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Rh the church, with a covering of silk, a stool and a cushion ; there was a burying pall kept safely in a long oaken box, a short surplice for funerals, a sleeveless surplice for the clerk. And here again we may notice that in a specially well-furnished church there is no mention of cross or candlesticks ; only the altar-piece of mahogany, which con- tained a picture of the Deposition, was surmounted by a pediment ' furnished with three sham tapers in candlesticks carved and gilt.'

The interesting point in connection with this inventory is that it was made in the time of a rector, Dr. John Davey, who had no reputa- tion for singularity, and who afterwards, as Master of Balliol, was in no way distinguished from his predecessors. The previous rector, from whom he probably inherited some of the unusual ornaments, was equally insignificant. And yet it is difficult to believe in the face of the evidence given by such a keen observer as Cole of Bletchley that such cases were common, at any rate in this part of the country.

The Methodists secured several centres of influence in this county towards the close of the century. Wesley himself made a preaching excursion to Beaconsfield and High Wycombe in 1757, and the latter became the chief scene of his labours and those of his followers from that time forward. The county of Buckingham was soon made part of a ' circuit ' embracing also Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Wiltshire. It was under the influence of Wesley that Hannah Ball began her Sunday School at High Wycombe in 1769, fourteen years before the similar effort made by Robert Raikes at Gloucester : it was in connection with the parish church, and she was careful to take the children there after their lessons. In 1777 a Methodist Chapel was first built at High Wycombe, and Wesley came to preach there ; it was on this occasion that he was unable to proceed with his sermon because a drummer had been hired to play just outside the window. At Aylesbury there were Methodists also, though for some time they preached in the Baptists' meeting-house. In 1768 Thomas Grove, one of the six students expelled from St. Edmund's Hall for holding private prayer-meetings, came back to his father's house near Wooburn and began to preach and hold religious exercises there : a congregation was formed which afterwards built a chapel at Core's End. The Methodist influence also affected