ches to be of a period subsequent to the Restoration, as
the details in the workmanship evince. In the church accounts of St.
Mary's, Shrewsbury, for 1662, we find a "memorandum that this year the
rayles about the communion table wer new sett up, and the surplice was
made." In Wormleighton Church, Warwickshire, the altar rails have on them
the date of 1664; and the communion table, which is quite plain, is of
the same character and era.

But a return, after the Restoration, to the former usages of the Anglican
church was not made without great opposition; and accordingly we find
objections stated to the bowing to the altar and to the east, to the
preaching by book, to the railing in of the altar, to the candles,
cushion, and book thereon, to the bowing at the name of Jesus, and to the
organs as "popish-like music, and too much superstition[250-*]."

When the rood was taken down at the Reformation, a custom began to prevail
of fixing up in its stead or place, against the arch leading into the
chancel, the upper part of which was in consequence blocked up by it, and
facing the congregation, so as to be seen by them, the royal arms, with
proper heraldic supporters; but it does not clearly appear that this was
done in consequence of any express law or injunction to that effect,
though it may perhaps have served to denote the king's supremacy. We
seldom, however, find the royal arms of earlier date than the Restoration,
in the twenty years previous to which they appear to have been generally
taken down. In Brixton Church, Isle of Wight, on some plain wooden
panelling between the tower and a gallery at the west end are the remains
of the royal arms, which, from the style in which they have been painted
with the rose and thistle, appear coeval with the reign of James the
First; they are surmounted by a crown, below which is an open six-barred
helme. These arms appear to have been removed from their original position
against the chancel-arch, and are now much mutilated. In the church
accounts, St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, for 1651, is a charge of 1_l._ 8_s._
"for making the states armes." In Anstey Church, Warwickshire, the arms of
the commonwealth, put up during the inter-regnum, were taken down not many
years back. The little church of St. Lawrence, in the Isle of Wight, still
retains the royal arms put up at the Restoration in 1660.

Excepting the rood-loft galleries, we have few galleries in our churches
of a period antecedent