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218 Mr. S. G. W. Stephenson, of Jesus College, Cambridge, joins us as House-master. We offer him, on behalf of the School, a warm welcome. LOCAL ANTIQUITIES—No. 9. PARISH TERRIERS.—THE PARSON'S HOUSE. Abodes for the clergy do not exist in every parish, but they are much more numerous now than they were formerly. It is quite as well as otherwise, that there should be, in this and other neighbourhoods, no vicarages belonging to certain parishes, for this will cause people to think that there was some reason for this state cf things, and. it will tell its tale in these days when the thoughtless say—" Oh, the parson's house belongs to the parish." The answer to such a silly remark, if there were no evidence to the contrary, would be—" If the parson's house belongs to the pariah, why are there not parson's houses in all parishes?" The fact however is, that the houses occupied by the clergy of those days were erected by them at their own costs and charges, and in those parishes where there are no house9 the clergy shrank from the liabilities which they would incur by undertaking the responsibility of erecting an abode. They preferred, therefore, renting a house to spending their oW» money or mortgaging their living for the convenience of occupying a rectory. There are no houses which have been erected by parishes for the clergy. These houses have been built by the clergy themselves, as shall be shewn by extracts from Paris'1 Terriers. "When several churches were served by one clergyman, clerica residences were not required in every parish for the use of tn clergy, but when this state of things was brought to a close, tbefl it became a necessity that the clergy, resident in a parish, shou* obtain a place of abode in the parish wherein they labour0 ' In the first instance their houses were merely small cottage ' just like a labourer's house in our days. This is not a rern& made without foundation. I will, by and by, give quotatio from Parish Terriers to prove the correctness of this staterne • But these ancient or first abodes of the parochial clergy, "el