Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 357 



printed by Bennett Brothers, Journal Office, 1896. Royal 8vo, pps. xl. and 

 403. [Issued to subscribers of 10s. 6c:?. to the " Wilts Record Society."] 



This handsome volume, the get-up of which does the greatest credit to 

 editor and printer alike, appears as the first year's issue of the " "Wilts Record 

 Society " — or, to be more accurate, as an earnest of what may bo expected in 

 the future of that society, if, and when, it comes into being. Whether, how- 

 ever, this part of the series is destined to be followed by other volumes or not, 

 everyone interested in the history of Salisbury, or of Wiltshire, must be 

 grateful for the publication of these accounts, the earliest and most important 

 of their kind in all probability in the county, forming as they do a perfect 

 mine of illustration and information for the student of Church history and of 

 social life and customs in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

 Practically the whole of the material was transcribed and much of it printed 

 by the late Mr. Swayne before his death, and since then it has been edited, 

 with the addition of an index nominum at the end, and a valuable analytical 

 introduction of 30 pages at the beginning, by his daughter, Mrs. C. R. Straton, 

 who has followed her father to the grave before the work for which the county 

 has to thank them both could be published. The one fault of the book— a 

 fault perhaps under the circumstances unavoidable, bi;t still a fault which 

 lessens its usefulness — is the absence of explanatory notes, except in the 

 introduction, on the obscure words which abound in its pages. The introduction 

 — which has been separately printed in the Transactions of the Salisbury 

 Field Club — gives an interesting account of the principal contents of the 

 volume. The earliest actually existing account at St. Edmund's is for 141.3, 

 from which date until the beginning of the seventeenth century the accounts 

 are fairly complete. In addition to the churchwardens' accounts the volume 

 contains an inventory of vestments, &c., in 1472, a list of briefs, and the 

 accounts of the stewards of the Fraternity of Jesus Mass in the Parish Church 

 of St. Edmund from 1476 to 1547. The accounts of St. Thomas's extend from 

 1545 to 1690. Incorporated with the transcripts made by Mr. Swayne are 

 many accounts copied by Mr. Benson, the originals of which have since dis- 

 appeared, as well as entries from the vestry books and journal book. The duties 

 of the various Church officials, inventories of Church goods, the various Lights, 

 Font Taper, Fulling Taper, Pascal Taper, Holy Fire, Rood Light, Altar 

 Lights, &c— The Scotale, King's Ale, and King's Plays— Hocktyde and Frick 

 Friday — Gangweek— Funeral Customs— the Dances in Church — the various 

 items of Church and parish expenditure— the changes in the services — and a 

 hundred other subjects of the greatest interest are touched upon in these 

 accounts. To take a single instance — the pew-rent system is often spoken of 

 as a survival only from the evil days of the eighteenth century, but we here 

 find it, as indeed it may be found in many such early accounts, as the regularly 

 established custom of pre-Reformation times, dating at least from the middle 

 of the fourteenth century, when fixed pews in Churches seem to have become 

 common. It is, indeed, impossible to open the book without coming on some- 

 thing of interest bearing on the social and religious life of the three centuries 

 with which it deals, and perhaps few things will bring home to us more vividly 

 the forgotten customs of those bygone days than the curt and business-like 

 statements of these old accounts. B.ev'iB'viedi Salisbury Journal, May 16th, 1896. 



