292 Customs of Wishford and Barford in Grovely Forest. 



The Epistle of iElfric Qnando dividis crisma is an address ap- 

 parently intended for priests assembled from the parishes to take 

 away their supplies of holy oils and sacred eream.^ 



Strictly speaking it was the duty of every parish priest to fetch 

 his oils from the mother church in time for blessing the font on 

 Easter even. Lyndewood, the canonist, however knowing the 

 difficulties of a large agricultural parish (such as Lincoln) held 

 that rural deans might fetcli for some of the clergy. Provincude, 

 i., 37. 



In return for this Easter gift received from the Cathedral in the 

 spring, the parishes brought back at the subsequent Midsummer 

 their Whitsuntide oblations, about the time of the sitting of the 

 Pentecostal Chapter at Salisbury. It appears that, at least in 

 1319, the oblations were considered to be an obligatory duty or 

 debt, and that they served as a contribution to the Cathedral 

 Fabric Fund.- 



Whether the Wishford and Barford parishioners paid two visits 

 to Salisbury, the one to maintain the custom of Grovely, the other 

 to carry their Pentecostal offerings, or whether they did their 

 religious duty and their customary visit " under one," I am unable 

 to determine. It may be observed that their privileges, though 

 ample, are strictly defined, and did not amount to any right for all 

 comers to cut down trees wastefully or at random, but for certain 

 persons, who stood in feudal relations, and owed service or duty 

 to the lord of the manor, to bring one load of trees down " by 

 strength of people " at the appointed time, besides ' wood from the 

 trenche," and " dead snapping wood " at their pleasure. 



" An may em never 'buse the right 

 They've got in Grovely Wood ; 

 Var 'tis a girt boon to tha poor 

 Granted ta do em good." •* 



' Maskell, Mon. Rit., I., pp. cclxxii., ccxci. 



- Statuta Eccl. Sarisb., 50, Jones and Dayman. These statutes, drawn 

 up in 1319, were adopted in 1324. 



^ Wiltshire Bhymes, by E. Slow, i., 151. 



