St. Lucia.
_Chapel Plaster_ (Vol. vii., p. 37.).--For an explanation of the word
_plaster_, on which your correspondent has offered so elaborate a
commentary, I would beg to refer him to White's _Selborne_ (vol. i. p. 5;
vol. ii. p. 340., 4to. edit.):
"In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square piece
of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called _The Plestor_. In
the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak.... This
venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was
the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer
evenings; where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter
frolicked and danced before them.
"This _Pleystow_ (Saxon, Plegstow), _locus ludorum_, or play-place,
continues still, as in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the
youths and children of the neighbourhood."
_Chapel Plaster_ is, I believe, an outlying hamlet belonging to the parish
of Box; and the name imports merely what in Scotland would be called "the
Kirk on the Green"--the chapel built on, or near to, the playground of the
villagers.
The fascinating volumes above named will afford a reply to an unanswered
Query in your second volume (Vol. ii., p. 266.), the meaning of the local
word _Hanger_:
"The high part to the S.W. consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising 300
feet above the village; and is divided into a sheep down, the high
wood, and _a long hanging wood_, called _The Hanger_."--Vol. i. p. 1.