Paternoster Row.
_Oratories._--In a parish in the county of Essex there is a pretty little
brick chapel, or "oratory," as it is called there, with a priest's house
attached at the west end, of about the thirteenth century; the length of
both chapel and house being thirty feet, and the width fifteen. There is
also a field called "Priest's Close," which was probably the endowment.
Can any of your correspondents inform me if there are many such places of
worship in England, and, if so, to mention some, and where any accounts of
them may be found?
It is quite clear that this oratory had no connexion with the parish
church, being a mile distant, and seems more likely to have been erected
and endowed for the purpose of having mass celebrated there for the repose
of the founder's soul?