By the Rev. E. H. Goddard. 



339 



such matters. This they accordingly did, and the story proceeds 

 that, the cunning* man being* quite equal to the occasion, gave 

 them the following excellent advice, — that they should return 

 home and let it be published throughout the parish and neighbour- 

 hood, (it was apparently suspected that the thieves were not 

 strangers,) that the chancel door would be left open for a week, and 

 if during that time the plate had not found its way back into the 

 chest from which it was taken, the cunning man would forthwith 

 come up from Corsham with his divining rods and all other things 

 needful and would most infallibly discover the thief. There is no 

 record as to what happened next, nor is there much need of any, for 

 the plate is safely at Broad Hinton still. 



But the dangers which threaten the ancient plate of our Churches 

 at the present day arise less from burglars than — as I have already 

 said — from the small value too often placed upon it by its natural 

 guardians, and it was in the hope of at least mitigating this danger 

 by calling attention to the matter and putting on record the pos- 

 sessions of each parish Church that the Bishop of Salisbury some 

 five years ago first set on foot investigations into the Church 

 plate of this county by sending round to every parish in his diocese 

 a form of return to be filled up with the number, size, inscriptions, 

 and hall marks of all the sacred vessels belonging to the Church. 

 It was found, however, that in a very large number of eases the 

 information given by these returns needed to be supplemented or 

 corrected by a personal visit from someone with some previous 

 knowledge of the subject. Accordingly throughout the northern 

 half of the County of Wilts, — including that large part of it which 

 belongs to the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, — the Churches have 

 been systematically visited* by one or other of the gentlemen in- 

 terested in the work (Mr. Bell, Mr. Plenderleath, Mr. Ponting, and 

 myself), and careful drawings have been made of almost every 

 piece, over nine hundred in number, whether of ancient or modern 

 date, in the hope that the information thus gained may, under the 

 able hands of Mr. Nightingale, be built up into a history and 

 inventory of the Church plate of Wilts, and published very shortly 

 as a companion volume to his " Church Plate of Dorset." 



