[44] A Long and short ladder are intended to be bought for the purpose of getting upon the Roofs there being no access to them by a StairCase 1

[On the back is written in the same hand a list of the parish charities which is signed by the Vicar and churchwardens and also by the Archdeacon as exhibited before him. It begins with the following sentence:]

"The following is an Account of the Charities and Benefactions to the Parish of Bledlow." [The account ends with these signatures :]

[Here ends the long Inventory; and there follow some Church wardens' accounts with a short recension of the long Inventory.]

For Parchment and Making out two Inventories of the Books Utensils and Ornaments belonging to the Church and Exhibited at the parochial Visitation of the Revd. and Worshipful Mr. Archdeacon Heslop, holden here the 19th of May 1783. One of the Inventories signed by the Vicar and Churchwardens was deliver'd in at the Court and the other is to remain among the Parish writings.

O. 12.

O.

6.

O.

I.

O.

3.

600 36

O

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4.

1 The following paragraphs are written in pencil below the last entry. A Painted iron Register Chest as per Act 52d Geo. III.

A Large strong Deal Parish Chest containing the Award of Inclosure Date 1812. A pencilled cross has been made, possibly by the same hand, in the margin of the following items: 5. 10. 14. 16. 17. 18. 19. 27. and against two small cambric AltarTowels in 9. a small silver straining spoon in 11. a Pint Glass-decanter and stopper in 12. and an hour Glass in 25.

Brought on

[The verso of this leaf is blank]

A List of Articles included in the Inventory, many of which had been long in use, and others were provided against the Visitation.

[3.] A Silk Cushion with Gold Tassels for the Altar [4] An Altar-service book bound in Red Turkey [5.] A Paste-board with the Consecration prayer bordered with purple Ribbond

[9.] Two Cambric Altar-Towels

[10.] Two Fustian and two Dimity Pieces with Muslin frontals for the side boards

[1] A Silver straining spoon

[12.] A Glass pint decanter and stopper in the Flaggon [14.] A Small oblong Water-bottle and stopper and a Water-Glass

[16. 17. 18.] An Alb, a short surplice for funerels † and another for the Clark without Sleaves

yard

[19.] A Mahogany stool cover'd with Moreen [21.] Two Square Mats and two Oval ditto.

Five Yards of Yard wide ditto and 5 Yards of half

[21.] Six Yards of Hair Cloth

O. 15.

O O

66

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0. 16.

96

9

[42.] A grate in the Chimney of the Vestry Room [39] A Small Bell and Wire communicating with the Belfry to notify to the Ringer's the minister's arrival

[20.] A Mahogany three leg'd Candlestick with a brass Socket for funeral Service

[29.] A Pasteboard with the funeral Service border'd with Black Ribbon

O.

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3806

5.

CHAPTER VI.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS AT CHURCH AND AT HOME.

BAPTISM.

IN the early part of our period there is evidence that baptism within a few hours after birth was a custom approved by many. It agrees with the rubric in the Prayer Book that the Curates of every Parish shall often admonish the people that they defer not the Baptism of their Children longer than the first or second Sunday next after their birth. Accordingly we find that the Duke of York's son,1 born to him on September 14, 1667, was baptized the same day. 2 So earlier, in 1661 Pepys notes that a child was born on May 26, and baptized on May 29; and on Feb. 20, 1665-66 he goes to the christening of Capt. Ferrers' child born the day before. On July 12, 1668 he notes the birth and christening the same day of Mrs. Michell's baby. Mrs. Godolphin's son was born on a Tuesday, September 3, 1678, and was baptized on the following Thursday." On May 20, 1669 Evelyn's daughter, Susannah, was born, and baptized on the 25th. On March 1, 1681-2 his second grandchild "was born and christen'd the next day"; on June 28, 1683 was born a grand-daughter

and christened by the name of Martha Maria, our Vicar officiating. I pray God blesse her and may she choose the better part.

Addison was born and christened the same day, May the first,

1 The following note may serve to show how one of the sacraments was neglected by the Puritans before the Restoration.

"Mr. Graunt observes that the number of christenings in 1660 was greater than anie three yeers foregoing." (Diary of the Rev. John Ward . . . extending from 1648 to 1679, ed. by Charles Severn, London, Colburn, 1839, p. 162. It is not a diary so much as a memorandum book.) The disappearance of the Eucharist under the Commonwealth has been spoken of at the beginning of the second chapter.

2 British Museum, MS. Add. 10,117, fo. 210.

3 The Life of Mrs. Godolphin, by John Evelyn, London, Sampson Low, 1888, p. 142.

1672, by the name of Joseph. A son of Dr. Comber, Dean of Durham, was born on November 26, and baptized on Dec. 4, 1688.2 Christopher, son of Christopher Wood, was born on Dec. 15,

1666, and was baptized on the 21st.3

In 1677,

Nov. 7th. The Duchesse of York was safely delivered of a son. 'Twas christen'd the next day in the evening by the Bishop of Durham.*

George Lavington, Bishop of Exeter, was born on January 18, 1683-4, and baptized the same day." John Byrom was born and baptized the same day. Luke Heslop, Archdeacon of Buckingham, was born and baptized on St. Luke's day, 1738.7,

In 1747 a child immediately after the Caesarian extraction was christened by the name of Jonah and it was declared likely to live.

Sir Charles Grandison delays the christening for a few days because he was anxious that it should be performed at church. "Shall it not be performed when it can, as the church directs; the child in full health?" It was observed about 1730 that in the Isle of Man the people always brought their children to the church to be baptized, no matter how far off they lived. 10

On the other hand, Mrs. Montagu's boy was born on May 11, 1743, but not baptized till "the latter end of next week," after June 4.11

The Prince of Wales, afterwards King George the Fourth, was born on August 12, 1762, but not baptized until September 18.12 And towards the end of our period, practice had become very lax, and so continues.

1 Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, in Works, Edinburgh, 1806, vol. xii. p. 1. 2 Memoirs of. Thomas Comber, D.D. ed. Thomas Comber, London, 1799,

P. 266.

...

3 Life and Times of Anthony Wood, ed. Andrew Clark, Oxford Historical Society, 1892, vol. ii. p. 95.

P. 7.

4 Diary of Dr. Edward Lake, ed. by George Percy Elliott, Camden Society, 1846,

5 D.N.B. under George Lavington.

J. Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, John Murray, 1892, under Byrom. 7D.N.B. under Luke Heslop.

8 Manchester Magazine, July 28, 1747.

9 Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, Chapman and Hall, 1902, vol. vii. p. 20, Letter v.

10 George Waldron, A Description of the Isle of Man, contained in Compleat Works, no place or name, 1731, second pagination, p. 170.

11 Elizabeth Montagu the Queen of the Blue-stockings, ed. Emily J. Climenson, Murray, 1906, vol. i. p. 148.

12 Annual Register for 1762, fifth ed. Dodsley, Chronicle, pp. 96-98.

The Puritans greatly disliked baptism in the old stone font, which they looked upon as polluted by the superstitious papistical A return to the use of the old font

baptism of the middle ages. was insisted upon by the canons of 1603, and the use of basons forbidden by exclusion.1

It is worth noting that at Wylie, a parish in Wiltshire, they had in 1781

A Silver Bason for Baptisms.2

It would seem safe to assume that the silver bason is to hold the water in which the child is to be baptized. A moveable font is often seen in the East of silver, and was formerly in use in the West for the children of great persons. There was a silver font at Canterbury for the children of the King of England and a brazen font at Edinburgh for the children of the King of Scots. The royal family

of England are still baptized in a special silver vessel.

At St. George's Windsor a great deal of the plate was stolen in 1642 by a Captain Fogg; and amongst other things lost was

The great Brass Bason, or Font for Christenings, given by the Founder King Edward III.*

At Girgenti in Sicily, in the year 1908, I saw baptism administered in a silver or white-metal bason. Towards the end of the high mass in the Duomo this bason was set upon an altar in the nave, near to where I was, and I saw a child baptized in it, while the high Mass was still going on in the quire.

It would seem that baptism by immersion had been discontinued even at the time of the Restoration. It is much to be wished that baptism by immersion as also many other ancient customs could be restored; though, perhaps, not for the reasons which the author of the following paragraph submits:

Were the immersion in Baptism restor'd here according to the primitive Practice, and the Rubrick of the present Church; it would be more conformable to the primitive Institution, and more conducive to the Infants Health; the Rickets not being known in England until that Custom was omitted, which Immersion I have seen several times practis'd in

1 Canon 81. (Edw. Cardwell, Synodalia, Oxf. 1842, vol. i. p. 211.)

2G. R. Hadow, The Registers of the Parish of Wylye in the county of Wilts, 1913, Devizes, Simpson, p. 141.

3 J. Wickham Legg and W. H. St. John Hope, Inventories of Christchurch Canterbury, Westminster, Constable, 1902, pp. 237 and 238.

4 Christopher Wren, Parentalia, London, 1750, p. 137.