The descriptions of these old rectory-houses are interesting. The Rector of Allington, Kent, possessed a house consisting of "a hall, parlour, and chamber over the parlour, stairs-head, beside the parson's bedchamber, parson's lodging-chamber, study, chamber behind the chimney, chamber next adjoining westward, buttery, priest's chamber, servants' chamber, kitchen, mill-house, boulting-house, larder, entries, women's chamber; gatehouse, still beside the gate, barn next the gate; cartlage, barn next the church, garden-house, court." The barn next the church was probably the tithe-barn. Tithe was then paid in kind; hence a barn was required to contain the dues of the parishioners. Sometimes these tithe-barns are very large and long, especially when the tithe-owner was the abbot of some monastery. Near Reading there is still standing the barn of the abbey, and at Cholsey, in Berkshire, there is one of the finest specimens of the kind in England. [Illustration: STONE TITHE BARN, BRADFORD-ON-AVON] There still remain several of these old pre-Reformation parsonages and rectories. The most noted is the clergy-house at Alfriston, Sussex, which 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.