A vicarage is the house where a vicar lives — the house that comes with the job, usually right beside or very near the church. It is not a house the vicar bought; the church owns it and lets the vicar live there while they hold the post, and they must move out when they leave. Old vicarages are often big, old, cold, stone or brick houses with large gardens, because they were built long ago when a vicar was expected to entertain the whole parish. Many churches have now sold those and built small modern ones, and estate agents love the words 'the Old Vicarage' on a for-sale sign. The word is very British and appears constantly in English novels and murder mysteries — Agatha Christie even wrote 'The Murder at the Vicarage'. Socially, the vicarage is a meeting place: people go there for tea, for help, for a quiet talk about a problem. If the priest is a rector, the same house is called a rectory; the two words work the same way. 'A vicarage tea party' suggests something polite, old-fashioned and very English.