ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 251 



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

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

 doorway. 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 doorway 

 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 favors the ancient 

 and crazy timber-frame. And, indeed, the consideration 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 nailed down, last for a long period, as experi- 

 ence has shown us in this place, where those that face to the 

 north are known to have endured, 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 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, prej- 

 udice may wear out by degrees, and their example be followed 

 by the rest of the neighborhood. 



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

 east and west ends, 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 



