72 



Notes on au Ancient Ctngw. 



Drawn by F. J. Robinson. 



RE upper part of the ancient censer, figured on the 

 opposite page, was found embedded in the east wall 

 of the chancel of the old Church of Upper Langwith, 

 or Langwith Bassett, in the Hundred of Scarsdale. It was dis- 

 lodged by the masons engaged in taking down part of the walls, in 

 December, 1877, from a kind of rude recess to the south side of 

 the place where the altar had stood. The remainder, unfortu- 

 nately, crumbled to pieces on being removed. Probably the censer 

 had been here concealed in order to escape the vigilance of the 

 greedy Commissioners of Edward VI. The Inventories of Church 

 Goods of that reign, preserved at the Public Record Office, are 

 very full for the greater part of Derbyshire, but the roll pertaining 

 to the Hundred of Scarsdale is unfortunately missing. 



Censers were an invariable part of the furniture of the old 

 Church of England. They are frequently enumerated in the 

 Derbyshire inventories, and were usually in pairs : — eg. " j payre 

 of censors of laten," Kirk Hallam — " j payre of sensors of brasse," 

 Gresley — " ij censars of sylv'," Derby, All Saints'— "a per of 

 scensures," Ilkeston. Sometimes single ones are mentioned, as 

 j " senser of Maslen," Findern — " j senser of brasse," Raven- 

 stone. Maslen was a metal, the chief compound in which was 

 tin ; latten was a metal composed chiefly of copper and tin, the 

 former predominating, and did not much differ from brass. The 

 Langwith censer is of latten. The height of this upper portion 

 is 4f inches, and the diameter 3! inches. 



Up to the close of the fourteenth century, censers were usually 



