234 Notes on the History of Mere. 



was altered from Wednesday to Tuesday. It is certain that a 

 market was held in Mere before this date, as it is reported in 1423 

 that there is a certain cross in the town of Mere, which through 

 default of the vicar, was become defective and ruinous. Now doubt- 

 less this was a market cross. These market crosses were erected 

 that a monk or friar, on market days, may preach to the people 

 assembled there, when they were exhorted to be true and just in 

 their dealings. Milner says : — " The general intent of market 

 crosses was to excite public homage to the religion of Christ crucified, 

 and to inspire men with a sense of morality and piety, amidst the 

 ordinary transactions of life." They originated in towns where there 

 were monastic establishments, and they gave the religious house a 

 central point to collect the tolls paid by farmers and dealers in 

 country produce, for the privilege of selling in the limits of the 

 town. There is a fine specimen still existing in the " Poultry 

 Cross" at Salisbury. When this cross at Mere fell to decay, 

 probably the market house took its place, which was pulled down 

 about thirty years since, and on its site the present clock-tower waS; 

 erected. There were also boundary crosses, of which there were at 

 least three in this parish, as we still have the names of White Cross; 

 Long Cross, and High Cross, in remembrance of the monuments 

 which stood at those places. We also had a cross in the churchyard? 

 as our old churchwardens' book states, 1556-7 : — 



" For two lode of stones with carriage, for the new makynge of the crosse jn 

 the churcheyarde, 4*. Paid for the base stone and the stemme of the same 

 crosse 2s. To the masons for their labor, for the new makynge of the same 

 crosse in the churcheyarde 17$. 6d." 



This cross was probably destroyed in 1645 by the Cromwellians, 

 when the Vicar — Dr. Thomas Chafin — was so barbarously treated 

 (as will be shown hereafter) . 



In the churchwardens' accounts for 1673-4 occurs the following 

 entry : — 



"Itm paid for four doz. of pointes given at the pambulacon 00 „ 01 „ 00." 



which suggests the idea that the fragments of the shaft were then 

 used as boundary stones, as in the spring of the present year (1897) 



