For the sake of brevity the names and numbers are here given. It is impossible to give the population of these places at the earlier date. The numbers of the communicants were carefully preserved by the ecclesiastical authorities, although the civil authorities paid no attention to the numbers of the population; but it is curious to mark, at a time when the numbers of the population must have been so much less than at present, how large a proportion the numbers of religious communicants in some instances bear to those of the present population.
It has been suggested that the large numbers specified in this certificate were not the numbers of actual communicants, but merely the numbers of persons who were of an age to be so, or perhaps the total number of communicants during the year. This seems, however, not to have been the case, and that these were the numbers of the actual communicants is shown by the fact that in the certificates for Gloucestershire and Wiltshire the numbers are equally high; and on the 14th of May, 1637, the Bishop of Salisbury issued an injunction to the curate and churchwardens of Aldbourne containing (inter alia) as follows: "I doe further appoint that thrice in the yeare at the least there be publique notice given in the church for fower Comunions to be held vpon fower Sundaies together, and that there come not to the Comunion in one day above two hundred at the Most." The population of Aldbourne is 1622. It has been suggested by a Roman Catholic gentleman that, before the Reformation, if any one beyond the age of confirmation had not received the Holy Communion at Easter, he would not be entitled to Christian burial if he died within the year, unless some very special cause could be shown. This also would go to account for the number of communicants in the different places being very large.
ASSIZE NOTICES.
The costume of the Bench and the Bar is the first thing which attracts the attention of the stranger visiting our Courts of Justice, and on this we will remark, beginning with
The Wig.—"All the wisdom's in the wig" is a saying familiar to us all, and yet the wig was the latest addition to forensic costume. The first species of wig worn in the Courts is that now worn by the Judges at our Cathedrals, called the full-bottomed wig. This was introduced by Louis XIV in France, and copied by Charles II in England; and after that it was worn down to the time of George II as the full-dress wig of noblemen, generals, admirals, churchmen, lawyers, and private gentlemen. It is still worn as the full-dress wig of the Lord Chancellor, Judges of law and equity, the Speaker, Queen's Counsel, Serjeants-at-Law, Masters in Chancery, Recorders, and Judges of the Local Courts. In one of Hogarth's prints of Speaker Onslow and several members of the House of Commons, sitting in the House, all are represented with the full-bottomed wig; and in the prints of the same celebrated artist, Mr. Kettleby, who was the last barrister who merely as a barrister wore the full-bottomed wig, is so represented.
Mr. Meadows, of Gloucester, who is the oldest wigmaker in this part of England, states that those wigs which had the tails knotted were called "tie-wigs," and those short at the back were called "bob-wigs." Thus, a Judge's Nisi Prius wig was called a "friz-tie," it being frizzed all over; a Bishop's wig being a "friz-bob." And it is stated by Mr. Planché, in his admirable little work on British costume, that the tie-wig and the bob-wig were both introduced in the reign of George II, the latter being sometimes worn without powder. Mr. Planché also informs us that the bag-wig was introduced in the reign of Queen Anne.
The Friz-tie Wig.—This is worn by the Judges at Nisi Prius and by the Judges of the local Courts, but this wig was not originally forensic, as it appears in the portrait of Mr. Beaumont, a London attorney of the reign of George II.
The Two-curl Bob-wig.—This was a powdered wig with a peak in front, frizzed all over, except two rows of curls all round the bottom of the back of it. It was worn by Judges when opening the commission, and down to the time of Lord Denman, when they received the Magistrates and the Bar at dinner in the circuit towns; and down to the time of Baron Garrow, when the Judges dined with our Diocesan or Lord Lieutenant, they wore this wig, a black silk gown, and bands. This species of wig was worn by private gentlemen at the beginning of the reign of George III; and Mr. Walter Horton, an eminent shoe manufacturer, at Stafford, who died about 1776, is represented wearing this wig in his portrait, now in the possession of Dr. Knight, the physician and magistrate at that place, who married his granddaughter and co-heiress.