ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY an estate in Cottesmore, the revenues of which were to serve for the rehef of the poor in Exton, Burley, Hambleton, Oakham, Cottesmore, and Market Overton ; and built a Hbrary for the parish church of Oakham, containing 200 volumes of the works of the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, to assist the neighbouring clergy in their studies/" Benefactions in this form struck what has so often been the key-note of reform in the English Church — the appeal to Catholic antiquity. It was indeed high time that this appeal should be renewed within the county of Rutland. A visitation of the year 1605 gives a description of the parish churches which, without the evidence of the written records, would be quite beyond belief. The report is even worse than that of the churches of Buckinghamshire in 1637, described in an earlier volume of this series." It was made, moreover, by commissioners who were not specially interested in finding fault : they were three of the clergy within this same deanery, viz. the rectors of Ashwell and Uppingham and the vicar of Hambleton. It was also a very complete report ; only the prebendal churches of Ketton, Liddington, and Empingham were passed over ; the remaining thirty-eight^^ parish churches, and the six chapels of Brooke, Egleton, Langham, Braunston, Belton, and Essendine being fully described.^' It is difficult to give a summary of it in few words. There are no features of special interest : none of the touches of grim humour, intentional or otherwise, which sometimes lighten up such dark pages of history. The worst point indeed in the report is the dreary monotony with which the same defects are noted in one church after another. Not one was returned Omnia bene. Perhaps the least defective were Cottesmore and Tickencote ; " but even these were far from satisfactory. Of the others, two or three specimens may be quoted at random. At Glaston the chancel was unpaved at the east end, and the east window partly daubed up with mortar ; the seats in the church and chancel were unpaved and not boarded ; a chapel in the north aisle was unpaved, and some other windows boarded up; the churchyard wall was broken down, and the church walls in need of whitewashing ; the north door was in decay ; it rained in at one place through the roof ; there was no carpet-cloth for the communion table, and no pewter stoup for the altar wine. At Bisbrooke the chancel was unpaved at the east end ; three windows were boarded up ; the seats in church and chancel were unpaved, and some broken ; two other places in the church were unpaved ; the Bible was torn and rent ; there was no pewter stoup, and no carpet-cloth for the altar ; at the east end of the chancel lay a quantity of loose slate. At Pilton there was an elder-tree growing on top of one of the buttresses. These are small country villages : it will be well to compare with them the state of the churches of Oakham and Uppingham. Here is the report of >» Wright, Hist, of Rut. 52. " F.C.H. Bucks, i, 324. " There were forty-four parishes at this time ; but Pickworth, Martinsthorpe, and Horn were sinecures, and their churches were no longer in use. The three prebendal churches were under a separate jurisdiction. " All the details which follow are from notes kindly lent by the Rev. E. A. Irons of North Luftenham, who transcribed them from the Episcopal Registers. '* At Cottesmore the communion table was unfit, the linen cloth coarse, the seats unpaved, the churchyard invaded by swine ; and there was no pewter stoup. At Tickencote the seats were unpaved and part of the porch ; the church wanted whitewashing, and the minister's seat was out of repair ; there was no pewter stoup. 151
