Collections for specific objects are, perhaps, the most common in all parochial accounts. In one, the holy water vat for the asperges and the thurible are said to have been purchased by collections “made by boys of the parish.” In another, that of St. Mary-at-Hill, such collections were very constant; money for “candlesilver” was regular, and for such objects as the new “Rood loft,” etc., frequent. At St. Petrock’s, Exeter, in 1427, there was an agreement made as to the candle money, which in those days was obviously a constant and a heavy expense in every parish. It was to this effect-- “Ordinans made by the eight men for gatheryn to the waxe sylver kep to the lighte beforr the high-cross, whyche saye is, that every man and hys wyffe to the waxe shall paye yerely one peny, and every hired servant that taketh wages a hallfe peny, and every other persons at Ester, takyn no wage, a farthyng.” Sometimes the wardens placed a collecting-box in the church to receive general offerings towards parochial expenses. This seems to have led at times to difficulties with the parson, and at one time it was prohibited. Bishop Quevil, of Exeter, for example, says that the practice introduced into some parishes of putting a box, either into the church or outside, to gather alms, has led “to contentions between the rector and his parishioners.” Some of the latter have further declared that “it was a better almsdeed to put money into the common box than to give it to the priest,” and in this way the priests do not get their accustomed offerings. They do not, for instance, get from the laity their donations towards the candles on the Feast of the Purification and other feasts of the year, “according to laudable custom,” but these gifts go into the hands of the wardens “for a light before the great crucifix, etc.” The bishop consequently orders that all such collecting-boxes be removed from the churches or cemeteries of his diocese at once. [Illustration: ALMS BOX, BLYTHBURGH, SUFFOLK] Regular Sunday collections were made in certain places for the wants of the parish. The Hythe churchwardens, although depending mainly upon gifts and legacies for the money necessary to satisfy their obligations, had public collections on twenty-six Sundays in the year. The people were apparently few, and the collections did not produce much; the total being only 34_s._ 4_d._ for the six months, and the individual collection varying from 6_d._ to 1_s._ 6_d._; except on Easter Sunday, when the collectors seem to have gathered 10_s._ 6_d._ In 1498 the parochial needs at Leverton, in Lincolnshire, became so great that the two wardens, Christopher Pyckyll and Robert Tayler, made an appeal at “ye gathering of the townschyp and in the kyrke,” with the result that they collected the sum of £4 13_s._ 10_d._ for the building of the steeple.