chapel is an architectural gem of Early English design, and the rest of the house with its later Perpendicular windows is admirable.  Not far away is the interesting village of Long Crendon, once a market-town, with its fine church and its many picturesque houses, including Staple Hall, near the church, with its noble hall, used for more than five centuries as a manorial court-house on behalf of various lords of the manor, including Queen Katherine, widow of Henry V. It has now fortunately passed into the care of the National Trust, and its future is secured for the benefit of the nation.  The house is a beautiful half-timbered structure, and was in a terribly dilapidated condition.  It is interesting both historically and architecturally, and is note-worthy as illustrating the continuity of English life, that the three owners from whom the Trust received the building, Lady Kinloss, All Souls’ College, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, are the successors in title of three daughters of an Earl of Pembroke in the thirteenth century.  It is fortunate that the old house has fallen into such good hands.  The village has a Tudor manor-house which has been restored.

Another court-house, that at Udimore, in Sussex, near Rye, has, we believe, been saved by the Trust, though the owner has retained possession.  It is a picturesque half-timbered building of two storeys with modern wings projecting at right angles at each end.  The older portion is all that remains of a larger house which appears to have been built in the fifteenth century.  The manor belonged to the Crown, and it is said that both Edward I and Edward III visited it.  The building was in a very dilapidated condition, and the owner intended to destroy it and replace it with modern cottages.  We hope that this scheme has now been abandoned, and that the old house is safe for many years to come.

[Illustration:  Weather-boarded Houses, Crown Street, Portsmouth]

At the other end of the county of Oxfordshire remote from Thame is the beautiful little town of Burford, the gem of the Cotswolds.  No wonder that my friend “Sylvanus Urban,” otherwise Canon Beeching, sings of its charm:—­

        Oh fair is Moreton in the marsh
          And Stow on the wide wold,
        Yet fairer far is Burford town
          With its stone roofs grey and old;
        And whether the sky be hot and high,
          Or rain fall thin and chill,
        The grey old town on the lonely down
          Is where I would be still.

        O broad and smooth the Avon flows
          By Stratford’s many piers;
        And Shakespeare lies by Avon’s side
          These thrice a hundred years;
        But I would be where Windrush sweet
          Laves Burford’s lovely hill—­
        The grey old town on the lonely down
          Is where I would be still.