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