Notes on the Church Plate of North Wiits. 337 
silver is very low in price, and he can only give the value of the 
metal for it. That, however, is better than nothing, and the chalice 
and its paten cover, which were provided in the days of Elizabeth 
and have been bound up with the most sacred recollections of the - 
parish ever since—or the seventeenth century cup and flagon, which, 
although they bear the name and arms of the donor somewhat more 
conspicuously engraved than it is the fashion to blazon them now— 
were doubtless as honest gifts as our own—are got rid of, nominally 
perhaps, “melted down,’ in most cases without a faculty, and 
therefore quite illegally ; and the interest of the plate of that parish 
is lost for another two hundred years. For the sake of a few 
shillings a page in the history of the parish is torn out for ever, 
whilst very possibly the very plate which was despised by its 
original owners becomes the property of a collector who values it 
in proportion to the large sum he has paid to obtain it. That this 
is what actually happens is proved by the curious adventures which 
have within the last few years befallen an interesting chalice and 
cover at Cricklade (see Plate I., No. 4). It was kept at the clerk’s 
house, and, as there was a second set of vessels, was never used, 
and so was never seen or even heard of by anyone in the place. In 
the natural course of things the old clerk died, and his relatives 
removed to Manchester carrying with them amongst his effects the 
chalice, which, although it bore an inscription stating that it belonged 
to S. Sampson’s, Cricklade, they curiously supposed to pertain to 
themselves. They sold it accordingly to a jeweller in Manchester 
for 50s., who sold it in turn to a traveller fora London firm. After 
passing through two other hands it became the property of a gentle- 
man at the price of £45. At this point it was put up for sale at 
Christie’s, and the attention of the Vicar and churchwardens of 
Cricklade having been called to the matter they instructed their 
solicitor to impound the articles. The gentleman into whose pos- 
session they had passed, finding that they had been wrongfully 
alienated expressed his willingness to give them up on receiving the 
sum he himself had paid for them,—and the clerk’s family proving 
amenable to the arguments pressed upon them, the £45 was pro- 
duced and the plate restored to S. Sampson’s again. In this case, 
