The
windows, too, were very different; they were smaller and narrower; I
think it probable that in some of them there was stained glass, and
it is almost certain that the walls were covered with paintings
representing scenes from the Bible, and possibly some stories from
the lives of the saints, which everybody in those days was familiar
with. There was no pulpit and no reading desk. When the parson
preached, he preached from the steps of the altar. The altar itself
was much more ornamented than now it is. Upon the altar there were
always some large wax tapers which were lit on great occasions, and
over the altar there hung a small lamp which was kept alight night
and day. It was the parson's first duty to look to it in the morning,
and his last to trim it at night.
The parish church was too small for the population of Rougham, and
the consequence was that it had been found necessary to erect what we
should now call a chapel of ease--served, I suppose, by an assistant
priest, who would be called a chaplain. I cannot tell you where this
chapel stood, but it had a burial-ground of its own. [Footnote:
Compare the remarkable regulations of Bishop Woodloke of Winchester
(A.D. 1308), illustrative of this. Wilkins' "Conc.," vol. ii. p. 296.
By these constitutions every chapel, two miles from the mother
church, was bound to have its own burying-ground]
There was, I think, only one road deserving the name, which passed
through Rougham.
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