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150 BYGONE SUSSEX.
that he is ready there to receive the commands of the Master Gunner of England.
Perhaps nothing in these records that deal with social topics marks a greater change than the papers as to an ecclesiastical quarrel in 1637. An aggrieved churchwarden complained to the Bishop of Chichester that in one part of the church of Rye, artillery was stored ; that another part was used as a place for whipping offenders ; and that the curate, whilst omitting to read part of the church service, sometimes preached for two hours. The authorities admit, practically, that the two first charges were true, but that brought against the curate they declared to be " altogether false; for mostlie he keepeth himself to his howre, and sometymes preacheth less than an howre." Those church-goers of the present day to whom a sermon of even half-an-hour is an infliction, may be thankful that their lot has not been cast in Rye, when Christopher Blackwood " mostly " kept to his hour in preaching. |
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