Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/150

 ] 34 Reviews.

reeve were "identical," (which is a big word,) we may present him with a point he has missed which is in his favour. Whatever the origin of the Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance may have been, there seems no doubt that in the seventeenth century it was a species of church-ale, for to it " there belong'd a pot, which was kept by turnes by 4 or 5 of the cheif of the Town, whom they call'd Reeves who provided Cakes and Ale to put in this pot " : the onlookers paid " pence apiece " and the profits went to the repair of the church. Here the reeves evidently acted as church- wardens, and the dance is considered to be of manorial origin.

The evidence Mr. Addy has collected on the trading of church- wardens seems to us the most valuable and original part of his book. Churchwardens' accounts published by the Somerset Record Society show that at TintinhuU in the fifteenth century the wardens had a monopoly of the sale of bread and beer : they managed a common brewhouse and bakehouse, and devoted the profits to the upkeep of the church. On occasions also they let the brewhouse for private " functions." One must not, however, regard the wardens of TintinhuU as publicans. Anybody could sell ale provided that he bought it from the common brewhouse. Nor must one argue from the particular to the general, and regard trading churchwardens as at all common. In this particular instance we are evidently dealing with a manorial privilege farmed by the wardens from the ecclesiastical corporation who happened to hold the lordship. Another useful chapter is that which illustrates the effect of monastic ownership upon both the structure and the con- trol of the appropriated parochial churches. " When the founder gave the church and rectory to the priory [of Wymondham] he only gave the advowson and the greater part of the tithes, and the parishioners retained the rights to the nave, aisles, tower, and churchyard which they had enjoyed before. ... In such a case the monks usually took the eastern limb or chancel, whilst the parish had the nave and aisles, a dead wall separating the two divisions of the building. Such arrangements often gave rise to disputes, and even to riots, on account of the encroachments which the monks were constantly making on the rights of the parishioners" (pp. 379, 376). An interesting illustration of this is what happened at Wymondham in 1249 and again in 1409. The parishioners