NORTH SIDE OF CHURCHYARDS.
(Vol. ii., pp. 93. 253.; Vol. iii., p. 125.)
Your correspondents on this subject have generally taken it as granted, that the prejudice against burying in this portion of the churchyard is almost universal. In a former communication (Vol. ii., p. 93.) I stated that there are at least some exceptions. Since that time I have visited perhaps a hundred churchyards in the counties of York, Derby, Stafford, Bucks, Herts, and Oxford, and in nearly half of these burial had evidently been long since practised on the north side of the several churches. The parish church of Ashby de la Zouch is built so near the south wall of the churchyard, that the north must clearly have been designed for sepulture. I was incumbent of an ancient village church in that neighbourhood, which is built in the same manner, with scarcely any ground on the south, the north being large and considerably raised by the numerous interments which have taken place in it. It has also some old tombs, which ten years ago were fast falling to decay. The part south of the church contains very few graves, and all apparently of recent date.
In my former communication I mentioned, that in this churchyard burial has been chiefly, till of late, on the north side of the church; and, since that communication, a vault has been made on the south side, which has convinced us the ground had never before been there broken up. The soil is chalk; whereas, whenever a grave is made on the north side, human dust and bones are so
abundant, that the chalk soil has almost lost its nature.
Till more light can be thrown on the subject than what has yet appeared in "Notes and Queries," I cannot but retain my original opinion, viz., that the favourite part of interment, in earlier times, was that nearest the principal entrance into the church. The original object of burying in churches and churchyards was the better to insure for the dead the prayers of the worshippers, as they assembled for public devotion. Hence the churchyard nearest the entrance into church would be most in request. The origin of the prejudice for the south side, which I believe to be of recent date, may, I doubt not, be ascertained from any superstitious cottager who entertains it. "It would be so cold, sir," said one to me, "to be always lying where the sun would never shine on me."
If your correspondent on this subject in Vol. iii., p. 125., would ask an old inhabitant of his parish which is the backside of their church, and why it is so called? he would probably come at the fact. I would refer him to Burn's History of Parish Registers, page 96., foot-note, where he will find it stated that "a part of the churchyard was sometimes left unconsecrated, for the purpose of burying excommunicated persons."
W. Hastings Kelke.
Drayton Beauchamp.
North Side of Churchyards.—Your correspondents seem to be agreed as to the facts, not as to the origin of the objection. I suspect Mr. Hawker (Vol. ii., p. 253.) is nearest the truth; and the following, from Coverdale on Praying for the Dead, may help to strengthen his conjecture:
"As men die, so shall they arise: if in faith in the Lord towards the south, they need no prayers; they are presently happy, and shall arise in glory: if in unbelief without the Lord towards the north, then are they past all hope."
N. S.
North Side of Churchyards (Vol. ii., pp. 253. 346.).—The subjoined extract from Bishop Wilkins's Discourse concerning a New Planet, tending to prove that it is probable our Earth is one of the Planets, 8vo., 1640, pp. 64-66., will serve to illustrate the passage from Milton, of the north being "the devoted region of Satan and his hosts:"
"It was the opinion of the Jewish rabbies, that man was created with his face to the east; therefore the Hebrew word signifies ante, or the east; post, or the west; dextra, or the south; sinistra, or the north. You may see all of them put together in that place of Job xxiii. 8, 9.: 'Behold I go forward, and he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.' Which expressions are, by some interpreters, referred unto the four coasts of heaven, according to the common use of those original words. From hence it is that many of the ancients have concluded hell to be in the north, which is signified by the left hand; unto which side, our Saviour tells us, that the goats shall be divided. Which opinion likewise seems to be favoured by that place in Job xxvi. 6, 7., where it is said, "Hell is naked before God, and destruction hath no covering.' And presently it is added, 'He stretcheth out the north over the empty place.' Upon these grounds, St. Jerome interprets that speech of the Preacher, Eccles. xi. 3.: 'If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there shall it be,' concerning those who shall go either to heaven or hell. And in this sense also do some expound that of Zechariah (xiv. 4.), where it is said that 'the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst: half of it shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.' By which it is intimated, that amongst those Gentiles, who shall take upon them the profession of Christ, there are two sorts: some that go to the north, that is, to hell; and others to the south, that is, to heaven. And therefore it is, say they, that God so often threatens evil out of the north: and upon this ground it is, saith Besoldus, that there is no religion that worships that way. We read of the Mahometans, that they adore towards the south; the Jews towards the west; Christians towards the east; but none to the north."
J. Y.
Hoxton.