the beginning of the century during the French wars. Not very long after the south transept was a receptacle for all the apparatus belonging to the Fire Brigade—three engines, drags, buckets and helmets ; and beside these lay the sexton's tools, the hearse with its trestles, and a great wooden hut used for funerals in bad weather. [1]
The reaction commonly known as the Oxford Movement began to be felt in this county about the year 1850. During the next twenty years a great work of restoration was going on in every direction.[2] It was carried out perhaps here as in other parts of the kingdom some- times with more zeal than knowledge ; but those who have followed the history of the county through its course will scarcely find it in their hearts to regret the trifling losses involved in so great a gain. During the last half century also several[3] of the larger parishes, such as High Wycombe, Chesham, Wolverton, Burnham, Great Marlow, have been subdivided, and new churches have been built to meet the needs of the increased population around those and other centres. These changes are necessarily less extensive and less marked in a county chiefly agricultural than they are in the great manufacturing districts. But the census of 1 901 returned for Buckinghamshire a total of 286 clergymen of the Estab- lished Church, over against 10 Roman Catholic priests and 74 ministers of various sects. It is obvious that after all the vicissitudes of the past the Church of England still holds a point of vantage even in this county —and still has hope, if she use her opportunity aright, to win back many of her lost and strayed children to a truer appreciation of her privileges.
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