forms us, that the Presence Chamber in the Royal Palace at Greenwich, was hung with rich tapestry, and the floor, after the English fashion, was strewed with hay (probably rushes), through which Queen ELIZABETH commonly passed in her way to the Chapel.

Mr. CRADOCK, in his Remarks on North Wales, in 1777, says, "the area of the church of Dolgelly is spacious, and the pews neat, there is a coving roof of wood, which is necessary to aid the voice, as the floor is only clay covered deep with rushes; the congregation was large, and the service was read with devotion and propriety."

Chambers, and indeed all apartments usually inhabited, were ceremoniously strewed, with this plant,—

She bids you

Upon the wanton rushes lay you down,
And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,—
First Part of K. Hen. IV. Act. iii. Sc. I.

1

Again,

-Our Tarquin thus

Did softly press the rushes, 'ere he waken'd

The Chastity he wounded.

Cymbeline, Act. ii. Sc. II.

And the whimsical fellow, Grumio, impatiently asks,

is supper ready,

the house trimm'd, rushes strew'd, cobwebs swept? Taming of the Shrew.

This practice is mentioned in CAIUS "de Ephemera Britannica." And NEWTON, in his "Herball to the Bible," adds,

Sedge and rushes,-with the which many "in this country do use in sommer time "to strawe their parlors and churches, as "well for coolenes as for pleasant smell."

The modern method, where the luxury of carpets cannot be afforded, is to use sand instead of rushes,

Imagination fondly stoops to trace

The parlour splendours of that festive place;
The white-wash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor,
The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door.
The Deserted Village, lin. 225.

In the Reports of The Commissioners we find very early mention of the use of Rushes in Sacred edifices, and of the Ceremony of Preaching in the

open air. By the Charitable Donation book, in the possession of The Corporation of Bristol, it appears, that WILLIAM SPENCER, by his deed of feoffment, dated the 29th of November, 1494, devised to certain feoffees one messuage or tenement, situate on the back of Bristol, then in the tenure of RICHARD PLAY, at the yearly rent of 41., upon condition, that the feoffees, and their heirs for ever, should find and provide every year with the rents and profits of that tenement, three priests sufficiently instructed in sacred divinity, to preach the word of God in the parish church of St. Mary Redcliff, in Bristol, or in the Curchyard of the said church, before the Mayor and Commonalty, and other devout people repairing thither at the feast of Pentecost, and to pay to each of the priests for preaching, 6s. 8d.,-to the Mayor, for the preacher's dinner at his table, 3s. 4d. each

day, to the clerk and sexton for ringing the bell, and placing the forms for the Mayor and Common Council, 12d. per day, and the residue of the rent, he appointed, should remain towards payment of Quit-rents, the reparations of the said tenement, and to the common profit of the Town.

These several sums, amounting to 17. 13. 4d., are annually applied according to the gift The Corporation, on whom the charge has devolved, pay at Whitsuntide for preaching three sermons, 17. 10s. -to the clergyman of St. Mary Redcliff, and for ringing and strewing Rushes in the church, 3s. 4d. The Mayor and a part of the Corporation go to Redcliff Church on Whitsunday, when the Church is always spread with these verdant honours.32

JOHN LANE, Gentleman, by his Will, the date of which is not specified, gave certain sums for the education of the poor children of Yatton, in the County of Somerset, and in the purchase of bread for 32 Rep. VIII. p. 607.

the poor, and he also bequeathed to the Parish, half an acre of pasture ground, called "The Grove," reserving a quantity of the grass for strewing the church on Whitsunday, and 2s. a year to the sexton, to keep the graves of his family well turfed and briared, and the rest of the profits thereof, to keep the gravestones in repair, and to the poor.

33

It is the custom at Middleton Cheney, in the County of Northampton, in summer, to strew the floor of that church with hay cut from " Ash Meadow,”—and, in winter, straw is provided at the expense of the Rector.34

Brackens, or fern, seem to have been used for strewing the church of St. Michael in York, in lieu of rushes, which probably bore a higher price.35

33

Rep. x. p. 162.-Collinson's Hist. of Somerset, vol. iii. p. 620.

34 Beckwith's Fragmenta Antiquitatis, p. 576. 35 Nichols's Accompts of Churchwardens, p. 309,

note.