which
were formerly used by recluses. The church itself was frequently the
habitation of the anchorite. There is a notice of a hermit who lived in
St. Cuthbert's Church, Thetford, and performed divine service therein.

Of female recluses we gather many details in the _Ancren Riewle_ of
Bishop Poore of Salisbury, who left very minute directions for the
regulation of their austere and solitary lives. The little cell had an
altar where the anchoress frequently prayed, and through a window saw
the elevation of the Host in the daily Mass. The walls were covered
with mural paintings. There was a table, a fire, and a cat lying before
it. An unglazed window with a shutter was covered by a black curtain,
through which she could converse with anyone outside without being seen.
She was not allowed to put her head out of the open window. "A peering
anchoress, who is always thrusting her head outward, is like an untamed
bird in a cage," says the good bishop. The long hours of solitude were
spent in devotion, working embroidery, reading her few books, talking to
her servant or to those who desired to speak with her through the
curtained window.

The poor caged birds must often have wished to break the bars of their
cage, and occasionally they escaped from their solitary confinement. In
the churchyard of Whalley, Lancashire, there are two cottages which
stand upon the site of a reclusorium, founded by Henry, Duke of
Lancaster, in 1349. Here in the reign of Henry VI. lived one Isole de
Heton, who wearied of her lot, and left the anchor-hold, an example
which was followed by several of her successors. A scandal having
arisen, the hermitage was dissolved.

Many a sad story of ruined hopes and broken hearts could these walls
tell, which were the living tombs of many a devout or erring sister,
who, wounded in the world's war, sought the calm seclusion of a cell,
and found there the peace which elsewhere they had failed to find.

CHAPTER XIV

PARISH CHURCHES

The Porch--Font--Stone benches--Pews--Pulpits--Rood-lofts--Destruction
of--Screens--Royal arms--Chancel--Stalls--_Misereres_--Lectern--High
altar and its furniture--Piscina--Credence--Aumbry--Sedilia--Easter
sepulchre--Reredos--Shrines--Numerous altars--Chantry chapels--
Hagioscopes--Images--Low side windows--Vestries--Vestments--Churches
in olden times--Reading pews--Galleries--Destruction and profanation--
Evils of "restoration."

In the centre of our village stands