The material concerning Chantry history is voluminous and contained in many sources: the foundation deeds of particular chantries; administrative notes in episcopal registers; borough records; monastic and other cartularia; and the records of the English Chancery, particularly the Patent Rolls. These documents, some printed and many in manuscript, comprise the sources for Miss Wood-Legh's work. Perpetual chantries in Britain is a pioneer study in detail of the function of the chantry over a wide area of Britain. It will also give those whose curiosity is aroused by architectural survivals an impression of the part played by chantries in medieval life.
This book is based on the Birkbeck Lectures for 1954-55, and on further researches into perpetual chantries in England and Scotland.
