l at last the barge-boards were flush with the wall. The joists of
the first floor project from under a finely carved string-course, and
the end of each joist has a carved finial. All the inside walls were
panelled with oak, and the fire-place is of the typical old English
character, with seats for half a dozen people in the ingle-nook. The
principal room had a fine Tudor door, and the frieze and some of the
panels were enriched with an inlay of holly. When the house was
demolished many of the choicest fittings which were missing from their
places were found carefully stowed under the floor boards. Possibly a
raid or a riot had alarmed the owners in some distant period, and they
hid their nicest things and then were slain, and no one knew of the
secret hiding-place.

[Illustration: Norman Clamp on door of Heybridge Church, Essex]

[Illustration: Tudor Fire-place. Now walled up in the passage of a
shop in Banbury]

The Rector of Haughton calls attention to a curious old house which
certainly ought to be preserved if it has not yet quite vanished.

"It is completely hidden from the public gaze. Right away in the
fields, to be reached only by footpath, or by strangely circuitous
lane, in the parish of Ranton, there stands a little old
half-timbered house, known as the Vicarage Farm. Only a very
practised eye would suspect the treasures that it contains.
Entering through the original door, with quaint knocker intact,
you are in the kitchen with a fine open fire-place, noble beam,
and walls panelled with oak. But the principal treasure consists
in what I have heard called 'The priest's room.' I should venture
to put the date of the house at about 1500--certainly
pre-Reformation. How did it come to be there? and what purpose did
it serve? I have only been able to find one note which can throw
any possible light on the matter. Gough says that a certain Rose
(Dunston?) brought land at Ranton to her husband John Doiley; and
he goes on: 'This man had the consent of William, the Prior of
Ranton, to erect a chapel at Ranton.' The little church at Ranton
has stood there from the thirteenth century, as the architecture
of the west end and south-west doorway plainly testify. The church
and cell (or whatever you may call it) must clearly have been an
off-shoot from the Priory. But the room: for this is what is
principally worth seeing. The beam is richly moulded, and so is
the panelling