148 THB ELMLEYS.

used by the Quakers. There is now no dissenters' chapel in the parish.

The Lower Deviation Saltway passes through Elmley, and near it are places called Hell Hole, Nostern's Well Piece, Saltway Barn-piece, Starn Hill, the Breach, Moll-hays, Throughters, Little Worrall, Elecampane, Whiteway Quor-piece, the Horse Camps, &c. Vines were cultivated in this parish in olden times. Tradition says that the man who so promptly blocked up the gateway of Sidbury, in Worcester, and thus prevented the capture of Charles II at that memorable battle, was an ancestor of Mr. Moore, now living at Elmley, and that the land at Kersoe, which has been so long in his family, was given to his ancestor as a reward for this service. There is a parochial library in this parish—-one of a very small number founded in the reign of Queen Anne—for the purpose of supplying the clergy of this parish, where the income of the benefice was small, with a competent number of books on Divinity. Originally there were seventy-three volumes, but five of them have been lost. The works include Eusebius, Tillotaon, Whitby, Pearson, Stillingfleet, Wheatley, Nelson, Beveridge, Burnett, Herbert, Kenn, Cave, &.C. A similar library exists at King's Norton. The parish register, which contains many curious entries, and the bells in the church tower, are well worth looking after. Elmley has been much favoured by local benefactors, including Lady Pakington, Rev. W. Parker, Mr. Hill, and especially the excellent vicar, who has taken much interest in the welfare of his parishioners, and diligently collected materials for the 'history of the parish, which he delivered in the shape of lectures in the winter of 1864.