[91] "The Churchwardens, at the common charge of the Parishioners in every parish, shall provide a comely and honest pulpit, to be set in a convenient place within the Churche, and to be there seemly kept, for the preaching of God's worde."—Injunctions given by the Queen's Majestie, 1559.
[92] It seems most probable that the last of these was the real object. In some old discourses the following phrase is met with:—"Let us now take another glass," meaning another period of time to be measured by the hour-glass: and the preacher reversed the glass at this point. Ancient hour-glasses remain in the church of St. Alban's, Wood Street, City; and at Cowden, Kent. The iron frames of hour-glasses still remain in the churches of Stoke Dabernoun, Surrey; Odell, Bedfordshire; St. John's, Bristol; Cliff, Kent; and Erdingthorpe, Norfolk, and doubtless others are to be found elsewhere. The Queen has lately presented an hour-glass of the measure of eighteen minutes for the pulpit of the chapel royal in the Savoy, to replace the old one, which was destroyed in the recent fire.
[93] Some few of these sounding-boards are, however, very handsome. At Newcastle there is, or lately was, a sounding-board which was a representation of the spire of the church.
[94] Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 1. p. 364. Preaching-Crosses are also at Hereford, near the Friary of the Dominican (or Preaching) Friars; and in the churchyards of Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, and Rampisham, Dorsetshire.
[95] See a curious letter on this subject in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 1. p. 527.
[96] See Walker's "Sufferings of the Clergy," p. 310.
[97] S. Luke vi. 26.
[98] The Vicar of the church here referred to has lately deceased, and his successor has commenced the much needed improvements. The Vicar's good daughter, who was quite a sister of mercy in the parish, is not likely to be forgotten, though the old pew has gone. A beautiful window of stained glass has been erected to her memory by the parishioners.
[99] This phase of the pew system is not over coloured. A few years since, a pew in the nave of Old Swinford Church was so nailed up; but other instances of this might be mentioned.
[100] James ii. 1-4.