222 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



days, endeavoured to set the chancels to the rising of 

 the sun. 



^Close by the church, at the west-end, stands the vicar- 

 age-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 

 picturesque a prospect, that the first master in landscape 

 might contemplate it with pleasure, and deem it an object 

 well worthy of his pencil. 



