garet, to consist of themselves and certain others of the town of Uxbridge (both men and women,) in honor of the Virgin Mary and Saint Margaret." They were by the king's charter of that date* incorporated by the name of "the warden bretheren and sisters of the fraternity of the Virgin Mary and Saint Margaret in Uxbridge." The revenues of this guild were valued at £10. 14s. Od. per annum in the year 1548. In the fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII. (1513) John Osmond conveyed "one tent and 4 stalls in the market place, to John Ward and John Byche, wardens of the Chapel of St. Margt. w'n the towne of Woxbrygge, and James Stanfeald and Wyllmo. Symond, wardens of the Fraternitie of o'. blessed lady win the same towne”†.

The Chantry.

A perpetual Chantry was founded in the chapel by Sir Walter Shiryngton, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which was amply endowed by his executors in the year 1459. The revenues were valued in the year 1548 at £11. 4s. 4d. including sixteen shillings for a house. The Provost and Fellows of Eton College were Patrons.

26 Hen. 6. (1417.)

M

+ See Appendix, No. 3.

The Font.

The term Font signified the fountain or spring where persons assuming the Christian profession were anciently baptized. There does not appear to have been, in the earliest ages, any vessel of this sort attached to the place of public worship. The ordinance was celebrated just as convenience served, in private houses, or at the side of rivers, or in pools, or springs. But in Popish times the font, or vessel for containing the holy water of baptism, became often a very splendid ornament to the churches, and a very important part of the sacred furniture. Since the reformation it has not been thought necessary to remove these vessels, because they answer a useful purpose, and in some instances are very fine specimens of sculpture.

The font in the, chapel of Saint Margaret is of stone. Its shape is octagonal, and it is ornamented with quatre-foils and roses. It possesses considerable elegance, and is a work of some antiquity, as will be seen by the annexed wood-cut, but we have not ascertained its age

The Bells.

At the north-west end of the chapel is a low square tower, in which there is a peal of six bells.

The words Nola & Campana, given to bells used in churches, are said to have originated in the circumstance of church-bells being first invented by Paulinus, Bishop of Nola in Campania, about the year 400. "The people were first called together to prayers, at stated hours in the day, by the sound of a bell, by a decree of Pope Sabinian, the successor of St. Gregory*."

"Bells, in the time of popery, were baptized, anointed Oleo Chrismatis,' exorcised, and blessed by the Bishop; these and other ceremonies ended, it was believed that they had the power to drive the devil out of the air, calm storms and tempests, make fair weather, extinguish sudden fires, and raise the dead †."

"The dislike of spirits to bells is thus mentioned in the Golden Legend by Wynken de Worde:

"It is said the evil spirytes, that ben in the regon of thayre, doubte moche when they here

*Faulkner's Fulham.

Weever's Fun. Mon. p. 118. Lon. 1767.