In the retro-choir, Sherbourne Church, Dorsetshire, is a poor-box with three locks; and a carved poor-box, of the early part of the seventeenth century, is preserved in Harlow Church, Essex. In Elstow Church, Bedfordshire, are the remains of a poor-box of the same period. In Clapham Church, in the same county, is an old poor-box, the cover of which is gone, on which are the initials I. W., and the date 1626: this is fixed on a plain wooden pillar near the south door; and in the south aisle of Bletchley Church, Buckinghamshire, is an oak pillar or shaft surmounted by a poor-box, with an inscription carved on it of “Remember the Pore,” and the date 1637[240-*]. The communion tables of the early part of this century were not so richly carved as those of the reign of Elizabeth, and in general the pillar-legs were plain and not so bulging; but the frieze or upper part of the frame-work, on which the table rested, was often covered with shallow and flat carved panel and scroll-work, and sometimes with the date of its construction. In the church of St. Lawrence, at Evesham, the communion table bears the date of 1610; and round the frieze is carved an inscription, stating by whom it was given. In Cerne Abbas Church, Dorsetshire, is a carved communion table, bearing the date of 1638. The communion table in Godshill Church, Isle of Wight, is supported on four carved bulging pillar-legs; and round the frieze, below the ledge of the table, is the following inscription: “Lancelot Coleman & Edward Britwel, Churchwardens, Anno Dom. 1631.” In Whitwell Church, Isle of Wight, the communion table stands on plain bulging pillar-legs; and on the frieze round the ledge is carved in relief an arm holding a chalice, with the following inscription: “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. Psa. 116. v. 53. Anno Dom. 1632.” As the rubric of the church enjoined that at the communion the priest should himself place the elements upon the holy table, the custom of having a side table, called the credence table, for the elements to be set on previous to their removal by the priest to the communion table for consecration, was observed in some churches in the latter part of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century. Such table appears to have been introduced in the reign of Elizabeth, by Andrews, bishop of Norwich, whose model Archbishop Laud is said to have followed[242-*]; and it originated from the πρόθεσις, or side table of preparation, used in the early church; it was likewise, as we have seen, used at the sacramentals of the church of Rome, and on that account was strongly objected to by the Puritans. [Illustration: Table, (temp. Charles I.,) Chipping-Warden Church, Northamptonshire.]