having been made by the Bagleys' of Chacombe, where they had a well known 17th century bell foundry. The eighth bell bears the inscription: "I ring to Sermon with a lusty boome That all may come and none may stay at home." [Illustration: INTERIOR ST. MARY'S CHURCH. BANBURY.] THE VICARAGE HOUSE, dated 1649, stands against the south-west corner of the churchyard, and is a handsome specimen of the domestic architecture of the period. The gabled front, window mullions and porch remain of the old work, and also the hall and front rooms. The room over the porch, used as a private chapel, seems to be of its old service. Very carefully has the interior ornamentation been carried out, of which the cornice of music staves of the front room is an instance. OLD HOUSES.--The gabled houses on the north side of the High Street, and on the south and west sides of the Market Place, are good examples of domestic architecture of late Tudor or early Stuart times. An old sun-dial, bearing the motto "Aspice et abi," is attached to the front of the High Street houses. The barge boards and pargeting of the front and the good casemated windows of the west side remain, but the roof has been stripped of its Stonesfield slate, and the finials are badly restored. Also worth notice is the front of No. 11 Market Place, and the old jail, No. 3 (1646), though the lower stage has been cut away. Orchard House, Neithrop, the front of which it is said was protected by woolsacks during the siege of Banbury Castle, stands on a mound away from the road side. It bears the appearance of a manor house, as it probably was, and it has a massive oak stair-way. The Woodlands, Horse Fair, has a handsome garden front; it was formerly an inn. The Woodlands, as well as the school house near by, now Banbury Academy (and here Dean Swift commenced his Gulliver's Travels, taking the title of Gulliver from the name on a tomb in the churchyard opposite), are typical houses of the time. A beautifully carved oak cornice remains in the north-west room of house No. 47 North Bar, Mrs. J. Bolton's.