April 26. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



333 



abundant, that the clialk soil Las almost lost its 

 nature. 



Till more liglit can be thrown on the subject 

 than what has yet appeared in " Notes and 

 Queries," I cannot but retain my original opinion, 

 viz., that the favourite part of interment, in earlier 

 times, was that nearest the principal entrance into 

 the church. The original object of burying in 

 churches and churchyards was the better to insure 

 for the dead the pi-aycrs of the worshippers, as 

 they assembled for public devotion. Hence the 

 churchyard nearest the entrance into church 

 would be most in request. The origin of the 

 prejudice for the south side, which I believe to be 

 of recent date, may, I doubt not, be ascertained 

 from any superstitious cottager who entertains it. 

 " It would be so cold, sir," said one to me, " to be 

 always lying where the sun would never shine on 

 me." 



If your correspondent on this subject in Yol. iii., 

 p. 125 , would ask an old inhabitant of his parish 

 which is the backside of their church, and why it 

 is so called ? he would probably come at the fact. 

 I would refer him to Burn's History of Parish 

 Registers, page 96., foot-note, where he will find 

 it stated that " a part of the churchyard was 

 sometimes left unconsecrated, for the purpose of 

 burying excommunicated persons." 



W. Hastings Kelke. 



Drayton Beauchamp. 



North Side of Churchyards. — Your correspon- 

 dents seem to be agreed as to the facts, not as 

 to the origin of the objection. I suspect Ma. 

 Hawker (Vol. ii., p. 253.) is nearest the truth ; 

 and the following, from Cooerdale on Praying for 

 the Dead, may help to strengthen his conjecture : 



" As men die, so shall they arise : if in faith in the 

 Lord towards the south, they need no prayers ; they 

 are presently happy, and shall arise in glory : if in uji- 

 helief without the Lord towards the north, then are they 

 past all hope." 



N. s. 



North Side of Churchyards (Vol. ii., pp. 253. 

 346.). — The subjoined extract from Bishop Wil- 

 kins's Discourse concerning a New Planet, tending 

 to prove that it is probable our Earth is one of the 

 Planets,Svo., 1640, pp. 64-66., will serve to illus- 

 trate the passage from Milton, of the north being 

 " the devoted region of Satan and his hosts : " 



" It was tlie opinion of the Jewish rabbles, that man 

 was created with his face to the east ; therefore tlie 

 Hebrew word signifies ante, or the east ; post, or the 

 west ; dextra, or the soutli ; sinistra, or the norih. You 

 may see all of them put tofrether in that place of 

 Job xxiii. 8, 9. : ' Behold I go forward, and he is 

 not there ; and bnckward, but I cannot perceive him : 

 on the left liand, where he doth work, but I cannot 

 behohl him. He hidclh himself on the riglit hand, 

 that I cannot see him.' Which expressions are, by 



some interpreters, referred unto the four coasts of 

 heaven, according to the common use of those original 

 words. From hence it is that many of tlie ancients 

 have concluded hell to be in the north, which is signi- 

 fied by the left hand ; unto which side, our Saviour 

 tells us, that the goats shall be divided. Which opi- 

 nion likewise seems to be favoured by that place in 

 Job .Kxvi. 6, 7., where it is said, ' Hell is naked before 

 Gud, and destruction hath no covering.' And presently 

 it is added, ' Ho stretcheth out the north over the empty 

 place.' Upon these grounds, St. Jerome interprets 

 that speech of the Preacher, Kccles. xi. .S. : ' If the tree 

 fell toward the soutli, or toward the north, in the 

 place where the tree falleth, there shall it be,' concern- 

 ing those who shall go either to heaven or hell. And 

 in tliis sense also do some expound that of Zechariab 

 (xiv. 4.), where it is said that ' the Mount of Olives 

 shall cleave in the midst : half of it shall remove 

 toward the north, and half of it toward the south.' 

 By which it is intimated, that amongst those Gentiles, 

 who shall take upon them the profession of Christ, 

 there are two sorts : some that go to the north, that is, to 

 hell; and others to the south, that is, to heaven. And 

 therefore it is, say they, that God so often threatens 

 evil out of the north : and upon this ground it is, saith 

 Besoldus, that there is no religion that worships that 

 way. We read of the Mahometans, that they adore 

 towards the south ; the Jews towards the west ; 

 Christians towards the east ; but none to the north." 



J.Y. 

 Iloxton. 



THE KOIX.IAD, AND SOME OF ITS WRITERS. 



(Vol. iii., p. 276.) 



Mr. Dawson Turner asks for information re- 

 garding three writers in the Rolliad, viz. : Tickell, 

 Richardson, and Fitzpatrick. Memoirs of the first 

 two are given in Chalmers's Dictionary ; but in 

 Moore's Life of Sheridan, Mr. Turner will find 

 several notices of them, far more attractive than 

 dry biographical details. Tbey were both inti- 

 mately associated with Sheridan ; Tickell, indeed, 

 was his brother-in-law. One would prefer calling 

 them his friends, but steady friendship must rest 

 upon a firmer basis than those gifts of wit, talent, 

 and a keen sense of the ridiculous, which prevailed 

 so largely amongst this clever trio. 



Tickell's production. Anticipation, is still re- 

 membered from its cleverness and humour ; but 

 when every speaker introduced into its pages has 

 long been dead, and some of them were little 

 known to fame, the pamphlet is preserved by a 

 few solely from the celebrity which it once pos- 

 sessed. 



His death in 1793 was a most melancholy one. 

 It is described by Protl'ssor Smyth in his inte- 

 resting Memoir of Sheridan, a book printed some 

 years ago for distribution among his friends, and 

 which well deserves publication. 



Independent of his contributions to the Rolliad, 



