12 Alton Barnes Clmrch. 



centuries, the boarding having been mutilated and some pieces 

 discarded when the remainder was made up into boarding for the 

 old belfry. The table when complete measured (except where the 

 top was tapered off to fit into an arch) about 10ft. in height and 

 14ft. Sin. in breadth at the bottom. It was probably so constructed 

 as to fit into the space above the chancel arch. The upper portion 

 (within an ornamental border of bold but rude design, Sin. in 

 breadth) is occupied with the ten commandments, written in Gothic 

 letters in fourteen lines, running right across the tablet from side 

 to side. In the middle of the lower part, on a space about 3ift. 

 square, are the royal arms, as they appear on the coins of King 

 James I., or the title-page of the folio bible of 1611 — quarterly, 

 1 and 4, France and England ; 2, Scotland ; 3, Ireland ; the whole 

 in a garter surmounted by a crown ; supporters lion and unicorn, 

 but the former, of which only the paw remains, must have been 

 upon one of the panels, now missing. There are four boards or 

 panels lost entirely, and portions of five others. The royal arms 

 are enclosed in an Sin. border, and the space on either side is filled 

 up with ten lines of " chosen sentences of the Holy Scriptures." 

 To the left of the spectator appears Romans, xiii., 1 — 3, and on the 

 shiister side I. St. Peter, ii., 13, 14, 17. 



These two texts differ in some respects from each of the bibles 

 and prayer books in my possession. The inscription runs as fol- 

 lows: — 1st commandment, with the reading, "which have brought 

 thee out of the land of Egypt," as in the Geneva Bible of 1600 and 

 in the Catechism of 1604 and 1637. The other commandments 

 follow in order, running right across the fourteen boards. The 

 fourth has the usual Jacobean spelling, " Eemember that thou 

 keep holy the Sabboth day, sixe days," &c. ..." halowed it." 

 And so on to the end of the Decalogue, excepting where there are 

 gaps in the boarding. Neither Creed nor Lord's Prayer appears. 

 The " chosen sentences " from Romans, xiii. and I. Peter, ii. do not 

 agree precisely with the epistles for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany 

 and that for the 3rd Sunday after Easter, as printed in the Common 

 Prayer of 1604, nor yet with the Geneva (or "Breeches") Bible of 

 1600, of each whereof I have a copy. I think we may therefore 



