Chancery against all three; and Mr. Read was compelled to deposit the box with Master Leeds until the end of the suit. Three long years of litigation ensued. Eventually the Chancellor directed the box to be restored to the Overseers' Society, and Mr. Read paid in costs £300. The extra costs amounted to £76. 13s. 11d., owing to the illegal proceedings of Mr. Read. £91. 78. were at once raised; and the surplus spent upon adding a third case, of an octagon shape. The top records the triumph: Justice trampling upon a prostrate man, from whose face a mask falls upon a writhing serpent. A second plate, on the outside of the fly-lid, represents the Lord Chancellor, Lord Loughborough, pronouncing his decree for the restoration of the box, March 5, 1796. On the fourth or outer case is the Anniversary Meeting of the Past Overseers' Society, with the Churchwarden giving the charge previous to delivering the box to the succeeding Overseer, who is bound to produce it at certain parochial entertainments, with three pipes of tobacco at the least, under the penalty of six bottles of claret, and to return the whole, with some addition, safe and sound, under a penalty of 200 guineas. A tobacco-stopper of mother-of-pearl, with a silver chain, is enclosed within the box, and completes this unique memorial of the kind feeling which perpetuates year by year the old ceremonies of this most united parish, and renders this traditionary piece of plate of great price, far outweighing its own intrinsic value. It was the custom for a few years to have performances of sacred music in the Church. In May 1792, 1793, and again in June 1794, the oratorio of the "Messiah" was sung for the benefit of the Royal Society of British Musicians, under the patronage of King George III. In 1795 Dr. Wake and the Dean most properly objected to a repetition of such festivals, on the strong ground that for a considerable length of time the Church had to be closed, in order to be prepared with seats sufficiently numerous to accommodate a large audience meeting for a purely secular purpose, to the great prejudice of the parishioners, who desired to worship their Divine Master in the holy place consecrated to His peculiar service and honour. That year, how ever, witnessed the last of these performances, happily, never to be revived. The performance was removed for the last time to Whitehall. In April 1802 another petition was presented to the House of Commons; and on June 12 the Committee of Supplies voted £4,500. towards the continuance of the repairs. In this year the colours of the disbanded corps of the St. Margaret's and St. John's Association were hung up in the Church; the present beautiful pulpit and the reading-desk were erected; and the Speaker's chair of state placed in the front of the west gallery. By 48 Geo. III. "the Commissioners for the improvement of certain parts of Westminster were directed from time to time to cause the roof and walls of St. Margaret's Church to be repaired and finished under their direction, in such manner as the Lord High Treasurer or the Commissioners shall approve." In 1799 the House of Commons had granted the munificent sum of £6,721. Considerable repairs were therefore made, under the direction of Mr. S. P. Cockerell; and a new organ was erected, at Whitsuntide 1802, by Mr. Avery, a celebrated maker at that period. In answer to a petition from the parish on November 20, 1813, the Committee of Supply of the House of Commons voted £3,059. to the repairs. The Royal Arms (from Coade's manufactory) were placed at this time in front of the Speaker's chair. On August 1824, the Vestry entrusted to Mr. J. H. Taylor the superintendence of further repairs. 310 additional sittings were to be obtained for a cost of £800. The pulpit also was removed to its present position, whereas before it obstructed the view of the east end. On July 31, 1845, the House of Commons granted £1,200. in aid of the expense of repairing the Church. W. R. Gritten, Esquire, of St. John's, was the architect employed. The following extracts from the Account-book of the Brotherhood of St. Mary, in the Parish Church, will doubtless prove acceptable to all who are interested in the statistics of the prices of food, and the details of a Guild Feast immediately before the time of the Reformation. As regards this Fraternity, William Mareschal, Earl of Pembroke, having given several houses near Charing Cross to the Prior of Roncevalles (the death-place of Roland the Brave and the gallant Paladins of Charlemagne), in the diocese of Pampeluna in Navarre, in the reign of King Henry III., nearly on the site of the present Northumberland House, a hospital was founded by this foreign Priory, under the same name as its chief cell in England. It was suppressed in the time of King Henry V., but restored 15 Edw. IV. for a Fraternity. It consisted of a master, wardens, brethren and sisters, who continued until the suppression of monasteries. The site of the Chapel, 3 Edw. VI., was granted to Sir Thomas Cawarden. THE GENERALL FEST. Paid for a pype of reed wyne and for a hoggshed of claret wyne, cvs. For ix dosen of lyveryes of lylus for the servytours, iiijs. vjd. (The emblem of the Blessed Virgin. Comp. Durand. Ration. iii. 18, 5, and Mr. Keble's line in the Christian Year "Lily of Eden's fragrant shade.") Paid to the players for a play, vijs. Also in vij galons and a quarte rede wyne bought for gely, at viijd. the galon, iiijs. xd. Also for ij galons of white wyne, price the galon xd., xxd. Also paied for cariage of the pype and hoggeshed of wyne from London to Westm: to tharch Bishop place, ijs. viijd. Brede Also paid to Willyam Bamcroft for vi dosen brede and j dosen manchets, and iij dosen trencherbrede, xs. Ale Paied for a barell of ale, bought at Holborn, iiijs. Also paid to John Bright for a kylderkyn ale, ijs. Fissh Also paid to Symonds, pyke monger, for xxxij pykes, at xiiijd. apece, xxxvijs. iiijd. For ix turbutts, xvs. ijd. Also for a base bought, xvjd. Also for see pranys bought, jd. Pultre Also paid to Stobard, pulter, for v dosen and viij capons, at vjs. the dosen, xxxiiijs. For vij dosen chekens, at xvd. the dosen, viijs. ixd. Also for xj dosyn conyes, at ijs. the dosen, xxijs. Also for vij swaunys, at iijs. iiijd. the pece, xxvjs. viijd. Bochor Paid to Willyam Blacknall for iij shulders of vele, vjd. Also for ij mowce peces of beef and a clodde, xijd. Also for x leggs of mutton, xxd. Also for ij shepe, iijs. iiijd. Also for ix paire calfs fote, ixd. Also paid for xij galons of whete for furmente, ijs. Also paid for a fatte buck, vjs. viijd. Mele is charged at xijd. and xd. the bushel. Our Lady Eveyn.-Friday, Saturday. ij saltfisshes and j lyng, ijs. iiijd. In half a saltsamon, viijd. Also in roches, vijd. Also in stockfissh, vd. Also in plays, viijd. Also in heryng, iijd. Also in oisters, iijd. For a busshell of bay salt, xijd. Wafers Paid for iij boxes of fyne wafers, iijs. iiijd. For ijtb ij unces of peper, ijs. xjd. For di-unce of Englissh safron, xd. For a Hb of synamon dried for ypocras, iijs. iiijd. For a quartron of gynger, viijd. For iijtb fyne sugar, at vjd. Hb, xviijd. Also for a galon and di of venegir, vjd. For b of clowes, iijs. For a lb of masis, iiijs. For iij b almondes, xvd. Hyre of Erthyn Potts for Wyne and Ale For vij dossen grene potts, iijs. vjd. Item, iiij doss' and di godards, xviijd. For iij doss' wyne potts, xviijd. For ij doss' smale godards, iijd. Item, a doss' and di yelowe potts, iiijd. Item, iiij grete potts, iiijd. Item, ij doshyn botells, ijd. For xx doss' gely disshes, ij£. For a shele and ij ronds of brawne, vs. ij surloyns of beeff, xijd. For x gallons of mylke and firmenty, xxd. To Jamys Coke, for his wages for dressing the dyner, xxvjs. viijd. To John Burton, the butler, xiijs. iiijd. Item, xxj doss' pegeons, at viijd. a dos', xs. ijd. Item, iij dos' and di quayles, at iijd. the dosyn, xs. viijd. To the pleyers, xs. To the mynstrells, vs. To the keper of the King's place, vjs. viijd. To hym for hanging of the hall, vs. To Rosamond, xijd. Also spent atte communycacion had with Mast' Halle, and other of My Lord Cardinal, Counsell for the right of the grene before My Lord's place, xijd. For botehyre to Grenewiche and home agayu, to gader the quarterage amongst the King's servants, xijd. For xviij lb of resyns of corans, iijs. xd. Also in jb graynes, xvjd. Also in vj b prunys, xvd. Sum of all the charges for the said Feste, xxxvij£. vijs. iijd. The Church, in the interior, consisted of a Nave and Choir, with lateral aisles, sometimes called the North and South aisles, from their situation,―at other times the aisles of the Holy Trinity and Our Lady, or of St. Margaret and St. George, from the chapels or altars erected in them to the memory of St. Margaret, St. George, St. Katharine, St. Erasmus, St. John, and St. Cornelius; and, besides these, there were two others dedicated to St. Nicholas and St. Christopher. These were arranged in the aisles, most likely in a manner similar to the little chapels in Belgian cathedrals. These chantries were partly maintained by certain brotherhoods, which bore the names of St. Margaret, Our Lady of Roncevalles (at Charing Cross), St. John the Evangelist, St. George, St. Erasmus, St. Christopher, St. Cornelius, St. Anne, and the Assumption. The Churchwardens' Accounts furnish most interesting information with respect to the maintenance of these shrines, and especially about the customs observed upon the Vigil and Feast of the Patron Saint. The following entries tell their own tale. 1481. Item, on Seynt Margaret's evyn, in wyne for the syngers of the King's Chappell, dronkyn at Robert Whityngham, ijs. 1484. Item, paid unto ij wacchemen on Sainte Margaret's night, viijd. Item, paid to the keper of the Kyng's place, for clothes of arras to hang aboute the churche on Seinte Margaret's day, ijs. |