being razed, the old building materials to use in the construction of her
new home. She was not allowed, however, to remove the wood which formed the
pews, as they were adjudged to be the property of the members who had built
them, and those owners only could sell or remove the materials of which
they were built.

Many of the pews in the old meeting-houses had towering partition walls,
which extended up so high that only the tops of the tallest heads could be
seen when the occupants were seated. Permissions to build were often given
with modifying restrictions to the aspiring pew-builders, as for instance
is recorded of the Haverhill church, "provided they would not build so high
as to damnify and hinder the light of them windows," or of the Waterbury
church, "if the pues will not progodish the hous." Often the floor of the
pews was several inches and occasionally a foot higher than the floor of
the "alleys," thus forming at the entrance-door of the pew one or two
steps, which were great stumbling-blocks to clumsy and to childish feet,
that tripped again when within the pew over the "crickets" and foot-benches
which were, if the family were large, the accepted and lowly church-seats
of the little children. Occasionally one long, low foot-rest stretched
quite across one side of the pew-floor. I have seen these long benches
with a tier of three shelves; the lower and broader shelf was used as a
foot-rest, the second one was to hold the hats of the men, and the third
and narrower shelf was for the hymn-books and Bibles. Such comfortable and
luxurious pew-furnishings could never have been found in many churches.

An old New Englander relates a funny story of his youth, in which one of
these triple-tiered foot-benches played an important part. When he was
a boy a travelling show visited his native town, and though he was not
permitted to go within the mystic and alluring tent, he stood longingly at
the gate, and was prodigiously diverted and astonished by an exhibition of