“Itm̄ payed for storynge of the xviij^d tythynge harnesse Itm̄ for white lether iij^d Itm̄ for lyme and vj creste tyles xxi^d Itm̄ for surplus for the clerke iij^s (clergyman) Itm̄ for smoke silvar xvij^d” All these entries, to the church historian, and no less to the general student, cannot be without peculiar interest. The smoke silver, which so frequently occurs, is either the money paid for certain privileges of cutting fuel, which, as we have seen, was formerly the case in the Forest, or an assessment on the houses according to the number of hearths, but more probably the former.[263] The general reader will scarcely care for more, but I trust elsewhere to give further extracts from these most interesting books. Turning back to the Registers, let me add from the Ibbesley Parish Register Book, as so few people have seen a specimen, an entry of an affidavit of burial in a woollen shroud, in compliance with the Act passed in 1679, for the encouragement of the woollen manufacture in England.[264] It thus runs, placed opposite to the entry of the person’s burial, and written in the same handwriting:—“Jan. 9^th, 1678/79, I rec^d a certificate from Mr. Roger Clavell, Justice of y^e peace at Brokenhurst, that Thomas King and Anthony King, sons of Anthony King, deceased, did make oath before him, the sayd Roger Clavell, that the aforesayd Antony King was buried according to the late Act of Parliament.” And again, opposite to the entries of their deaths, we find—“November 11^th.—Certified by John Torbuck, Vicar of Ellingham, y^t Edward Baily and Nicholas Baily, of Ibsely, were buried in woollen only.” Pope’s lines on Mrs. Oldfield need hardly here be quoted. To conclude, of the parish books in the district let me only say that at Fordingbridge may be found an inventory of all the church furniture for 1554; and at Ibbesley, lists of collections “towards the redemption of the poor slaves out of Turkey,” “for the poor French Protestants,” “for the redemption of captives,” and “for the distressed Protestants beyond the sea,”—all testifying to the social and moral condition of the people, without which it is impossible to give the history of any district or any country. [Illustration: The Norman Font in Brockenhurst Church.] CHAPTER XX. THE GEOLOGY. [Illustration: The Barton Cliffs.]