ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



the beginning of the century during the French wars. Not very long 

 after the south transept was a receptacle for all the apparatus belonging 

 to the Fire Brigade three engines, drags, buckets and helmets ; and 

 beside these lay the sexton's tools, the hearse with its trestles, and a great 

 wooden hut used for funerals in bad weather. 1 



The reaction commonly known as the Oxford Movement began 

 to be felt in this county about the year 1850. During the next twenty 

 years a great work of restoration was going on in every direction. 2 It 

 was carried out perhaps here as in other parts of the kingdom some- 

 times with more zeal than knowledge ; but those who have followed the 

 history of the county through its course will scarcely find it in their 

 hearts to regret the trifling losses involved in so great a gain. During 

 the last half century also several 3 of the larger parishes, such as High 

 Wycombe, Chesham, Wolverton, Burnham, Great Marlow, have been 

 subdivided, and new churches have been built to meet the needs of the 

 increased population around those and other centres. These changes are 

 necessarily less extensive and less marked in a county chiefly agricultural 

 than they are in the great manufacturing districts. But the census of 1 901 

 returned for Buckinghamshire a total of 286 clergymen of the Estab- 

 lished Church, over against 10 Roman Catholic priests and 74 ministers 

 of various sects. It is obvious that after all the vicissitudes of the past 

 the Church of England still holds a point of vantage even in this county 

 and still has hope, if she use her opportunity aright, to win back many 

 of her lost and strayed children to a truer appreciation of her privileges. 



1 Gibbs, History of Ayhsbury, 74. 



* See Records of Bucks during this period, which contains notices of the restoration of different 

 churches in almost every number. 



a Details on this subject are reserved for the appendix on Ecclesiastical Divisions. 



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