shall continue above the rate of one fourth more than the mean rate; and whatsoever increase shall be made of the capital, it shall be laid out under the same restrictions, in adding to the stock of corn and wine; which, under the blessing of God, will, I hope, in a certain time reduce these two necessary articles of life to very near a fixed price, to the glory of God and the benefit of the poor.” This legacy has existed about 300 years, and had the desired effect at Berne, and a will on the same principle has been made for purchasing fuel for the poor of Kingston-on-Thames, England. FISH FOR THE POOR IN LENT John Thake, of Clavering, Essex, England, by will, dated 13th of June, 1537, gave to Robert Cockerell and his heirs his house and lands called Valence, upon condition that they should forever, yearly, on Friday, the first week in Lent, give to poor people of Clavering one barrel of white herrings and a cade of red herrings (a cade is about half a barrel), always to be given by the oversight of the churchwardens and the tenants and occupiers of the lordship and parsonage of Clavering. The owner of the farm called Valence, regularly sends to the house of the parish clerk, in Lent, a barrel of red herrings and a barrel of white, which are distributed in the church by the parish clerk and sexton, four to each married couple, two to each widow and widower, and one to each child. COW CHARITY James Goodaker, of Woodchurch, Cheshire, England, in 1525, left a fund by will to buy twenty yoke of bullocks, which were subsequently replaced by cows, and given to the poor of Woodchurch parish: every parishioner that had a cow or cows paying yearly for each to the overseers the sum of 2_s._ 8_d._ every Friday before Whitsunday, which hire was to be a stock for the benefit of the poor forever. The parish of Woodchurch includes ten townships, from each of which a trustee of the cow property is elected, whose duty it is to see that the animals are properly taken care of, and those persons are termed governors of the cows. There is an annual meeting, on which occasion the cows are produced and examined. TURKEYS FOR PARISHIONERS In 1691, John Hall left to the Weavers’ Company a dwelling-house, with instructions to pay 10_s._ per annum to the churchwardens of St. Clement, Eastcheap, to provide on the Thursday night before Easter two turkeys for the parishioners, on the occasion of their annual reconciling or love-feast (settlement of quarrels or disputes). BREAD, BEER, BEEF, AND BROTH