318 THE SHELBLEYS.

an association and relieve his lordship of his self-imposed responsibility the reformatory might be much more usefully worked. Mr. W. H. Cooke maintains at his own cost an infant school; and there is a flourishing endowed school, with Webb's charity for apprenticing children, and other bequests. Church rebuilt in 1846-7. The Puritan hour-glass stand, together with the chain and lock which fastened Fox's "Martyrs" to the desk in the old church of this parish, are now in the possession of the Diocesan Architectural Society; but, with all respect to that body, these relics would be in far better keeping if refixed in some convenient place of the new church. There are also a silver chalice and paten with a foot, which makes a cover to the chalice; it bears the date 1571; likewise a handsome flagon, dated 1635, the gift of Frances Jeffreies, of Horn Castle - the lady who was driven from that castle by Cromwell on account of her loyalty. Earl Dudley is patron of the living; value, £433; rector, Rev. M. Hill; church accommodation, 231 ; free seats, 102.

Little Shelsley, or Shelsley Walsh (from the Walshes, a distinguished family who once flourished here), is chiefly remarkable for its interesting little church, which contains Norman and Early English work; roodbeam and screen; the screen being returned into the nave, so as to enclose a small chantry, there being but one other example (Fenny Bentley, Derbyshire) of such an arrangement in England; an incised monumental slab and a wooden altar tomb to a Walsh (obit 1596); old encaustic tiles and a tile cross like one in the Lady Chapel of Worcester Cathedral; a silver chalice and paten, the latter dated 1576, and having a foot which, being reversed, serves as a lid to the chalice, like that at Shelsley Beauchamp. The church was admirably restored in 1859 by Mr. Truefitt. Rev. T. N. Flintoff is rector; value of living, £90; diocese, Hereford; Earl Dudley patron. There is only a population of 57 and an acreage of 410. Two farm houses and nine cottages contain the little colony, whose sole occupation is the growth