Excursion on Saturday, August %\st. 167 



it. In passing through the village they had seen the cross which 

 he had restored, and also so much of iutei'est in the houses — for 

 almost every building in the village had something about it worthy 

 of examination — that it was to be regretted they had not been able 

 to spend the whole day there. They could not have been received 

 more handsomely than they had been by Mr. Talbot, who had so 

 liberally provided for their bodily necessities as well as for their 

 mental improvement. 



On departing from Lacock Abbey, which was done with much 

 regret, the members visited, under Mr. Talbot's guidance, a large 

 fourteenth-century barn : the structure was very plain, but unusually 

 irregular in plan, the timbers of each bay being of different height 

 and framing. They also visited the parish Church of St. Cyriac. 

 To the north of the chancel is the vaulted Talbot Chapel, originally 

 a Lady Chapel, of about the time of Henry VII. The Church, 

 plate attracted considerable attention, and Mr. Lambert said that 

 old Church plate was fast disappearing from our Churches, for 

 new fashions and new shapes were usurping the place of older and 

 better patterns. In his hand he held a ciborium of the ancient 

 faith : he knew of nothing like it, and if he were to place ai date 

 upon it, he should say it was about the date of Henry VI. ; but a 

 ciborium it was, most certainly. 



FromLacockthemembersdro ve by the shortest route back toDevizes. 



At the evening meeting, which was the closing assembly of the 

 Congress, and at which the members were hospitably entertained 

 by the Mayor ; the Borough Maces and Eegalia were first examined 

 by Mr. G. Lambert, F.S.A. He said maces were really most 

 ancient weapons of warfare, which were used by ecclesiastics in their 

 quarrels. There had been very very fighting bishops, and ecclesiastics 

 by virtue of their office, being forbidden to shed blood, used maces 

 in preference to the sword. Maces had always been considered to 

 represent authority, and they found that in the very earliest times 

 a stafi" of office of one kind or other was invariably borne by the 

 leading patriarch of every tribe, no matter what tribe he belonged 

 to. A stick, a shepherd's crook, or anything of that kind, in- 

 dicated authority. They found mention of a staff of office in 



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