CHAPTER V 



THE OLD THATCHED RECTORY AND ITS BIRDS 



THE Rectory is a picturesque, comfortable-looking 

 building, of no special architectural pretensions, 

 and of no very great antiquity, but with an 

 atmosphere and a charm of its own which proclaim 

 it, at almost the first glance, to be not so much a 

 house as a home a home in which it would be a 

 happiness to live, and no bad place to die. Its 

 walls bulge here and there ; but they are thick and 

 weather-proof, made to "stay" and of a rich brown 

 brick, weather-tinted and lichen-clad, the product 

 of the clay-beds of Fryer Mayne, in the adjoining 

 parish of Knighton. 



In front, the house has two wings, running up 

 to high gables and projecting at right angles from 

 the main building, which is also gabled, and they 

 flank a paved open court which leads into the hall. 

 A word, first, about the interior. Its main feature is 



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