64 



There is a record by a contemporary monk of the building of a 

 priory church in Anglo Saxon times, in which he tells us that in 

 the winter they provided the iron and timber and utensils that 

 were wanted for a handsome church, and in the spring a firm 

 foundation was laid and the work proceeded with. 



There are several interesting matters detailed in this record of 

 the monk of Ramsey, but the only one illustrating my subject is, 

 that the work of setting out the church was deferred until the 

 spring. 



I am sorry not to have been able to obtain the orientations of a 

 group of country churches in the south of England, but I am in- 

 formed by an authority that they are very various. I did, however, 

 ascertain the orientations of twelve old churches in Yorkshire, and 

 found the same variety of bearings, but with a larger proportion 

 south of true east. This is also the case with the ancient churches 

 of London, which, however, in consequence of the devastations 

 of the great fire of 1666 and subsequent rebuildings and demol- 

 itions, are not numerous. Guided by reliable authorities, I have 

 been enabled to identify on the Ordnance map some thirty churches 

 as either original ancient churches, or in which some part of the 

 old church is incorporated, together with a few other rebuilt 

 churches which there is reason to believe were built on the old 

 lines. The orientation of this group may be briefly summarised 

 as follows : — True East, none. South of East, 2° to 10°, twelve 

 churches; 10° to 20°, fourteen churches; 20° to 28°, four churches. 

 North of East, 2° to 10°, six churches; and four churches respec- 

 tively 20°, 30°, 41^, and 43° ; i.e., thirty churches set from 2° to 28° 

 south, and ten from 2° to 43° north. 



There were also a large number of city churches rebuilt since 

 the great fire, upon the sites of the destroyed fabrics, of which 

 there is no certain evidence that they preserve the original orient- 

 ations ; but they nevertheless present very much the same variety 

 of bearing as the group I have summarised. 



On comparing the general orientation of these London churches 

 with our northern group, we observe that while the former are 

 principally south, the latter are north, of true east ; indicating, on 



