290 ANTIQUITIES 



reason to suppose that it once was larger, and extended to 

 what is now the vicarage court and garden ; because many 

 human bones have been dug up in those parts several yards 

 without the present limits. At the east end are a few graves; 

 yet none till very lately on the north-side ; but, as two or 

 three families of best repute have begun to bury in that 

 quarter, prejudice may wear out by degrees, and their exam- 

 ple be followed by the rest of the neighbourhood. 



In speaking of the church, I have all along talked of the 

 east and west-end, as if the chancel stood exactly true to those 

 points of the compass ; but this is by no means the case, for 

 the fabric bears so much to the north of the east that the four 

 corners of the tower, and not the four sides, stand to the four 

 cardinal points. The best method of accounting for this 

 deviation seems to be, that the workmen, who probably were 

 employed in the longest days, endeavoured to set the chancels 

 to the rising of the sun *. 



Close by the church, at the west end, stands the vicarage- 

 house ; an old, but roomy and convenient edifice. It faces 

 very agreeably to the morning sun, and is divided from the 

 village by a neat and cheerful court. According to the 

 manner of old times, the hall was open to the roof; and so 

 continued probably, till the vicars became family-men, and 

 began to want more conveniences ; when they flung a floor 

 across, and, by partitions, divided the space into chambers. 

 In this hall we remember a date, some time in the reign of 

 Elizabeth; it was over the door that leads to the stairs. 



Behind the house is a garden of an irregular shape, but well 

 laid out; whose terrace commands so romantic and pictur- 

 esque a prospect, that the first master in landscape might 

 contemplate it with pleasure, and deem it an object well 

 worthy of his pencil. 



* [It has been conjectured by some antiquaries who have studied the 

 curious subject of the orientation of churches, that the east end is always 

 directed towards the sunrise on the festival-day of the saint to whom 

 the church is dedicated. T. B.] 



