400 Wilts Notes and Queries. 



thousand pounds per annum, and pay tnit eight shillings in lieu of their tithes. 

 For Pope Innocent, the first of that name, decreed in the Lateran Councell, that 

 no Cistertian (he beiug of that order himself), should pay any Tithes. The 

 tenants in memorie of this Decree doe yearly every one in his order about the 

 Feaste of All Saints, keep a Feaste for their fellow tenants, which they call a 

 Word Ale. It was celebrated heretofore with great solemnitie, many prayers 

 heing made for the Abbot of Stanley and the Monks of the Cistertian order, now 

 forgotten, all that they yet retaine is, viz. — 



' You are to pray for the Abbot of Stanley and all the Monks of the Cistertian 

 Order, by whom we are all Tithe free, Tithe free ; by whom we are all Tithe 

 free, Tithe free, &c.' 



These words are sung by the Chorus, while one drinkes a Gar-ouse,* holding 

 a white wand in his hand, and so all round. When the feast is ended, he that 

 then kept it, delivers his Wand to him that by course is to keep it the yeare follow- 

 ing." 



I understand that this meeting is still kept up, but that those 

 who attend it assemble with locked doors, and perform the ceremonies 

 of the " Word Ale " in secret. 



The Ale is a private Court, and the members are said to be sworn 

 to secrecy; as by the payment of eight shillings a year, payable to 

 the Rector of Lydiard Tregoz, and by keeping up certain cere- 

 monies, the whole of the Midghall Tything, including about two 

 thousand acres, is free from the payment of Tythe. This mysterious 

 feast is held on the first Sunday after New Michaelmas. 



I am unable to suggest any derivation of "Word Ale," beyond 

 that which is obvious to every one, and I am equally unable to 

 suggest any reason why the "Word Ale" of Midgehall is no longer 

 celebrated with a chorus, as Aubrey states it to have been when he 

 wrote, in the reign of King Charles the second. 



I could easily imagine that it would not have been quite safe to 

 have praised Abbots and Monks just at the time of the Reformation, 

 or to have had Choruses and Garouses in the time of the Puritans, 

 but as both were no doubt restored with the Merry Monarch, it is 

 rather difficult to account for the introduction of secrecy since 

 that period. F. A. C. 



•Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary, defines a " Carouse " to be " a hearty dose of liquor," and he cites 

 for this the following passage from Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Act 1., Scene 2. "Please 

 you we may contrive this afternoon, and quaff Carouses to our mistress' health." 



END OF VOL. II. 



H. Bull, Printer, St. John Street, Devizes. 



