This, of course, refers to a few seats or benches, and not to regular sittings or pews, which were begun to be set up in the English churches only in the middle of the fifteenth century, and in some not till late in the sixteenth. At Bramley church, for example, the wardens did not begin “to seat” the nave before 1538; at Folkestone some pews were in existence as early as in 1489; in 1477-8 the wardens of St. Edmund’s parish church, Salisbury, assigned certain seats to individuals at a yearly rent of 6_d._; and even before that time, in 1455, seats were rented at St. Ewen’s church, Bristol. Apparently, once introduced, the churchwardens soon found out the advantages of being able to derive income from the pew or seat rents, especially as from some of the accounts it is evident that the seats were first made with money obtained at special collections for the purpose, as at St. Mary’s the Great, Cambridge, in 1518. In the first instance, apparently, the seats were assigned only to the women-folk, but the great convenience was, no doubt, quickly realised by all, and the use became general after a very short time. [Illustration: BACKLESS BENCHES, CAWSTON, NORFOLK] [Illustration: FONT, ST. MICHAEL’S, SUTTON BONNINGTON, NOTTS] One of the most conspicuous objects in every parish church was its _Font_. This stood at the west end of the church, and frequently in a place set apart as a baptistery. From the thirteenth century it was ordered, in the Constitutions of St. Edmund of Canterbury, that every font must be made of stone or some other durable material, and that it was to be covered and locked, so as to keep the baptismal water pure, and prevent any one except the priest from meddling with what had been consecrated on Easter Eve with Holy Oils and with solemn ceremony. Great care was enjoined on the clergy to keep the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Oils, and the baptismal water safe under lock and key. For, says the gloss on this ordinance in Lyndwood, keys exist so that things may be kept securely; and he that is negligent about the keys would appear to be negligent about what the keys are supposed to guard. By the ordinary law of the Church a font could only be set up in a parish church; and in the case of chapels of ease, and other places in a parochial district, where it was lawful to satisfy other ecclesiastical obligations, for baptism the child had generally to be brought to the mother church. The instances in which permission was granted for the erection of any font in a chapel are very rare, and leave was never given without the consent of the rector of the parish church. Thus a grant was made in the fourteenth century to Lord Beauchamp to erect a font for baptisms in his chapel at Beauchamp, provided that the rector agreed that it would not harm his parochial rights.