FIG. 62. Churchyard cross, on the South side of Bakewell church, Derbyshire. The cross, which belongs to the latter half of the eighth century, is complete, except the top arm. It exhibits foliage and fine interlaced work, with sculptured figures illustrating the Life and Death of Christ. (See _Vict. Hist. of Derby_, I. pp. 280, 287.) The cross is supposed to indicate a pre-Conquest burial ground. ]
elaborately decorated than the Northern (cf. p. 239, _supra_, and the reservation there made), a fact illustrated in the mouldings and capitals (Fig. 63), the window tracery and the painted glass. The bishop’s throne is customarily placed on the South side of the cathedral. The so-called “low side windows” (Fig. 64) occur most frequently in the South walls. Those curious oblique passages, known as squints or hagioscopes, cut through church walls (cf. p. 148, _supra_), are most commonly Southern features, in which case they often point directly to the Southern entrance of the building. In this country, we are accustomed to look for the cloisters of a Benedictine abbey on the South side of the church, but in Italy the covered way usually lies to the North[845]. Here, all symbolism seems to be stripped away, and primal considerations of comfort gain the ascendancy. Our variable climate renders a sunny outlook desirable, and we notice efforts to secure this end in the familiar arrangement of old farmsteads, where the barns and enclosures frequently stand to the South of the dwelling. In a hot country, like Italy, coolness and shade would be sought, hence we find the dissimilar ground plan of the Italian abbeys.
FIG. 63. Capitals, Seaford church, Sussex, (c. A.D. 1190.) A, from the North arcade, bears the ordinary stiff-leaved foliage of the period. B, from the South arcade, has elaborate carvings representing the Crucifixion, the Stoning of Stephen, and the Baptism of Christ. ]
But if the arrangement of the cloisters be adjudged a mere matter of economy and convenience, there exist well-rooted superstitions which cannot be so explained. “The front of everything to the South,” is an old Irish maxim, and though, as Mr W. G. Wood-Martin suggests, the saying may have reference to the ceremony of making the deiseal, or right-hand circle, yet the words are pregnant of folk-custom. Formerly the Irish ploughman turned the head of his horses towards the South before yoking or unyoking. Taking an English example, we find that in Suffolk, wherever the churches possessed both a