[58] In our day, the beadle is most familiar to us as an officer of the church. Formerly, one of his duties was a strange one. We read of the beadle, in a church, going round the edifice during service, carrying a long staff, at one end of which was a fox's brush, and at the other a knob: with the former, he gently tickled the faces of the female sleepers, while on the heads of their male compeers he bestowed with the knob a terrible rap.
At Acton church, in Cheshire, some five and twenty years ago, one of the churchwardens, or the apparitor, used to go round the church during service, with a long wand in his hand; and if any of the congregation were asleep, they were instantly awoke by a tap on the head.
In the church at Dunchurch, a similar custom existed: a person, having a stout wand, shaped like a hay-fork at the end, stept stealthily up and down the naves and aisles, and whenever he saw an individual asleep, he touched him so effectually, that the spell was broken; this being sometimes done by fitting the fork to the nape of the neck.
[59] From a paper by the author of the present volume, in Once a Week; reprinted by permission of the proprietors.
[60] See Mr. Corner's paper "On the History of Horselydown," 1855.
[61] We quote the above from a contribution to the Birmingham Daily Post. The details are of value, from their being furnished by an eye-witness.
[62] Selected and abridged from review of Neckam's Work, in The Times journal.
[63] From a paper, by the Rev. Thomas Hugo, read to the Somerset Archæological Society.
[64] Translated from the Anglo-Norman, by H. T. Riley, M.A. 1863.
[65] That the oblique or skew arch is an old invention is attested by the following passage in the Handbook of Spain, by Mr. Ford, who resided in that country several years: "Now visit the Alcazar (Cathedral, Seville); but first observe a singular Moorish skew arch, in a narrow street leading (from the cathedral) to the Puerta de Xerez: it proves that the Moors practised this now assumed modern invention, at least, eight centuries ago."