above an angle of the chancel at Alnwick, in Northumberland, was employed to signal an alarm[387]. The branks, or scold’s bridles, barbarous relics of an earlier time, of which some thirteen are still believed to exist in Cheshire alone, seem to have been occasionally stored in churches. At least, the famous specimen at Walton-on-the-Thames, Surrey, is to be found in the vestry of the church. In several churches one may notice the old manual fire-engine placed under the church tower, and we may feel sure that its valuable aid was not confined to fires which broke out in the church. In short, we can scarcely limit the possible conveniences which were centred around the church fabric. Chained books and libraries, which were particularly numerous; records of charitable bequests; the registers with their details of the lives of individual villagers; the churchyard monumental records; nay, the reputation of the curative simples of the very walls--pellitory, whitlow grass, and spleenwort; who shall tell of all these? There is no doubt that decorative or symbolical considerations were often uppermost in the minds of later designers. The gilded weathercock was given a religious significance, though its origin may have been pagan; the dial bore an appropriate motto. But no ulterior purpose, either artistic or symbolical, is connected with the village stocks or the pillory. These instruments were severely practical. [Illustration: FIG. 39. Bishopstone dial, enlarged. The five principal Day Hours, 6, 9, 12, 3, 6 o’clock, are shown by slightly prolonged lines with cruciform terminations. The first and last radii are drawn at a slight angle with the diameter. The upper semicircle contains a cross, and is surrounded with an ornamental border, usually described, and figured, as a fret; close examination seems to show that it is billet work in low relief. It is not known to whom the name Eadric refers: he was probably an ecclesiastic. ]