366 



Old Church Plate in Wilts. 



&c., but examples of these are not likely to be found amongst i 

 specimens of Wiltshire Church plate. 



By a statute of the 2nd Henry VI. , A.D. 1423, it was ordained I 

 that " no goldsmith or jeweller should sell any article of silver unless o 

 it was as fine as sterlings nor before it be touched with the Touch,, 1 

 and marked with the workman's mark or sign, under a penalty of \ 

 forfeiting double the value. The cities of York, Newcastle, Lincoln, t 

 Norwich, Bristow, Salisbury, and Coventry, were to have divers j 

 Touches, and no goldsmith to sell any gold or silver wares but as it | 

 is ordained in this City of London. " Some of these provincial j 

 cities, at a later period, had a special " touch " or assay mark of their \ 

 own, but there is nothing to show that Salisbury ever made use of ; 

 the privilege. In the corporation accounts of that period no entries 

 are found which throw any light on the matter. 



The following examples of old Church plate have come under the 

 writer's notice ; it will be seen that they are confined almost entirely ] 

 to the neighbourhood of Salisbury. It is to be hoped that a more 

 complete and systematic account of all the Church plate in the 

 diocese will ultimately be obtained, so that what is still left of ancient 

 plate in each parish may be kept intact. As Mr. Cripps well says, 

 " The Church plate o£ the last century was well suited to the 

 Churches of the period ; fortunately, older Churches in most cases 

 possessed some better plate, acquired at an earlier period, and well 

 would it be if this were still so, and fewer Elizabethan communion 

 cups were seen in the windows of the modern silversmith. Many 

 of them are made of the very same silver as the more ancient chalices 

 which they replaced, vessels that had, perchance, belonged to their 

 parishes from time immemorial. It is to be feared that they are 

 constantly parted with for the mere price of the silver, by those 

 who are in ignorance, or are regardless, of the curious historical 

 associations which surround these ancient and interesting relics." 



Bakford St. Martin. The vessel representing the old Chalice in 

 this parish is a very fine piece of old English plate of the time of 

 James I. It was not originally intended as a chalice, but is one of 

 the few remaining decorative examples of that period, consisting of 



