extra “gifts of devotion” are recorded of sums varying from ½_d._ to 4_d._ Between 1504 and 1508 another parish “cess,” in the same place, produced nearly £6. Closely allied to a parochial rate, although not so universal, nor, of course, possessing the binding force of a public assessment, were _joint voluntary gifts_ for special purposes. Something in the way of decoration, or of a bell, a window, a vestment, or a piece of plate was wanted, and the people, as one account expresses it, immediately “drew themselves together” to pay for it, or to purchase it. For instance, at Morebath, a small uplandish parish in Somerset, on the borders of Devon, in 1538-9, some of the inhabitants bought a new cope for their church at the cost of £3 6_s._ 8_d._ From 1528, also, in the same place, the vicar gave up his rights over certain tithes of wool to add to the sum then being collected to purchase a “new suit of black vestments.” It is perhaps worth noting that these were only obtained for £6 5_s._ in 1547, just before the alterations in religion made them useless. Towards the end of the fifteenth century a change is noticeable in the accounts of the churchwardens. It evidently became more and more common for them to possess lands, and to have houses left to them, as trustees of the parish; the revenues of these were used only for parochial purposes, and mainly, perhaps, for the upkeep of lights and the celebration of anniversaries. Running through all the wills of this period, too, is a manifestation of the same spirit of devotion to the parochial churches, with which the donors had been connected during life, and the same eager desire to leave something in money or in kind to them is everywhere seen. These naturally, if not by express desire, came into the charge and guardianship, not of the parson of the place, but of the people’s wardens, who were responsible for the Church goods. Instances of such gifts are so numerous that the selection of examples is rendered almost impossible, and they are taken here almost at haphazard. At Woodchurch, in Cheshire, in 1525, one James Godyker left to the wardens of his parish church 20 marks to buy twenty bullocks to be let for the purpose of bringing sufficient revenue to find an extra priest. In Nottingham, a shop in “Shoemakers row” was left to sustain a lamp; in other places in that county there are “divers lands to pay an extra priest, who has also a house;” “money is bequeathed to be distributed unto the poore yerly;” “arable land was given for a light;” “medow land for a lamp;” a “stock of 5 sheep, valued at 2_s._ 8_d._ each, and one cow valued at 8_s._;” “two stocks of money 10_s._ and 26_s._ 8_d._ in the tenure of Robert Braunesby, Edward Dawson,” etc., and “20_s._ in the tenure of Richard Blank--the interest being 4_d._ on every noble,” etc.