Chapter II: Part 2

VALOR ECCLESIASTICUS. The taxation of 1291 held good, and all the taxes from the benefices, as well to our Kings as to the Popes, were regulated by it until 27 Henry VIII., when a new survey was completed. Henceforth the first-fruits and tenths ceased to be forwarded to Rome, and were transferred to the Crown. In 1703 the receipts were appropriated, under the title of Queen Anne’s Bounty, to the augmentation of the smaller livings. The original returns of the King’s Valor are at the P. R. O. They were officially published in six folio volumes between the years 1811 and 1834. In the latter year an “Introduction” of no little value, was also published in an 8vo. volume, written by the Rev. Joseph Hunter.

CERTIFICATES OF COLLEGES AND CHANTRIES. About ten years after the completion of his ecclesiastical survey, Henry VIII. decided on appropriating the revenues belonging to Collegiate Churches and Chantries. As a preliminary measure to their sale, he appointed a commission, in the 37th year of his reign, to re-value this property, and to take an inventory of the chattels. The whole subject of the suppression of the Chantries, as conceived by Henry VIII. and finally carried out by Edward VI., is ably and exhaustively treated in the introduction to the volumes of the Cheetham Society, which treat of the Lancashire Chantries. The reports, or “Certificates,” furnished by Henry’s Commission with respect to the different chantries, are preserved at the P. R. O., and are entered on rolls arranged in eight parallel columns, in answer to a like number of queries. There are also abridged rolls on paper of some counties. Further information about chantries may be sometimes gleaned from certain MS. volumes at the P. R. O., entitled “_Particulars for the Sale of Colleges and Chantries_.” In the B. M. (Add. MSS. 8,102) is a valuable roll of Fees, Corrodies, and Pensions, paid to members of the suppressed chantries and religious houses, out of the Exchequer, 2 and 3 Philip and Mary. The pensions for the different counties are on separate skins, so that it is easy of reference.

INVENTORIES OF CHURCH GOODS. There are various Inventories of Church Goods in the P. R. O., taken by Commission at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., some on detached slips of parchment, others in paper books. The inventories are not absolutely perfect for all parishes in any one county; in several counties the churches of one or more Hundreds are missing; for others, such as Somerset, Sussex, and the North Riding of Yorkshire, there are none extant. Nor are there any for Lincolnshire; but there is a MS. return of Church Furniture and Ornaments of 150 churches of that county, taken in 1566, in the Episcopal Registry at Lincoln. This was published in 1866, by Edward Peacock, F.S.A. There are also some special Inventories connected with other dioceses, which space forbids us to mention.

GUILDS AND FRATERNITIES. Guilds and Fraternities of a more or less religious character, and usually directly connected with a special altar at the parish church, will naturally come under the history of the Church, provided any can be detected in connection with the particular parish. It used to be supposed that these guilds were only found in cities or boroughs, but later researches show that they also occasionally existed in quite small villages. The Parliament of 1381 directed writs to be sent to the sheriffs of each county, calling upon them to see that the Master and Wardens of all Guilds and Brotherhoods made returns to the King’s Council in Chancery of all details pertaining to the foundation, statutes, and property of their guilds. A large number of the original returns (549) still remain in the P. R. O., where they are known as “Miscellaneous Rolls, Tower Records, Bundles cccviii. ix. x.” For some counties there are none extant, and for others only those from a single Hundred. More than one hundred of these returns have recently been printed or analysed, by Toulmin Smith, in a volume of the Early English Text Society, entitled “English Gilds.”

HERALDIC CHURCH NOTES. In the different heraldic visitation books, especially those _temp._ Elizabeth, which have been previously described, there often occur interesting church notes, which not only detail heraldic glass in the windows and arms on the monuments, but also occasionally give inscriptions that have long since disappeared. These can only be found by a careful inspection of the heralds’ register books of the county in which the parish is situated.

COMMONWEALTH SURVEY. In pursuance of various ordinances of the Parliament, a complete survey of the possessions of Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, and of all benefices, was made in 1650, by specially appointed Commissioners. These interesting returns, filling twenty-one large folio volumes, are in the library of Lambeth Palace, and numbered in the catalogue of MSS. from 902 to 922. These surveys have hitherto been singularly overlooked by county historians and ecclesiologists, though occasional extracts have been published from a much-abbreviated and inaccurate summary, based on these documents, which forms No. 459 of the Lansdowne MSS. in the B. M.

The Record Books of the Commonwealth Commissioners for augmenting Rectories and Vicarages (MSS. 966-1,021); the original Presentations to various benefices from 1652 to 1659 (MSS. 944-7); and Counterparts of leases of Church Lands, made by authority of Parliament from 1652 to 1658 (MSS. 948-50), are also in Lambeth Library.

BRIEFS. Royal Letters Patent, authorising collections for charitable purposes within churches, were termed “Briefs.” Lists of them, from the time of Elizabeth downwards, are often to be found on the fly-leaves of old register books, or in churchwardens’ accounts. The repair or rebuilding of churches in post-Reformation days, until nearly the beginning of the Catholic Revival, was almost invariably effected by this method. About the middle of last century, owing to the growing frequency of Briefs, it was ordered that they should only be granted on the formal application of Quarter Sessions. Much information as to the condition of the fabrics and other particulars relative to churches can be gathered from the petitions to Quarter Sessions, in those counties where the documents are accessible. The Briefs themselves were issued from the Court of Chancery, so we suppose they would be attainable at the P. R. O. At the B. M. is a large collection of original Briefs, from 1754 down to their abolition in 1828. They were presented to the Museum in 1829, by Mr. J. Stevenson Salt.

ADVOWSON. The history of the advowson, if the living remained a rectory, was almost invariably intermixed with that of the manor or the moieties of the manor. Consequently it will be found, that, in the case of rectories, various particulars as to the owners of the advowson, and its value, at different periods, can be gleaned from the Inquisitions, and from the Patent and Close Rolls to which references have already been made; or, in the case of litigation, from the Plea Rolls and Year Books. If the living became at any time a Vicarage, care should be taken to look through the particulars given by Dugdale and Tanner, of the religious house to which the big tithes were appropriated, and more especially to carefully search the chartularies of that establishment, if any are extant. There is an excellent list of the various monastic Chartularies, _i.e._, ancient parchment books, containing transcripts or abstracts of the charters of the different houses, in the first two volumes of Nichols’ “Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” and a shorter one in Sims’ “Manual.”

The Ordination of a Vicarage, _i.e._, the official appropriation of certain parts of the endowment for the sustentation of a vicar, required episcopal confirmation; and these ordinations will usually be found in the Episcopal Registers, if they are extant for the date when the rectory was formally appropriated. These ordinations often contain information of great interest, and have hitherto been very rarely searched for, and still more rarely printed.

The terms used in these documents for different sorts of tithes, for the various produce of the soil, etc., etc., will be sought for in vain in any ordinary Latin Dictionary; for their explanation it will be necessary to consult a Glossary of mediæval or monastic terms. The most handy and accurate is the abridged edition of the Glossaries of Du Cange, Du Fresne, etc., in six vols. 8vo., published at Halle, between 1722-1784. Some such work will also be found indispensable in consulting the monastic Chartularies and many of the Records and Rolls. The majority of the terms will be found in the last two editions of Cowel’s “Interpreter,” 1708, and 1737, which can much more readily be met with than the larger glossaries; but there is great need for a one volume compendious glossary, and it is hoped that such a work may shortly be published.

LISTS OF INCUMBENTS. Lists of rectors and vicars, giving the date of their institution, and the names of their respective patrons, are indispensable to a complete parochial history. They are, for the most part, to be obtained from the diocesan registers. This work, in several dioceses, will be found to involve no small labour, for Bishop’s registrars were not always particular to separate institutions from other Episcopal acts, and occasionally placed them in precise chronological order for the whole diocese, without any regard to archdeaconries and other minor divisions. But the trouble will be amply repaid by the numerous quaint and interesting little details that the searcher will be almost sure to discover. Many of our episcopal registers, or act books, are of supreme interest, and yet they are perhaps less known than any class of original documents. The dates at which these registers begin average about the year 1300. We give, for the first time in any manual, their respective initial years:--Canterbury, 1279; London, 1306; Winchester, 1282; Ely 1336; Lincoln, 1217; Lichfield, 1296; Wells, 1309; Salisbury, 1296; Exeter, 1257; Norwich, 1299; Worcester, 1268; Hereford, 1275; Chichester, 1397; Rochester, 1319; York, 1214; and Carlisle, 1292. The old registers of Durham are mostly lost, that of Bishop Kellaw, 1311-18, being the oldest. None of the Welsh Cathedrals have any registers older than the 16th century.

Gaps are not unusual in the episcopal registers for some time subsequent to the Reformation, when the books were often kept in a slovenly fashion. These deficiencies can be generally supplied from the lists of institutions in the Augmentation Books at the P. R. O.

It is scarcely necessary to say that no list of incumbents should be considered complete, until it has been carefully collated with the parish registers.

Catalogues of all the English Bishops are to be found in Canon Stubbs’s “_Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum_;” and similar lists of Deans, Prebendaries, and minor dignitaries, in Hardy’s edition of Le Neve’s “_Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_.” Both of these works may probably be useful when drawing up the list of parish priests.

Lists of priests appointed to the more important chantries can usually also be extracted from the diocesan registers, for, except in peculiar circumstances, they required episcopal institution.

Any facts of interest or importance that can be ascertained respecting the successive incumbents should be chronicled. For the time of the Commonwealth, Walker’s “Sufferings of the Clergy” on the one hand, and Calamy’s “Ejected Ministers” on the other, should be consulted. They both make mention of a very great number of the clergy.

DEDICATION. The dedication of the church should never be taken for granted from county gazetteers or directories. Dedications to All Saints, and to the Blessed Virgin, should be viewed with some suspicion until firmly established, for in the time of Henry VIII. the dedication festivals, or “wakes,” were often transferred to All Saints’ Day, or Lady Day, in order to avoid a multiplicity of holidays, and hence by degrees the real dedication became forgotten. Ecton’s “_Thesaurus Rerum Ecclesiasticarum_” (1742), and Bacon’s “_Liber Regis_” (1786), should be consulted for dedications. Occasionally the patron saints of the different churches are mentioned in the institutions in the episcopal registers, and more often in monastic chartularies; but the surest of all references, in the case of a doubtful dedication, is to look up the pre-Reformation wills of the lords of the manor or other chief people of the parish. These wills almost invariably contain an early clause to this effect:--“I leave my body to be buried within the church of St. ----.” The time of the wakes or village feast is a good guide to the dedication, but one which, from the reason stated above, as well as from other causes, must not be implicitly relied upon.

Another point worth remembering with regard to dedications, is that re-consecration was not of unfrequent occurrence. Murder and some other crimes within the church, as well as special violations of the altar, rendered re-consecration imperative; and it was also often resorted to when the fabric was altogether or considerably rebuilt, or even when a new chancel was added. At the time of these re-consecrations, it occasionally happened that the name of the patron saint was changed, not from mere caprice or love of novelty, but because relics of that particular saint were obtained for inclosure in the chief or high altar. This should be borne in mind when a discrepancy is found in the name of the patron saint of the same church at different epochs.

The chapter of Parker’s “Calendar of the Anglican Church,” entitled “A few remarks on the dedication of English Churches,” is worth reading. This book is also valuable for the brief account of the saints most frequently met with in England, both in dedications and otherwise. The first half of the book has been re-published once or twice, under the title of “Calendar of the Prayer Book,” but it leaves out the chapters here mentioned, and is comparatively valueless as compared with the edition of 1851. Harington “On the Consecration of Churches,” published by Rivington in 1844, should also be read.

Description of the Church.

Having finished the history of the Church, it will be best to follow it up by a description of the fabric of the Church, and of all its details.

STYLES OF ARCHITECTURE. In deciding as to the different “periods” under which to classify the various styles into which almost every parish church is more or less divided, it is perhaps wisest to confine oneself to the simple and generally accepted divisions of English architecture, originally adopted by Mr. Rickman, viz. (1) the Saxon, from 800 to 1066; (2) the Norman, from 1066 to 1145; (3) the Early English, from 1145 to 1272; (4) the Decorated, from 1272 to 1377; and (5) the Perpendicular, from 1377 to 1509. Some competent writers always speak of three periods of Transition, covering the reigns of Henry II., Edward I., and Richard II.; whilst others, and this may be well adopted, speak of only one regular “Transition,” meaning by that term the period between the Early English and Decorated, or the reign of Edward I. (1272-1307).

These divisions are generally accepted as sufficing for popular purposes; but of the more detailed and technical divisions of later writers, there are none so correct in nomenclature, and so accurate in separation of style, as the seven periods of Mr. Edmund Sharpe. The first and second of his periods are the same as given above, but the third is styled the Transitional, from 1145 to 1190; the fourth, the Lancet, from 1190 to 1245; the fifth, the Geometrical, from 1245 to 1315; the sixth, the Curvilinear, from 1315 to 1360; and the seventh, the Rectilinear, from 1360 to 1550. See Sharpe’s “Seven Periods of English Architecture,” with its excellent series of plates.

There are numerous architectural manuals, but Parker’s “Glossary of Gothic Architecture” has not been surpassed, and is very comprehensive. The best edition is the fourth, with the two additional volumes of plates.

Before classifying the different parts of the building according to the various periods, a most careful inspection should be made of both inner and outer walls, when fragments of mouldings, pertaining possibly to an earlier church than any now standing, may not unfrequently be detected.

MONUMENTS. Inscriptions on monuments now missing, or partly obliterated, may sometimes be recovered from the Church Notes of Heraldic Visitations, or other MS. note books of ecclesiologists of past generations, in which some counties are peculiarly fortunate. For a list of MSS. of this description, that may be found in our public libraries, arranged under counties, see Sims’ “Manual.” It may also be useful to refer to two printed works--Le Neve’s “_Monumenta Anglicana_,” 5 vols. 8vo. (1717-1719), and Weever’s “Ancient Funerall Monuments,” the latest edition of which, with additions, is a 4to. vol. of 1767. The former gives inscriptions on monuments of eminent persons who deceased between 1600 and 1718, the latter treats generally of all monuments in the dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester, London, and Norwich. Bloxam, on “Monumental Architecture” (1834), is a useful handbook on the general subject of monuments.

Cutts’ “Manual of Sepulchral Slabs and Crosses” is the only book dealing with the interesting subject of early INCISED SLABS. It is well done, but much more has come to light on the subject since it was written (1849), and a new manual is much wanted. In some counties, where stone abounds, remains of this description are found in most churches. If any part of the church is being rebuilt, the debris should be most carefully looked over; and a minute inspection of the existing masonry will often detect more or less perfect specimens of incised crosses that have been utilised in the masonry by the church restorers of past generations. The lintels of the windows (especially of the clerestory and of the tower), the inner side of the parapets or battlements, the stone seats of the porch, and of course the whole of the flooring, should be critically scanned for these relics. See also Boutell’s “Christian Monuments.”

Haines’ “Manual of Monumental BRASSES” (2 vols. 8vo., 1861) is the best book on that class of memorials. The second volume consists of a fairly exhaustive list of brasses throughout the kingdom.

There is no good handbook dealing exclusively with STONE EFFIGIES, a great desideratum; the big illustrated folios of Gough’s “Sepulchral Monuments,” and Stothard’s “Monumental Effigies,” may be consulted with advantage. For the details of ARMOUR, Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe” (3 vols) is the most exhaustive work; for the details of COSTUME there are several expensive works, but the best handbook is Fairholt’s “Costume in England,” to which is appended an illustrated glossary of terms.

In connection with stained or painted GLASS, Winston’s “Hints on Glass Painting” (2nd edition, 1867) should be read, wherein the different styles of successive periods are critically distinguished and illustrated.

For the important item of HERALDRY, both in glass and on monuments, the best of the numerous manuals (and there are several very trashy) is Cussan’s “Handbook of Heraldry.” Burke’s “General Armoury,” of which a new and extended edition was published in 1878, is a dictionary of arms classified under families. Papworth’s “Dictionary of British Armorials” is arranged on the opposite principle, viz., the blazonry or description of the arms is given first, and the name of the family or families to which it pertains follows. It is an expensive work, but indispensable in the identification of arms. It will also be found to be far more accurate than Burke, and gives references to the various rolls and other MSS. from which the arms are cited.

FONTS are almost a speciality in themselves. Simpson’s “Series of Ancient Baptismal Fonts,” 1825, has a large number of beautifully finished plates of the more remarkable examples. Paley’s “Baptismal Font,” 1844, has illustrations and critical descriptions of a great number, arranged alphabetically. See also the “Archæologia,” vols. x. and xi.

BELLS have now a literature of their own. Ellacombe’s “Bells of the Church,” and Fowler’s “Bells and Bell-ringing” are admirable works. The inscriptions, etc., on the church bells of the majority of English counties have already been published, and most of the remainder are now in progress. North’s “Bells of Leicestershire,” and “Bells of Northamptonshire,” are the best books of their class, but the “Bells of Derbyshire,” now in course of publication in the “Reliquary,” and chiefly contributed by St. John Hope, are being yet more thoroughly treated, both in description and illustration.

Church PLATE should always be inspected, and the date, character, inscription, or arms on each piece carefully recorded. Chaffers’ “Hall Marks on Plate” gives the fullest description of the different marks, and how the precise date can be thereby ascertained. The fifth edition, published in 1875, is a considerable improvement on its predecessors.

INVENTORIES OF CHURCH GOODS often need explanation, or remains of various ancient church furniture may make some description necessary. There is no one book that can be thoroughly recommended on this subject; but, perhaps, the most satisfactory in some respects is Walcott’s “Sacred Archæology,” a popular dictionary of ecclesiastical art and institutions. Jules Corblet’s “Manuel Elémentaire d’Archéologie Nationale” may be consulted with advantage; it is a better done work than anything of the size and scope in English, and is well illustrated. For the various details of Church worship and ceremonies, reference should be made to Rock’s “Church of our Fathers,” and to Chambers’ valuable work, “Divine Worship in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, contrasted with and adapted to that in the Nineteenth.”

Before beginning the description of the Church, it will be well, in the first place, in order to ensure clearness and accuracy, that some general PLAN OF PROCEDURE should be adopted. We give the following skeleton of a suggested outline, that has been proved to be useful and orderly, but it can, of course, be altered or expanded or re-arranged in any direction.

1. Enumeration of component parts of structure, remarks as to its general or special characteristics.

2 Ground plan, _i.e._, dimensions of area of chancel, nave, etc., different levels, and number of chancel and altar steps.

3. Description of parts of the permanent structure that are (_a_) Saxon, (_b_) Norman, (_c_) Early English, (_d_) Transition, (_e_) Decorated, (_f_) Perpendicular, (_g_) Debased, (_h_) Churchwarden, and (_i_) Restored. Some definite order should be observed under each head, otherwise it is likely that some details may escape, _e.g._ doorways, windows, piers, arches, etc., of chancel, nave, aisles, porches, transepts, tower, and chapels.

4. External details--parapets, gurgoyles, niches, stoup, arms, inscriptions, “low side windows.”

5. Internal details--[Stone] altar or altar stone, piscina, almery, hagioscope, Easter or sepulchral recess, niches, brackets, roof-corbels, and sedilia of (_a_) chancel, (_b_) south aisle, (_c_) north aisle, and (_d_) chapels or transepts; also groined roofs, doorway or steps to roodloft, and stone screens--[Wood] altar table, altar rails, reading desk, lectern, pulpit, pews, benches, poppy-heads, panelling, roofs, doors, galleries, rood or chancel screen, other screens or parcloses, parish or vestment chests, alms boxes--[Iron or other metal]--any old details.

6. Font--(_a_) position, (_b_) description, (_c_) measurements, (_d_) cover.

7. Monuments--beginning with early incised stones, and carefully following them down in chronological order, an order which should not be broken except for the purpose of keeping a family group together. Arms should be correctly blazoned, and inscriptions faithfully copied.

8. Stained glass, according to age.

9. Encaustic tiles--pavement generally.

10. Fresco paintings, black-letter texts, patterns on roof or elsewhere, royal arms, charity bequest boards.

11. Bells--(_a_) number, (_b_) inscription and marks, (_c_) frame, (_d_) remarkable peals, or bell-ringers rhymes, (_e_) legends; also sanctus bell, or bell cote on nave gable.

12. Parish registers and other documents; church books, or library.

13. Church plate.

14. Church yard, (_a_) cross, (_b_) remarkable monuments or epitaphs, (_c_) yew tree, (_d_) lychgate, (_e_) sundial.

15. More recent fittings or ornaments, such as altar appurtenances, organ, etc.; the previous headings being supposed to be confined to older details possessing some historic value. But if the date, or probable date, is given of each particular, it might perhaps be as well to describe everything (if a complete account up to date is desired) under its proper head; thus a modern altar cross and candlesticks might be mentioned under the 5th head.

A few words on church “RESTORATION” may be here introduced; for it cannot surely be inappropriate to include a sentence or two in these pages (whose object it is to further the preservation of local records), that may possibly have some small influence in preventing the needless destruction of any part of those noble buildings round which the history of each English parish so closely clusters. From the standpoint of a local annalist nothing has been more painful in the “restorations” of the past forty years than the wanton way in which monuments, and more especially flat tombstones, of all ages, have been often treated.

It is necessary to enter a warm protest against the notion that any honour can be paid to God, or respect to the memory of those that He created in His own image, by burying inscribed gravestones beneath many inches of concrete in order to stick therein the glossy tiles of recent manufacture. The effacing or removal (wherever it can be avoided) of the memorials of the dead should in all cases be strongly resisted, no matter what be the eminence of the architect that recommends it. There are not many unrestored churches left in the country, but there are some of much value and interest for whose fate we tremble. When a “restoration” (the term is a necessity for the lack of a better) is contemplated, let it be recollected that all work--beyond the removal of galleries, and modern fittings, the opening out of flat plaster ceilings, above which good timber roofs often lie concealed, the scraping off the accumulated layers of whitewash and paint, the letting in of light through blocked-up windows, the allowing of feet to pass through doorways closed in recent days by the mason or bricklayer, and the making strong of really perishing parts--all work beyond this is in great danger of destroying the traces of the historic continuity of our Church, and of doing a damage that can never be repaired. And in preserving this historic continuity, let it not be thought that any service is being rendered to history or religion by sweeping clean out of the church all fittings of a post-Reformation date. The sturdy Elizabethan benches, the well-carved Jacobean pulpit, or the altar rails of beaten iron of last century, should all be preserved as memorials of their respective periods; in short, everything that our forefathers gave to God’s service that was costly and good, should be by us preserved, provided that it does not mar the devout ritual ordered by the Common Prayer, or in other respects interfere with the Church’s due proclaiming of her Divine mission to the nineteenth century. The reaction against over-restoration is now happily setting in, but a word of caution is also necessary lest that cry should be adopted as the cloak of a lazy indifferentism, or be used as an excuse for regarding the parish church as a local museum illustrative of byegone times, to be carefully dusted and nothing more. Where much new work, or any considerable extent of refitting, seem absolutely necessary, it is best to hasten slowly, and to do a little well rather than to aim at a speedy general effect. Thus, if one of our old grey churches requires fresh seating, how much better to fill a single aisle or one bay of the nave with sound and effectively carved oak, and only repair the remainder, rather than to accomplish the whole in sticky pine. The best material and the best art should surely be used in God’s service, and not reserved to feed our pride or minister to our comfort in private dwellings. It has often been noticed how far better the work of redeeming the interior of our churches from that state of dirt and neglect that had degraded some at least below the level of the very barns upon the glebe, has been carried out where money has come in slowly, and at intervals, rather than where some munificent patron has readily found the funds to enter upon a big contract.

Religious Houses.

If the parish includes within its boundaries the remains or the site of any abbey, priory, hospital, monastic cell, or other religious building otherwise than the parish church, the history and description of such places must of course be separately undertaken. And let not the local historian consider it is needless for him to explore into a subject that has probably been treated of with greater or less detail in the original edition of Dugdale’s “_Monasticon_,” or with more precision in the expanded English edition. The English abbeys or priories, whose history can be said to have been exhaustively written, could certainly be counted on the fingers of both hands.

Should any one desire to thoroughly search into the history of a religious house, it will be best in the first place to ascertain whether there is any chartulary or chartularies extant (to printed lists of which we have previously referred) for Dugdale and subsequent writers have often only quoted some two or three out of a hundred charters, or ignored them altogether. Secondly, the numerous references to national records, all now to be found at the P. R. O., which are given in Tanner’s “Notitia,” or in the big Dugdale, should be referred to seriatim. Thirdly, the indexes and calendars to the various Rolls, etc., at the P. R. O., which have been mentioned under the manorial history, should be looked through for those more or less frequent references that are almost certain to have been omitted by Tanner. Fourthly, the Augmentation Books, and other likely documents of the time of the Suppression of the Monasteries, should be overhauled. Fifthly, special MSS. dealing with the order to which the house pertains, should be sought after; _e.g._, if of the Premonstratensian order, a store of unpublished matter is almost certain to be found in the Peck MSS. of the B. M., and in the Visitation Book of the B., numbered Ashmole MSS. 1519. Sixthly, search should also be made through the indexes of the various Blue Book Reports of the Historical Manuscript Commission, and inquiries set on foot as to local private libraries. Seventhly, and though last, this suggestion will often be found to be of great value, questions should be asked through the pages of that invaluable medium between literary men--_Notes and Queries_.

It may also be found of use to study the precise statutes and regulations of the particular order. They will be found in full in the bulky folios of Holstein’s “_Codex Regularum Monasticarum et Canonicarum_,” 1759. Dugdale only gives an abstract of the majority of them.

General Topics.

Under this head we may classify the more general and modern subjects that should not be left out of any complete parochial history, but which it is sufficient just to indicate without further comment, only premising that the annalist should keep constantly before him that it is the history of a parish, and not of a county or country, on which he is engaged, and that the more sparing he is of general disquisitions the more likely he is to please his readers.

The value of a thorough study of the field-names, of which we spoke in the first section of this manual, will now also become apparent. Some names will tell of a change of physical features, of swamps and islands, where all is now dry and far removed from water, or of forests and underwood, where the blade of corn is now the highest vegetation; whilst others will point to the previous existence of the vast common fields, and their peculiar cultivation (concerning which Maine’s “Village Communities” should be read). Some will indicate the foolish ways in which special crops were attempted to be forced by law upon the people, for it is few parishes that have not a “Flax Piece” as a witness to the futile legislation of 24 Henry VIII.; whilst others tell of trades now extinct, or metals long since worked out. Some speak of those early days when the wolf or the bear roamed the woods and fields, the beaver dammed up the streams, or the eagle swooped down upon its prey; whilst others tell of the weapons whereby these fauna were rendered extinct, for scarcely a township can be found where some field is not termed “the Butts,” names that certainly date back as far as Edward IV., when it was enacted that every Englishman should have a bow of his own height, and that butts for the practice of archery should be erected near every village, where the inhabitants were obliged to shoot up and down on every feast day under penalty of being mulcted a halfpenny.

It will, of course, be a matter of taste whether the topics here enumerated should precede or follow the manorial and ecclesiastical history.

I. Situation--extent--hill and river--caverns and springs--scenic character--climate and temperature.

II. Geology--mineral workings--quarries.

III. Special vegetable productions, past and present.

IV. Special Fauna--mammalia--birds--fish--reptiles--insects.

V. Agriculture, past and present. Inclosures of different dates--Inclosure Acts; for the mostly sad effects of these most selfish Acts, which profited the rich at the expense of the poor, for lists of inclosures from time of Queen Anne, and for other valuable information on this topic, see “General Report on Enclosures,” drawn up by the Board of Agriculture in 1808. The Board of Agriculture, in the first quarter of this century, drew up most valuable Surveys of Agriculture for the different counties, many of which are replete with varied and interesting information. On the economic and antiquarian side of this question, read Professor Rogers’s “History of Agriculture and Prices in England.”

VI. Trades and manufactures, past and present.

VII. Fairs and markets.

VIII. Roads, canals, railways, and bridges--past and present. Care should be taken in tracing out disused roads, bridle paths, or pack-horse tracks.

IX. Folk-lore. Under this head will come customs and ceremonies relating to childbearing, churching, christening, courtship, betrothal, marriage, death, and burial--public-house signs and their meaning--customs and superstitious pertaining to wells and streams--used and disused sports and games--obsolete punishments, such as ducking-stool or stocks--omens--witchcraft--ghosts--charms--divinations--and other quaint or original customs. Several books have lately been published on this subject, but they are mostly instances of book-making, and none come up to or surpass Ellis’s edition of “Brand’s Popular Antiquities.” A most useful publication society has been recently started, termed “The Folk Lore Society,” which has already begun collecting and publishing. The Hon. Sec. is G. Lawrence Gomme, Esq., Castelnau, Barnes.

X. Dialect. On this subject see the invaluable publications of the “English Dialect Society,” now (1879) in the seventh year of its existence. The hon. secretary is J. H. Nodal, Esq., The Grange, Heaton Moor, Stockport. One of their publications, price 6s. to non-subscribers, is “A List of Books relating to some of the counties of England.” Halliwell’s “Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words” will be found very useful.

XI. Poor Law and general Rating, history and statistics.

XII. Population, inhabited houses, and other census details at different periods.

INDEX.

Advowson, 76.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 16.

Armour, 89.

Attainders, 53.

Bacon’s “Liber Regis,” 82.

Banks’ “Dormant and Extinct Baronage,” 48.

Bateman’s “Ten Years Diggings,” 15.

Bells, 91.

Bigelow’s “Placita Anglo-Normannica,” 35.

Black Book of the Exchequer, 20.

Blount’s “Ancient Tenures,” 19.

Bloxam’s “Monumental Architecture,” 87.

Bohn’s “Antiquarian Series,” 16.

Boldon Book, 18.

Book of Ely, 17.

Book of Exeter, 17.

Book of Winchester, 18.

Borough Records, 56.

Boutell’s “Christian Monuments,” 88.

Brand’s “Popular Antiquities,” 107.

Brasses, 88.

Briefs, 74.

Burke’s “Armoury,” 89.

Burke’s “Landed Gentry,” 48.

Burn’s “Parish Registers,” 58.

Calamy’s “Ejected Ministers,” 81.

Chaffers’ “Hall Marks,” 91.

Chalmers’ “Biographical Dictionary,” 57.

Chambers’ “Divine Worship,” 92.

Chantries, 69.

Charities, 66.

Charnock’s “Local Etymology,” 14.

Charter Rolls, 25.

Church Details, 93-6.

Church, Description of, 84.

Church, History of, 67.

Churchwardens’ Accounts, 62.

Close Rolls, 24.

Collins’ “Peerage and Baronetage,” 48.

Commonwealth Survey, 73.

Constables’ Accounts, 62.

Corblet’s “Manuel Elémentaire,” 92.

Costume, 89.

County Records, 55.

Court of Chancery, 33.

Cowel’s “Interpreter,” 78.

Cussan’s “Heraldry,” 89.

Cutts’ “Incised Slabs,” 87.

Dialect, 108.

Dedication of Church, 81.

Domesday Book, 16, 67.

Domestic Architecture, 44.

Dugdale’s “Baronage,” 48.

Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” 101.

Ecton’s “Thesaurus,” 82.

Edmondson’s “Baronagium Genealogicum,” 48.

Edmund’s “Names of Places,” 14.

Ellacombe’s “Bells of the Church,” 91.

Ellis’ “Introduction to Domesday Book,” 17.

English Dialect Society, 108.

Episcopal Registers, 79.

Etymology, 13.

Fairholt’s “Costume,” 89.

Feet of Fines, 40.

Ferguson’s “River Names,” 15.

Ferguson’s “Teutonic Name System,” 15.

Fergusson’s “Rude Stone Monuments,” 15.

Fergusson’s “History of Architecture,” 48.

Feudal Tenure, 18.

Field Names, 13, 104.

Fine Rolls, 26.

Folk Lore, 107.

Folk Lore Society, 108.

Fonts, 90.

Forfeitures, 53.

Fosbrooke’s “Encyclopædia of Antiquities,” 44.

Fowler’s “Bells and Bell-ringing,” 91.

Fuller’s “Worthies,” 57.

General Topics, 103-8.

Glass, 89.

Gomme’s “Index of Municipal Offices,” 66.

Gough’s “Sepulchral Monuments,” 89.

Greenwell’s “British Barrows,” 15.

Guilds and Fraternities, 72.

Haines’ “Brasses,” 88.

Halliwell’s “Archaic Dictionary,” 108.

Hamilton’s “Quarter Sessions,” 56.

Heralds’ Visitations, 49.

Heraldic Church Notes, 73.

Heraldry, 89.

Hewitt’s “Ancient Armour,” 89.

Historical MSS. Commission, 56.

History of the Church, 67.

Holstein’s “Codex,” 103.

Hundred Rolls, 27.

Incised Slabs, 87.

Inclosure Acts, 106.

Inclosure Commissioners, 14, 106.

Incumbents, Lists of, 78.

Inquisitiones ad quod damnum, 39.

Inquisitiones post mortem, 36.

Inventories of Church Goods, 71, 92.

Itinerant Justices, 31.

Justices in Eyre, 31.

Justices of the Forest, 31.

Kemble’s “Saxons in England,” 16.

Knight’s Fees, 18.

Le Neve’s “Fasti,” 80.

Le Neve’s “Monumenta Anglicana,” 88.

Leo’s “Local Nomenclature,” 14.

Local Etymology, 13.

Lubbock’s “Scientific Lectures,” 15.

Maine’s “Village Communities,” 104.

Manorial History, 16.

Maps, 14.

Marshall’s “Genealogist’s Guide,” 49.

Marshall Rolls, 20.

Mayors of Boroughs, 54.

Members of Parliament, 54.

Merewether’s “History of Boroughs,” 57.

Monuments, 86.

Muster Rolls, 54.

Nichols’ “Collectanea,” 77.

Nicolas’ “Notitia Historica,” 53.

Nonarum Inquisitiones, 21.

Nonconformist Registers, 61.

“Notes and Queries,” 103.

North’s “Bells of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire,” 91.

Originalia, 26.

Overseers of the Poor, 62.

Paley’s “Fonts,” 90.

Papworth’s “Armorials,” 89.

Pardons, 53.

Parish Registers, 58.

Parker’s “Calendar,” 84.

Parker’s “Domestic Architecture,” 47.

Parker’s “Glossary of Architecture,” 86.

Parochial Records, 58.

Patent Rolls, 23.

Pedes Finium, 40.

Personal History, 48.

Pipe Rolls, 22.

Placita, 29.

Placita Itinerum, 32.

Plate, 91.

Prehistoric Remains, 15.

Quo Warranto Rolls, 32.

Re-consecration, 82.

Records of Assize, 32.

Recusant Rolls, 53.

Re-dedication, 83.

Religious Houses, 100.

“Reliquary,” 91.

Report on Enclosures, 106.

Report on Municipal Corporations, 57.

Report on Public Records, 53.

Restoration, 96.

Rock’s “Church of our Fathers,” 92.

Roger’s “History of Agriculture,” 106.

Rotuli Curiæ Regis, 30.

Scutage Rolls, 20.

Sequestrations, 53.

Sharpe’s “Seven Periods,” 86.

Sheriffs, 54.

Simpson’s “Fonts,” 90.

Sims’ “Index to Pedigrees,” 52.

Sims’ “Manual,” 39, 52, 54, 77, 87.

Stone Effigies, 89.

Stothard’s “Monumental Effigies,” 89.

Stubb’s “Registrum Sacrum,” 86.

Styles of Architecture, 84.

Tanner’s “Notitia,” 101.

Taylor’s “Words and Places,” 14.

Taxation of Pope Nicholas, 67.

Testa de Neville, 20.

Thomas’ “Handbook,” 42.

Thorpe’s “Diplomatarium Anglicum,” 16.

Tithe Commutation Maps, 14.

Toulmin Smith’s “English Guilds,” 73.

Toulmin Smith’s “Parish,” 65.

Valor Ecclesiasticus, 68.

Village Officers, 66.

Viollet-le-Duc’s “Military Architecture,” 46.

Walcott’s “Sacred Archæology,” 92.

Walker’s “Sufferings of the Clergy,” 81.

Weever’s “Funerall Monuments,” 87.

Wills, 52.

Winston’s “Glass Painting,” 89.

Wood’s “Athenæ,” 57.

Worrall’s “Bibliotheca Legum Angliæ,” 35.

Worsae’s “Primeval Antiquities,” 44.

Wright’s “Archæological Essays,” 44.

Wright’s “Court-Hand Restored,” 43, 60.

Year Books, 34.

Youlgreave Parish Records, 64.

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