This was the scene of many social gatherings, and is thus described
by an old writer--

"In every parish was a church-house, to which belonged
spits, crocks, and other utensils for dressing provisions.
Here the housekeepers met. The young people were there,
too, and had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, &c., the
ancients (_i.e._ the old folk) sitting gravely by and
looking on. All things were civil, and without scandal.
The church-ale is, doubtless, derived from the Agapai or
Love Feasts, mentioned in the New Testament."

Whether the learned writer was right in his conjecture we cannot be
quite certain, but church-ales subsequently degenerated into
something quite different from New Testament injunctions, and were
altogether prohibited on account of the excess to which they gave
rise. Let us hope that all these feasts were not so bad as they were
represented, and indeed in early times great reverence was attached
to them, which prevented excess. The neighbours, too, would come in
from the adjoining parishes and share the feast. An arbour of boughs
was erected in the churchyard, called Robin Hood's Bower, where the
maidens collected money for the "ales" in the same way which they
employed at Hock-tide, and which was called "Hocking." The old books
of St. Lawrence's Church, Reading (to which I have before referred),
contain a record of this custom--"1505 A.D. Item. Received of the
maidens' gathering at Whitsuntide by the tree at the church door,
ij^s. vi^d." The morris-dancers and minstrels, the ballad-singers
and players, were in great force on these occasions, and were
entertained at the cost of the parish. In the churchwardens' account
of St. Mary's, Reading, we find in the year 1557--