336 
Alotes on the Church Dlate of Alorth CHilts. 
By the Rev. E. H. Gopparp. 
*,* For Notes on Church Plate in South Wilts see vol. xxi., p. 355. 
( Tae study of Church plate as one of the minor branches of 
be) 
ecclesiastical art is attracting a good deal of attention at 
the present time, though until the last few years it has been 
singularly neglected. Whilst ecclesiastical architecture and ecclesi- 
astical antiquities of all kinds have been long the object of diligent 
and enthusiastic enquiry, few have cared to enquire what is the date 
or fashion or history of the plate belonging to the Churches whose 
other points of interest have been so generally investigated. 
If the result of this want of interest in and knowledge of the 
ancient plate of our Churches had been that it was allowed to 
remain in safe obscurity there would, perhaps, have been little 
cause to regret it—but unhappily the obscurity which has sur- 
rounded it has by no means conduced to its safety. It is probably 
not too much to say that more interesting Church plate has been 
got rid of by its natural guardians, the clergy and churchwardens, 
during the last fifty or sixty years, simply from want of knowledge 
of its value and interest, than the accidents of time have destroyed 
or the ingenuity of the dishonest has appropriated during the last 
two centuries. 
A Church is being “restored.” The Church plate is old—it has 
worn thin and is a good deal dented and battered. It really does 
not agree at all with the delightful freshness of the newly-scraped 
stonework, or the spick and span pitch pine seats. Besides, its 
shape—Elizabethan, perhaps, or that of the seventeenth century — 
is by no means fashionable—it may even be considered “ objection- 
able.” A new set on the approved model would be far more suitable. 
So the silversmith is asked whether he will take the old plate in 
part. exchange for a new set, and he kindly consents to do so; but 
