but it is brightened by a spirit of sincere religion and true charity,
and helps us to understand the attraction of the convent walls in
turbulent and troublous times.

CHAPTER XIII

THE MANOR-HOUSE

Evolution of a country house--Saxon house--Addition of separate
sleeping-chambers--Castles--Tudor houses--Old manor-houses--Secret
chambers--Rectories and vicarages--Duty of hospitality--Kelvedon
Rectory--Allington--Tithe-barns--Alfriston clergy-house--Almshouses--
Hermitages--Little Budworth--Knaresborough--Reclusorium or anchor-hold--
Laindon--Rattenden--Female recluses--Whalley.

The two principal houses in an English village are the manor-house and
the rectory, wherein according to the theories of the modern political
Socialist and agitator "the two arch-tyrants" of the labourers dwell,
the squire and the parson. There is much of interest in the growth and
evolution of the country house, which resulted in the construction of
these old, pleasant, half-timbered granges and manor-houses, which form
such beautiful features of our English villages.

[Illustration: SOUTHCOTE MANOR SHOWING MOAT AND PIGEON-HOUSE]

[Illustration: OCKWELLS MANOR-HOUSE]

In our description of the village in Anglo-Saxon times we gave a picture
of a house of a Saxon gentleman, which consisted mainly of one large
hall, wherein the members of the household lived and slept and had their
meals. There was a chapel, and a kitchen, and a ladies' bower, usually
separated from the great hall, and generally built of wood. In Norman
times the same plan and arrangements of a country house continued. The
fire still burnt in the centre of the hall, the smoke finding its way
out through a louvre in the roof. Meals were still served on tables laid
on trestles, which were removed when the meal was finished. The lord and
lady, their family and guests, dined at the high table placed on the
dais, as in a college hall, the floor of which was boarded. The
household and retainers dined in the space below, which was strewn with
rushes and called "the marsh," which, according to Turner's _History of
Domestic Architecture_, "was doubtless dirty and damp enough to deserve
that name." The timbers of the roof in the better houses were moulded,
the walls hung with tapestry, and at the lower end of the hall was a
screen, above which in later times was the minstrels' gallery. The
screen formed a passage which led into a separate building at right
angles to the ha