For more than nine hundred years the Domesday Survey remained the only survey made of English lands as a whole, and not till 1910 was an attempt made to compile the second Domesday Book. In that year commissioners started on the same task as was performed by the King’s officers in the year 1086; and the task has been undertaken for the same purpose—to enable the King’s taxes to be gathered in correctly. XII. HOW OUR ANCIENT PARISH CHURCHES WERE BUILT. In these days of bicycles most of us have experienced the pleasure of seeing, over the tree-tops in the distance, the spire or the square-capped tower of one of our village churches. For us on that occasion, perhaps, it marked the goal of a long journey, and we therefore hailed it gladly. Then probably we thought no more about it. Yet that village church was worth a few minutes of our thoughts. To one who knows how to see it was worth walking round, and worth also looking into. For it had a tale to tell—a tale that stretches back into the centuries long past, a tale of the joys and sorrows of the people whose places we now fill, a tale which ought to make us realise that we of the twentieth century are not the only clever people who have lived in the East Riding of Yorkshire. [Illustration: _Photo by_] [_C.W. Mason_ A Norman Font in Kirkburn Church. ] Let us learn how to read the tale aright. In the first place we must know the names of the different parts of a church. If it is small, it will be simply a rectangular building, running east and west, and divided by an open arch or by a woodwork screen into two parts, a _nave_ and a _chancel_. The former is, on service days, occupied by the congregation of worshippers, the latter by the clergy and the choir. At the east end of the chancel is the _altar_ or _communion-table_, at the east end of the nave are the _lectern_ and _pulpit_, at the west end of the nave is the _font_. If the church boasts a _tower_, this will be at the west end, where also will probably be the main entrance door. This may, however, be on the south of the nave near the west end. On the south of the chancel may be another smaller door, once the _priests’ door_; and by it in the wall may be the _sedilia_, or priests’ seats, three in number. Close to these may be the _piscina_, or drain, at which the holy vessels were once washed; and in the wall on the opposite side may be the _aumbry_, or cupboard, in which the holy vessels once stood. But such small churches are not common. Generally the nave has along each side what is called an _aisle_, in which case its central roof is supported on a double row of pillars. Possibly the chancel also has aisles. The walls above the lines of pillars may be pierced with windows, which thus look out above the roofs of the aisles. These windows are known as _clerestory_ windows. [Illustration: