And, first, let us speak more in detail of their habitations. The reclusorium, or anchorhold, seems sometimes to have been, like the hermitage, a house of timber or stone, or a grotto in a solitary place. In Sir T. Mallory's "Prince Arthur" we are introduced to one of these, which afforded all the appliances for lodging and entertaining even male guests. We read:--"Sir Percival returned again unto the recluse, where he deemed to have tidings of that knight which Sir Launcelot followed. And so he kneeled at her window, and anon the recluse opened it, and asked Sir Percival what he would. 'Madam,' said he, 'I am a knight of King Arthur's court, and my name is Sir Percival de Galis.' So when the recluse heard his name, she made passing great joy of him, for greatly she loved him before all other knights of the world; and so of right she ought to do, for she was his aunt. And then she commanded that the gates should be opened to him, and then Sir Percival had all the cheer that she might make him, and all that was in her power was at his commandment." But it does not seem that she entertained him in person; for the story continues that "on the morrow Sir Percival went unto the recluse," _i.e._, to her little audience-window, to propound his question, "if she knew that knight with the white shield." Opposite is a woodcut of a picture in the MS. "History of Sir Launcelot" (Royal 14, E. III. folio 101 v.), entitled, "Ensi q Percheva retourna à la rencluse qui estait en son hermitage."[129]