curate there, "though by Mr. Fleetwood's means they have never wanted service on the Sabbaoth daie." Against the wardens there it is charged that there are "no books but the Booke of Comon praier, and the Byble wch is ould and torne." There is "a table, but an yll favored one, no comunion cup of silver; no blacke coveringe for the Comunion Table; no cheste, nor Boxe for the Poore. The surples [is] verie olde. One Mr. Mosse hath done service for the space of a moneth, but [is] not licensed. The catechisme [is] not used. Manie receive the communion that cannot saie the catechisme. The Register Book [is] of late years. The forfeiture of 12d [was] not collected from the absents from church."
There is a charge against Henry Sankie and William Mosse, clerks, "for playing at Tables[1] upon the Sabbaoth daie and, as it is thought, all the weeke longe." Mosse and Sankie appeared at the visitation, and the chancellor enjoined them that thereafter "they do not plaie att Tables, and because ytt appeareth they plaied uppon the Saboth daie and wel most too other daies" they are respited to the lord bishop.
There is a charge against William Smallshaw[2] of Holland "for speaking openlye in the church to the churchwardens theis words, 'what [for] due you suffer yonder Red-headed fellow to bee in the pulpitt or to saie service wthout a surplus, to the great
- ↑ The game "at Tables" is now better known by the name of Backgammon. In Latin it is called Tabularum Indus, and in French Tables. It was a very common amusement at the commencement of the last century, and pursued at leisure times by most people of opulence, especially by the clergy, which occasioned Dean Swift, when writing to a friend of his in the country, sarcastically to ask the following question: "In what esteem are you with the vicar of the parish; can you play with him at backgammon?" (Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the English People, ed. of 1801, pp. 238, 240).
- ↑ The Smallshawes appear to have been hereditary offenders, for on 20th December, 1620, George Smallshaw and William Bigbie [Rigby ?] of Holland, were presented "for sellinge meate upon the Saboth daie." The judge ordered them not even to expose it for sale on that day, under pain of excommunication, and to acknowledge their offence before minister and churchwardens, and they to certify the performance thereof under their hands. (Liber correct. Cestr. quoted in Raines' MSS.)
