98
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. ix. JAN. si. in*.
0n
Churchicardens' Accounts from the Fourteenth
Century to the Close of the Seventeenth Century.
By J. C. Cox, LL.D. " Antiquary Series."
(Methuen & Co., 10s. Qd. net.)
THE revelation Dr. Cox's volume affords of the abundance, and in many cases of the antiquity, of the material available in parochial records should stimulate county antiquarian societies to further printing of faithful copies of church docu- ments. It is natural that these records should throw light on ecclesiastical matters, but that is far from being their sole contribution to national history. Since the pre-Reformation laity made the folk-festival, the religious play, and every possible occasion of good-fellowship and mirth subservient to the economic needs of the parish church, and since post-Reformation church- wardens had thrust upon them the performance of endless secular duties, their accounts are con- cerned with the life of the people at large. We read therein of the purchase of drinking bowls and ensnaring of vermin, of payments to bear- wards and pageant players, as well as of the " forthfare " bell, the shriving-pew, the holy loaf, the movable star at the Epiphany festival, or the dramatic rendering of the Gospel on Palm Sunday. Indeed, an infinity of interesting items of every kind may be gathered from these accounts, of which some, like the Bassingbourn entries of the play of St. George in 1511, appear here for the first time in print, to such good purpose has Dr. Cox ransacked the records of church chest and vestry locker. Thus we are reminded of the not infrequent employment of women church- wardens, of the ringing of bells to allay storms, of the universality of the church clock in the fifteenth century, and of the practice which obtained in some churches of giving more expen- sive wine to better-class communicants, and cheaper to the common folk. On the occasion of a funeral mass for royalty the parish hearse, a frame for lighted tapers, was put into position as though the body itself lay beneath it a fact very clearly brought out in the accounts of St. Nicholas's, Warwick, at the " dirige " for Henry VIII. ; while those of St. Margaret's, Westminster, show how the parish authorities placated the royal almoner with a fine of 2s. 4rf. when he would have exercised his right of sealing up the church door in 1548 because of the omis- sion of the customary bell-ringing at the King's departure. Significant also is the light thrown on the later phases of the religious drama by the citation of items showing that the representation of church or parish plays continued throughout the reign of Elizabeth, though there appears to be some confusion in the dates assigned to a performance of this character at Wootton, Hants (pp. 268, 281).
Though he insists very firmly on the eccle- siastical origin of the churchwarden's office, Dr. Cox for the most part touches but lightly on questions involving controversy. On one point, however, he betrays bias. He is strongly, insis- tently, anti-Reformer and anti-Puritan ; and, indeed, there are many instances of devastation which even admirers of Puritanism must regret, such as the substitution of plain glass for a window in St. Edmund's, Salisbury, " wherein God is
painted in many places as if he were there creating;
the world," by a Puritan recorder of that city in.
1629.
In a work representing the research that has- been carried through a lifetime it seems ungrateful to notice small slips, such as "S. Neot's " for the Cornish St. Neot, and " Waynardes castell " (217),. surely Baynards Castle, in a London entry ; for " noble parych " (6) whole parych is doubtless- intended; while for "S. Michael-in-Bedwardine, Warwick" (45), the obvious reading is Worcester.
The Reign of Henry VII. from Contemporary Source*. Delected and arranged in Three Volumes, with an Introduction by A. F. Pollard. Vol. I. Narrative Extracts. (Longmans, 10s. 6d_ net.)
THIS is No. 1 of the " University of London His- torical Series." Prof. Pollard begins his excellent Introduction by saying that these volumes spring from a humble cause, and pretend to a modest ambition, being designed primarily to meet the difficulty of providing original "sources" for his- torical students at London University. They will answer their purpose admirably if they all come up. to the standard of the present example, which strikes- one as a most judicious selection of representative pieces from a period which, if not nearly so rich as manv others, yet offers no inconsiderable embarras de richesses. And, besides that, they ought to- attract the attention of those general readers who have grown perhaps a little weary of the over- ready interpretations which professed historians offer in such amazing abundance.
Histories, as might have been expected, have been omitted, and some of the reasons which make such omission advisable are amusingly illustrated in. the Introduction. Letters, poems, documents of State, extracts from parliamentary speeches, the despatches of ambassadors, and other similar strictly original materials, have alone been used. Most of the matter here given has already been published elsewhere, but all has been revised, and, wherever necessary, corrections have been made^ and supplementary information supplied. Among, the most important items, as contributing to form a clear and vivid idea of the times in the reader's mind, are the cases from the Courts of Star Chamber and Requests, which are printed in full. The general reader aforesaid will probably turn with more zest to the pages near the end of the book which furnish details, not perhaps widely known beyond the circle of strict his- torical studies, concerning the youth of Catherine- of Aragon. The head-lines of the pages are useful ; but some kind of table of contents giving page- references would have been of advantage.)
Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. New Series.
Vol. VII., Part 1. (Liverpool, the Society.) MR. ERNST KUHN announces in the Report that Lady Arthur Grosvenor succeeds him in the pre- sidency of the Society. It is also stated that the present year will see the issue of Dr. George F. Black's 'Gypsy Bibliography.'
The number opens with 'Gypsy Jane' and 'Gypsy Lee,' two word-portraits by Mr. Arthur Symons. In these he states that his "interest in the Gypsies ever since I read * Lavengro ' has- amounted to a passion."
Early British Gypsies form the subject of an article by Mr. Eric Otto Winstedt. This opens-
