last words that poor Narcissa spoke);
No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face."

Sometimes after the name in the register is added the words, "Not worth
L600." This refers to the Act of William III. in 1694, which required
that all persons baptised, married, or buried, having an estate of that
value, should pay a tax of twenty shillings. The money was required for
carrying on the war with France, and the Act was in force for five
years. This description of the personal estate was not intended to be
invidious, but was of practical utility in enforcing the Act.

The parish registers reflect with wonderful accuracy the life of the
people, and are most valuable to the student of history. Clergymen took
great pride in recording "the short and simple annals of the poor." A
Gloucestershire rector (1630 A.D.) wrote in his book the following good
advice which might with advantage be taken in many other villages:--

"If you will have this Book last, bee sure to aire it att the fier, or
in the Sunne, three or four times a yeare--els it will grow dankish and
rott, therefore look to it. It will not be amisse when you find it
dankish to wipe over the leaves with a dry wollen cloth. This Place
is very much subject to dankishness; therefore I say looke to it."

A study of the curious entries which we occasionally find conveys much
remarkable information. Sometimes, in the days of astrology, in order
to assist in casting the nativity, it is recorded that at the time of
the child's birth "the sun was in Libra," or "in Taurus." Gipsies were
evidently numerous in the sixteenth century, as we constantly find
references to "the roguish AEgyptians." The domestic jester finds
his record in the entry: "1580. March 21, William, fool to my Lady
Jerningham." The suicide is "infamously buried." Heart-burial is often
recorded, as at Wooburn, Bucks: "1700. Cadaver Edi Thomas, equitis
aurati, hic inhumatum fuit vicessimo tertio die Junii."

Records of the visitations of the plague are very numerous in all parts
of England, as at Egglescliffe, Durham: "1644. In this year there died
of the plague in this towne one and twenty people; they are not all
buried in the churchyard, and are not in the Register." Sometimes masses
of human bones are found buried in fields outside towns and villages,
memorials of this devastating plague.

Parish clerks have not always had very musical voices when they sh