The civil power was blamed for calling in the military. The coroner’s inquest on the body of Mr. Rowles, after having sat eight days, returned a verdict of “Wilful Murder” against James Day, the principal, and John Williams, High Constable, and James White, stationer, general collector of rates, as accessories before the act. They surrendered to their bail at the Horsham Assizes, on the 25th March, and were found “Not Guilty,” and the judge said, that, so far from any blame being attached to Williams and White, he was fully persuaded that they had acted throughout with the greatest prudence, coolness, and discretion. {115} The base of the stone cross, to which is attached the legend of St. Nicholas Galley, is a remnant of the superstition that prevailed prior to the Reformation. In primitive times, the south side of every churchyard contained a column placed on a pedestal, having on its summit a cross; and the nearer to this a corpse was interred, so much the sooner—it was believed—would the soul be relieved from purgatory. Hence the reason why the south side of a churchyard most frequently contains the greatest number of interments, individuals having a solemn dread of being buried in the north, where there was no cross. So far, indeed, did primitive Christians carry their devotion for this figure, that they have been accused of worshipping the cross itself. Such was their blind zeal for the sign of the cross, that they violated all bounds of prudence, and Flecknoe quaintly observes:—“That had they their will, a bird should not fly in the air with its wings _a-cross_, a ship with its _cross-yard_ sail upon the sea, nor profane tailor sit _cross-legged_ upon his shop-board, or have _cross-bottoms_ to wind his thread upon.” With reference to the particular pillar in question, no records, beyond the legend, exist which might contribute to the solution of its origin, but the probability is that it was erected about the seventh century, when the mania for columns and crosses prevailed. The New Burial Ground, as it is termed, was added in 1824; and the Cemetery Ground was opened in what was known as Butcher Russell’s field, in 1841, the first burial in it being that of Mary Wheeler, the wife of a labourer, who was employed in laying out and levelling the ground. She died June 27th, 1841, and an obelisk marks her grave.