OF SELBORNE. 289 



expense : and, bestowing it in the name of his favourite 

 daughter Mrs. Mary Stuart, caused it to be cast with the 

 following motto round it : 



fl Clara puella dedit, dixitque mihi esto Maria : 

 " Hlius et laudes nomen ad astra sono." 



The day of the arrival of this tuneable peal was observed as 

 an high festival by the village, and rendered more joyous, by 

 an order from the donor, that the treble-bell should be fixed 

 bottom upward in the ground, and filled with punch, of which 

 all present were permitted to partake. 



The porch of the church, to the south, is modern, and 

 would not be worthy attention did it not shelter a fine sharp 

 gothic door-way- This is undoubtedly much older than the 

 present fabric; and being found in good preservation, was 

 worked into the wall, and is the grand entrance into the 

 church: nor are the folding-doors to be passed over in silence; 

 since, from their thick and clumsy structure, and the rude 

 flourished-work of their hinges, they may possibly be as 

 ancient as the door-way itself. 



The whole roof of the south aisle, and the south-side of the 

 roof of the middle aisle, is covered with oaken shingles instead 

 of tiles, on account of their lightness, which favours the an- 

 cient and crazy-timber-frame. And indeed, the considera- 

 tion of accidents by fire excepted, this sort of roofing is much 

 more eligible than tiles. For shingles well seasoned, and 

 cleft from quartered timber, never warp, nor let in drifting 

 snow ; nor do they shiver with frost ; nor are they liable to 

 be blown off, like tiles ; but when well nailed down, last for 

 a long period, as experience has shown us in this place, 

 where those that face to the north are known to have en- 

 dured, untouched, by undoubted tradition for more than a 

 century. 



Considering the size of the church, and the extent of the 

 parish, the church-yard is very scanty ; and especially as all 

 wish to be buried on the south-side, which is become such a 

 mass of mortality that no person can be there interred without 

 disturbing or displacing the bones of his ancestors. There is 



u 



