By the Be v. Canon J. E. Jackson* 



263 



Another point to be observed in the oldest mention of the old 

 Hall, is, that it was used as the Church-House, and was repaired 

 by the inhabitants, who therein kept their " Church Ales and 

 Plays." This requires a little explanation. 



In many old parish books in this county, mention is made of 

 the Church- House, and I believe that in ancient days there must 

 have been one in every parish. It was a house used by, if not 

 belonging to, the Churchwardens on behalf of the parishioners, 

 where they met on business. Part of that business was, every 

 year about Whitsuntide, to brew a quantity of beer with parish 

 money. There was a Revel ; and the profits of the brewing were 

 applied to meet the expenses of the Churchwardens, in new bell- 

 ropes, &c. In the old parish-books belonging to Wimborne 

 Minster in Dorsetshire, are entries for many years of the annual 

 expenses and profits of the " Church Ale," as it was called. They 

 had two of these meetings, one in Lent, and the other at Whitsun- 

 tide. They sold victuals as well as drink : and kept at the Church- 

 House, hogsheads and butts, wooden dishes, and other furniture 

 for a feast. Young and old came together : and there were games, 

 bowling, shooting at targets, and the like. 



The " Plays " above spoken of as having been performed in the 

 Old Town- Hall, were, not such as required a Shakespeare for an 

 author or a Garrick for an actor; but of a very primitive character, 

 highly prized several centuries ago, and called " Miracle Plays " 

 or " Mysteries." They simply consisted of scenes from the history 

 of the Bible, especially relating to the birth of our Saviour. They 

 were also taken from other books as the " Lives of Martyrs and 

 Confessors." They were originally got up by the clergy in 

 Romanist times, with a praiseworthy object of producing on the 

 popular mind of those days (when there were no such things as 

 printed books) a lively impression of events in the Sacred Histories. 

 They were at first exhibited in the parish church itself : and the 

 actors were the ecclesiastics, or their scholars. In some places 

 these miracle plays went on through Lent, being a continued series 

 of Scriptural stories for several days. In the reign of Rich. II. 

 (A.D. 1391) the parish clerks of London put forth a play of this 



