The citizens of Ely throughout the Middle Ages were well provided with churches, having for their devotions both St. Mary's and also St. Cross, of which we have spoken before. The name St. Cross has an interesting history. When first the abbey was built, there stood against the stone rood-screen thrown across the nave an altar known as the Altar of the Holy Cross; here the inhabitants of the city were invited to worship, while the monks said their office quite apart within the screen. But, as time went on, the monks found that this twofold worship was not convenient, and, wishing to have the Abbey to themselves, they built, immediately outside it on the north, a church for their lay neighbours, "for doing such things as should be done in a parish church," and named it St. Cross, after the altar within the Minster which was thus superseded. With the dispersion of the monks the nave came again into public use, and the church of St. Cross was permitted to decay, and was finally removed. Adjoining the churchyard of St. Mary's stands the vicarage. It is a rambling house of moderate size, quaintly made of rough hewn beams with reed-stiffened clay in between, and opening on to the street. This house has a notable history. It was first built as a tithe house, and was within the same ring-fence as the great barn or granary for the storing of the tithe sheaves belonging to the monastery. In this house lived the farmer of the tithes, who bore the title of Steward, and collected tithe, first for the monks, later for the Dean and Chapter of Ely; and as this office became hereditary the name of Steward was taken as a family surname. The last of these Stewards was Sir Thomas, who died in 1636, leaving no son to succeed him; but his daughter Elizabeth was the mother of Oliver Cromwell, and Oliver by a very natural arrangement stepped into his grandfather's office. He accordingly left his home at St. Ives, sixteen miles distant, bringing his wife, his mother, and several children, to live in the tithe house at Ely; the older lady thus returning to the home of her childhood. [Illustration: _The Cathedral from the West Fen Road._] For ten years the Cromwell family occupied this very house, which still remains pretty much what it was in their time. Here two children were born, and one died. Mrs. Cromwell was an excellent housewife, being we are told "as capable of descending to the kitchen with propriety as she was of acting in her exalted position with dignity." To Cromwell's duties as tithe farmer were added, in the course of time, those of Governor of the Isle of Ely. On St. Mary's Green, in front of this house, he used to drill and instruct the levies of his newly-formed "Eastern Counties' Association," which by and by developed into his formidable "Ironsides." The result of his drilling speaks for itself in the history of the Civil War; of his precepts, one at least, commonly attributed to him, was good, "Say your prayers, and keep your powder dry."