166 THE MUSIC OF WILD FLOWERS 



century handwriting. I was laid up at the time and 

 my good friend thought that possibly the old ledger- 

 book might amuse me. He was not mistaken. The 

 merest glance at its contents was sufficient to show that 

 here was a mine of information with regard to the pre- 

 bendal houses and their former occupants. A closer 

 examination made the use and purposes of the book 

 clear. It had been decided at the time of the Restora- 

 tion that, while the houses in the Close should be re- 

 built " at the general charge of the Church," yet that 



" all manner of wainscott of the several houses of 

 Mr Deane and the severall prebendaries shal be made 

 and finished at their owne proper charges respectively, 

 by the particular owner of every such house, they or 

 their executors to be paid for the same by their suc- 

 cessors abating one fowerth parte of the charge 

 thereof." 



This was decided by the Dean and Chapter on ist 

 December 1662, in the presence of George Morley, 

 Bishop of Winchester. The newly found Wainscot 

 Book proved to be the account-book, kept by the 

 Chapter clerk, consequent upon this arrangement. It 

 gives (under the headings of the different houses) the 

 sum of money expended by a prebendary on wainscot 

 and other improvements and the sum " one fowerth 

 parte being deducted, according to the custom of the 

 church," to be duly paid by his successor, stating in 

 most cases the names of the said prebendaries. It is, 

 in short, the book of Fixtures, to be taken over by 

 successive occupiers of prebendal houses. Unfortun- 

 ately the record is strangely imperfect and incomplete, 



