266 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



for the future to wear boots, " ocreis seu botis," according 

 to the regular usage of their ancient order. 



Item 29th. He here again, but with less earnestness, 

 forbids theni foppish ornaments, and the affectation of ap- 

 pearing like beaux with garments edged with costly furs, 

 with fringed gloves, and silken girdles trimmed with gold 

 and silver. It is remarkable that no punishment is annexed 

 to this injunction. 



Item 3ist. He here singly and severally forbids each 

 canon not admitted to a cure of souls to administer extreme 

 unction, or the sacrament, to clergy or laity; or to perform 

 the service of matrimony, till he has taken out the license 

 of the parish priest. 



Item 32d. The bishop says in this item that he had ob- 

 served and found, in his several visitations, that the sacra- 

 mental plate and cloths of the altar, surplices, &c., were 

 sometimes left in such an uncleanly and disgusting con- 

 dition as to make the beholders shudder with horror 

 "Quod aliquibus sunt horrori:" 1 he therefore enjoins them 

 for the future to see that the plate, cloths, and vestments, 

 be kept bright, clean, and in decent order : and, what must 

 surprise the reader, adds that he expects for the future 

 that the sacrist should provide for the sacrament good wine, 

 pure and unadulterated ; and not, as had often been the 

 practice, that which was sour, and tending to decay : he 

 says farther, that it seems quite preposterous to omit in 

 sacred matters that attention to decent cleanliness, the 

 neglect of which would disgrace a common convivial 

 meeting. 2 



1 " Men abhorred the offering of the Lord." I Sam. chap. ii. v. 17. Strange 

 as this account may appear to modern delicacy, the author, when first in orders, 

 twice met with similar circumstances attending the sacrament at two churches 

 belonging to two obscure villages. In the first he found the inside of the chalice 

 covered with birds' dung; and in the other the communion-cloth soiled with 

 cabbage and the greasy drippings of a gammon of bacon. The good dame at the 

 great farm-house, who was to furnish the cloth, being a notable woman, thought 

 it best to save her clean linen, and so sent a foul cloth that had covered her own 

 table for two or three Sundays before. [G. W.] 



2 " ne turpe toral, ne sordida mappa 



Corruget nares : ne non et cantharus, et lanx 

 Ostendat tibi te." [G. W.] 



