ss of beautiful Gothic workmanship, erected
(men say) by the Knights Templar of Quenington; and there are ancient
crosses or remnants of them at Cirencester, Eastleach, Harnhill,
Rendcombe, Stow-on-the-Wold, and many other places in the district. But
few of these old village crosses still stand intact in their pristine
beauty. May they never suffer the terrible fate of a very beautiful one
which was erected in the fourteenth century at Bristol! Pope, writing a
century and a half ago, describes it as "a very fine old cross of Gothic
curious work, but spoiled with the folly of _new gilding it_, that takes
away all the venerable antiquity."

Happily there is no likelihood of the ancient crosses in the Cotswolds
being decorated by a coating of gold. The precious metal is all too
scarce there, even if the good taste of the country folk did not
prohibit it.

I have spoken before of the ancient barns. Every hamlet has one or more
of these grand old edifices, and there are often as many as three or
four in a small village. In some of these large barns the tithe was
gathered together in kind, until rather more than sixty years ago it was
converted into a rent charge.

_Tithe_ was made on all kinds of farm produce. The vicar's man went into
the cornfields and placed a bough in every tenth "stook"; then the
titheman came with the parson's horses and took the stuff away to the
barn. The tithe for every cock in the farmyard was three eggs; for every
hen, two eggs. Besides poultry, geese, pigs, and sheep, the parson had a
right to his share of the milk, and even of the cheeses that were made
in his parish.

In an ancient manuscript which the vicar of Bibury lately acquired, and
which contains the history of his parish since the Conquest, are set
down some interesting and amusing details concerning tithe and the cash
compensations that had been paid time out of mind. The entries form part
of a diary kept by a former incumbent, and were made nearly two hundred
years ago.

"For every new Milch Cow three pence.

"For every thorough Milch Cow one penny.

"N.B. Nothing is paid for a dry cow, and therefore tithe in kind must be
paid for all fatting cattle.

"For every calf weaned a half penny.

"For every calf sold four pence or _the left shoulder_.

"For every calf killed in the family four pence or _the left shoulder_.

"I have heard that one or two left shoulders of veal were paid to the
widow Hignall at Arlington when she