THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 221 



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 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 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 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 ex- 

 tended 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 

 northside ; 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 



