 
 
• €_«>• « 
 « Cff • • • 
 
 >t> .c„ce« 
 
 « c 
 a <•€ 
 
 t «■_«■ 
 
 CONSECRATION CROSSES. 
 
 1. Badgeworth, Gloucestershire. 2. Chichester Cathedral. 3. Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
 4. Shurdington, Gloucestershire. 5. Brooke, Kent. 
 
 Fa^e 109. 
 
CONSECRATION CROSSES. 109 
 
 cration is often made later than the walls it is on, owing to 
 the re-consecration of the whole building, when only a part 
 was new." 
 
 When an addition to a church was a chapel complete in 
 itself, the new part was, in some cases, only consecrated, 
 and had all the twenty-four crosses, examples of which 
 may be seen at Henry VII. *s Chapel, Westminster, where 
 there are three small crosses in each side of the aisles, and 
 three large ones at the west end above the doorways ; and 
 at Arundel Church there still remain five large crosses 
 painted red, and, from their arrangement, it would seem that 
 the nave and its aisles had the full number of crosses 
 without counting any in the choir. 
 
 Salisbury Cathedral has a fine set of consecration crosses, 
 eight inside and eight outside being still visible, the rest 
 having been hidden by monuments, or destroyed by the 
 hand of the restorer. But, as Mr. Middleton remarks, 
 " unfortunately, at Salisbury, the * restorer ' has not been 
 content with destruction, but has committed forgery as 
 well. Outside, at the west end, ' two sham consecration 
 crosses have been put up in the gables of the aisle door- 
 ways, which was not the position of the original crosses." 
 At Chichester Cathedral, we find another instance of recon- 
 secration, where at the east end of the aisles ** there are 
 plain sunk crosses cut deep into the stone, possibly once 
 filled up with''metal. Above these there are a number of 
 iron pins, as if for the attachment of another metal cross, 
 added probably on the occasion of the second consecration." 
 
 An elaborate specimen of these consecration crosses is at 
 St. Mary Ottery, Devon, these being carved in high relief 
 on shields borne by angels within moulded panels, a quatre- 
 foil in a square. Sometimes, too, the central cross at the 
 east end was made more magnificent than the other for the 
 sake of architectural effect Among instances of this kind 
 
no CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 may be mentioned a medallion at Chisledon, Wilts, within 
 which is carved a crucifix with St. Mary and St. John, 
 similar crucifixes existing at Coggeshall, Essex, and at 
 Purton, Wilts. 
 
 Of the many other consecration crosses mentioned by 
 Mr. Middleton, may be noticed those at Berkeley, Wol- 
 ston, Cheltenham, Swindon, Badgeworth, Oddington, and 
 Shurdington Chapelry, in Gloucestershire ; Brooke, Kent ; 
 one at Iffley, Oxfordshire ; remains of two crosses at the 
 old chapel, now the library, Pembroke College, Cambridge ; 
 several crosses at Uffington, Berks ; * one at Blofield, Nor- 
 folk; three at Barfreston, Wilts; and one at South Ferriby, 
 Lincolnshire. But unfortunately, many of these interesting 
 consecration crosses have passed away with the work of 
 church restoration. 
 
 * "TheArchseologia,"463. 
 
( III ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BAPTISMAL CUSTOMS. 
 
 Apart from the sacred rite of baptism, the naming of the 
 child has always been an important event, in connection 
 with which we find many curious customs in our Church 
 history. Thus Strype tells us how when the son of Sir 
 Thomas Chamberlayne was baptized at St. Benet's Church, 
 Paul's Wharf, " the church was hung with cloth of Arras, 
 and after the christening were brought wafers, comfits, and 
 divers banqueting dishes, and Hypocras and Muscadine 
 wine, to entertain the guests." There was the sermon, and 
 in Shipman's "Gossip," 1666, the customs connected with 
 the ceremony of baptism are then summed up — 
 
 " Especially since gossips now, 
 Eat more at christenings than bestow ; 
 Formerly when they us'd to troul 
 Gilt bowls of sack, they gave the bowl ; 
 Two spoons at least ; an use ill kept ; 
 'Tis well now if our own be left." 
 
 Previously to the Reformation, it was usual to baptize 
 the child on the day of its birth if possible ; and in order to 
 give facility to the astrologer in " casting the nativity," or 
 telling the fortune of a child, should it be desired. Great 
 precision was often observed in the entry of the birth in the 
 parish register, as, for instance, in that of St. Edmund's, 
 
112 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Dudley: "1539. Samuell, son of Sir William Smithe 
 Clarke, vicare of Duddly, was bom on Friday morninge, at 
 4 of the clocke, being the xxviij. day of February, the signe 
 of that day was the middle of Aquarius ^ ; the signe of the 
 monthe -^ ; the plenet of that day ? ; plenet of the same 
 owre 5 ; and the morrow day, whose name hath continued 
 in Duddly from the Conqueste." 
 
 In the register of Hawstead, Suffolk, we find a further 
 allusion to this practice : " M^ That Mr. Robert Drury, 
 the first Sonne of Mr. William Drury, Esquire, was born 
 30 Jan. betwixt 4 and 5 of the clock in the morning, the 
 sunne in Libra, anno 1574, at Durham House, within the 
 parish of Westminster." 
 
 If there was any danger of the child dying before a priest 
 could be fetched, the midwife was bound to baptize it. 
 Indeed, before a midwife could obtain a licence, she was 
 solemnly sworn to the due performance of her office, and 
 in 1759 ^^ w^s ^^ ^s^ "pure and clear water only, and 
 not any rose or damask water, or water made of any con- 
 fection." In the Archbishop of York's injunctions to his 
 clergy, curates were enjoined " to instruct midwives openly 
 in the church in the very words and form of baptism, 
 to the intent that they may use them perfectly, and none 
 other." But the register of Hanwell records an awkward 
 mistake, which happened at a baptism of this kind : 
 "Thomas, son of Thomas Messenger and Elizabeth his 
 wife, was born and baptized Oct. 24, 173 1, by the midwife 
 at the Font, called a boy, and named by the godfather, 
 Thomas ; but proved a girl ! " * 
 
 In the sixteenth century, such names as " Creature," 
 " Creatura Christi," or " Children of God," were applied to 
 infants baptized by the midwife. The register of Staple- 
 hurst, Kent, under 1547, tells us : " Ther was baptized by 
 
 * Burn's "History of Parish Registers in England " (1862), 89. 
 
BAPTISMAL CUSTOMS. 113 
 
 the midwyffe, and so buryed, the childe of Thomas Gold- 
 ham, called Creature,;" but occasionally such children 
 hved to be married, as the subjoined entry from the same 
 register proves: "1579, July 19. Marryed John Haffynden, 
 and Creature Cheseman, young folke." * The term " Crea- 
 tura Christ " occurs in the register of SL Peters-in-the-East, 
 Oxford, as below — 
 
 " 1563. July 17. Baptizata fuit in aedibus Mrs. Hum- 
 frey, filia euis, quae nominata fuit Creatura Christi." 
 
 " 1563. July. Creatura Christi, filia Lauren tii Hum- 
 fredi, sepulta fuit eodem die.** 
 
 According to Mr. Bray ley, in his " Beauties of England 
 and Wales" (149), the phrase, "Children of God," was 
 sometimes applied to illegitimate children, who seem to 
 have been designated in various ways. Thus the Twicken- 
 ham register (1590) speaks of the burial of **a scape 
 begotten child," and that of Lambeth contains such entries 
 as these — 
 
 "George Speedwell, a merry begott, bapt Nov. i, 1685. 
 
 " Anne, a byeblow in Lambeth marsh, bapt Feb. 22, 1688- 
 
 ** Joseph the base born Son of Ann Funny, bapt. Oct. 
 15, 1699." 
 
 Croydon register records the baptism of *' William, filius 
 terrae. May, 1582." And at All Saints, Newcastle, "Crad- 
 dock Bowe, * love-begot,' was baptized, 22 Feb. 1683." 
 
 During the troubles of the seventeenth century, lay 
 baptism sometimes took place, and it is recorded that at 
 Maresfield, Sussex, "the wife of Edward Watmouth 
 appears to have been a very active and useful person in the 
 parish, as she is often mentioned in the registers as sponsor 
 to children baptized; and once or twice as privately 
 baptizing infants herself." \ 
 
 * R. E. C. Waters, ** Parish Registers " (1887), 36. 
 t Sussex Arch. Soc. Collect., xiv. 161. 
 
114 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 In many of our parish registers are entered similar 
 christening by the laity, about 1643. 
 
 In many parishes it was customary to name foundlings 
 from the parishes in which they were found, as in St. 
 Lawrence, Old Jewry, where the surname of Lawrence has 
 been invariably given. In "St. Clement Danes," such 
 children are invariably called Clement, and from Diprose's 
 "History of St. Clement Danes" (194), we learn that the 
 justices of Middlesex reported in 1686, that this parish was 
 charged in 1679 with sixteen foundlings, who are all named 
 Clements ; and that within the next six years fifty children 
 had been found in the streets, who had all been baptized 
 Clement. By the Temple register, it appears that from 
 1728 to 1755 no less than one hundred and four foundlings 
 were christened there, all of whom were surnamed Temple 
 or Templer. 
 
 Foundlings, again, were occasionally named by the 
 caprice of the vestry ; and most readers have heard of Sir 
 Richard Monday, who died at Monday Place, in Crabbe's 
 amusing poem of " The Parish Register " — 
 
 "To name an Infant, met our village Sires 
 Assembled all, as such event requires. 
 Frequent and full, the rural sages sate, 
 And speakers many urged the long bebate — 
 Some harden'd knave, who rov'd the country round. 
 Had left a Babe within the Parish bound. 
 First, of the/af^ they questioned, * Was it true ? ' 
 The child was brought — * What then remained to do ? 
 * Was*t dead or living ? ' This was fairly prov'd, 
 'Twas pinched — it roar'd — and every doubt remov'd. 
 Then by what name th' unwelcome guest to call 
 Was long a question, and it pos'd them all. 
 For he who lent a name to Babe unknown, 
 Censorious men might take it for his own. 
 They look'd about, they ask'd the name of all, 
 And not one Richard answer'd to the call. 
 
BAPTISMAL CUSTOMS. 115 
 
 Next they inquir'd the day, when passing by, 
 Th* unlucky peasant heard the stranger's cry ; 
 This known — how food and raiment they might give 
 Was next debated, for the rogue would live ; 
 At last with all their words and work content 
 Back to their homes, the prudent Vestry went, 
 And Richard Monday to the Workhouse sent. 
 
 * * • « 
 
 Long lost to us, at last our Man we trace. 
 Sir Richard Monday died at Monday Place." 
 
 In some country parishes, it has been usual to name the 
 child after the saint on whose day he may happen to have 
 been bom." A correspondent of Notes and Queries bap- 
 tized a child Benjamin Simon Jude. On expressing some 
 surprise at the strange conjunction, he was informed that 
 the child was bom on the festival of St. Simon and St. 
 Jude, and that it was always considered very unlucky to 
 take the day from the child. 
 
 Many curious superstitions connected with baptism still 
 linger on. " In Yorkshire," says Mr. Baring Gould, " it is 
 said the first child baptized in a new font is sure to die — a 
 reminiscence of the sacrifice which was used for the con- 
 secration of every dwelling and temple in heathen times, 
 and of the pig or sheep killed and laid at the foundation of 
 churches. When I was incumbent of Dalton a new church 
 was built. A blacksmith in the village had seven daughters, 
 after which a son was born, and he came to me a few days 
 before the consecration of the new church to ask me to 
 baptize his boy in the old temporary church and font. 
 * Why, Joseph,' said I, * if you only wait till Thursday the 
 boy can be baptized in the new font, on the opening of the 
 new church.' ' Thank you, sir,' said the blacksmith, with 
 a wriggle, * but, you see, it's a lad, and we shu'd be sorry if 
 he were to die ; ha' if t'had been a lass instead, why then, 
 you were welcome, for 'twouldn't ha' mattered a ha'penny. 
 Lasses are ower money, and lads ower few wi' us.' " 
 
ii6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Occasionally in old churches, as in that of Wellcombe, 
 a hamlet bordering on Morwenstowe, over against the font, 
 and in the northern wall there is an entrance named the 
 " Devil's Door." This was thrown open at every baptism 
 for the escape, as it was commonly said, of the fiend, while 
 at other times it was carefully shut. 
 
 The old practice of baptizing a boy before a girl is still 
 kept up in some parishes. Although this rule is invariably 
 the result of superstition, it is in accordance with ecclesi- 
 astical usage. Maskell, in his "Monumenta Ritualia 
 Ecc Angl." (i. 24, note 31), quotes the following rubric 
 from the Leofric Missal : " Et accipiet presbyter eos a 
 parentibus eorum, et baptizantur primi masculi deinde 
 feminse, sub trina mersione, Sanctam Trinitatem semel 
 invocando," etc. A correspondent of Notes and Queries^ 
 writing from Darlington in 1867, says, "While standing at 
 the font, and preparing to baptize two children, the nurse 
 attending on one of the parties abruptly demanded of the 
 other nurse if the child she presented was a boy. The 
 reply seemed to satisfy her. I took an early opportunity 
 to question her on the subject, and she replied that * she 
 wondered at my not knowing that a boy was always 
 christened before a girl' On my assuring her that such 
 was not the custom here, she said, * In Scarborough, where 
 I came from, it is always the custom to baptize there a 
 boy before a girl.* A Scotch reason for baptizing a boy 
 before a girl is, that to reverse the order would make the 
 girl of a masculine nature and have a beard, while the boy 
 would become eifeminate." 
 
 But Cuthbert Bede quoted an amusing case in Notes and 
 Queries (2nd series, i. 226), showing that in a Worcester- 
 bhire parish a prejudice existed against baptizing a boy 
 before a girl. On the occasion in question there were 
 three baptisms, two boys and a girl. When the first child 
 
BAPTISMAL CUSTOMS. 117 
 
 was about to be baptized, the woman who carried the little 
 girl elbowed her way up to the parson, in order that the 
 child she carried might be the first to be baptized. As she 
 did so, she said to one of the sponsors, by way of apology, 
 " It's a girl, so it must be christened first," and christened 
 first it was. On the next day, an opportunity was taken to 
 discover her motive. This was her explanation: "You 
 see, sir, the parson bain't a married man, and conse- 
 quentially is disfamiliar with children, or he'd a never put 
 the little girl to be christen'd after the boys. And though 
 it sadly fluster'd me, sir, to put myself afore my betters in 
 the way which I was fosed to do ; yet, sir, it was the doing 
 of a kindness to them two little boys, in me a setting of 
 my little girl afore 'em." "Why?" "Well, sir, I har 
 astonished as you don't know. Why, sir, if them little 
 boys had been christen'd afore the little girl, they'd have 
 her soft chin, and she'd have had their hairy beards — the 
 poor little innocent ! But, thank goodness, I've kept her 
 from that misfortune." 
 
ii8 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 
 
 By the early discipline of the Church, marriages were pro- 
 hibited during the seasons of Advent, Lent, and Whitsun- 
 tide, and in an old vellum register of the parish of 
 Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, this regulation is thus given in 
 doggerel Latin — 
 
 *' Conjugium Adventus prohibet, Hilarique relaxat 
 Septuagena vetat, sed paschse octava remittit, 
 Rogamen vetitat, concedit Trina potestas," 
 
 the well-known English version of which is given in the 
 register of Everton, Notts — 
 
 *' Advent marriage doth deny, 
 But Hilary gives thee liberty ; 
 Septuagesima says thee nay, 
 Eight days from Easter says you may. 
 Rogation bids thee to contain, 
 But Trinity sets thee free again." 
 
 The canons of the Anglican Church forbid marriages 
 to be celebrated between Rogation Sunday and Trinity 
 Sunday, though such prohibitions have practically ceased 
 to be regarded in England.* Thus in the parish register 
 of Twickenham, it is recorded, under 1665, that ^'Chris- 
 topher Mitchell and Anne Colcot, married 4 th June, by 
 ♦ R. E. Chester Waters, " Parish Registers," 33. 
 
I 
 
 THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 119 
 
 permission of Sir Richard Chaworth, it being within the 
 octave of Pentecost" 
 
 In the course of past years many changes have taken 
 place in the customs connected with the marriage ceremony. 
 A practice which seems to have shocked the saints of the 
 Commonwealth was the kiss, in which the officiating priest 
 joined. 
 
 ** A contract of eternal Bond of Love, 
 Confirmed by mutual joinder of your hands, 
 Attested by the Holy Close of lips, 
 Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings. " * 
 
 But from the first the Protestants evidently did not relish 
 kissing the priest, for it is one of the articles of visitation 
 in diocese of London in 1554 : " Whether there be any that 
 refuseth to kysse the Prieste at the solempnisation of Matri- 
 mony, or use any such lyke ceremonies heretofore writes 
 used and observed in the Church e." Brand in his " Popular 
 Antiquities " (ii. 140), writes, *' It is still customary amongst 
 persons of middling rank, as well as the vulgar, in most parts 
 of England, for the young men present at the marriage 
 ceremony to salute the bride, one by one, the moment it is 
 concluded." In an old song the bridegroom thus addresses 
 the parson — 
 
 " It's no very decent for you to be kissing, 
 
 It does not look weel with the black coat ava, 
 'T would hae set you far better tae hae gi'en us your blessing, 
 Than thus by such tricks to be breaking the law. 
 
 Dear Wattie, quo' Robin, it's just an old custom. 
 
 An the thing that is common should ne'er be ill ta *en. 
 
 For where ye are wrong, if ye had na a wished him, 
 You should ha' been first. It's yoursel' is to blame. " 
 
 Mr. Henderson \ tells how a parson— a stranger in the 
 
 * "Twelfth Night," act v. sc. i. 
 
 t " Folklore of Northern Counties," 39, 40. 
 
I2d CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 neighbourhood — after performing a marriage in a Yorkshire 
 village, was surprised to see the party keep together, as it 
 expecting something more. "What are you waiting for?" 
 he at last asked. " Please, sir," was the bridegroom's 
 answer, " ye've no kissed Molly." " Some years ago," adds 
 Mr. Henderson, " I am informed that in Ireland it was 
 customary for the clergyman to conclude the ceremony 
 with the words * kiss your wife,' and occasionally the bride- 
 groom was hard put to prevent one, or other, of his com- 
 panions from intercepting the salute designed for himself." 
 
 In the sixteenth century, it was usual to preach a wedding- 
 sermon at the marriage of almost every person of conse- 
 quence. By the Rubrics of the 2nd and the 5th, Edward 
 VI., it was enacted that "after the Gospel was to be a 
 sermon, wherein ordinarily the office of a man and wife 
 should be declared according to Holy Scripture, or if there 
 was no sermon, then the minister was to read several 
 sentences out of Scripture, setting forth the said duties." 
 In the Monthly Magazine iox 1798, the custom is noticed 
 of the singers in country churches chanting, on the following 
 Sunday after a couple had been married, a particular 
 psalm, called the Wedding Psalm." 
 
 Drinking wine in the church at the marriage ceremony was 
 enjoined by the Hereford Missal ; the Sarum Missal direct- 
 ing that the wine as well as the cakes or wafers, called sops, 
 which were soaked therein, and the cup that contained it, 
 should be blessed by the priest. The wine was drunk, and 
 the sops were eaten by the bride and bridegroom, and the 
 company present. In an old inventory of the goods and orna- 
 ments belonging to Wilsdon parish, Middlesex, mention is 
 made of " two masers that were appoynted to remayne in the 
 church for to drynk in at bride-ales." The churchwardens' 
 accounts for Tallaton, in Devonshire, under 1595, contain 
 an item of "Paid for bread and wine for three weddings. 
 
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 121 
 
 dd. ;" and under 1601, " Paid for bread and wine against a 
 wedding, 2^." Shakespeare, in the " Taming of the Shrew " 
 (iii. 2), alludes to the practice where Gremio relates how — 
 
 " Stamp'd and swore, 
 As if the vicar meant to cozen him. 
 But after many ceremonies done, 
 He calls for wine : — * A health,' quoth he, as if 
 He had been aboard, carousing to his mates 
 After a storm : — quaff 'd off the muscadel, 
 And threw the sops all in the sexton's face ; 
 Having no other reason. 
 But that his beard grew thin and hungerly, 
 And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking. " 
 
 By an Act of Parliament passed on 24th August, 1653, it 
 was enacted that marriages should be solemnized before a 
 Justice of the Peace. In the register of the parish of 
 Elvetham, Hampshire, we find this entry : " 1654. I, A B, 
 do here in the presence of God, the searcher of all hearts, 
 take thee, C D, for my wedded wife, and doe, also in the 
 presence of God, promise unto thee to be a loving and a 
 faithful husband. Thomas Patrick, of Hartley Witney, and 
 Lucie Watts, of Elvetham, were married before Robert 
 Reynolds, Esq", in the presence of Ambrose Iver and 
 Thomas Townsend, March 16, 1654. — Robert Reynolds, 
 Justice of the Peace." 
 
 For several years after 1653 this order was complied with, 
 but many marriages, says Burn in his " Parish Registers " 
 (162), at Northampton, about the same period, were 
 solemnized before the mayor and the minister of the parish. 
 In Flecknoe's " Diarium " (1656) is the following /^w d' esprit, 
 entitled, " On the Justice of Peace's making marriages, and 
 the crying them in the market — 
 
 "Now just as 'twas in Saturn's Reign, 
 The Golden Age is returned again ; 
 And Astrea again from heaven is come, 
 When all on earth by Justice is done. 
 
122 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 " Amongst the rest, we have cause to be glad 
 Now Marriages are in markets made ; 
 Since Justice, we hope, will take order there. 
 We may not be cousened no more in our ware. 
 
 " Besides, each thing would fall out right, 
 And that old proverb be verified by 't — - 
 That Marriage and Hanging both go together, 
 When Justice shall have disposing of either. 
 
 " Let Parson and Vicar, then, say what they will. 
 The custome is good (God continue it still) ; 
 For marriage being now Trafique and Trade, 
 Pray where but in Markets should it be made. 
 
 " 'Twas well ordain'd they should be no more 
 In Churches nor Chappels, then as before ; 
 Since for it in Scripture we have example. 
 How buyers and sellers were drov'n out o' th' Temple. 
 
 " Mean time, God bless the Parliament, 
 In making this Act so honestly meant. 
 Of these good marriages God bless the breed, 
 
 The marriages in the parish of Dale Abbey were, till a 
 few years previous to the Marriage Act, solemnized by the 
 clerk of the parish, at one shilling each, there being no 
 minister. 
 
 At an early date it was customary to make offerings at 
 marriages. In the privy purse expenses of Henry VII. 
 these entries occur — 
 
 " 1492. May 20. For oflfring at Master Scrops mar- 
 riage, ds. 2>d" 
 
 " — June 2. For offering at Sir Charles Somerset's 
 marriage, 6s. 8^." 
 
 " 1494. May 26. For offering at the four marriages, 
 ;^i 6^-. 8^." 
 
 From numerous entries, too, in churchwardens' accounts 
 
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 123 
 
 during the seventeenth century, it seems to have been a 
 common practice to distribute money among the needy at 
 marriages. The " Pleasures of Memory," a chap-book of 
 the last century, describing a contemporary wedding, says, 
 " They go from the church again, and first receive the joy 
 of the beggars ; the bridegroom, for the grandeur of the 
 wedding, throwing amongst them a handful of small money, 
 which sets them scrambling." The accounts of All Hallows, 
 Barking, contains the following entries — 
 
 "22nd Sept, 1654. Distributed at a marriage to the 
 poore, 3 pounds. 
 
 "Febry., 1660. Gave six shillings to the poor, given by 
 a gent, who was married on Easter Tuesday." 
 
 From the parish accounts of Hackney for 1663, we learn 
 that it was customary to make collections at the church 
 door upon the marriage of paupers, and that they were so 
 considerable that the collection gave security that the 
 couple for whom such collection was made should not 
 become burdensome to the parish. 
 
 At Northwich, Cheshire, a curious privilege is ascribed 
 by the charter of that church to the senior scholar of the 
 Grammar School, viz. that he is to receive marriage fees 
 to the same amount as the clerk, or, in lieu thereof, the 
 bride's garters.* Similarly, at Burnley, Lancashire, an old 
 custom prevails, by which all persons married at St. Peter's 
 church are fined by the boys at the Grammar School. The 
 money thus obtained is sufficient to maintain the school 
 library. 
 
 At one time the banns of marriage were published on 
 market days, and in the Act of Parliament of 24th August, 
 1653, it was enacted that the banns of marriage should be 
 published three times on three separate Sundays in the 
 church or chapel, or in the market-place, on three market 
 ♦ Bum's " Parish Registers," 164. 
 
124 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 days, between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock. As 
 the Act, however, did not prescribe who was to publish the 
 banns in the market-place, it would, no doubt, often occur, 
 writes a correspondent of Notes and Queries^ that the bell- 
 man of the town would be the most eligible person to 
 perform that duty, both on account of his bell and his 
 voice. This appears to have been a favourite mode of 
 proclaiming the banns, and in the parish register of Boston, 
 Lincolnshire, we find that the banns proclaimed in that 
 town during the years 1656, 1657, and 1658, were 102, 104, 
 and 108 respectively; those proclaimed in the church during 
 those years being 48, 51, and 52. 
 
 If, after the pubUcation of banns, the marriage does not 
 come off, the deserted one is said in Worcestershire to be 
 " hung in the bell ropes," evidently meaning that the ringers 
 are waiting for the marriage ceremony to be performed, so 
 that they may aid in celebrating the event. In Cumberland 
 a couple are said to be " hinging i' t' bell-rope " during the 
 period which transpires between the first publication of 
 banns and marriage. 
 
 In some of the northern and midland counties it has 
 long been customary, on the evening of the Sunday when 
 the banns of marriage are pubUshed for the first time, to 
 announce the fact with a merry peal from the church bells. 
 This peal is called the " Spur Peal," and the Sunday " Spur 
 Sunday." To put in " the spurrings " is to give notice to 
 the parson to pubUsh the banns, and to be "spurred up" 
 is to have had the banns published for three Sundays. 
 Formerly at Bambydum, and also at Kirk Bramwith, York- 
 shire, immediately after the publication of the banns, the 
 parish clerk responded, " God speed 'em well." A similar 
 custom prevailed at Hope church, Derbyshire, where the 
 clerk called out while the couple stood at the altar, " God 
 speed the couple well." At Wellow, in Nottinghamshire, it 
 
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY, 125 
 
 has been customary from time immemorial, when the banns 
 are published, for some person selected by the clerk to rise 
 and say, " God speed them well," the clerk and congregation 
 responding, " Amen." In the Notts Guardian of April 28th, 
 1853, we read, "Owing to the recent death of the person 
 who officiated in this ceremony, last Sunday, after the banns 
 of marriage were read, a perfect silence prevailed, the person 
 chosen, either from want of courage or loss of memory, not 
 performing his part until an intimation from the clerk, and 
 then in so faint a tone as scarcely to be audible. His 
 whispered good-wishes were, however, followed by a hearty 
 Amen, mingled with some laughter in different parts of the 
 church." 
 
 An old custom prevails at Belford, in Northumberland, 
 of making the bridal pair, with their attendants, leap over a 
 stone, known as the "louping" or "petting stone," placed 
 in their path outside the church porch ; on which spot, it 
 is said, the bride must leave all her pets and humours 
 behind her when she crosses it At the neighbouring 
 village of Embleton, writes Mr. Henderson, in his " Folk- 
 lore of the Northern Counties " (38), " the stout young lads 
 place a wooden bench across the door of the church porch, 
 assist the bride and bridegroom and their friends to sur- 
 mount the obstacle, and then look out for a donation from 
 the bridegroom." In the year 1868, adds Mr. Henderson, 
 at a wedding in a High-Coquetdale family, " it was proposed 
 to have a petted stone. A stick was therefore held by two 
 groomsmen at the church door for the bride to jump over. 
 Had she stumbled or fallen, the worst auguries as to her 
 temper would have been drawn." On June 5th, 1873, at 
 Bamburgh church, on the conclusion of the wedding cere- 
 mony, on leaving the church, a three-legged stool, about a 
 foot high, was placed at the churchyard gate, and covered 
 with about two yards of carpet. The whole of the bridal 
 
126 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 party had separately to hop or jump over this stool (locally 
 known as the " parting stool "), assisted on either side by a 
 stalwart villager. 
 
 There has long been a vulgar error that a man is not 
 liable for his wife's debts if he marries her in her shift 
 only, and instances of this having actually taken place are 
 recorded in register books. Thus at Chiltern All Saints, 
 Wiltshire, " John Bridmore and Anne Selwood were married, 
 Oct. 17, 17 14. The aforesaid Anne Selwood was married 
 in her smock, without any clothes or headgear on." At 
 Ulcomb, Kent, in 1725, a woman was manied in her shift, 
 and in 1766 a similar case occurred at Whitehaven. Some 
 years ago the parson, finding nothing in the rubric about 
 the woman's dress, thought he could not refuse to marry 
 her in her chemise only. 
 
 In the registers of Haworth church, Yorkshire, under 
 i733> occurs an entry of *' Marriages at Bradford, and by 
 clog and shoe in Lancashire, but paid the minister of 
 Haworth," to which are subjoined certain fees. At Hilton, 
 Dorsetshire, celibacy was apparently punished in the last 
 century. Thus the register of that parish, under 1739, 
 records the following mandate : *' Ordered, that all young 
 unmarried persons above seventeen years of age do forth- 
 with go to service, or be proceeded against according to 
 law." 
 
 One of the most interesting antiquities of Jarrow Church, 
 Northumberland, is the chair of the venerable Bede. It 
 is preserved in the vestry of the church, whither all brides 
 repair directly the marriage service is over, to seat them- 
 selves upon it According to the general belief, this act will 
 make them the joyful mother of children, and the expectant 
 mothers would not consider the ceremony complete until' 
 they had been enthroned in the venerable Bede's chair.* 
 * See Antiquarian Repertory (181 7), i. 107. 
 
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 127 
 
 Similarly, in years gone by, on the lower declivity of Warton 
 Crag, in the parish of Warton, Lancashire, a seat called 
 the " Bride's Chair," was resorted to on the day of their 
 marriage by the brides of the village, and in this seat they 
 were enthroned by their friends with due solemnity.* In 
 years past, special precaution was taken to prevent brides 
 sitting down on the left seat at the gateway of the entrance 
 to Yarmouth Church, popularly known as the '* Devil's 
 Seat," this being supposed to render any one who sat upon 
 it especially liable to misfortune ever afterwards.! 
 
 * Harland and Wilkinson's " Lancashire Folklore " (1867), 265. 
 t Hone's " Year Book," 254. 
 
128 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BURIAL CUSTOMS. 
 
 Marked changes have taken place within the last few 
 centuries in our burial customs. Many of our cathedrals 
 and old parish churches have silently witnessed strange 
 sights in the modes of interment occasionally practised by 
 our forefathers, records of which have been preserved in 
 local documents. An important disuse of an old practice 
 is that of burying in the sacred edifice, as to the propriety 
 of which many great and good men have entertained strong 
 scruples. Archbishop Sancroft thought it "improper the 
 House of God should be made the repository of sinful 
 man." Sir Matthew Hale was wont to say that " churches 
 were for the living, and churchyards for the dead;" and 
 Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, " did not hold God's 
 house a meet repository for the greatest saint." Lanfranc, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, it is said, was the first who made 
 vaults under the chancel, and even under the altar, when 
 he rebuilt the choir of Canterbury, about 1075. 
 
 In the register of Great and Little Abingdon this entry 
 occurs, which is a curious combination of business and 
 sentiment : " Burial without a coffin, i^. ; for a grave in 
 the church, 6^. %d, \ in the chancel, ^^s. 4^. But the most 
 honourable grave of any man whatsoever is in the church- 
 yard, because that shows most honour to God's house. The 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS, 129 
 
 great first Christian Emperor Constantine, and many of his 
 successors, were buryed in the churchyard." In the last 
 fifty years, however, a great alteration has taken place in 
 England as far as interments in churches are concerned. 
 In London the churchyards have been closed, and burials 
 in any church or churchyard absolutely forbidden, except 
 with the authority of the Secretary of State, which is rarely 
 obtained. 
 
 But, going back to past times, the right of a church to 
 have a mortuary when a person of consequence was interred 
 within it led, writes the late Prebendary Mackenzie Wal- 
 cott,* to some remarkable scenes. " Bishop Hatfield's 
 body," he writes, " was carried to the door of Durham on 
 a chariot drawn by five horses, which became the mortuary 
 due to the abbey. The body of Lord Neville, in 1355, was 
 removed from the funeral car at the cemetery gates, and 
 carried into the church on the shoulders of his armed 
 relatives. On the morrow, at Mass, four men-at-arms and 
 eight horses — four of them apparelled for battle and four 
 for peace — were offered. The horses were usually redeemed 
 or exchanged for sheep — the rich hearse cloths used for 
 church ornaments, and the huge torches converted into 
 tapers. Four stately horses drew the hearse of Bishop 
 Langley into the nave; and possibly owing to these 
 cumbrous solemnities, the wall of the Nine Altars was 
 broken through to permit the admission of the body of 
 Bishop Bek in 1310. The obsequies of Henry V. were 
 observed at St. Paul's and Westminster, and his three 
 chargers, with their riders, were led up to the altar amidst 
 the blaze of one thousand tapers. At Henry VI I. 's funeral 
 a knight rode into the rails of the hearse on a goodly 
 courser trapped, which became the perquisite of the abbey." 
 Instances of this kind, which might be easily enumerated, 
 * " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 204-206. 
 
 K 
 
130 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 show on how imposing a scale the funeral obsequies of 
 the great were conducted in olden days. ** The hearse, a 
 grand erection of sumptuous woodwork, was often set up 
 before the altar over the bier of royal personages. On 
 that of Queen Mary at Westminster there were held lights 
 to the number of a thousand and more." 
 
 The popular superstition, too, that the body of the 
 murdered bled afresh if approached by the guilty persons, 
 led to its exposure in public, in order to suppress any 
 suspicion of foul play. For three or four days the naked 
 bodies of the lords Warwick and Montacute lay in St. Paul's 
 in Easter week, 147 1, **that all men might see them." On 
 May 22, 147 1, attended by a number of armed men, the 
 body of Henry VI. was silently exposed in an open coffin 
 for two days before the high altar of St. Paul's, " where he 
 bled ; " and that of Richard II., after his murder at Ponte- 
 fract, was exposed for three days.* 
 
 The custom of taking out the heart of the deceased, and 
 depositing it apart from the body, has obtained up to recent 
 times. Westminster Abbey contains the hearts of several 
 royal personages. It is said that the heart of Queen Mary 
 was interred in the chapel at St. James's previous to her 
 funeral in Westminster Abbey ; but when the royal vault 
 was opened in 1670, the urns containing the hearts of 
 Queen Mary and her sister Elizabeth were found within 
 niches with their names inscribed upon them. A curious 
 entry occurs in the Cotton Manuscript relative to the 
 interment of the heart of Queen Mary — 
 
 *' A box covered with black velvet. 
 
 " Robert Horwood, for half a yard of velvet, black, for 
 covering a box for the Queen's heart ; of the Queen's store 
 one quarter of sarsenet, red, for to wrap the Queen's 
 heart in. 
 
 ♦ " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 264. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 131 
 
 " John Grene for a box, and covering the same, 3^. 4^. 
 
 " Mary Wilkinson, four yards of passamayne lace to 
 garnish the same. 
 
 " Canopy of blue velvet. 
 
 " Hatchments and mantellets. 
 
 ** The coat and banner of arms." 
 
 Prince Henry of Wales, son of King James I., who died 
 at the early age of eighteen, was buried in Westminster 
 Abbey, his heart being enclosed in lead and placed upon 
 his breast. Among further royal personages whose hearts 
 were buried in a similar manner in Westminster Abbey, 
 were Charles II., William and Mary, George, Prince of 
 Denmark, and Queen Anne. 
 
 The heart of Edward Lord Bruce was enclosed in a 
 silver case, and deposited in the Abbey Church of Culross, 
 near the family seat. In 1808 this sad relic was discovered 
 by Sir Robert Preston, the lid of the silver case bearing on 
 the exterior the name of the unfortunate duellist, and after 
 drawings had been taken of it, the whole was carefully 
 replaced in the vault* In St. Nicholas' Chapel, West- 
 minster Abbey, was enshrined the heart of Esme Stuart, 
 Duke of Richmond, where a monument to his memory is 
 still to be seen, and an inscription, the first part of which 
 runs thus — 
 
 "S.M. 
 
 HSc in Urni 
 
 Includitur cor 
 
 Infra 
 
 Requiescit corpus 
 
 Illustrissimi Ducis 
 
 Esme Stuart," etc. t 
 
 * The urn which contained the heart is thirteen inches in height. It 
 is now empty. 
 
 . t Emily Sophia Hartshome, ** Enshrined Hearts of Warriors and 
 Illustrious People" (1861), 310. 
 
132 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Many interesting instances are to be found in some of 
 our parish churches. In the church at East Homdon, 
 Essex, about sixteen miles from New Hall, which was once 
 the seat of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a nameless black marble 
 monument is pointed out as that of Anne Boleyn, ** It is 
 within a narrow window seat, and may have contained her 
 head or her heart, for it is too short to contain a body. 
 The oldest people in the neighbourhood all declare that 
 they have heard the tradition in their youth from a previous 
 generation of aged persons, who all affirm it to be Anne 
 Boleyn's monument." * By her testament, Eleanor, Duchess 
 of Buckingham, wife of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, who 
 was beheaded on May 17, 152 1, appointed her heart to be 
 buried in the church of the Grey Friars, within the City of 
 London. In the Sackville vault, in the church of Withyam, 
 Sussex, is a leaden box in the shape of a heart, on a brass 
 plate which is inscribed : — 
 
 ' ' The heart of Isabella, Countess of 
 
 Northampton, 
 
 Died the 14th October, 1661." 
 
 The heart of Robert Vaughan, of Merionethshire, was 
 buried in the church at Ludlow, 1642, and it is said that 
 Henry Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who received his death 
 woundjat the fatal battle of Newbery, " was buried in the 
 church at Brington, which is the parish of Althorp, the family 
 seat. This, however, does not appear to be at all certain, as 
 there is no entry in the register recording the fact ; but a 
 leaden drum deposited in vault in the church is supposed to 
 contain his heart. This case has no inscription, or even 
 date upon it."t At Catterick, Yorkshire, was buried the 
 
 * See Miss Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of England," ii. 702. 
 t " Enshrined Hearts," 292. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 133 
 
 heart of John, son of Sir John Lrawson, as the following 
 inscription shows — 
 
 **Hic jacent Reliquiae Johannis Lawson de Burgh Baronetti et 
 Catharinse charissimse ejus conjugis filiae Gulielmi Howard de 
 Narworth Castello in comitatu Cumberlandias Equitis Aurati. 
 
 ^ . / Ille, 26 October, 1698. 
 
 ^ iHac, 4july, 1668. 
 
 Ibidem hie ||* |(1 reponitur 
 
 Cor Johannis \ if filii natu Maximi. 
 
 Supradicti Johannis Lawson, Baronetti. 
 
 Requiescant in pace." 
 
 Lord Byron's heart was enclosed in a silver urn, and placed 
 at Newstead Abbey, in the family vault, while that of Percy 
 Bysshe Shelley was placed in an urn, and deposited in the 
 English burying-ground at Rome. His body, it may be 
 remembered, was washed on shore on the coast of the Gulf 
 of Spezia, and, according to Italian custom after drowning, 
 the body was burnt to ashes. But the heart would not 
 consume ; hence its burial. 
 
 In some cases, buried hearts have been accidentally 
 discovered, little or no trace being left to identify them 
 with any certainty. At Waverley Abbey, Surrey, in 1731, 
 there were found in a stone oculus, two leaden dishes 
 soldered together, containing a human heart, well preserved 
 in pickle, and supposed to have been that of Bishop Peter 
 de Rupibis, who gave directions that it should be preserved 
 at this rehgious house. During the rebuilding of Chatham 
 Church, Kent, in 1788, a leaden pot was found in one of 
 the vaults, containing, according to an inscription, the 
 .heart of a woman, named Hester Harris. When the 
 
134 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 chancel at Landbeach was repaired in 1759, a heart was 
 found, variously supposed to be that of the founder of the 
 church, of a Crusader, or to have belonged to a Chamber- 
 layn, or a Bray, lords of the manor.* On a stone in 
 Chichester Cathedral is a trefoiled panel, within which is 
 the figure of a heart upheld by two hands, and in 
 Lombardic characters the legend : " Ici gist le couer mand 
 de." And at Yaxley, near Peterborough, there was found 
 some years ago, in the north transept wall, a box contain- 
 ing some dust, doubtless that of a heart, a figure of which, 
 upheld by two hands, was placed before it. 
 
 A singular deposit of a heart, encased in clay, was found 
 some years ago in a church in Kent, near East Peckham. 
 And not far from a curious niche, destined for a double 
 heart deposit, was discovered at Leybourne Church, Kent, a 
 leaden box conjectured to hold the heart of Sir Roger de 
 Leybourne. t At Wells Cathedral, enclosed in a box of 
 copper, a heart was found, supposed to be that of one of 
 the bishops, and in the crypt was shown an urn, and 
 the shrivelled remains of a heart, represented to be that of 
 king Ina, from whose coffin it was said to have been taken. J 
 A few years ago, at the church of Little Hereford, Shrop- 
 shire, a heart was discovered in a mural sepulchre ; and in 
 the family^vault of the Hungerfords, at Farely Castle, a heart 
 was accidentally found in a glazed earthenware pot covered 
 with white leather. In 1773, a heart was unearthed at Edin- 
 burgh, in the foundations of St. Cuthbert's Kirk. It was 
 enclosed in a leaden box in the shape of a heart, and had 
 been embalmed with spices. 
 
 A very remarkable instance of a heart-interment was 
 
 * See Gough's " Sepulchral Monuments." 
 t See Rev. L. Larking in " Archaeological Cantiana," v. 136. 
 X Miss Hartshorne's *' Enshrined Hearts," 400. See also Petti- 
 grew's '* Chronicles of the Tombs," for instances of heart-burial. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS, I35 
 
 some years ago discovered in the church of Ewyas Harold, 
 an adjoining parish to Dore, in Herefordshire, where there 
 is an effigy of a lady, nearly life size, holding between her 
 hands, which rest on the breast, such a vessel as might be 
 supposed to contain a heart. Its date appears to be about 
 1300, or a little later. On opening this tomb " in October, 
 1 86 1, in the presence of the vicar, the Rev. W. C. Fowle, 
 and others, there was found under the hands and only a few 
 inches below the effigy, a flat stone covered by an inter- 
 vening flat stone of larger size, on which lay some rubble, 
 and then the effigy ; and in the lower of these two stones was 
 a hemispherical cavity, about five inches in diameter, in which 
 were fragments of a metal vessel that seemed to have been 
 lined with a woven fabric, and probably had contained a heart. 
 Immediately over this cavity, on the under side of the stone 
 that covered it, was painted in white the form of a vessel 
 suitable for enclosing a heart, and such as might have been, 
 and probably was, deposited in the cavity. No trace was 
 discovered of the body, that, most likely, was interred 
 elsewhere. It is not known who the lady was, but there is 
 some reason to suppose that she was Clarice, the elder 
 daughter of John de Tregoz, who held by barony the castle 
 at Ewyas Harold, and died about 1300." * 
 
 Many notices of burial in erect posture occur in the 
 literature of the past, and Heame, in his " Collection of 
 Antiquarian Discourses" (i. 212), says this custom was 
 formerly adopted in the case of captains in the army : 
 " For them above the grounde buryed, I have by tradition 
 heard, that when anye notable captaine dyed in battel or 
 campe, the souldyers used to take the bodye and to sette 
 him on his feet uprighte, and put his launce into his hand ; 
 and then his fellowe souldyers did by travell everye man 
 bringe so muche earthe, and laye aboute him as should 
 ♦ "Journal of Archaeological Association," xxi. 142, 143. 
 
136 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 cover him, and mount up to cover the top of his pike." 
 Wordsworth, in his " White Doe of Rylstone," alludes to 
 this practice — 
 
 ** Pass, pass who will yon chantry door, 
 And through the chink in the fractured floor, 
 Look down, and see a grisly sight, 
 A vault where the bodies are buried upright ; 
 There face by face, and hand by hand, 
 The Claphams and Mauleverers stand." 
 
 In Whitaker's " Craven," we are told that " at the east 
 end of the north aisle of Bolton Priory Church is a chantry 
 belonging to Bethmesley Hall, and a vault where, according 
 to tradition, the Claphams were buried upright." 
 
 The church of East Meon, Hants, has on its walls a 
 stone with this inscription, " Amens Plenty," and there is a 
 tradition that three armed men are buried upright beneath. 
 
 At Box Hill, Dorking, a Major Labelliere is buried in 
 a curious position, the grave being at the summit of the 
 eminence, in a recess cut out of the grove of box trees. 
 By his desire he was buried head downwards, it having been 
 a constant remark of his that the world was turned topsey- 
 turvey, and that at the last day he would then be placed 
 right. 
 
 A curious story of Ben Jonson has often been related to 
 the effect that he is interred upright in his grave at 
 Westminster Abbey. Knight, in his " Old England " (i. 290), 
 gives the tale thus — 
 
 " The Dean of Westminster rallied the poet one day about 
 his burial in the Abbey vaults. ' I am too poor for that,' 
 said Jonson, * and no one will lay out funeral charges upon 
 me. No, sir ; six foot long by two wide is too much for me — 
 two foot by two will do for what I want.' ' You shall have 
 it,' replied the dean, and so the conversation ended. On 
 the poet's death, continues the story, a demand was made for 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 137 
 
 the space promised, a hole made in it eight feet deep, and 
 the coffin deposited therein upright" In the "Ingoldsby 
 Legends," this anecdote is mentioned — 
 
 " Besides in the place, 
 
 They say there's not space, 
 To bury what wet nurses called a * Babby.* 
 Even * Rare Ben Jonson,' that famous wight, 
 I am told is interr'd there bolt upright, 
 In just such a posture, beneath his bust, 
 As Tray used to sit in to beg for a crust." 
 
 In 1858, the vault of the Powletts, Barons Bolton, in 
 Wensley Church, Yorkshire, being opened for a burial, a 
 correspondent of Notes and Queries (5th series, ii. 347) 
 tells us he " entered in, and saw the leaden coffin of the 
 Marchioness of Winchester in an erect position." 
 
 It was not unusual, when persons of distinction died, to 
 have the funeral service performed with a Corpus fictum, or 
 effigy of the deceased, in all the different churches with 
 which they were connected, and such funerals were entered 
 in the parish registers as if they were actual burials, although 
 the body was buried elsewhere. Queen Elizabeth was 
 buried in this way in all the London churches; and the 
 register of Selbome, Hants, records in 1594 the burial of 
 Thomas Cowper, Bishop of Winchester, although he was 
 actually interred in his own cathedral church.* 
 
 When persons of rank, too, died in one parish and were 
 buried in another, the burial was usually recorded in the 
 registers of both parishes. 
 
 Notices of " solemn burials " occur in many registers, the 
 preparation for which necessarily took up much time, so 
 that the funeral was often postponed for several weeks after 
 the interment. The following entry, for instance, shows that 
 Sir Edward Clere, who died on June 8, 1606, was buried on 
 
 * R. E. C. Waters, "Parish Registers in England" (1887), 47. 
 
138 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 June 21, but the solemn funeral was not celebrated until 
 August 14th : i " Blickling, Norfolk, i6o6. Dnus Edwardus 
 Clere Miles, quondam Dnus de Blickling, obiit Londinii 
 8to die Junii, atque sepultus fuit apud Blickling 21° die 
 mensis predict!, cujus funera summa Cum Solemnitate 
 celebrata fuere 14** die Augusti a.d. 1606." In the parish 
 of Iselham, Cambridge, under 1590, this entry is given : 
 "Mr. Robert Peyton, Esquier, died 19 Oct., and was 
 solemnly buried 12 Nov. next following." "Such solemn 
 burials," writes Mr. Waters, " were directed and served up 
 by the Heralds, who drew up funeral certificates which 
 were subscribed by the executors of the deceased, and 
 were recorded in the College of Arms. The series of 
 these certificates began in 1567, but have been discontinued 
 since 1688, and the Heralds have ceased to attend, except 
 at royal and public funerals, at which they still marshal the 
 procession, and proclaim the style of the deceased." 
 
 Connected with the solemn funeral were the sermon and 
 feast, for which wealthy persons generally made provisions 
 in their wills. Thus, William Methoulde, Citizen and Mercer 
 of London, by his will dated April 25, 1580, gave 10s. to 
 the vicar of St. Lawrence in the old Jewry, "for the sermon 
 on the day of my funeral," and directed that "the people, 
 poor and rich, dwelling in the alley of Milk Street, in our 
 end of the parish of St. Lawrence, be feasted on the day of 
 my funeral ; some at dinner and the rest at supper," and £^0 
 was to be spent on their entertainment. The burial feast 
 went out of fashion in the seventeenth century, but there 
 was always a funeral sermon, after which wine, wafers, gloves, 
 and rosemary were distributed. This custom was so 
 universal among all funerals of the better sort, that Smyth * 
 thought it worth noting in his Obituary how Mr. Cornelius 
 Bee, a bookseller in Little Britain, was buried on Jan. 4, 
 * R. E. C. Water's '* Parish Registers," 48. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 139 
 
 167 1-2, at St. Bartholomew's the Great, " without a sermon, 
 without wine or wafers ; only gloves and rosemary." 
 
 In days gone by, among some of the curious scenes 
 witnessed within the walls of our churches, have been burials 
 by torchlight. On the night of November the nth, 1760, 
 George II. was interred at Westminster Abbey in Henry 
 VII.'s chapel ; and of those whose funerals took place at a 
 similar time in the same sacred structure may be mentioned 
 the poet Cowley, John Addison, Thomas Betterton, and 
 Samuel Foote. 
 
 Occasionally nocturnal burials took place for the sake of 
 secrecy. In the parish register of Weedon Beck, North- 
 amptonshire, we are told how "William Radhouse, the 
 elder, dying excom^, was buried by stealthe, in the night 
 time, in y* churchyard, y* 29th day of January, 16 15, where- 
 upon y® church was interdicted a fortnight"* Among 
 further notices of this custom may be mentioned the follow- 
 ing extract from the will of Frances Countess Dowager of 
 Thanet, dated June nth, 1646, which directs that "my 
 bodie may bee buried at Raynham, where the body of my 
 deare Lord Nicholas, late Earle of Thanett, deceased, doth 
 lie, and that it may bee buried in the night season as his 
 was." In the parish register of Bruton this entry is given : 
 "1688, June 6. The Right Honor'"'- Charles Lord 
 Viscount FitzHarding, was between twelve and one of the 
 clock in the night, after a sermon preached by Mr. John 
 Randall, the minister of Brewton, buried in the vault in the 
 chancell, in a coffin of lead." In the Gentleman's Magazine 
 (18 1 7, Ixxxvii. pt. ii. 13) is an account of the funeral of the 
 
 * In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary's, Cambridge, is a 
 charge of 8 ob. **for the new -hallowing or reconcyling of our church, 
 being interdicted at the buryall of Mr. Bucer, and the charge thereunto 
 belonging, frankincens and sweet perfumes for the sacrament, and 
 herbes," etc. (Harl. MSS., 7044, p. 184). 
 
140 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Duchess of Northumberland in 1782, which it is recorded 
 " took place by torchlight at four in the morning, to avoid 
 the mischief of too great a number of persons interrupting 
 the same ; which, however, was not the case, as the con- 
 course of people was so numerous at the screens to the 
 small chapels surrounding the south aisle of the choir (in 
 the farther end of which is the Percy vault), that many had 
 their legs and arms broken, and were otherwise much 
 bruised. From this time no burials have been performed 
 by torchlight except royal ones, a sufficient guard attending 
 to keep order on the occasion." From time immemorial 
 it has been the custom of the ancient family of Dyott, of 
 Treeford, to bury its deceased members by torchlight. 
 
 Aldermen of London, who had filled the mayoralty, were, 
 by ancient \ custom, buried with special solemnity, and 
 usually by torchlight. But these funerals at night were so 
 often scenes of disorder that they were at last prohibited by 
 Charles I. A curious letter on the subject, written by the 
 Earl Marshal to the Lord Mayor, July i6th, 1635, on the 
 occasion of the death of Alderman Sir Richard Deane, who 
 had served as Lord Mayor in 1628, has been preserved in 
 the College of Arms : 
 
 " My very good Lord, 
 
 "Whereas I am informed that Sir Rich. 
 Deane, Kt., Aid'' and late Lo. Mayor of the Citty of London, 
 is lately deceased, and to be buryed as I am given to under- 
 stand, in a private manner, no way sutable with his degree 
 and eminent quality of chief magistrate of the citty, not only 
 contrary to the laudible custome of his predecessors, but 
 allsoe to yo'' owne constitutions made amongst yo' selves for 
 the solempne and ceremonious entertment of such as have 
 borne office in the place of Lo : Mayor, fforasmuch as his 
 Matie hath lately signefied his expresse pleasure and comand 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 141 
 
 for the prohibitinge all nocturnall funeralls whatsoever for the 
 suppression of which disorders as I am obliged by the place 
 I hold to be carefuU in the execution of his Maties Royale 
 comand, so am I likewise as formerly I have done in the like 
 case ernestly to desyre your lo", and the Executors of the 
 defunct whom it may concerne, to see the auncient and 
 reuerend ceremonies at the enterm* both of this gent : 
 deceased, and those of his qualety in the citty, to be 
 decently celebrated and duly observed according to the 
 accustomed solemnities, and with vsuall rights to the memory 
 of the deceased So, not doubting of yo' redinesse herein 
 I rest, 
 
 " Yo' lo** very loving friend, 
 
 "Arundell & Surrey. 
 
 " Anindell House, 16 July, 1635. 
 ** To my honorable friend, 
 
 ♦* The Lo : Mayor of the City of London." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott in "The Antiquary" (chap, xxvi.), 
 alludes to the custom of the Glenallan family being buried 
 by torchlight, and in the mouth of Elspeth Mucklebackit 
 gives as the reason — 
 
 " They hae dune sae since the time the Great Earl fell in 
 the sair battle o' the Harlaw, when they say the coronach 
 was cried in ae day from the mouth o* the Tay to the Buck 
 of the Cabrach, that ye wad hae heard nae other sound but 
 that of lamentation for the great folks that had fa'en fighting 
 against Donald of the Isles. But the great Earl's mither 
 wad hae nae coronach cried for her son, but had him laid 
 in the silence o' midnight in his place o' rest, without either 
 drinking the dirge or crying the lament, and sae she laid 
 him in his grave wi' dry eyes, and without a groan or a waiL" 
 
 In the parish register of Norton, Derbyshire, it is 
 stated, imder 1601, how " Anthonius Blythe de Brychet p'oe 
 
142 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 de dranfield Armiger sepult' fuit in Capella Eccl'eae p'oali 
 de Norton adjunct Tertio die Junii in nocte." And in the 
 registers of Toddington, Bedfordshire, this entry is given : 
 " Honoratissimus, D.D., Thomas Wentworth Comes diniae 
 fidelissimus regis subditus patronus mens multis hominibus 
 Colendus sepultus erat in Crypta circiter, Nov. 9, nocte 
 April 4° (1667)." 
 
 A mid-Shropshire squire of long ago, who was credited 
 with being very wicked, was buried, writes Miss Jackson in 
 her "Shropshire Folklore" (119), "in an old-world fashion," 
 after the following manner, as told by the narrator : " When I 
 was a little wench it was, the old squire died. And he lied 
 in state, and they buried him at midnight, and crowds of 
 people come to see him. And there was men in black with 
 torches in the church, and the vault was opened, and we all 
 went down into it to look at the coffins. And my grand- 
 mother took me, and I ketched out on her hand. And she 
 asked me, was I frightened ? But I wasn't frightened. And 
 my grandmother said it was an old custom with some of 
 the gentry to bury at midnight." 
 
 Interments in the actual walls of churches were not unfre- 
 quent. At St. John's Priory Church, Clerkenwell, during 
 some repairs in 1812, in the wall near the southernmost east 
 window, the skeleton of a child was found in a cavity of the 
 masonry; and during the restoration of Purton Church, 
 Wilts, a skeleton was discovered in one of the walls. 
 Blomefield mentions an instance of intra-mural burial at 
 Foulden, Norfolk : " On the foundation of the south aisle, 
 facing the churchyard, is an arched monument over a flat 
 marble gravestone, partly covered by the arch, partly by 
 the wall, and apparently about the time of Edward I." * 
 In the church of Preshute, near Marlborough, on pulling 
 down one of the old walls during the restoration, a body 
 * See Notes and Queries, ist series, iii. 37. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 143 
 
 was discovered in the wall near the site of the pulpit, and 
 Mr. T. J. Micklethwaite says: "The side walls of the 
 extension eastward of the chapter-house of Kirkstall Abbey 
 have built into them a considerable number of coffins. With 
 the exception of one," he adds, " these coffins are empty ; 
 and it is probable that they were originally placed under 
 the floor, but were disturbed when the place was altered, 
 and both economy and decency suggested building them 
 up in the new walls as the best way of disposing of 
 them." * 
 
 At Brent Pelham Church, Herts, there is the tomb of 
 one Piers Shonkes, the inscription on which has these words : 
 "Hoc tamen in muro tutus." The story goes that the 
 devil swore he would have Piers Shonkes, no matter whether 
 buried within or without the church. So, to outwit his 
 Satanic majesty, he was built up in the wall of the sacred 
 edifice. An amusing legend of a similar kind is told re- 
 specting the building of an ancient manor-house, locally 
 known as Bam Hall, in the parish of Tolleshunt Knights, 
 on the edge of the Essex marshes. In the middle of a field 
 an enclosed uncultivated spot is still shown, where the 
 legend says it was intended to erect the hall, had not the 
 devil come by night and destroyed the work of the day. A 
 knight, attended by two dogs, was set to watch for the 
 intruder; a tussle ensued, and the Prince of Darkness, 
 snatching up a beam from the building, hurled it to the 
 site of the present hall, exclaiming — 
 
 *' Whereso'er this beam shall fall. 
 There shall stand Barn Hall." 
 
 The devil, enraged at the knight's interference, vowed that 
 
 he would have him at his death, whether he were buried in 
 
 the church or out of it. But this doom was averted by 
 
 ♦ Notes and Queries^ 5th series, ii. 234. 
 
144 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 burying him in the wall, half in and half out of the 
 church.* 
 
 In the north wall of the church of Tremeirchion, near 
 the banks of the Elwy, North Wales,t is the tomb of a former 
 vicar, Daffydd Ddu, who was also celebrated as a necro- 
 mancer, flourishing about 1340. It is said he proved 
 himself more clever than the Wicked One himself. A 
 bargain was made between them that the vicar should 
 practice the black art with impunity during his life, but 
 that the devil should possess his body after death, whether 
 he were buried within, or without, the church. But the 
 worthy vicar cheated his ally of his bargain by being buried 
 within the church wall itself. 
 
 The practice of burying either inside or under the pillars 
 of churches has excited considerable interest, instances 
 of this peculiar custom having from time to time been 
 discovered. 
 
 According to a correspondent of Notes and Queries (2nd 
 series, x. 521), Clement Spelman of Narburgh, Recorder of 
 Nottingham, who died 1679, is immured upright, enclosed 
 in a pillar in Narburgh chancel ; and some years ago, when 
 St. John's Church, Clareborough, Notts, was undergoing 
 restoration, it was necessary to take down to the foundation 
 one corner of the tower owing to its bad condition. On 
 the removal of the stones and mortar, it was found that 
 they had been built on a solid rock, which "had been 
 hollowed out in the usual shape of a stone coffin, and the 
 remains of a human skeleton were discovered within it. 
 The buttress and corner of the tower were built over the 
 corpse, the feet were towards the east" % About sixty 
 years ago, during some repairs of York Minster, it was found 
 
 * "The Antiquary," iv. 279. 
 
 t See Pennant, ii. 139; Notes and Queries y ist series, ii. 513. 
 
 X Notes and Queries^ 4th series, xii. 149. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 145 
 
 needful to lay bare part of the foundation, when it was 
 discovered that under a pillar, prepared for the purpose, an 
 interment had taken place. The body was that of a bishop 
 in his robes. The Rev. W. Taylor, F.R.S., minor canon 
 of York,* was present when the grave was opened, and it 
 would appear that the place of interment in the foundation 
 of the pillar had been properly prepared by the builder with 
 the view of receiving a body ; the cavity not being of suffi- 
 cient size to impair the stability of the pillar itself. 
 
 In 1679, an Act was passed, termed " An Act for burying 
 in Woollen," and was intended " for the lessening the im- 
 portation of linen from beyond the seas, and the encourage- 
 ment of the woollen and paper manufactures of this 
 kingdom." By this Act the clergy were enjoined to state 
 in the entry of burials that the law had been kept. The 
 custom then arose for the parish clerk to ask at the con- 
 clusion of the burial service, " Who makes affidavit? " One 
 of the relations of the deceased made the necessary oath, 
 and the fact was noted in the register, f In the " Reliquary " 
 Ixvii. 93), a specimen of one of these affidavits is thus given — 
 "Dec. 20, 1 7 18, reed, this affidavit. 
 
 "Com. Lan. Manchester, Dec. 20, 17 18, 
 which day Ann wife of Sam'- Hampson of Stretford, in the 
 parish of Manchester, Thatcher made oath y* the body of 
 Sarah wife of Tho. Tipping, of the township and parish 
 aforesaid. Husbandman, lately deceased (December 14), was 
 interr'd according to the Act of Parliament for burying in 
 Wollen. 
 
 *' Radley Ainscough, Cap. (Chaplain) 
 
 de Manchestr." 
 But the higher classes generally evaded the law, and in 
 
 * Notes and Queries y 4th series, xii. 311, 458. 
 A printed form of the affidavit will be found in the Sussex 
 "Archaeologia," xviii. 
 
 L 
 
146 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 many of the parish registers this fact is notified. Thus at 
 Burwash, Sussex, we find this entry — 
 
 \ Nulla affidavit 
 
 " 1680. Mar. 26. Bur, Johanes Theobald I mulcta secun- 
 
 „ ,,31. Bur. Gualterus Theobald ( dum legem in- 
 
 ) flicta." 
 
 In the register of St. Mary-le-Bow, Durham, we are told 
 how " Christopher Bell, Gent, was lapped in linen, contrary 
 to the late act, Dec. 1678;" and in that of Gayton, North- 
 amptonshire, this entry occurs : " 1708. Mrs. Dorothy Bel- 
 lingham was buried April 5, in Linmn, and the forfeiture of 
 the Act payd fifty shillings to y" informer, and fifty shillings to 
 y* poor of the parishe." * Pope wrote of Mrs. Oldfield, who 
 was buried in Westminster Abbey in a Brussels lace head- 
 dress, a holland shift with tucker, and double ruffles of the 
 same lace, and a pair of new kid gloves, these lines — 
 
 '* ' Odious ! in woollen ! 'twould a Saint provoke ' 
 (Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke) ; 
 * No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace 
 Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face.' " 
 
 The following copy of a certificate, under the Act for 
 burying in Woollen, relates to Southwold parish, and is dated 
 April 26, 1690 — 
 
 " These are to Certifie y* Anne Burnet, in Waldwick, 
 in the county forsd, came before mee y® day abovesd, and 
 made Affidavit upon oath, in p'nce of those whose names 
 are hereunto sett, y* Elizabeth, y*" wife of Andrew Lillie, in 
 the above-named parish and county, lately deceased there, 
 was buried in the ordinarie Burying place thereof, being 
 wound, wrapt up, and layd foorth, in woollen only, and no 
 other material then what is made of sheeps wool only : 
 
 * Quoted in Burn's ** History of Parish Registers " (1862), 117. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 147 
 
 according to y* Act of Parlia't, made for Burying in woollen 
 only. 
 
 " Jurat coram me 
 
 " Ja. Petre, Mi' of So' wold. 
 
 " Witnesses | 
 
 Barbara Petre. 
 Katrine Petre." * 
 
 With the uncoffined dead, it was easy to discover whether 
 the enactment had been complied with. Up to 1694, it 
 was customary at Melbourne, Derbyshire, " to bury the 
 bodies without coffins, simply wrapped in woollen ; and in 
 the case of Sir Robert and Lady Hardinge, no exception 
 appears to have been made, so that their bodies had 
 mingled with the common earth." f 
 
 Baptized infants, who died within the month after their 
 baptism, were generally shrouded in the white cloth, — 
 chrisom — put on the head at baptism, and were therefore 
 called " chrisoms." The use of the chrisom is thus men- 
 tioned in the first Prayer-book of Edward VI. (1549) : 
 " Then the Godfathers and Godmothers shall take and lay 
 their hands upon the child, and the minister shall put upon 
 him his white vesture, commonly called the chrisom, and 
 say, * Take this white vesture for a token of the innocency 
 which by God's grace in this holy sacrament of baptism is 
 given unto thee ; and for a sign whereby thou art admonished, 
 so long as thou livest, to give thyself to innocency of living, 
 that, after this transitory life, thou mayest be partaker of 
 the life everlasting.' " 
 
 The white garment thus presented to the child at baptism 
 was then wrapped round it, and retained as part of the 
 clothing till the churching of the mother, who, in the first 
 Prayer-book of Edward VI., is directed to present it to the 
 
 * The East Anglian^ ii. 92. 
 t " Reliquary," i. 19. 
 
148 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 minister with her other accustomed offering.* Infants 
 dying with this vesture upon them are commemorated on 
 various monumental crosses, as at Southfleet, Kentf 
 
 A curious inscription exists in the Church of Chesham- 
 Bois, Bucks, illustrative of this practice. It is on a small 
 stone in the chancel, underneath a brass figure of a chrisom 
 child, and runs thus — 
 
 ** Of Rog' Lee, gentilma' here, 
 lyeth the son Bendict Lee 
 Crysom, who' soule ih'u p'do." X 
 
 Similar brasses remain at Rougham, 1505-15 lo; Kettering- 
 ham, Norfolk, 1530; Lavenham, Suffolk, 1631 ; and at 
 Aveley, Essex, 1583. Specimens are engraved in Cotman's 
 " Norfolk Brasses," and a very good example is to be seen 
 at the Church of Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey. It should be 
 noted that monumental brasses, when laid down to the 
 memory of chrisom children, have a distinctive feature 
 peculiar to themselves. The figures are generally repre- 
 sented as bound up in folds of linen, ornamented with 
 vandyked edges, bound down with strips of vandyked linen 
 in such order that the intersection on the upper and lower 
 fourth of the body's length shall present the form of a cross. § 
 Numerous references occur in our old parish registers of 
 the burial of " chrisom " children. And although the 
 chrisom was expunged from the Prayer-book of 1552, the 
 memory of it long lingered in the hearts of the people, 
 and down to the eighteenth century, babes dying in their 
 innocence were called chrisoms in the bills of mortality and 
 
 * Within recent years, it was customary at Horndon-on-the-Hill, 
 Essex, at the churching of woman, for her to give a white cambric 
 handkerchief to the priest as an offering. 
 
 f See "Keliquary," xxv. 29. 
 
 X Pardon. See East Anglian (1886), ii. 93. 
 
 § A full account of chrisom children will be found in the transactions 
 of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 149 
 
 in parish registers. In the register of Westminster Abbey, 
 under 1687, this entry is given: "The Princess Ann's 
 child, a chrisome, bur. 22 Oct" 
 
 In many registers we find the cause of death entered 
 very carefully, a practice which was recommended by Dr. 
 Burrows, in his ** Strictures on the use and defects of Parish 
 Registers," 18 18. Entries of this kind are often very 
 quaint, if not always refined. In the register of St. Alk- 
 mund's, Derby, under 1720, it is recorded how Jane Cressop 
 was buried, "killed by the coloquintada, or bitter apple, 
 which she took to procure an abortion. God give others 
 better grace." The register of Staines, Middlesex, tells how, 
 on March 25, 1791, was " buried a man, unknown, of some 
 parish in Cambridge, whose death was occasioned and 
 hastened by the improper treatment of William Seymour, 
 farmer of the poor, for which a bill was found against him, 
 and he confined in Newgate a year and a day." 
 
 In Teddington parish register, an entry informs us that 
 one " James Parsons, who had eaten a shoulder of mutton 
 or a peck of hasty pudding at a time, which caused his 
 death," was buried March 7, 1743-44. Loughborough 
 register, under 1579, relates how one " Roger Shepherd 
 was slain by a lioness which was brought into the town to 
 be seen of such as would give money to see her. He was 
 sore wounded in sundry places, and was buried the 26 
 Aug^." To quote a further instance, it is recorded in the 
 register of Bowes, Yorkshire, how " Rodger Wrightson, jun., 
 and Martha Railton, both of Bowes," were " buried in one 
 grave on 15 March, 17 14. He died in a fever, and upon 
 tolling his passing-bell, she cryed out, * My heart is broke,' 
 and in a few hours expired, purely, as was supposed, from 
 love, aged about twenty years each." The melancholy fate 
 of these lovers is immortalized in Mallet's ballad of ** Edwin 
 and Emma " — 
 
ISO CHURCH'LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 " I feel, I feel, this breaking heart 
 Beat high against my side ; 
 From her white arm down sunk her head, 
 She shivering, jighed and died." * 
 
 In the parish register of Tregaron, Cardiganshire, among 
 the customary fees formerly paid by the inhabitants on 
 various occasions, the following was due to the parish clerk 
 in case of a funeral : " At the death of every marryed man 
 and woman there is ... to ye Clerk of y® man's wearing 
 apparel, his best hatt and his best shoes and stockings, and 
 from every woman her head flannen or hood, and her best 
 shoes and stockings, besides what is due for digging of 
 their graves." 
 
 In olden times it was by no means unusual for the parish 
 to provide a coffin for general use, which was popularly 
 designated " the parish coffin." In some old churchwardens' 
 books, such coffins appear as "chistes," as in the Louth 
 accounts for 1521-22, where this entry occurs: "He [the 
 bellman] shall here and convey the chiste or chistes as 
 nedys shall require to every place in the towne wher any 
 corse is, or corses, as shall happen. He shall take for 
 setting of herse every time he settes it \d, and no more." 
 A further reference to this custom occurs under 1593 : 
 " Pade for y** mendyng of bothe y* coffins in y* churche, 
 xiiij^." 
 
 In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Michael, Comhill, 
 this item is entered under 1554: " Paide for mendynge of 
 the coffen that canys the corses to churche for bourde, 
 neylles, and workemanshippe, xii^. ; " and we are told of a 
 curious old-fashioned black-painted coffin preserved in the 
 parish church of Easingwold, which, it is said, was formerly 
 used for conveying the bodies of the departed to the church- 
 yard for interment. In Wales, a little more than a century 
 
 * See Burn's *' Parish Registers," 127-131. 
 
BURIAL CUSTOMS. 15T 
 
 ago, writes a correspondent of Notes and Queries (5th series, 
 i. 166), "the poor were not buried in coffins; they were 
 merely wrapped up in canvas, and carried away to be 
 buried in a coffin, which was kept for common use in the 
 church, just as a bier is now. There were two coffins kept, 
 a large and a small one." 
 
 In the account-book of St. Mary Coslany, Norwich, we 
 find the subjoined entries for the burial of a vagrant, 
 1681-82— 
 
 •* Paid for winding for y' stranger that died at the Wool- 
 pack, £0 3^. od, 
 
 "Paid the bearers that carried him, and y" women that 
 did bind him, and the charges expended at the Woolpack 
 for y* burying of y* stranger, jQo y. od. 
 
 " Paid y* Clarke for bell ringing, and grave making, and 
 chiming, £0 2s. 6d." 
 
 At Oxford it is the custom for a bellman to precede the 
 funeral procession of any member of the University, sound- 
 ing a hand-bell at intervals till the corpse arrives at the 
 place of interment. This custom prevailed at Caerleon, in 
 Wales, a bell being carried about the streets and sounded 
 just before the interment of a corpse. Such a bell is 
 generally known as the " Lyche Bell," or " Corse BelL" 
 
 The following passage from " Anthony Wood " is inter- 
 esting: "June 27 (1648). The visitors ordered that the 
 bellman of the University should not go about in such 
 manner as was heretofore used at the funeral of any member 
 of the University. This was purposely to prevent the 
 solemnity that was to be performed at the funeral of Dr. 
 Radcliff, Principal of B.N.C., lately dead. For it must be 
 known that it hath been the custom, time out of mind, that 
 when the head of a house, doctor, or master of considerable 
 degree, was to be buried, the university bellman was to 
 put on the gown and the formahties of the person defunct, 
 
152 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 and, with his bell, to go into every college and hall, and 
 there make open proclamation, after two rings with his 
 bell, that, forasmuch as God had been pleased to take 
 out of the world such a person, he was to give notice to 
 all persons of the University that on such a day, and at 
 such an hour, he was solemnly to be buried, etc. But 
 the visitors not only forbid this, but the bellman's going 
 before the corpse from the house or college to the church 
 or chapel." 
 
( 153 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CHURCHYARD. 
 
 The lich-gate— the gate of the dead, or, as it is sometimes 
 called, the corpse-gate — which frequently stands at the 
 entrance of our country churchyards, is usually protected 
 by a broad outspreading gable roof, in order that those who 
 accompany the bodies of the departed to their last resting- 
 place may find shelter while waiting for the priest to 
 perform the introductory part of the burial service. In 
 Herefordshire, lich-gates are * known as ** scallage," or 
 " scallenge-gates," and the approach to Ludlow church from 
 the town, at its south entrance, is by a passage now crowded 
 with houses, but still retaining the name of the " skallens," 
 or " kalends," which Sir G. C. Lewis and other correspondents 
 of Notes and Queries have identified with the ancient lich- 
 gate. In some parts of Devon and Cornwall, where lich-gates 
 mostly prevail, they have long been known as " trim-trams," 
 a term which, it has been suggested,! may be a corruption 
 of *' trim-train," i.e. "the halting-place at the entrance of 
 the churchyard where the train — that is, not only the pall, 
 but the whole funeral party — might be trimmed, or duly 
 
 ♦ G. G. Lewis, "Gloss. Herefordshire Words," 1839. 
 
 t Notes and Queries^ 3rd series, iii. 29. Tram, as an old word, bore 
 several meanings. It was a train. It was, and is, a car mounted on 
 wheels. 
 
154 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 adjusted, and brought into proper order, so as to be in 
 a state of preparation for the officiating minister, on his 
 coming forth to meet them there, and commence the burial 
 service." 
 
 It has been suggested that these erections are all of the 
 Post-Reformation period, but in Britton's "Antiquities" 
 mention is made of a lich-gate which formerly stood near 
 Gloucester Cathedral, in a lane called Lich Lane, where the 
 corpse of King Edward II. rested on its way to interment. 
 It would appear that the word " lie " was in common use in 
 all the northern countries of Europe, with the same mean- 
 ing — "place for the corpse;" and authorities are quoted 
 in Bosworth's *' Anglo-Saxon Dictionary," in the different 
 northern tongues, to prove that lie was a compound with 
 all funeral terms, i.e. *' lie-rest," a body-rest; "lie-man," a 
 man who provides for funerals, etc. Many of the lich- 
 gates, too, have an early look ; and although, as it has been 
 pointed out at our archaeological meetings, it is difficult to 
 assign to them any precise date, there is little doubt that 
 they existed prior to the Reformation. 
 
 An interesting facsimile of an illumination representing 
 the funeral of a king of France, in which the procession 
 is seen entering a churchyard through a lich-gate con- 
 structed partly of stone, partly of wood, may be seen in the 
 illustrations to Froissart's " Chronicles." 
 
 Among some of the notable lich-gates in England may 
 be mentioned that at Arundel, in Sussex. Many years ago 
 it was removed from the entrance to the graveyard, and 
 erected as a porch on the north side of the church. At 
 Hartfield, in the same county, the lich-gate is built under 
 a house ; and, among further instances, may be mentioned 
 those at Worth and Pulborough. At Troutbeck, Westmore- 
 land, there are three stone lich-gates in one churchyard. 
 Over the gate at Bray, Berkshire, there are two chambers, 
 

 LICH-GATES. Pa£-e 1 55. 
 
 I. Burnsal. 2. Beckenham. 
 
THE CHURCHYARD. 155 
 
 connected with an ancient charitable bequest, and over that 
 at Barking, Essex, is a chamber called the Chapel of the 
 Holy Rood. 
 
 In Devonshire many of the lich-gates are of stone. " A 
 gabled wall," writes a correspondent of Notes and Queries 
 (4th series, i. 445), " was built up on either side of the church 
 path, and a roof built from one gable to the other on stout 
 beams. Of such a fashion was the old ' bier-house ' — this 
 was the local name — atTor-Mohun and Paignton, both now 
 destroyed, and is the fashion in many other places. . . . There 
 is another fashion of bier-house found at other places in 
 Devon, e.g. Bickington and Throwleigh. Here the bier- 
 house is associated with the ' church-house,' in the former 
 case the church-house being built over the lich-gate, in the 
 latter on one side. At Tawstock there is a small room on 
 either side of the gate, and at Berry Harbor the lich-gate is 
 in the form of a cross. In Cornwall we often find the 
 stone-work without a gate, as at St. Winnow, but at St. 
 Levan there is a gate with seats, cross, and stone." 
 
 The curious arrangement for opening and closing the 
 gate at Burnsall, Yorkshire, is thus described : " The stone 
 pier on the north side has a well-hole, in which the weight 
 that closes the gate works up and down. An upright 
 swivel-post, or * heart-tree,' as the people there call it, 
 stands in the centre, and through this pass the three rails 
 of the gate ; an iron bent lever is fixed to the top of this 
 post, which is connected by a chain and guide-pulley to the 
 weight, so that when any one passes through, both ends 
 of the gate open in opposite directions." The gate at 
 Rostherne churchyard, Cheshire, is on a similar plan.* 
 Kent, in years past, has possessed several old lich-gates, as 
 at Beckenham, Boughton, Monchelsea, and West Wickham. 
 But, with the work of church restoration, many of these 
 * Notes and Queries^ 4th series, i. 445. 
 
ts6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 curious relics of the past have from time to time dis- 
 appeared, a modern iron gate only too frequently taking 
 the place of these time-honoured, and picturesque, structures. 
 In days gone by, the lich-gate was often the scene of a 
 curious superstition — one which still lingers on, here and 
 there, in different places — the idea being that the spirit of 
 the last person watches round the churchyard till another 
 is buried, to whom he delivers his charge. Thus Crofton 
 Croker, in his "South of Ireland" (p. 169), says that "It 
 is a general opinion among the lower orders, that the last- 
 buried corpse has to perform an office like that of * fag ' in 
 our public schools by the junior boy, and that the attend- 
 ance on his churchyard companions is duly relieved by the 
 interment of some other person." Serious consequences 
 have resulted from this notion, and terrific fights have taken 
 place, at the entrance of the churchyard, to decide which 
 corpse should be buried first. Similar scenes have been 
 witnessed in Scotland in times past, and Sir John Sinclair, 
 in his " Statistical Account of Scotland," says that in certain 
 parts of the county of Argyll, when two burials were to take 
 place in one churchyard on the same day, a singular sight 
 occurred. " Both parties staggered forth as fast as possible 
 to consign their respective friend in the first place to the 
 dust ; if they met at the gate, the dead were thrown down 
 till the living decided by blows whose ghost should be 
 condemned to porter it." 
 
 To more effectually prevent any chance of a wedding and 
 a funeral party meeting, it is customary at Madeley, Shrop- 
 shire, for them to approach the church by different ways. 
 The churchyard has two gates — large double iron ones — 
 about thirty yards apart, both opening into the same street. 
 The right-hand entrance is used for weddings, the left-hand 
 one for funerals. Both enter the church by the same door, 
 but the provision of different pathways reduces the chance 
 
THE CHURCHYARD. 157 
 
 of an encounter to a fninimum. A similar arrangement 
 formerly prevailed at Barthomley, Cheshire, where it was 
 believed that misfortune, if not death within the year, would 
 befall a bridal pair who passed through the lich-gates.* 
 
 Similarly, there has long been a prejudice against being 
 the first to bury one's dead in a new churchyard, from a 
 belief that such a corpse is seized by the devil. The 
 churchyard round St. John's Church, Bovey Tracey, South 
 Devon, was for many years unused, the peasantry maintain- 
 ing that the devil would seize the first body laid in it At 
 last a stranger was buried there — the servant of a visitor in 
 the parish, after which interments began to take place. 
 
 From time immemorial there has been a popular antipathy 
 among the inhabitants of rural parishes to "burial without 
 the sanctuary." This does not imply in unconsecrated 
 ground, but on the north side of the church, or in a remote 
 comer of the churchyard. The origin of this repugnance 
 is said to have been the notion that the northern part was 
 that which was appropriated to the interment of unbaptized 
 infants,! excommunicated persons, or such as had laid 
 violent hands upon themselves. Hence it was generally 
 known as the "wrong side of the church." In many 
 parishes, therefore, the spot remained unoccupied, while 
 the remaining portion of the churchyard was crowded. 
 White, in his " History of Selborne," alluding to this super- 
 stition, says that as most persons wished to be buried on 
 the south side of the churchyard, it became such a mass 
 of mortality that no person could be interred "without 
 disturbing or displacing the bones of his ancestors." A 
 
 ♦ Miss Jackson's "Shropshire Folklore," 646. 
 
 t A correspondent of Notes and Queries^ 3rd series, v. 34, mentions 
 the custom in an old Scotch parish of burying the still-born children 
 of the parish all along the outside walls of the church, and as close 
 to the walls as they could be laid. 
 
158 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 clergyman of a rural parish in Norfolk says, " If I was on 
 any occasion to urge a parishioner to inter a deceased 
 relative on the north side of the church, he would answer 
 rae with an expression of surprise, if not of offence, at the 
 proposal, * No, sir ; it is not in the sanctuary.' " In Ep worth 
 churchyard there is a tombstone, bearing date 1807, with a 
 long poetical inscription, of which the concluding couplet 
 runs thus — 
 
 " That I might longer undisturbed abide, 
 I choos'd to be laid on this northern side." 
 
 Sir John Cullum, in his "History of Hawstead" (1784, 
 38), says, " There is a great partiality here to burying on 
 the south and east sides of the churchyard. When I first 
 became rector, and observed how those sides — particularly 
 the south — were crowded with graves, I prevailed upon a 
 few persons to bury their friends on the north, which was 
 entirely vacant; but the example was not followed, as I 
 hoped it would be, and they continue to bury on the south." 
 In the "Cambrian Register" (1796, 374) there is an 
 amusing allusion to this piece of churchyard lore : "In 
 country churchyards the relations of the deceased crowd 
 them into that part which is south of the church, the north 
 side, in their opinion, being unhallowed ground, fit only to 
 be the dormitory of still-bom infants and suicides. For an 
 example to his neighbours, and as well to escape the bar- 
 barities of the sextons, the writer of the above account ordered 
 himself to be buried * on the north side of the churchyard.' 
 But as he was accounted an infidel when alive, his neigh- 
 bours could not think it creditable to associate with him 
 when dead. His dust, therefore, is likely to pass a solitary 
 retirement, and for ages to remain undisturbed by the hands 
 of men." 
 
 A portion of many churchyards is said to have been left 
 
THE CHURCHYARD. 159 
 
 unconsecrated for the burial of excommunicated persons, 
 and that this was not always on the north side is evident 
 from the following extract from the register of Hart, 
 Durham: "December 17, 1596. Ellen Thompson, fomi- 
 catrix (and then excommunicated), was buried of y* people 
 in y® chaer at the entrance unto y" yeate or stile of y* 
 churchyard on the east thereof." But that the north side 
 was more usual in such cases is clear from the numerous 
 instances recorded of this practice. Thompson, in his 
 *' History of Swine " (1824), relates how ** a man, who was 
 executed at Lincoln, was brought to Swine, and buried on 
 the north side of the church, as the proper place in which 
 to bury a felon." In an appendix to the register of 
 Pentrobin parish, Flintshire, this entry occurs, in which it 
 has been suggested the term " backside " refers to the north 
 side {Notes and Queries^ ist. iiL 125): "1750, October 23. 
 One Mary Davies, of Pentrobin, single woman, though 
 excommunicated, was on this day, within night, on account 
 of some particular circumstances alleged by neighbours of 
 credit in her favour (as to her resolving to come and recon- 
 cile herself, and do penance if she recovered), indulged by 
 being interred on the backside the church, but no service or 
 tolling allowed." In Southwark there was formerly a burial 
 ground, called "The Single Woman's Churchyard," in 
 which were buried the inmates of the licensed stews, who 
 were generally excommunicated.* " At Newcastle," says 
 Burn, " more burials take place in unconsecrated ground, 
 called the Ballast Hills, than at the church and chapels 
 altogether, and of these no register is kept." 
 
 It has long been a vulgar error that a road along which 
 a corpse has been taken to the parish graveyard becomes 
 thereby a public highway. A correspondence on the sub- 
 ject, in Notes and Queries^ elicited the fact that this 
 
 ♦ Burn's "History of Parish Registers in England" (1862), 107. 
 
i6o CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 belief has prevailed in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Worcester- 
 shire, Buckinghamshire, Glamorganshire, and Cornwall. On 
 one occasion at a Welsh funeral, it being suggested that 
 the body of an infant three months old should be carried 
 by the way of an ancient footpath across some fields to 
 the church, the grandfather of the child refused, although 
 the journey to the graveyard would have been much 
 shortened. * Speaking of the right-of-way, it appears there 
 had always been a right-of-way through the churchyard of 
 Walpole St. Peter, near Lynn Regis, and when the new 
 church was built in the time of Henry VI., the edifice 
 extended almost to the verge of the churchyard, thus 
 obstructing the path. The parishioners being unwilling to 
 give up their path, a vaulted way was constructed under the 
 chancel, which caused the altar to be approached by ten 
 steps, t 
 
 * Notes and Queries, 4th series, xi. 374. 
 t Ibid., 5th series, vii. 6. 
 
( i6i ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD — GARLANDS, FUNERAL ARMOUR, 
 FLAGS AND BANNERS. 
 
 The funeral garland which, in bygone years, was carried 
 before the corpse of an unmarried girl at her funeral, and 
 afterwards suspended over the seat she had occupied in the 
 parish church, was, writes the late Mackenzie Walcott, 
 undoubtedly an imitation " of the radiant coronet prepared 
 for virgin souls," the crown of victor}' to which Keble * 
 and Jeremy Taylor f allude. In the legend of St. Cecilia, 
 an angel gives her a crown of roses and lilies from Paradise, 
 saying none but the pure can use them. J 
 
 This pretty and symbolical custom seems to have pre- 
 vailed extensively in most parts of the country, although it 
 did not escape censure, for Wren, Bishop of Ely, in 1662, 
 inquired at his visitation, " Are any mean toys and childish 
 gewgaws, such as the fonder sort of people prepare at some 
 burials, suffered to be fastened up in your church at any 
 one's pleasure ? or any Garlands and other ordinary funeral 
 ensigns to hang where they hinder the prospect, or until 
 they grow foul and dusty, withered and rotten ? " 
 
 * ** Christian Year: Wednesday before Easter." 
 
 t " Holy Living," c. xi. s. 3. 
 
 X Notes and Queries ^ 5th series, i. 12. 
 
 M 
 
i62 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 An early illustration of a virgin garland is contained in 
 a black-letter broad-sheet ballad, "The Bride's Buriall," 
 printed by Henry Gosson, temp, James I. The bride 
 having, at the immediate close of the marriage ceremony, 
 received " a chilling cold " that " struck every vitall part," 
 fell down "in a swound," *' as cold as any stone," and soon 
 afterwards died, "a maiden and a wife." Her parting 
 words as she lay dying are very touchingly expressed in the 
 ballad, and are interesting as telling of the burial customs 
 of the period — 
 
 •* Instead of musicke sweet, 
 
 Go toll my passing-bell, 
 And with those flowers strow my grave 
 
 That in my chamber smell. 
 Strip off my bride's array, 
 
 My corke-shooes from my feet ; 
 And, gentle mother, be not coy 
 
 To bring my winding-sheet. 
 
 ** My wedding-dinner drest, 
 
 Bestow upon the poore, 
 And on the hungry, needy, maim'd 
 
 That craveth at the door. 
 Instead of Virgins young 
 
 My Bride-bed for to see, 
 Go cause some cunning carpenter 
 
 To make a chest for me. 
 
 " My bride laces of silke, 
 
 Bestow'd on maidens meete, 
 
 May fitly serve, when I am dead. 
 
 To tie my hands and feet ; " 
 
 At her burial the ballad goes on to tell — 
 
 *' A garland, fresh and faire. 
 Of lilies there was made, 
 In sign of her virginity. 
 And on her coffin laid. 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD, 163 
 
 Six maidens, all in white, 
 
 Did beare her to the ground ; 
 The bells did ring in solemn sort, 
 
 And made a solemn sound. 
 
 ** In earth they laid her then. 
 For hungry worms a prey ; 
 So shall the fairest face alive, 
 At length be brought to clay." * 
 
 The *' funeral garlands," which some forty years ago still 
 hung in Shrawardine Church, Shropshire, were believed by 
 the villagers to be the work of giants. This is curious, 
 writes Miss Jackson (" Shropshire Folklore," 6), ** as the 
 practice of carrying such garlands at funerals was still kept 
 up in that part of Shropshire less than a hundred years 
 before, so that the belief must have sprung up within two 
 or three generations." 
 
 Many interesting accounts exist of these old funeral gar- 
 lands. In a valuable paper on the subject, by the late 
 Llewellynn Jewitt, in ''The Reliquary" (i. 7), an account 
 is given of five garlands in the north aisle of Ashford-in- 
 the-Water Church, and of some which formerly existed at 
 Matlock, but are now preserved in a local museum. " The 
 garlands are each composed of two hoops of wood, with 
 bands crossing each other at right angles, and attached to 
 the hoops, thus forming a kind of open-arched crown. The 
 hoops and bands are all of wood, wrapped round with 
 white paper, and at the top is a loop for suspension. The 
 hoops and bands of another are decorated with paper 
 flowers and rosettes, and at the top is a flower formed of 
 hearts, and having somewhat the appearance of that of the 
 Clarkia pulchella. From between the rosettes of the 
 upper hoop, a paper riband, gimped on the edges, and 
 ornamented by diamonds cut out with scissors, hangs down 
 to below the lower band, to which they are not attached. 
 * "Reliquary," xxi. 145. 
 
i64 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 In another example the hoops and bands are decorated 
 with paper flowers or rosettes, intermixed with bunches of 
 narrow slips or shreds of paper, and at the top is a bunch 
 of the same over paper folded like a fan. Originally the 
 flowers have been formed, some of plain, and others of 
 folded or crimped paper, and others again of both ; and in 
 some parts the paper has been afterwards coloured red or 
 blue, thus producing a somewhat gay appearance. From 
 the centre of the top are suspended a pair of gloves cut out 
 of white paper, and a kerchief or collar, also of paper, 
 gimped in the edges, and carefully folded. In most in- 
 stances, the name of the female, in whose honour these 
 garlands were prepared, was written on the collar, gloves, 
 or handkerchiefs. 
 
 The form of garland differed in various localities, although 
 similar in general design. In some of the metropolitan 
 churches, instead of consisting of real flowers, or of paper 
 ones, it was often composed of wire formed into filagree work 
 resembling flowers and leaves, ornaments of gum, wax, and 
 other materials. In some districts the garlands were only 
 allowed to remain suspended in the church for a year after 
 the burial of the young woman. In others the garland was 
 buried in the same grave with her. In Derbyshire, they 
 appear to have remained hung up on the arches or beams of 
 the roof, until they were removed or allowed to decay away. 
 
 In " Hamlet " (v. i) the priest says, " Yet here she is 
 allowed her virgin crants," and Gay thus speaks of the custom — 
 
 *' To her sweet mem'ry flow'ry garlands strung, 
 On her now empty seat aloft were hung." 
 
 At Heanor, not many years ago, a number of these funeral 
 relics, which had hung there for years, were removed at a 
 general church-cleaning, which took place at the coming in 
 of a new incumbent At Llandovery, the garlands and gloves 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD. 165 
 
 hang a year in the church, and are then taken down, and on 
 each anniversary of the death of the virgin, the grave is 
 decorated with flowers, and a pair of gloves is laid on it. 
 These gloves are taken away by the nearest relative who 
 visits the grave that day." * 
 
 Some deeply interesting relics of the dead are to be seen 
 in the numerous specimens of " funeral armour," suspended 
 over their tombs in many of our churches. The practice of 
 thus hanging up the arms and accoutrements of persons of 
 note prevailed at an early period, and is noticed by Laertes 
 in "Hamlet" (iv. 5) — 
 
 ** His means of death, his obscure burial — 
 No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, 
 No noble rite, nor formal ostentation." 
 
 And in " 2 Henry VI." (iv. lo) Iden says — 
 
 " Is't Cade that I have slain; that monstrous traitor ? 
 Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed, 
 And hang thee o'er my tomb, when 1 am dead." 
 
 The custom, as is well known, has not been confined to 
 England, and, to quote an historic incident, it is recorded 
 that when Napoleon I. entered Potsdam in 1806, after the 
 battles of Jena and Auerstadt, he took the sword of Frederick 
 the Great from the church where it hung, and sent it to the 
 Invalides at Paris, remarking, as he drew it from its scabbard, 
 " I am better pleased with these relics than if I had found a 
 treasure of twenty millions of francs." 
 
 Many early instances of suspending funeral armour in 
 churches are noticed in local histories, and Thomas Heame 
 says the custom came from Canute's placing his crown upon 
 the head of the crucifix at Winchester, after he found that 
 he could not make the waters obey him." 
 
 * Chambers's ** Book of Days," i. 274. 
 
i66 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 In 1444, when a dispute arose between the two powerful 
 Angus families of Lindsay and Ogilvy as to the justiciarship 
 of the regality of the Abbey of Arbroath ; the parties came to 
 blows, and on Sunday, January 23, 1445, was fought between 
 the adherents of the Earl of Crawford and that of Sir 
 Alexander Ogilvy of Inverquharity, what is known in local 
 history as the battle of Arbroath. It resulted disastrously 
 to the Ogilvy side, Sir Alexander being killed when taking 
 flight. He was buried in the Ogilvy Aisle of the parish 
 church of Kinnell, and over his tomb was suspended his 
 boot with the spur attached. In process of time, the boot 
 rotted away, but the spur remained suspended, and has 
 been preserved. It is of great size, being nine inches in 
 length, and four in width at the fork ; the rowel is as large 
 as a crown piece, and has twenty-seven points.* 
 
 Sir David Owen, knight, by his will, dated Feb. 20, 1529, 
 desires: "My body to be buried in the Priory of Esse- 
 borne, after the degree of a banneret, that is, with helmet 
 and sword, my war armour, my banner, my standard, my 
 pendant, and set over a banner of the Holy Trinity, one of 
 Our Ladye, another of St. George," etcf In Brickleigh 
 Church, near Plymouth, there is suspended over the 
 monument of Nicholas Slanning, his visored headpiece, 
 gorget, and gauntlets. This ill-fated man was killed in a 
 duel which he fought with Sir John Fitz, knight. An 
 inscription informs us that his death took place " On the 8th 
 day of Aprill in the yere of our Lorde God, 1582." 
 
 In Husborne Crawley Church, Bedfordshire, is an 
 elaborate tomb to the memory of John Thomson, who died 
 in 1597 ; and over, or attached to, this tomb were some 
 pieces of funeral armour, since packed away in an ancient 
 chest under the tower. A helmet hangs over the monument 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 5th series, xi. 73. 
 t " Testamenta Vetusta," 700. 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD. 167 
 
 of Paul Cleybroke, in St. John's Church, Margate. His 
 death took place in 1622. 
 
 It would seem, however, that occasionally the armour 
 suspended over tombs in our churches is nothing more than 
 ''undertakers' trappings," though often of considerable age. 
 The practice of supplying imitative armour for funeral 
 purposes is as old as the time of Sir William Dugdale, for 
 in a manuscript at Merevale, dated 1667, he states the 
 charges of various articles for the achievement of a knight : 
 the helmet, gilt with silver and gold, ;£"i ; the crest, carved 
 and coloured in "oyle," 13^.; the sword with velvet 
 " scabard," loj. ; a gauntlet, loj. ; gilt spurs with velvet 
 spur-bathers, 55. But, despite this custom, there can be no 
 doubt much of the armour preserved in our churches is 
 genuine, although it may not have been actually worn by the 
 person over whose tomb it hangs. Thus, as a correspondent 
 of Notes and Queries obser>'es (5th series, x. 129), " the helm 
 of King Henry V., which hangs aloft over his grave in 
 Westminister Abbey," is undoubtedly "a genuine tilting- 
 helm of the first quarter of the fifteenth century, although it 
 may be the identical one referred to in Rymefs * Fcedera,' 
 where the account of the price of a helm for the king's 
 funeral is preserved." — "Item eidem Thomse (Daunt) pro 
 factura unius Crestae et unius Helmae pro Rege xxxiiij. iv^." 
 Although this "may not have been the personal property 
 of the king, it is a most undoubted genuine tilting-helm of 
 the period. May it not be, that when a helm was wanted 
 for a funeral achievement, if the knight's own helm was not 
 available, his relations or executors went to the " heaul- 
 mier's," and bought one— a real one — for the purpose." As 
 regards "the deeply interesting and unique relics of the 
 fourteenth century," adds the same correspondent, "which 
 hang over the monument of the Black Prince in Canterbury 
 Cathedral, the helm there, and the chapeau crest, and shield, 
 
i68 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 may possibly have been made or bought for the funeral 
 pageant of the prince, but I beheve they were his own 
 tilting accoutrements. With regard to the other relics — the 
 gauntlet, heavily gilded, with gloves of leather stitched with 
 silk, the surcoat of velvet, quilted with cotton stitched 
 vertically and embroidered with the lilies of France and the 
 lions of England in thread of pure gold ; and the sheath of 
 the estoc, or short stabbing sword, of red leather adorned 
 with gilt studs, I am quite convinced that these, at least, 
 were the personal property of the prince, and used by him." 
 From the latter half, however, of the seventeenth century, 
 when armour was going" out of date, that supplied by under- 
 takers for funeral purposes was only too common, and there 
 are several sham helmets, of comparatively modern date, 
 stowed away in the triforium of Westminster Abbey. 
 
 In some cases funeral armour has met with somewhat 
 rough usage ; an instance of which is mentioned by Mr. 
 J. E. Cussans in his ''County History of Hertfordshire," 
 under the head of Baldock Church : " About twenty years 
 ago the south porch was enlarged by removing the floor of 
 the parvise above. This chamber had been closed for many 
 years, and when it was broken into it was found to be 
 nearly filled with armour, helmets, pikes, lances, and other 
 weapons. The then rector, the Rev. John Smith, threw a 
 large quantity down a well to get rid of it, after allowing 
 the labourers to take as much as they liked, to sell for old 
 iron." A correspondent of Notes and Queries (5th series, 
 xi. 73), informs us that, about 1850, he was in Aldborough, 
 Holdemess, Yorkshire, and was there told of the existence 
 of an old iron helmet in the church, which was employed 
 habitually as a coal scuttle to replenish the church fires in 
 winter. 
 
 The funeral armour of Admiral Sir Wm. Penn — the 
 father of the founder of Pennsylvania — is in the Church 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD. 169 
 
 of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, where he was interred on 
 October 3, 1670. It consists of the entire suit, with helmet, 
 said to have been worn by the gallant knight — admiral and 
 general — during his large expedition. At the east end of 
 the parish church of Aldershot, there are two helmets with 
 crests, belonging to members of the Tichborne family, 
 which have the appearance of having been actually worn. 
 In the Church of Broadwater, Sussex, is preserved the 
 tilting-helmet of Lord de la Warre, with its remarkable 
 ocularium. And in the Church of St. Michael Carhayes, 
 Cornwall, there is, together with some hehnets and other 
 pieces, a sword which local antiquaries believe to have been 
 borne at Bosworth by Sir Hugh Trevanion. The helmet of 
 Sir John Fenwick, who was slain at the battle of Marston 
 Moor, is preserved in Hexham Abbey Church; and a 
 correspondent of Notes and Queries says, *' When I was in 
 the Church of Longbridge Deverill, Wilts, a few years ago, 
 I saw hanging on the walls of the mortuary chapel belong- 
 ing to the noble family of Thynne, of Longleat, several 
 pieces of body armour, which I was informed belonged to 
 Sir John Thynne, knight, and which were worn by him 
 when he served under Lord Protector Somerset in the 
 Scottish wars. There are two helmets, a sword, and a 
 misericorde suspended above the fine monument to John 
 Leigh in the chancel of Addington Church, Surrey; and 
 the helmet of Sir William Harpur, founder of the Bedford 
 Schools, formerly hung over his tomb in St. Paul's Church, 
 Bedford, but it was lost during the restoration of the Church, 
 about 188 1. 
 
 There are two helmets in Braboume Church, East Kent, 
 one of which, a funeral trophy, belonged to Sir Thomas 
 Scott of Scotshall, commander-in-chief of the Kentish forces 
 at the time of the Spanish Armada, and Knight of the Shire 
 for Kent. 
 
170 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 With the old custom of suspending funeral armour in 
 churches may be compared that of displaying and hanging 
 up the trophies of war, historical instances of which are to 
 be found in the chronicles of the past. Mackenzie Walcott, 
 in his "Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals" (1872, 175, 
 176) relates how Edward IV., after leading Henry VI. a 
 captive to the Tower, went in triumph to St. Paul's, where 
 he offered at the altar the standard of the fallen king. In 
 1485, Henry VII. offered at St. Paul's three standards of 
 St. George, the Red Fiery Dragon, and Dun Cow, in 
 honour of his descent from Cadwallader and Guy, Earl of 
 Warwick, with the Tudor colours, green and white, after 
 the crowning battle of Bosworth Field. Banners were 
 suspended round the shrine of St. Cuthbert, and the 
 famous banner of the saint which was at the winning of 
 Flodden Field and many other battles was carried in 
 great processions. Archbishop Thurstan, in the famous 
 "Battle of the Standard," led out to battle the sacred 
 car crowned with a cross, and hung with the banners of 
 York and Ripon, which the Scottish king addresses in 
 the old ballad — 
 
 **The Holy Cross 
 That shines as bright as day ; 
 Around it hung the sacred banners 
 
 Of many a blessed saint, 
 St. Peter, and John of Beverley, 
 
 And St. Wilfrid there they paint." 
 
 At St. Paul's, in September, 1588, twelve standards, 
 captured from the ships of the Spanish Armada, decorated 
 the choir, and till within a recent period, when they were 
 removed to Chelsea, flags taken in the wars from the 
 capture of Louisburgh to the victories of Nelson were 
 suspended round the dome. The flags of the old county 
 regiments may now be seen at York, Canterbury, Chichester, 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD. 171 
 
 Exeter, Salisbury, Rochester, and other places. At an in- 
 stallation of the Knights of the Bath, the dean lays the 
 swords upon the altar, and delivers them to their owners ; 
 the banners of the deceased are laid under it whilst the 
 band plays the " Dead March in Saul." When the nine 
 captured flags were received at St. Paul's in 1797, they 
 were held in a circle and bowed before the king, who stood 
 in the midst, and then the flag-officers, after the first legion, 
 moving with solemn steps up to the altar, offered them 
 there. 
 
 In White's " History of Essex " (1863, 457), under Ingate- 
 stone Church, we read: "In the chancel hang several pieces 
 of ancient armour, and the banners used by the Ingate- 
 stone, Brentwood, and Billericay Volunteers, raised by the 
 late Lord Petre for the defence of the nation about the 
 close of the last century." The armour has since been 
 removed, having been placed some years ago in the 
 mortuary chapel on the north side of the chancel, which is 
 used as a vestry.* It is stated in the Mirror, that the 
 flags, etc., carried in procession at the funeral of Lord 
 Chatham were hung up in the church near his seat at 
 Hayes, in Kent. 
 
 According to the " New Statistical Account of Scotland " 
 (vii. 323), among the honours bestowed by the kings of 
 Scotland on lona, was the dedication of the trophies of war. 
 After the victory which Aidanus gained over the Picts and 
 Scots, he sent the banner of his vanquished enemies to 
 Columba to be preserved in his abbey. Kenneth Macalpine, 
 also, after the final overthrow of the Picts, devoted the 
 sword and armour of Dunstrenus, the Pictish monarch, to 
 the Church of lona. 
 
 At Derry, the staffs of the French flags captured by Dr. 
 Walker, in a desperate sally of the garrison, and carried in 
 * Notes and Queries^ 6th series, v. 58. 
 
172 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 procession by the ladies of the city after the great siege was 
 raised, are hung over the altar in the cathedral. At St. 
 Patrick's the banners of the Knights of St Patrick are 
 suspended in the choir.* 
 
 * Mackenzie Walcott, "Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 238. 
 
( 173 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 
 
 The right of sanctuary, after having been allowed for 
 upwards of five hundred years, was forbidden in 21 James 
 I., when it was enacted that no sanctuary, or privilege of 
 sanctuary, should be admitted or allowed in any case. And 
 so ended a practice in this country which, while it had 
 saved the life of many a man, had frequently served as an 
 immunity to crime. 
 
 Among some of the churches which were formerly 
 privileged with the right of affording sanctuary, were St. 
 John's, Beverley, St. Martin's-le-Grand, London; St Beurin's, 
 Cornwall ; and Westminster ; monasteries having shared the 
 same privilege. Originally, it appears, such churches, or 
 the churchyard connected therewith, were "termed sanctu- 
 aries, and the foundation of abjuration; for whoever was 
 not capable of taking sanctuary in either of these places, 
 could not have the benefit of abjuration. This abjuration 
 was, when a person had committed felony, and for safe- 
 guard of his life had fled to the sanctuary of a church or 
 churchyard ; or if a person accused of any crime (* except 
 the treason, wherein the crown, and sacrilege, wherein the 
 church, were too nearly concerned ') had fled for sanctuary, 
 and within forty days after went in sackcloth and confessed 
 
174 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 himself guilty before the coroner, and declared all the 
 particular circumstances of the offence ; and therefore took 
 the oath in that case provided, namely, that he abjured the 
 realm, and would depart from thence forthwith at the port 
 that should be assigned him, and would never depart without 
 leave from the king ; and if he observed strictly the con- 
 ditions of the oath, by going with a cross in his hand, and 
 with all convenient speed embarking, he by this means 
 would save his life. If, during this forty days privilege of 
 sanctuary, or on his road to the seaside, he was apprehended 
 and arraigned in any court for this felony, he might plead 
 the privilege of sanctuary, and had a right to be remanded, 
 if taken out against his will. But by this abjuration his 
 blood was attainted, and he forfeited all his goods and 
 chattels." * Registers were kept of all persons availing 
 themselves of this mode of refuge, with the nature of the 
 offences, in respect of which they sought to escape the 
 punishment of the law ; great numbers having resorted to 
 sanctuary for non-payment of debts. 
 
 The method of claiming sanctuary, and the ceremonies 
 connected with it, varied in different parishes. At Durham, 
 persons who took refuge fled to the north door and 
 knocked for admission,! there being two chambers over 
 it, in which men slept for the purpose of admitting such 
 fugitives at any hour of the night. As soon as any one 
 was so admitted, the sound of the great bell of the Galilee 
 booming over the city told that some fugitive had fled to 
 holy church. J The offender was required to declare before 
 credible witnesses, the nature of his offence, and to toll the 
 
 * The Antiquary (1873), i"- 260. See Burn's **Eccl. Law," i. 365. 
 
 t The large knocker upon the north door of Durham Cathedral, is 
 believed to have been the one actually used for the purpose of sanctuary. 
 
 X Traditions of a similar arrangement are preserved at Chichester 
 and Norwich. 
 
THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 175 
 
 bell in token of his demanding the privilege of sanctuary. 
 Every one who had the security of Durham was provided 
 with a gown of black cloth, with a yellow cross upon the 
 left shoulder, as the badge of St Cuthbert, whose " peace " 
 or " grith " he had claimed. They lay in a graete adjoining 
 the Galilee, and were provided with meat and drink for 
 thirty-seven days.* After this period had elapsed, if no 
 pardon could be obtained, the malefactor, after certain 
 ceremonies had been performed before the shrine, solemnly 
 adjured his native land for ever, and was straightway, by 
 the agency of the intervening parish constables, conveyed 
 to the coast, bearing in his hand a white wooden cross, and 
 was sent out of the kingdom by the first ship which sailed 
 after his arrival. 
 
 The Durham notices of sanctuary recorded in the cathedral 
 register, begin June 18, 1464. "Petitio immunitatis" is 
 written on the margin, and occasionally the name of the 
 fugitive. But the " Sanctuarium Dunelmense," a register of 
 the persons who at different times found protection here, has 
 been published — together with that of Beverley — by the Sur- 
 tees Society. Some of the cases are recorded with the most 
 minute detail. Thus, a man from Walsingham is committed 
 to prison for a theft. He escapes and seeks refuge in the 
 cathedral of Durham. He takes his stand before the shrine 
 of St. Cuthbert, and begs for a coroner. A coroner attends, 
 and hears his confession. The culprit, in the presence of the 
 sacrist and sheriff, by a solemn oath renounces the kingdom. 
 He strips to his shirt, and gives up his clothing to the 
 sacrist as a fee. The sacrist restores the clothing. A white 
 cross of wood is put into the culprit's hand. Criue signaizts, 
 he is consigned to the under-sheriff, who commits him to 
 the care of the nearest constable, who hands him over to 
 
 ♦ See "Journ. of Brit. Arch. Assoc," xiv. 103; " Archaeologia, " 
 viii. 1-29. 
 
176 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 the next in the direction of the coast. The last constable 
 puts him into a ship, and he bids an eternal farewell to his 
 country, "nunquam rediturus." Another entry tells us of 
 two murderers who had escaped detection for eight or nine 
 years, and a further one relates how a man killed a woman 
 in self-defence, and afterwards resorted to the sanctuary 
 of St. Cuthbert. 
 
 At Beverley, the oath imposed upon each person on 
 admission to the sanctuary, is given in the *' Sanctuarium 
 Beverlacense " (p. in). After answering what man he had 
 killed, and wherewith, and both their names, " gar him lay 
 his hand upon the boke, saying in this wise, * Sir, take heed, 
 on your oath you shall be faithful and trew to the lord 
 archbishop; shall bere good herte to the bailis and 
 governors ; shall beare no pointed wepen or dagger against 
 the peace ; shall be ready, if there be debate, or strife, or 
 sothem fire, to helpe to surcease it ; shall do your dewte at 
 ringing, and for to offer at the messe in the morn,' " etc. 
 Food was supplied them in the refectory, and a lodging in 
 the dormitory, for thirty days. At the end of that time 
 they were conducted in safety to the borders of the county. 
 They could claim the same security a second time ; but for 
 a third protection afforded the fugitive became permanently 
 a servant of the Church.* The Beverley register begins 
 about 1478. We are told how " Robert Beaumont, a person 
 of education; and Elizabeth Beaumont, gentlewoman, of 
 the Beaumonts of Yorkshire, charge themselves with the 
 death of Thomas Alderley. This is the first lady who has 
 been admitted to the sanctuary." 
 
 The area of the circuit in which a person could claim 
 
 the privilege of sanctuary was not always the same. 
 
 At Durham, for instance, it was confined to the church 
 
 and churchyard. The liberties of St. John of Beverley 
 
 * *' Joum. of Arch. Assoc," xiv. 103. 
 
THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 177 
 
 extended, first, from the church for a mile every way; 
 the second boundaries were designated by crosses of 
 rich carving ; the third commenced at the entrance of the 
 church ; the sixth included the high altar and the fridstol, a 
 stone chair, near the altar, which conferred the greatest 
 security.* The Welsh, it seems, were exceedingly strict in 
 regard to this ordinance, and allowed, it is said, "all 
 criminals, even murderers and traitors, to have security in 
 churches, not only for themselves, but for their servants, 
 and even for their cattle ; to feed which last, considerable 
 tracts of pasture land were assigned, in the whole compass 
 whereof they were sacred and inviolable ; nay, with relation 
 to some of the principal churches, the right of sanctuary 
 was extended so far as the cattle could range in a day and 
 return at night." f 
 
 Before the north porch of Salisbury Cathedral, sentences 
 of excommunication were published ; and it has been 
 suggested, though perhaps with no great probability, that 
 it served as a " Galilee," or outer chapel for penitents. 
 
 At Hexham, there were four crosses set up at a certain 
 distance from the church, **in the four ways leading there- 
 unto ; now if a malefactor flying for refuge to that church 
 was taken or apprehended within the crosses, the party that 
 took or laid hold of him there did forfeit two hundredh; 
 if he took him within the town, then he forfeited four 
 hundredh ; if within the walls of the churchyard, then six 
 hundredh ; if within the church, then twelve hundredh ; if 
 within the doors of the choir, then eighteen hundredh; 
 beside penance, as in case of sacrilege ; but if he presumed 
 to take him out of the stone chair near the altar, called 
 
 * This " Frith Stol " is rude and plain, and may perhaps be earlier 
 than any part of the existing church. 
 
 t Lord Lyttelton, *• Life of Henry n.,"ii.'358. See " Archseologia," 
 viii. 27. 
 
 N 
 
178 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 * fridstol,' or from amongst the holy relics behind the altar, 
 the ofifence was not redeemable with any sum, but was then 
 become sine emendatione^ boteles, and nothing but the utmost 
 severity of the offended church was to be expected by a 
 dreadful excommunication ; besides what the secular power 
 would impose for the presumptuous misdemeanor." As the 
 hundredh, it is said, contained eight pounds, the last penalty 
 was extremely heavy, nearly as much as the weregild for 
 killing a crowned head in Wales.* 
 
 Turning to the principal sanctuaries in London, these 
 were at the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, in the Savoy, 
 in the purlieus (still bearing the name of the " Great " and 
 the "Little Sanctuary") of Westminster Abbey, the precincts 
 of the Mint, in Southwark, and of Whitefriars, in Fleet Street, 
 and the Liberty of St. Martin's-le-Grand. 
 
 The privileges of St. Martin-le-Grand were very ancient, 
 confirmed by Charters of William the Conqueror and Henry 
 III. But the enormities of the place had become so crying 
 that, in the time of Henry VI., the legislature had to inter- 
 fere. Among the offenders enumerated are " subtil pickers 
 of locks, counterfeitours of keys, contrivers of seales, forgers 
 of false evidences, workers of counterfeit chaines, beades, 
 ' broaches, ouches, etc. And amongst the greater offenders, 
 not only traitors and murderers were privileged, but felons 
 were suffered to issue out of the bounds, and commit 
 depredations at noonday, and then to return to shelter, and 
 to riot in there ill-gotten gains." Accordingly, by an 
 ordinance of Henry VI., in 1457, the following rules were 
 laid down for the regulation of sanctuary even here — 
 
 " I, That every fugitive coming for sanctuary should come 
 before the dean, and declare ' the cause of the fears moving 
 him to come,' which shall be entered in the register. 
 
 " 2. That he shall give up any weapon or armour he may 
 * See " Archseolo^ia," viii. 26. 
 
THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 179 
 
 possess, and shall not be allowed to carry any weapon while 
 in sanctuary, ' except a reasonable knife to serve (carve) 
 withall his meate, and that the said knife be pointless/ 
 
 " 3. That the doors and gates be closed from nine to six 
 in the morning, and from nine till four during the remainder 
 of the year." 
 
 The privilege of sanctuary attaching to the Savoy was 
 derived from the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, which 
 formerly stood on that site, and the precinct of Whitefriars 
 inherited it from a convent of Carmelites, which were once 
 located there. The latter sanctuary afterwards got the cant 
 name of Alsatia. But some idea of the low degradation to 
 which this so-called Alsatia had fallen, may be gathered from 
 the graphic description given of it by Sir Walter Scott in 
 " The Fortunes of Nigel." It seems that this privileged place 
 was peopled by thieves of every grade, whores and their 
 bullies, sots, gamblers, usurers, and ruffians of every sort. 
 The wailing of children, the scolding of mothers, the miserable 
 exhibition of ragged linen hung to dry from the windows of 
 ruinous houses, all spoke the wants and distresses of the 
 wretched inhabitants ; while the sounds of complaint were 
 overpowered by the riotous shouts, oaths, profane songs, and 
 boisterous laughter that issued from every other house of 
 deep potations (either ale house or gin palace). 
 
 Respecting the right of sanctuarj- at Westminster, which 
 is called by Fabyan, " the seyntwary before the Abbey," Dean 
 Stanley observes : * ** The right was shared by the abbey with 
 at least thirty other English monasteries, but probably in 
 none did the building occupy so prominent a position, and 
 in none did it occupy so great a part. The grim old 
 Norman fortress, which was still standing in the seventeenth 
 century, is itself a proof that the right reached back, if not 
 to the time of the Confessor, at least to the period when 
 " Memorials of Westminster Abbey," 405. 
 
i8o CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 additional sanctity was imparted to the whole abbey by his 
 canonization in 1198. The right professed to be founded 
 on charters of King Lucius." The sanctuary, which con- 
 sisted of his chapels, an upper and a lower one — one being 
 built over the other — we are further told ** was a vast * Cave 
 of AduUam ' for all the distressed and discontented of the 
 metropolis, who desired, according to the phrase of the 
 time, to *take Westminster/ Sometimes, if they were of 
 higher rank, they established their quarters in the great 
 northern porch of the abbey, with tents pitched, and guards 
 watching round, for days and nights together. Sometimes 
 they darted away from their captors, to secure the momen- 
 tary protection of the consecrated ground. * Thieving,' or 
 ' Thieven ' Lane was the name long attached to the winding 
 street at the back of the Sanctuary, along which * thieves ' 
 were conducted to the prison in the Gatehouse, to avoid these 
 untoward emancipations if they were taken straight across 
 the actual precincts." The privilege of sanctuary at West- 
 minster caused the houses within the precincts to be let for 
 high rents, and one of the rules enjoined on " Sanctuary 
 men " was that " they could not leave the precinct without 
 the Dean's licence, or between sunset and sunrise." 
 
 In 1284, blood was shed, and the right of sanctuary 
 violated, in old Bow Church, Cheapside. One Duckett, a 
 goldsmith, having wounded in some fray a person named 
 Ralph Crepin, took refuge in the church, and slept in the 
 steeple. Whilst there, certain friends of Crepin entered 
 during the night, and violating the sanctuary, first slew 
 Duckett and then so placed the body as to induce the belief 
 that he had committed suicide. A verdict to this effect was 
 accordingly given at the inquisition, and the body was 
 interred with the customary indignities. The real circum- 
 stances being discovered through the evidence of a boy, 
 who, it appears, was with Duckett in his voluntary con- 
 
THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. i8i 
 
 finement, and had hid himself during the struggle, the 
 murderers, among whom was a woman, were apprehended 
 and executed. After this occurrence the church was inter- 
 dicted for a time, and the doors and windows stopped with 
 brambles,* 
 
 The sanctuary at Canterbury was granted by King 
 Ethelbert, to the district, afterwards called Staple Gate, in 
 the parish of St. Alphage, to mark it as the spot, where he 
 received St. Augustine. Its state, in 1801, is thus described : 
 " It has for many years been in a state of ruin and poverty, 
 the houses in it being inhabited only by poor and un- 
 principled people, who fly hither as to a sanctuary and 
 shelter from the liberty of the city." f 
 
 It should be added there was a sanctuary for all classes. 
 Fallen from their high estate, the widowed queen, the 
 orphan prince, and the discarded and deserted minister 
 found there the same refuge with the poor and lowly. In 
 144 1, the Duchess of Gloucester fled to the sanctuary, on 
 a charge of witchcraft and high treason, but the wonted 
 privilege was denied to her; and, in 1456, the Protector 
 (the Duke of York), the Earl of Warwick, and others, 
 "were noted with an execrable ofi'ence of the Abbot of 
 Westminster and his monks, for that they took out of 
 sanctuarie at Westminster, John Holland, Duke of Excester, 
 and conveyed him to the Castle of Pontfracte." Ehzabeth 
 Woodville, Queen of Edward IV., twice made the sanctuary 
 her home. The first time was just before the birth of her 
 eldest SOIL It is recorded how in 1470 she escaped from 
 the Tower, and registered herself and her companions here 
 as "sanctuary women," and how here, "in great penury, and 
 forsaken of all her friends," she gave birth to Edward V., 
 who was " born in sorrow and baptized like a poor man's 
 
 • "Old and New London," i. 336. 
 
 t Hasted's "History of Canterbury," i. 293. 
 
i82 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 child." In the sanctuary died the poet Skelton, poet 
 laureate to Henry VIII., having fled thither to escape the 
 vengeance of Cardinal Wolsey, whom he had lampooned 
 in some verses full of caustic satire. At the instigation of 
 the friars, the Bishop of Norwich called him to account for 
 keeping a concubine. Skelton said he had always looked 
 upon her as a wife, but did not declare it, because forni- 
 cation in the clergy was thought a little sin, and marriage a 
 great one. 
 
 To quote a further instance. When Margaret of Anjou 
 received intelligence of the death of the Earl of Warwick 
 in the Battle of Barnet, and of her husband's captivity, she 
 at first took sanctuary in the Abbey of Beaulieu. 
 
 The subjoined list of some of the principal sanctuaries is 
 from Dr. Pegge's " Sketch of Asylum or Sanctuary " in the 
 " Archseologia " (viii. 41) — 
 
 Aberdavon, Wales. London : St. Martin - le - 
 
 Abingdon. Grand, Temple, and St. 
 
 Amethwaite, Cumberland. Mary-le-Bow. 
 
 Beaulieu, Hants. Manchester. 
 
 Beverley, Ebor. Merton Priory. 
 
 Colchester. Northampton. 
 
 Derby. Norwich. 
 
 Durham. Ripon. 
 
 Dover. Wells. 
 
 Hexham, Northumberland. Westminster. 
 
 Launceston. Winchester. 
 
 Lechlade York. 
 
 Sanctuary knockers are still said to exist at St. Gregory's, 
 Norwich ; St. Nicholas, Gloucester ; All Saints, York ; Adel 
 Church, near Leeds ; and at Hexham. At Durham, it has 
 been suggested, the hollows for the eyes in the sanctuary 
 knocker were probably filled with crystals or enamel. It 
 has also been conjectured that the open eyes may have 
 
I 
 
 THE RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 183 
 
 been contrived to emit light from within the church, so as 
 to guide the culprit by night to the very spot of his safety.* 
 But knockers on church doors, it has been pointed out, 
 often of curious workmanship, are by no means uncommon. 
 Three interesting examples, although of inferior design and 
 execution to those already mentioned, and of coarser metal, 
 remain on the church doors of the Suffolk churches of 
 Mickfield, Stonham Aspall, and Grundisburgh, all within a 
 few miles of each other, f 
 
 * Murray's "English Cathedrals," 243, Durham. 
 t See East Anglian, new series, i. 326. 
 
i84 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PEWS AND THEIR LORE. 
 
 The gradual disappearance of pews from our parish churches 
 is the hngering remains of a system which, apart from the 
 gross abuses it occasioned, was the cause of much con- 
 tention in times past, besides giving rise to many curious 
 customs which nowadays would not be tolerated. 
 
 The arrangement and allotment of pews to the parish- 
 ioners, according to their position and calling, was an in- 
 vidious distinction which resulted in much bitter feeHng, 
 and oftentimes produced open warfare in the parish. At 
 Eccles, Lancashire, it appears by documents (1595-1598) 
 it was ordered that "the churchwardens, now for the 
 time being, shall have power and authority to appoint 
 places for the gentlemen of the same parish, and also for 
 the vicar, according to their degrees and calling, and in 
 like manner shall have authority to place the rest of the 
 parishioners, as well Husbandmen and Cottagers, as others 
 of mean estate and calling; having a special regard for 
 their charges and payments which they have severally paid 
 towards the repair of the said church and making anew 
 of the said forms." * The allotment of pews varied in 
 different places. At Assheton-under-Lyne, it was made by 
 
 * J. Harland, "Account of the Seats in Churches in the County 
 Palatine of Lancaster," p. 9. 
 
PEWS AND THEIR LORE. i«5 
 
 the lord of the manor; at Ludlow by the bailiffs of the 
 town, and in some London parishes by the vestry. In the 
 " History of Pews," the subjoined extract is quoted relative 
 to the Church of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, showing that 
 the assignation of seats was under the authority of the Lord 
 Mayor of London — 
 
 " Thys ys the copye of the ordynance in the boke of our 
 Ladye of Woolchyrche hawe, ... for the good rule of the 
 same pysshe, made by all the bodye Of the same pysse, w* 
 the consent of Syr John Benet, then pson, William Pyne, 
 Brewer, at the Wyghte Cocke, made the 2 day of Jan. the 
 yere of our Lord God 1457. . . . Also the sayd chyrche 
 wardens shall be the autoryte of the Mayre of London, 
 grauntyd in the Gyld Hall, that we shall set bothe ryche 
 and pore yn the sayd chyrche in her pews yt longythe; 
 and in case they will not be rulyed by the sayd wardens for 
 the tyme being, they to ronne in payne that ys ordeyned 
 in the Gylde HalL" But Mr. Heales * somewhat doubts 
 the authenticity of this document ; a search of the original 
 records in Guildhall having failed to discover any such order 
 as that referred to. 
 
 The following document is curious as showing the 
 allotment, so far as was then arranged, of the seats in a 
 country church, two hundred and fifty years ago, at a 
 time when the sexes were divided in the sacred edifice — 
 
 " A Perfect order how men are to sitt in the chappell of 
 Ashford by the Officiall Mr. Rowlandson and the neighbors 
 of Ashford, April the loth, 1632. 
 
 ** The Minister and Churchwardens. 
 
 " I. Will Nillus George Johnson Godfrey White during 
 his life if he please and after his decease the neighbours are 
 to dispose of the place. 
 
 "2. Ralph Atkinson Thomas Thorpe John Greauves, 
 
 ♦ •* History and Law of Church Seats and Pews" (1872), 77, 78. 
 
i86 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Vnde the Pulpitt is for the ministers wife whomsoever 
 she is. 
 
 "3. Nicholas Dale, John Harris, Widd: Goodwin Tho: 
 Hayward. 
 
 ** 4. John Wright William Wright FeunelL 
 
 " 6. Thomas Ragg William Low. 
 
 " North Side : i. Place next the queer. Nicholas Dale 
 wife John Harris Jon Greauves Wifes. 
 
 " 2. Goodwife Thorpe, Fynney, Good: Wright. 
 
 *' 3. Good: Cheatam, Good: Cooper, Good: Platts. 
 
 "4. Widd: Nillus Edw: Heyward wife Ellen Toft, 
 Good: White. 
 
 ** 5. John Brewell wife Widd: Bove Tho: Hayward 
 Widd: Goodwin. 
 
 " 6. Will: Milnes seat for his Tenants. 
 
 " 7. George Johnson and Thomas Thorpe for Tenants. 
 
 "8. Will: Heaward George Brewell Tho: Wright, Will: 
 Hayward Shoemaker. 
 
 "South side: i. Place in the Queer — Will: Greauves, 
 Will: Hayward, Micha: Hayward Henry Brownell. 
 
 "i. John Cheatam Will: Cooper Tho: Burrs, Robert 
 Vickars. 
 
 "2. Will: Wright Edw: Hayward John Platts John 
 Brewell Robs Brownell. 
 
 "3. Micha: Stone, Will: Rowland, Abrah: Goodwin, 
 Tho. Greatback, Edw. Smith. 
 
 " Ralph White is to pay 8j. per annum to the minister or 
 if he refuses to pay it Will: Milnes and George Johnson are 
 to pay it and to take one with them that will pay it. 
 
 " John Thorpe is to pay 5 s. per annum to the minister 
 or else Ralph Attkinson Tho: Thorpe and John Greauves 
 will pay it and take in one whom they please that will 
 give it. 
 
 " All these that have any new seate in the church are to 
 
PEIVS AND THEIR LORE. 187 
 
 leave their ould seats to the discresion of the Minister and 
 Churchwardens. 
 
 " Ralphe Heathcott, Minister. 
 Sign— 
 ''Ralph X Atkinson John Wright 
 
 Will 9 Milnes John Greauves 
 
 Tho 8 Thorpe Will: Cow 
 
 Geo O Johnson William Cooper 
 
 Nich ® Dale Thomas Wright 
 
 Tho X Thorpe Edward Heaward 
 
 Elizabeth F Goodwin Will: Heaward Se shop 
 
 Thomas Heaward Will: Headwarde Se Shoemaker." * 
 
 The following orders concerning sittings in church are 
 extracted from a seat-book for the parish church of Tewkes- 
 bury, in the diocese of Gloucester, wherein is numerically 
 placed the several seats in the said church, and the several 
 persons that have right to sittings, or kneelings, in the said 
 seats, 1728 — 
 
 *' Tewkesbury I Orders about sittings in church 
 In Com. Glour. 1595. I October 22, 1595. 
 
 " It was declared in the Chamber by common Consent, 
 as the Ancient Custom of the Town, that no taker of any 
 Seats or Rome [room] in the Church shall have property to 
 challenge the same after one yeare ended from the time of 
 his or her departure out of the Towne. 
 
 " Item. That uppon decease of any wife in the Towne 
 it shall be in the Churchwardens by consent of the Bailiflfes 
 (if need so require) to place any other woman in the same 
 Rome fitt for that place, there to keep such rome upon a 
 Quarterly Rent to the Church until the husband of the 
 deceased woman shall marry again, and then she to take 
 such place, and in mean tyme no husband to challenge the 
 place. 
 
 ♦ " The Reliquary " (1861), ii. 98,99. 
 
l88 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 " Item. That none be placed in any of the Mrs. sixe 
 seates nor in the mydle rowe above the Clarckes pewe nor 
 within iiij seates of the pulpitt below and so upward on both 
 sides in the body of the Church without Consent of the 
 Bailiffs, etc. 
 
 "William Guilbeck, | churchwardens." 
 "John Scullowe, J 
 
 By 17 1 1 the family system seems to have established itself, 
 for we read — 
 
 "Mr. Thos Hale, Constant his wife, Thomas and 
 Sacheverell his sons, the whole Seat with a room behind 
 for a servant, gave ;^i lu. o^." * 
 
 In 5 Henry VIII., a curious award was made by the 
 then Sir William Brereton, of Brereton, in a dispute between 
 two neighbouring families, Moreton and Rode. The quarrel 
 was about precedency, " which should sit highest in the 
 church, and foremost goo in processions," which was referred 
 to Sir William Brereton. After " examining xii of the most 
 auncyent men of Astbury," Sir William Brereton's decision 
 was " that whither of the said gyntylmen may dispend in 
 lands, by title of inheritance, 10 marks or above more than 
 the other, that he shall have the pre-eminence in sitting 
 in the Church and in going in procession, with all the like 
 causes in that behalf." f 
 
 In the parish vestry-book of Streatham Church, mention 
 
 * ** Reliquary," 21, 64. It would appear, however, that parishioners 
 did not always like to be confined to specified seats. At St. Michael's, 
 Cornhill, we find an old vestry order on the subject — 
 
 *' Order for keping their pewes on pain to forfeit ij</. the first time, 
 and iiij^. the second. 
 
 " Item. Evy man that on the hollie day keepeth not his owne pewe, 
 but setteth the service time in other pewes, for y* first tyme \]d. and 
 the second time \\\]d. to be emploied to the poore's box provided eny 
 at the lessons & the sinons the more better to heare may remove." 
 
 t Lysons's " Magna Britannia." 
 
PEWS AND THEIR LORE, 189 
 
 is made of an obstreperous pew-holder, who refused to pay- 
 back rent, and on the churchwardens writing to him to say 
 that " if it was not paid by a certain date the pew would be 
 locked against him," he replied that if that were done, he 
 should attend the church and break it open. Steps were 
 taken to prevent a disturbance in the church, but these 
 appear to have been of a conciliatory character, for three 
 years after, a resolution was passed at a vestry meeting, that 
 as Mr. — had not paid any rent for eleven years, the 
 pew should be confiscated.* 
 
 Notices of locks to pews occur in old church documents, 
 an abuse, however, which did not escape censure. On the 
 2 1 St May, 1 63 1, Dr. Neile, Bishop of Winchester, issued a 
 monition upon this subject to the churchwardens of the 
 parish of Elvetham, Hampshire : "Whereas I am given to 
 understand that locks have lately been sett upon some 
 pews in the parish church of Elvetham, and that, without 
 any order from me or my chancellor, which I hould very 
 unfitt to be indured. These are to will and require you 
 and every of you, the churchwardens there, to remove all 
 the lockes upon any the pews within the said church, be- 
 tween this and the feast day of Pentecost next insueing." 
 Bishop Earle, three years before, had alluded to this unseemly 
 practice in the character of " The She Precise Hyprofcrite " : 
 " She doubts of the Virgin Mary's salvation, and dares not 
 saint her ; but knows her own place in heaven as perfectly 
 as the pew she has a key to." f Later on Pepys speaks 
 of the practice of locking pews as a common custom. 
 "December 25, i66i. In the morning to church, where 
 at the door of our pew I was fain to stay, because the 
 sexton had not opened the door." 
 
 In the year 1604, four keys were made for the " Purges " 
 
 * * Frederick Arnold's "History of Streatham " (1856), 51. 
 t Quoted in Mr. Heale's " History of Church Seats," 152. 
 
I90 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 pews in St Margaret's Church, Westminster. And in i6oq 
 the churchwarden's pew, at St. John Zachary, London, was 
 suppHed with two keys. 
 
 Further curious items of information connected with the 
 old pew system of former days, illustrate the many abuses 
 to which this custom gave rise. Accordingly, when pews 
 were strewed with rushes and supplied with mats, *' it was 
 likely," says Mr. Heale, ** that dust and vermin would 
 accumulate." Hence, at St. Michael's, Cornhill, we find 
 this entry : ** 1469, payed for iij rat trappes for the chirche, 
 \\dr At St. Margaret's, Westminster, in the year 16 10, 
 sixpence was paid for salt to destroy the fleas in the church- 
 wardens' pew. 
 
 Then there were the high pews " for the parishioners to 
 sit or sleep in," an abuse which Bishop Corbet of Norwich 
 thus exposed : " I am verily persuaded, were it not for the 
 pulpit and the pews, many churches had been down that 
 stand. Stately pews are now become tabernacles, with 
 rings and curtains to them. These want nothing but beds 
 to hear the word of God on. We have casements, locks 
 and keys, and cushions — I had almost said bolster and 
 pillows; and for those we love the church. I will not 
 guess what is done within them, who sits, stands, or lies 
 asleep, at prayers, communion, etc. ; but this I dare say, 
 they are either to hide some vice, or to proclaim one, to 
 hide disorder, or proclaim pride." Indeed, the abuses 
 which were the outcome of the old pews, are frequently 
 alluded to in the literature of the past, and Swift, in his 
 ** Baucis and Philemon," speaks of — 
 
 '* A bedstead of the antique mode, 
 Compact of timber many a load, 
 Such as our ancestors did use, 
 Was metamorphosed into pews ; 
 Which still their ancient nature keep 
 By lodging folks disposed to sleep." 
 
PEWS AND THEIR LORE. 191 
 
 At Branksea, Dorsetshire, was "a pew as large as a 
 drawing-room, and magnificently furnished, and having a 
 fireplace, and windows and blinds to secure privacy from 
 the rest of the congregation. At Mertsham, Surrey, and at 
 Mickleham, Surrey, were pews raised some feet above the 
 level of the floor, comfortably fitted, and possessing a fire- 
 place and table, by no means uncommon examples." * 
 
 In Little Berningham Church, Norfolk, a pew was 
 erected by a shepherd in the nave, to afford accommodation 
 for strangers and wedding parties, with this inscription — 
 
 " For couples joined in wedlock; and my Friend, 
 That stranger is ; This Seate I did intend." 
 
 " But (? built) at the coste and charge of Stephen Crosbee." 
 
 " All you that do this Place pass by 
 As you are nowe, even soe was I ; 
 Remember Death, for you must dye. 
 And as I am, soe shall you be. 
 
 Anno Domini 1640." f 
 
 At the south-west comer of the pew a skeleton carved in 
 wood reminded those who used it — even on the eventful 
 occasion of matrimony — that they would have to die; a 
 warning which, perhaps, was not always appreciated at such 
 a time. 
 
 The parish books of Chester-le-Street, Durham, contain 
 the following entry: "1612, 27 May. The church- 
 wardens meeting together for seeking for workmen to mak 
 a fitt seete in a convenient place for brydgrumes, brydes, 
 and sike wyves to sit in, two shillings." A document 
 relating to Warrington Church, dated 1628, in mentioning 
 an allotment of sittings, refers to " the bryd's form." 
 
 At Northorpe Church, Lincolnshire, there was, in years 
 past, a small pew, popularly known as the Hall Dog Pew, 
 
 • Heale's " History of Church Seats," 184. 
 t Blomefield's *' History of Norfolk," vi. 317. 
 
igi CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 wherein the dogs, which followed the residents at the hall to 
 church, were placed during divine service. 
 
 At St. Alphege, Cripplegate Within, a certain Mr. Love- 
 day was presented in 1620 for sitting in the same pew 
 with his wife, " which being held to be highly indecent," 
 he was ordered to appear ; but, failing to do so, " Mr. 
 Chancellor was made acquainted with his obstinacy." 
 
 Many curious notices of separation of sexes, and the 
 restriction of pews for women, occur in old parish 
 documents of the fifteenth century. In the Cornhill 
 accounts for 1473, there is an entry of two shillings and 
 sixpence "for werkmanship and nayle for two women 
 pewes ;" and in the churchwardens' accounts for 1584, this 
 item is recorded : " Fd for mendinge certeyn women's 
 pews, ijj". ; and in 1586, *' I tin for a hynge to one of y* 
 women's pews, iiij^." In a faculty for seats in Great Bur- 
 stead Church, Essex, in 161 1, the applicant was authorized 
 to build one pew at the entrance of the chancel for the use 
 of himself and sons, and companions and friends of the 
 male sex ; and another pew in the body of the church for 
 the use of his wife and her daughters, and companions and 
 friends of the female sex.* 
 
 A further distinction was made between married and 
 unmarried women; the wives of the most eminent 
 parishioners being placed in a more dignified position, 
 while the young women were placed elsewhere.t In the 
 accounts of St. Mary - at - Hill, for 1527, is a charge for 
 workmanship of Mr. Rocke's maiden's pew,J and in those 
 of St. Mary Woolchurch, London, under 1541 and 1542, 
 occurs this item : " Paid for mending the raayden's pewe in 
 the church, ijV." 
 
 * " History and Laws of Church Seats," 70. 
 
 t Ibid., 132. 
 
 X Mr. Rocke after\vafd9 became alderman, lord mayor, and knight. 
 
PEIVS AND THEIR LORE. 193 
 
 Non-compliance with this custom occasionally gave rise 
 to much unpleasantness, and a case is recorded in Arch- 
 deacon Hale's " Proceedings in the Diocese of London " 
 (p. 242) of a young woman named Hayward, " that she 
 beinge a young mayde sat in the pewe with her mother, to 
 the great offence of many reverent women ; howbeit that 
 after I, Peter Lewis, the vicar, had in the church privatlie 
 admonished the said young mayde of her fault, and advised 
 her to sitt at her mother's pewe dore, she obeyed \ but now 
 she sitts againe with her mother." Proceedings were taken 
 at Gateshead, Durham, against a Janet Foggard, " that she 
 beinge a yonge woman, unmarried, will not sit in a stall 
 wher she is appointed, but in a stall letten to another." * 
 
 Formerly, in many churches, there was the "churching- 
 pew ; " an institution which, now and then, gave rise to 
 some amusing contretemps. At the close of the last century, 
 it is related \ how " two dashing young unmarried women 
 were journeying from London to Norfolk by coach, and 
 from some accidental cause were compelled to spend Sunday 
 at a village on their route. In the pride of beauty and 
 finery, they made their way to church, and to the most 
 conspicuous pew near the pulpit But they soon wished 
 themselves elsewhere when the clergyman commenced 
 reading the * churching service ' of the Church of England, 
 and were still more dismayed when the clerk, at the close of 
 the sermon, asked them for the customary fee for the 
 additional service which their presence in the 'churching- 
 pew' had unluckily brought down upon them." Another 
 amusing instance of a misadventure in a churching-pew is 
 told in "A Voice from a Mask " (1861, 126-8), wherein the 
 author says that the circumstance happened "to an un- 
 
 * ** Injunctions and Ecclesiastical Proceedings of Bishop Bumes," 
 Surtees Society, xxii. 124. 
 
 t Notes and Queries^ 3rd series, viii. 500. 
 
 O 
 
194 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 married sister of one of my friends." This lady, after 
 the churching ceremony, is beating a retreat from the pew, 
 when the clerk asks her, " Have you a child to be christened, 
 ma'am ? " Whereupon she rushes home to her friend in a 
 very discomposed state. " My dear Charlotte ! what has 
 
 happened to you ? " asks Mrs. M . " Have you been 
 
 robbed or insulted?" "Worse, worse — much worse," 
 hysterically sobbed the old maid, ** I've been churched ! " 
 
 At Boston Church, prior to its restoration, there was a 
 churching-pew ; and in the churchwardens' accounts of the 
 parish of Cundal, this entry occurs : " 1636. A Childwife 
 Pew. 26s, 8d." 
 
 There was also the "midwives pew," and in the year 
 161 7, at St. Margaret's, Westminster, there was paid for 
 making a new pew for the midwives, ;£2 ^s. od., and also 
 a further charge for making another new pew for the 
 midwives adjoining the former. 
 
 Sir Thomas Widdrington, M.P. for York, in a speech in 
 the House of Commons, told an extraordinary anecdote of a 
 clergyman who was his friend and neighbour. A butcher in 
 the parish was severely gored in the stomach by an ox, and 
 only narrowly escaped death. Eventually, the wound being 
 cured, the butcher desired to give public thanksgiving in the 
 church for his safe deliverance. The puzzled clergyman, 
 finding himself in a fix, anxious and willing to gratify his 
 parishioner, and yet not knowing of any authorized form for 
 such a public act, read the prayers for the churching of 
 women.* The Rev. Frederic G. Lee relates a similar story 
 in JVofes and Queries (5th series, ii. 125). " In a church 
 near Oxford, which I once served as curate, there was a 
 special pew, capacious and high, at the entrance of the 
 church, where only women worshipped who desired the 
 office of benediction. One Sunday afternoon, three Oxford 
 * "Parliamentary History," ix. 455. 
 
PEIVS AND THEIR LORE, 195 
 
 undergraduates, arriving during the evening service, hastily 
 took their places in this particular pew, when, according to 
 custom, towards the close of the service, the parson (who 
 was shortsighted), looking up and seeing the pew occupied, 
 immediately proceeded *to church* these visitors, an 
 act which he completed to the consternation of the 
 congregation." 
 
 In 1 5 15, a penny is charged in the accounts of the 
 churchwardens of St. Margaret Pattens, London, for dressing 
 of the " yrons " of the " shrevyng pew ; " and at St. Michael's, 
 Cornhill, such a structure was removed in the year 1548: 
 " Item payd to the joyner for takynge down the shryvyng 
 pew and making another pew in the same place. iijV." 
 
 What the form or nature of the shriving-pew was is 
 doubtful ; and from the rare mention of its existence in our 
 parish churches, it was evidently, says Mr. Heales, " a most 
 unusual thing," and was probably "an innovation not very 
 long antecedent to the period of the Reformation, when 
 their destruction might be safely anticipated." * 
 
 Occasionally a pew, it would seem, was the eminence 
 upon which offenders did public penance, as the following 
 story shows — 
 
 " * These witnes in dede will not lye,' as the pore man 
 sayd by the priest, * if I maybe homely to tell you a merry 
 tale by the way.' 
 
 "*A merry tale,' quoth I, * commith never amyse to 
 me.' 
 
 " The pore man, quod he, had found y^ priest over famyliar 
 with his wife, and bycause he spake of it abrode and could 
 not prouve it, the priest sued him before y" byshoppe's 
 offyciale for dyffamatyon, when the pore man upon paine of 
 cursynge (/>. excommunication), was commanded that in hys 
 parishe churche, he should upon y** Sondaye, at high masse 
 
 * " History and Law of Church Seats and Pews" (1872), 43, 44. 
 
196 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 time, stande up and say, * mouth, thou lyest.' Whereupon 
 for fulfilling of hys penance up was the pore soul set in a 
 pew, that the people might wonder on hym and hyre what he 
 sayd. And there all a lowed (when he had rehersyd what 
 he had reported by the priest), then he sett hys handys on 
 his mouthe, and said, * Mouth ! mouth, thou lyest 1 ' and 
 by-and-by, thereupon he set his hand upon his eyes, and 
 said, * But eyen, eyen,* quod he, * by y® Mass y® lye not a 
 whitte.' " 
 
 In the Elizabethan period, the pew of the chief local 
 family in country churches was florally ornamented. *' The 
 dresser of a pew of this character," writes Dr. Doran,* 
 "introduced with a sublime contempt for chronology, in 
 the old play of ' Appius and Virginia,' says to one who had 
 impeded her work : — 
 
 ** ' Thou knave, but for thee, ere this time of day. 
 My lady's fair pew had been strew'd full gay, 
 "With primroses, cowslips, and violets sweet. 
 With mints and with marigolds, marjoram sweet. 
 Which now lyeth uncleanly, and all along of thee.' " 
 
 Pews holding persons of less dignity were " strawed ; " but 
 in both cases this must have been at the expense of the 
 occupants. 
 
 ♦ " Saints and Sinners," i. 201, 202. 
 
( 197 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 JACK OF THE CLOCK, ETC. 
 
 A FAMILIAR object in the towers of many of our old 
 churches was " Jack of the Clock-house ; " this automaton 
 figure being variously represented, and known under different 
 nicknames. Sometimes, he appeared " in knightly panoply 
 with mace, maul, or axe in hand, ready to proclaim the 
 flight of time upon the sonorous bell which hung near the 
 venerable clock. Occasionally he stood forth in a state 
 hovering on nudity, his only garment being a wreath of 
 foliage about his loins, and having a goodly club for a 
 weapon. Hence some people called him Hercules, while 
 others denominated him *the Savage' or 'Wild Man,' 
 * the Saracen,' * the Giant,' but everybody knew him by 
 the common appellation of * Jack of the Clock-house.' " * 
 Frequent allusions occur in the literature of bygone years to 
 this well-known figure ; and Shakespeare, in ** Richard II." 
 (Act V. sc. 5) makes the king to say — 
 
 •* My time 
 Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy, 
 While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock." 
 
 * See paper by Mr. H. Syer Cuming on this automaton figure in 
 "Jour, of the British Arch. Assoc," xxv. 281. 
 
198 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 And in "Richard III." (Act iv. sc. 2) we find a further 
 reference — 
 
 * ' K. Richard. Well, but what's o'clock ? 
 
 Buck. Upon the stroke of ten. 
 K. Richard. Well, let it strike. 
 
 Btuk. Why let it strike ? 
 
 K. Richard. Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke 
 Betwixt the begging and my meditation. " 
 
 The clock in old St. Paul's was furnished with Jacks to 
 strike the hours, which are spoken of by Decker as " Paul's 
 Jacks," who, writing in the year 1609, says: "The great 
 dial is your last monument; where bestow some half of 
 the three-score minutes to observe the sauciness of the 
 Jacks that are above the Man in the Moon; the strange- 
 ness of their motion will quit your labour." But "Paul's 
 Jacks" perished with the old cathedral in the year 1666. 
 
 From 167 1, up to the early part of the present century, 
 the Jacks at St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, to which Cowper 
 alludes in his "Table Talk," formed one of the regular 
 sights of London : 
 
 ** When labour and when dullness, club in hand, 
 Like the two figures at St. Dunstan's, stand 
 Beating alternately, in measured time, 
 The clock work tintinnabulum of rhyme. 
 Exact and regular the sounds will be ; 
 But such mere quarter-strokes are not for me. " 
 
 It appears by the parish books, that, on May 18, 167 1, 
 Thomas Harrys made an offer to build a new clock with 
 chimes, and to erect two figures of men with pole-axes to 
 strike the quarters. His offer was accepted, with the excep- 
 tion of the chimes, and on October 28th, in the same year, 
 at the completion of his task, he was voted the sum of £^ 
 per annum to keep in repair. Strype (b. iii. 276), speaking 
 of old St. Dunstan's Church, says : " It is a good, handsome. 
 
JACK OF THE CLOCK, ETC. 199 
 
 freestone building, with a fair dial hanging over into the 
 street; and on the side of the church, in a handsome frame 
 of architecture are placed, in a standing posture, two savages, 
 or Hercules, with clubs erect, which quarterly strike on the 
 bells hanging there." Ned Ward, in his "London Spy," 
 mentions the moving heads and hands of these automata 
 which he calls the wooden horologists at St. Dunstan's;" 
 and the author of " London Scenes and London People," 
 thus describes these famous Jacks: "The giants stood in front 
 of the building, about thirty feet from the road, on a covered 
 platform, each holding a club, the bell being hung between 
 them, which at the quarters, as well as whole hours, they 
 struck, but so indolently, that spectators often complained 
 that they were not well up to their work. The mechanism, 
 too, was rough and clumsy ; you could not help noticing the 
 metal cord inserted in the club, to which its motion was 
 due." When the old church was pulled down, the clock 
 and figures were purchased by the Marquis of Hertford, 
 and removed to his villa in Regent's Park. The clock at 
 Rye Church, Sussex, is noteworthy. The bells are struck 
 by a pair of fat golden cherubs placed under a canopy on 
 the north side of the tower. This clock is said, like the 
 altar, to have been the gift of Elizabeth, but there are some 
 doubts on this point. It is considered, however, the most 
 ancient clock in England still actually doing its work. 
 
 St. Martin's, Carfax, Oxford, was once celebrated for its 
 pair of Jacks, which were erected at the east end of the 
 church, in the year 1624, an engraving of which may be 
 seen in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1836 (p. 21). 
 And at Horsham, Sussex, there was a ** Jack Clock House," 
 till about 1825.* Holy Trinity Church, Bristol,t which 
 was demolished in 1787, had "a tapering spire, and in the 
 
 * " Reliquary," xxiii. 36. 
 
 t E. J. Wood, •* Curiosities of Clocks and Watches," 107. 
 
200 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 tower was a clock guarded by gigantic * quarter-boys,' 
 represented in two large figures, with ever-ready hammers 
 to note the flight of time. They were placed under a 
 semi-circular canopy on each side of the face of the 
 clock. They wore brass helmets, and were partly habited 
 in armour ; each grasped a battle-axe, with which it struck 
 the bell suspended over its head. It would appear that 
 they were coloured and gilt with great care, according to 
 the taste of the age." There is a Jack of the clock at 
 Westgate, Exeter. It consists of three figures in the dress 
 of the seventeenth century, and is popularly called "The 
 Miller and his Sons." 
 
 In an arch in the tower of Blythburgh Church, Suffolk, 
 is, or was, the figure of a man, four feet in height, which 
 used to strike the hours on a belL " He is habited," writes 
 Mr. Syer Cuming,* "in plate armour, which is painted 
 black, with the passe-gardes and borders of the coutes and 
 genouillieres gilded; the crested helmet and gorget being 
 white. A flowing beard gives this 'Jack' a venerable aspect, 
 and loss of hands and occupation seem to make him look 
 melancholy." At Southwold Church, in the same county, 
 a "Jack of the Clock," in former years, proclaimed the 
 hours. But " this curious figure is now removed from the 
 tower to the vestry window open to the church, and though 
 no longer toihng hour after hour, as of yore, is not 
 altogether idle, for the parish clerk makes Jack toll the bell 
 as the clergyman emerges from the vestry, as a signal that 
 divine service has begun." 
 
 Another well-known instance of a " Jack of the Clock," 
 is at Norwich. "Those persons," it is said, "who have 
 inspected the curiosities at the cathedral of Norwich, will 
 remember that the quarters for the use of persons within the 
 building are struck by two similar, though much smaller 
 * "Journal of Brit. Arch. Assoc," xxv. 281. 
 
1 J > 
 
 '»*>', ?'' h ? ? 
 
 JACK O' THE CLOCK, SOUTHWOLD. J^age 200. 
 
re t c _"* S r 
 
 . <• t ' r C ,< » 
 
JACK OF THE CLOCK, ETC. 201 
 
 figures, placed near two bells, inside the church, in one of 
 the recesses of the south aisle, and that the arms communi- 
 cate with the abbey clock by two strings, which are visible in 
 their whole course from the figures to the ceiling." * Mechan- 
 ical clocks of this kind, which were occasionally put up in 
 churches, must be reckoned amongst the things of the past, 
 Jack of the Church Clock House being a defunct personage. 
 Many entries are given in parish books of payments to 
 the "clock-keeper," which would seem to have been a 
 recognized appointment. Allen, in his "History of 
 Lambeth," quotes the following items from the church- 
 wardens' accounts — 
 
 " 1585. Agreed that Holloway shall have iiij^. a year for 
 oyle, for the clocke, and bells, and for candle to the clocke. 
 *'i599. Payd to Lewis Smalle, for keeping the clocke, 
 his wages, \2S, 
 
 *' 1605. To Smalle, for keeping the clocke, i6j." 
 The churchwardens' accounts of St. Margaret's, West- 
 minster, under the year 1548, record this item: "Also 
 paid to the said John Ivery, for the keeping of the v a 
 clock and viii a clock, for half a yere and half a quarter 
 ended at the same feast, i6j. Zd. In the parish accounts 
 of Wigtoft, near Boston, Lincolnshire, for the year 1484, 
 this entry occurs : *' Item, paide to Ric. Anngell for kepyng 
 of the clok, 35. 4^." And in the Proctor's accounts for 
 1469, of St. Mary's, Oxford, is this item : "Pro Custodia 
 horilogij, vjj. viij//. "; and in 1473, "Pro Custodia hori- 
 logij, iiijj." 
 
 Sometimes persons left special bequests for the clock- 
 keeper. The rents of a small piece of land called the 
 " Clock Holt," at Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire, have been 
 applied from time immemorial, says Edwards, in his 
 " Remarkable Charities " (p. 208) " for the winding up and 
 * "Journal of Brit. Arch. Assoc," xxv. 280. 
 
202 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 repairs of the church clock." From the same source we 
 learn that "by indenture, 26th August, 15 13, Roger Lupton, 
 vicar of Cropredy, Oxfordshire, delivered to the church- 
 wardens of Cropredy and Bourton, ;^6 13J. 4^., for which 
 they covenanted for themselves and their successors, to find 
 at their own costs some person to keep duly the clock of 
 Cropredy." Sir Edward Lake, by his will, dated April 8th, 
 1665, gave as follows: "To the church or chappell of 
 Normanton, near Pontefract, Yorkshire (if there be a 
 church or chappell there, which I know not), where my 
 paternall ancestors have lived for many years," a clock and 
 a sum of money " for the maintaining and keeping of it for 
 ever." 
 
 An indespensable adjunct of the pulpit in former years 
 was the hour-glass, relics of which still remain in many of 
 our old country churches. Its use in England, as a means 
 of measuring time to the preacher, was coeval with the 
 Reformation, as appears from the frontispiece prefixed to the 
 Bishops Bible, imprinted by John Day, 1569. It was at 
 this period in our church's history that long sermons came 
 into fashion, when the preacher felt called upon to explain 
 "tenets attacked, or eliminate doctrinal disputes." To 
 regulate, therefore, the time accorded to the preacher for 
 his discourse, an hour-glass was placed on the pulpit ; and 
 in 1623 we read of a preacher " being attended by a man 
 that brought after him his book and hour-glass." 
 
 Allen, in his " History of Lambeth," says, " when a new 
 pulpit was placed in the parish church in 1522, in it was 
 fixed an hour-glass, of which there are no remains ; " and in 
 the churchwardens' accounts of this parish we find two 
 entries respecting the hour-glass, the first being in 1579, when 
 ij. 4^. was " payd to York for the frame in which the 
 bower standeth," and in the second, in 161 5, when ds. Sd. 
 was " payd for an iron for the hour-glass." In the church 
 
JACK OF THE CLOCK, ETC, 203 
 
 book for St. Katherine's, Aldgate, under 1564, this entry 
 occurs : " Paid for an hour-glass that hangeth by the pulpit, 
 where the preacher doth make a sermon, that he may know 
 how the hour passeth away, one shiUing," and, in the same 
 book, among the bequests of 16 16 is an hower-glass with a 
 frame of iron to stand in." In 1592 the churchwardens of 
 Leicester paid fourpence for "an oure-glass," and in 1597 
 in the Ludlow Church accounts, we find an item of twenty 
 pence "for makinge of the frame of the hower-glasse." In 
 the churchwardens' accounts of St. Helen's, Abingdon, for 
 1599, fourpence is charged for an hour-glass for the pulpit ; 
 and in the Chamberlain's accounts of Stratford-on-Avon, 
 this is given : " Paid to Watton for setting up the hour- 
 glasse, iiij^/." In an inventory, taken about 1632, of the 
 goods and implements belonging to the church of All Saints, 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, these items occur : "one whole-houre 
 glasse," " one half-houre glasse," and many other similar 
 entries elsewhere might be easily quoted. 
 
 Referring to some of the hour-glasses themselves, one of 
 the finest in London is that of St. .Alban's, Wood Street, 
 which was first described in the Gentleman s Magazine for 
 1822 (xcii., pt. 2, p. 200). According to the parish records, 
 *' Mr. Thomas Wadeson, parish clerk, gave a brass branch 
 for the church, and two small ones for the pulpit and 
 reading-desk, and a stand for the hour-glass." The hour- 
 glass at St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, was taken down in 
 1723, and two heads for the parish staves made out of the 
 silver. And within memory there was an hour-glass stand 
 affixed to the pulpit of St. Ethelburga's Church, Bishops- 
 gate Street. It is said that when Bishop Burnet was 
 preaching at St. Margaret's, Westminster, before the House 
 of Commons, he turned his hour-glass to show that he was 
 about to continue his discourse, and that he was nearly 
 interrupted by the applauding murmurs of his hearers— a 
 
204 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 strong testimony to his eloquence. Several versions of this 
 well-known story are recorded ; and Lord Macaulay tells us 
 how the good bishop, after preaching out the hour-glass, 
 would hold it in his hand, while the congregation " clamour- 
 ously encouraged him to go on till the sand had run off 
 once more." At the restoration of the Chapel Royal, in 
 1867, an eigh teen-minute pulpit-glass was placed in the 
 church, which was considered a protest on the part of her 
 Majesty against long sermons. 
 
 In Shaw's work on " Dress and Decoration " is an 
 engraving of the bracket and hour-glass belonging to Hurst 
 Church, Berkshire. It is made of iron, painted and gilt, 
 and of elaborate workmanship, and on the stem of the 
 bracket are these words, " As this glass runneth so man's 
 life passeth." The iron stand of the hour-glass remains in 
 Chesham Bois Church, and at Keyingham Church, near 
 Hull, there is an interesting example. At St. Michael's 
 Church, St Alban's, the hour-glass stand is affixed to the 
 left of the reading-desk ; and one with the date of 1636 is 
 placed on a carved wooden bracket on the left side of the 
 preacher in the pulpit of Cliffe Church, Kent. Fosbroke, in 
 his " British Monachism," relates how " a rector of Bibury 
 used to preach two hours, regularly turning the glass. After 
 the text, the esquire of the parish withdrew, smoked his pipe, 
 and returned to the blessing." It may be added the pulpit 
 hour-glass was also common in Scotland, and Dr. Rogers, in 
 his " Familiar Illustrations of Scottish Character," quotes 
 the Rev. Peter Glas, minister of Crail, as saying, " It was a 
 puir parish that didna hae a sand-glass." 
 
 Many of the hour-glasses throughout the country have 
 gradually disappeared with the work of restoration. About 
 thirty years ago an hour-glass was to be seen at Flixton, 
 Suffolk, but it was destroyed during the work of restoration ; 
 and at Sacombe, a few miles from Hertford, before the church 
 
JACK OF THE CLOCK, ETC. 205 
 
 was restored, there was an old hour-glass frame fixed to the 
 side of the pulpit which had come down from the period of 
 the Commonwealth or thereabout. There was a preacher's 
 hour-glass at Cuxham and North Moor, Oxfordshire, and 
 one at East Worldham, Hampshire, where it remained till 
 the body of the church was pulled down and rebuilt in 1865. 
 
 Among further instances may be mentioned those at 
 Wolvercot and Beckley, Oxfordshire ; Puxton, Somersetshire ; 
 Catfield, Sutton, Stalham, Lessingham, Hempsted, Salhouse, 
 and Ledham, Norfolk ; St. Edmund's Church, South Burling- 
 ham ; and at Shelsley-Beauchamp.* In the " Oxford Glos- 
 sary of Architecture " is a representation of an hour-glass 
 stand at Leigh Church, Kent, and in Weale's " Quarterly 
 Papers on Architecture " is an engraving of an hour-glass 
 and frame in Compton Bassett Church, Wilts. f 
 
 We must not omit to notice some of the notable weather- 
 cocks which in years past created more or less interest. 
 St. Mildred's Church in the Poultry, prior to its demolition, 
 possessed a tower seventy-five feet high, surmounted by a 
 vane representing a ship in full sail. The remarkable spire 
 of St. Michael's, Queenhithe, destroyed in the great fire, was 
 rebuilt by Wren in the year 1677. Its spire, one hundred 
 and thirty-five feet, has long been famed for its gilt vane in 
 the form of a ship in full sail, the hull of which has enjoyed 
 the reputation of being able to hold a bushel of grain, the 
 allusion being to the former traffic in com at the Hithe. 
 Then there is St. Sepulchre's Church, Skinner Street, with 
 its tower, which, according to Malcolm, ** is one of the 
 most ancient in the outline in the circuit of London." This 
 tower is noted for its four pinnacles with vanes, rebuilt 
 
 * See an interesting paper on Pulpit Hour-glasses in the "Journal 
 of the Brit. Arch. Assoc." (1848), iii. 301-310. 
 
 t In the Gentleman's Magazine (1747, 264^ 265), there are some 
 remarks on the burial of an hour-glass with a corpse. 
 
2o6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 1630-33, and is one hundred and forty feet high. Hence 
 it was that Howell wrote, " Unreasonable people are as hard 
 to reconcile as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's Tower, which 
 never looked all four upon one point of the heavens." 
 
 St Peter's, Cornhill, has a tower and spire one hundred 
 and forty feet high, surmounted by an enormous key, the 
 emblem of St. Peter. Similarly, the steeple of St. Laurence 
 Jewry, Cheapside, has for its vane a gilt gridiron, intended 
 as the emblem of St. Laurence. The dragon of St. Mary-le- 
 Bow, Cheapside, has long been famous. It is of copper, 
 gilt, eleven feet long, and when it was regilded in the year 
 1820, a young Irishman descended from the spire point on 
 the back of the dragon, pushing it from the cornices and 
 scaffolds with his feet in the presence of thousands of 
 spectators. It may be remembered that one of Mother 
 Shipton's prophecies was that when the grasshopper of the 
 Royal Exchange and the dragon of Bow Church should 
 meet, London Streets would be deluged with blood. Although 
 happily the last portion of this prophecy was not fulfilled, 
 yet, curious to say, in the year 1820 both these vanes were 
 lying together in the yard of a stonemason in Old Street 
 Road. Washington Irving, who was an eye-witness of this 
 event, thus writes : " The same architect has been engaged 
 lately on the repairs of the cupola of the Exchange and 
 the steeple of Bow Church, and, fearful to relate, the dragon 
 and the grasshopper lie cheek by jowl in the yard of his 
 workshop." The spire vane at Fotheringay Church, 
 Northamptonshire, represents the falcon and the fetterlock, 
 the badge of the Dukes of York. 
 
 In Wright's " History of Ludlow" (465) we are told " the 
 north transept of the church is called the Fletcher's Chancel, 
 and on its gable is an arrow, the ensign of the craft. It is a 
 probable conjecture that this part was appropriated for the 
 use of the archers who might possibly hold their meetings 
 
JACK OF THE CLOCK, ETC, 207 
 
 here." According to a local legend, this arrow was set in 
 this position "in commemoration of a shot made by Robin 
 Hood from the Old Field, — a long mile distant, — which hit 
 the steeple." 
 
 There is the fine old copper-gilt weathercock of Ports- 
 mouth, which is in the fashion of an ancient full-rigged ship, 
 with spread ensign aft ; the vessel is about six feet long, and 
 the flag about four feet long. When the necessity arises of 
 taking it down to clean and re -gild, it seems to be a local 
 custom for any waterman from " the Hard," or thereabouts, 
 whose wife has been lately confined, to take the child and 
 lay it in the hull for a moment or two, just " for luck." 
 
 Another use to which church towers and steeples have 
 been occasionally applied in times past, has been for the 
 display of beacons. A beacon lamp was, in bygone years, 
 placed in the centre of the steeple of All Saints' Church, 
 York, for the benefit of travellers in the forest of Galtres. 
 Edwards, in his ** Remarkable Charities " (98), informs us 
 that " John Wardall, by will, dated the 29th of August, 
 1656, gave to the Grocers' Company a tenement, called 
 the White Bear, in Walbrook, to the intent that they should 
 yearly, within thirty days after Michaelmas, pay to the 
 churchwardens of St. Botolph, Billingsgate, ^£'4, to provide 
 a good and sufficient iron and glass lantern, with a candle, 
 for the direction of passengers to go with more security to 
 and from the water side, all night long, to be fixed at the 
 north-east comer of the parish church of St. Botolph, from 
 the feast day of St. Bartholomew to Lady Day. Out of 
 which sum j[^\ was to be paid to the sexton for taking care 
 of the lantern." 
 
 A similar bequest was bequeathed by John Cooke, 
 September 12, 1662, "for the maintenance of a lantern and 
 candle, to be of eight in the pound at the least, to be kept 
 and hanged out at the corner of St. Michael's Lane, near 
 
2o8 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Thames Street, from Michaelmas to Lady Day, between 
 the hours of nine and ten o'clock at night until the hours of 
 four or five in the morning, for affording light to passengers 
 going through Thames Street or St. Michael's Lane, ;£"i." 
 Formerly a lighted lantern at St. Mary's, Beverley, guided 
 travellers over the wolds in the vicinity of the town. A 
 curious story is told of the tower of Minster Church, Corn- 
 wall, which has long fallen into decay, and whose romantic 
 ruins have thus been described by Mr. Hawker — 
 
 " The Minster of the Trees ! a lonely dell, 
 
 Deep with old oaks, and 'mid their quiet shade, 
 Gray with the moss of years, yon antique cell ! 
 
 Sad are those walls : the cloister lowly laid, 
 Where pacing monks at solemn evening made 
 
 Their chanted orisons : and as the breeze 
 Came up the vale, by rock and tree delay'd. 
 
 They heard the awful voice of many seas 
 Blend with thy pausing hymn, thou Minster of the Trees." 
 
 The story of the destruction of the tower runs thus : " It 
 was seen through the gorge which now forms the harbour 
 of Boscastle far out at sea. The monks were in the habit 
 of placing a light in one of the windows of the tower to 
 guide the worshippers at night to the minster. Frequently 
 sailors mistook this, by day for some landmark, and at night 
 for a beacon, and were thus led into a trap from which they 
 could not easily extricate themselves, and within which 
 they often perished. This accident occurred so frequently, 
 that the sailors began at last to declare their belief that 
 the monks purposely beguiled them to their fate, hinting, 
 indeed, that plunder was their object. Eventually, a band 
 of daring men, who had been thus lured into Boscastle, 
 went to the abbey, and, in spite of the exertions made by 
 the monks, they pulled down the tower, since which time 
 it has never been rebuilt" * 
 
 * Hunt's ** Popular Romances of the West of England," 439, 440. 
 
( 209 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 LYCHNOSCOPES, OR LOW SIDE WINDOWS. 
 
 The Low Side Windows, found in the side wall of the 
 chancel — sometimes on the north, but more often on the 
 south — in many of our parish churches, have long been a 
 puzzle to most antiquarians. Numerous theories have been 
 advanced in explanation of their use, but without any 
 thoroughly satisfactory result. According to one popular 
 view, they were openings for lepers to assist at Mass, hence 
 called "leper windows." In support of the leper theory, 
 it has been remarked that at the west end of the north side 
 of St. Martin, Liskeard, is a curious opening consisting of 
 three small square-headed openings, three inches and a half 
 in width, one foot five inches in height, separated by 
 monials five inches in thickness. There would be just 
 sufficient space for the admission of a hand through the 
 openings, and externally under the window is a small stoup 
 for holy water projecting from the wall. About half a mile 
 from Liskeard there formerly existed a hospital for lepers, 
 which it seems had no chapel of its own. 
 
 It has been urged, however, that these openings could 
 not have been used for this purpose, as " some are so close 
 to the ground that it would be necessary for the leper to 
 lie down to see through them," others are too high from 
 
 p 
 
210 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 the ground for a person to reach, and the greater number 
 do not command a view of the altar at all. 
 
 As the Rev. Henry G. de Bunsen says,* speaking of one 
 of these so-called leper windows at Lilleshall Church : " In 
 ancient times there were a number of lepers in England, 
 and these were not allowed to enter the church, or to 
 worship with the rest of the congregation, for fear of the 
 leprosy spreading in the village. It seemed hard, however, 
 to debar them from all the privileges of the rest ; and 
 accordingly those who built the north aisle had a little 
 window made which should reach to the ground, as near 
 as possible to the altar in that aisle (for there was an altar 
 here as well as at the east end of the nave). Thus the 
 outcast leper, one or more, would kneel out of doors by 
 the side of the little window, and join his prayers to those 
 of the congregation within. And whenever the Holy Com- 
 munion was administered, by opening the little window he 
 could receive it while kneeling outside. In this way did 
 our forefathers think of the poor outcasts as well as those 
 who were * healthy and wealthy ' ; and while they provided 
 lofty and roomy aisles for the many, the nook and corner 
 for the miserable and wretched was not forgotten." 
 
 It has been suggested that the object of the Low Side 
 Window was for the sacristan standing inside to ring the 
 bell at Mass at the open window, so that it might be heard 
 by the people outside. In support of this view, Mr. J. G. 
 Cole writes in the " Journal of the Archaeological Institute " 
 for March, 1848: "That prior to the introduction of 
 sanctus bell-cots, and commonly where these were not 
 erected, then at the low side window — the only real opening 
 in the church except the doors, and this unglazed, but pro- 
 vided with a shutter — the sacristan stood ; and at the eleva- 
 tion of the Host, opened the shutter and rang the sanctus 
 ♦ "Journal of the Brit. Arch. Assoc." (1861), xvii. 273. 
 
LYCHNOSCOPES, OR LOW SIDE WINDOWS. 211 
 
 bell, as directed, I think, in the most ancient liturgy : 
 ' In elevatione vero ipsius Corporis Domini pulsetur campana 
 in uno latere, ut populares, quibus celebrationi missarum 
 non vacat quod idie interesse, ubicunque fuerint, seu in 
 agris, seu in domibus, flectant genua ' (Constit. Joh. Peckham, 
 A.D. 1 281). This rule could be better observed by means 
 of a Low Side Window, strictly regarding the words * in uno 
 latere ' than by a bell cot, which was probably an innova- 
 tion, though an elegant one." 
 
 But the Rev. J. F. Hodgson has pointed out in the 
 *' Antiquary " (xxi. 220) that the nature and position of many 
 Low Side Windows militates against this theory. Some, for 
 instance, are too narrow for the passage of a bell sufficiently 
 large to be heard at any reasonable distance — that at Cock- 
 field Church, Durham, being only six and a half inches wide ; 
 at Downton, Wilts, the spaces between the bars measure 
 only five inches by seven inches ; at Darsingham, Lincoln- 
 shire, the opening, about eighteen inches square, is closely 
 filled with four pierced quatrefoiled circles in stone. Others, 
 it is urged, are either too low or too high for this purpose, 
 some being nearly on the ground, as at Hart and El wick, 
 Durham ; while in numerous cases a very long ladder would 
 be required to reach the window, as at Winston, Durham ; 
 Addlethorpe, Lincolnshire ; Lowestoft, Suffolk; and Ingham, 
 Norfolk. Then, again, it is further shown that occasionally 
 the position of the Low Side Window precludes the idea of 
 such a use, for at Staindrop and Barnard Castle Churches 
 they occur in the western bay of the south aisle between 
 the porch and the south-west angle. At Ludham, Norfolk, 
 the opening is at the west end of the nave below the west 
 window; at Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, and St. Mary's, 
 Guildford, at the west end of the north aisle. 
 
 A further objection put forth by the Rev. J. F. Hodgson 
 is that Low Side Windows '* are actually found in direct con- 
 
212 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 nection with eastern bell-cots — sanctus or other — or central 
 towers, which for all practical purposes come to just the same 
 thing." Thus, to quote two instances, at Rothersthorpe, 
 Northants, he points out that the sanctus bell-cot and 
 narrow grilled opening both remain; while at Boxwell, 
 Gloucestershire, a small village church consisting of nave 
 and chancel only, with an open bell-cot on the eastern 
 gable of the nave, " there is a small and very narrow low 
 side window, square-headed, and with a hood-mould, close 
 to the eastern angle of the nave southwards. This, it is 
 obvious, if the handbell theory were correct, would be 
 quite superfluous, were it even wide enough to allow the 
 passage of a bell, which it does not seem to be." 
 
 Another explanation of the Low Side Window is that it 
 was intended for confession, and Mr. E. J. Carlos, writing 
 to the Gentleman^s Magazine (1846, ii. 380), quotes an 
 extract from a letter of Bedyll to Cromwell : " We think it 
 best that the place where these friars have been wont to 
 hear outward confessions of all comers at certain times of 
 the year be walled up, and that use to be foredone for ever." 
 This recommendation applies only to the monasteries, but, 
 as the same writer observes : " If an irregular practice of 
 this kind existed in parochial churches, and there were 
 places requiring to be walled up, it would be in the province 
 of the ordinary to direct it to be done. It was not within 
 the line of Bedyll's duty to notice such places, though the 
 notoriety given to the practice by the visitation of the 
 monasteries would necessarily produce a similar order from 
 the ordinary to close them where found in parish churches." 
 Mr. J. Lewis Andrd in ''The Antiquary" (xxi. 124), con- 
 tributing to an interesting conference on " Low Side 
 Windows " supports the confessional theory, and writes : 
 "At Doddington, Kent, there is a stone book-rest placed in 
 immediate proximity to the inside of the lychnoscope; 
 
LYCHNOSCOPES, OR LOW SIDE WINDOWS. 213 
 
 whilst at Sherringham, Norfolk, a Low Side Window has the 
 splays inside corbelled off, and a seat placed inside the 
 recess, the corbelling being exactly similar to that over 
 several examples of sedilia in the same neighbourhood. 
 These instances prove that the windows, where they occur, 
 were intended to be used by some person either standing 
 or seated by them, and this agrees perfectly with the con- 
 fessional theory, for the priest waiting for penitents could 
 sit and read during the intervals between the departure of 
 one person and the arrival of the next." 
 
 Similar examples occur at Elsfield, Oxfordshire, and at 
 Allington, Wilts, where there is a seat and a book-rest ; and on 
 the outside of SS. Mary and Margaret, Sprowston, there is a 
 covered cell. Another similar Low Side Window exists at 
 Melton Constable, near Holt, Norfolk, and is thus described 
 by Mr. C. R. Manning : * "On the south side of the chancel, 
 and on the east face of the tower, low down is a seat scooped 
 out of the thick wall. In front of this seat, and projecting 
 from the jamb and sill of a Low Side Window, is a stone 
 desk for a book. The window is of one light, with a cinque- 
 foiled head, and has a transom at the level of the top of the 
 desk, below which the window is blocked, and no doubt 
 had a shutter. The stone seat is now a somewhat uncom- 
 fortable perch, and may probably have been covered by a 
 wooden stall and back, or canopy." 
 
 Mr. Paley (" Manual," p. 341) suggests another solution 
 of the difficulty, and says : " I would call them offertory 
 windows, since that was probably their real use. It appears 
 that they originated from an order of recluses or solitarily 
 who had their oratories contiguous to, or adjoining churches, 
 and who not being allowed to communicate with any 
 assembly of men, had these little windows constructed, 
 * ut per fenestram possent ad missas per manus sacerdotum 
 ,* The Afttiquary, xxi. 125. 
 
214 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 oblationes offerre.' But the practice was doubtless extended 
 from them to the general use of the laity, as very scanty 
 notice can be found of such recluses, and a great number of 
 ancient churches — from the twelfth to the fifteenth century — 
 have such offertory windows." In many cases this would be 
 impossible. The window at Dersingham Church, near Lynn, 
 Norfolk, has the lower part transomed off. But " here the 
 whole space does not open, so as to admit of the hand 
 being passed through, but is pierced with quartre-foil open- 
 ings in the square." * At All Saints, Hartley, Kent, there is 
 an immovable grate over the aperture, and *'in the south 
 aisle of St Peter, Ropsley, the loop is so small as to preclude 
 the possibility of making an offering through it at all" f 
 At St. Sennan, Sennen, Cornwall, it should be noted that 
 the low side window was used for taking in the tithe milk of 
 that parish. 
 
 Some have maintained that the Low Side Window was to 
 give light to the reader of the lessons, most windows being 
 filled in with painted glass. In the Building News for 
 March 20, 1890, appeared the following letter on the low 
 side window ^in the chapel or oratory of Prior Crauden, 
 within the precincts of Ely Cathedral, wherein the writer 
 says : " The chapel, a little gem of the Edwardian period is 
 abundantly lighted by large eastern and western windows, 
 as well as by two tall windows of two lights each on the 
 north and south sides. In addition to this ample provision 
 for the admission of light, the architect has introduced two 
 lovely low windows, one on each side, west of the tall side 
 windows just mentioned. The interior sills of these low 
 windows are about two feet six inches from the floor of the 
 chapel, and each ,of them has a stone ledge, not a seat, 
 within its recess ; but the external sills are some ten or 
 
 * The Antiquaryj x^\. 125. 
 t " The Reliquary," xxiv. 
 
LYCHNOSCOPES, OR LOW SIDE WINDOWS. 215 
 
 twelve feet from the ground, the chapel being built upon a 
 large under-croft or crypt, and occupying the * first floor ' 
 (to borrow a secular term) of an edifice with two stories. 
 This fact disposes at once of the explanatory hypothesis * of 
 their being used by persons outside.' There could be no 
 looking in from the outside by lepers, penitents, or ordinary 
 witnesses of the sacred rites ; and it is most unlikely that a 
 sanctus bell would be rung at an open window of this 
 private oratory, an appendage of the residence of the prior, 
 attended, doubtless, only by himself and his household." 
 Probably " the prior, elderly and dim sighted, wished for 
 light thrown directly on his breviary, when he heard Mass 
 said by his chaplains, and that his friend, Alan the sacrist, 
 met his wishes by the insertion of these * exquisite windows.* " 
 This theory of the low side window having been intended 
 to give light had the support of M. Viollet-Leduc, the 
 eminent French architect, who was employed in the restora- 
 tion of " La Sainte Chapelle," and who said that the low 
 side window in that building was glazed with white glass 
 covered by an internal shutter, which was closed when the 
 window was not in use, in order not to interfere with the 
 general effect of the " dim religious light " from the large 
 windows.* 
 
 It has been suggested that the Low Side Window 
 originated in the early custom of placing a light to scare 
 away evil spirits from the churchyard. And a conjecture 
 put forward by the Ecclesiological late Cambridge Camden 
 Society, in their ** Few Hints on Ecclesiological Antiquities," 
 is that such windows were for the purpose of watching the 
 Paschal Candle, hence called Lychnoscopes. It was an 
 ancient tradition, to which reference is made elsewhere in 
 the present work, that the second coming of Christ would 
 be on Easter Eve, hence the sepulchre and light were watched 
 • " The Archaeological Journal " (1847), iv. 326. 
 
2i6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 during the whole day and two nights between Good Friday 
 and Easter Day. According to another theory, the Low 
 Side Window was to enable the acolytes to pass the thurible 
 through for the purpose of having the charcoal blown up to 
 a red heat in the open air before the incense was put on, 
 thereby avoiding the unpleasant fumes which arose from 
 charcoal when first lighted, but it seems "there are no 
 records or traditions of such a custom, or directions for it in 
 the rubrics of the Missal." * 
 
 Then there is the symbolical theory, that the Low Side 
 Window was intended to symbolize the wound in the side of 
 our Saviour on the cross, the church itself being considered 
 as representing the body of Christ. But there is no 
 authority for this supposition, and the cases in which there 
 are two windows opposite to each other are fatal to this 
 theory. The suggestion that these windows were for pur- 
 poses of ventilation is improbable, for, as it has been often 
 urged, *' there seems no reason for always choosing the 
 particular situation occupied by these windows for such a 
 purpose." t 
 
 Prior to the thirteenth century Low Side Windows are rare, 
 but after this period they become comparatively common, 
 traces of them belonging to this and the two following 
 centuries being numerous in most parts of the country. 
 The earliest example is probably that at Caistor, Northamp- 
 tonshire, which appears to belong to the Anglo-Saxon 
 period, while of the twelfth century there are instances at 
 St. Margaret's at Cliff, Kent; North Hinksey, Berkshire; 
 and at St. Giles's, Northampton. 
 
 Among thirteenth-century examples may be mentioned 
 those at Oakington, Cambridgeshire ; Raydon, Suffolk ; and 
 at Elsfield and Bucknell, Oxfordshire. Of those belonging to 
 
 * ** The Archaeological Journal," iv. 325. 
 
 t See "Archaeological Journal" (1847), iv. 326. 
 
LYCHNOSCOPES, OR LOW SIDE WINDOWS, ill 
 
 the fourteenth century, instances occur at Garsington and 
 at Ardley, Oxfordshire; at Oifchurch, Lillington, Dun- 
 church, Long Compton, and at Cubington, Warwickshire ; 
 at Over, Cambridgeshire; at Whitwell, Rutlandshire; and 
 the remarkable one at Ely. 
 
 Coming to the fifteenth century, Low Side Windows are 
 very numerous, being occasionally insertions in earlier walls. 
 Instances exist at Hellesdon, Norfolk; at Eccleshall, 
 Staffordshire ; at Swavesey, Cambridgeshire ; at Ellsworth, 
 Northamptonshire ; at Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire, 
 and a late example at Wetherall, Cumberland.* 
 
 Two further specimens of Low Side Windows require 
 notice, the one being at Othery, near Bridgewater, which is 
 thus described in the " Archaeological Journal " (iv. 323) ; 
 It is not a separate window, but merely **a square opening 
 in the lower part of one light of a late two-light Per- 
 pendicular window, having the wooden shutter and the 
 ironwork remaining. It is on the south side of the chancel, 
 but the opening would be entirely concealed from almost 
 every point of view by a buttress supporting the central 
 tower, which projects immediately in front of it, and so 
 close to it as to prevent any person from standing or 
 kneeling on the outside of it. A hole is cut through the 
 buttress in a direct line with this opening, either for the 
 purpose of enabling some person to see out, or to make a 
 light in the window visible to passers-by. The distance 
 from the outside of buttress to the opening appears too 
 great for the purpose of confession." 
 
 The other example occurs in Winchester College Chapel, 
 on the south side. It is about ten feet from the ground, 
 both inside and outside. One of the lights of a three-light 
 window is divided by a transom with an arched head under 
 
 ♦ *• The ArchEeological Journal" (1847), iv. 314-321. 
 
2i8 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 it The hinges of the shutter remain. It is now blocked 
 up by one of the buttresses of the tower, which was built 
 about fifty years after the chapel, but as the foundations 
 are known to have given way, this buttress is probably of 
 later date.* 
 
 * " The Archaeological Journal " (1847), iv. 323. 
 
( 219 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE EASTER SEPULCHRE. 
 
 In some churches may be seen the remains of the Easter 
 sepulchre, which was intended for the purpose of com- 
 memorating our Lord's entombment by means of a rubrical 
 rite, which in some cases approached very nearly to a mystery, 
 and partly originated from an ancient belief that His Second 
 Advent would be on Easter Eve. There appears to have 
 been no rigid rule of uniformity in the observance of this 
 ceremony, which in general terms, writes Mr. A. Heales in 
 his valuable paper on " Easter Sepulchres," * may be 
 described as the deposit on Maundy Thursday of the con- 
 secrated Host and the crucifix from the high altar, in a 
 place apart, where it remained concealed for a time, the 
 spot being carefully watched and guarded. A light, too, 
 was constantly kept burning, notices for the payment of 
 which occur in old parish accounts. Thus, those of Great 
 Yarmouth in 1465 contain charges for watching the 
 sepulchre and tending the sepulchre lights; and in 1482, at 
 St. Stephen's, Walbrook, London, this entry occurs : ** Item, 
 payd on Estren Evyn to William Breyt and to Ray's man 
 pur wetchying of the Sepulcur, viij^. ; " and in the following 
 year, "Item, payd to the Clerkys when they wachyd the 
 
 • "Archseologia," xlii. (263-308): "Easter Sepulchres: their 
 Object, Nature, and History." 
 
226 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 sepulker for ther drynke and bred, iiijV." Under 1499, at 
 St. Mary-at-Hill, London, we meet with these items — 
 
 *' For the waching of sepulchre and the chirche to iii 
 men, xijV. 
 
 " For brede and ale to them that wached, vj^. 
 
 " For a lampe and for tentyr hookes for the Sepulchre, 
 \d. ob." 
 
 At St. Helen's, Abingdon, in the accounts for 1555 and 
 1558, these entries are made — 
 
 " To the Sextin for watching the Sepulter two nyghtes, viij^. 
 
 "To the Sexten for meat and drinck, and watching the 
 sepulture according to custom, i^. yid, 
 
 " To the Bellman for meat, drinck, and cooles, watching 
 the sepulture, i^. vij^." 
 
 At Lichfield three persons kept unbroken vigil, and a 
 light burned in the sepulchre. 
 
 Occasionally, it would seem, guilds were formed for 
 watching the sepulchre. In 1370 a guild in the parish of 
 St. Botolph Without, Aldgate, was founded in honour of the 
 body of Christ, and to maintain thirteen wax lights burning 
 about the sepulchre in the time of Easter, and to find a 
 chaplain. At Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, there was 
 " the Guild of the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ," and 
 in 1463 the will of John Baret mentions a Resurrection 
 Guild at Bury, and bequeathes to it eightpence for eight 
 tapers *' stondyng at the Grawve of resurreccon gylde." 
 
 Naogeorgus says the people used to cast violets and all 
 kinds of sweet flowers on the sepulchre, and make their 
 offerings while the choir chanted a dirge. In some places 
 the steps of the sepulchre were covered with black cloth, 
 soldiers in armour kept guard, and in most churches there 
 was a constant succession of watchers. 
 
 Very early on Easter morning, before sounding the matins 
 bell, it appears that, in olden times, the cross was removed 
 
THE EASTER SEPULCHRE. Ml 
 
 to its usual place upon the altar, and then there was 
 performed, in some churches and cathedrals, a peculiar 
 ceremony known as the "Office of the Sepulchre." At 
 Durham, a framework with rich hangings of red velvet and 
 gold embroidery was erected on Good Friday, and from it 
 on Easter Day, between three and four o'clock a.m., two 
 of the most aged monks took a figure of the risen Saviour 
 holding a cross, and laying it on a crimson cushion, brought 
 it to the high altar, singing Christus resurgens. Then it 
 was carried to the south choir door, where "four ancient 
 gentlemen held over it a rich canopy of purple velvet, faced 
 with red silk and gold fringes, and so round the church, 
 the choir attending with goodly torches, and great store of 
 other lights, all singing and praising God till they came 
 again to the high altar."* In some of the Edwardian 
 inventories of Church goods, mention is made of certain 
 articles for the sepulchre ceremonies; as, for instance, at 
 Clapham, Surrey, where, under i55o,f we find these entries — 
 " Diverse Stayned Clothes and Stools for the Sepulchre. 
 " Diverse old stayned and painted Clothes for the doing 
 of Ceremonyes lately used in the Church." 
 
 Lambarde % has given an account of the resurrection by 
 means of puppets as given at Witney, Oxfordshire : " In 
 the days of Ceremonial Religion they used at Wytney to 
 set forthe yearly in maner of a Shew or Enterlude the 
 Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Chryste, partly of 
 Purpose to draw thyther some Concourse of People that 
 might spend their Money in the Towne, but chieflie to 
 allure by pleasant Spectacle the comon Sort to the Likinge 
 of Popishe Maumetrie, for the which Purpose and the 
 
 * See Mackenzie Walcott's ** Sacred Archaeology," 243, 244. 
 t '* Surrey Archaeological Collections," iv. 44-109. 
 X " Alphabetical Description of the Chief Places in England and 
 Wales "(1730), 459. 
 
222 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 more lyvely thearby to exhibit to the Eye the hole Action 
 of the Resurrection the Preistes garnished out certein small 
 Puppets representinge the Parsons of Christe, the Watch- 
 men, Marie, and others, amongest the which one bare the 
 Parte of a wakinge Watcheman who (Espiinge Christ to Arise) 
 made a continual noyce like to the sound that is caused 
 by the Metinge of two Styckes, and was thereof comonly 
 called Jack Shacker of Wytney." 
 
 Respecting the structure of the Easter Sepulchre, it 
 appears to have been a temporary wooden structure, so 
 designed as to be easily put up when required, and taken 
 down and stowed away again when the ceremony was over. 
 At Down, near Hayes, Kent, was "a sepulchre of wood;" at 
 Sunninghill, Berks, a "sepulchre of timber;" at Barkstone, 
 Lincolnshire, one is described as of " lattes," and those at 
 Blyton, Lincolnshire, and Hanbury, Staffordshire, were of 
 wainscot. At Durham the sepulchre is spoken of as being 
 set upon Good Friday after the Passion, and in the treasury 
 accounts of Norwich Cathedral for 1376, we find payments 
 of two shillings for making the sepulchre, and the wages of 
 workmen for four days. At Great Yarmouth payments occur 
 in 1465 for setting up, taking down, and fetching it in, and 
 for a new house in the vestry to put the sepulchre in ; and 
 for the sepulchre of St. Mary-at-Hill, London, in 1493, 
 several entries have been preserved — 
 
 *' Paide to Christopher Bechen for a p of tym- 
 ber containing 1 1 feate, j j. x^. 
 
 "Item to William Pavys for werkman ship 
 and settyng of the sepulcre .... iijj. viij^. 
 
 " Item for a plank's ende for the one end . vjV. 
 
 " Item for a small quart next the wall behind 
 the sepulchre ij^. 
 
 "Item to the smyth for 13 pynnes yryn . \\]d. 
 
 Summa vjj. vjV. 
 
THE EASTER SEPULCHRE. 223 
 
 In the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of Leverton, 
 Lincolnshire, for 1553, these entries are given — 
 
 " For maykkyng of the Sepulkkure howysse, iij^. 
 
 " For payntyng of a clothe for the saym, \]s. 
 
 " For feycheyng of the sepulkcure cloth frome the paynt" 
 att Boston, ij</." 
 
 And at St. Helen's, Abingdon, similar payments for 1558 
 are recorded : — 
 
 " Payde for making the sepulture, xj. 
 
 " For peynting the same sepulture, iij^. 
 
 " For stones & other charges about it, iiijj. vjV." 
 
 The sepulchre varied according to the size and wealth of 
 the church. Its elaborate structure and new decorations 
 appear by many records. Thus John of Gaunt by his will 
 dated February 3, 1397, bequeaths his bed furniture, copes, 
 tapestry, and " draps embroud^s pur la sepulcre." An 
 inventory of ornaments belonging to St. Margaret Pattens, 
 London, 1470, mentions " a grete cloth of tapestrie werke to 
 hang 'upon the Walls by hynde the Sepulcur ; " and at 
 Chichester Cathedral, beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 there was a very elaborate covering for the sepulchre : ** A 
 Clothe of fyne arays with a border of Clothe of golde of 
 Crystys passyon contayning vj yards dim. pro sepulcro, 
 xiii" vjj. viij^/." The inventory of Lincoln Cathedral men- 
 tions the sepulchre there as having a white stained cloth of 
 damask silk; and at Ely Cathedral (1540J there was a red 
 pall for the sepulchre. In the inventory of St Paul's 
 Cathedral (1552) are mentioned two rich cloths for the 
 garnishing of the sepulchre, and two smaller ones of needle- 
 work, one of them of the Sepulchre and the other of the 
 Resurrection. At Farley, Surrey, the sepulchre cloth was of 
 red and green silk ; at Walton-on-Thames of white and red 
 satin, and at Wimbledon were " ij clothes of cors clothe of 
 gold for the sepulchre." * 
 
 * " Archaeologia," xlii. 300-303. 
 
224 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 But of these temporary structures, with their elaborate 
 appendages, that at St. Mary Redcliffe, seems to have been 
 most sumptuously arrayed. In Britton's ** History of Red- 
 cliffe Church " (p. 47) these entries are given under 1470 — 
 
 *' Item, that Maister Canynge hath delivered this 4th day 
 of July, in the year of our Lord 1470, to Maister Nicholas 
 Fetters, Vicar of St. Mary Redcliffe, Moses Conterin, Philip 
 Bartholomew, Procurators of St. Mary Redcliffe aforesaid, 
 a new sepulchre, well gilt with golde, and a cover thereto. 
 
 " Item, An image of Almighty God rising out of the same 
 sepulchre, with all the ordinance that longeth thereto (that 
 is to say), a lathe made of timber, and the iron work therto. 
 
 *' Item, Therto longeth Heaven made of timber and stain'd 
 clothes. 
 
 " Item, Hell, made of timber & iron work therto, with 
 Divels to the number of 13. 
 
 " Item, 4 Knights, armed,'keeping the sepulchre with their 
 weapons in their hands ; that is to say, 2 axes & 2 spears & 
 2 pavds. 
 
 " Item, 4 payr of Angels' wings for 4 angels, made of 
 timber, & well painted. 
 
 " Item, The Fadre, the Crowne, and Visage, the ball with 
 a cross upon it, well gilt with fine gould. 
 
 " Item, The Holy Ghosht coming out of Heaven into the 
 sepulchre. 
 
 " Item, Longeth to the 4 Angels, 4 chevelers." 
 
 In many cases, as Mr. Heale * points out, " there are high 
 or altar tombs set in a recess " on the north side of the choir 
 or chancel, " which were probably inclosed within the frame- 
 work, and served as the * sepulchre' itself; some of these 
 were expressly intended for the purpose, as appears by 
 documentary evidence, and that others were so intended 
 appears very evidently from their sculptured decoration." 
 • '* Archaeologia," xlii. 288. 
 
THE EASTER SEPULCHRE. lit, 
 
 Sir Thomas Tyrrell, for instance, by his will dated May 
 1 6, 1475, directs : " My body to be buried in the chauncell 
 of the church of Essthorndon, in Essex, under the place 
 where the sepulchre is wont to stonde their. And I woll 
 that there be made a tombe of tymber or of stone for me and 
 my wif, accordyng honestly for our degree." 
 
 At Stanwell, Middlesex, Thomas Windsor, by his will 
 dated August 13, 1479, directed his body to be buried 
 in the north side of the choir of that church, before the 
 image of our Lady, " wher the sepultur of our Lord standeth, 
 whereupon I will ther be made a playne tombe of competent 
 hight to the entent that yt may ber the blissid body of our 
 Lord and the sepultur at the time of Estre, to stond upon 
 the same." This tomb, which was removed some years ago, 
 stood on the north side of the chancel.* A similar instance 
 was at Long Melford, Suffolk, where the tomb of John 
 Clopton, 1497, was employed for the same purpose, as 
 described in the manuscript of Roger Martin, who died in 
 1580. He speaks of a frame of timber to hold a number of 
 fair tapers, and set up on Maundy Thursday, " the sepulchre 
 being alwaies placed, and finely garnished, at the north end 
 of the High Altar, between that and Mr. Clopton's little 
 chappel there, in a vacant place in the wall, I think, upon a 
 tomb of one of his ancestors. The said frame with the 
 tapers was set near the steps going up to the said Altar." f 
 
 Thomas, Lord Dacre, by his will dated 1531, directs his 
 body " to be buried in the parishe church of Hersemonceux, 
 in the north side of the high awter there, where the sepulcre 
 is used to be made, and one tombe to be made and ordeyned 
 convenient for the making and setting of the said sepulcre, 
 and apparell to be made and bought for the said sepulcre at 
 my cost and charge in the honour of the most blessid sacra- 
 
 • See Gentleman^ s Magazine (1793), hciii* 993- 
 t Ibid. (1830), ii. 206. 
 
226 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 ment" * Many other examples might be quoted, f but 
 those already given are sufficient to show how common the 
 practice was. 
 
 The purport of these holy sepulchres was occasionally 
 rendered permanently apparent by a sculptured design on 
 the front of the base, representing our Lord stepping forth 
 from the tomb, while the Roman guard are sleeping. One 
 of the most remarkable instances is that at Heckington, in 
 Lincolnshire, which is of Decorated date. 
 
 At Lincoln Cathedral, the three seated soldiers are all 
 that remain of the Easter Sepulchre, and at Gosberton are 
 the remains of a stately sepulchre. The curious sepulchre 
 in Patrington Church, Yorkshire, has three arches at its 
 base, within each of which is seated a sleeping soldier, with 
 pointed basinet and blazoned shield. The sepulchre in the 
 chapel on Wakefield Bridge, in the same county, has a 
 figure of Christ rising from the tomb, with an angel kneeling 
 on each side, their hands clasped in fervent adoration, 
 whilst the three soldiers beneath are gazing upwards in 
 amazement. In 1846 Mr. Crofton Croker exhibited to the 
 British Archaeological Association, the bust of a knight from 
 a holy sepulchre, stated to have been found in the Temple 
 Church ; a counterpart to the heads of the guard in the 
 chapel on Wakefield Bridge. An Easter sepulchre in two 
 stages remains at Bampton, in Oxfordshire. 
 
 Sometimes tombs or Easter sepulchres are found in a walled 
 recess on north side of the chancel ; instances of which exist 
 at St. Peter's, Dorchester; Writtle, Essex; Tring, Herts; 
 Cheriton and Hythe, Kent ; Raveningham, Norfolk ; Stan- 
 ton, St. John, Oxfordshire; Gorleston, Suffolk; Walton-on-the- 
 
 * For further instances consult " Archseologia," xlii. 288-291. 
 
 f See ** Sussex Archaeological Collections, " iv. 191. The tomb still 
 remains. On the top are the full length recumbent effigies of Lord 
 Dacre and his son Thomas in armour. 
 
THE EASTER SEPULCHRE, irj 
 
 Hill, Surrey; Bosham, Catsfield, Eastbourne, Lancing, and 
 Ore, Sussex ; and in All Hallows Barking. * But in the 
 majority of cases, writes Mr. Heales, " there is no such 
 tomb-like recess," although very frequently we find a small 
 arched or square-headed recess to the north-west of the 
 altar, sometimes with a wooden door remaining, and always 
 with the marks and hinges and bolt. This would be 
 extremely suitable as the depository for the pyx, or pyx and 
 crucifix, and it seems likely that it was intended to receive 
 them in the holy week rather than entrust them to the 
 temporary wooden structure." t Examples of such recesses 
 on the north side of the chancel occur at St Lawrence, 
 Waltham, Berks; Wyke, Hants; Standground, Hunts; St. 
 Martin's, Canterbury; Barfreston, Northfleet, and West 
 Wickham, Kent ; Boston, and many others in Lincolnshire ; 
 Putney, Surrey ; Amberley, Pevensey, Rustington, Salehurst, 
 and Sompting, Sussex. Instances in the south wall exist 
 at Hayes, Kent ; Hellesdon, Norfolk ; Chiddingfold, Surrey ; 
 and at Pevensey ; while in the east wall are specimens at 
 Hever, Kent; at Alford, Lincolnshire; and at Sompting, 
 Sussex. 
 
 As in the case of Winchester Cathedral, the sepulchre 
 was a chapel. The walls of this chapel — a building of the 
 Early English period — are covered with paintings of the 
 original date, representing scenes in the life of our Lord 
 before, at, and after the Passion, but there is none now- 
 remaining of the resurrection. 
 
 Among further evidence bearing on the Easter sepulchre 
 may be mentioned the representations of our Lord's resur- 
 rection which is engraven upon numerous monumental 
 brasses, some of which, in all probability, ** formed part of 
 a sepulchral monument and Easter sepulchre combined." 
 The scene generally " consists of a high tomb, out of which 
 * ♦* Archaeologia," xlii. 296. f Ibid., xlii. 293. 
 
228 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 our Lord is stepping, while in His left hand he bears a 
 long cross-headed staff and vexillum or banner, similar to 
 that with which St. John Baptist is usually figured ; around 
 the tomb are the guard of the Roman soldiers, varying from 
 two to four, though four appears to have been the most 
 correct number." Instances of such brasses exist at 
 Swansea, to Sir Hugh Johnys, Knight, circa 1490 ; Great 
 Coates, Lincolnshire, to Sir Thomas Barnardiston, 1503 ; 
 All Hallows Barking, a tomb against the south wall, circa 
 1510J Narburgh, Norfolk, to Sir John Spelman, 1545; 
 Slaugham, Sussex, to Richard Covert, Esq., 1547 ; and at 
 Cranley, Surrey, to Robert Harding, alderman of London, 
 
 1503- 
 
 Another design which, it has been suggested, had refer- 
 ence to the Easter sepulchre, is a three-quarter figure of our 
 Lord, seen above the edge of the tomb, quiescent and 
 without the banner — rather resembling " The Man of 
 Sorrows " of art — and the soldiers are wanting." * Examples 
 exist at Stoke Charity, Hants, to Thomas Wayte, 1482 ; 
 Burwell, Cambridgeshire, circa 15 10 and at Stoke Lyne, 
 Oxfordshire, to Edward Love, 1535. 
 
 Notice has been drawn to a brass at Macclesfield Church 
 to Roger Legh, 1506, which is now fixed on a board. In 
 the foreground is an ecclesiastic, known by his triple tiara 
 to be a Pope, kneeling before an altar on which is a Chalice; 
 and in the place of the reredos is a tomb with the three- 
 quarter figure of our Lord, upright in it. From the Pope 
 proceeds a scroll, and beneath is the following : " The 
 pardon for saying of v. pater noster v. aves and a cred is 
 xxvi. thousand yeres, and xxvi. dayes of pardon." On a 
 certain occasion, runs the legend, when St. Gregory the 
 Great was officiating at the Mass, one who stood near him 
 doubted the Real Presence ; thereupon, at the prayer of the 
 * " Archseologia," xlii. 293, 294. 
 
THE EASTER SEPULCHRE. 229 
 
 saint, a vision was suddenly revealed of Christ Himself. 
 According to another explanation, the same may originally 
 have had reference to the fact of the Missal having been 
 revised by him. 
 
 A similar device was discovered on the rebuilding of the 
 church at Quatt, near Bridgnorth, Salop ; and against the 
 north wall of a south quasi-transept in Childrey Church, 
 Berkshire, is a tomb of a representation of the Holy 
 Trinity, and of the deceased persons arising from the tombs 
 at the last day. 
 
 The ceremony of the Easter sepulchre seem to have been 
 in use for a considerable period, and notices of it may be 
 traced down to the middle of the sixteenth century. But as 
 the custom grew in ill-favour, the sepulchre itself was either 
 destroyed or sold — entries to this effect occurring in many 
 old parish records. In the accounts of St. Mary's, Reading, 
 for 1 55 1, these items are recorded — 
 
 " Receyvid of Henry More for the sepulker, xiiji". \\\]d, 
 " Receyvid of John Webb for the tourabe of brycke, xijW." 
 At Barnes, Surrey, an old sepulchre was sold for 2s. 6d., 
 and at Wandsworth, broken timber and wainscot, together 
 with the sepulchre, were sold for 135. 4^. Church inven- 
 tories taken in the reign of Edward VI. mostly record the 
 same fate of the Easter sepulchres. A few were cared for, 
 and the cloths converted to a covering for the communion 
 table as at Wimbledon and Weybridge, Surrey. Out of 
 those in Lincolnshire about one half were burnt, or broken, 
 or sold, and defaced.* One was burnt in melting lead, 
 whilst the rest were altered and converted to other purposes 
 — some to make communion tables, and others became 
 presses, biers, hen pens, steps, etc. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Mary " the making of the 
 sepulchre" was revived, but on her death was soon put 
 ♦ " Archseologia," xlii. 305, 306. 
 
±3o CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 down again. In the Visitation Articles of Bentham, Bishop 
 of Coventry and Lichfield, Article 21 directs : *' That you 
 do abolish and put away, clean out of your church, all 
 monuments of idolatry and superstition, as holy water, 
 stocks. Sepulchres which were used on Good Friday," etc. 
 In the church inventories of Belton, Lincolnshire, under 
 1566, this entry occurs : ** Item, a Sepulker with little Jack 
 broken in pieces this year by the said churchwardens." 
 The term *' Little Jack " probably meaning the Pyx. The 
 fact, says Mr. A. Heales,* "of there being no example of a 
 wooden sepulchre which has survived the general destruc- 
 tion shows the powerful prejudice against this Easter 
 ceremony which prevailed at the time of the Reformation." 
 Even the monumental brasses engraved with the Resurrec- 
 tion have almost all been displaced ; but a deep feeling of 
 respect for the spot on which the sepulchre was accustomed 
 to be placed, continued in many minds for some time after 
 the ceremonies had ceased to be observed, as notices like 
 the following indicate. In 1559, Thomas Burrell, of 
 Stetchworth, Cambridgeshire, directs : " My boddie to be 
 buried in the holly sepulcre in the churche of Sainte Peeter, 
 of Stetchwourthe ; " and in 1569, Sir William Wareham, by 
 his will, directs : " My bodie to be buried in the chauncell 
 of the church of Ocle, Essex, by the highe Aultare, where 
 as the sepulchre was wonte to stand." 
 
 * " Archseologia," xlii. 307. 
 
( 231 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CURIOUS CHURCH PECULIARITIES. 
 
 Some parishes have long boasted of possessing two churches 
 in one churchyard — a peculiarity which, in many cases, has 
 a singular effect St. Margaret's Church, close by West- 
 minster Abbey, at once suggests itself as an interesting 
 illustration, and at Ely, Holy Trinity Church was in the 
 same yard with the cathedral. The church was pulled 
 down about two hundred years ago, and the parish has used 
 the lady chapel of the cathedral. At Bury St. Edmund's, 
 the large and imposing churches of St. James and St. Mary 
 stand but a short distance from each other in an extensive 
 churchyard, to which the fine old Norman tower serves 
 as a fitting portal Another church, dedicated to St. 
 Margaret, is said to have stood at the south-east corner, 
 and at the northern boundary of the churchyard was the 
 great Abbey Church ; there were in fact four churches in one 
 churchyard. The originals of both St. James and St. Mary 
 were removed in the twelfth century from their position 
 near the conventional church to make way for the extension 
 and increased grandeur of the great Abbey Church. 
 
 At Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire, the churches of St. 
 Mary and St. Cyriac are in close proximity in one churchyard, 
 the former being now in ruins. 
 
232 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Staunton, in the county of Nottingham, had two churches 
 in the same churchyard, but a faculty was obtained for 
 taking down the smaller one some years ago, much, it 
 is said, to the regret of all those who were interested in 
 the curiosity of the circumstance. Of Westbury-on-Sevem, 
 Sir Robert Atkyns, in the " Antient and Present State of 
 Glostershire " (17 ii, 799), writes: "The old church, 
 with an handsome wooden spire at the west end, is yet 
 standing in the churchyard. It was dedicated to St. Peter. 
 There has been an handsome new church built, 1530, in 
 the same churchyard for the use of the parishioners. It 
 has an aisle on each side supported by pillars, and is 
 dedicated to the Virgin Mary." 
 
 At Trimley, in East Suffolk, within one mile of FeUx- 
 stowe, there are the churches of St. Martin and St Mary in 
 one churchyard. At Overstrand, near Cromer, the new 
 church is contiguous to the old, which is in ruins j and at 
 Antingham, in the same county, near North Walsham, a 
 similar instance occurs. At Reepham, there were three 
 churches in one churchyard, and at Thorpe, near Norwich, 
 the new church and the ancient structure — now abandoned 
 — were in the same churchyard ; also at Gillingham, Norfolk. 
 
 Among further instances may be noticed the churches of 
 Alvingham and North Cockerington, near Louth, in Lincoln- 
 shire ; the churches of Holy Trinity and St. Michael, 
 Coventry, in churchyards which, although separately walled, 
 are divided only by a roadway. Furley, in his *' Weald of 
 Kent " (ii. 764), mentions an example of this peculiarity 
 at Wantage, in Berks, and there are the churches of All 
 Saints and St. Lawrence at Evesham. The churches of 
 St. Andrew and All Saints in the parish of Willingale Spain, 
 Essex, and of St. Christopher, at Willingale Doe, are built 
 in the same enclosure. In speaking of the last, Morant, 
 in his " History of Essex," writes : " The churches of these 
 
1 « t'J 
 
CURIOUS CHURCH PECULIARITIES. 233 
 
 two Willingehalls stand in the same churchyard, the reason 
 of which nothing now remaining shows." 
 
 And at Fulbourn, near Cambridge, there are two churches 
 in the same churchyard, one of which was removed by Act 
 of Parliament in the year 1776. The subjoined extract from 
 the preamble of an old local Act (15 Geo. III. c. 49) is 
 deserving of notice — 
 
 ''Whereas there are within the town of Fulbourne, in 
 the county of Cambridge, two parishes, the one called the 
 parish of All Saints, the other the parish of Saint Vigors, 
 both of which are united in one township, contributing in 
 common to the relief of the poor, and having one set of 
 officers for the relief thereof and the repair of their high- 
 ways, and being also rated in common for all parochial 
 charges and burthens, except for the repair of the churches 
 belonging to each parish ; That in the said town there are 
 two churches within the same churchyard, the one belong- 
 ing to and called the Rectory Church of Saint Vigors, in 
 the patronage of the Master, Fellows, and Scholars of the 
 College of St. John the Evangelist, in the University of 
 Cambridge, the other belonging to and called the Vicarage 
 Church of All Saints, in the patronage of the Bishop of 
 Ely, each of which churches is repaired by the inhabitants 
 of the respective parish to which it belongs ; that a great 
 part of the said Church of All Saints is fallen down, and 
 the same cannot be made fit for divine service unless it be 
 entirely rebuilt, and the said parish being small, and the 
 inhabitants thereof few in number, and of small property, 
 they are unable to rebuild the same ; and whereas, when 
 the said Church of All Saints was standing divine service 
 was never performed in both the said churches, at one 
 and the same time, but was performed on Sundays at each 
 church alternately in the morning and evening, and at each 
 alternately on holydays, and the inhabitants of both parishes 
 
234 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 were accommodated with seats in each of the said churches ; 
 but the marriages, christenings, and burials of the inhabi- 
 tants of each parish were performed in their respective 
 parish churches while they were both standing, and, since 
 that time, within the said Church of Saint Vigors, by per- 
 mission of the rector thereof." 
 
 Thus, instead of two churches in one churchyard, we 
 have two incumbents in one church, and each of them 
 appointed by different patrons.* 
 
 There are still existing in this country four round churches, 
 consisting of a circular building, from which a rectangular 
 chancel is built eastwards, a form of structure supposed to 
 reproduce the distinctive outlines of the church built over 
 the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The best known of 
 these so-called " round churches " is the Temple Church, 
 London, the other three being at Cambridge, Northampton, 
 and Little Maplestead in Essex, while the ruins of a fifth 
 round church may be seen at Temple Bruer, Lincoln- 
 shire. Much has been written on this style of architecture, 
 and, according to Godwin and Britton in their " Churches 
 of London," "round and polygenic buildings, respecting 
 the origin of which there has been much disquisition, were 
 erected in the earlier periods of civilization, when probably 
 the form, a pleasing one, alone had influence." f It is 
 further added that "after the introduction of Christianity 
 and the institution of baptism, which was at first by immer- 
 sion, a building for this purpose near or attached to the 
 church, became necessary, and these were constructed 
 either circular or polygonal, * in order that the assistants 
 might from all sides more easily view the cistern that 
 served as a font,' % and Helena, in whose reign many of 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 3rd series, xi. 372. 
 
 t See Britton's '* Architectural Antiquities," i. 17. 
 
 X Hope's *• History of Architecture," 115. 
 
CURIOUS CHURCH PECULIARITIES. 235 
 
 these baptisteries were erected, when she built the church 
 over the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, gave to it the 
 circular form, perhaps either from the remembrance of 
 these or on the like principle, namely, that, the tomb being 
 placed in the centre, it was the form best adapted to enable 
 a number of persons distinctly to view at the same time 
 the object of their pilgrimage." 
 
 The Church of St. Sepulchre, at Cambridge, was built in 
 the reign preceding that which saw the gradual erection of 
 the Temple Church, while the rotunda and chancel of the one 
 at Northampton were originally of Norman workmanship ; 
 but in a succeeding century all the Norman chancel was 
 pulled down, and rebuilt in the manner then in vogue ; and 
 at a later period the same thing happened to the upper 
 part of the rotunda. The Essex example is small — "a 
 porch has been added west of the rotunda, and there are 
 but six pillars in the ring to sustain the tower and form the 
 arcaded ambulatory round the building." * 
 
 In connection with these *' round churches" may be 
 noticed the round towers which occur so frequently in 
 Suffolk and Norfolk. Altogether there are about one 
 hundred and seventy-five examples existing, all of which, 
 with the exception of about a dozen, are found in the two 
 counties above named. Three of these exceptions may be 
 seen in Cambridgeshire, two in Berkshire, two in Sussex, 
 one in Northamptonshire, and one in Surrey. Most of 
 these round towers bear every trace of antiquity, but opinions 
 widely vary as to the reason of their having been built in 
 this shape. According to a correspondent of Notes and 
 Queries (4th series, ix. 249), " the round church towers in 
 Norfolk generally appear, at any rate in the lower part, to 
 be the oldest part of the church. The upper part of many 
 of them seem to have been repaired or restored, and in 
 * Chambers^ s Journal {llioy i6th, 1891), 307. 
 
236 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 some cases made octagonal, the base remaining round. 
 The body of the church seem to have been built on to the 
 tower ; this is evidently the case with two very perfect ones 
 near Norwich — viz. at Colney and Bawburgh. The door 
 to most of them seems to have been placed six or eight feet 
 from the ground, so that access could only be gained to 
 them by a ladder. Moreover, the windows are splayed out- 
 wards and downwards; they are, in fact, arrow slits. It 
 has been suggested that they were intended as places of 
 defence ; in fact, like some of the church towers on the 
 English and Scottish border, they were peel-houses." In a 
 paper *' On the Round Towers of Churches in East Anglia," 
 read in 1864 by Mr. E. Roberts before the British Archaeo- 
 logical Association, the author remarked that they have in 
 every case — though varying in diameter from two feet, seven 
 inches to twelve feet — walls about twelve inches thick, with 
 only one entrance, viz. from the east, and therefore into the 
 body of the church. It was suggested that these towers 
 were built round because they could be built more sub- 
 stantially of that form with the materials of the district, and 
 it avoided the necessity of having large building stones for 
 the angles.* Blomefield was of opinion that they were built 
 by the Danes, and in the " History of Thetford " he says, 
 "And from this time, the Danes becoming Christians, all 
 over Norfolk and great part of Suffolk, began to divide the 
 country among them, naming their shares, which became so 
 many new villages, either after their own names, or that of 
 their situations, but calling the Saxon towns and villages 
 after their old names ; and after some time, when Christianity 
 was settled among them, they began to found churches 
 in many of their villages, as the many round towers in 
 this county which are now standing plainly demonstrate." 
 
 * See Gentleman's Magazine^ 1864, 600, 601 ; Notes and Queries^ 
 4th series, ix. 392, and *' Archaeologia," xxi. 
 
CURIOUS CHURCH PECULIARITIES. 237 
 
 But, wherever built, there can be no doubt of their 
 antiquity. 
 
 Another interesting peculiarity of some of our old parish 
 churches is their position within the boundaries of Roman 
 camps. Bede informs us that " Paulinus built a church in 
 Campodunum, which afterwards the Pagans, by whom King 
 Edwin was slain, burnt, together with all the town." 
 Although it is not certain where this Campodunum was 
 situated, yet it is noteworthy that the people of Slack, now 
 claimed as Campodunum, have a tradition that a church once 
 was built there on the ruins of the old Roman camp. Dr. 
 Stukeley supposes that the church of Kingsbury, " between 
 Wilsdon and Edgware, stands within the area of a Roman 
 camp, which was Caesar's second station after he crossed the 
 Thames." And at Moresby, near Whitehaven, Cumberland, 
 there is a church standing within the enclosure of the 
 Roman camp or station there, which Lysons, in his " History 
 of Cumberland," thus describes : " The site is in a field on 
 the side of the village towards Barton, called the Crofts, 
 and the church stands (as is often the case) within its area." 
 At Caistor, Homcastle, and at Ancaster, Lincolnshire; at 
 Great Casterton, and at Market Overton, in Rutlandshire ; 
 at Porchester, Hants, and at Castor, Northamptonshire, 
 the remains of Roman camps exist. " Within the boundaries 
 of each," adds a correspondent of Notes and Queries (3rd 
 series, v. 173), **and within a few yards of the western wall 
 at each place, is a mediaeval church." Ebchester church, 
 Durham, is said to occupy the site of a Roman camp ; and 
 Mr. A. Lower, in his " Handbook for Lewes," under the 
 head, " Church of St John's, sub Castro," writes : " While in 
 the churchyard, the visitor's attention may be called to the 
 curious fact, that it occupies part of the site of a very small 
 camp, supposed to be Roman, the vallum of which may 
 still be traced." At Kenardington, Kent, writes Hasted ; 
 
238 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 ** Below the hill, on which the church stands, and adjoining 
 it south-east, are the remains of some ancient fortifications 
 of earth, with a breastwork thrown up, and a small circular 
 mount ; and in the adjoining marsh below it is another, of 
 a larger size, with a narrow ridge or causeway seemingly 
 leading from one to another." 
 
 According to Mr. Matthew Bloxam, in his " Principles of 
 Gothic Architecture," the tower of Rugby parish church, 
 Warwickshire, was formerly used as a kind of stronghold for 
 the inhabitants of the town to take refuge in cases of attack. 
 The appearance, it is said, of this tower seems to justify a 
 belief in this assertion. It stands at the west end of the 
 church, " is of square form and lofty, and is perfectly without 
 buttresses ; the windows are singularly narrow, resembling 
 the loopholes of a castle." * Cases of this kind do not 
 appear to have been uncommon. The tower of the church 
 of Burgh-by-Sands, Carlisle, is said to have been used for 
 this purpose ; and in Davies' *' Handbook to Cheltenham," 
 the tower of Swindon Church, about two miles distant, is 
 thus described : " The tower is an unequal hexagon, with 
 walls of massive thickness, and evidently built for the 
 purpose of defence. There is one original window on each 
 side of the top, each composed of two narrow loopholes, 
 divided by a small column, but gradually shelving out, and 
 having from the thickness of the wall, a deep recess both 
 without and within. The doorway (square headed) is under 
 a porch on the north-east side of this tower. When this 
 porch was blocked up, the castellum would be only accessible 
 by an exterior case on the west side, the marks of which are 
 still visible on the west wall, where now a decorated window 
 has been inserted." To quote a further instance, the tower 
 of St. Botolph's Church, Northfleet, " is said to have offered 
 so conspicuous a mark to pirates and other ' water thieves ' 
 * Notes and Queries^ 3rd series, x. 473. 
 
CURIOUS CHURCH PECULIARITIES, 239 
 
 sailing up the river that it was thought necessary to make 
 it a fortress, like many of the church towers on the English 
 borders. It has been partly rebuilt, but the steps which 
 lead from the churchyard to the first floor are probably 
 connected with its early defences." 
 
 A peculiarity of some churches is their sloping floors. 
 The nave floor of St. David's Cathedral, being laid on a hill- 
 side, slopes downwards towards the doors. The church 
 floor of Saxby All Saints, on the western edge of the Lincoln- 
 shire wolds, is sloped very considerably from west to east, 
 to adapt it to the rise on the hill-side. And the church floors 
 at Horkstow, on the same hill-side, are more or less sloped, 
 
 A correspondent of Notes and Queries (6th series, iii. 392), 
 writing of the church at Gunnislake, says : " A beautiful little 
 church, designed by Mr. James Piers St. Aubyn, was opened 
 at Gunnislake in 1880. Gunnislake is on the western 
 border of Cornwall, and the floor-line of the church is a 
 continuous descent from the west door to the altar-table. 
 The building stands upon mountainous ground, and, to 
 humour the site, at every few yards the floor drops a step. 
 The effect is by no means unhappy." 
 
 Mr. Dobson, in "Rambles by the Ribble" (part ii. 13), 
 says : " There is one feature of Mitton Church which is very 
 uncommon in our churches — the nave declines very much. 
 Entering from the churchyard, we have to descend some 
 steps to get into the nave; which declines till it gets to 
 the screen, separating it from the chancel ; and then some 
 steps have to be descended to enter the chancel." 
 
 The old church of Standon, Herts, which is built on the 
 slope of a hill, has a sloping chancel floor ; and the church 
 at Saundersfoot, near Tenby, has a similar peculiarity. The 
 old church of Llanbadarn Fawr (once a cathedral), near 
 Aberystwyth, had a sloping floor, but was altered in a sub- 
 sequent restoration. 
 
240 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 The church of St. Pierre-du-Bois, in Guernsey, has a 
 similar peculiarity, the church being situated on the brow 
 of a hill, falling rather rapidly to the westward. In a lesser 
 degree the same peculiarity existed in the adjoining parish 
 of St Sauveur ; but the building having been re-pewed, and 
 a wooden floor substituted for the original irregular pave- 
 ment, this feature has disappeared. But the ground on 
 which this church is built is perfectly level.* Among further 
 churches with sloping floors may be mentioned All Saints, 
 Binfield, Berkshire ; Worfield Church, Shropshire ; Walpole 
 St Peter's Church, Norfolk, and Badingham Church, Suflblk. 
 
 St. Andrew's Church, Greenstead, has attracted much 
 attention, and has been supposed to be of Saxon date. The 
 nave, alone the original structure, is formed of trunks of 
 oak or chestnut trees, *'not, as usually described, * half- 
 trees,' since they have had a portion of the centre or heart 
 cut out, probably to furnish beams for the construction of 
 the roof and sills. The outside or slabs thus left, were 
 placed on the sill, but by what kind of tenon they are there 
 retained does not appear. While the upper ends, being 
 roughly adzed ofl" to a thin edge, are let into a groove, which, 
 with the piece of timber in which it is cut, runs the whole 
 length of the building itself, the door-posts are of squared 
 timber, and are secured in the grooves by small wooden 
 pins, still firm and strong — a truly wonderful example of 
 the durability of British oak. . . . The outsides of all the 
 trees are furrowed to the depth of about an inch into long 
 stringy ridges, by the decay of the softer parts of the timber ; 
 but these ridges seem equally hard as the heart of the wood 
 itself." t 
 
 Speaking of wooden churches — which although once 
 numerous are now rare — there is in the "Journal of the 
 
 ♦ See Notes and Queries, 6th series, iii. 392. 
 f A. Suckling. 
 
CURIOUS CHURCH PECULIARITIES. 241 
 
 Archaeological Association" for 1850, a drawing of the 
 original wooden church that preceded the cathedral at 
 Manchester. There was a wooden church at Newland, 
 which was removed some years ago to make room for the 
 Beauchamp almshouses. Cuthbert Bede, writing of this 
 church prior to its demolition, says : ♦ "It is supposed to 
 have been a grange belonging to the Priory of Great 
 Malvern. There is a wooden porch, a wooden bell-cot, and 
 two-light windows with wooden frames. It is supposed to 
 have been erected in the fifteenth century." There was a 
 half-timbered church at Peover, in Cheshire, and an interest- 
 ing little church built in the half-timbered style of the 
 county exists at Trelystan, Montgomeryshire. The oak- 
 frame work at Ribbesford, Worcestershire, writes a corre- 
 spondent of Notes and Queries (4th series, ii. 390), " is still 
 perfect with an arcade of pointed arches on each side of the 
 nave, now rendered more prominent by the scraping of the 
 paint and removal of the flat plaster ceiling." 
 
 ♦ Notes and Queries^ 3rd series, i. 437. See Noake's " Rambles in 
 Worcestershire," iii. 7. 
 
242 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CHURCHWARDENS. 
 
 In accordance with the long-established usage, the election 
 of churchwardens takes place on Easter Monday, an event 
 which reminds us of the many curious old customs con- 
 nected with these parish officers in the course of their 
 eventful, and memorable, history. It is related how George 
 I., when landing at Greenwich, was elected churchwarden, 
 but it became a matter of dispute whether a king could hold 
 this office, a question which was the subject of debate in 
 the Privy Council for two months. The Archbishop of 
 Canterbury declared " he could not be both," and added 
 that he could take his choice, and his crown again after he 
 had served. But cases of this kind have been the exception, 
 although occasionally it has been a matter of contention as 
 to what invalidated the qualifications for the office of church- 
 warden. Thus, some years ago, a Quaker was required to 
 serve, but he refused, his objection being upheld by Dr. 
 Phillimore, who maintained that the tenets, doctrines, and 
 habits of the Society of Friends *' were recognized to be such 
 as made it impossible to consider that they could discharge 
 the duties of churchwardens." On another occasion it 
 was argued that bodily infirmity incapacitated a parishioner 
 from performing the duties of the office, and when the 
 
CHURCHWARDENS, 243 
 
 defendant prayed to be excused on account of deafness, his 
 claim was disallowed, and he was ordered to discharge his 
 office. It has even been contended that a woman is not 
 exempt from this duty, although, writes Mr. Prideaux in his 
 "Churchwardens' Guide" (187 1, 5), "There can be little 
 doubt that the Courts would relieve her from the burden of 
 serving unless the necessity of the case required that she 
 should do so." 
 
 There are numerous instances, however, of women serving 
 as churchwardens, and in the old account books of the 
 parish of St. Budeaux, Devon, many entries to this effect 
 are recorded. Some years ago, it is said, the Hon. Maria 
 Otway Cave, of Stanford Hall, Northants, presented herself 
 at a visitation, and demanded to be sworn in, and her claim 
 was allowed. For several years, the churchwarden of a rural 
 parish near Bicester was a lady, and a correspondent of 
 Notes and Queries tells us how he was present in the parish 
 church of Bicester itself when Archdeacon Clerke admitted 
 Mrs. Henry Hawkins to the office of churchwarden of 
 Hard wick-cum-Pasmore, Oxfordshire. Among other parishes 
 where women have served as churchwardens may be men- 
 tioned Goltho, near Wragby, Lincolnshire, and Maisemore 
 and Randwick, Gloucestershire. It was stated also some 
 years ago in a local newspaper, how Miss Trafford, sister of 
 Sir Thomas de Trafford, had to serve the office of church- 
 warden of the old church in Manchester, but, " being both 
 a female and a Roman Catholic, she appointed a deputy." 
 Respecting the election of churchwardens, we find various 
 customs observed in different places. In some cases it has 
 been the immemorial custom for the parishioners to choose 
 both, and in many parishes the election is, by custom, 
 made by select vestries, a practice which, it is said, 
 " seems to have grown from the custom of choosing a 
 certain number of persons yearly to manage the affairs of 
 
244 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 the parish for that year, which by degrees came to be a 
 fixed method." 
 
 Sometimes the election is by the lord of the manor, and 
 at Doncaster it has been customary, time out of mind, for 
 the vicar to appoint one of the churchwardens and the 
 mayor the other, styled respectively the "vicar's church- 
 warden," and the " mayor's churchwarden." In the parish 
 of Bodmin, a similar custom has prevailed ; and Burn, in 
 his " History of Henley," informs us that the churchwardens 
 have been appointed by the Corporation of Henley for 
 nearly six centuries. In the city of Wells, from the year 
 1378, when the records of the proceedings of the corporate 
 body begin, to the year 15 81, both churchwardens were 
 appointed by the corporation. In the year 1582 a change 
 took place, when the parishioners appointed one, and the 
 corporation the other, a custom which has continued up to 
 the present time. It appears, too, that the corporation 
 exercised the right of allotting the church pews, besides 
 having the control of the churchwardens' accounts. 
 
 Again, instances occur of the appointment being made 
 by the old churchwardens, and a curious mode of election 
 took place in the parish of Prestwich, in the county of 
 Lancaster, which consisted of six townships. At the stated 
 time, the outgoing churchwardens in one township pre- 
 sented two names to the rector to choose from, one of 
 whom might be himself — in the remaining five respectively 
 the inhabitants of the respective townships presented two 
 names to the rector to choose one, and the six persons 
 chosen by the rector became the churchwardens of the parish. 
 
 To quote a further case, it seems that in old city of 
 London parishes the churchwardens are chosen by the 
 parishioners, a mode of election which is based on a curious 
 old custom connected with the transfer of land, and thus 
 described by Prideaux : *' In the city of London, by special 
 
CHURCHWARDENS, 245 
 
 custom, the churchwardens with the minister make a cor- 
 poration for lands as well as for goods, and may, as such, 
 hold, purchase, take, and devise lands for the use of the 
 church, and sue and be sued on account thereof, as well as 
 for goods and chattels ; and this is alleged as a reason for 
 that other custom, which hath also obtained in London, for 
 the parishioners there to choose both churchwardens ex- 
 clusive of the minister; for, say they, if the minister should 
 there choose one of the churchwardens according to canon, 
 he, with the said churchwarden as the major part of the cor- 
 poration, may dispose of lands to the damage of the parish, 
 and therefore it is not safe there to lodge so great a trust 
 in him." Hence, in the city of London the leases of houses 
 and lands, being parish property, often run in the names of 
 the rector and churchwardens as lessors. 
 
 In a few cases the number of churchwardens has not been 
 limited to the usual number — two — for in certain Norfolk 
 parishes we read of three having been elected. At St. 
 Michael Coslany, Norfolk, many years ago this was the 
 case, but it would appear to have been unusual, for when 
 the three presented themselves to be sworn the archdeacon 
 jocosely exclaimed, " Any more churchwardens for St. 
 Michael Coslany, gentlemen, any more ? " At Attle- 
 borough, in the same county, a similar custom prevailed, 
 and there is evidence, it is said, of the practice having 
 existed as far back as the year 16 17. It appears, also, says 
 a correspondent of Notes and Queries, from the fourth bell 
 at St. John, Maddermarket, Norwich, that in the year 1765 
 there were three churchwardens. 
 
 In connection with the duties of churchwardens in bygone 
 years, we find many curious and interesting items of 
 parochial lore. Thus, in "Reliquiae Hearnianae" (iii. 75), 
 entered under date of July 23, 1731, there is the following 
 extract from an old churchwardens' book of accounts at 
 
246 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Great Faringdon, Berks, bearing the date of 15 18, 'and 
 which no doubt is the form of admitting churchwardens at 
 that period : " Cherchzewardenz thys shell be your charge 
 to be true to God and to the Cherche for love nor favor off 
 no man wythin this paroche to withold any ryght to the 
 Churche but to reserve the dettye to hyt belongythe or ellys 
 to goo to the Devell." 
 
 Among the ancient documents belonging to Walsall is a 
 code of laws for " the goode rule and governaunce of the 
 boroughe," drawn up in the year 1440 by the " maior and 
 his bredren," one regulation of which relates to the church- 
 wardens : " Also, it is ordeyned that the churchwardens, 
 both of the body of the Churche of Our Ladye, Saynt 
 Clement, Saynt Kater)ni, and Saynt Nicholas, with alle other 
 members, shall com to thejnr accomptes uppon Sa3nit 
 Kateryn's-day, before the mayer and five or six of his 
 brethren, by the said mayer to be appoynted, and before 
 such other of the brethren as will be there ; and if they or 
 any of them be not at the said day redy to make theyr 
 accomptes, then they shall be so in defaute, to forfeit six 
 shillings and eightpence, to be levyed as is before said, and 
 to be put to the Burges Boxe." 
 
 One of their duties was to look after the spiritual and 
 moral welfare of the parishioners, and to ascertain that 
 there was some valid excuse for their absenting themselves 
 from Divine service on a Sunday. In the church register 
 of Aycliffe, Durham, we find this entry : " 1599. A public 
 admonition given the twenty-third day of December, for 
 all Maysters and Dames to put away such servants and 
 sojourners as wyll not usually come to churche." 
 
 Towards the close of the last century it was the custom 
 at Manchester for the chief magistrate of the town, attended 
 by the churchwarden and the police officers, to go out of 
 the church while the first lesson was being read, and to 
 
CHURCHWARDENS. 247 
 
 compel all persons found in the streets to " come into the 
 church, or pay a fee," which in the case of persons of the 
 lower class was fixed at 15., and for those of higher rank at 
 2S. 6d. Indeed, neglecting to attend the parish church was 
 no trivial matter in years gone by ; and in the church books 
 of St. James's Church, Bristol, it is recorded, under July 6, 
 1598, how Henry Austey, a resident in the parish, had, in 
 answer to a summons, to appear before the vestry for not 
 attending that church. At the same vestry, in the year 
 1679, four persons were found guilty of walking "on foot 
 to Bath on Lord's Day," and were each fined 20s. 
 
 The following curious extract from the churchwardens' 
 order and appointment book, St. Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich, 
 is interesting as showing the active zeal displayed by these 
 functionaries in bygone times — 
 
 ** I heare by complaint of the Churchwardens of St. Marie 
 Towers that the churchyarde of that pish church is noy- 
 somly kept and made a coinon passage for horse and 
 footemen and a sincke of all filthy excrem**. And that 
 pishioners of that pishe neither doe nor can receive the 
 Blessed Sacram of the Lord's Supper in that church devoutly 
 and orderlie as is lawfullie prescribed in that behalfe for 
 the Administracon of that Sacram, and orderly receiveinge 
 of it. Hereyne I admonishe and require you to haue speciall 
 care that those passages in the churchyarde be stopped and 
 barred up and that no such noysome use be longer 
 contynued. And that you builde about the Comunion 
 Table in that church where it is placed as by lawe is 
 required, such convenient seates or stools where the Comuni- 
 cants may receive that holy Sacram* orderlie to be adminis- 
 tered in the Chauncell or body of the Church without his 
 cursitory passage to any of the saide Comunicants in their 
 ordinary seates where they heare coinon prayer red uppon 
 dales appoynted for the same. And that you be respective 
 
248 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 that your minister doe not admitt any to that blessed 
 Sacram* which doe not receive the same kneeleinge and 
 not sittinge or standinge. And if any be refrectarie or 
 willfull not to be rule in this behalfe certifie me there 
 names and surnames the next Court in the Consistorie at 
 Norwich after the Epiphany next ensuinge. Soe fare you 
 well. Ipswich the xi*** of October 1615. 
 
 ** To the Churchwardens of " Yo' loving friend 
 
 the pishe church of St. Marie (Unsigned). 
 
 Towers at Ipswich." 
 
 Until a comparatively recent period it was also customary 
 for the churchwardens on a Sunday to visit public-houses 
 situated in their respective parishes during Divine service, 
 and to make sure that no persons were in them during 
 prohibited hours. The practice varied in different neigh- 
 bourhoods. At Penzance, for example, it was usual for 
 the mayor and corporation, with the macebearers and 
 constables in attendance, to go once a month in state to 
 St. Mary's Church. At the commencement of the first 
 lesson the constables left the church to visit the licensed 
 houses to see that there was no infraction of the law ; 
 returning to the church so as to be in readiness to accom- 
 pany the mayor on his homeward journey. 
 
 But in the year 1872 the churchwardens and officials 
 at Kirkheaton parish church were the transgressors. 
 According to the Sunderland Times of May 18, 1872, it 
 seems that on the day in question a police officer went to a 
 certain inn, and there found the defendants. The account 
 adds : " It appears to have been the custom, from time 
 immemorial, of the churchwardens to go to service and 
 remain in the church until the clergyman commenced 
 reading the second lesson, and then leave the church and 
 walk a short distance to the public-house in question and 
 stay there until the church had loosed." 
 
CHURCHWARDENS. 249 
 
 One of the most valuable duties of the churchwardens in 
 olden days was to see that the vicar of the parish carefully 
 filled in his registers, in accordance with the injunction 
 issued by Thomas, Lord Cromwell, on September 29, 1538 : 
 " The curate of every parish shall keep one book of the 
 register, which book he shall every Sunday take forth, and 
 in the presence of the churchwardens, or one of them, 
 write and record in the same all the weddings, christenings, 
 and burials made the whole week before, and for every 
 time that the same shall be omitted shall forfeit to the said 
 church 3J. 4^." 
 
 It should be added that the churchwardens* accounts 
 themselves contain much curious information on parish 
 matters in past days, and throw light on many a subject on 
 which in other documents there is but scanty information. 
 Thus, in the accounts of the parish of St. James's, Bristol, 
 we find payments of money for sugar-loaves given to 
 bishops, the price of such a gift being sometimes 15^. It 
 was apparently the custom when the bishop of the diocese 
 visited a church for the churchwardens to make an offering 
 of this kind. 
 
 In the same accounts, too, occur these items — 
 
 "1627. Item, for warrant for her that laid the child at 
 Mr. Sage's door, \s. 
 
 ** To the woman that kept the child, \5. 
 
 " Spent at the Bell when he went about that child, \s, 
 
 " More in charge about that church, u." 
 
 An entry in the register of Prestmell, Lancashire, under 
 1655, states : " Received of the wife of George Hutton for 
 swearing and other misdemeanours, i6i-. 8^." 
 
 The north aisle of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading, 
 contains the monument of John Blagrave, who left a legacy 
 for the encouragement of Reading maidservants. The 
 churchwardens of each of the three parishes were to choose 
 
250 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 maidservants of five years standing, who were to meet and 
 throw dice for a purse of ;£"io on Good Friday. "This is 
 lucky money," says Ashmole, " for I never yet heard of a 
 maid who got the;^io, but soon after found a good husband." 
 It is said, according to the opinion of coroners, to be the 
 duty of churchwardens to take into keeping the body of 
 any one found dead. Upon this point, Mr. Edward Pea- 
 cock contributed the following interesting communication to 
 Notes and Queries (7th series, vi. 56) : "I think the opinion 
 of coroners on this matter is correct. There is, I am pretty 
 sure, no statute about it, but I believe by common law the 
 churchwardens are bound to take care of the body of any 
 one found dead from the time of the discovery of the 
 body until the burial. In former days, there were in rural 
 parishes no parish officers except the churchwardens (over- 
 seers of the poor and surveyors of the highways have been 
 evolved out of him). The churchwarden's is a post of im- 
 memorial antiquity, probably as old as that of king or con- 
 stable. His range of duties was a very wide one. Before 
 the Reformation, christian burial was thought an important 
 matter, and it naturally fell to that officer to provide that 
 the stranger dead should be treated with reverence, and the 
 rites of the Church provided for him. Had he neglected 
 to do so, I make no doubt he would have incurred ecclesi- 
 astical censure. A pauper's funeral, such as we read of in 
 books, and such as I have myself witnessed, would have 
 shocked the feelings of the men and women of the Middle 
 Ages. Now that we have a rural police, the duty of caring 
 for dead bodies of this kind usually falls on them ; but I 
 cannot doubt that if the policeman were to neglect his duty, 
 the churchwarden would be bound, in virtue of his office, to 
 
( 251 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 PARISH CLERKS. 
 
 Several centuries ago the parish clerk was a very important 
 person, and up to the period of the Reformation was fre- 
 quently an ordained clergyman, instead of a layman. His 
 chief function, in olden times, was to assist the parish priest ; 
 the necessary qualifications for his office being that he 
 should be proficient in reading, and have a knowledge 
 of music. About the year 1240, the parish clerks were 
 raised into a guild or fraternity by Henry III., under the 
 patronage of St. Nicholas, who was the chosen patron of 
 the boy-bishop and choristers. At this period they so 
 excelled in church music, that ladies and men of quality, 
 on this account, became members ; and, on certain days in 
 the year, public feasts or entertainments were held at which 
 music and singing formed a prominent feature. The per- 
 formance of sacred dramas and mysteries was then highly 
 popular. And it is recorded how, in 1390, from the i8th to 
 the 20th July, the London parish clerks gave a three days' 
 performance before Richard II., his queen, and court, at the 
 Skinner's Well, which was afterwards called, in compHment 
 to them, the Clerk's Well, and is now known as Clerkenwell. 
 In 1800, a parish pump, supplied by the stream from that 
 well, was set up by the churchwardens of the parish, who, 
 in the inscription which they caused to be placed upon it, 
 
252 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 stated that round the spring, " As histor}- informs us, the 
 parish clerks of London, in remote ages, commonly per- 
 formed sacred plays. That custom caused it to be denomi- 
 nated Clerks' Well, and from which this parish derives its 
 name. The water was greatly esteemed by the prior and 
 brethren of the order of St, John of Jerusalem, and by the 
 Benedictine nuns in the neighbourhood." 
 
 Henry VI. was the head of the parish clerks' patrons, as 
 appears from a manuscript vellum roll in their possession 
 dating from the year 1440 to 1525. In the "Diary of 
 Henry Machin," published by the Camden Society, we find 
 the following entry under 1555 ; "The xxvij day of May 
 was the Clarke's prossessyon from Yerdhall College, and 
 ther was a goodly Mass be hard, evere clarke having a 
 cope and a garlande with C stremers borne and the whettes 
 playinge rounde Chepe, and so to Ledynhall unto St. Albro' 
 (Ethelburga) Churche, and ther they put oif ther gayre, and 
 ther was the blessed sacrament, borne with torchlight abowt, 
 and from thens unto the Barber Hall to dener." 
 
 Previous to 1560, the parish clerks met in the Chapel at 
 Guildhall for evensong, and the next day to dinner at 
 Carpenters' Hall; but two years after this, writes Mr. 
 Timbs, in his "Curiosities of London," (417) they met in 
 their own hall, receiving seven persons into their brother- 
 hood, and attending "a goodly play of the Children of 
 Westminster, with waits, regals, and singing." In 1592, the 
 parish clerks commenced the Bills of Mortality, and in 
 January, 161 1, James I. re-incorporated them, in conse- 
 quence of their brotherhood having been dissolved, and 
 their hall and property seized. About 1625, they were 
 licensed by the Star Chamber to keep a printing press in 
 their hall, for the printing of the " Bills," which they were 
 bound to make up every week, consisting of the births and 
 burials, with some accounts of the diseases, age, etc., of the 
 
PARISH CLERKS, 253 
 
 person dying. During the Great Plague, these "Bills" 
 were very important ; they are still to be seen in the Guild- 
 hall Library, as well as others dating from 1657 to 1758. 
 The " Weekly Bill " has long ceased to be issued from the 
 Parish Clerks' Hall, and in its place, since July i, 1837, 
 the " Table of Mortality in the Metropolis " has been 
 issued from the office of the Registrar-General, at Somerset 
 House.* In former times, says Fosbroke, the London 
 clerks, when country families thought it necessary, in case 
 they came to town, to know the state of health there, used 
 to communicate accounts of it. An instance of their doing 
 so occurs in Gage's ** History of Hengrave" (1822, 205), 
 where this memorandum occurs: "Given in reward to the 
 clerk of Coleman Street for oftentimes bringing bills of the 
 sickness in town, twelve pence." But, in course of time, 
 the parish clerks seem to have lost much of their intellectual 
 and social status, and Sir John Hawkins, in his " History of 
 Music " (iv. 362), alluding to their musical incompetence, 
 writes : " In and about this great city, in above one hundred 
 parishes, there are but few parish clerks to be found that have 
 either ear or understanding to set one of these tunes musically 
 as it ought to be ; it having been a custom during the late 
 war, and since, to choose men in such places more for their 
 poverty than skill and ability, whereby this part of God's 
 service hath been so ridiculously performed in most places, 
 that it is now brought into scorn and derision by many 
 people." Their want of culture was equally the subject of 
 complaint ; and, as the Edinburgh Reviewer remarked some 
 thirty years ago, "the parish clerk is better known to most 
 by the ear than by the eye. Who has not heard in our country 
 churches, the cruel havoc wrought upon the responses of 
 the service by his tasteless recitation, whether in lugubrious 
 drawl, monotonous bawl, or drowsy rattle." Dr. Johnson 
 * Timbs's "Curiosities of London." 
 
254 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 held parish clerks in high estimation ; and, when a friend 
 expressed a wish that a better provision were made for 
 them, he replied, " Yes, sir ; a parish clerk should be a man 
 who is able to make a will, or write a letter for anybody in 
 the parish." 
 
 As it was pointed out by a correspondent of the Gentle- 
 man's Magazine^ at the commencement of the present 
 century (Ixxi. 1090), the reason of the ignorance and 
 slovenly character of the parish clerk is attributed to the 
 fact that the office is frequently bestowed on unsuitable 
 persons, "the salary being so very small, that none but 
 low mechanics will accept of it" He further tells us how, 
 in the course of his travels, he was much surprised to hear 
 the office of parish clerk performed by the waiter of the 
 inn, notwithstanding it was the residence of the bishop. 
 
 At an earlier period, however, of their history, the same 
 laxity was evidently not permitted. Towards the close of 
 the sixteenth century, they were sometimes made the subject 
 of inquiry in the articles of visitation. By Grindall's In- 
 junction they were required to " read the First Lesson, the 
 Epistle, and the Psalms"; and in the present century, it 
 was customary in some parishes in Devonshire and Corn- 
 wall, for the parish clerk to read the First Lesson. 
 
 The Rev. R. Polwhele says, in his *' Cornish Recollec- 
 tions " : "A very short time since, the parish clerks used 
 to read the First Lesson. I once heard the St. Agnes clerk 
 cry out : * At the mouth of the burning viery vurnis, Shadrac, 
 Meshac, and Abednego, com voath and come hether.' " It 
 is related of a Devonshire clerk who had to read this 
 lesson, that, instead of repeating these three proper names, 
 he said at their second and third recurrence, " the aforesaid 
 gentlemen," and that in the same chapter, instead of re- 
 peating the words concerning the comet, flute, harp, sack- 
 but, psaltery, dulcimer, he said, "the band as before." 
 
PARISH CLERKS, 255 
 
 Many such anecdotes have long been current throughout 
 the country, and Francis Grose, when writing about a 
 century ago, " On Slip-slopping, or the Mis-apphcation of 
 Words," said : " Even the Church service itself is not 
 exempt from this kind of slip-slopping. Almost every 
 parish clerk is a lion, instead of an alien, among his 
 mother's children ; and one I remember went to a length 
 still more extravagant. In that verse in the chapter of 
 Revelation describing the New Jerusalem, wherein it is 
 said the doors were of agate and the windows carbuncles, 
 the honest fellow read, * the doors were of a gate, and the 
 windows crabs ancles.' " 
 
 Towards the close of the seventeenth century, we find an 
 inquiry made also in the visitation articles relative to their 
 dress : " Have you a large and decent surplice (one or 
 more) for the minister to wear, and another for the clerk, 
 if he hath heretofore been accustomed to wear it when he 
 assisteth the minister?" That the parish clerk was here 
 intended, and not a clerk in orders, is clear from another 
 question under the heading of " Parish Clerks " : *' Doth he 
 wear a gown when he so attendeth, and a surplice over it, 
 if heretofore the custom has been among you ? " It would 
 appear, says Lathbury, that the parish clerks in some 
 churches wore a surplice, as in the case of singing men 
 and choristers in cathedrals, and in many of our parish 
 churches. " Until within the past quarter of a century, in 
 many Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire churches," writes 
 a correspondent of Notes and Queries (6th series, i. 522), 
 it was customary for the parish clerk to attend upon the 
 parson at the communion table, and to kneel either at or 
 within the rails. In some cases he wore a surplice.- At 
 Easington, near Chalgrove Field, in Oxon, I witnessed this 
 myself, prior to the year 1840, when the parish clerk 
 attended my father the rector. The same custom obtained 
 
256 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 at Towersey, Bucks, and at Tettesworth, in Oxfordshire, 
 also at Thame, at Shabbingdon, and at Chearsley." Some 
 years ago, at Lower Sapsey Church, Worcestershire, when 
 the parson left the reading-desk at the end of Morning 
 Prayer, and took up his position at the north side of the 
 communion-table, the clerk would also go within the rails 
 and kneel down at the south side of the table.* 
 
 The custom of allowing the parish clerk to give out 
 notices in church, occasionally led to the most unforeseen 
 results. Cuthbert Bedef has left two or three amusing 
 instances. "Some thirty years ago," he writes, "I was 
 told of a parish clerk who gave out in his rector's hearing 
 this notice : * There'll be no service next Sunday, as the 
 rector's going out grouse-shooting' — the rector having 
 inadvertently told him of the reason for his approaching 
 absence. Another rector, who had lost his favourite setter, 
 told his parish clerk to make inquiries about it ; but was 
 rather astonished to hear him give it out as a notice in 
 church, coupled with the reward of three pounds if the dog 
 should be restored to his owner. But the following anecdote 
 is perhaps one of the most amusing illustrations of the 
 laxity of church discipline in bygone days. An old rector 
 of a small country parish had sent his set of false teeth to 
 be repaired, on the understanding that they should be 
 returned * by Saturday ' as there was no Sunday post, and 
 the village was nine miles from the post town. The old 
 rector tried to brave out the difficulty; but, after he had 
 incoherently mumbled through the prayers, he decided not 
 to address his congregation on that day. While the hymn 
 was being sung, he summoned the clerk to the vestry, and 
 then said to him : * It is quite useless for me to attempt to 
 go on. The fact is, that my dentist has not sent me back 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 6th series, i. 356. 
 
 t All the Year Round (Now. 6, 13, 1880). 
 
PARISH CLERKS. 2$7 
 
 my artificial teeth ; and as it is impossible for me to make 
 myself understood, you must tell the congregation that the 
 service is ended for this morning, and that there will be no 
 service this afternoon.' The old clerk went back to his 
 desk; the singing of the hymn was brought to an end; 
 and the rector, from the vestry, heard the clerk address 
 the congregation thus : * This is to give notice ! as there 
 won't be no sarmon nor no more sarvice this mornin', so. 
 you'd better all go whum (home) ; and there won't be no 
 sarvice this aternoon, as the rector ain't got his artful teeth 
 back from the dentist ! ' " 
 
 The Rev. Richard Polwhele, in his ** History of Corn- 
 wall," relates that " at no great distance from St Anthony, a 
 wreck happening on a Sunday morning, the clerk announced 
 to the parishioners just assembled that ' measter would gee 
 them a holiday'" — a story of which there are several 
 versions; one adding that when the parson saw his flock 
 rushing from the church, he cried out, " Stop ! stop ! let 
 us start fair ! " 
 
 Although many of this class of stories are apocryphal, 
 there can be no doubt that there was a familiarity between 
 the parson and the clerk and the people, at which our 
 feelings of decorum would revolt. An old story tells how 
 at Kenwyn, Cornwall, two dogs, one of which was the 
 parson's, were fighting at the west end of the church ; the 
 parson, who was then reading the Second Lesson, rushed 
 forth, and went down and parted them. On his return, 
 doubtful where he had left off, he asked the clerk, " Roger, 
 where was I ? " " Why, down parting the dogs, maister." 
 
 At Mevagissey, when non-resident clergymen officiated, 
 it was, in past years, customary for the squire of the parish 
 to invite them to dinner. On one occasion — a Sunday 
 when the Athanasian Creed is directed to be read — the 
 parish clerk asked the clergyman before he had begun the 
 
 s 
 
258 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 service whether he intended to read the Athanasian Creed 
 that morning. " Why ? " said the clergyman. " Because, 
 if you do, no dinner for you at the squire's, at 
 Penwarne." 
 
 Lord Teignmouth, in his ** Reminiscences" (ii. 350, 351), 
 writes : *' My parochial portraiture would be incomplete 
 without a passing notice of the old skilled blacksmith and 
 respectable publican, who during thirty-seven years fulfilled 
 the duties of clerk and sexton — * an odd-charactered man,' 
 in the estimation of the neighbourhood. His nasal tone 
 and notable mistakes in reading had been early brought 
 into full play by his struggles for the mastery with the deaf 
 rector, under whose auspices he commenced his perform- 
 ance. As there was no clock in the church, it was his 
 custom, as he informed any stranger officiating, to ring the 
 bell when he saw * the lord,' i.e. the squire of Langton, cross 
 the bridge ; and meanwhile, as the time of Divine service 
 approached, to beckon from the window to the congregation 
 in the churchyard." 
 
 Of another parish it is related that when a clergyman 
 had gone to take the duty for a friend, and was leaving the 
 church, he looked at the sky, and made a remark to the 
 clerk as to the probable weather on the morrow, when the 
 clerk replied : " Ah, sir, they do say that the hypocrites 
 can discern the face of the sky." 
 
 Again, in olden times, the parish clerk was occasionally 
 a party man in politics, which was often the cause of acts 
 of indiscretion on his part. Hence we find a parish priest, 
 at the commencement of the last century, compiling 
 "Thirty-six psalms of thanksgiving for the use of a parish 
 church " ; and amongst other reasons for omitting all the 
 imprecatory psalms, he says : " Lest a parish clerk, or any 
 other, should be whetting his spleen, or obliging his spite, 
 when he should be entertaining his devotion." That such 
 
PARISH CLERKS. 259 
 
 unseemly practices were indulged in, is illustrated by 
 Bramston, the satirist, who thus denounces it — 
 
 " Not long since parish clerks, with saucy airs, 
 Apply 'd King David's Psalms to State afifairs." 
 
 Among the many anecdotes told of singing psalms with 
 a political bias, the following is related by Hume of King 
 Charles I. : " Another preacher, after reproaching him to 
 his face with his misgovernment, ordered the psalm to be 
 sung — 
 
 * Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself, 
 Thy wicked deeds to praise ? ' 
 
 The king stood up, and called for that psalm which begins 
 with these words — 
 
 * Have mercy, Lord, on me I pray. 
 For men would me devour.' 
 
 The good-natured audience, in pity to fallen majesty, showed 
 for once greater deference to the king than to the minister, 
 and sung the psalm which the former had called for." 
 
 A correspondent of Notes and Queries informs us that 
 in the excitement which prevailed at the trial of Queen 
 Caroline, he remembers a choir, in a village not a hundred 
 miles from Wallingford, Berks, singing with great gusto the 
 first, fourth, eleventh, and twelfth verses of the thirty-fifth 
 psalm in Tate and Brady's new version — 
 
 ** False witnesses with forg'd complaints against my truth combin'd. 
 And to my charge such things they laid as I had ne'er design'd." 
 
 When King William returned to London after one of his 
 expeditions, Wesley's parish clerk gave out in Epworth 
 Church " a hymn of my own composing " — 
 
 •' King William has come home, come home, 
 King William home is come ; 
 Therefore let us together sing 
 
 The hymn that's called Te Deum." 
 
26o CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Some acts of indiscretion recorded of our old parish 
 clerks prove that their conduct was not always what it 
 should be. Instances have occurred wherein the parish 
 clerk has been bribed to alter an entry in the parish 
 register. Burn * tells of a search that was once made at 
 Rochester by a person who used every means to rid himself 
 of the clerk's presence ; but finding that he could not be 
 left alone, he offered the clerk a sum of money to assist 
 him in the alteration of an entry which he pointed out. 
 In a small work entitled "The Exaction and Imposition 
 of Parish Fees Discovered," by Francis Sadler (1738), it is 
 recorded how " one Phillips, clerk to Lambeth parish, ran 
 away with the Register book, whereby the parish became 
 great sufferers ; and in such a case no person that is fifty 
 years old, and born in the parish, can have a transcript of 
 the Register to prove themselves heir to an estate. And 
 in Battersea, the next adjacent parish, their late clerk had 
 often been found tardy, and detected in registering boys 
 for girls and girls for boys ; and not one half of the Register 
 book, in his time, was correct and authentic as it ought 
 to be." 
 
 Accuracy and care on the part of the parish clerk were, 
 in olden times, very necessary, when so much reliance was 
 placed on them. Thus it was frequently customary for the 
 parish clerk to keep notes, and for the clergyman to make 
 up his register therefrom once a year. In the parish of 
 St. Clement Danes, London, the entries were often made 
 in the waste book in pencil. "An affidavit," writes Mr. 
 Bum, "being required in the year 1829 of the entry of a 
 burial in this register, it was found to be in pencil ; and 
 after waiting two months to see it properly entered in ink, 
 the deponent was obliged to swear to the copy from the 
 pencilled entry." In another parish, we read how the clerk 
 ♦ " History of Parish Registers " (1862), 260. 
 
PARISH CLERKS. 261 
 
 was in the habit of demanding a fee for causing his 
 memoranda to be entered in the parish book. A waste 
 book was also in use in Chatham parish, called " a minute 
 book," as appears by the letters of the minister in the year 
 1766, where he makes this statement: "The entries are 
 chiefly brought from the minute-book carefully kept in the 
 vestry-room, and it cannot be supposed that there should 
 be any material variation in the case." But, if we are to be 
 guided by the Rev. Christopher Hervey's description of the 
 parish clerk's duties, it would seem that these, in his day, 
 were not marked by those abuses which, in after times, 
 gradually crept in — 
 
 " The Church's Bible-Clerk attends 
 Her utensils, and ends 
 Her prayers with Amen ; 
 Tunes psalms, and to the Sacraments 
 Brings in the Elements, 
 And takes them out again. 
 Is humble-minded, and industrious-handed, 
 Doth nothing of himself but as commanded." 
 
 In some instances the office of parish clerk has been held 
 by a woman, although the Ninety-first Canon would seem 
 to restrict the office to the male sex, which directs that he 
 be twenty years at the least, and that he be known to the 
 parson to be of honest conversation, and sufficient for his 
 reading and writing, and competent skill in singing. But, 
 as a woman can serve the office of an overseer, and as it was 
 also decided in the case of Olive v. Ingram that a woman 
 might be the parish sexton, it might be argued that she 
 was legally entitled to serve the office of parish clerk.* 
 That she has done so is proved by several cases which we 
 quote below. According to a correspondent of Notes and 
 Queries^ at the close of the last century a Mrs. Sheldon 
 
 ♦ Two papers on "The Parish Clerk," by Cuthbert Bede in All th£ 
 Year Rounds November 6th and 13th, 1880. 
 
262 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 continued to discharge the duties which had been performed 
 by her husband, the parish clerk of Wheatley, five miles 
 from Oxford. From the same source we learn that in the 
 parish of Avington, Hungerford, this post was held by a 
 woman for twenty-six years; and an old sexton once 
 remarked that he well remembered his astonishment, as a 
 boy, whenever he happened to attend a neighbouring 
 church service, to see a man acting in that capacity, and 
 saying the responses for the people. At Ickburgh, Norfolk, 
 a woman was acting as parish clerk in 1853, and up to 
 1832 Mary Mountford was parish clerk of Misterton, near 
 Crewkerne, Somersetshire, for upwards of thirty years. 
 About the year 1830, the female parish clerk of Sudbrook, 
 near Lincoln, died; and Bum, in his "Parish Registers," 
 quotes the subjoined extract from the parish register of 
 Totteridge : " 1802. March 2. Buried Elizabeth King, 
 widow, for forty-six years clerk of this parish, in the ninety- 
 first year of her age." A further example is given by 
 Madame d'Arblay in her diary (1791, v. 206), who writes : 
 " There was only a poor wretched ragged woman, a female 
 clerk, to show us this church — Collumpton, county Devon. 
 She pays a man for doing the duty while she receives the 
 salary in right of her deceased husband." 
 
 Frequently the office of parish clerk has been hereditary, 
 having been held by members of the same family for more 
 than a century — an interesting example having occurred in 
 a Derbyshire parish : " Mr. Peter Bramwell, parish clerk of 
 Chapel-en-le-Frith, died January 23, 1854, aged eighty-six, 
 after having held office for forty-three years. His father, 
 Peter Bramwell, was parish clerk of the same place for fifty 
 years; his grandfather, George Bramwell, for thirty-eight 
 years; his great-great-grandfather, George Bramwell, for 
 forty years; and his great-great-great-grandfather, Peter 
 Bramwell, for fifty-two years. Total, two hundred and 
 
PARISH CLERKS. 263 
 
 twenty-three years, by five members of the family, giving an 
 average of forty-four years and nine months for each." 
 
 In modern times the parish clerk's salary has been mainly- 
 dependent on certain fees at baptisms, marriages, and 
 burials, in addition to an allowance from the incumbent, by 
 whom he has generally been appointed, although by custom 
 the inhabitants have the right of election. By the common 
 law, moreover, parish clerks have freeholds in their office; 
 but by a statute passed in the early part of the present 
 reign, they may be suspended by the archdeacon for mis- 
 conduct, or neglect. They generally seem to have been 
 scantily paid, reminding us of Sir Roger de Coverley, who 
 " added five pounds a year to the clerk's place." In some 
 places their income was supplemented, in olden times, by a 
 contribution every Sunday from each householder in the 
 parish for certain duties they performed; and, amongst 
 other perquisites, they received a loaf at Christmastide from 
 every house, some eggs at Easter, and com in autumn. 
 
264 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 PARISH BULLS AND COWS. 
 
 An old charge levied in certain parishes upon the parson, 
 was for keeping a bull for the use of his parishioners. 
 Instances of this usage occurs in church records and other 
 documents, from which it would seem that, as the rector 
 was entitled to the tithe of calves, it was to his interest to 
 promote increase of titheable produce. Such a custom 
 formerly prevailed in the manor and parish of Marsh 
 Gibbon, Bucks, and came to an end upon the laying in, 
 dividing, and enclosing the common fields and commons. 
 In the record of the Inclosure Commissioners' Proceedings, 
 dated June 5, 1843, this minute occurs: "That the ^ Bull 
 Platts,' being held by the rector in consideration of his 
 finding a bull for the use of the landowners depasturing in 
 the common fields and commonable places within the parish, 
 will now revert to the landowners, and be deemed by the 
 Commissioners as part of the common lands within the 
 parish, . . . the custom of maintaining a common Bull not 
 being consistent with the altered circumstances of the parish 
 when enclosed." 
 
 The inclosure award of the parish of Lower Heyford, 
 Cheshire, dated 1802, acquits the rector of that parish and 
 his successors from the pre-existing liability to keep a bull 
 and a boar for the parishioners. 
 
I 
 
 PARISH BULLS AND COWS, -ifil 
 
 In the Hundred Court of the town and liberty of 
 Kingston-on-Thames, in the fifteenth year of Elizabeth, a 
 jury presented, by way of complaint, the vicar, a Mr. Pope, 
 because " he hath not a bull at the Parsonage, according to 
 the old custome ; " and it was ordered " that he have one 
 from henceforth on payne of x shillings for every lackinge." * 
 A correspondent of Notes and Queries (5th series, x. 354) 
 informs us that " by custom of the parish of Quarley, Hants, 
 the parson was bound to keep a public boar and bull for the 
 use of the parish. This he had neglected to do, whereupon 
 his parishioners refused to give him the tithe of milk." Mr. 
 Bond, in his " Topographical and Historical Sketches of 
 the Boroughs of East and West Looe, Cornwall" (1823), 
 quotes in the appendix the following transactions relative to 
 this custom, which is worthy of note — 
 
 " The 30th day of April in the year of our Lord 1666. 
 Hereafter followeth a note of such anchant customs as hath 
 bin used within the Parish of St. Martin's, as well in time 
 past as this present and time out of minde observed and 
 kept. 
 
 " Art I. The Parishioners of the said Parish ought to 
 have, by thare Custom, of thare Parson or his Proctor 
 under him, a Bull alwaie remaining upon the Gleab of the 
 Parsonage of St. Martin aforesaid, for the necessary use at 
 all times when occasion shall searve." 
 
 After describing in Articles H. to XI. the tithes and 
 other dues to which the parson was entitled, the note con- 
 cludes thus : " Be it known to all men, by these presents, 
 that I, Stephen Medhopp, Parson of the Parish of St. 
 Martin's, and we, the Parishioners of the said Parish, whose 
 names are under written, doe acknowledge that this award 
 with us written was done with the consent and good liking, 
 made by Richard Carew and John Wrey, Esquirse, and was 
 * Notes and Queries ^ 5th series, x. 248. 
 
266 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 don with the consent and good liking of us all. In witness 
 whereof we have subscribed our names." 
 
 Among further variations of this custom, it appears from 
 the Appendix to the Report of the Commissioners on 
 Municipal Corporations of England and Wales, the Mayor 
 of Marlborough, in consideration of his finding a town bull, 
 receives eightpence for every cow turned on a piece of land 
 called "The Portfield," belonging to the Corporation. 
 Among the items of expenditure by the Corporation of Not- 
 tingham, given in the same report (ii. 1972), one runs thus : 
 "Paid for the bull for the Commons, jT^^j 105." Edwards, 
 in his "Old Enghsh Customs and Curious Bequests and 
 Charities " (1842, 65, 66), writes : "From a copy of Court roll 
 of the Manor of Isleworth Syon, dated December 29, 1675, 
 it appears that Thomas Cole surrendered 4a. ir. of customary 
 land lying in several places in the fields of Twickenham, 
 called the Parish Land, anciently belonging to the inhabi- 
 tants of Twickenham, for keeping a bull for the common 
 use of the inhabitants, in trust for the use of the said 
 inhabitants, for keeping and maintaining a sufficient bull 
 for the use aforesaid." 
 
 " An entry in an old churchwarden's ledger of October 6, 
 1622, states an agreement between the vestry and Mr. 
 Robert Bartlett, that he should hold the three acres and a 
 half of the Parish Land with the Bull Mead, paying the 
 same rent to the parish as he formerly did, with the con- 
 dition that he, receiving a bull from the churchwardens for 
 the common use of the parishioners, should keep the same 
 at his own charge ; and if the bull should die, should provide 
 another." 
 
 Similarly, among the entries of old church books, many 
 curious bequests of cows for the maintenance of the parish, 
 or for the use of the poor, are recorded. Sometimes the 
 money derived from this source was devoted to the keeping 
 
PARISH BULLS AND COWS. 267 
 
 of a light before the high altar of the parish church, or before 
 the shrine of some saint. In 1531, Elizabeth Davye, of 
 Pulham Magdalen, " bequethyd one kowe to ffynd one 
 contynuall light before y* sacrament in Pulham p d, and 
 Wyllem Wyllyson to have y" kowe to ferme for xvj^. by yer, 
 and y^ seyd xvj^. to be ded to y* chyrch wardeyns to see y* 
 lyght kept, and y* kowe to be renewyd by y* said chyrch 
 wardeyns as they shall thynk best for y* cotynuance of y" 
 seyd lyght." In the will of Thomas Byxley, alias Cowper, 
 of Honyngham, Norfolk, 1533, occurs this bequest : 
 " Itm. I bequeathe to the lyght of Oure lady in the 
 same chirche, a mothys neete, and I wyll that with y* 
 yerly profite and ferme that come of y*, wexe to be 
 bought and to brenne before oure lady in maner and 
 forme as the profite of other neet do in the sayd chirche en 
 more to endure." 
 
 Another entry of the same kind is found in the will of 
 Thomas Gierke of Rodney : " I bequeth to y" p'ishe of 
 Rodney viijj. or ellis a cow, price viijj., to fynd a lamp afore 
 I will (that) the p'ishe may light their candellis at y*, and 
 agayn to burn betwin Matence and Mass when the candellis 
 be put owt, that they shall not nede to Rune hether and 
 thether to mennis houses for fyer in great wynds and 
 tempests, whereby gret vexacon, troble, and losse of goods 
 other Inconvenience may chance and fortune." In the 
 churchwardens' accounts of Bungay Trinity for the year 
 i539> it was noted that John Duke, resident of the town, 
 gave six kine, and a legacy of five pounds to the parish ; 
 the entries being as follows — 
 
 " 1539. Itm. Rec. of xec' of Mr. Duke in ptye of 
 payment of iiij//. xj. for the six kene, w** were to the 
 parish, xviijj. vj^. 
 
 " Itm. Rec. more in full payment for the said kene, iij//. 
 xji". \\d. 
 
268 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 " Itm. Paid for an aquyttance for the exec' of Mr. Duke, 
 for the vj kene, ijV." 
 
 But no mention is made as to the manner in which they 
 were appropriated to the benefit of the poor. In the in- 
 ventory of Elmsett parish for 1542-3, there are numerous 
 references to the parish cow, two entries of which we 
 subjoin — 
 
 ** I. First letyng a cowe to Thomas Prittey (Pattey ?), to 
 find a lyght afore the sacrament, of the Gifte of Roger . . . 
 and ... is suretie for this cowe, that it shall be forthe 
 comyng and the light honyestly kept during the yere. 
 
 "II. Itm. letyng another cowe by John Smyth and 
 Thomas Pattey, churchwardens of the said p'yshe of 
 Elmsett, to . . . Castard (?) to fynd the pascall and synging 
 light of the gift of S. Nicolas Hanby, late p'sone of the said 
 p'yshe, and ... is suretie for this cowe, that it shalbe 
 forthe comyng and the said light honyestly kept during 
 the yere." 
 
 The sums at which the cows were let is not given, but 
 from other lists it would appear that the "hyei'* of each 
 cow was "xx pence." * In entries of this kind, it is curious 
 to see how the object of the " sewerties " was practically 
 defeated. One neighbour appears "to have been surety 
 for another on condition that the kindness was returned to 
 himself by the party whom he had befriended; and thus 
 the parish had really no security against a * conspiracy to 
 defraud.' " t 
 
 The old account books of the parish of Pulham St. Mary 
 Magdalen, Norfolk, extending from the year 1557 to 1620, 
 show that an unusually large number of cows were at that 
 time the property of the parish. In 1563, the total number 
 of these cows was sixty-nine, which were farmed by the 
 parishioners, the income arising from twenty-five of the 
 * The East Anglian (1864), i. 130, 131. * Ibid., 67. 
 
PARISH BULLS AND COWS. 269 
 
 number being applied to the church, and the rest being 
 given to the poor.* 
 
 The income arising from the cows given for the use of 
 the poor was received by the " collectors for the poor," who 
 kept a separate book of their receipts and payments until 
 the year 1597. It does not appear to have been customary 
 in this parish to require sureties from the farmers of the 
 cows ; and it is likely that the death of some of the cows, 
 and the conversion of others into a money value, caused 
 the gradual decrease of their number.f 
 
 Towards the close of the sixteenth century, the cows 
 which then remained were rapidly converted into stock, 
 and in 1601 the overseers of the poor received the income. 
 The last reference to the cows in the account books of 
 Pulham St. Mary Magdalen, relates to a lawsuit to recover 
 from Robert Hannor (or Hanworth) the value of the cows 
 or stock which he held of the parish. It seems that in the 
 year 1573 Hanworth hired twenty cows (the gift of Thomas 
 Palgrave) at twenty shillings a year, and two others (the 
 gift of John Brown) at two shillings and eightpence a year, 
 and he paid for the hire of these cows until the year 1582. 
 But, after that date, he made no other payments, and pro- 
 bably repudiated the debt. The action, however, which 
 appears to have been brought for one cow only, lasted five 
 years. The total amount of the costs was ^^13 8i". lo^., 
 and the churchwardens, in 1620, "rec** of Robert Hanor 
 at 3 severall tymes for the sewte, dependinge for the cowe 
 which was due vnto the to wen, xiij//. xj." If, therefore, 
 Hanworth paid no more than this, the parish gained only 
 fourteen pence by the suit, and that after five years' litiga- 
 tion. The following are the entries referring to these legal 
 proceedings — 
 
 ♦ " Eastern Counties Collectanea," (1872-73), 5. 
 t Ibid., 5. 
 
270 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 " 1615. It. payd to the register for the oaths of iiij 
 witneses for the proof of hanors payment of xj^. by the 
 yere for the cowe, \\\]s. y]d. 
 
 " It. for V of o*" dyners ther, iiiji-. \]d, 
 
 " It. for a sytation serven of the witnesses, xijV. 
 
 " It. for charges at Norwich at ij sessions, iiijj. 
 
 " 16 16. It. for taken ovt the Depossions at Straton cort 
 for hanor and my dynor, iiijj-. \\d. 
 
 " It. to Mr. Talbot for his fee at Windam, when sentance 
 pased against hanor for the town cowe, xj. 
 
 " It. for the sentance Drawen, y]s. 
 
 " It. for the Jvdges and registers fees for sentance for the 
 Cowe, xj. 
 
 " It. for other charges then, xvj^. 
 
 " 1617. It. to John Baker, pt of charges for distraynen 
 of hanor, iiijj". 
 
 " 1618. It. for charges at Norwich, being sited by Robt. 
 hanor, xx^. 
 
 " 1619. It. Layd ovt at Norwich for search of the books 
 that were transmitted for hanors swet, xj^-. 
 
 " It. for my charges at Norwich Cort, xij^. 
 
 " It. payd unto Mr. Agas for y® books for hanors 
 carse, xijj. 
 
 " It. for Mr. Tabut, who was Covnsell for the town at 
 the sentance in hanors carse, vj^. 
 
 " It. more, Mr. Agas had then that he layd ovt of his 
 purse for that case, vs. 
 
 " It. for charges then, \]s, 
 
 " It for the judges fees and registers fees when sentans 
 was past at Norwich fo hanors Carse, xxj. 
 
 " It. for my diner and horsmet then, xijV. 
 
 " It. for senden to Mr. Agas, when hanor did site me to 
 loud ! vij^. 
 
 "1620. It to the p'ctor at London, for charges when 
 
PARISH BULLS AND COWS. 271 
 
 sentance pased against hannor for the cow money, 
 iij/. ixj. 
 
 *' It. to Mr. Agas for fees and other charges when the 
 sentance mony was payd at Norwich Cort, which 
 wase xj. 
 
 " It. to Mr. Agas for his fees for pcedinge at Straton and 
 Norwich, against hanor, iij//. xj. 
 
 " It. for charges at that Cort then, x^. 
 
 " It. for maken ij aqvittances for Robt hanor vjV." 
 These items are also interesting as affording some idea of 
 legal expenses at this period. 
 
 Among further old cow charities, it is recorded by the 
 Charity Commissioners that James Goodaker, of Barnston, in 
 the parish of Woodchurch, Cheshire, in 1525, left twenty 
 marks to buy twenty yoke of bullocks, which were subsequently 
 replaced by cows, and given to the poor of Woodchurch, 
 every parishioner that had a cow or cows paying yearly for 
 each to the overseers the sum of 2s. Zd, every Friday before 
 Whit-Sunday, which hire was to be a stock for the benefit of 
 the poor for ever. A table of benefactions in the parish 
 church of Bebington, Cheshire, records how William Hulme, 
 of Poulton, A.D. 1620, gave three cows to be disposed of by 
 the minister and churchwardens, to the poorest and godliest 
 parishioners at eight groats a year, and this hire to be 
 employed for the increase of parish cows. It is further 
 added that in 1625, Christopher Smallshall gave three cows 
 for the same purpose, and that in i66i, John Briscow, of 
 Poulton, gave jr^2 \os. for the buying of a parish cow. In 
 years past, each individual contributed 5^. a year for the 
 use of his cow, and on the 25th April, in every year, the 
 cows were exhibited for the inspection of the rector and 
 churchwardens, when every person was required to find 
 security for the proper care of the cow with which he was 
 entrusted. Each cow was branded on one horn with the 
 
272 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 initial letter of the parish, and on the other with those of the 
 rector. 
 
 A curious cow charity, at Minehead, Somerset, originated 
 in the operation of an Act passed in the eighteenth year of 
 Charles II., " against importing cattle from Ireland and 
 other parts beyond the seas," wherein it was enacted that 
 the importation of cattle from the 2nd of February, 1660, 
 should be a common and a public nuisance, and that if any 
 great cattle should, from and after the day above mentioned, 
 be imported, or brought from beyond seas into England, it 
 should be lawful for any constable, etc., to seize the same, 
 and that the same should be forfeited, one half to the use of 
 the poor of the parish where they should be seized, and 
 the other half to the persons seizing. By another Act, 
 20 Charles II., every vessel importing cattle was to be liable 
 to the like seizure, and the monies arising from the sale 
 thereof, were to be applied as aforesaid. 
 
 In 1669, it appeared that a number of cattle were unlaw- 
 fully imported from Ireland into the port of Minehead, and 
 that the same, together with the vessel importing them, were 
 seized and sold pursuant to the powers contained in the two 
 Acts, and that a moiety of the sum produced from the sale 
 thereof, was, by the direction of the churchwardens and 
 overseers of the said parish of Minehead, invested in the 
 purchase of a freehold estate in the parish of Ottery St. 
 Mary, Devonshire, which was conveyed to certain persons 
 as the trustees for the parish of Minehead, and that a book 
 was kept in the said parish called the " Cow-money book," 
 in which entries were made of the rents and profits received 
 from the said charity estate, and of the distribution thereof. 
 
( 273 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 WELLS AND WELL-CHAPELS. 
 
 Connected with the " holy wells " throughout the country, 
 we find a host of curious legends and superstitions which 
 have invested them with an importance, and an interest, 
 apart from their reUgious associations. Indeed, so extensive 
 is the legendary lore which, in the lapse of years, has 
 clustered round our " holy wells " that a volume might be 
 devoted to this subject alone, illustrative of the strange 
 fancies and romantic stories which our forefathers have 
 handed down. In many cases some sacred influence has 
 been supposed to subsist between the church and the 
 neighbouring well, a fact which would partly explain the 
 mysterious powers so frequently attributed to the latter.* 
 
 The holy wells of Cornwall, which have long been a 
 source of interest to the antiquarian student, may be 
 divided, says Mr. J. T. Blight, f "into two classes, viz. 
 those which were used as baptisteries in connection with the 
 churches near which they were situated, and those which 
 are to be found by the side of some little chapel or hermi- 
 tage, in remote and retired places, and may or may not have 
 
 * An interesting series of papers have lately appeared in "The 
 Antiquary," by Mr. R. C. Hope, on " Holy Wells, their Legends and 
 ^Superstitions." 
 
 t " Reliquary," ii. 126-133. 
 
 T 
 
274 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 been used for baptismal purposes. As so much veneration 
 was paid to certain springs, previous to the introduction of 
 Christianity, the eariy missionaries of the Christian faith are 
 supposed to have appropriated them to the services of their 
 own creed, and dedicated them to saintly patrons. These 
 wells being thus adopted by the Christians, many of them 
 were merely used as baptisteries ; near or over them small 
 chapels were erected, in which the baptismal ceremonies 
 were probably performed — such structures having been 
 sometimes called " Well Chapels." Many of these wells 
 were much resorted to as places of divination, and are still 
 visited by young persons as " Wishing Wells." 
 
 Judging from its appearance, St. Madron's well-chapel, 
 now in ruins, is one of the oldest in Cornwall, and about a 
 mile from the church. Many remarkable cures are said to 
 have been effected at this well; an allusion to which is 
 made by Bishop Hall, in his " Mystery of Godliness," where 
 he speaks of the good office which angels do to God's 
 servants, adding, " of whiche kinde was that noe less than 
 miraculous cure whiche, at Madem's Well, in Cornwall, was 
 wrought on a poor cripple, whereof, besides the attestation 
 of many hundreds of the neighbours, I saw him able to 
 walk and get his own maintenance. I took strict and im- 
 partial examination in my last triennial visitation. I found 
 neither art nor collusion, the cure done, the author an in- 
 visible God." Borlase relates how "to this miraculous 
 fountain, the uneasy, the impatient, the fearful, the jealous, 
 and the superstitious, resort to learn their future destiny 
 from the unconscious water. By dropping pins or pebbles 
 into the fountain, by shaking the ground around the spring, 
 or by continuing to raise bubbles from the bottom, on 
 certain lucky days, and when the moon is in a particular 
 stage of increase or decrease, the secrets of the well are 
 presumed to be extorted." He further adds that the fame 
 
WELLS AND WELL-CHAPELS. 275 
 
 of this celebrated well was known far and wide throughout 
 the county in years past, on account of ** the supposed 
 virtue of healing, which St. Mademe had thereinto infused, 
 and many votaries made annual pilrimages unto it, as they 
 do even at this day unto the well of St. Winnifrede, beyond 
 Chester, in Flintshire, whereunto thousands do yearly make 
 resort, but of late St. Mademe hath denied his pristine aid, 
 and he is coy of his cures." One of the seats beside St. 
 Madron's Well was known as St. Madron's Bed, on which the 
 sick folk who came to be cured, reclined ; it having been also 
 customary, for those who derived benefit from the spring, to 
 leave a donation for the poor in Madron Church, a practice 
 which prevailed till the middle of the seventeenth century. 
 
 One of the Cornish well-chapels in the best state of 
 preservation is that of Dupath, near Collington, which is of 
 the sixteenth century. It is built of granite, the roof being 
 *' constructed of enormous slates hung with fern, and 
 supported in the interior by an arch, dividing the nave and 
 the chancel. The building is crowned by an ornamental 
 bell-cote." * A legend connected with this spot has been 
 poetically described by the Rev. R. S. Hawker. It 
 appears that two " gentle knights " here fought for a lady's 
 hand : the " noble Siward " was mortally wounded, and when 
 told by the leech that his " passing hour was nigh " — 
 
 " * Bring me,' he said, * the steel I wore, 
 When Dupath spring was dark with gore ; 
 The spear I rais'd for Githa's glove, 
 Those trophies of my Wars and Love. * 
 • * * )i> * 
 
 ** A roof must shade that stoned stream 
 Her dying lord's remember'd theme, 
 A daily vow that lady said 
 Where glory wreathed the hero dead. 
 
 ♦ R. C. Hope, "Holy Wells," Antiquary (1890), 30. 
 
276 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 *' Gaze maiden I gaze on Dupath Well ! 
 Time yet hath spar'd that solemn cell ; 
 In memory of old love and pride, 
 Hear how the noble Siward died." 
 
 The well-chapel of St. Cleer, which is in ruins, was 
 probably erected about the same time as that at Dupath. 
 The well is supposed to have been used, in olden times, as 
 a bowsening or boussening pool, for the cure of mad people, 
 a mode of cure which, as formerly performed at a holy 
 well at Altarnum, Carew has thus described : '* The water 
 running from St. Nun's Well fell into a square and enclosed 
 wall plot, which might be filled at what depth they listed. 
 Upon this was the frantic person set to stand, his back 
 towards the pool ; and from thence, with a sudden blow in 
 the breast, tumbled headlong into the pool, where a strong 
 fellow, provided for the nonce, took him, and tossed him up 
 and down, alongst and athwart the water, till the patient, by 
 foregoing his strength, had somewhat forgot his fury. Then 
 he was conveyed to the church, and certain masses sung 
 over him, upon which handling, if his right wits were 
 returned, St. Nun had the thanks; but if there appeared 
 small amendment, he was bowsened again and again, while 
 there remained in him any hope of life or recovery." 
 
 The well-chapel of St. Euny, about two miles from 
 Sancreed Church, now in ruins, was in past years the 
 scene of many supposed magical cures, in connection with 
 which Dr. Borlase writes: "I happened luckily to be at 
 this well upon the last day of the year, on which, according 
 to vulgar opinion, it exerts its principal and most salutary 
 powers. Two women were here, who came from a neigh- 
 bouring parish, and were busily employed in bathing a 
 child. They both assured me that people who had a mind 
 to receive any benefit from St. Euny's Well must come and 
 wash upon the three first Wednesdays in May." 
 
WELLS AND WELL-CHAPELS. 277 
 
 In the parish of St. Cleather may be seen the ruined 
 well-chapel of St. Basil, and at Menacuddle, near St. Austell, 
 remains an ancient Gothic structure, the well here situated 
 having been reputed to possess medicinal virtues. A holy 
 well-chapel also existed at Helston, and one of the smallest 
 and most ancient in this county was that of St. Julian at 
 Mount Edgecumbe, its internal dimensions being only six 
 feet three inches by four feet nine inches. The "propor- 
 tions are as simple as they are beautiful, and the details 
 and character of the masonry fix the period approximately 
 as that of the early part of the fourteenth century. This 
 little structure was a few years ago restored by the Earl 
 of Edgecumbe." * 
 
 St. Neot's Well was arched over in granite by the late 
 General Carlyon ; and of St. Ruan's, or St. Rumour's Well, 
 Whitaker, in his "Ancient Cathedrals of Cornwall," thus 
 writes : " Here, near to the site of St Grade's Church, at 
 the village still denominated St. Ruan from the fact, did St. 
 Runon live, having a cell for his habitation and a chapel 
 for his devotions, regardless of the wild beasts around him, 
 seeing them, perhaps, in his walks, hearing them, perhaps, 
 in his prayers, yet beholding them to flee the face of this 
 strange intruder on their privacies. About a quarter of a 
 mile to the north-east of Grade Church is a noted well, 
 from which is fetched all the water used in baptisms at the 
 church." 
 
 Among further Cornish wells may be mentioned that of 
 St Roche, and the one at Ludgvan, which was commonly 
 reported to preserve those who had been baptized with its 
 waters from ever being hanged. At Cardynham there are 
 the remains of a holy well, eighty feet long and forty-two 
 feet broad. Polwhele says, " It may be classed among the 
 first Christian places of worship," and adds, " it was sacred 
 ♦ " Journ. of the Arch. Assoc." (1883), xxxix. 355, 356. 
 
278 . CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 before all saints." The site of the well-chapel of St. Ninnie, 
 popularly designated the "Piskies' Well," is still pointed 
 out, while the properties of the famous Well of St. Keyne 
 have been immortalized in Southey's popular ballad — 
 
 ** If the husband of this gifted well 
 
 Shall drink before his wife, 
 
 A happy man henceforth is he, 
 
 For he shall be master for life. 
 But if the wife should drink of it first, 
 God help the husband then." 
 
 Alluding to the wells found by the side of little chapels, 
 or hermitages, in remote situations, Mr. Blight writes : 
 " Some of these in Cornwall are on the sea coast, and were 
 probably constructed near a spring, for the convenience of 
 the hermit. Spenser describes the situation of "a lowly 
 hermitage " near " a christall streame " (" Faerie Queene ") — 
 
 ** Far from resort of people that did pass 
 In traveill to and froe ; a little wyde 
 There was an holy chappell edifyde 
 Wherein the hermit dewly wont to say 
 His holy things each morne and eventyde ; 
 Thereby a christall streame did gently play. 
 Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway." 
 
 In this case, however, the /* hidden cell" was "by a 
 forest side," but in Cornwall such structures were sometimes 
 placed on the very edge of the most fearful cliffs, or even 
 occasionally on isolated rocks, where they were exposed to 
 every gale. The foundations of a seaside chapel may still 
 be seen at the Gurnard's Head, on the north coast of West 
 Cornwall.* Near the edge of the cliff is the ruin of the 
 ancient baptistery or well of St. Levan, who, according to 
 tradition, supported himself by fishing. 
 
 Derbyshire and parts of Staffordshire have long been 
 * '• Reliquary," ii. 126-133. 
 
WELLS AND WELL-CHAPELS, 279 
 
 noted for the custom of " well-flowering," or "well-dressing," 
 on Ascension Day ; Tissington, near Ashbome, and Buxton 
 having been specially enthusiastic in this respect ; * a prac- 
 tice also observed at Endon, Shropshire, on May 29th or 
 30th, and at St. Boniface's Well, Bonchurch, on the saint's 
 festival A well, a short distance to the north of the 
 church of St. Alkmund's, Derby, is known as St. Alkmund's 
 Well. The custom of dressing this well with flowers was 
 revived in 1870, and annually the clergy and choir of St. 
 Alkmund's meet in the church and walk there in procession. 
 A noted well in Derby is that of St. Thomas \ Becket. 
 According to the " Derbyshire Archaeological Society's 
 Proceedings " (xii.), there was a chapel over it, or close by 
 its side. In 1652 a small building was again erected over 
 it, which was restored in 1889.! Trinity Well, to the south- 
 west of the ruined chapel of the Holy Trinity at North 
 Lees, in the parish of Hathersage, is sheltered " by four 
 slabs of gritstone, one as the bed, two as upright stones, 
 and the fourth as a covering. Close by the well is a flat 
 stone, on which are rudely sculptured a small cross, and the 
 letters " I. S." This chapel was built by the Romanists in 
 the time of James II., and destroyed by a Protestant mob 
 when William III. came to the throne." % 
 
 A Devonshire well, which has long been famous, is that 
 of St. John-in-the-Wildemess, Morwenstowe, a spot on 
 which Mr. Hawker has written these lines — 
 
 " Here dwelt in times long past, so legends tell. 
 Holy Morwenna, guardian of this well ; 
 Here on the foreheads of our fathers pour'd 
 From this lone spring the laver of the Lord ! 
 
 * See "Bookof Days,"i. 
 t Antiquary (1890), 93-95. 
 X Ibid., 98, 99. 
 
28o CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 If, traveller, thy happy spirit know 
 
 That awful font whence living waters flow, 
 
 Then hither come to draw — thy feet have found 
 
 Amid these rocks a place of holy ground ! 
 
 Then sigh one blessing — breathe a voice of praise 
 
 O'er the fond labour of departed days I 
 
 Tell the glad waters of their former fame, 
 
 And teach the joyful waters Morwenna's name ! " 
 
 The following is recorded in the endowment deed, dated 
 1296, relative to this well, and is preserved in Bishop 
 Brantinham's register : " The church land is said to extend 
 eastward ad quendam fontem Johannis. Water wherewithal 
 to fill the font for baptism is always drawn from this well 
 by the sacristan, in pitchers set apart for this purpose. It 
 stands midway down the cliff on the present glebe ; around 
 it on either hand are rugged and sea-worn rocks, before it 
 the wide sea." * 
 
 Many wells have been popularly designated " pin-wells," 
 from the superstitious custom of passers-by dropping in pins 
 for luck. At St. Helen's Well, Sefton, Lancashire, this 
 practice is still observed, and a few years ago the bottom 
 was covered with them.f Near Keyingham, Yorkshire, is 
 St. Philip's Well, into which young girls used to drop pins 
 when wishing. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the healing properties 
 of certain holy wells, which have been much resorted to on 
 this account. The water of St. Austin's Well, Leicester, was 
 once in high repute as a remedy for sore eyes, and a spring 
 at Holly Well Dale, near Winterton, Lincolnshire, was 
 equally famous for its medicinal properties ; the bushes 
 around it being covered with rags as votive offerings. % 
 About a mile to the west of Jarrow, near Newcastle-on-Tyne 
 
 * Quoted in The Antiquary, (1890), 145. 
 t Notes and Queries, 5th series, i. 158. 
 X See Taylor's " Prim. Culture." 
 
WELLS AND WELL-CHAPELS. 281 
 
 there is Bede's Well, to which, up to the middle of last 
 century, it was customary " to bring children troubled with 
 any disease or infirmity. A crooked pin was put in, and 
 the well laved dry (?) between each dipping." * At Oxford, 
 St. Edmund's Well was frequented by those suffering from 
 various distempers, and ** Our Lady's Well," at Womboume, 
 Shropshire — supposed to have been sacred to the virgin in 
 mediaeval times — is said to have possessed curative virtues. 
 St. John's Well, at Harpham, Yorkshire, is believed to 
 possess the power of subduing the wildest and fiercest 
 animals, and William of Malmesbury says that in his day 
 the most rabid bull, when brought to its waters, became 
 quiet as the gentlest lamb, f 
 
 In Yorkshire there is St. Diana's Well, whose pure water 
 has long been proverbial — 
 
 ** Whoever eats Hammer nuts, and drinks Diana's water, 
 Will never leave Witton while he's a rag or tatter." 
 
 St John's Well is about a mile from Moxley Nunnery, over 
 which was formerly, writes Mr. Hope, " an ancient building, 
 consisting of a small dome of stone and brick. There is 
 still discernible the remains of a causeway leading from 
 the nunnery in the direction of this well. The water is said 
 to possess medicinal properties, and there is a large and 
 convenient cistern built on the east side, into which the 
 water is admitted for the purpose of bathing. It was 
 much resorted to in the days of superstition, and there are 
 still the remains of stone steps for the more easy descent 
 thereto. Near the mouth, which admits the water into the 
 bath, is a large stone, called the * wishing stone,' and many 
 a faithful kiss has this stone received from those who were 
 supposed never to fail in experiencing the completion of 
 
 * Brand's "Newcastle," ii. 54. 
 t See The Antiquary {iZgi), 112. 
 
282 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 their desires, provided the wish was delivered with full 
 devotion and confidence." 
 
 Wells have occasionally been found in churches. Some- 
 where on the north side of the choir of Canterbury- 
 Cathedral was the famous well of St. Thomas, of which no 
 trace is now visible. The dust and blood from the pave- 
 ment, after the murder, are said to have been thrown into 
 it. The spring changed four times into blood and once 
 into milk, and constant miracles were wrought by the water. 
 This marvel did not appear, however, until the fourteenth 
 century, and is unknown by the earlier chronicles. From 
 its recorded effects it seems to have been slightly chaly- 
 beate, like the well of Zem-Zem at Mecca. 
 
 In April, 1879, while the restoration of the choir of 
 Beverley Minster was being carried out, two very old and 
 much worn steps were discovered, which had been hidden, 
 the upper one by the footpace of the altar, the lower by the 
 foundation on which the rail at the south end of the altar 
 rested. These, on subsequent examination, were found to 
 have been used as an approach to a well. 
 
 In Carlisle Cathedral there is a well which was closed 
 during the late restoration. The water was raised by a 
 windlass; and a similar well, regularly lormed, and with 
 sides of squared stone, exists in the north transept, but has 
 been covered. Besides supplying water for the use of 
 the church, such wells may have been of special service 
 in border churches, which, like the cathedral of Carlisle, 
 served as places of refuge for the inhabitants, in case of 
 sudden alarm or foray.* It is said that the late dean had 
 it covered over for fear of it or the water in some way 
 affecting the music. There is a well in the eastern part of 
 the crypt of York Minster, where King Edwin is said to 
 
 * R. J. King, "Handbook to the Northern Cathedrals" (1869), 
 pt. i. 192, 193. Notes and Queries y 3rd series, xii. 235. 
 
WELLS AND WELL-CHAPELS. 283 
 
 have been baptized in the year 627. A wooden oratory 
 was erected over it before the stone building was thought 
 of. The crypt is about forty feet by thirty-five feet.* In 
 the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral, on the south-east corner, 
 there is a well, and one exists within the cathedral of St. 
 Patrick, Dublin. 
 
 In the nave of Harden Church, Herefordshire, is a spring 
 protected by stonework, and called St. Ethelbert's Well. 
 It is said to arise from the spot in which the body of St. 
 Ethelbert was first interred. 
 
 Close to the west end of East Dereham Church, Norfolk, 
 is St. Withburga's Well, the spring which is said to have 
 burst forth from her grave. It is in a small enclosed spot, 
 full of flowers, having at one end an arch (not of early 
 character) with an inscription, recording that Withburga, 
 youngest daughter of Annas (Anna), King of the East 
 Anglians was once buried there. The spring was famous 
 for its miraculous cures, and was resorted to by numerous 
 pilgrims. During her life at East Dereham, St. Withburga 
 and her maidens are said to have been miraculously fed by 
 two milch deer, which came every morning to a certain 
 bridge, and waited there to be milked. But a man in the 
 place, " instigated by the devil," took bow and arrows, and 
 killed both the deer, after which he was "smitten with 
 jaundice, consumed away, and miserably died." f And within 
 the Church of St Michael, near Tenbury, a well was sunk to 
 supply the font with pure water. 
 
 ♦ The Antiquary {i^^i)y 113. f Murray's "Norfolk," 268. 
 
284 
 
 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 CHURCH LIBRARIES. 
 
 An important institution, in years 'gone by, was the church 
 library. When books were scarce and dear, and the incomes 
 of the clergy far from large, the libraries founded in the 
 numerous parishes throughout the country proved an incal- 
 culable boon to the parson and his parishioners ; oftentimes 
 affording them opportunities for study and research which 
 otherwise would not have been within their reach. Placed 
 in the church, occasionally in a room over the church 
 porch, or in the parson's house, or in the parish grammar- 
 school, such libraries gained a more than local interest, as 
 from time to time, they were enriched by private muni- 
 ficence ; and, at the present day, some idea of their value 
 may be gathered from those which still exist, here and there, 
 in different parishes. 
 
 But, unfortunately, these old church libraries have suffered 
 sadly in the past, books having only too often been borrowed 
 and never returned ; and instances have occurred where they 
 have been sold '* with the goods and chattels of deceased 
 incumbents, or deceased schoolmasters, and where the 
 tenure of such offices has extended to thirty or forty years, 
 it is not difficult to see how this may have occurred. Such 
 books sometimes turn up long afterwards in second-hand 
 
CHURCH LIBRARIES. 285 
 
 stores." * In the year 1708, through, it is said, the exertions 
 of Dr. Bray and Lord Chancellor King, an Act was passed 
 " for the better preservation of Parochial Libraries, in that 
 part of Great Britain called England," from which we gain 
 an interesting glimpse of the value attached to them at 
 this period : " In many places," it states,! " the provision of 
 the clergy is so mean that the necessary expense of books 
 for the better prosecution of their studies cannot be defrayed 
 by them, and whereas of late years several charitable and 
 well disposed persons have by charitable contributions 
 erected libraries within several parishes, but some provision 
 is wanting to preserve the same. Be it enacted — that in 
 every parish or place where such a library is or shall be 
 erected, the same shall be preserved for such use or uses 
 as the same is or shall be given, and the orders and rules 
 of the founders of such libraries shall be observed and kept. 
 And for the encouragement of such founders and benefactors, 
 and to the intent that they may be satisfied that their 
 charitable intent may not be frustrated. Be it enacted — 
 That every incumbent, rector, vicar, minister, or curate of a 
 parish, before he is permitted to use or enjoy such library, 
 shall enter into security — for preservation and due obser- 
 vation of the rules and orders belonging to the same," etc. 
 For a time the passing of this Act gave a decided impetus to 
 the church library movement, many having been founded 
 in various parishes, partly through the munificence of 
 Dr. Bray. 
 
 In the course, however, of the present century, our church 
 libraries have been sadly neglected. " In some instances," 
 writes Mr. T. W. Shore, "the books have disappeared by 
 the old method of having been taken out and not returned, 
 
 • Transaction of the Library Association, 1879: "Old Parochial 
 Libraries," by T. W. Shore, 
 t Ibid., 51, 52. ^ 
 
286 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 as at Wimborne and Barnstaple, or by being sold as at 
 Reepham, or sold by the cart load as at Boston, or by 
 having been given away. 
 
 Referring to Boston library, it may be noted that in 
 1635, upon the request of the Rev. Anthony Tucker, Vicar 
 of Boston, it was ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 (Laud), then on his visitation at Boston, " that the roome 
 over the porch of the saide Churche shall be repaired and 
 decently fitted up to make a librarye, to the end that, in 
 case any well and charitably disposed person shall hereafter 
 bestow any books to the use of the parish, they may be there 
 safely preserved and kept." 
 
 In one instance, the books were not improbably burnt, for 
 as long ago as 1807, a writer in the Gentlemaiis Magazine 
 complained of seeing one of the books at Westerham acting 
 as a fender to the clerk's fireplace, and in 1856 the books 
 had all disappeared, and the catalogue only was left." 
 
 A correspondent of Notes and Queries (6th series, vi. 294) 
 says that when visiting St. Mary's, Beverley, in 1852, he was 
 shown " in one of the vestries in the north transept, a small 
 library, consisting mainly of good folios, chiefly theological, 
 covered with dust, in a most dilapidated condition ; the fires 
 in the church had been usually lighted from this literary 
 source for some time." On visiting the same in 1865, the 
 same correspondent informs us that the small collection in 
 the library was apparently reduced to one book, a copy of 
 the Hexapla.* 
 
 The late Mr. William Blades, in his " Biographical Mis- 
 cellanies," t relates an amusing anecdote as told him by Mr. 
 
 * In George's Westerham^ s yournal {A.^ri\ ist, 1844), we are told how 
 one, Charles West, gave to the parish by will in 1765, a library of 
 books, consisting of several hundred volumes, many of them curious and 
 rare. The catalogue of these books is carefully preserved in the parish 
 chest, but the books themselves are nowhere to be found. 
 
 t " Books in Chains," p. 27. 
 
CHURCH LIBRARIES. 287 
 
 Stibbs, bookseller, of Oxford Street, showing how church 
 libraries have, in one way or another, got dispersed : 
 " About twenty years ago, I was in the vestry of the church of 
 All Saints', Hereford, in which there were about two hundred 
 chained volumes of old divinity. One of the churchwardens 
 accompanied me, and I remarked to him, ' How useless 
 these old books must be without any one to look at them.' 
 ** * That's true,' he said ; * they are quite useless.' 
 '* * Well,' I replied, * why not let me have them ? I will 
 give you ;^ioo for them, which will obtain for the use of the 
 parish a really useful lot of books.' 
 
 " * Well, that's a good offer, and I'll lay it before the 
 vestry,' was his reply. A short time after, I was informed 
 that the vestry meeting had been held, and my offer accepted. 
 I went down to Hereford, paid the ;£too, took possession of 
 the books, chains and all, and brought them up to London. 
 I immediately made a catalogue of them, but had hardly 
 finished, when I received an urgent request from one of the 
 churchwardens not to part with one of them on any account, 
 for that the Dean of Windsor, whose consent ought first to 
 have been obtained, had positively refused to sanction the 
 sale. Having been at considerable expense in travelling 
 to Hereford three times, besides time wasted in cataloguing, 
 I declined to deliver up the books, but as considerable ill- 
 blood, and probably legal proceedings would have ensued, 
 I at last sent them back, upon payment of all expenses, 
 and they are now restored to their original position. I will 
 only add, that arrangements had been partially made for 
 the sale of the whole to an American dealer." 
 To give another example of the same kind — 
 The following is from the fly-leaf of **A Treatise of 
 Ecclesiastical Benefices and Revenues," by the learned 
 Father Paul, translated by Tobias Jenkins, 1736 : "Biblio- 
 theca de Bassingbourn in Com. Cant Dono dedit Edvardus 
 
288 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Nightingale de Kneesworth Armiger Filius et Haeres 
 Fundatoris. Feb. i""**. 1735." 
 
 This book was purchased some years ago at a sale in 
 Oxford. 
 
 In some cases it would seem that, with the work of 
 Church restoration, the library has been subjected to some- 
 what rough treatment. During the restoration of Cirencester 
 Church, Gloucestershire, in 1867, it is said the chained 
 books disappeared from the church, and in 1852, when the 
 church at North Denchworth, Berks, was undergoing 
 repairs, the room over the church porch, which had long 
 served as a library, was removed, and " was replaced by an 
 ugly lean-to," which has since been converted into a gable- 
 porch. At the time of these alterations in 1852, the 
 library was taken bodily into the vicarage, and the chains 
 removed, except a few which remain as specimens. Of the 
 original library but a few books remain. It contained the 
 " Golden Legend," printed by Caxton, in 1483, which was 
 sold in 1843 to Messrs. Parker, of Oxford, and by them to 
 the Bodleian Library. The proceeds were applied to the 
 re-binding of books, and enlargement of book-cases. There 
 are still remaining a Cranmer's Bible, four black-letter 
 volumes of Aquinas, one of Ancient Homilies, a copy of 
 Bishop Burnet on the Articles, given by the author himself, 
 and a life of Christ by Ludolphus Saxo, which once belonged 
 to Bishop Juxon, with chain attached.* 
 
 But these are not the only ways in which our Church 
 libraries have been injured, for it appears that in the parish 
 church of Impington, Cambridgeshire, some years ago, 
 in consequence of the books being subject to constant 
 mutilations, they were removed from the church by the 
 clerk, who for many years had charge of them in his own 
 house. After his death, the books found their way into an 
 * See Notes and Queries^ 6th series, iv. 304, 305. 
 
CHURCH LIBRARIES. 289 
 
 old granary on a farmstead," in close proximity to the church. 
 '* I rescued their remains," writes the vicar, " and after 
 removing the cobwebs and filth to which they had been 
 exposed, they presented a very dilapidated appearance. 
 Happily there still remained a few links of the chains, and 
 other metal ornaments used in the binding, which stimulated 
 the idea to rebind the tattered fragments." * 
 
 There was a library at Doncaster, of which there is a 
 catalogue in Miller's History of Doncaster. It was founded 
 in 17 14 by a society known as the Society of the Clergy, 
 which existed at Doncaster from i7i4to about 1760. The 
 library perished in the fire which destroyed the late church 
 in 1853. 
 
 The beautiful church of Hanmer, Flintshire, unfortunately 
 burnt down about three years ago, contained, among other 
 treasures, four books chained to two desks. 
 
 A correspondent oi Notes and Queries (ist series, vii. 438) 
 tells how he found the library at S waff ham Church, Norfolk, 
 " in a most disgraceful state, covered with dust and the dung 
 of mice and bats, and many of the books torn fi*om their 
 bindings." It contains, among other valuable books, some 
 of the Elzevir classics. A fine copy of Cranmer's Bible 
 was given away by the churchwardens. 
 
 Among some of the most curious and interesting church 
 libraries may be mentioned that at St Mary's, Bridgnorth, 
 Shropshire, which was established by Dean Stackhouse in 
 1750. It contains eight hundred volumes, chiefly divinity, 
 besides many valuable fragments of illuminated manuscripts, 
 dated 1460.! 
 
 ♦ "Biographical Miscellanies," 1890; W. Blades, "Books in 
 Chains," 29. 
 
 t Additional Manuscripts, 28732, at the British Museum, contains 
 foundation deed of the library, with will of founder, list of books, 
 etc., 1743- 
 
 U 
 
290 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 In a room over the south porch of the parish church, 
 Chelmsford, are the remains of a good theological library, 
 which, it is said, was bequeathed by John Kingsbridge, D.D., 
 for the use of the clergy of the town of Chelmsford and 
 its environs. Castleton Church, Derbyshire, has a large 
 library of over a thousand volumes. Mr. James Croston, 
 speaking of Castleton Church in " On Foot Through the 
 Peak," writes : " In the vestry there is an excellent library, 
 the gift of a former vicar, the Rev. James Farrer, to which 
 considerable additions have been made by his daughter and 
 Captain Hamilton. It contains upwards of a thousand 
 volumes, chiefly in divinity, history, and biography, many 
 of them being rare and valuable works. They are lent to 
 the parishioners at the discretion of the vicar for the time 
 being — a wise provision, which tends to ensure their pre- 
 servation." 
 
 The vestry room of the Abbey Church, Bath, contains a 
 library of about three hundred volumes, the larger number 
 of which are folios, and to which great interest attaches. 
 Mr. C. P. Russell, referring to this library at the first annual 
 meeting of the Library Association, said : " The present 
 church was commenced by Bishop Oliver King, about 1490. 
 It remained unfinished until about 16 14; and it would 
 appear that shortly after that date, or between 16 16 and 
 1626, efibrts were made to establish a library in connection 
 with the church." 
 
 In an interesting old record, written on vellum, entitled, 
 " A Catologue of the Benefactors towards the Labrarie in 
 the Church of Saint Peter and Paule in the City of Bath," 
 the first entry runs thus : " The Right Reverend Father in 
 God, Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bathe and Welles, beganne 
 this worthie Work, giving to the said Church Two Volumes 
 of the renowned works of our late Sovereign Lord King 
 James, the one in Latine the other in English." Then 
 
CHURCH LIBRARIES, 291 
 
 follow a list of other benefactors and the works presented 
 by them ; among the names recorded being some of great 
 interest. Thus, Sir William Waller, the Parliamentary- 
 General, presented five works, among them a copy of Jacob 
 de Voragine's " Legenda Aurea ; " the celebrated writer 
 William Prynne, Recorder of Bath, and his publisher, 
 Michael Sparkes, of London, presented a long list of books, 
 among them many of Prynne's own works ; Elias Ashmole, 
 founder of the Ashmolean Museum, gave ** The Institution, 
 Laws, and Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the 
 Garter;" and Thomas Radcliff, "Fellow of Universitie 
 Colledge in Oxford," gave several works. In the vestry-book 
 of the parish occurs this entry, under the date of March 27, 
 1722-23 : " Order'd that Mr. John Anstey, Churchwarden, 
 doe repair the Book, etc., in the vestry, and that the Books 
 left by the pious Dr. Kenn, late Bishop of the Diocese of 
 Bath and Wells, be brought from Longleyeat and set up in 
 this vestry." * 
 
 The library at Skipton parish church was removed in 1880 
 to the new Skipton Grammar School. " This library," writes 
 a correspondent of Notes and Queries (6th series, vi. 258), 
 **is known as the Petyt Library, after the name of its 
 founder, Mr. Sylvester Petyt (1640-17 19), a native of the 
 parish, and sometimes Principal of Barnard's Inn." The 
 library, which at its best numbered more than eighteen 
 hundred volumes, was contributed during the years 1708 to 
 1 715, principally by Petyt, but also by Mr. Christopher 
 Bateman, " of Pater Noster Row, Citizen, Stationer, and of 
 the Common Councill of London, and one of the most 
 Eminent Booksellers in England," f aiid Mr. William Bus- 
 feild, of the Inner Temple, London. The library has been 
 
 ♦ See "The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of 
 Salisbury and the Abbey Church of Bath," 1723. 
 t From the inventory which accompanied his gift. 
 
292 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 very badly used, many of the books having been either 
 stolen or lost. 
 
 The library belonging to St. James's Church, Bury St. 
 Edmunds, was formed in 1595, and from a catalogue 
 entitled, " A copy of an Inventory indented of all the books 
 which do remain in the library of the Parish Church of St. 
 James, in Bury St. Edmunds, the 13th day of October, in 
 the 41st year (1599) of the reign of our Sovereign Lady, 
 Queen Elizabeth, to be delivered in charge to John Mann, 
 and William Briggs, now Churchwardens, and by them to 
 be accounted for to the said Parish," it appears that upwards 
 of two hundred of the most valuable books were at that 
 time in the library. But in 1847 the books, consisting of 
 four very ancient manuscripts and four hundred and seventy- 
 five printed books, were removed to the Guildhall, where 
 they at present remain.* 
 
 At Gorton, Lancashire, there is a valuable church library ; f 
 and that at St. Margaret's, King's Lynn, Norfolk, contains, 
 in addition to some valuable books, " a curious little manu- 
 script of the New Testament, very neatly written, a (muti- 
 lated) black-letter copy of the Sarum Missal, and many 
 fine copies of the works of the Fathers, and also of the 
 Reformers." % 
 
 In the rectory house at Whitchurch, in Shropshire, there 
 is a valuable library, left as an heirloom by the request of 
 Jane, Countess Dowager of Bridgewater ; who in 1707, having 
 purchased from his executors the library of the Rev. Clement 
 Sankey, Rector of Whitchurch for ;£"3o5, left it for ever for 
 the use of the rector for the time being. The number of 
 the volumes was two thousand two hundred and fifty, among 
 which are a fine copy of Walton's Polyglott Bible, some of 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 6th series, vii. 117. 
 
 t See Cheetham Society, 1855. 
 
 % See Notes and Queries^ 1st series, viii. 93. 
 
CHURCH LIBRARIES. 293 
 
 the Ancient Fathers, and other theological works. This 
 collection was afterwards increased by a bequest from the 
 Rev. Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, founder of the 
 Bridgewater Treatises, who by his will, dated in 1825, gave 
 the whole of his own books in the rectory house at Whit- 
 church to be added to the others ; and left also the sum of 
 £1^0 to the rector to be invested in his name, and the 
 dividends thereof expended by him, together with the money 
 arising from the sale of the wines and liquors in the cellars 
 at Whitchurch, in the purchase of printed books for the use 
 of the rector, and that parish, for the time being.* 
 
 It should be added that the same noble earl presented to 
 the rector of Middle, Shropshire, a small collection of books 
 as the nucleus of a library there ; and bequeathed by his 
 will the sum of ^800, to be applied, under the direction of 
 the rector of Middle for the time being, for augmenting this 
 library. He further left a sum of ;£"i5o, to be invested in 
 the name of the rector, and the dividends thereof expended 
 by him in the purchase of books, in the same manner as he 
 had done at Whitchurch. 
 
 The library at Bromham Church, near Bedford, was 
 founded by Thomas, second Baron Trevor, of Bromham, 
 and on a slab let into the outside wall on the eastern side of 
 it, is the following inscription : — 
 
 This small library was founded and freely given 
 For the use of the Minister and the Parish of Bromham, 
 By Thomas, Lord Trevor, in the year 1740. 
 
 No book to be taken out without leave of the minister 
 or lord of the manor. 
 
 The library at Totnes, which was established before the 
 year 1656, contains folio editions of the works of SS. 
 Chrysostom, Augustine, and Ambrose ; but the books which 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 1st series, viii. 570. 
 
294 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 are in the vestry-room are said to be perishing from damp. 
 An amusing though incorrect notice of this library occurs in 
 " A Graphic and Historical Sketch of the Antiquities of 
 Totnes " by William Cotton (1850), 38 :" I know not what 
 the library contains. I believe nothing more than theological 
 lumber. It is always locked up, and made no use of by 
 those who keep it, and it is inaccessible to those who would 
 wish to examine it. I was once there by accident and 
 looked into some of the books, which were all on divinity." 
 
 In the preface to the ** Life of Lord Keeper Guilford," by 
 Roger North, it appears that Dudley, a younger daughter of 
 Charles, and grand-daughter of Dudley Lord North, dying, 
 " her library, consisting of a choice collection of oriental 
 books, by the present Lord North and Grey, her only sur- 
 viving brother, was given to the parochial library of 
 Rougham, in Norfolk, where it now remains." 
 
 In Ballard's "Memoirs of British Ladies " (1775, 286), we 
 are further told that this library was founded " for the use of 
 the minister of Rougham, and, under certain regulations and 
 restrictions, of the neighbouring clergy also, for ever." 
 Among the choice collection of books there is, in particular, 
 one very neat pocket Hebrew Bible, in i2mo, without points, 
 with silver clasps to it, and bound in blue turkey leather, in 
 a case of the same materials, which she constantly carried 
 to church with her. In the first leaf of all the works that 
 had been hers when they were deposited in that library, 
 was a Latin inscription, setting forth the names of the late 
 owner, or the donor of these books. 
 
 For many years a parochial library was deposited in the 
 room over the south entrance of Beccles Church, Suffolk, 
 but in the year 1840 it was handed over to the public 
 library, after many of the books had apparently been lost ; 
 the room where they had been kept having been used as a 
 repository "for discarded ecclesiastical appliances, and 
 
CHURCH LIBRARIES, 295 
 
 latterly, for charity blankets during summer." In the 
 vicarage of St Mary's, Marlborough, there is a library in 
 excellent condition. The following extract from a terrier of 
 the lands and profits of this vicarage, taken in the year 
 1698, records the origin of the library : '* Item. The library 
 of Mr. White, late rector of Pusey, in the county of Berks, 
 given to Cornelius Yeate, and his successors, vicars of 
 St Marie's, in Marlborough, which Books are now in 
 possession of the said Mr. Yeate till a more convenient 
 place can be assigned for them, and the catalogue of the 
 books is in the Chest of the Mayor and Magistrates." 
 
 At Basingstoke, in the room over the south porch, is a 
 library chiefly of Puritan theology ; and a copy of the Latin 
 Chronicle of Nuremberg may be seen in a small library 
 adjoining to the church at Langley, Buckinghamshire, which 
 library is, by the appointment of the donor, under the care 
 of the inhabitants of an almshouse at the same place." • 
 About fifty folio volumes, chiefly Benedictine editions of the 
 Fathers, are in the rectory house at Wendlebury, Oxford- 
 shire, and at Halifax, Yorkshire, the books are kept in a 
 room under the chancel. 
 
 Among further libraries of this kind may be noticed 
 those at Brent Eleigh, Suffolk; Tong, Shropshire; Sutton 
 Courtenay, Berkshire; St. Peter's-in-East, Oxford; St. Peter's, 
 Maldon, Essex ; and at Gillingham, Dorset. 
 
 • Gentleman* s Magazine^ 1792, pt. ii. Ii8i. Mr. Edwards, in his 
 '* Memoirs of Libraries," says this library was given by Sir John 
 Kederminster, in 1632, and is placed at the west end of the Keder- 
 minster Chapel." 
 
296 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 BOOKS IN CHAINS. 
 
 The custom of fastening books to their shelves was formerly 
 an important feature of many of our church libraries, 
 interesting illustrations of which may still be seen in some 
 country parishes. The practice of chaining single books in 
 churches would seem to have originated in the injunctions 
 given by Edward VI. to " the Clergie and the Laitie " in 
 1547, in which they are ordered "to provide within three 
 moneths after the visitacion one boke of the whole Bible of 
 largest volume in English, and within one twelvemonth 
 after the saied visitacion, the Paraphrasis of Erasmus, the 
 same to be sette uppe in some convenient place within 
 the churche." This injunction was repeated by Queen 
 Elizabeth in 1559, and '* although nothing was mentioned 
 about chains, it seems very probable that the churchwardens 
 would, for their own sake, adopt that plan of protecting 
 their property." * 
 
 In the churchwardens* accounts of the sixteenth century, 
 mention is frequently made of the purchase of certain books 
 in compliance with such injunctions. In those of Wigtoff, 
 Lancashire, under 1549, we find these items : — 
 
 * W. Blades, "Books in Chains" (1890, 10), which contain a care- 
 fully arranged list of chained books. 
 
BOOKS IN CHAINS. 297 
 
 " It payd for the paraphrases of Erasmus, 7^. 
 
 " It. payd for a chayne for y' paraphrases, 4^." * 
 
 The churchwardens' accounts of Leverton, Lincolnshire, 
 contain similar entries : — 
 
 1549. " It'm p'd for ij newe Salters, xj. 
 
 *'It*m p'd for the second booke and tome of 
 homelies, iiijj-. viij^." 
 
 1570. **It'm p'd for half Mr. Juylles boke called the 
 Appologie of Ingland, iiijj. 
 
 " It'm p'd for the cariage of the same boke \\\]d'' 
 
 Many entries of a similar character occur in the church- 
 wardens' accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster : — 
 
 1548. " Paid for the half-part of the Paraphrases of 
 Erasmus, 55." 
 
 155 1. " Paid for a book of articles 2J." 
 
 1559. " Paid for a Bybyl and a Parafrawse i6j." 
 . 1566. " Paid for two books of Praises, set out by the 
 Bishop of Canterbury, to be read Sundays, Wednesdays, 
 and Fridays, 6^." 
 
 1581. "Paid for a book of the Abridgement of the 
 Statutes to remain in the Church, 9^." 
 
 Archbishop Parker required Jewel's " Defence of the 
 Apology " to be placed in parish churches, and Archbishop 
 Bancroft prescribed that a copy of his collected works 
 (edit. 1609, 161 1) should be similarly placed, together with 
 Erasmus's Paraphrase, f 
 
 An ancient desk and chain, preserved in the library at 
 Lincoln, may, it has been suggested,! have been used for 
 the^Bible which Henry VIII. , in 1537, ordered to be placed 
 in all churches for the perusal of the common people, who 
 
 ♦ Nichols' *' Illustrations of Manners and Expenses," 1797. 
 t Ayres* " Life of Jewel," Parker Soc. edit, of his Works, vi. 
 p. xxviii. 
 X " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 122. 
 
298 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 came, some to read and some to listen. Bale records in his 
 narrative of Anne Askew's examination, how she said, " As I 
 was in the minster reading upon the Bible, the priests re- 
 sorted unto me by two and two." Erasmus saw in the 
 nave of Canterbury " some books fixed to the pillars, among 
 them the gospel of Nicodemus." 
 
 Out of two thousand volumes in the library of Hereford 
 Cathedral, about fifteen hundred are chained, this, probably, 
 being the largest chained collection in existence. But, 
 notwithstanding this precaution, many books are missing, 
 whilst others have suffered from the rough handling which 
 chains necessitate. The method of chaining has thus been 
 described : To attach the chain, a narrow strip of flat 
 brass is passed round the left-hand board and rivetted to it 
 in such a manner as to leave a loop in front of the edge 
 of the board, wide enough to admit an iron ring, one inch 
 and a quarter in diameter, to which one end of the chain 
 is fastened. The book is placed on the shelf with the fore- 
 edge turned outwards, and the other end of the chain is 
 fastened to a second ring rather larger than the former, 
 which plays along an iron bar. Here it was, in 1798, 
 Southey read the legend of the " Old Woman of Berkeley," 
 in Matthew of Westminster, which, as it was fastened to 
 the top shelf by a very short chain, he was compelled to 
 read standing on a number of books piled upon a lectern 
 once used by the librarian.* 
 
 The library at Wells Cathedral was a chained one, many 
 of the chains still hanging on the shelf, although there are 
 no chained books. At Salisbury Cathedral the books were 
 chained before printing was invented. One of the canons, 
 Thomas Cyrcetur, who died in 1452, gave some books to 
 the cathedral library, in two of which occurs the following 
 memorandum, written in a fifteenth-century hand upon the 
 * "Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 123. 
 
BOOKS IN CHAINS. 299 
 
 inside of the cover : " Cathenad^ in libraria noua ecctiae 
 ad dei honore." * 
 
 Wimborne Minster has long been famous for its chained 
 library, which consists of about two hundred and forty 
 volumes. They are in a room over the vestry, and mostly 
 belong to the seventeenth century. A catalogue of the 
 books, made in 1725, exists in manuscript, under lock and 
 key, and another made in 1863 by William George Wilkin- 
 son, was printed, a copy being kept in the library. The 
 chains are made of rod-iron bent into a figure of eight, 
 each chain is about three feet long, and has at one end a 
 ring which runs along an iron rod, and permits the book 
 being moved some little distance. The present shelving 
 ** is modern, and the old desks, which afforded a resting- 
 place for the volumes when consulted, have unhappily 
 disappeared. A glass case has quite recently been put 
 over the table, so as to cover up a few selected books, 
 with the result that the old-world look of this library has 
 altogether taken flight, and a show-room appearance sub- 
 stituted. All the books having the chain fixed to the fore- 
 edge are placed back just on the shelves, and have to be 
 released by pulling the chains, f 
 
 In 1598 a chained library was presented to the church 
 of Grantham, Lincolnshire, and placed in a room over the 
 south porch. There are two hundred and sixty-eight books 
 in the library, of which seventy-four have chains still 
 attached to them. In Turton parish church, Lancashire, 
 there is to be seen an oak case, with shelves and folding 
 doors, fitted with two iron bars, to which are chained the 
 books presented by Humphrey Chetham in 165 1. In the 
 year 1855, writes the late Mr. W. Blades, "the books were 
 restored by re-binding as nearly as possible to their original 
 
 ♦ " Books in Chains," 39. 
 
 t The Antiquary (November, 1890), 210. 
 
30O CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 state, the chains being fixed, cleaned, and the oak case 
 polished. It now stands in a conspicuous place near the 
 chancel." In 165 1, also, Humphrey Chetham left by will 
 certain books to be chained in the parish of Bolton-in-the- 
 Moors, Lancashire, which are now deposited in the Grammar 
 School Library. 
 
 There are two hundred and ninety books in the vestry of 
 Cartmel Church, Lancashire, and amongst them a fine copy 
 (4to) of Spenser's *' Faerie Queene," 1560. This library was 
 in existence in 1629, for in that year the churchwardens 
 ordered "That the books given unto the Church may bee 
 more convenientlie laid and chained, according to the direc- 
 tions of the donors." In the "Journal of the British 
 Archaeological Association" (1883, ix. 394), is a list of the 
 books kept in the parish schoolroom of Chirbury, Shrop- 
 shire, which number two hundred and seventeen, dating 
 from 1530 to 1684. At the present time the chains remain 
 on only a hundred and ten, although there are indications 
 that originally all the books were chained. 
 
 In many cases books were left by bequest to the church 
 library, on the distinct understanding that they were to be 
 chained. The following extract from the will of Sir Thomas 
 Lyttleton, dated 148 1, quoted in ''Testamenta Vetusta," is 
 an illustration of this practice : *' I will and bequeth to the 
 Abbott and Convent of Hales-Oweyn a book of myn called 
 * Catholicon ' to theyr own use for ever, and another boke 
 of myn wherein is contaigned the ' Constitutions Provincial ' 
 and ' De Gestis Romanorum ' and other treatis therein, which 
 I will be laid and bounded wyth an yron chayn in some 
 convenyent parte within the said Churche at my costes, so 
 that all priests and others may se and rede when it plesith 
 theym." 
 
 Humphrey Oldfield, by will, dated April 30, 1684, left 
 his theological books to be deposited in the chancel of 
 
BOOKS IN CHAINS. Zo\ 
 
 Salford Church, Lancashire, "with three pounds for the 
 woodwork and chains that they might not be stolen. They 
 became much dilapidated, and early in the present century 
 many were rejected and cast out as waste paper. The 
 remnant, seventy-two volumes, are now safely housed in the 
 Salford Free Library." * From the same source we learn 
 that " According to the will of Humphrey Chetham, dated 
 165 1, two hundred and two books were placed and chained 
 in the Jesus Chapel, Collegiate Church, Manchester. Their 
 disappearance, says Mr. Chancellor Christie, is one of the 
 most discreditable chapters in the history of the Wardens 
 and Fellows. In 1830 the books were sent to the Chetham 
 Hospital ; but nothing appears to have remained, save the 
 desks, a few old tattered books, and remnants of loose 
 chains. Soon after they — about one hundred volumes — 
 were sold to a bookseller of the town." \ 
 
 In Rutter's "Somerset" (258), we are told that "Against 
 the north wall of the old nave was a curious old tablet, dated 
 1669. At the top, was the portrait of Captain Samuel 
 Sturmy, of this parish, who published a mathematical treatise, 
 in folio, entitled * The Mariner's or Artisan's Magazine,' a 
 copy of which he gave to the parish, to be chained and 
 locked in the desk, until any ingenious person should borrow 
 it, leaving jT^i ^s a security in the hands of trustees," etc. 
 
 Among further existing specimens of chained books to be 
 seen, here and there, in different parishes, may be mentioned 
 those at the fine old church of St. Andrew Undershaft, 
 Leadenhall Street. This small library includes Fox's " Book 
 of Martyrs," and Erasmus's " Paraphrase on the Gospels." 
 Several of the books were re-bound some years ago, but one 
 still has attached to it a chain about three feet long, with a 
 swivel in the centre. 
 
 * " Books in Chains," 39. 
 t Ibid. 36.. 
 
302 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 At All Hallows' Church, Lombard Street, is a glass case 
 containing " The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of 
 Erasmus upon the Newe Testament. Enpriented (sic) at 
 London in Flete Strete at the signe of the Sunne by Edwarde 
 Whitchurch the last daie of Januarie Anno Domini 1548." 
 The second volume is dated "the ii daye of June, 1552." 
 On the first volume is a rude chain of sixteen links attached 
 to the top of the left-hand cover, and to the bottom of the 
 right-hand cover of the second volume a similar chain is 
 attached. The third volume is ''The Holy Bible," 1613, 
 the pages of which are wanting after Rev. xviiL 12. These 
 three volumes were originally chained to a desk in St 
 Leonard's Church, Eastcheap. They were rescued in 1666 
 when the church was burnt, and the parish, after the Great 
 Fire, having been united to St. Benet's, Gracechurch, they 
 were deposited there until this church was destroyed in 1864, 
 and united to All Hallows, when they were located in their 
 present position. 
 
 At St. Clement's, Eastcheap, two books are preserved 
 which were once in chains, these being " Pearson on the 
 Creed " (presented by the author himself), and the other 
 Comber's " Companion to the Temple." 
 
 An entry in the churchwardens' books of All Saints', 
 Derby, of about the year 1525, gives a curious list of chained 
 books — 
 
 " These be the bokes in our lady chapell tyed with chanes 
 y* were gyifen to Alhaloes Church in Derby — 
 
 ** Imprimis, one boke called Summa Summarum. 
 
 "Item. A boke called Summa Raumundi. 
 
 " Item. Anoyer called pupilla oculi. 
 
 "Item. Anoyer called the Sexte. 
 
 " Item. A boke called Hugueyon. 
 
 " Item. A boke called Vitus patsum. 
 
 " Item. Anoyer boke called Pauls pistols. 
 
BOOKS IN CHAINS. 303 
 
 *' Item. A boke called Januensis Super Evangeliis domi- 
 nicalibus. 
 
 " Item. A Grette Fortuose. 
 
 " Item. Anoyer boke called Legenda Aurea." * 
 
 In Breadsall Church stands an old double reading-desk, 
 with folding lids that can be fastened by a simple padlock 
 at the top. There are four volumes on each side, all secured 
 with chains attached to the binding, viz. : Jewell's Works, 
 1609; Burnet's "Reformation," 2 vols., 1679 ^^^ 1681 ; 
 Cave's "History of the Fathers of the Church," 1683; 
 Cave's " Antiquitates Apostolicae," 1684; Cave's "History 
 of the Primitive Fathers," 1687 ; " A Collection of Cases 
 to recover Dissenters," 1694; and Josephus's Works, trans- 
 lated by Roger L'Estrange, 1702. 
 
 At Egginton Church, in the same county, there is kept in 
 the vestry a black-letter copy of Erasmus's " Paraphrase," 
 the binding of which shows traces of having been chained ; 
 and at Wolverley, Kidderminster, there is in the vestry " A 
 Defence of Jewell's Apology," with a chain attached to it 
 
 At Wootton Wawen Church, Warwickshire, there are on 
 a desk several chained works; and at Newport Pagnell, 
 Buckinghamshire, there is " The Defence of the Apology of 
 the Church of England," with chains attached to it ; and at 
 Barcheston, Warwickshire, there is " Musculus, Wolfgangus. 
 Common Places of Christian Religion " (4to, London, 1578), 
 with chain attached, as also a copy, with chain, of Erasmus's 
 " Paraphrase on the New Testament" 
 
 At Chelsea Church, Middlesex, there are five chained 
 books, and amongst them " The Vinegar Bible" (17 16-17) ; 
 and at Leyland, Lancashire, there are four chained volumes, 
 one being " A Preservative against Popery in Several Select 
 Discourses upon the Principal heads of Controversy between 
 
 ♦ " The Collegiate Church of All Saints', Derby," by Rev. Dr. Cox 
 and Mr. W. H. St. John Hope. 
 
304 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 Protestants and Papists," which was written by Edmund 
 Gibson, successively Bishop of Lincoln and London. 
 
 At Christchurch, Hants, there is a library of about one 
 hundred volumes, all chained ; and a correspondent oi Notes 
 and Queries^ writing some years ago of the Church of St. 
 Mary the Virgin, Wiggenhall, says : " In this church may 
 be seen fastened by chains to a wooden desk in the chancel : 
 Fox's ' Book of Martyrs,' in 3 vols., all chained to the same 
 staple; * Book of Homilies ' ; The Holy Bible ; * The Works 
 of Bishop Jewel,' in i vol. The title-pages are lost from 
 all ; in other respects they are in a fair state of preservation." 
 
 There are three chained books at St. Michael's Church, 
 Southampton ; and a black-letter Bible, with chain attached, 
 may be seen at the parish church of Stratford-on-Avon. 
 Some years ago a desk with Fox's " Martyrs " lying upon it 
 was affixed to one of the pillars in the nave of Holy Trinity 
 Church, Hull. At Cunmor, Oxfordshire, there is a chained 
 Bible ; and at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, there is a copy 
 of Bishop Jewel's " Defence of the Apology for the Church 
 of England," 1609, chained to a desk in the church. 
 
 Connected with Great Yarmouth Church library is an 
 ancient reading-desk — an ingenious contrivance to enable 
 the reader to arrange the works of reference he may require, 
 and then to bring each one before him by simply giving the 
 desk a turn. It has six shelves with an aggregate length of 
 24f feet, and is so cleverly arranged that the shelves severally 
 maintain one angle, while all else is revolving. There are 
 about three hundred and twenty volumes in the library, and 
 amongst them a copy of Cranmer's Bible ; a Roman Missal ; 
 a manuscript roll, containing the Book of Esther, written 
 in Hebrew, unpointed and illuminated; and Matthew 
 Paris's "History of London" (157 1). 
 
 But, as it has oftentimes been remarked at the meetings 
 of our Archaeological Associations, it is sad to think how 
 
BOOKS IN CHAINS. ^ 305 
 
 many of these chained books have disappeared. A corre- 
 spondent of The Antiquary {^ov., 1890, 211), says: "An 
 American gentleman whom the writer met last summer at 
 a house of European fame, confessed to having in his 
 possession five old chained books that had come from 
 English churches." 
 
 Occasionally we find books chained to tombs. In the will 
 of Sir Thomas Ormond, Earl of Ormond, dated July, 15 15, 
 in this direction : " I will my sawter boke, covered with 
 whyte lether, and my name written with myne owne hande 
 in th' ende of same shall be fixed with a cheyne of iron at my 
 tombe, ther to remain for the service of God." He directs 
 his body to be buried in the church of St Thomas Aeon, 
 upon the north side of the ** high aulter, where the 
 sepulture of Almighty God is used yerely to be sett on Good 
 Friday," i.e. the Easter sepulchre.* 
 
 Wm. Lyndewood, Bishop of St. David's, author of the 
 ** Provinciale," by his will dated November 22, 1443, 
 directed that a copy of his book should be kept chained in 
 the upper part of St. Stephen's Chapel, at Westminster, 
 where he was buried, to serve as a standard test to which 
 all future editions should be referred — 
 
 " Item, volo quod liber mens quem compilavi super Consti- 
 tutiones Provinciales reponatur in cathenis et inferratus sit 
 ut salvo et secure custodiatur in superiori parte capelle Sci. 
 Stephani predicte vel alias in vestiario ejusdem capelle ut 
 quotiens opus fuerit pro veritate scripture primarie ejusdem 
 pro correctione aliorum librorum ab eodem tractatu copian- 
 dorum recurri poterit dum sit opus." f 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 7th series, xi. 367. 
 t " Archaeologia," xxiv. 419. 
 
3o6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 SOME CHURCH SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 It was not to be expected that the Church should have 
 escaped the influence of the great witchcraft movement, 
 which it has been justly said fills " one of the blackest pages 
 in the annals of British superstition." Hence, in many of 
 our old parish documents, we find all kinds of references to 
 this wretched delusion, for, it must be remembered, " witch- 
 craft was formerly an offence against the Church, which was 
 not directly punishable by the civil power before the change 
 of religion in England." * The first penal statute against 
 witches was enacted in the year 1541, when the clergy were 
 strictly enjoined by Cramner **to seek for any that use 
 charms, sorcery, enchantments, witchcraft, soothsaying, or 
 any like craft invented by the devil." 
 
 In 1563, some commotion was caused by Bishop Jewell's 
 preaching before EUzabeth on the wickedness of disobeying 
 the scripture precept to put witches to death ; \ and later on 
 Richard Baxter '* positively exulted in the legal murder of 
 a poor old crazed vicar, nearly eighty years of age, who, 
 after being a minister for fifty years without reproach, was 
 accused of dealings with the devil." Before the poor old 
 
 * R. E. Chester Waters, " Parish Registers in England" (1887), 58. 
 t "Jewell's Sermons," Parker Society, p. 1028. 
 
SOME CHURCH SUPERSTITIONS. 307 
 
 man was hanged, they extorted from him a confession which 
 Baxter gravely reproduces " for the conversion of the sad- 
 ducee and the infidel " : — 
 
 " Among the rest an old reading parson named Lewis, not 
 far from Framlingham, was one that was hanged, who con- 
 fessed that he had two imps, and that one was always 
 putting him on doing mischief, and (being near the sea) as 
 he saw a ship under sail, it moved him to send him to sink 
 the ship, and he consented, and saw the ship sink before 
 him." 
 
 But down to the close of the seventeenth century, persons 
 were supposed to die from the effects of being bewitched. 
 In the register of Holy Island, Northumberland, this 
 entry occurs: "1691. William Clough, bewitched to 
 death, buried 16 July." A similar entry occurs in the 
 register of Coggeshall, Essex, " 1699, December 27. The 
 widow Comon, that was counted a witch, was buried." 
 
 Even in the following century the belief in this super- 
 stition occasionally asserted itself with so much vigour that 
 "many accused persons felt themselves compelled by 
 public opinion to clear their characters by a voluntary sub- 
 mission to the accepted tests of guilt." * A curious case of 
 this kind of ordeal occurred in 1759, when Susanna 
 Hammokes, an elderly married woman, residing at Win- 
 grove, near Ailesbury, was accused by a neighbour of 
 bewitching her spinning-wheel so that she could not make 
 it go round. Accordingly her husband insisted on vindi- 
 cating his wife's character by a trial by the church Bible. 
 On February 25th, 1759, Mrs. Hammokes was solemnly con- 
 ducted to the parish church, where she was stripped of all 
 her clothes to her shift, and weighed against the great parish 
 Bible, in the presence of all her neighbours. The result was 
 that, to the no small mortification of her accuser, she out- 
 * R. E. Chester Waters, " Parish Registers," 61. 
 
3o8 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 weighed the Bible, and was triumphantly acquitted of the 
 charge.* 
 
 Beneath the choir of St. German's Cathedral, in the Isle 
 of Man, is a fine crypt. In this desolate dungeon, " reached 
 by thirty steps — the dead above, the booming of the sullen 
 sea below piercing through the crevices of the floor of rock 
 — Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, was imprisoned on a 
 charge of witchcraft." According to another piece of super- 
 stition, her spirit, after death, was supposed to take the form 
 of a spectre hound, the Mauthe Dhoog of " Peveril of the 
 Peak " which, Waldron tells us, was a " terror to profane 
 soldiers." f 
 
 Occasionally horse-shoes are nailed on the doors of some 
 Devonshire churches, as at Haccombe, Stampford Peverell, 
 and elsewhere ; these, no doubt, having been intended, in 
 days gone by, to serve as charms against evil influences. 
 Near the south doorway of Stanningfield Church, Suffolk, is 
 the figure of a horse-shoe, said to have been placed there 
 in order to prevent witches from entering the church. J 
 
 In Tymm's *' Family Topographer" a curious account is 
 given of " The Witches' Cauldron," preserved in the vestry 
 of Frensham Church, Surrey, hammered out of a single 
 piece of copper, and "supposed to be a remain of the 
 ancient parochial hospitality at a wedding of poor maids. 
 Aubrey supposes it to have been used for the church ales. 
 Tradition reports it to have been brought from Borough 
 Hill, about a mile distant ; where if any one went to borrow 
 anything, he might have it a year or longer, provided he 
 kept his word as to the return. On this hill lies a great 
 stone, about six feet long; the party went to this stone, 
 knocked at it, declared what was wanted, and when they 
 
 * " Annual Register " (1759), ii. 73. 
 
 + Mackenzie Walcott, " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals, "224, 
 225. 
 
 X •' Proceediftgs of the Suffolk Institute of Atchjeology," iii. 309. 
 
WrrCH's CALDROX, FRENSHAM CHURCH. 
 
 Page 308. 
 
SOME CHURCH SUPERSTITIONS. 309 
 
 would return it ; and a voice answered appointing a time 
 when they would find the article desired. This kettle, with 
 the trivet, it is said, was so borrowed, but not returned 
 at the time fixed ; and though afterwards carried back, it 
 would not be received, and all subsequent applications have 
 been fi-uitless. Another tradition ascribes the place whence 
 it was borrowed to have been the neighbourmg cave, called 
 Mother Ludlam's Hole." 
 
 According to Grose,* Mother Ludlam, when properly 
 invoked, assisted the poor neighbours by lending culinary 
 utensils, etc., the business being thus transacted : '* The 
 petitioners went to the cave at midnight, turned three times 
 round, and thrice repeated aloud, * Pray, Mother Ludlam, 
 lend me such a thing (naming the utensil), and I will return 
 it within two days.' On the next evening the requested 
 moveable was found at the entrance of the cave. This 
 intercourse being continued until once, a person not 
 returning a large cauldron according to the stipulated time. 
 Mother Ludlam was so irritated that she refused to take it 
 back, when afterwards left at the cavern, and has never 
 since accommodated any one with the most trifling loan." 
 
 The story adds that the cauldron was afterwards carried 
 to Waverley Abbey, and after the dissolution of the 
 monastery, deposited in Frensham Church. But Salmon, in 
 his "Surrey" (139), says, "The great cauldron which lay in the 
 vestry, beyond the memory of man, was no more brought 
 thither from Waverley than, as report goes, by the fairies," 
 and adds, *' It need not raise any man's wonder for what 
 use it was, there having been many very lately to be seen, 
 as well as very large spits, which were given for entertain- 
 ment of the parish at the wedding of poor maids." 
 
 In the parish register of Wells, a.d. 1583, is recorded the 
 perishing on the coast of fourteen persons (seamen ?) coming 
 * ** Antiquities of England," v. 112. 
 
3IO CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 from Spain, " whose deaths were brought to pass by the 
 detestable working of an execrable witche of King's Lynn, 
 whose name was Mother Gabley ; by the boyling, or rather 
 labouring of certayn eggs in a payle full of colde water; 
 afterwards approved sufficientlie at the arraignement of the 
 saide witche." 
 
 A curious instance of tracking a church robbery by magic 
 has been handed down in the parish history of Holbeach. 
 The story goes that in the reign of Henry VI 1 1., the parish 
 church of Holbeach was robbed of a considerable amount of 
 its money and jewels, an event which led to the superstitious 
 practice of trying to ascertain the culprits by means of 
 magic. In an interesting paper by Mr. W. J. Hardy on 
 the subject, which appeared in the Antiquary (Jan. 1890, 
 4-6), we are told how, in the general consternation which 
 was occasioned by this serious loss, the leading men of the 
 parish adopted what was then evidently the customary course 
 at such times by resorting to "one Edmund Nasche, 
 dwellyng at Cicestre towene," in order that they might learn 
 from him " the namys of the thefifez, and to know where the 
 seyd money and goods was bycom." Although by trade 
 Edmund Nasche was a " wheeler," it would seem he added 
 largely to his income by practising " the craft of inchantement 
 and wichecraft." 
 
 But, in order to make the discovery of the thief more 
 certain, the good people of Holbeach secured the services 
 of " a certain John Lamkyn of Holbeach," who in addition 
 to practising witchcraft, was supposed to possess the 
 additional accomplishment of sorcery. 
 
 Accordingly, a conference took place at Cirencester, and, 
 "for a certeyn rewarde," Nasche and Lamkyn undertook 
 to give the parishioners of Holbeach the names of the 
 thieves, and the whereabouts of the money and church 
 goods. 
 
SOME CHURCH SUPERSTITIONS, 3ir 
 
 Their terms, it seems, were promptly accepted ; for, it is 
 recorded how then and there these soothsayers named one 
 John Patriche as having been concerned in the robbery at 
 Holbeach parish church. The party immediately returned 
 home to Lincolnshire ; and, despite the fact that John 
 Patriche had hitherto borne a good character, they reported 
 that " he was one of the thevez, and of those that shuld be 
 the robberez of the seyd churche." The story was at once 
 credited by the people of Holbeach, and poor John Patriche 
 was "brought into infamy, slander, and owte of credenz, 
 so that * such as afore thys tyme haue been conversant with 
 hym, withdraw his company, and such as afore this have 
 been his frendes, have hym now in mistrust withowt cause, 
 and withdraw their friendshippe and favour from hym to hys 
 utter undoying in this worlde for ever.' " As a proof of his 
 innocence, John Patriche sought for personal redress in the 
 Star Chamber, at the same time urging that it was against 
 the laws of God for any person to use and exercise " any 
 inchauntement, sorcery, or wichecraft." 
 
 Only Lamkyn made answer to the charge preferred against 
 him by Patriche, in reply to which he urged that at the time 
 of the robbery, he had long been resident at Holbeach, 
 gaining his livelihood by teaching and instructing children 
 **in the sciens of gramer." He went on to say that soon 
 after the robbery at the parish church, information was given 
 to the churchwardens, and to the leading inhabitants of 
 Holbeach, that Edmund Nasche was " an expert man in 
 the knowleg of thynges stolen," by reason of which he, 
 Lamkyn, at the request of the churchwardens, went to 
 Cirencester and saw Nasche, and demanded " of hym what 
 knowlege he cowde tell of the sayd robbery, shewyng to him 
 a payer of gloves of lether which were founde in the revestry 
 of the saide churche immedeately after the said robbery was 
 knowen to be done." He denied the possession of any 
 
312 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 supernatural power, but admitted that he had taken every 
 possible trouble to gain such information as might lead to 
 the discovery of the robbery. 
 
 But Lamkyn, adds Mr. Hardy, " makes no direct state- 
 ment of opinion one way or the other as to Patriche's guilt ; 
 his object was simply to clear himself of the charge of 
 being a practitioner of magic, or one who would avail him- 
 self of the aid of the black arts as a means of ascertaining 
 the truth on an obscure point, and thus, in detecting crime, 
 commit it." 
 
 At Ripon Cathedral, one of the most interesting sights is 
 St Wilfrid's needle, which is said by Camden to have been 
 used as an ordeal for women accused of unchastity. If they 
 could not pass through it they were considered guilty. 
 Many years ago, a correspondent of the Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine tells us he was once witness to an amusing ordeal of 
 this kind. *' While I was making my sketches," he writes, 
 " one of the gentlemen of the party led a young lady to the 
 ominous ' needle,' and entreated her to try the touchstone 
 of female honour. After some preparatory excuses the 
 blushing fair put her head into the opening, her friend being 
 in the choir avenue on the other side of the opening, in 
 order to assist her efforts; then her body; at last she 
 literally forced her whole body through the ' needle,' to the 
 inexpressible joy of him who proposed the trial, and to the 
 great mirth of the bystanders." * 
 
 According to the late Prebendary Mackenzie Walcott,t 
 "like similar preparations in tombs at St. Didier and St. 
 Menoux," the so-called St. Wilfrid's needle, "was an imita- 
 tion of the Basilican transenna." He considers it probably 
 served as a place for poor palsied folk to creep through in 
 
 • See Murray's "Handbook to the Northern Cathedrals" (1869), 
 pt. i. 170, 171. 
 . t " Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 224. 
 
I 
 
 ° 'i 
 
 W o 
 
 X Z 
 
 § I 
 
SOME CHURCH SUPERSTITIONS, SU 
 
 the expectation of being healed. A touchstone resembling 
 the ordeal of the needle at Ripon existed in Boxley Church, 
 Kent, in the shape of a small figure of St Rumbald, which 
 only those could lift who had never sinned in thought or in 
 deed. 
 
 Speaking of the cures of disease, we may note that a 
 special virtue has long been supposed to reside in " Sacra- 
 ment money" — a form of superstition which, with some 
 variation, prevails more or less throughout the country. In 
 the west of England it is customary to collect a certain 
 number of pennies, and then to change them into one silver 
 piece from the offertory, which is made into a ring and worn. 
 Mrs. Latham, in her ** West Sussex Superstitions " (" Folk- 
 lore Record," i. 39}, says that sometimes one may observe 
 a silver ring on the wedding-ring finger of a single woman. 
 Such rings are worn for the cure of fits, and are made out 
 of sixpences which have been begged from six young 
 bachelors. The same superstition largely prevails in the 
 northern counties, and on one occasion the vicar of Danby, 
 near Whitby, was asked for half a crown, after Holy Com- 
 munion, by a farmer, the thirty pence being proffered in 
 exchange.* 
 
 A similar belief attaches to Sacramental wine in Sussex ; 
 and Mrs. Latham relates how a farmer's daughter one day 
 called with a message from her mother to ask whether she 
 could procure some Sacramental wine. " For," said the 
 girl, " mother thinks, as she has tried everything else that 
 she can hear of, and it has done the baby no good, that a 
 little of the Sacramental wine might save it." 
 
 ♦ Henderson's "Folklore of Northern Counties," (1879), 146. 
 
314 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 HATS WORN IN CHURCH, ETC. 
 
 It is notorious that much irreverence in divine service pre- 
 vailed during the latter part of the sixteenth and the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth centuries. One custom which 
 prevailed, more or less, at this period, was that of men 
 wearing hats in church during sermon time ; frequent 
 allusions to which practice are to be met with in the litera- 
 ture of that day. 
 
 In Strype's " Life of Bishop Parker," is a copy of a repre- 
 sentation made to Queen Elizabeth concerning the irregular 
 manner in which the service was conducted, and proceeds 
 to state that " some minister in a surplice, others without, 
 some with a square cap, some with a round cap, some with 
 a hat," etc. 
 
 Cardinal Pole, in 1556, ordered veiling of bonnets and 
 bending knees in Hereford Cathedral, when the words were 
 sung, " Et incarnatus ex spiritu," and " Et Homo factus 
 est" A picture of Bishop Coe's funeral, in 1581, showed 
 the large congregation sitting in the choir of Ely, to hear 
 the sermon, " having their bonnets on." 
 
 In Foxe's ** Acts and Monuments," is an illustration repre- 
 senting Dr. Cole preaching at St. Mary's, Oxford. He 
 wears an ordinary out-door cap, and so do many of his 
 clerical hearers. 
 
HATS WORN IN CHURCH, ETC. 315 
 
 When Queen Elizabeth visited Cambridge in 1564, the 
 preacher, on Sunday morning, put off his cap out of respect 
 to the Queen ; but when he had advanced some way in his 
 sermon, " she sent the Lord Hunsdon to will him to put on 
 his cap, which he did to the end." 
 
 As showing that King James I. and his Court sat during 
 sermon time with their hats on, Mr. B. Nicholson quotes 
 from Ar. Wilson's "Life of King James" (1653), pp. 151, 
 152; and says it is certain that "the Lord Treasurer 
 would not have acted so differentiy from his master, in a 
 point of religious etiquette in his master's presence: " — "An. 
 Christ, 1620. For about this time one of his own chaplains, 
 preaching before him at Greenwich, took the text 4 Matt 8 
 — so that he concluded the devil to be a great monarch, 
 and no doubt he had his Vice-Royes, Councill of State, 
 Treasurers, Secretaries [etc.], ... he gives a character of every 
 particular officer, who were fit to be the devil's servants, 
 running through the body of the Court, . . . and when he came 
 to describe the devil's treasurers, exactions, and gripings, he 
 fixed his eye upon Cranfield, then Lord Treasurer, and 
 pointing at him with his hand, said with an emphasis, that 
 man (reiterating it), that man makes himself rich, and his 
 master poor, he is a fit treasurer for the devil. This the 
 author heard, and saw, whilst Cranfield sat with his hat 
 pulled down over his eyes, ashamed to look up ; the King 
 who sat just over him, smiling at the quaint satyre so 
 handsomely coloured over." 
 
 The custom was persisted in by the Puritans as late as 
 the middle of the seventeenth century, as appears by a letter 
 written from the Episcopal Palace, at Gloucester, in 1639, 
 by Jno. Allibond, to Dr. Heylin, the friend of Laud, and 
 one of the King's chaplains, in which, speaking of Alderman 
 Pury, of Gloucester, who was a candidate for the represen- 
 tation of that city, he says, " Old Pury, sometime a weaver, 
 
3i6 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 now an attorney, whom I think nothing has so much 
 indeered as his irreverence in God's House, sitting covered 
 when all the rest sit bare." This letter was published in 
 the Gloucester Journal^ January, 1874, and has since 
 appeared in the calendar of State Papers (domestic). 
 
 " If one passing through a church shall put off his hat, 
 there is a giddy and malignant race of people (for indeed 
 they are the true malignants), who will give out that he is 
 running post to Rome " (" Howell's Familiar Letters," temp. 
 Charles I.). 
 
 In a sermon preached by James Rowlanson, B.D., chap- 
 lain to the king, at the consecration of Pear-tree Church, 
 Southampton, in the year 1620, the following passage 
 occurs : — 
 
 " How unmannerly are a many that carry themselves with 
 more lowlinesse in a Gentleman's Hall (for there they will 
 uncouer) then in the House of God ? A French fashion, 
 indeed, but very ill-fauored, though it be naturalized amongst 
 the most, and growne English euen in our greatest congrega- 
 tions, where the apprentice that stands bare-headed all the 
 weeke long in his master's shop, must need have his hat on 
 in the church. Grant it an indulgence to the aged and the 
 weake, who yet to testifie reuerence might put off hats, and 
 to confesse a weaknesse, might keep heads warme enough 
 with some other fit and graue covering. But what priuiledge, 
 but pride and wantonnesse can be alledged for the strong 
 and healthful! in times and places of no extremity of cold ? 
 I may say of it, as Tacitus speaks of astrologie, semper 
 vetabiiur^ semper retinebitur : there is little hope of redresse, 
 yet still it desueres (mee thinkes) to bee rebuked." 
 
 On one occasion when Dr. Donne was preaching in the 
 ordinary course at St. Dunstan's Church, he thus referred to 
 this custom — 
 
 *' And is not this the King of kings' house ? or have 
 
HATS WORN IN CHURCH, ETC. 317 
 
 they seen the king in his own house use that liberty to cover 
 himself in his ordinary manner of covering at any part of 
 divine service? Every preacher will look, and justly, to 
 have the congregation uncovered at the reading of his text ; 
 and is not the reading of the lesson, at time of prayer, the 
 same word of the same God, to be received with the same 
 reverence? The service of God is one entire thing; and 
 though we celebrate some parts with more or less reverence, 
 some kneeling, some standing, yet if we afford it no reverence, 
 we make that no part of God's service. And therefore I 
 must humbly entreat them, who make this choir the place 
 of their devotion, to testify their devotion by more outward 
 reverence there," etc.* 
 
 Edmund Rossingham, writing to Edward, Viscount 
 Conway, in a letter dated June 8, 1640, referring to the 
 Canons, and Articles of Visitation, says — 
 
 " There is another Article to inquire who keep on their 
 hats during divine service and in sermon-time, for the 
 keeping off of hats has been much urged in many churches 
 in and about the city. On Sunday, last week, the parson 
 of St Giles-in-the-Fields took so great scandal at two earls 
 that were in the Church, for putting on their hats in sermon- 
 time, that he went out of the Church [in great] discontent. 
 One of these earls taking notice afterwards to his Grace (the 
 archbishop) by way of offence at the parson, his Grace 
 replied in the Doctor's behalf that he had been very diligent 
 for a long time to bring his parishioners to a decency of 
 behaviour in the Church." 
 
 One of the Articles of inquiry at Bishop Hackett's second 
 triennial visitation in 1668, is " Do your parishioners behave 
 reverently in Church, men and youths with their hats off? " 
 Similarly, Bishop Cosin, in his " Primary Visitation of Dur- 
 ham Cathedral, 1662," speaks of " some who come into the 
 • Donne, sermon preached at S. Dunstan's, ed. Alford, v. 354. 
 
3i8 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 quire in their furre and nightgowns, and sit with their hats 
 on their heads at the reading of the lessons." In 1689 
 King William gave great offence because he would wear his 
 hat in church, and if he ever uncovered it during the liturgy, 
 always resumed when the sermon began.* 
 
 But, as Mr. T. H. Overton remarks in his " Life in the 
 English Church, 1660-17 14," "In dealing with the subject 
 (that of irreverent behaviour in church generally) we must 
 be upon our guard against applying the standard of the 
 nineteenth century to the habits of the seventeenth. For 
 instance, it seems very sad to think that the restorers of 
 Church order had to wage incessant war against the habit of 
 wearing the hat during divine service, or at any rate during 
 parts of it. But it must be borne in mind that the hat 
 was not infrequently worn indoors during the seventeenth 
 century." Pepys evidently considered it an unnecessary 
 piece of strictness to insist on the bare head in church, for 
 he tells us contemptuously how he heard a " simple fellow 
 [in a sermon] exclaiming against men's wearing their hats 
 in Church." 
 
 The popular usage of " smelling the hat " would appear 
 to be somewhat old. The term is derived from a little boy 
 in Punch asking his father why gentlemen " smelled their 
 hats on going into church." The following extracts are 
 interesting as illustrating this practice : — 
 
 " And after a good while I grew so infirm, through this 
 continual pain, that it was all I could do, when Assumption 
 Day came, to venture to go and sit down and hear a sermon. 
 And as I put my hat before my eyes, I fell into a swoon 
 from very weakness," etcf 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 7th series, i. 458. 
 
 t From MS. of Rulman Merswin, one of the "Friends of God," or 
 Mystics of the Fourteenth Century, extracted from introductory notice 
 to *' John Tauler's Life and Sermons," edited by Susanna Winkworth 
 (1857). 148. 
 
HATS WORN IN CHURCH, ETC. 319 
 
 And again : " When the master [John Tauler] came and 
 saw that there was such a multitude, he went up into a 
 pulpit in a high place, that they might hear him all the 
 better. Then he held his hood before his eyes, and said, 
 * O merciful Eternal God.' " * 
 
 The late Prebendary Mackenzie Walcott says this fashion 
 came in from the hall when kneeling went out in church. 
 Gratiano, in the *' Merchant of Venice " (ii. 2) — 
 
 "[I will] 
 Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely ; 
 Nay more, while grace is saying, hood mine eyes 
 Thus with my hat, and sigh, and say amen. " 
 
 According to a correspondent of Notes and Queries (7 th 
 series, i. 113), the following passage from the regulations 
 issued by the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge previous to the 
 visit of James I., in the year 16 15, seems to show that 
 smoking in church was at that time not unknown in 
 England : — 
 
 " That noe Graduate, SchoUer, or Student of this Univer- 
 sitie, presume to resort to any inn, taverne, ale-howse, or 
 tobacco-shop, at any time during the aboade of his majestie 
 here; nor do presume to take tobacco in St Marie's 
 Church, or in Trinity Colledge Hall, uppon payne of finall 
 expellinge the Universitie." t But it has been suggested by 
 another correspondent that the term ** take tobacco," more 
 probably referred to snuffing rather than to smoking. " Not 
 only," it is added, *' was the latter operation usually at that 
 period designated 'drinking tobacco,' but snuffing was 
 especially in favour with * the faculty,' and recommended by 
 them as the best preventive and cure for cold in the head." 
 On the other hand, it has been urged that King James, 
 
 * Ibid;, p. 49. See Notes and Queries^ 6th series, i. 374. 
 
 t Nichol's " Progresses of King James the First " (1828), iii. 44. 
 
320 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 in his *' Counterblaste to Tobacco," constantly speaks of 
 " taking tobacco " in the sense of smoking, and not of 
 snuffing. The subjoined passage has been adduced as an 
 example of the term " taking tobacco " being applied to 
 smoking — 
 
 " Surely Smoke becomes a kitchin far better than a 
 dining-chamber, and yet it makes a kitchin also oftentimes 
 in the inward parts of men, soiling and infecting them, with 
 an unctious and oily kind of soote, as hath been found in 
 some great tobacco takers, that after their deaths were 
 opened " (Arber's reprint, 1 1 1). 
 
 Among the strange stories told of Blackburn, Archbishop 
 of York, may be quoted the following relating to his smoking 
 in church. It is contained in a letter written by John 
 Disney, Rector of Swindon, Lincolnshire, to James Granger, 
 dated Dec. 13th, 1773 : — 
 
 " The anecdote which you mention is, I believe, unques- 
 tionably true. The affair happened in St. Mary's Church, 
 in Nottingham, when Archbishop Blackburn (of York) was 
 there on a visitation. The archbishop had ordered some of 
 the apparitors, or other attendants, to bring him pipes and 
 tobacco, and some liquor into the vestry for his refreshment 
 after the fatigue of confirmation. And this coming to Mr. 
 Disney's ears, he forbad their being brought thither, and 
 with a becoming spirit remonstrated with the archbishop 
 upon the impropriety of his conduct, at the same time 
 telling his Grace, that his vestry should not be converted 
 into a smoking-room." * 
 
 A similar story is told of Dr. Parr, who smoked in the 
 vestry at Hatton, before his sermon, while the congregation 
 
 * "Letters between the Rev. James Granger, M.A., and many of 
 the most Eminent Literary Men of his Time," edited by J. P. Malcolm, 
 p. 198. The Mr. Disney mentioned was grandfather of the writer of 
 the letter. 
 
HATS WORN IN CHURCH, ETC. 321 
 
 were singing. For, as the doctor justly remarked, "My 
 people like long hymns, but I prefer a long clay." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in his " Heart of Midlothian " (chap, 
 xlii.), has given an amusing instance of smoking in church, 
 the smoker being one Duncan, of Knockdunder, a person of 
 some local importance : — 
 
 " So soon as the congregation were seated after prayers, 
 and the clergyman had read his text, the gracious Duncan, 
 after rummaging the leathern purse which hung in front of 
 his petticoat, produced a short tobacco pipe made of iron, 
 and observed almost aloud, * I hae forgotten my spleuchan. 
 Lachlan, gang down to the Clachan, and bring me up a 
 pennyworth of twist.* 
 
 ** Six arms, the nearest within reach, presented, with an 
 obedient start, as many tobacco-pouches to the man of 
 office. He made choice of one with a nod of acknow- 
 ledgment, filled his pipe, lighted it with the assistance of his 
 pistol-flint, and smoked with infinite composure during the 
 whole time of the sermon. At the end of the discourse he 
 knocked the ashes out of his pipe, replaced it in its sporran, 
 returned the tobacco-pouch or spleuchan to its owner, and 
 joined in the prayer with decency and attention." 
 
322 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 CHURCH-ALES AND RUSH-BEARINGS. 
 
 An important festival in many of our old country parishes, 
 was the Church-ale, which, originally instituted in honour 
 of the church saint was, in after years, frequently kept up 
 for the purpose of contributing towards the repairs of the 
 church. Existing at a period prior to the establishment of 
 church-rates, the contributions levied at this season were a 
 real necessity if the fabric of the church was to be kept in 
 proper order. On such an occasion, it was the business of 
 the churchwardens to have brewed a considerable quantity 
 of strong ale, a custom which, it is said, led *'to a great 
 pecuniary advantage, for the rich thought it a meritorious 
 duty, besides paying for their ale, to offer largely to the 
 church fund." In Francis Beaumont's *' Exaltation of Ale," 
 we find this allusion to the church-ale — 
 
 ** The churches much owe, as we all do know. 
 For when they be drooping and ready to fall, 
 By a Whitsun or Church-ale up again they shall go 
 And owe their repairing to a pot of good ale." 
 
 But, like other festival gatherings, the church-ale, in 
 course of time, was abused ; and it is recorded how actually 
 in the body of the church, when the people were assembled 
 together for devotion, they not only turned their attention 
 
CHURCH-ALES AND RUSH-BE A RINGS. 323 
 
 to diversions, but even introduced drinking. Another cause 
 of complaint arose from the church-ale being occasionally- 
 celebrated on Sunday ; and in a sermon preached by one 
 Wilh'am Kethe, at Blandford Forum, in 1570, this passage 
 occurs : " Which holy day, the multitude call their revelyng 
 day, which day is spent in bull-beatings, beau-beatings, 
 dicyng, cardyng, daunsynges, drunkenness, etc." Stubbs, 
 in his "Anatomie of Abuses" (1585), is somewhat severe in 
 his strictures on the church-ale as observed in his day, and 
 says, ** In this kind of practice they continue six weeks — a 
 quarter of a year — yea, half a year together. That money, 
 they say, is to repair their churches and chapels with, to 
 buy books for service, cups for the celebration of the Sacra- 
 ment, and other such necessaries. And they maintain their 
 extraordinary charges in their parish besides." 
 
 There seem to have been some ground for these remarks 
 of Stubbs, for, in some parishes, several of these ales were 
 held in the course of the year, sometimes one or more 
 parishes agreeing to keep a certain number of them. It is 
 related, for instance, how "the parishioners of Elvaston and 
 Okebrook, in Derbyshire,' agree jointly to brew four ales 
 betwixt this (the time of the contract) and the feast of St. 
 John Baptist next coming; and that every inhabitant of 
 the said town of Okebrook shall be at the several ales ; and 
 every husband and his wife shall pay twopence, and every 
 cottager one penny; and all the inhabitants of Elvaston 
 shall have and receive all the profits and advantages coming 
 of the said ales, to the use and behoof of the said Church 
 of Elvaston." 
 
 By the Canons of 1683 it was enacted that " the Church- 
 wardens or questmen and their assistants shall suffer no 
 plays, feasts, banquets, supper. Church-ale drinkings . . . 
 in the Church, Chapel, or Churchyard." 
 
 How closely the festivities of the church-ale were associ- 
 
324 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 ated with the sacred fabric itself may be gathered from the 
 fact that several pieces of sculpture in Cirencester Church 
 commemorate these old merry-makings. In the church 
 porch of Chalk Church, Kent, have been preserved some 
 grotesque figures, illustrating the festive scenes as witnessed 
 at a church-ale. On the beam of a screen in the church of 
 Thorpe-le-Soken, near Walton-on-the-Naze, is the following 
 inscription, in raised Gothic letters, on a scroll held by two 
 angels: "This cost is the bachelors, made by ales theen he 
 ther med." The date of the screen is, as far as can be 
 ascertained, about the year 1480.* 
 
 But the memorials of this kind that have come down to 
 us of the church-ale are scanty. *^ I have," writes Mr. 
 Edward Peacock, in '*The Archaeological Journal" (1883, 
 xl. 14), " met with two — one a piece of stained glass, and 
 the other sculpture, which I think are representations of 
 church-ales. Where the glass now is I know not. There 
 is an engraving of it in The Gentlemaiis Magazine (1793, 
 i» 397)- It is a small roundel, seemingly of late fifteenth or 
 early sixteenth century work. In the centre stands a gigantic 
 work — the demon of the feast — and around him are human 
 figures — two women, a priest, a soldier, and a blind crippled 
 beggar with his dog, all of whom seem to be in various stages 
 of intoxication ; in the upper part of the picture are two 
 large tubs and sundry ale pots. The engraving is rude and 
 probably by no means accurate. 
 
 " The sculpture is on two of the bench ends in the church 
 of Stevington, Bedfordshire. The one represents a man 
 lying down hopelessly drunk, and the other two men crouched 
 down drinking out of a large bowl which they hold between 
 them. From the Certificate of Chantries it seems that there 
 was in this parish, before the Reformation, certain lands 
 
 * Notes and Queries^ 6th series, x. 244. See "Journal of Archaeo- 
 logical Association," x. 183. 
 
CHURCH-ALES AND RUSH-BEARINGS. 325 
 
 given for the purpose of drinking there. Their rent in the 
 second year of Edward VI. was four shillings and eightpence." 
 
 " Drinking Bush Hill," adds Mr. Peacock, " was the name 
 of a place on the western side of the parish. When the 
 people were in the habit of beating the bounds, a hole was 
 dug on this spot, and certain men used to jump into it, and 
 drink as much as they could. Whether this practice was 
 a genuine relic of old heathendom, or whether it was a kind 
 of symbolic representation of the church-ale kept up after 
 the feast itself had fallen into disuse, it is impossible to say." 
 
 In addition to the feasting and merrymaking at the church- 
 ale, it appears that certain amusements were provided for 
 the recreation of the visitors. Hutchins, in his " History of 
 Northumberland," tells us that in the northern counties these 
 festivals were held under tents and booths erected in the 
 churchyard. Interludes were performed, " being a species 
 of theatrical performance, consisting of a rehearsal of some 
 passage in Holy Scripture personated by actors." Miss 
 Baker, in her " Glossary of Northamptonshire Words " (1854), 
 describing a Whitsun or church-ale early in the present cen- 
 tury in a barn at King's Sutton, says that it was specially 
 fitted up for the occasion. The lord, as the principal, carried 
 a mace made of silk, finely plaited with ribbons, and filled 
 with spices and perfumes for such of the company as desired 
 it. Six morris-dancers were among the performers. From 
 the same source we learn that at an ale kept at Greatworth, 
 in the year 1785, all those who misconducted themselves 
 were obliged to ride a wooden horse ; " and if still more 
 unruly were put in the stocks which was termed being my 
 lord's organist" In Coates' *' History of Reading," under 
 the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary's Church, we find 
 this entry : " Payed to the Morrys dansers and the mynstrelles 
 mete and drink at Whysontide, iiji". iiij^." 
 
 To defray the expenses of the church-ale, persons ofi:en- 
 
326 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS, 
 
 times left in their wills special bequests for this purpose. 
 Sir Richard Worsley, in his " History of the Isle of Wight," 
 speaking of the parish of Whitwell, tells us that there is a 
 lease in the parish chest, dated 1574, "of a house called 
 the Church-house, held by the inhabitants of Whitwell, 
 parishioners of Gatcombe, of the lord of the manor, and 
 demised by them to John Erode," in which is contained the 
 following proviso : " Provided always, that if the quarter 
 shall need at any time to make a quarter-ale, or church-ale, 
 for the maintenance of the Chapel, that it shall be lawful 
 for them to have the use of the said house, with all the 
 rooms both above and beneath, during their ale." 
 
 Edwards, in his " Old English Customs and Charities," 
 mentions " an ancient customary donation of a quantity of 
 malt made annually at Whitsuntide by the proprietors of 
 Kempton mill, near the parish. The malt was always 
 delivered to the overseers of the parish for the time being, 
 and brewed by them into ale, which was distributed among 
 all the poor inhabitants on Whit Tuesday." 
 
 " Something of the nature of a church-ale," says Mr. 
 Peacock,* " seems to have survived at Bicester till the year 
 1816, and at Kirton, in Lindsey, existed until within my 
 own memory. The church-house had long been swept 
 away, and no money for the fabric was raised by the ale, 
 but the salary of the sexton was in part paid by a feast given 
 at his house, to which all persons could go who were willing 
 to pay for what they consumed." 
 
 Speaking of the church-house, this, Mr. Peacock adds, 
 " seems to have almost entirely passed away. As far as I 
 have been able to ascertain, not a single undoubted specimen 
 has been spared to us. Though it is not improbable that 
 the half-timbered building attached to the west end of the 
 church at Langdon, in Essex, and now called the Priest 
 * "The Archoeolcgical Journal," xl. 14. 
 
CHURCH-ALES AND RUSH-BEARINGS. 2>V 
 
 House is really one of these. There is hardly an old 
 Churchwardens' account-book that does not contain some 
 reference to a building of this kind. They continued to be 
 used for church purposes long after the Reformation. The 
 example at All Saints', Derby, stood in the churchyard, and 
 was in existence in 1747. The church-house at Tetbury, 
 Gloucestershire, was sold a few years ago for the purpose of 
 raising money for the repair of the church. At Ampthill 
 there is still remaining — adjoining the churchyard on the 
 south — a half-timbered cottage which may have been one 
 of these structures, but its identification is very uncertain." 
 
 Aubrey, in his introduction to the " Natural History of 
 Wiltshire," tells us that there were no rates for the poor in 
 his grandfather's days, the church-ale of Whitsuntide doing 
 the business. According to his account, *'in every parish 
 was a church-house to which belonged spits, crooks, and 
 other utensils for dressing provisions. Here the house- 
 keepers met. The young people were there too, and had 
 dancing, bowling, etc." 
 
 Carew, in his " Survey of Cornwall," thus describes the 
 church-ale and its festivities: "For the church-ale the 
 young men of the parish are yearly chosen by their last 
 foregoers to be wardens, who make collections among the 
 parishioners by whatsoever provision it pleaseth them volun- 
 tarily to bestow. This they employ in brewing and baking 
 against Whitsuntide, upon which holidays the neighbours 
 meet at the Church-House, and there merrily feed on their 
 own victuals. When the feast is ended the wardens yield 
 in their accounts to the parishioners, and such money as 
 exceedeth the disbursement is laid to defray any extraordinary 
 charges arising in the parish." 
 
 It is worthy of note that at Horton, near Slough, Buck- 
 inghamshire, a pubUc-house, known by the sign of the 
 Five Bells, with a small garden attached to it, is let by 
 
328 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 the churchwardens, and the income derived therefrom is 
 devoted to the repair of the church and churchyard. The 
 title by which the property is held is unknown ; but it is 
 probable, writes Mr. Peacock, that the Five Bells *' stands 
 on the site of the old church-house, and that there are no 
 deeds belonging to it because it has come down from 
 churchwarden to churchwarden from a very early time." * 
 
 Closely allied with the church-ale was the rush-bearing, a 
 festival which was attended with no small amount of merry- 
 making and rejoicing. In the " Sussex Archaeological Col- 
 lections" (1857, Ix.), the Rev. G. Mills Cooper thus writes : 
 " Though few are ignorant of this ancient custom, it may 
 not perhaps be so generally known that the strewing of 
 churches grew into a religious festival, dressed up in all that 
 picturesque circumstance whereof the old Church knew well 
 how to array its ritual. Remains of it linger to this day in 
 remote parts of England. In Westmoreland, Lancashire, 
 and districts of Yorkshire, there is still celebrated between 
 haymaking and harvest, a village fete called the rush-bear- 
 ing. Young women, dressed in white, and carrying garlands 
 of flowers and rushes, walk in procession to the parish 
 church, accompanied by a crowd of rustics, with flags flying 
 and music playing. There they suspend their floral chaplets 
 on the chancel rails, and the day is concluded with a simple 
 feast. The neighbourhood of Ambleside was one of the 
 chief strongholds of this popular practice. Up to the passing 
 of the Municipal Reform Act, the town clerk of Norwich 
 was accustomed to pay to the subsacrist of the cathedral an 
 annual guinea for strewing the floor of the cathedral with 
 rushes on the Mayor's Day, from the western door to the 
 entrance into the choir." 
 
 A correspondent of Notes and Queries (5th series, iv. 
 163), in an account of the rush-bearing at Grasmere, says 
 ♦ *' The Archaeological Journal," Ix. 9. 
 
CHURCH-ALES AND RUSH-BEARINGS. 329 
 
 the following notice was posted up at one of the entrances 
 of the churchyard : — 
 
 **The rush-bearing notices for 1875. Mr. Dawson will 
 give his gratuities of dd. only to such bearers who are attend- 
 ing the parochial day, infant, and Sunday schools during the 
 present school quarter. Rush-bearing standards for dressing 
 by ladies will be received at the school, only between the 
 hours of 4 and 6 on Thursday next, after which no standard 
 will be taken. The number of standards so received for 
 dressing at the school will be limited to fifty — that is, to the 
 fifty first brought to the school ; all beyond this number 
 will be refused, as the ladies cannot undertake a larger 
 number. 
 
 " All rush-bearings must be on the churchyard wall not 
 later than six o'clock on Saturday, the 17 th inst. — July 
 10, 1875." 
 
 The following hymn has been in use for many years in 
 Grasmere Church, at the rush-bearing festival : — 
 
 Hymn for the Rush-bearers. 
 
 *• Our fathers to the house of God, 
 As yet a building rude, 
 Bore offerings from the flowery sod 
 And fragrant rushes strew'd — 
 
 *' May we, their children, ne'er forget 
 The pious lesson given. 
 But honour still, tc^ether meet, 
 The Lord of earth and heaven. 
 
 *' Sing we the good Creator's praise. 
 Who gives us sun and showers 
 To cheer our hearts with fruitful days 
 And deck our world with flowers. 
 
 ** These, of the great Redeemer's grace. 
 
 Bright emblems here are seen ; 
 
 He makes to smile the desert place 
 
 With flowers and rushes green. 
 
330 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 ** All glory to the Father be, 
 All glory to the Son, 
 All glory, Holy Ghost, to Thee, 
 While endless ages run. Amen." 
 
 Rushes were strewn in the choir of Canterbury in 1655. 
 And the ancient custom of strewing the choir of Bristol 
 with sweet-smelling herbs is still observed when the mayor 
 visits the cathedral in state.* 
 
 At Runcorn and Warburton, Cheshire, the rush-bearing 
 was carried out in an imposing manner. Another corre- 
 spondent of Notes and Queries^ describing one of these 
 scenes some years ago, thus wrote : ** A large quantity of 
 rushes — sometimes a cart-load — is collected, and being 
 bound on the cart, are cut evenly at each end, and on 
 Saturday evening a number of men sit on the top of the 
 rushes, holding garlands of artificial flowers, etc. The cart 
 is drawn round the parish by three or four spirited horses, 
 decked with ribbons, the collars being surrounded with 
 small bells. It is attended by morris-dancers fantastically 
 dressed ; there are men in women's clothes, one of whom, 
 with his face blackened, has a belt with a large bell attached 
 round his waist, and carries a ladle to collect money from 
 the spectators. The party stop and dance at the pubhc- 
 house on their way to the parish church, where the rushes 
 are deposited, and the garlands are hung up to remain till 
 the next year." 
 
 Many curious bequests in years past were made for the 
 strewing of the church with rushes. According to Edwards,t 
 the parish of Clee, Lincolnshire, possesses "a right of 
 cutting rushes from a piece of land called ' Bescars ' for the 
 purpose of strewing the floor every Trinity Sunday. A 
 small quantity of grass is annually cut to preserve this right" 
 
 * "Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 132. 
 t " Old English Custom and Charities," 216-219. 
 
CHURCH-ALES AND RUSH-BEARINGS. 33i 
 
 At Wingrave, Buckinghamshire, a piece of land was left to 
 furnish rushes for the church on the feast Sunday ; and, in 
 accordance with an old bequest, it has been customary for 
 the mayor to go to St Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, on 
 Whitsunday, when the church is strewn with rushes. 
 
 Occasionally, instead of rushes, hay was used for strewing 
 the church floor. Bridges, in his " Northamptonshire," 
 speaks of a custom observed at Middleton-Cheney, of 
 strewing the church " in summer with hay gathered from 
 six or seven swaths in Ash Meadow." At Old Weston, 
 Huntingdonshire, '*a piece of land belongs by custom to 
 the parish clerk for the time being, subject to the condition 
 of the land being mown immediately before Weston feast in 
 July, and the cutting thereof being strewed on the church 
 floor, previously to divine service on the feast Sunday, and 
 continuing there during divine service." A close, called 
 the " Church Acre," was set out on the inclosure of Glen- 
 field, Leicestershire, " in lieu of lands in the open fields, the 
 rent of which has always been paid to the clerk of the 
 parish, as a part of his salary. In respect of this land the 
 clerk is obliged to strew the church with new hay on the 
 first Sunday after the 5 th July, and for this purpose he is 
 allowed to take a cut of hay from off" the land." 
 
 In the parish account books of Hailsham, Sussex, charges 
 occur for strewing the church floor with straw or rushes, 
 according to the season of the year ; and in the books of 
 the City of Norwich we find similar entries for pea-straw 
 used for such strewing. 
 
 Fennel was strewn round the shrine of St. Etheldreda at 
 Ely, and at the coronation of George III. the King's herb- 
 woman and six maids strewed the abbey with sweet herbs.* 
 
 In the churchwardens' accounts of SL Mary-at-Hill, 
 London, these items are given : — 
 
 * *' Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 132. 
 
332 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 " 1493. For 3 Burdens of rushes for y* new pews 3^. 
 
 " 1504. Paid for 2 Berden Rysshes for the strewing the 
 newe pewes, 3^." 
 
 In the parish register of Kirkham, Lancashire, are entries 
 to this effect: "1604. Rushes to strew the church cost 
 this year 9^. 6^." Under 1631 : "Paid for carrying the 
 rushes out of the church in the sickness time 5 j." But, after 
 1634, disbursements for rushes never appear in the Kirkham 
 register when the church was flagged for the first time. 
 
( 333 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 SOME CURIOUS RELICS. 
 
 Carefully preserved in many of our parish churches are 
 sundry antiquarian curiosities, some of which have a legendary 
 and historical interest. Among the treasures preserved at 
 York Cathedral is the celebrated so-called horn of Ulphus, 
 which is really a portion of the tusk of an elephant, about 
 three feet long. It dates from a period shortly before the 
 Conquest, when Ulph, the son of Thorald, the lord of great 
 part of eastern Yorkshire, laid this horn on the altar in 
 token that he bestowed certain lands on the Church of 
 St. Peter. This famous horn is encircled about the mouth 
 by a belt of carving, representing griffins, a unicorn, a lion 
 devouring a doe, and dogs wearing collars. The griffins 
 stand on either side of a tree, which at once recalls the 
 conventional sacred tree of Assyrian sculpture. 
 
 At the time of the Commonwealth this horn disappeared, 
 but it afterwards came into the hands of Lord Henry 
 Fairfax, who restored it in 1675 to the Minster authorities. 
 Its gold ornaments had been removed, but a brass silver- 
 gilt chain and bands were attached to it by the chapter. 
 The legend connected with this horn tells how " a certain 
 Ulphus, son of Thoraldi, was king, or sub-king, of the 
 
334 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 western portion of Deira, in the days when the Danes ruled 
 their Saxon brethren in these parts. Of Ulphus's four sons, 
 Adelbert, the eldest, was slain in battle, and the others, 
 even in their father's lifetime, quarrelled and strove about 
 the succession to his estates and kingdom. Wearied by 
 their strife, the aged chieftain at last determined on a step 
 that would end their disputes ; and that was to give the 
 whole of his dominions to the Church. Accordingly he rode 
 to York, taking with him his largest drinking-horn, and, 
 filling it with wine, he went upon his knees before the high 
 altar, there drank off the contents, and then placed the horn 
 upon the altar, to be held by the Church as title, in all time, 
 to all his lands, tenements, and wealth, thus bestowed upon 
 God and St. Peter." * 
 
 Henry II. " gave a horn of ivory containing the liberties 
 of Inglewood Forest at Carlisle, where Ray saw preserved 
 two elephant's teeth fastened in a bone like a scalp, which 
 they call the horns of the altar." Those now in the upper 
 sacristy look like the horns of a small deer, but Brane says, 
 " two great unicorns' horns of great value, by an ancient 
 custom, were placed upon the altar." f 
 
 At the west end of Ashby-de-la-Zouch Church, Leicester- 
 shire, there is a curious object called " a finger-stock or 
 pillory," an old instrument of punishment — a contrivance 
 to detain irreligious persons by the finger, so as to become 
 the mark for reprehension and scorn. A correspondent 
 of Notes and Queries (October 25, 1851), describing this 
 quaint contrivance, says, "It is fastened at its right-hand 
 extremity into a wall, and consists of two pieces of oak ; the 
 bottom and fixed piece is three feet eight inches long ; the 
 width of the whole is four and a half inches, and when closed, 
 it is five inches deep : the left-hand extremity is supported by 
 * "Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals," 173. 
 t Parkinson's *' Legends and Traditions of Yorkshire," 97. 
 
FINGER-STOCKS, OR PILLORIES. 
 1. Ashby-de-lu-Zjuche. 2. Littlecote, Wilts. 
 
 ^a^'<: 335- 
 
SOME CURIOUS RELICS. 335 
 
 a leg of the same width as the top, and two feet six inches in 
 length j the upper piece is joined to the lower by a hinge, 
 and in this lower and fixed horizontal part are a number of 
 holes varying in size. The largest are towards the right 
 hand. These holes are sufficiently deep to admit the finger 
 to the second joint, and a slight hollow is made to admit 
 the third one, which lies flat There is, of course, a 
 corresponding hollow at the top of the moveable part, 
 which, when shut down, encloses the whole finger." With 
 this curious instrument of punishment may be compared 
 another one preserved at Littlecote Hall, Wiltshire, and 
 which has long been an object of interest. 
 
 Winfarthing Church, Norfolk, was formerly renowned for 
 the possession of " a certeyn swerd, called the good swerd 
 of Winfarthyng." A chapel at the end of the south aisle 
 was devoted to this sword, which "was visited far and 
 near," especially for the discovery of "things that were 
 lost," as of stolen or strayed horses. It was also efficacious 
 in delivering wives from husbands who were distasteful to 
 them, if they " would set a candle before that swerd every 
 Sunday for the space of a whole year." Becon, in his 
 " ReUques of Rome," asserts that he had " many times 
 heard when a child," that the sword had belonged to 
 a certain thief who took sanctuary in the churchyard, 
 and afterwards escaped, leaving his sword behind, which 
 in time came to be regarded as a relic of powerful 
 virtue. * 
 
 St. Lawrence Church, Reading, once possessed a silver 
 gridiron, containing a relic of St. Laurence. 
 
 Godwin and Britton, in their "Churches of London," speak 
 
 of the four large syringes preserved in the vestry-room of 
 
 St Dionis Backchurch. These were at one time the only 
 
 machines used in London for the extinction of fires. They 
 
 ♦ Murray, Handbook for Norfolk, 1870, 186, 187. 
 
336 CHURCH-LORE GLEANINGS. 
 
 are about two feet three inches long, and were attached by 
 straps to the body of the person using them. 
 
 In the north porch of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, 
 between the outer and inner doorways, are kept with 
 religious care two ancient parish engines, with their primitive 
 hose and a few water buckets. 
 
 An interesting relic, too, belonging to the parish of St. 
 Margaret, is the tobacco box in the keeping of the Past 
 Overseers' Society. Its history is curious and interesting. 
 The original oval- shaped box, made of common horn, and 
 of a portable size for the pocket, was purchased, we are 
 told in ** Old and New London " (iii. 575), by a Mr. Monck 
 at Horn Fair, Charlton, for fourpence, and from it he often 
 replenished his neighbour's pipe at the meetings of his 
 predecessors and companions in the office of overseers of 
 the poor. In 17 13 he presented it to the Society of Past 
 Overseers, and in 1720 this body ornamented the lid with 
 a silver rim. The next addition was a silver side-case and 
 bottom in 1726. In 1740 an embossed border was placed 
 upon the lid, and in 1746 Hogarth engraved inside the lid 
 a bust of the Duke of Cumberland, with allegorical figures, 
 and scroll commemorating the Battle of Culloden. In 1765 
 an interwoven scroll was added to the lid and an inscription : 
 — "This box to be delivered to every succeeding set of 
 overseers, on penalty of five guineas." 
 
 An additional silver case was next provided for it, and 
 this in turn became enveloped in a third, fourth, and fifth 
 case. In 1793, Mr. Read, a past overseer, detained the 
 box in revenge, because his accounts had not been paid. 
 Litigation ensued, and eventually the Chancellor directed 
 the box to be returned to the Overseers' Society.* 
 
 At the Church of St. George the Martyr, Southwark, there 
 is preserved a curious handbill, or affiche, printed in black 
 • See Mackenzie Walcott's " Westminster." 
 
SOME CURIOUS RELICS. 337 
 
 letter, which, it is said, " must have been promulgated 
 previous to the suppression of religious houses in the reign 
 of Henry VIII. It is surmounted by a small woodeut of 
 St. George slaying the dragon and by a child." At St. 
 Matthew's, Bethnal Green, there is a curious old staff used 
 by the beadle, the head of which, in silver gilt, presents the 
 legend of the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green and his 
 daughter, as in the old ballad. 
 
 At Barfreston church, Kent, during some repairs, was- 
 found imbedded in the mortar a pair of small scissors, not 
 acting upon a rivet, as do those of the present day, but 
 formed in one piece, like sheep-shears.* Hasted mentions 
 at Stone-in-Oxney, in the same county, an altar of stone 
 preserved " time out of mind in the church," with a basin 
 hollowed in the top, and the figure of an ox carved on the 
 sides, three feet four inches high. It had, he says, been 
 turned out of the church and used as a horse-block, whereby 
 it became cracked ; but it was repaired and placed in the 
 vicarage garden. 
 
 ♦ "Notes on the Churches of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey," Rev. A. 
 Ilussey, 1852, 27. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Abbot's Morton, tradition at, 87 
 
 Abingdon, St. Helen's, Easter 
 sepulchre at, 223 
 
 Acoustic jars, 70-74 
 
 Addelthorpe, low side window 
 at, 211 
 
 Adderbury Church, tradition re- 
 lating to> 24 
 
 Addington Church, funeral armour 
 at, 169 
 
 Adel Church, sanctuary knocker 
 at, 182 
 
 Adhelm's, St., Bell, 77 
 
 Alban's,! St., Wood Street, hour- 
 glass at, 203 
 
 Albrighton, church at, tradition 
 relating to, 22 
 
 Aldershot, funeral armour at, 169 
 
 Ale, church, 322-328 
 
 Alford, Lincolnshire, Easter 
 sepulchre at, 227 
 
 Alfriston, church at, ii, 85 
 
 Alkmund's, St., Derby, well so 
 called, 279 
 
 Allhallows Barking, church of, 
 19, 227, 228 
 
 Allington, Wilts, low side window 
 at, 213 
 
 All Saints' Church, Binfield, Berk- 
 shire, 240 ; Clevedon, 58 ; 
 Derby, 302, 303 ; Hartley, 
 Kent^ 214; Hastings, 90; 
 Northampton, 60 ; Norwich, 
 71 ; York, sanctuary knocker 
 at, 182, beacon lamp at, 207 
 
 Alphege, St., Crippl^ate, 192 
 Altamum, well at, 276 
 Alvingham, Lincolnshire, two 
 
 churches in one churchyard, 
 
 232 
 Amberley, Easter sepulchre at, 
 
 227 
 Ambleside, rush-bearing at, 328 
 Andrew, St., Undershaft, 301 ; 
 
 Deny, 86 ; Greenstead, 240 
 Antony, St., in Kerrier, church 
 
 of, 20 
 Ardley, low side window at, 217 
 Armour, funeral, 165-170 
 Arundel Church, 154 
 Ashburton, acoustic jars discovered 
 
 at, 71,72 
 Ashby-de-la-Zouche, finger pillory 
 
 at, 334, 335 
 Ashton-under-Lyne Church, 24, 
 
 185 
 Astrology, 112 
 Attleborough, Norfolk, 245 
 Austin's, St., well of, Leicester, 
 
 280 
 Ave Bell, 95 
 Avening Tower, 79 
 Avington Church, Hungerford, 
 
 262 
 Aycliffe, Durham, 246 
 
 B 
 
 Badingham Church, Suffolk, 240 
 Bagbury, legend relating to, 32 
 Baldock Church, funeral armour 
 in, 168 
 
540 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bampton Church, Easter sepulchre 
 
 at, 226 
 Banners in churches, 170-173 
 Banns of marriage, 123, 124 
 Baptism, customs relating to, iii, 
 117; superstitions relating to, 
 115 ; by the midwife, 112 
 Barcheston, chained books at, 303 
 Barfreston Church, Wilts, no 
 Barking lich-gate, 155 
 Barn Hall, legend connected with, 
 
 143 
 Barnard Castle Church, 211 
 Barnes, Surrey, Easter sepulchre 
 
 at, 229 
 Barton Church, Lincolnshire, 93, 
 
 97 
 Basingstoke, church library at, 295 
 Baschurch Church, legend relating 
 
 to, 6 
 Bath Abbey, 105, 299 
 Beacons,. 207, 208 
 Bebington, cow charity at, 271 
 Beccles, church library at, 294 ; 
 
 ringers' pitcher, 106 
 Becket, Thomas ^, well of, at 
 
 Derby, 279 
 Belfry rules, 89-92 
 Bells and belfries, 75-110 
 Bells, benediction of, 75-76 ; rung 
 in storms, 76, 77 ; stolen, 79, 
 80 ; sacrilege connected with, 
 80, 83 ; submerged, 82-84 
 Bell rhymes, 99-103 
 Bellman, at funerals, 151, 152 
 Belton, Lincolnshire, 230 
 Benet's, St., Gracechurch, 302 
 Berkeley Church, Gloucestershire, 
 
 46 
 Bermondsey Abbey, 17 
 Berrington Church, legend re- 
 lating to, 27 
 Berry Harbour, 155 
 Berwick, Sussex, 85 
 Bescars, land so-called, 330 
 Beurin's, St., Cornwall, right of 
 
 sanctuary at, 173 
 Beverley Minster, right of sanc- 
 tuary at, 176 ; well at, 282 
 Beverley, St. Mary's, beacon at, 
 208 ; library at, 286 
 
 Bicester, female churchwarden at, 
 243 ; church-ale at, 326 
 
 Bier House, 155 
 
 Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucester, 48, 
 108 
 
 Bishops, sugar-loaves presented 
 to, 249 
 
 Blackpool, legend at, 84 
 
 Black Tom of Sothill, 104 
 
 Blaise, St., church of, at Aries, 
 
 74 
 
 Blisworth, low side window at, 
 217 
 
 Bloxham Church, tradition relating 
 to, 24 
 
 Blythburgh Church, Suffolk, 200 
 
 Bobbing, custom for waking 
 sleepers, 64 
 
 Bonchurch, well-dressing at, 279 
 
 Books in chains, 296-305 
 
 Boscastle Tower, 208 
 
 Bosham, Easter sepulchre at, 227 
 
 Boston Church, churching-pew at, 
 194 ; library at, 287 j Easter 
 sepulchre at, 227 
 
 Botolph, St., Aldgate, 220 
 
 , Northfleet, 238 
 
 Bow Church, Cheapside, loi, 180, 
 206 
 
 Boxwell, low side window at, 
 212 
 
 Brabourne Church, funeral armour 
 at, 169 
 
 Bradestone Church, Norfolk, curi- 
 ous custom at, 62 
 
 Branksea Church, Devonshire, 
 curious pew at, 191 
 
 Branock, St., 15 
 
 Braunton, church at, legend re- 
 lating to, 15 
 
 Bray Church, lich-gate at, 154 
 
 Bradsall Church, old reading-desk 
 at, 303 
 
 Breedon Church, strange building 
 legend relating to, 1 1 
 
 Brelade's Church, St., Jersey, 6 
 
 Brent Eleigh, Suffolk, 295 
 
 Brent Tor, Church at, legend re- 
 lating to, 4 
 
 Brickleigh Church, funeral armour 
 in, 166 
 
INDEX. 
 
 341 
 
 Bride ale, 120 ; chair, 127 ; form, 
 191 
 
 Bride's dower, paid at church 
 porch, 50; garters, 123 
 
 Bridget's Church, St., Chester, 
 58 
 
 Bridgnorth, St. Mary's, library 
 at, 2S9 
 
 Bristan, St., 26 
 
 Bristol Cathedral, sweet smelUng 
 herbs strewn in, 53 
 
 Bristol, St. James's Church, 247, 
 249 
 
 Bristow Street, Edinburgh, meet- 
 ing-house in, 74 
 
 Broadwater, Sussex, funeral ar- 
 mour at, 169 
 
 Brokenborough, Wilts, 94 
 
 Bromham, church library at, 293 
 
 Broughton Church legend, 6 
 
 Bryn-y-grog, church legend re- 
 lating to, 12 
 
 Bucknell, Oxfordshire, low side 
 window at, 216 
 
 Budeaux, St., Devon, female 
 churchwarden at, 243 
 
 Bungay, storm at, 37 
 
 Burgh-by-Sands, tower used as 
 fortress, 238 
 
 Burial customs, 128-152 
 
 Burial in erect posture, 135, 136 ; 
 solemn, 137, 138; by torch- 
 light, 139, 140; under church 
 pillars, 144 ; head downwards, 
 136; in woollen, 145, 146 
 
 Burnley Cross and the demon 
 pigs, II 
 
 Burnley marriage custom, 123 
 
 Burnsall, Yorkshire, lich-gate at, 
 
 155 
 
 Burscough Priory, tradition con- 
 nected with, 24 
 
 Burwell, Cambridgeshire, Easter 
 sepulchre at, 228 
 
 Bur}', Easter sepulchre at, 220 
 
 Bury St. Edmund's, church 
 library at, 292 
 
 Buxton, well-dressing at, 279 
 
 Cadoc, St., church of, 86, 87 
 
 Caistor, Northants, 216 
 
 , Lincolnshire, 237 
 
 Canterbury Cathedral, 49, 62, 167, 
 181, 282 
 
 Carhayes, St. Michael, funeral 
 armour at, 169 
 
 Carlisle Cathedral, well at, 282, 
 283 
 
 Cartmel, Lancashire, chained 
 books at, 300 
 
 Carw Gwyn Church, 15 
 
 Cashel, Rock of, 13 
 
 Casterton, Great, Rutlandshire, 
 Roman camp at, 237 
 
 Casting the Nativity, in 
 
 Castle Orchards, 5 
 
 Castleton church library, 290 
 
 Castor, Northamptonshire, 237 
 
 Catfield, hour-glass at, 205 
 
 Celibacy, 126 
 
 Chadderley Corbett, low side- 
 window at, 217 
 
 Chained books, 288, 296-305 
 
 Chalk Church, Kent, figures at, 
 
 324 
 Chambered porches, 44-48 
 Chapel-en-le-Frith, 262 
 Chapel Royal, hour-glass at, 204 
 Chatham Church, 261 
 Chelmsford church library, 290 
 Chelsea, chained books at, 304 
 Cheltenham parish church, 45, no 
 Cherington church bells, 79 
 Cheriton, Easter sepulchre at, 226 
 Chesham Bois Church, 204 
 Chichester Cathedral, 25, 62, 109, 
 
 223 
 Chiddingford, Easter sepulchre 
 
 at, 227 
 "Children of God," 112 
 Chiltern All Saints, Wiltshire, 
 
 126 
 Chrisom, 75, 147, 148 
 
 child, 148 
 
 Christ Church, Hants, 46, 48, 304 
 Christmas Eve custom, 104 
 Church acre, 4, 331 
 
342 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Church-ale, 321-328 
 
 Church Brampton, Northampton- 
 shire, 80 
 
 Church-building legends, 1-15 
 
 Church discipline, 53-69 
 
 Church door, skin attached to, 43 
 
 Churchdown Hill, legend con- 
 nected with, 2 
 
 Church-going rhymes, 63, 64 
 
 Church Hoppys, spot so called, 18 
 
 house, 326, 327 
 
 libraries, 284-295 
 
 osiers, 18 
 
 pigeon-houses, 67-69 
 
 pillar, burial under, 144 
 
 porch, 39-52, 125 ; deeds 
 
 signed in, 39-41 ; money pay- 
 ments in, 41 ; business transac- 
 tions in, 41, 42 ; refuge in, 44 ; 
 marriage in, 48-50; burial in, 
 50, 51 ; watching the, 51, 52 
 
 Churching- pew, 193, 194 
 
 Churchwardens, 241-250 
 
 Churchyard, 153-160 
 
 , two churches in one. 
 
 231- 
 
 234 
 
 Cirencester Church, books at,. 288 
 
 Claverley Church, Shropshire, 
 dog-whipper at, 62 
 
 Cleather, St., well at, 277 
 
 Clee, custom at, 331 
 
 Cleer, St., well of, 276 
 
 Clement, St., Danes, 1 14, 260 
 
 , Eastcheap, 302 
 
 , Sandwich, acoustic jars at, 
 
 71 
 
 Clerkenwell, 251 
 
 Clerks, parish, 150, 251-263 
 
 Cliffe Church, Kent, hour-glass 
 at, 204 
 
 Clock-holt, land so-called, 201 
 
 Clock, Jack of the, 197-200 
 
 Clock-keeper, 201 
 
 Coates, Great, Lincolnshire, 228 
 
 Cockerington, North, near Louth, 
 232 
 
 Cockfield, Durham, low side 
 window at, 211 
 
 Cock-fighting, 104 
 
 Colby Church, Norfolk, cham- 
 bered porch at, 46 
 
 CoUingham Ducis Church, 68 
 Collumpton, Devonshire, 262 
 Compton Bassett, Wilts, 205 
 Consecration crosses, 108- no 
 Copford Church, skin nailed to 
 
 the door, 44 
 Coroner's inquest, 97 
 , custom respecting dead 
 
 bodies, 250 
 Corpus Christi, festival of, 77 
 Corse Bell, 151 
 
 Coslany, St. Michael, Norfolk, 245 
 Coventry, Holy Trinity and St. 
 
 Michael Churches, 232 
 Cranley Church, Surrey, Easter 
 
 sepulchre at, 232 
 Cropredy, clock -keeper at, 202 
 Crosmere, legend relating to, 85 
 Cross, St., near Winchester, 48 
 Croston Church, 24 
 Crouch Hill, 24 
 Cubington, Warwickshire, low 
 
 side window at, 217 
 Cunmor, Oxon, chained books at, 
 
 304 
 Curfew bell, 92, 93 
 
 land, 93 
 
 Curst Field, 5 
 
 Cuthbert, St., 10 
 
 Cuxham Church, hour-glass at, 
 
 205 
 
 Dagtake Bell, 97 
 
 Danbury, storm at, 38 
 
 Darsingham Church, Lincoln- 
 shire, low side window at, 21 1 
 
 Daventry, Northamptonshire, bell 
 custom at, 102 
 
 David's, St., Cathedral, 62, 239 
 
 Dead, memorials of, 161-172 
 
 Demon pigs, 1 1 
 
 Denchurch library, 288 
 
 Denford Church, Northampton- 
 shire, 71 
 
 Dersingham, low side window at, 
 214 
 
 Devil's door, 116; knell, 104; 
 seat, 127 
 
INDEX. 
 
 3« 
 
 Discipline, church, 51-69 
 
 Diss, Norfolk, curious parish 
 register entry, 44 
 
 Doddington, low side window at, 
 212, 213 
 
 Dog-noper, 60 
 
 Dog-whipper, 60-62 
 
 Dog-whipper's marsh, 62 
 
 Doncaster, election of church- 
 wardens at, 244 
 
 Doncaster Church, library at, 289 
 
 Douington Church, tradition con- 
 nected with, 22, 23 
 
 Doves, in church building, 11 
 
 Downton Church, Wiltshire, low 
 side window at, 21 1 
 
 Dragon legends, 27-34 
 
 Drinking- Bush Hill, spot so called, 
 325 
 
 Dunchurch, low side window at, 
 217 
 
 Dun cow, milkmaid and the, 36 
 
 Dunstan, St., and Mayfield Church, 
 4 
 
 Dunstan, St., Church, Fleet 
 Street, 198, 203 
 
 Dupath Well, 271; 
 
 Durham Cathedral, 36, 62, 176; 
 building legends relating to, 9 ; 
 phantom army at, 26 ; custom 
 on Corpus Christi Day at, 77 ; 
 right of sanctuary at, 174, 176 ; 
 sanctuary knocker, 182 ; Easter 
 sepulchre at, 221 
 
 Easington, Oxon, parish clerk 
 
 custom at, 255 
 Eastbourne, Easter sepulchre at, 
 
 227 
 East Dereham, well at, 283 
 Easter bells, 104 
 
 Eve, 215, 219 
 
 Day, 216 
 
 Sepulchre, 219-230 
 
 Eaton Mascott, strange story told 
 
 of, 27 
 Ebchester Church, Durham, 
 
 Roman camp at, 237 
 
 Eccles, pew arrangement at, 184 
 Ecclesfield parish, dog-noper at, 
 
 61 
 Eccleshall, low side window at, 217 
 Echingham Church, Sussex, bell 
 
 tradition at, 83 
 Edmund's, St. , well at, Oxford, 281 
 Egginton Church,^ chained books 
 
 at,. 303; 
 Elsdon^ Church, Northumberland, 
 
 horses' skulls at, 74 
 Elkstone Church, Gloucestershire, 
 
 church discipline at, 67 
 Elsfield, low side window at, 213, 
 
 216 
 Elvaston, Church-ale at, 323 
 Elvetham, pew at, 189 
 Elwick, low side window at, 211 
 Ely Cathedral, 214, 215, 217, 223, 
 
 231 
 Embleton marriage custom, 125 
 Endon, Shropshire, well-dressing 
 
 at, 279 
 Epworth Church, 259 
 Ethel bert, St., well of, 283 
 Ethelburga's Church, St., Bishops- 
 gate, 203 
 Euny, St., well chapel of, 276 
 Evesham, churches of All Saints 
 
 and St. Lawrence, 232 
 Excommunicated persons, burial 
 
 of, 159 
 
 Fairies and church building, 9, 10 
 
 Fairwell, Staffordshire, acoustic 
 jars at,. 71 
 
 Farley, Sussex, Easter sepulchre 
 at, 223 
 
 Female parish clerks, 262, 263 
 
 Fennel strewn in churches, 331 
 
 Ferriby, South, Lincolnshire, con- 
 secration cross at, 1 10 
 
 Fillan, St., bell of, 78 
 
 Finger-pillory, 335 
 
 Fisherty Brow, legend connected 
 with, 84 
 
 "Five Sisters," York Cathedral, 
 22 
 
344 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Flags in churches, 170, 171 
 Fleet Church, Lincolnshire, cus- 
 tom of waking sleepers at, 65 
 •Flixton Church, hour-glass at, 204 
 Font, superstitions relating to, 115 
 Football match on Shrove Tues- 
 day, 103 
 ■Forrabury church bells, 82 
 Fotheringay Church, 206 
 Foundlings, baptism of, 114, 115 
 Fountains Abbey, 72, 73 
 Frensham Church, Surrey, witches' 
 
 cauldron at, 308 
 Frodsham Church, Cheshire, 97 
 Fulborne, near Cambridge, 233 
 Fulham Church, tradition con- 
 nected with, 23 
 Funerals, handbell rung at, 151 
 Funeral armour, 165-170 
 
 feast, 138 
 
 garlands, 161-164 
 
 sermon, 138 
 
 Gabriel bell, 95 
 Garlands, funeral, 161-164 
 Garsington, low side window at, 
 
 217 
 Gateway of the Knight, Walsing- 
 
 ham Church, 38 
 German's Cathedral, St., crypt at, 
 
 308 
 George's, St., Doncaster, cham- 
 bered porch at, 48 
 Giles's, St., Northampton, low 
 
 side windows at, 216 
 Gillingham, Dorset, 295 
 , Norfolk, two churches in one 
 
 churchyard, 232 
 Glasgow Cathedral, well at, 283 
 Gleaners' bell, 96, 97 
 Gloucester Cathedral, 25, 154 
 Glyssop Church, Derbyshire, 
 
 bells stolen at, 80 
 Goddington, Oxfordshire, custom 
 
 at, 97 
 Godrefarth church, legend at, 9 
 Godshill, church at, 3 
 Goltho, Lincolnshire, 243 
 
 Good Friday, 216, 230, 251 
 Goosnargh, land custom at, 39 
 
 , dog whipper at, 61 
 
 Gorleston, Suffolk, 226 
 Gorton Church library, 292 
 Gosberton, Easter sepulchre at, 
 
 226 
 Grantham Church library, 299 
 Grasmere, rush-bearing at, 329 
 Gregory's Church, St., Norwich, 
 
 189 
 Gridiron, silver, at St. Lawrence, 
 
 Reading, 335 
 Grimsargh, dun cow at, 37 
 Grundisburgh Church, knocker 
 
 at, 183 
 Gunnislake Church, 239 
 Gunwalloe Church, 20 
 
 H 
 
 Hacsombe Church, horse shoe 
 
 at, 308 
 Hadstock Church, skin on door 
 
 of, 44 
 Hailsham Church, rush-strewing; 
 
 at, 331 
 Hall dog-pew at Northorpe. 
 
 Church, Lincolnshire, 191 
 Handsworth Church, near Bir- 
 mingham, old customs at, 65 
 Hanmer Church library, 289 
 Hardwick-cum-Pasmore, female 
 
 churchwarden at, 243 
 Harling Church, Norfolk, acoustic 
 
 jars at, 70 
 Hart, low side window at, 21 1 
 Hartfield Church, lich-gate at, 
 
 154 
 Haslingfield Church, clock-keeper 
 
 at, 201 
 Hathersage Church, belfry rules 
 
 at, 91 
 Hats, smelling of, 318, 319 ; worn 
 
 in church, 314-318 
 Hay strewn in churches, 331 
 Hayes, Kent, Easter sepulchre, 
 
 at, 227, 
 Heart burial, 130-134 
 
INDEX. 
 
 345 
 
 Heckington, Lincolnshire, Easter 
 sepulchre at, 226 
 
 Hellesdon, Norfolk, low side 
 window at, 217; Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 227 
 
 Hell-hole, spot so called, 83 
 
 Helston, well at, 277 
 
 Hempsted, hour-glass at, 205 
 
 Henry VII. Chapel, Westmin- 
 ster, 109 
 
 Henley, election of churchwardens 
 at, 244 
 
 Hereford Cathedral, 27 ; library 
 at, 299 
 
 Hexham Abbey Church, funeral 
 armour at, 169 ; right of sanc- 
 tuary at, 177; knocker at, 182 
 
 High pews, 191 
 
 Holbeach, superstition at, 310-312 
 
 Holme Church legend, 3 
 
 Holy Innocent's Day, muffled 
 peal ring on, 103 
 
 Holy wells, 273-276 
 
 Holy Well Dale, Lincolnshire, 280 
 
 Hope Church, banns of marriage 
 custom at, 124 
 
 Horkstow Church, sloping floor 
 at, 239 
 
 Horncastle, Lincolnshire, Roman 
 camps at, 237 
 
 Horn of Ulphus at York Cathe- 
 dral, 333, 334 
 
 Horningham, bell custom at, 105 
 
 Hornsea Church, Yorkshire, lOO 
 
 Hornsey Church belfry, 89 
 
 Horsham, Jack of the clock at, 
 199 
 
 Horse shoes, 308, 309 
 
 Horses' skulls, 74 
 
 Hour-glasses, 202-205 
 
 *'Hung in the bell ropes," 124 
 
 Hurst, Berkshire, hour-glass at, 
 204 
 
 Husborne Crawley Church, 
 funeral armour at, 166 
 
 Hyssington Church, strange 
 legend attached to, 32-34 
 
 Hythe, Easter sepulchre at, 226 
 
 I 
 
 Ickburgh Church, Norfolk, female 
 parish clerk at, 262 
 
 Itfley Church, Oxfordshire, conse- 
 cration cross at, no 
 
 Illtyd, St,bellof, 78, 79 
 
 Impington Church, Cambridge- 
 shire, books at, 288 
 
 Ingham, Norfolk, low side window 
 at, 211 
 
 Inkberrow Church, lo 
 
 Interment in church walls, 142 
 
 of hearts, 130-134 
 
 Ipswich, St. Mary-le-Tcwer, 247 
 
 Jack of Newbury, 96 
 Jack of the clock, 197-200 
 Jacques et les Innocents, Paris, 74 
 Jarrow Church, 126 ; Bede's well 
 
 near, 280 
 Jersey Church bells, 82, 83 
 Jesus bells, 81 
 
 John, St., Maddermarket, Nor- 
 wich, 245 
 John, St., well at Harpham, 281 
 John's Priory Church, St., Clerk- 
 
 enwell, 142 
 Judas bell, 104; candle, 104 
 
 K 
 
 Kenardington Church, fortifica- 
 tions at, 237 
 
 Kenwyn, Cornwall, anecdote re- 
 lating to, 257 
 
 Keyingham, Yorkshire, holy well 
 at, 280 
 
 Keyne, St., well of, 278 
 
 Kidderminster Church, legend 
 connected with, 5 
 
 Kieran, St., tradition relating to, 
 
 Kilgrimol, Church of, submerged, 
 83 
 
346 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Kingsbury Cluircfa, Roman camp 
 at, 237 
 
 King's Sutton, tradition relating 
 to, 24 ; church-ale at, 325 
 
 Kingston-on-Thames, parish bull 
 custom at, 265 
 
 Kirkheaton, custom of church- 
 wardens at, 248 
 
 Kirton-in-Lindsey, Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 220 
 
 Kiss, nuptial, 119 
 
 Lambeth Church, tradition of 
 pedlar and his dog, 18 
 
 Lancing, Easter sepulchre at, 
 227 
 
 Leake Church, legend relating 
 to, 8 
 
 Ledbury bells, 87 
 
 Leeds Church, near Maidstone, 
 acoustic jars at, 71 
 
 Leigh Church, Kent, hour-glass 
 at, 205 
 
 Leigh-upon-Mendip, Somerset- 
 shire, bell custom at, 103 
 
 Lepers' gallery, 45 ; window, 209, 
 210 
 
 Lessingham Church, hour-glass 
 at, 205 
 
 Les Tuzets, field so called, 9 
 
 Levan, St., lich-gate at, 155 
 
 Leverton, Lincolnshire, Easter 
 sepulchre at, 223 ; church library 
 at, 297 
 
 Lewes Church, Roman camp at, 
 237 
 
 Ley bourne Church, Kent, heart- 
 burial at, 134 
 
 Libraries, church, 284-295 
 
 Lightning, superstitions relating 
 to, 37, 38, 77 
 
 Lilleshall Church, low side win- 
 dow at, 210 
 
 Lillington, low side window at, 
 217 
 
 Limerick bells, 85 
 
 Lincoln Cathedral, 25, 226, 297 
 
 Linton Church legend, 23 ; worm, 
 
 31 
 Llanbadam Fawr, church at, 239 
 Llandulph Church, Cornwall, 90 
 Llangar Church, legend relating 
 
 to, 15 
 Locks to pews, 189 
 Longbridge Devrill, funeral ar- 
 mour at, 169 
 Long Compton, Warwickshire, 
 
 97, 217 
 Long Melford, Easter sepulchre 
 
 at, 225 
 Long Stratton, Norfolk, 94 
 Looe, Cornwall, 265 
 Louping Stone, 125 
 Lowestoft, low side window at, 
 
 211 
 Low side windows, 209-218 
 Ludham Church, 211 
 Ludlam, Mother, 309 
 Ludlow Church, weather-cock at, 
 
 206 
 Ludgvan, well at, 277 
 Luppitt Church, acoustic jars at, 
 
 71 
 Lych-bell, 151 
 Lych-gate, 153-156 
 Lychnoscopes, 209-218 
 
 M 
 
 Macclesfield Church, 228 
 
 Madeley, Shropshire, custom at, 
 156 
 
 Madron's, St., Church, 2 ; well, 
 274 ; bed, 274 
 
 Magic, church robbery traced by, 
 310-312 
 
 Maidservants, charity for, at Read- 
 ing, 249, 250 
 
 Maismore, Gloucestershire, 243 
 
 Malmesbury Abbey, 77 
 
 Mancroft, St. Peter's, Norwich, 71 
 
 Mauthe Dog, 308 
 
 Margaret's Church, St., West- 
 minster, 190, 194, 203, 231 
 
 Margaret, St., Pattens, 223 
 
 Market Overton, Rutlandshire, 
 237 
 
INDEX, 
 
 347 
 
 Marriage ceremony, 1 18-127; 
 seasons for, 118 
 
 Marie du Castel, St., Church of, 8 
 
 Mark's, St., Eve, watching in the 
 church porch, 51 
 
 Martin's-le-Grand, St., 173, 178 
 
 Martin's, St., Canterbury, 227 
 
 , Cliff, Kent, 216 
 
 , Liskeard, 209 
 
 , Angers, 74 
 
 , Carfax, Oxford, 199 
 
 Mary Redcliffe, St., Bristol, 36, 
 48, 48, 169, 224 
 
 Mary, St., Bridport, 48 
 
 , Islington, 59 
 
 , Reading, 61 
 
 , Youghall, 73 
 
 , Over, Cambridge, 97 
 
 , Ottery, Devon, 109 
 
 , Guildford, 211 
 
 , Marlborough, 295 
 
 , Woolchurch Haw, 185 
 
 Mary-le-Bow, St., Durham, 63 
 
 Maundy Thursday, 219 
 
 Mayfield, Church at, 4 
 
 Melton Constable, low side win- 
 dow at, 213 
 
 Mertsham, Surrey, 191 
 
 Mevagissey, bells at, 85, 257 
 
 Michael, St., church of, at Corn- 
 hill, 37 
 
 , Southampton, 304 
 
 — ^, St. Alban's, 205 
 
 , Gloucester, 91 
 
 , Queenhithe, 205 
 
 Mickleham, Sussex, curious pew 
 at, 191 
 
 Middleham Church, church dis- 
 cipline at, 59 
 
 Middle, Shropshire, church 
 library at 293, 
 
 Midwife, baptism by, 112, 113 
 
 Midwives' pew, 194 
 
 Mildred's, St., Poultry, weather- 
 cock at, 205 
 
 Miller and his men. Jack of the 
 clock so called at Exeter, 200 
 
 Minehead, Somerset, 272 
 
 Mint, right of sanctuary in, 178 
 
 Misterton, Somersetshire, female 
 parish cleric at,. 26z 
 
 Mitton Church, sloping floor at, 
 
 239 
 
 Moorin, St., church o4 traditiDn 
 relating to, 19 ; well of, 20 
 
 Mordiford Church, legend con- 
 nected with, 32 
 
 Moresby Church, Cumberland, 
 Roman camp at, 237 
 
 Morris dancers, 325, 330 
 
 Morrow mass bell, 96 
 
 Morwenstowe, church at, 19, 279 
 
 Mortality, bills of, 252, 253 
 
 Mother Ludlow's Hole, 309 
 
 Muffled Peals, 102, 103 
 
 Murdered body, bleeding of, 130 
 
 N 
 
 Narburgh, Norfolk, 228 
 Nativity, casting the, III, 1 12 
 Needle, St. Wilfrid's, at Ripon, 
 
 312, 313 
 Neot, St., Church of, 13 ; well of, 
 
 277 
 Newington Church, Kent, acoustic 
 
 jars at, 72 
 Newport Pagnell, chained books 
 
 at, 303 
 Nicholas Church, St., Gloucester, 
 
 182; Ipswich, 72 
 Night, burials at, 139, 140 
 Ninnie, St., well of, 278 
 North Hinksey, Berkshire, 216 
 North Moor, Oxford, hour-glass 
 
 at, 205 
 Northorpe Church, Lincolnshire, 
 
 hall dog pew at, 191 
 Northwich Church, Cheshire, 
 
 marriage custom at, 123 
 Norwich Cathedral, 2CX), 201, 222 
 Nunnington Church, old tomb at, 
 
 28 
 Nun's Well, St., 276 
 Nuptial kiss, 119 
 
 Oakington, Cambridgeshire, 216 
 Offchurch, Lincolnshire, low side 
 windows at, 217 
 
348 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Offerings at marriage, 122, 123 
 
 Okebrook, church-ale at, 323 
 
 Old Deer, church at, 6 
 
 " Old Moll," 16 
 
 Ore, Sussex, Easter sepulchre at, 
 227 
 
 Ormskirk Church, tradition re- 
 lating to, 24 
 
 Oswald, St., 10, II 
 
 , church at Gruseley, marriage 
 
 custom at, 50 
 
 Otterington, Yorkshire, legend 
 connected with, 8 
 
 Ouen's, St., Bay, bells heard at, 
 
 83 
 
 Our Lady of Barking, 19 
 
 Our Lady's Well, 281 
 
 Over Church, Cheshire, tradition 
 at, 8 
 
 Overbury Church, Worcestershire, 
 pigeon house at, 68 
 
 Overstrand, Norfolk, two churches 
 in one churchyard, 232 
 
 Overy, St. Mary, Church of, le- 
 gend connected with, 16, 17 
 
 Owthorne Church, legend at, 23 
 
 Oxen in church building, 23 
 
 Panburn bell, 102 
 Pancake bell, 102, 103 
 Parish bulls and cows, 264, 
 272 
 
 clerk, 150, 251, 263 
 
 Parson's bell, 97 
 
 Parting-stool, 126 
 
 Parvise, keeping school in the, 
 
 46,47 
 Paschal candle, 215 
 Passing bell, 87, 89, 149 
 Patrick, St., 13 ; well of, 283 
 Patrington Church, Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 226 
 Paul's cross, 55 ; Jacks, 199 
 
 Cathedral, St., 173, 223 
 
 Peculiarities, curious church, 231, 
 
 241 
 Pedlar and his dog, 18, 19 
 Pedlar's acre, 18, 19 
 
 Pembroke College, Cambridge, 
 
 no 
 Penance, public, 53-59 ; rules for, 
 
 54,55 
 
 Penzance, custom of churcnwar- 
 tdens at, 248 
 
 Peover, Chester, 241 
 
 Perry Trough, spot so called, 8 
 
 Pershore Abbey Church, bell 
 stolen at, 80 
 
 Peter's, St., Oxford, 48, 295 
 
 Ropsley, 214 
 
 Upton, near Newark, 71 
 
 Cornhill, 206 
 
 Dorchester, 226 
 
 Peterborough Cathedral, 63 
 
 Petting-stone, 125 
 
 Pevensey, Sussex, Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 227 
 
 Pews, 185-196 
 
 Phantom nun of Holy Trinity 
 Church, Micklegate, 34 
 
 Pierre-du-Bois, St., Guernsey, 
 240. 
 
 Pigeons in church towers, 67-69 
 
 Pigs in church building, 10, 11, 
 
 15 
 
 Piskie's Well, 278 
 
 Plympton St. Mary, church of, 
 legend connected with, 4 
 
 Pollard worm, 30 
 
 Porchester, Hants, 237 
 
 Portsmouth, weathercock at, 207- 
 
 Prentice's bracket, at Gloucester, 
 25 ; pillar, at Roslyn, 25 ; 
 window, at Lincoln, 25 
 
 Prestmell, Lancashire, curious 
 entry in parish register, 248 
 
 Prestwich, election of church- 
 wardens at, 244 
 
 Pudding bell, 96 
 
 Pulborough, lych-gate at, 154 
 
 Pulham St. Mary Magdalen, Nor- 
 folk, cow charity at, 268 
 
 Pulpit, spot so called in Corn- 
 wall, 7 ; sounding boards, 74 
 
 Purton Church, skeleton in walls 
 of, 142 
 
 Putney Church, 23, 227 
 
 Puxton, Somersetshire, hour-glass 
 at, 205 
 
INDEX. 
 
 349 
 
 R 
 
 Race-horse, bells rung in honour 
 of, 104 
 
 Raleigh, Nottinghamshire, bell 
 legend at, 84 
 
 Randwick, Gloucestershire, 243 
 
 Raveningham, Easter sepulchre 
 at, 226 
 
 Raydon, Suffolk, low side-window 
 at 216 
 
 Reading, St. Lawrence Church, 
 charity custom at, 249 
 
 Reepham, three churches in one 
 churchyard, 232 
 
 Relics, curious church, 333 
 
 Ribbesford Church, Worcester- 
 shire, 241 
 
 Right-of-way through churchyard, 
 160 
 
 Ringers pitcher, 105, 106 ; pot, 
 106 
 
 Ring wold Church, 93 
 
 Ripon Cathedral, St. Wilfrid's 
 Needle at, 312 
 
 Rochdale Church, legend at, 3 
 
 Rochester Cathedral, 43, 45 
 
 Roche, St., bell of, 277 
 
 Roman camps, churches within, 
 237-238 
 
 Romford Church, bell legend at, 
 85 * 
 
 Rostherne churchyard, lych-gate 
 at, 155 
 
 Rothersthorpe Church, low side- 
 window at, 212 
 
 Rougham Church library, 294 
 
 Round churches, 234, 235 
 
 towers, 235, 236 
 
 Ruan's, St., Well, 277 
 
 Rugby Parish Church, tower 
 used as stronghold, 238 
 
 Rumbald, St., figure of, at Box- 
 ley Church, 313 
 
 Runcorn, rush-bearing at, 330 
 
 Rushbearings, 330, 331 
 
 Rushes strewn in churches, 330- 
 332 
 
 Rustington, Easter sepulchre at, 
 227 
 
 Sacombe Church, hour-glass at, 
 
 204 
 Sal ford, chained books at, 301 
 Salehurst, Easter sepulchre at, 
 
 227 
 Salisbury Cathedral, 25, 109, 177, 
 
 298 
 Sanctuary, burial without the, 
 
 157 
 
 knockers, 174, 182, 183 
 
 , right of, 173-183 
 
 Sanctus bell, 93, 94 
 Satanic agency, 1-15 
 Saundersfoot, church at, sloping 
 
 floor at, 239 
 Sauveur, St., Guernsey, sloping 
 
 floor at, 240 
 ** Savyne Croft," spot so called, 1 1 
 Savoy, hospital of St. John the 
 
 Baptist in, 178, 179 
 Saxby, All Saints, Lincolnshire, 
 
 239 
 Scallenge-gates, 153 
 Scape-begotten child, 113 
 Scawthorp, excommunication at, 
 
 60 
 School in the parvise, 46, 47 
 Scotter Parish, Lincolnshire, 
 
 disipline at, 60 
 Sefton, Lancashire, well at, 280 
 Selby Abbey Church, 46, 66 
 Sennan, St., Cornwall, 214 
 Sepulchre's Church, St., City, 
 
 45 ; Cambridge, 235 ; passing 
 
 bell at, 89 
 Sepulchre, Easter, 209-230 
 Sermon bell, 96 
 Sexes, separation of, in church, 
 
 192 
 Sexhow, worm at, 28, 29 
 Shelsey Beauchamp, 205 
 Sherringham, low side window at, 
 
 Sheviock, tradition relating to, 21 
 Shottesbrooke Church, tradition 
 
 relating to, 21 
 Shriving bell, 102 ; pew, 195 
 Shrove Tuesday, 93, 102, 103 
 
350 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Shurdington Chapelry, Glouces- 
 tershire, consecration cross at, 
 no 
 
 Sister churches, the, 23 
 
 Sites for churches, stories relating 
 to, 2-iS 
 
 Skipton Church library, 291 
 
 Skulls of horses in churches, 74 
 
 Slaugham, Sussex, Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 228 
 
 Sleepers in church, waking, 64, 
 
 65 
 
 Slingsby worms, 28 
 
 Smarden parish, Kent, dog whip- 
 ping at, 61 
 
 Smock, marriage in, 126 
 
 Smoking in church, 319, 321 
 
 Sockburn, legend relating to, 29 
 
 Solemn burial, 137, 138 
 
 Sompting, Sussex, Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 227 
 
 Southwold Church, Jack of the 
 clock at, 200 
 
 Speaking stone at St. David's 
 Cathedral, 38 
 
 Sprowston Church, low side win- 
 dow at, 213 
 
 Spur money, 97-99 
 
 peal, 124 
 
 Sunday, 124 
 
 Spurring, 124 
 
 Staindrop Church, low side win- 
 dow at, 211 
 
 Stalham Church, hour-glass at, 
 205 
 
 Stampford Peverell Church, horse 
 shoe at, 308 
 
 Standon Church, Herts, sloping 
 floor at, 239 
 
 Stanground Church, Hunts, Eas- 
 ter sepulchre at, 227 
 
 Stanford-le-Hope, low side win- 
 dow at, 211 
 
 Stanley, St. Leonard's Church, 
 church pigeon house at, 67 
 
 Stanningfield Church, figure of 
 horse shoe at, 308 
 
 Stanton, St. John,^Oxon, Easter 
 sepulchre at, 226 
 
 Stanwell, Middlesex, Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 225 
 
 Staunton, Nottinghamshire, two 
 
 churches in one churchyard, 
 
 232 
 Stephen's, St., Walbrook, Easter 
 
 sepulchre at, 219 
 Strange tales, 26-38 
 Stillborn children, burial of, 157 
 Stoke Charity, Hants, 228 
 Stoke Lyne, Oxon, 228 
 Stoke-upon-Tern, Church at, 6 
 Stolen bells, 79, 80 
 Streatham Church, 188, 189 
 Strasburg Cathedral, 73 
 Straw strewn in churches, 331 
 Submerged bells, 82-84 
 Sudbrook, near Lincoln, 262 
 Superstitions, church, 306-313 
 Sutton Courtenay, library at, 295 
 Swaflfham, Cambridgeshire, 231, 
 
 289 
 Swansea, Easter sepulchre at, 228 
 Sweet bells at Dewsbury, 104 
 Sweet herbs strewn in churches, 
 
 331 
 
 Swindon Church, peculiar tower, 
 238 
 
 Swithin, St., legend associated 
 with, 51 
 
 Swavesey, low side window at, 
 217 
 
 Syringes, at St. Dionis Back- 
 church, 335 
 
 Talland Hill, legend at, 7 
 Tawstock, lich-gate at, 155 
 Temple Church, 114, 226, 235 
 Tewkesbury, pews at, 187 
 Thorpe-le-Soken, inscription at, 
 
 324 
 Thorpe, near Norwich, two 
 
 churches in one churchyard, 232 
 Thomton-le-Moor, legend relating 
 
 to, 8 
 Thunderstorms, bells rung in, 
 
 76,77 
 Ting Tang, bell so called, 97 
 Tissington, well-dressing at, 279 
 Tofts, the, spot so called, 8 
 
INDEX. 
 
 351 
 
 Tolpuddle Church, Dorset, rhyme 
 
 relating to, 99 
 Tong, Shropshire, church library 
 
 at, 295 
 Torchlight, burial by, 139, 140 
 Totnes Church library, 293 
 Tottenham Church, chambered 
 
 porch at, 46 
 Towednack Church, legend con- 
 nected with, 9 
 Towers, round, 235, 236 ; used as 
 
 fortresses, 238 
 Traditions, church, 16-25 
 Trefethin, l^end connected with, 
 
 86 
 Trelystan, Montgomeryshire, half- 
 timbered church at, 141 
 Trimley, Suffolk, two churches in 
 
 one churchyard, 232 
 Trim-trams, 153 
 Tring, Easter sepulchre at, 226 
 Trophies of war hung in church, 
 
 170, 171 
 Troutbeck, lych-gate at, 155 
 Trysull, Staffordshire, dog whip- 
 
 per at, 61 
 Tunstall church bells, 83 
 Turton, chained books at, 299 
 Twickenham, cow charity, 266 
 
 Udimore Church, l^end relating 
 to, 9 
 
 Uffington Church, Berks, con- 
 secration cross at, 1 10 
 
 Ulphus, horn of, at York Cathedral, 
 333. 334 
 
 Virgin chimes, 104 ; garland, 162 
 
 W 
 
 Wakefield Bridge, 226 
 Wakerell bell, 94 
 
 Walpole, St. Peter's, Norfolk, 
 
 sloping floor at, 240 
 Walsham, North, 232 
 Walsingham Church, tradition 
 
 relating to, 38 
 Waltham, St. Lawrence, church 
 
 at, Easter sepulchre, 227 
 Walton, West, tradition connected 
 
 with, 22 
 Walton-on-Thames, Easter sepul- 
 chre at, 223 
 Wandsworth, Easter sepulchre at, 
 
 229 
 Wantage, two churches in one 
 
 churchyard, 232 
 Warburton, rush-bearing at, 330 
 Warrington Church, seats at, 191 
 Wartan Crag, Lancashire, 127 
 Waverley Abbey, witches' caul- 
 dron at, 309 
 Weathercocks, 205-207 
 Wedding peal, 105 ; psalm, 120 ; 
 
 sermon, 120 
 Well-dressing, 279 
 Wells, cathedral, 103, 134, 298 
 Wells and well chapels, 273-283 
 Wendover Church, legend relating 
 
 to, 7 
 Westbury - on - Severn, two 
 
 churches in one churchyard, 
 
 232 
 Westgate, Exeter, clock at, 200 
 Westminister Abbey, 43, 69, 131, 
 
 167, 168, 179, 180; sanctuary 
 
 at, 173 
 Wettesall, low side window at, 2 1 7 
 Weybridge, Easter sepulchre at, 
 
 229 
 Whalebone, St. Mary Redcliffe 
 
 Church, 36 
 Whipping dogs out of church, 
 
 61-63 
 Whitby Abbey Church, curious 
 
 tradition at, 35 ; bell legend at, 
 
 84 
 Whitchurch, library at, 292 
 White sheet, worn at public pen- 
 ance, 53-55 
 Whitsun ale, 325 
 Whitwell, low side window at, 
 
 217 
 
352 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wickham, West, Kent, Easter 
 
 sepulchre at, 227 
 Wigtoff, Lancashire, chained 
 
 books at, 296, 297 
 Willingale Doe, Essex, two 
 
 churches in one churchyard, 232 
 Spain, two churches in one 
 
 churchyard, 232 
 Wimborne Minster, church library 
 
 at, 299 
 Winchester College Chapel, 217 
 
 Cathedral, 227 
 
 Wine-drinking in church, 120 
 Winfarthing Church, curious relic 
 
 at, 335 
 
 Wingrave, Buckinghamshire, 331 
 Winston, low side window at, 211 
 Winwick Church, legend relating 
 
 to, 10 
 Wishing wells, 274 
 Witchcraft, 37, 307, 308 
 Witches' cauldron, 308, 309; 
 
 meadow, 7 
 Withburga's, St., Well, 283 
 Withernsea Church, tradition re- 
 lating to, 23 
 Witney, Easter sepulchre at, 221 
 Wolstan, St., and the devil, 27 
 Wolvercot, hour-glass at, 205 
 
 Woodchurch, Cheshire, 271 
 
 Wooden churches, 240 
 
 Woollen, burial in, 145-146 
 
 Worcester Cathedral, 27, 43, 80 
 
 Worfield Church, 6, 240 
 
 Wonders, tales of, 26-38 
 
 Worksop parish, dog whipper of, 
 61 
 
 W^ootton Wawen Church, chained 
 books at, 303 
 
 Worldham, East, hour-glassi at, 
 205 
 
 Worth, lych-gate at, 1 54 
 
 Wrexham Church, legend asso- 
 ciated with, 12 
 
 Whittle, Essex, Easter sepulchre 
 at, 226 
 
 " Wrong side of the church," 157 
 
 Wyke, Hants, Easter sepulchre 
 at, 227 
 
 Yarmouth, Great, parish church, 
 
 67, 127, 222, 304 
 Yaxley Church, Suffolk, bells at, 
 
 94 
 York Cathedral, 22, 69, 144 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITRD, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 

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