113/791 ii. 6.] Bekangs Ghyll--or the dell of Nightshade--in which stands St.Mary's Abbey in Low Furness. [X.] Our churches, invariably perhaps, stand east and west, but why is by few persons exactly known; nor that the degree of deviation from due east often noticeable in the ancient ones was determined, in each particular case, by the point on the horizon at which the sun rose upon the day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. These observances of our ancestors, and the causes of them, are the subject of the following stanzas. |