OF SELBORNE 249 



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

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

 of tiles, on account of their lightness, which favours the ancient 

 and crazy timber-frame. And, indeed, the consideration of acci- 

 dents 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 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 dis- 

 placing 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 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. 



