The Mediæval Hospitals of England by Rotha Mary Clay

and narrow, there is, he says, a hospital of a few old men. One of the brethren runs out, sprinkles the travellers with holy water, and presently offers them the upper part of a shoe, set with a piece of glass resembling a jewel. This the strangers are invited to kiss. (Bale satirizes this custom where he says, “here ys the lachett of swett seynt Thomas shewe.”) Colet is indignant, but Erasmus, to appease the injured brother, drops a coin into his alms-box. The quaint old box is still kept at Harbledown, and is figured above. FOOTNOTES: [107] Madox, _Formulare Ang._, p. 424. [108] P.R.O. Ancient Deeds, A 11562. [109] Charter Roll 17 John, m. 8. [110] Communicated by the Town Clerk. [111] Surtees Soc., 114, p. 278. [112] Records of Nottingham, ii. 99. [113] The word was retained after the Reformation, e.g. 1573, “paid to a pardoner that gathered for the hospital of Plympton” (T. N. Brushfield, _Devonshire Briefs_). [114] Prynne, _Usurpation of Popes_, p. 1137, and Close 34 Edw. I, m. 1. [115] Chron. and Mem., 67, i. 487. [116] Soc. de l’Histoire de France, 1851, p. 194. [117] Pilgrimages of Walsingham and Canterbury—Ed. Nichols, 1849, p. 63. [p194]