270 THE ANTIQUITIES 



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 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 endured, untouched, by un- 

 doubted 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, prejudice may 

 wear out by degrees, and their example be followed by 

 the rest of the neigbourhood. 



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- 



