THE OLD TITHE-BARN 229 



held high festival in it, "the young still dancing, 

 while the old surveyed," at the accession of Queen 

 Victoria, as it has, in later times, at her successive 

 jubilees, and at the accession of her son. The first 

 missionary meeting, which was ever held in the 

 parish, was held beneath its rafters. One use to 

 which it was put during the earlier part of the last 

 century was highly illustrative both of the place and 

 time. The bishops, the archdeacons, the clergy of 

 those days were not quite what they are now. A 

 bishop, could then, without offence, advise his candi- 

 dates for ordination to " stick to their studies, and not 

 waste their time in visiting their parishioners ; so 

 would they be more likely to obtain preferment here, 

 and heaven hereafter." The leading object of the 

 archdeacon's triennial visitation in the county of 

 Dorset was supposed to be the friendly interchange, 

 among the clergy, of their manuscript sermons, each 

 clergyman bringing back with him a stock calculated 

 to last for the next three years, the work if, indeed, 

 it was the original work of a neighbour, while he, 

 in his turn, conferred a like benefit on some one 

 else. "I'm sure I don't know how it be," said the 

 gardener-and-groom-in-one of one of these clergy- 

 men the counterpart, I suppose, of old John of 

 Bingham's Melcombe " but our maister do always 



