Happily all decoration of churches has not been carried out in the reckless fashion thus described by a friend of the writer.  An old Cambridgeshire incumbent, who had done nothing to his church for many years, was bidden by the archdeacon to “brighten matters up a little.”  The whole of the woodwork wanted repainting and varnishing, a serious matter for a poor man.  His wife, a very capable lady, took the matter in hand.  She went to the local carpenter and wheelwright and bought up the whole of his stock of that particular paint with which farm carts and wagons are painted, coarse but serviceable, and of the brightest possible red, blue, green, and yellow hues.  With her own hands she painted the whole of the interior—­pulpit, pews, doors, etc., and probably the wooden altar, using the colours as her fancy dictated, or as the various colours held out.  The effect was remarkable.  A succeeding rector began at once the work of restoration, scraping off the paint and substituting oak varnish; but when my friend took a morning service for him the work had not been completed, and he preached from a bright green pulpit.

[Illustration:  Carving on Rood-screen, Alcester Church, Warwick]

The contents of our parish churches, furniture and plate, are rapidly vanishing.  England has ever been remarkable for the number and beauty of its rood-screens.  At the Reformation the roods were destroyed and many screens with them, but many of the latter were retained, and although through neglect or wanton destruction they have ever since been disappearing, yet hundreds still exist.[31] Their number is, however, sadly decreased.  In Cheshire “restoration” has removed nearly all examples, except Ashbury, Mobberley, Malpas, and a few others.  The churches of Bunbury and Danbury have lost some good screen-work since 1860.  In Derbyshire screens suffered severely in the nineteenth century, and the records of each county show the disappearance of many notable examples, though happily Devonshire, Somerset, and several other shires still possess some beautiful specimens of medieval woodwork.  A large number of Jacobean pulpits with their curious carvings have vanished.  A pious donor wishes to give a new pulpit to a church in memory of a relative, and the old pulpit is carted away to make room for its modern and often inferior substitute.  Old stalls and misericordes, seats and benches with poppy-head terminations have often been made to vanish, and the pillaging of our churches at the Reformation and during the Commonwealth period and at the hands of the “restorers” has done much to deprive our churches of their ancient furniture.

  [31] English Church Furniture, by Dr. Cox and A. Harvey.