Richard Poore, 1217—1329. 239 



made his submission, and no doubt worked well and zealously with 

 his Bishop. These and others^ a goodly array of great and worthy 

 fellow-workers, rallied round the good Bishop in his efforts to build 

 his cathedral. 



There are indications moreover that some contributed in kind, 

 and others in personal labour, to the work. The expression in the 

 couplet already quoted from Matthew Paris, " Lapicidm dant operam," 

 may fairly be interpreted as implying some such offering on the part 

 of the workers in stone ; and amongst things " excerpted out of the 

 Martyrologe Boke at Saresbyrie " by Leland, was this entry, that one 

 " Alice Bruer gave all the marble to the church for ten years"''' i It is 

 some little interest to know that this same Alice Bruer held in dower, 

 by gift of her husband, the manor of Worth (Matravers), in Dorset, 

 and further, that Downshay, in the Isle of Purbeck, which is in 

 that parish, is the " situs manerii." Now, close to the farm-house 

 at Downshay, it so happens that are still to be seen the remains of 

 worked-out quarries of marble. It is hardly possible to avoid the 

 conclusion that the Purbeck shafts and capitals in our cathedral 

 were derived from that source. 



As though in contrast with the band of really great and learned 

 men that Richard Poore had gathered around him at Sarum, we 

 find that the state of the clergy generally was very sad indeed — 

 ignorance being prevalent everywhere. Of course the difficult times 

 through which they had passed rendered such a state of things to 

 a certain extent unavoidable. We have striking proof given us in 

 some records found in the Old Register, to which allusion has been 

 so often made.^ They relate to the visit paid by William de Wanda, 

 immediately after his appointment as Dean, to those prebends or 



» See "Wilts Mag., i. 169. 



' The extracts from the Eegist. Osmund, to which allusion is here made, are 

 given, together with others to the same effect, in Maskell's " Ancient Liturgy of 

 the Church of England," p. 181. In the Old Register itself they are written in 

 a cotemporary hand, and were most probably the authentic record of the time. 

 They are valuable as showing the discipline that was maintained, even in those 

 disturbed da3^s, and proving that the "Canon of the Mass" was made the test 

 of competent knowledge. 



