A HISTORY OF LONDON more vessels "" for holy water/"* and annual entries occur in the church- wardens' accounts of the purchase of holy-water ' sprinklers.' '°° The number of altar lights seems to have varied considerably ; at St. Botolph's Aldersgate there were six candlesticks, two large and four small, standing on the high altar ; '"^ but two appear to have been the more usual number. In the i 5th century smaller tapers in stands of wood, iron, or pewter, were occasionally placed on altars in addition to the principal tapers.'" Two standard candle- sticks sometimes stood to right and left of the high altar.'"* The position of the chancel arch was occupied by the rood-screen "" with its loft, from which, or from a beam above it, rose the great crucifix, with its attendant figures of St. Mary and St. John, dominating the nave. The rood-loft was really a music-gallerv, and usually contained the organ " if, as was generally the case, the church possessed one,*" together with a few desks for singers.'^- Along the handrail were candlesticks or basins and pricks for tapers. ^ The rood-light or beam-light appears to have burnt incessantly, the parishioners contributing to its cost, which was, however, frequently met wholly or in part by a special endowment."* Rood-lofts were painted,"" and on festivals were decorated with banners.'*^ In St. Margaret's South- wark there was a bell in the rood-loft. Pulpits are occasionally mentioned in the parish records of this period.'" The images of which most frequent mention is made in the churchwardens' accounts are those of Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, St. Anne, St. Katherine, St. Margaret, and St. George.'" Many of these images had one or more sets of appropriate vestments, and veils or cloths to hang before them at certain seasons.'^' In 1498 a parishioner of St. Margaret's Westminster presented ' a pair of coral beads gauded with silver and gilt, with a little ring with a knop of pearl . . . to be be hanged upon the image of St. Margaret';'-" and the image of St. George in that church had a complete suit of armour.'"^ At St. Alphage London Wall there were amongst the vestments ' three coats for Our Lady and a girdle,' and a 'coat' for the image of Our Lord ;'"^ and St. Margaret New Fish Street possessed ' two mantles for the image of Our Lady upon the Pillar, and two capes for the Good Lord.-' In All Hallows Lombard Street'-* there was a ' table ' hanging in the body of the church with a picture of the Holy Trinity painted upon it, and there seems to have been a similar ^ Par. Rec. gen. For a good list of church plate and ornaments see St. Margaret New Fish Street Rec. Bk. 1472 (Guildhall MS. 1 174). See also Micklethwaite, Ornaments of tke Rubric (Alcuin Club). "' Called stoups, vats, stocks, or tubs. '°* Par. Rec. gen. ^ Accts. 1470. "" e.g. at St. Christopher le Stocks ; Vestry Min. 68j.
- " St. Botolph Aldersgate Accts. 1485. "" Birch, op. cit. 2-3.
"° See e.g. St. Margaret Westm. Accts. 1478. In this church there was a second and smaller organ in the choir. '" See below. "' St. Andrew Hubbard Accts. 1476, &c. '" Ibid. 1466, &c. '" Par. Rec. gen. ; Hale, J Series of Precedents, 2, 14, 37 ; Stow, Surv. (ed. Kingsford), i, 271 ; Chant. Cert. ii, passim ; Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, passim. ^'* St. Margaret Southwark Accts. 1447, &c. "' Ibid. ; St. Stephen Walbrook Accts. I 5 19, &c. "' St. Andrew Hubbard Accts. 1480: St. Margaret Westm. Accts. 1460: St. Andrew Holborn Rec. Bk. 1506, 1525. "- Par. Rec. gen. "'See St. Margaret Southwark Accts. n.d. ; St. Margaret New Fish Street Rec. Bk. 1472, &c. '"Accts. 1498. '"Ibid. 1544. "-Accts. 1536. ^ Rec. Bk. 1472. "' Erroneously called Allhallows Gracechurch in the MS. 240
