ich has been carefully preserved. It follows the usual type of
fourteenth-century house, and consists of a fine hall, the lower part
divided off by a screen, a soler of two stories at one end, and a
kitchen at the other. It is built of oak framework, filled in with
"wattle and daub." There is a large chimney and grate in the hall, and
huge beams support the thatched roof. Parsonages of mediaeval times
remain at West Dean, Sussex; at King's Stanley and Notgrove,
Gloucestershire; Wonstone, Hants; Helmsley, Yorkshire; and at several
other places. The Rectory of Shellingford, Berks, though much disguised
by modern additions, is an original fourteenth-century house.

In many villages there are old almshouses founded by pious benefactors
for "poor brethren and sisters." As we enter the quiet courtyard paved
with cobble stones, the spirit of olden days comes over us. The chapel
where daily prayer is said morning and evening; the panelled
dining-hall, with its dark oaken table; the comfortable rooms of the
brethren; the time-worn pump in the courtyard--all recall the memory of
old times, when life was more tranquil, and there was less hurry and
busy bustling.

Sometimes we meet with a curious little house built of stone or timber,
erected along the great highways, near some bridge or ford, wherein a
"holy hermit" once dwelt, and served his generation by directing
travellers to the nearest monastery or rectory, and spent his days in
seclusion and prayer. Such indeed is the traditional idea of the
hermit's life; but the real hermit of the Middle Ages did not always
live a very lonely or ascetic life. He was supported by the alms of the
charitable and did no work, but lived an idle life, endured no
hardships, and escaped not the scoffs of the satirical. _Piers
Ploughman_ tells us of workmen--"webbers and tailors, and carters'
knaves, and clerks without grace, who liked not long labour and light
wages; and seeing that lazy fellows in friars' clothing had fat cheeks,
forsook their toil and turned hermits. They lived in boroughs among
brewers and begged in churches." They had a good house, with sometimes a
chaplain to say daily Mass for them, a servant or two to wait on them,
and plenty of food and drink provided by a regular endowment or the
donations of the charitable. They did not shut themselves up in their
cells and hold no intercourse with their fellow-men; and herein they
differed from the recluses who were not supposed to go