PERRAN-ZABULOE. /z~F~ PERRAN-ZABULOE; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE PAST AND PRESENT STATE THE ORATORY OF ST. PIRAN IN THE SANDS, AND Remarks on tts &nttquttw. By the Rev. Wm. HASLAM, B.A. RESIDENT CURATE. LONDON: JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW. M.DCCC.XLIV. London : Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, Bangor House, Shoe Lane. PREFACE. The substance of this little work was read in a paper at an evening meeting of the Cornwall Royal Institution ; and at the request of the Mem- bers of that Institution, and others assembled upon the occasion, is now published, and to them respectfully dedicated, with very many apologies for the unavoidable delay which has taken place in bringing it forward. It has been deemed necessary to add to the original matter of the paper, a brief introduction to the ecclesiastical antiquities of Cornwall ; in order to suit this book for general publication, and a few other matters connected with the early history of this parish have been inserted, which we trust will not be unacceptable. Cornwall abounds in antiquities, and among these a large and interesting portion are Church antiquities, which seem to be little known. It is true, Cornwall is but a small part of England, Vi PREFACE. and situated in a remote corner ; its early eccle- siastical and architectural antiquities seem to have been overlooked in the national theories on the subject ; but, nevertheless, they have pecu- liarity enough, and character enough, to stand as exceptions, or at any rate to be entirely free from theories which are formed upon other data, distinct from and different to themselves. We have antiquities here, and monuments of the original inhabitants of this island previous to the Saxon invasion, which need but to be known and they will be valued. They are in reality the antiquities of a people who lived in earliest times, not only in Cornwall but in all Britain, and therefore may be regarded as a remnant of a large class which once prevailed throughout the land. Hitherto writers seem quietly to have followed one another in attributing civilization and arts, and even the establishment of the Church in this island, to the Saxons ; but it is unneces- sary now to maintain such opinion. Civilization and the arts, we have great reason to believe, came first to the Saxons from the ancient Irish, from whom the few unconquered Britons that re- mained received the same; and, as to the esta- PREFACE. vii blishment of the Church, no one now is so bold as to deny that it was planted here long before the time of St. Augustine. Here is the mistake ; the Saxons, unnationally, have been made to supersede the original inhabitants of the island. Their his- tory has been regarded as that of all Britain ; their antiquities have been made the boast and pride of antiquaries, and the data of national theories on architecture and Church history. All this might have been permitted and submit- ted as their right, had the Saxons conquered all Britain : but there are certain portions of the said Britain they did not conquer for centuries ; in these parts we should look for our earliest properly national antiquities, and by all means place them above those of the invaders of the land. We would not revive a feud and jealousy which have long, long since subsided ; neverthe- less, in treating of the antiquities of these times, it is impossible to overlook the feelings which prevailed so strongly, especially as they have set a mark of distinction, as it were, upon the re- spective antiquities of these hostile people. Our task has been to endeavour to restore to the oratory of St. Piran some centuries of hoary i PREFACE. viii antiquity, which have been, we imagine, taken from it by writers who have pronounced it Nor- man : that it is not Norman there cannot be a doubt, and we are convinced no one who sees the ruin will continue to maintain that it is so ; that it may not be attributed to the Saxons of old, so hostile to Britain, will also appear equally clear when we enter upon their history. We presume then that the oratory of St. Piran is British, or at any rate not Norman. The term “ oratory ” has been used, not in the modern acceptation of it, but in that which was received at the period to which we refer the date of this structure, and as the term adopted by subsequent though still early writers with refer- ence to this period. “ Oratory” signifies a house of prayer ; not necessarily a private chapel, but a church, the house of God, which is especially a “ house of prayer.” W. H. Lambrioqan, St. Perran-zabulos, August 30th, 1844. PERRAN-ZABULOE. s 4— Z. /'Av ^ /V 1 2 L> . Lf f "M C INTRODUCTION. The discovery and “ restoration” of the ancient Church of St. Piran, which had for centuries been lost in the sand, has been already announced in a work of much interest and popularity by the Rev. Collins Trelawney. In this work, the church is considered to have been built in the sixth century, and to be, without doubt, an early specimen of the stone building of the British Christians. This is an opinion which an examination of this interest- ing structure cannot fail to suggest ; and an opi- nion, moreover, which is fully borne out by the strongest probabilities. But it would appear, the Reverend author has not dwelt sufficiently on the proofs of his just assertions of its early date ; for, notwithstanding the strong claims which this church most certainly possesses to very high antiquity, doubts seem to be entertained respect- They are doubts, however, which might B mg it. 2 INTRODUCTION. have passed unnoticed but for the authority on which they partly rest. Mr. Bloxam, in his “ Prin- ciples of Ecclesiastical Architecture,” pronounces “this ruinous structure, which some suppose to have been an ancient British church,” to be “ pro- bably not of earlier date than the twelfth century.” It may appear presumptuous to oppose the de- cision of one, who is justly and deservedly of high authority in matters of English ecclesiastical architecture : but, with all deference, I would submit another opinion, and do so with the more confidence, as I have had opportunities and faci- lities of examining this particular subject, which, I believe, Mr. Bloxam has not had ; and besides I have reason to believe that Mr. Bloxam has never seen this church, and that he has had but im- perfect accounts, and even worse illustrations, whereon to found his opinion. But, with respect to doubts and objections which are entertained as to the antiquity of this church, the question may justly be asked, Upon what ground can such doubts fairly rest ? By what standard are we to judge the date of a British structure 1 and by what authority may we pro- nounce, in opposition to every probability and every evidence, that the structure is not British 1 The histories and theories of the rise and progress of architecture, which are in general use, and upon which general opinions and decisions on the sub- ject are formed, are, it must be remembered, INTRODUCTION. 3 histories and theories of Saxon architecture, not British ; they are derived from Saxon sources, and confirmed by Saxon authorities. These, sure- ly, cannot be justly applied to British remains. The early ecclesiastical remains of Cornwall (as also of Wales and Ireland) are of earlier date than Saxon, and besides are peculiar in their character ; they cannot therefore by any means be made sub- ject to Saxon rules of architecture. A short insight into the history of the British Church, especially the branch of it in Corn- wall, will shew us how great is the distinction between British and Saxon. They were not only a distinct people, but a people hostile to each other, between whom little, and no amicable, intercourse was maintained ; and, more than these, they were members of distinct and separate branches of the Church Catholic, upholding wfith jealous tenacity their own respective rites and customs. This last, it will be seen, is by no means an unimportant distinction, but one which has, as it were, set its mark upon the respective antiquities of these hostile people. The Church in Cornwall, and, I think we may venture to add, the Church throughout ancient Britain, when organised and established after the Diocletian persecution, was a branch of the East- ern Church, or rather, we should say, of the Church in Asia ; for as yet the distinctions of Eastern and Western, Greek and Latin, had not 4 INTRODUCTION. arisen. We readily admit, that St. Paul or his companions from Rome (afterwards the seat of the Western Church) planted Christianity in this island ; indeed we are all bound, in deference to the high authority upon which it is asserted, to admit this : but we venture, upon the evidence of records and antiquities, to add, that the Church planted by St. Paul was nurtured and cultivated, if not replanted, by missionaries from the East; for the Church in the time of the Romans, and after their departure in the time of the British, continued in the observance of rites and cere- monies, which, when the schism between the East- ern and Western Churches took place, proved to be those of the former. Nor will this appear at all improbable when we remember the intercourse and communication the Romans had opened be- tween Byzantium and Britain. An interesting monument, among others, of the Eastern origin or the Eastern nurture of the early British Church may be traced in our word “Church;”* derived from Kvpiaicov, “the Lord’s house.” This is a word which is often used in the eastern councils of Ancyra and Laodicsea. It * Beveridge, Not. in can. xv. Con. Anc. — “Quum autem haec (K ugiuxov) communis fuerit majoribus nostris ecclesise cujuslibet templive denominatio, veri nobis simillimum vide- tur, prima Christian* religionis semina a Gr*cis hue dispersa fuisse. Neque enim existimandum est, quod Latini Graecum nomen ecclesiis imponerent.” INTRODUCTION. 5 is used by Eusebius, who was a member of the Eastern Church, and is the very name by which Constantine called his churches. The Church thus planted in these isles continued for some time, struggling against the superstition and cruel obstinacy of the people, — “ blessing though perse- cuted,” till the conversion of Constantine the Great, early in the fourth century. After this it was openly tolerated, and became the acknow- ledged religion of the land ; but it was not long permitted to enjoy this protection and rest. About the year 420, the Romans, pressed by enemies at home, were compelled to leave Bri- tain, where they had sojourned for four hundred years. No sooner had they withdrawn their protection than the Piets and Scots invaded the almost defenceless Britons, who in their distress, having urgently appealed for help to Rome in vain, were at length induced to seek the assistance of the Saxons. These accordingly came, and afforded the implored succour ; but, perceiving the ener- vated state of the Britons, turned upon them. Conscious of their own strength, the Saxons pro- ceeded to take possession of the lands they had been invited to defend, and, in order to effect their purpose, had recourse to acts of violence more cruel almost than those of the former in- vaders. They not only seized the possessions of the Britons, but persecuted them for their religion ; 6 INTRODUCTION. slew their bishops and priests at the very altars, and demolished their churches, — those which they had assisted the Romans in erecting, as well as those consecrated from other uses.* Thus persecuted and ejected from the fertile and central parts of their country, the Britons fled to the mountains of Wales and Cornwall, where they maintained their independence and hostile feeling against the Saxons for centuries after. Here in security they continued, for a time, in spite of their enemies to observe the peculiar customs of their Church ; and it is a remarkable circumstance, in support of the theory we submit, that the remnant of the British Chris- tians who fled from Saxon persecution to the mountains and fastnesses of their country, are found in those places, following the rites of the * “ Hujus persecutionis in anno cccclxii. Historia ita memi- nit. Ecclesias et ecclesiastica omnia ad solum usque destrue- bant, sacerdotes juxta sua altaria trucidabant, sacras scripturas igne concremabant, per sanctorum martyrum sepulturas cumu- los terrae congerebant. Eadem repetit Johannes Fordanus in Scotichronico. Viri religiosi et conjugati substantiam, con- juges liberos, et (quod majus est) libertatem relinquentqs ex- teras et transmarinas petebant regiones. Nonnulli de mise- randis reliquiis, qui ab hac clade evadere poterant, speluncas et nemoralia loca, quidamque boreales partes et quidam aus- trales, Scotiam videlicet, Walliam, et Cornubiam petierunt, quos Gildas, qui a calamitissima ilia tempestate proxime abfuit, ita deplorat. Nonnulli miserarum reliquiarum a montibus depre- hensi acervatim jugulabantur.” — Ussher, Britt. Eccl. Antiqu. c. xii. INTRODUCTION. 7 Eastern Church, when the earliest light of his- tory falls upon them. Venerable Bede, writing of the “ Britons” of his time, speaks of them as con- firmed in these customs. In Cornwall, the con- tests for superiority between the British and the Saxons lasted nearly five hundred years, and were conducted on the part of the for- mer with fortitude and perseverance, notwith- standing the disproportion in numerical force. On the other hand, the Saxons also persevered ; in their Heathen and Christian state they were equally hostile. After their conversion, early in the seventh century, by St. Augustine, a mis- sionary of the Western or Latin Church, they seem to have returned to the unequal contention with even increased animosity ; not content with invading the secular rights of the Britons, they came now to force the customs of the Western Church upon them. Soon after his settlement in Canterbury, St. Augustine invited the British bishops, seven in number, to meet him in con- ference. The place of meeting appointed was beneath a large oak-tree (the spot where it stood is still shewn) in Bristol. Here he pleaded with them for subjection to the Bishop of Rome, and for conformity to the Western rites in the observ- ance of Easter, and other matters. But the Bri- tish bishops answered positively, and in a spirit which seems to have characterised the intercourse between the British and Saxons to the last, that 8 INTRODUCTION. they owed no obedience to the Pope of Rome. A copy of their protest* is still preserved by Sir H. Spelman in his Concilia. The British were so far, says Bingham, from paying deference to the Romish customs that they continued their practice of observing Easter on a * “ A Protestacon of the Blpps in Briten to Augustine the Monke, the Pope’s Legate, in the yeare 600 p’t D’m Chrum. “ Bid ispis a diogel i, chwi ynbod ni holl, vn ac arral, yn vuidd ac ynn ostingedig i eglwys Duw, ac ir paab o Ruvam, ac i boob kyar grisdic n dwyucl, y garu pawb yn i radd mewn kariad parfaich, ac ihelpio pawb o honaunt ar air a guecthred i vod yun blant y Duw, ac amgenach wyddod ne hwn nidadwen i vod ir neb yr yddeck chwi y henwi yn paab ne in daad o daad, yn glemis ac yw ovunn : ar uvyddod hi vn iddem in yw varod yw rodde ac yw dalu iddo ef ac i pob krisdion yn drag- widdol. He wid yr ydym ni dan lywodrath esoob Kaerllion or Wysc, yr hien ysidd yn oligwr dan Duw ar nom ni, y wuenthud i ni gadwr fordd ysbrydol.” — Sir H. Spelman, from an Ancient British MS. of Peter Mostyn, Welsh gent. Spel- man, Concilia. il Be it known, and without doubt, to you, that we all are, and every one of us, obedient subjects to the Church of God, and to the Pope of Rome, and to every godly Christian, to love every one in his degree in perfect charity, and to help every one of them by word and by deed to be the children of God. And other obedience than this I do not know due to him whom you name to be Pope, nor to be the Father of Fathers, to be claimed and to be demanded. And this obe- dience we are ready to give and to pay to him and to every Christian continually. Besides, we are under the government of the Bishop of Caerleon-upon-Uske, who is to oversee under God to us, to cause us to keep the way spiritual.” — Fuller, Book ii. cent. vii. sec. 3. INTRODUCTION. 9 different Sunday, notwithstanding all the argu- ments that the Pope and his party could urge against them, for which reason they were treated as schismatics and excommunicated. “ Excommunicated” they remained, — hard and obstinate, inflexibly fond of liberty, and implac- able against all conquerors. They knew not how to acknowledge themselves subdued ; and, after a defeat, only waited till the victor had disappeared in order to reinstate their affairs. “ The Bri- taines,” says Camden, “ in Corn wale so fenced thee countrey and defended themselves that to the raigne of Kinge Athelstan they held out against the Saxons, who, sub dueing the western partes, made Tamar* the bounder betwixt them and his English, whose last erle of British bloud was Candarus.” In a few years Athelstan extended his conquest into Cornwall, and at length drove the Cornish to the Land’s End. Here they made their final stand for liberty, and were overthrown in a terrible battle, the theatre of which is still preserved in the name “ Bolloit,” a place of slaughter. Here then, and not till the year 936, did the civil and religious contention between these peo- ple cease. For the space of five hundred years the * In the reign of King Egbert, in 800, who was the first King of all Saxons, as Athelstan afterwards was of all England, the river Ex was the “ bounder betwixt them,” and half the city of Exeter belonged to the British. 1 0 INTRODUCTION. Cornish Britons defied the Saxons, and retained their liberty and the peculiar rites of their Church. To the strong and marked character of this period must we advert, in order to estimate rightly the antiquities of the early British Church. The only traces which remain in Cornwall to the present time of the Saxons are certain cus- toms of the Latin Church, substituted in the place of the Eastern observance, and Saxon names. Though we have records of several churches built and rebuilt by them, no vestiges of Saxon archi- tecture have yet been found here. Names, and the establishment of the rites of the Western Church above alluded to, alone are the monuments of the Saxon conquest. They changed the Roman name Cornubia, which had been derived from the British or Celtic kernou , “ a horn,” (from the shape of the promontory,) into Corn-wealas, to distin- guish the land of Cornish Britons from that of the Welsh, which they had already conquered and denominated Wealas. They also altered the divi- sion of hundreds in Cornwall, and substituted the present names instead of their ancient ones. They seem to have conquered Cornwall merely for the sake of conquest, in order to indulge hostile feelings, and the bitter animosity which they entertained towards the British ; a circumstance we should never forget, if we would judge fairly between the respective antiquities of these people. INTRODUCTION. 11 We have seen then that there never existed any social intercourse between the British and Saxons. The silence of Venerable Bede with respect to the British who were contemporaneous with him, fully confirms this position, and proves that his- tories and theories of architecture, which have originated with them, cannot he applicable to Cornwall at least. Now, the chief objection to the alleged anti- quity of St. Piran’s Church seems to rest on a supposition that churches were built of wood and wattles daubed with mud, and not of stone, at this early period. There is Venerable Bede’s authority for the supposition. He says, there was a time when there was not a stone church in all the land, but the custom was to build them of wood. He gives examples, too, of this manner of building. Paulinus built an oratory of wood, in which to baptize Edwyn King of Northumbria, in 627. Finan built a cathedral in Lindisfarne of wood, and several others ; but these, it must be remembered, are Saxon examples of a Saxon theory. They cannot be any guide to British customs. But he proceeds to add an important exception to his rule. He records that St. Ninian built a church of stone so early as 448, in Scot- land ; and, in accordance with the impression on his mind, adds, “ insolito more Britonibus.” — Bed. iii. 4. Other historians, however, seem to think differently of British structures. William of 12 INTRODUCTION. Malmesbury, fol. 155, records of St. Ninian’s Church, “ecclesiam ibi lapide polito Britonibus miraculum fecerit thus placing the singularity of this edifice, not as Venerable Bede, in the cir- cumstance that it was built of stone, but in that it was built of stone in a 'peculiar manner. Arch- bishop Ussher, quoting Matthew of Paris, takes the same view of the case : he says, “ ecclesiam de albis lapidibus Britonibus insolitam,” etc. These writers evidently imply that the British built their churches with stone so early as the fifth century, and seem to endeavour to qualify the passage in the history of Venerable Bede on the subject. Not that the British did not build of wood, or the Saxons of stone ; but it is contended the former built not exclusively of wood. Besides the testimony adduced, we have evidence that three churches were built in Cornwall, and one at least was of stone, so early as the year 412. The British Christians, under St. Patrick’s direc- tions, erected a church of stone in a place which has ever since been known by the name of Pa- trick or Petroc-stowe* (contracted into Padstow), * The name “ Petroc-stow,” or “ Padstow,” is not the ori- ginal name of this place, for “ stow” is Saxon. It is not un- likely that originally it was called “ Patrick :” there is a small parish bordering on it called “ Little Petheric” to this day. After the conquest of Cornwall, Athelstan named this place “ Athelstowe ,” a presumptuous Saxon alteration ! equalled only by the audacity of the Roman emperor who desired his statue INTRODUCTION. 13 at which place the same holy man founded a monastery, the earliest on record in England. And, again, there are several amphitheatres and hill-castles in the west of Cornwall built of stone. One of the former (now almost utterly destroyed) stood in the Church-town of St. Just, in Penwith. These surely are enough to prove that the early Cornish were not entirely ignorant of the art of building with stone. But why is it improbable that the British knew the art of building with stone. Tacitus informs us that the Romans, by their assistance, built temples at a very early period. He also de- scribes the manner in which they imbedded stones in the mortar, a peculiarity which we shall have occasion to notice hereafter. Why, then, it may be asked, may not the British have retained this simple art, though they cer- tainly had not the skill of the Roman mason, and seem to have lost the knowledge of the use of lime, or rather, perhaps, the manner of preparing it for use. Even supposing the improbable case, that the Romans took away the art with them, and that consequently the British lost it, their intimate communion with the Irish, who knew to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem ! This name, how- ever, continued till after the time of Leland, and was then again changed, by uniting the beginning of the former and the end of the latter together, and thus was formed the Irish- British-Saxon name Padstow. 14 INTRODUCTION. the art, must have restored it to them very soon after the departure of the Romans. Thus far we have shewn that the Cornish were a distinct people and hostile to the Saxons, and that no amicable intercourse existed between them ; let us now consider briefly the peculiar character of the Church in Cornwall. This sub- ject will bring us at once upon the intimate com- munion which existed between the Irish and the Cornish. At the remote period of which we have been treating, even after Christianity was openly tolerated and established under the Romans, Druidism still in a measure continued to prevail throughout Britain, especially in Cornwall. Such was also the case in Ireland till the end of the fourth century, when St. Patrick went forth with his high commission, to dispel the gloom of the horrible religion under which his countrymen were perishing, within sound of the glad tidings of the Gospel. The success with which his labours were blessed has handed down his name to poste- rity as the Apostle and patron saint of Ireland. To him the Cornish also are indebted for having been instrumental in furthering the same pious object here, in Cornwall. He not only laboured among them in person, to convert them from the errors of Druidism, but he founded three monasteries here ; and, on his return to his own country, he consecrated twelve bishops, most of whom he sent hither to carry on the great work which he had INTRODUCTION. 15 been permitted to begin. The most famous of these were St. Petroc, who succeeded him in Pad stow, and remained there till his death, and was buried there ; * St. Piran, who became the patron saint of Tinners in Cornwall, of whom hereafter ; and St. Columb, whose fame is not con- fined to Cornwall alone. By this means was the Church in Cornwall, not planted, for it had long been introduced, under the Romans, but being established and strengthened, when the Britons from other parts retreated hither for safety from the Saxons. So rapidly did the good work pro- ceed, that in the beginning of the seventh cen- tury, when St. Augustine held conference with the British bishops, the Church had been fully established, and was then in strict observance of the rites and discipline of the Eastern Church, and evidently determined to remain so, as we have seen from their protest. Were it not for the probability that the Eastern customs we have referred to, were introduced through Byzantium in the time of the Romans, and for the very early remains which are found in Britain possessing certain marks which, at the great controversy, proved to be those of the Eastern Church, we * St. Petroc’s shrine was plundered by the Danes in 950 ; and after this his remains were removed to Bodmin. It may be remarked here, that the Danes sided with the Cornish against the Saxons, and did not plunder any part of Com wall till after it had been conquered. 16 INTRODUCTION. should be induced to suppose that these customs were brought over by the Irish missionaries, who flocked into Cornwall, especially between the fifth and the eighth centuries. There is no doubt, however, that, if they introduced them not, they at least strengthened and confirmed the British in the observance of them. That the Church in Ireland from the earliest times had received and observed these customs is evident from the follow- ing record of a Council which was held at Whitby in Yorkshire, in order to come to some agreement respecting the time of celebrating Easter, in the year 664. St. Colman, an Irishman and Arch- bishop of York,* entered into dispute with Wil- fred, a Saxon priest, on the subject. St. Col- man defended the Irish method of calculating the day for holding Easter, saying, “ that it had * It may appear strange that an Irishman, and a member of the Eastern Church, should hold so important an office in the Saxon Church ; but the difficulty will be partly removed by the following extracts. Venerable Bede says of the Irish, that as “a nation they were most friendly to the English” and that they were instrumental in converting many of the Saxons and their kings to Christianity. From others we learn that the Irish were the instructors and tutors of the Saxons, and that the latter obtained from the Irish the use of letters ; “ for,” adds Camden, “ they plainly used the characters which are in use among the Irish now.” St. Colman, therefore, by superior learning and piety, and, perhaps, by having been instrumental in converting the Saxons in the North, became eventually their archbishop. INTRODUCTION. 17 been prescribed by St. John,* whose disciples had been founders of the Irish Church . I marvel,” he exclaimed, “how some can call that absurd, in which we follow the example of so great an Apos- tle, one who was thought worthy of reposing on the bosom of his Lord : and can it be believed that such men as our venerable father Colum- kill, and his successors, would have thought or acted contrary to the precepts of the Sacred Scriptures T The Council, however, decided against St. Col- man, who resigned the See of York and returned to Ireland. From this it is clear what was the belief of an Irish bishop, so early as the seventh century, with respect to the introduction of the Church into Ireland. This is sufficient to prove to us that the Cornish Church, strengthened as it was from Ireland, must have been in observance of Eastern customs, and consequently in com- munion with the Eastern Church. Now, we have monuments still remaining in Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland which bear the * It is remarkable that in several parts of Ireland seven churches are found built near to each other. A pious modern writer expresses his belief, “ that this number seven was chosen in humble imitation and remembrance of the Seven Primitive Churches mentioned in the Revelations, which book was written by the great Apostle of the early saints of Ireland, St. John.” There were seven collegiate establishments in Cornwall in early times, of which that in honour of St. Piran was one. C 18 INTRODUCTION. stamp and character of the Eastern Church. These certainly must place beyond doubt the character of the Cornish Church as compared with the Saxon : and, in point of antiquity, refer themselves to a period anterior to the conquest of Cornwall ; for the Saxons shew little sign of any conciliating spirit, such as that, for instance, which Pope Gregory urged his missionaries to observe towards them, in not destroying their heathen temples, but converting them to sacred purposes of a true religion. It cannot be supposed that the Saxons, who carried on a war of extermi- nation ; who always sought to overcome by force of arms, and never by persuasion ; who, even when converted to Christianity, sought, if any- thing, more eagerly to abolish the rites and dis- cipline of the Eastern Church ; — it cannot be supposed that these or their successors would ever have adopted any sign or custom which was a mark of another branch of the Church, and already in use among their enemies. The monuments, then, which remain to this day in Cornwall, of the Eastern Church, and which we venture to pronounce to be British, consist of Crosses. Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland abound with “wayside” and “churchyard” crosses; and it is a remarkable fact, which seems to have escaped notice, that all these, with a very few exceptions indeed, are Greek crosses ; that is, having four INTRODUCTION. 19 short equal limbs. They are, in general, carved upon granite, or formed by four holes pierced through the block, and all fully attest, by their venerable and rounded appearance, that they are of ancient date. The most ancient of these are of a memorial character, and bear Roman-British names, surmounted with a Greek cross, rudely cut upon a long block of hewn granite, such as the Druids used for forming their circles. These may fairly be attributed to the fourth or fifth century, and were erected before cemeteries were in general use ; for they are found, like the cairns or tumuli of the heathen British chiefs, upon hills and downs and other conspicuous places. Two of the best of these interesting monuments are at present, unfortunately, not so much re- spected as they should be. They are indeed the most ancient ecclesiastical remains in England, but few seem to regard them ; one serves as a gate-post to a vicarage in the neighbourhood of Truro ; the other, if not destroyed, lies neglected by the roadside near Fowey. But the greater number of crosses in this county are of somewhat later date than these, and not so rude in appearance, though rude enough to be attributed to a period anterior to the conquest of Cornwall, when the British Church flourished there in independence. They consist mostly of a single shaft of granite, surmounted with a disc, in which a cross of four equal limbs is carved in 20 INTRODUCTION. bold relief or sunk into the surface. Sometimes the limbs are bound by a circle, the intermediate spaces being pierced ; and some few are formed by four holes arranged crosswise, and perforated through the disc, as the cross of St. Piran, of which we give a representation at page 25. In the western parts of the county, instead of a cross, the disc bears a rude sculpture of a human figure, with arms extended. Every parish in Cornwall contains several crosses ; and almost every church- yard has one at least, which is often raised on a mound or steps, and always on the south side of the church, facing the west. Besides this, others are frequently found, sometimes on the wayside, and sometimes used as boundary-stones or land- marks in different parts of the parish. The rude and venerable appearance of these crosses fully confirms the antiquity which their Greek character assigns to them ; nor is there, ge- nerally speaking, any moulding or other feature upon them which would lead one to attribute them to a later date. Another peculiarity of the early Eastern Church, common to Cornwall and Wales, where the rites and discipline of that branch of the Church Ca- tholic were retained longest, is observable in the names of parishes. In accordance with an Eastern custom, the British denominated a district which contained a church, by the name of the tutelary saint in honour of whom that church was dedi- INTRODUCTION. 21 cated. Hence the striking difference which exists between British and Saxon names. This peculiar and distinctive custom prevail- ed here, and had been established some time before the reign of Edward the Confessor, a.d. 1030 ; and it is not improbable that it was adopted throughout Britain during the govern- ment of the Romans, as early as the begin- ning of the fourth century. The name of St. Alban, in Hertfordshire, is to this day a monu- ment of the place of his martyrdom. After the Diocletian persecution, when the conversion of Constantine brought rest and protection to the Church, a church was built in memory of this British martyr,* which was standing in the time of Venerable Bede, three hundred years after. Indeed, so general was the custom, at this period, of building churches over the graves of martyrs, confessors, and others, to perpetuate their name, that Eusebius, and other writers of this age, use the term “ martyry,” and others similar to it, in their accounts of these churches. Eusebius re- cords of Constantine, that he adorned his new city, Constantinople, with many oratories and am- ple martyries. Socrates speaks of the martyry of Thomas the Apostle, in Edessa ; the martyry of * Offa, King of Mercia, founded an abbey on the site of the original Roman-British church in honour of St. Alban, but not before the British had been canonized at Rome into an Eng- lish martyr. 22 INTRODUCTION. Euphemia, when the Great Council of Chalcedon was held, and many others. Though St. Alban’s is almost the only name which has reached our times, there cannot then he a doubt that the Bri- tish Church furnished other martyrs, for the sake of the Gospel, in the same persecution, whose me- mory was also honoured. Gildas, our oldest his- torian, tells us that the Diocletian persecution “ caused many churches to be destroyed, particu- larly in Britain. But the Christians built them up again, new from the ground, when the perse- cution was over, and founded others besides, to be so many memorials and trophies of their martyrs.” These churches were again destroyed by the Saxons in the next century; and the names of holy martyrs, whom they were intended to perpe- tuate, are lost with them. St. Alban’s church and name seem alone* to have survived the gene- ral wreck of the British Church in the central parts of England ; and under the circumstances are a strong evidence of the antiquity of the Bri- tish custom of calling places by the names of the holy men. Other traces of the Eastern Church in Cornwall, we shall refer to hereafter ; those which have been adduced are sufficient to prove that the British * It is not improbable that the words “ kirk,” “ church,” “ circ,” forming a part of the name of a place, indicate the site of some of these destroyed churches ; as the word “ boro’,’’ and “ brough,” &c. that of a burrow of a British chieftain. INTRODUCTION. 23 Church flourished here, retaining its peculiarities for centuries before and after the conversion of the Saxons, and that there are remains in Corn- wall which bear testimony to this fact. Antiquities may always be regarded as useful and interesting, not only in confirming points of history, but also as an index of the character of the period they represent. The early ecclesiastical remains in Cornwall confirm all that we can de- sire, and possess every character which we should seek, in the representatives of the age to which we attribute them. The marked and decided differ- ences which we have traced between the British and the Saxons, especially in ecclesiastical mat- ters, are not imaginary or exaggerated. They will bear investigation, and even repay the trou- ble. It is surprising that the histories of our Church should have passed them over in silence. It is obvious, then, as we said before, that rules and theories of architecture, which are founded upon Saxon authority, and derived from Saxon sources, cannot be applicable to the early anti- quities of this country. And in applying this remark to St. Piran’s Church, it must be urged, that all prejudiced opinions of its date, especially those which are derived from the Saxons, must be laid aside. In short, Saxon prejudices must be forgotten, or be set at defiance. As of old, the Cornish defied the Saxons, and would not submit to their innovation and arbitrary laws ; so must 24 INTRODUCTION. the Cornish antiquary, while one stone remains carved or uncarved, maintain his ground, protest- ing ; — but away with this dream of contention ! Antiquaries, and those who love antiquities, are not Saxon, they are peaceful and believing, ever delighted to find, and ready to receive, a relic of other days, willing rather to believe than disbe- lieve ; they seek not proofs alone, probabilities are sufficient. And herein is a virtue others will do well to imitate. It is better and wiser to believe than disbelieve, even when we cannot compre- hend. Let this be the rule of our lives, and we shall find not only that we gain far more by be- lieving than we can lose, but that it is a humble and healthier state of mind. The ridicule which the world may think fit to bestow on the “ credu- lous” is but trifling, and not to be compared to the benefit and pleasure even of believing too much. The probabilities upon which the claims of this Church to British antiquity rest, are these : with- out a single evidence or mark of later date, every probability suggests that it was erected soon after St. Piran’s death, over his resting-place. It pos- sesses in itself every indication of British anti- quity ; is situated among antiquities of a yet re- moter age ; has been preserved, perhaps, in the only way in which it could have been preserved, beneath sand. Buried and lost, it has been the subject of tradition from time immemorial ; tradi- INTRODUCTION. 25 tion has even pointed to the place of its sepulture ; there, in that place, it is at length found. Upon examination, it proves to correspond with models which we derive from the writings of earliest fa- thers and historians; and, differing from Saxon and Norman structures, it corresponds exactly with those which were built by the Irish mis- sionaries, both here and in their own country, and elsewhere. Upon these probabilities we venture to ask for the oratory of St. Piran an early British antiquity. PERRAN-ZABULOE. CHAPTER I. St. Perran, or Perran-zabuloe, is a large and extensive parish on the north coast of Cornwall. It is situated about six miles from the ancient borough of Truro, on the western part of the Hundred of Pyder, originally called Rialton. The name of this parish, like that of many others in Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, and the few adjacent islands, is derived, or rather adopted, from its patron saint ; a circumstance which be- speaks British antiquity, and, as we have seen before, is some evidence of the Eastern observances of the Church in these parts. It is worthy of remark, that, with very few exceptions indeed, the names of parishes thus adopted, are the names of holy Confessors, or Martyrs, who were members of the Eastern Church, or some other in communion with it, during the time that the controversy be- tween the Latin and Greek branches of the Ca- 28 PERRAN-ZABULOE. tholic Church, especially in this country, prevail- ed in its greatest extent. The names of places founded by the Saxons, on the other hand, are different in character as in derivation. They are of a secular character, and derived not from the Church in any way, but from some local circum- stance, such as the proximity of a castle, or forti- fication, or encampment, or of a river, or wood, or valley, and the like. This seems also to have been the custom of the Britons at a very remote period, probably before their conversion. To this day Celtic names thus derived remain, and are in use. Every hill, and valley, and plain, has its own appropriate appellation, but all these are now merged into that of the patron saint, and have been so for many centuries. Each com- munity, — for at that time parishes had not been divided as they are at the present,* — however its members were scattered in various places of dif- ferent name, as to their spiritual interests they were one, associated in one church, known by one * It is difficult to ascertain how ancient the present division of parishes is. It seems agreed on all hands that in the early ages of Christianity in this island parishes were unknown, or at least signified the same that diocese does now. Camden says, England was divided into parishes by Archbishop Honorius about the year 630. But Selden has clearly shewn that the clergy lived in common, without any division of parishes, long after the time mentioned by Camden. It appears, however, rom the Saxon laws, that parishes were in being long before the date of the Council of Lateran, a.d. 1179. DERIVATION OF NAME. 29 name, that of their tutelary saint, in honour of whom their sanctuary was dedicated to the ser- vice of God. Indeed, so far was this carried, that each district was identified, in terms at least, with its church. The names the early British Chris- tians gave to their respective districts, we find to be composed of that of the patron saint, with the Celtic word “ Lan ” prefixed to it, thus : “ Lan- piran,” the church of St. Piran ; Lan-probus, and many others.* In the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror, all Cornish parishes which bear indication of British origin, are thus named, with only one solitary exception, which is written “ St. Wenn.” At present, however, only fourteen or fifteen parishes preserve their original title, though many villages still retain a name pre- fixed with “Lan,” where all other traces of the church from which it was derived are gone. These we may suppose, at the time parishes were divided, were too small, or, in other respects, not eligible enough to be converted into a parish, and were accordingly included under some other, and in their subordinate position have declined and passed away ; so that no traces of the church, or even, in most cases, of its consecrated pre- * Sometimes the word “ Lan” is prefixed to a term of locality, as Lambome, that is, Lan-bron, “ a church on an enclosed hill,” in this parish. In this village, Lyson says, “ there was a chapel,” and very lately some traces of it have been discovered. 30 PERRAN-ZABULOE. cincts are now found, only the name beginning with “ Lan” remains to indicate where once there was a British church. The first record which has reached our times, with the mention of this parish under its present altered name, is the will of Sir John Arundel, of Trerice, dated 1433. In this the original “Lan- piran ” is superseded by the lengthy and eupho- nous “ Sanctus Pyeranus-in-zabulo which, con- tracted, so to say, to its present length, Perran- zabuloe, remains the appellation of the parish of which we are treating. Before we leave the sub- ject of derivation, it may be permitted to notice the word “ Zabuloe,” which has been appended to Perran. As part of a Cornish name, it is singular on account of its Latin derivation : and its adop- tion, too, was unnecessary, that is, for the pur- poses of distinction ; for the two other parishes called after the same saint, from the earliest times have been distinguished from this by ap- propriate Celtic names, “ Arworthal,” and “ Uth- noe.” The word zabuloe is derived from sabulum, fine sand, and was, doubtless, added in allusion to the destructive element which had overwhelmed the sanctuary and burial-place of St. Piran ; for at the time it was adopted, that' is, at any time before 1433, the date of the will already referred to, it could have been applicable but to a very small portion of this large parish, that, namely, EARLY IMPORTANCE. 31 which contained the venerated relics of its patron saint. The neighbourhood in which Perran-zabuloe is situated, may fairly be affirmed to have been im- portant and populous, if not at a remote period before, at least during, the fifth century, when St. Piran came hither. The numerous British and Homan antiquities which are frequently found here, fully justify the assertion, although the deso- late and uninviting appearance of some of the hills and downs may lead one to entertain a dif- ferent impression. The antiquities referred to, consist of rude im- plements of husbandry, called “ celts,” and wea- pons of war, such as arrow and spear heads, and axes, all made of flint and sharpened stones, (though some few are of metal,) and of fragments of pottery, both of the British and the Homans, and coins of the latter. Besides these, which we may suppose had been hidden from the sight of men for many centuries, there are other remains which our ancestors looked upon in their day, and spared to us, that We, too, should do likewise for posterity. These are “ hill-castles,” (caerdinas,) of which there were not less than four within sight of each other in the north and eastern parts of the parish. An amphitheatre, or Cornish Round, where in early times, when men were not capable of higher or more intellectual amusements, they were entertained with feats of strength, such as wrest- 32 PERRAN-ZABULOE. ling, for which the Cornish are still famous, and hurling, and other sports. And lastly, sepulchral mounds, or burrows, where the ashes of the chief- tains of ancient times were deposited. Of these there are a great number in this parish; almost every hill is marked by one at least, and many of them by more. All these bespeak an over- flowing population at a remote period : they tell of a place where people dwelt, where they were entertained in their simplicity ; of a place which was worthy of defence when invaders threatened to take possession of it or to destroy it ; and of a place, moreover, which was endeared to its inhabitants by the sepulchral mounds of their departed chief- tains and warriors. They tell of all these, and even more. Their ruined and despoiled condition attest that our age has not fulfilled the trust which our fathers for generations have preserved to us. They spared these monuments of other days ; as they received, so they transmitted them : but we have not done so ; we have not regarded posterity, as we have been regarded of old. There is scarcely a single monument of the British times which has not been subjected to the test of our curiosity, or “ research,” as it is termed. All in- dicate the same selfish disregard of posterity, and the rationalistic spirit, which is the curse and stigma of our age. Such is the character their present condition will take down to future gene- rations, of the period when they were destroyed SEPULCHRAL BURROWS. 33 and plundered. We would refer our remarks es- pecially to the sepulchral burrows around us. It is true, they are but monuments of heathens ; but even this cannot extenuate the evil, even after it has been shewn that Christian remains are re- spected. There is not a burrow, of all the many which the piety and respect for the dead of former times has spared, which has not been searched, and plundered, and left in ruin ; and almost all of them within the memory of man, and all cer- tainly within the last century. They were reared fourteen or fifteen centuries ago, as a mark of respect and honour, over the ashes of beloved and esteemed chieftains. It was for such a monument as this that they under- took deeds of danger, — the brief immortality of fame and time was all they knew, — for this they fought, and bled, and died. It was the dying hope, as it had been the aim and attainment of their lives, to be remembered in the sepulchral mound, that their name should be handed down to posterity, and their deeds the subject of the songs of bards and minstrels. “ Fall I may,” forebodes the gloomy chieftain of Carricthura ; “ but raise my tomb, Crimora. Grey stones and a mound of earth shall send my name to other times.” And again, “ If fall I must in the field, raise high my grave, Yin vela. Grey stones and heaped up earth shall mark me to future times. When the hunter shall sit down by the mound D 34 perran-zabuloe. and produce his food at noon, ‘ Some warrior rests here,’ he will say, and my fame shall live on in his praise. Remember me, Vinvela, when low in the earth.” * Such were the hopes of their lives, and their poor consolation in death. Christians, how- ever, have been who have respected them ; but it has remained for the enlightened times in which we live to mock these limited hopes, and to tear down the monument of ages in order to see what was within : as if it were impossible to believe, impossible to understand, “how" warriors were buried there, without seeing with our eyes and handling with our hands. About a century ago stood a large burrow on Lamborne Downs, in the vicinity of the Hill Castles already referred to, called “ Creeg mear,” or the Great Mound. This, in order to save a trifling expense, was opened in search of stone for a hedge by a labouring man. The mound being of earth, he found none, except three or four large stones, which were arranged in the form of a “ Kist-Vaen,” or stone chest. With- in this he discovered nine urns, which he im- mediately broke ; but, to his disappointment, they contained only ashes. * Though the genuineness of M‘Pherson’s “ Ossian” may- be justly doubted, the authenticity of the passages quoted, as far as regards our argument, is fully borne out by comparison with fragments of poems which remain in Ireland and Scot- land, and which are allowed to be genuine. From these it appears that M‘Pherson's “Ossian” was more a plagiarism than an original composition. DESECRATION OF BURROWS. 35 Thus were this burrow and its time-honoured contents destroyed ; a field, called the “ Burrow Field” to this day, marks its site. But it is not by the hand of the ignorant labourer alone that these sepulchres of the chieftains of ages past have been rifled and desecrated. The educated, the learned, the professed lovers of antiquity, — shame that it must he said, — have helped to tear up these venerable remains of antiquity ; what is worse, they glory in the desecration, and bear away the frail urn in triumph to grace some library or museum ! As if they had been spared by countless generations only for our gratification, as objects to exercise our research, in order that we should gratify our desire and surpassing love for antiquities, or rather, it must be said, our wanton and profane curiosity. How is it, that ages we are accustomed to denounce as “dark and superstitious ” with utmost complacency, shew more piety, more religious regard for the dead ? and if for heathen dead, much more for those who rest in consecrated ground. We may learn much from our ancestors of old, whom we affect to despise, and should not be ashamed to acknow- ledge it. With all their errors, the monuments of their time, and those which they have transmitted to us, all indicate a generous and disinterested piety and religious tone of mind, which we do not possess yet. “ They dreamed not of a perishable home,” their thoughts were not confined to them- 36 perran-zabuloe. selves or to their own generation, but their thoughts and deeds were to God and for pos- terity. Their precept and their example were the blessings “ We from our fathers have received in trust, We to our children will transmit, and die ; This is our maxim, this our piety, And God and nature own that it is just.” Such were their thoughts to usward : however they were deluded and lost in superstitions, — however wandering in error, — they built, they planted, they preserved, and all for posterity. This was their character compared with ours. The huge and conspicuous monuments of early days around us attest and confirm this character — their “maxim and their piety,” and to future generations they will attest it ; but of us, in their despoiled and ruined condition, they will attest of our age, — the age in which they were destroyed, — that we cared not for posterity as we had been cared for of old. Monuments they were of the piety of those who spared them ; monuments they are, and will be to future generations, of the selfish and profane curiosity which has destroyed them. But to return. These antiquities which we have enumerated, the memorials of a period wrapped in darkness, they shew us where genera- tions and generations of our fellow-men fought and bled, where in peaceful times they were ST. PIRAN. 37 entertained, and where at length they were “con- signed to earth but they can tell us no more. They belong to an era settled in gloom, which no record can reach, and no ingenuity penetrate. But it is enough for our purpose that they were the resort of multitudes, that the scenes among which they are situated were once peopled by a benighted race, whose pleasures, like their hopes, were confined to earth, — limited and perishing. Among these scenes St. Piran, the messenger of God, came to a rude and uncultivated race, — a light to them that sate in darkness. He came with the glad tidings of the Gospel, to teach more lasting joys, and to implant in their breasts loftier and more enduring hopes of immortality. He was not the first : many before him had worked for the sake of the Gospel, had braved dangers and endured hardships, persecutions, and even death. The faint and glimmering records of early times tell of persecutions and martyrdoms. But who were these martyrs and confessors ? Who these messengers of God, who suffered at the hands of their fellow-creatures, — came to impart inestimable blessings, but suffered % Their names and their deeds are alike unknown ? They rest from their labours and are in peace, and their deeds are recorded where they cannot be effaced or forgotten. With the same gracious purpose and holy zeal as his predecessors, St. Piran entered upon his 38 perran-zabtjloe. labours in the vineyard so fraught with danger ; but only temporal danger, and capable of lasting and enduring rewards. The site he fixed upon for his humble dwelling we may regard as characteristic of his earnestness in the work to which he had devoted himself. The sand which had concealed the spot for cen- turies, now removed, discloses that it was in a retired valley by the sea-shore, yet within sight of the amphitheatre, the general resort of the inhabitants. Here, in retirement and loneliness, he prayed for success with faith and confidence. Here he watched his opportunity to further his pious intentions, and went forth to the haunts of men, with peaceful steps and unoffending words, to entreat them to turn from vanities to the living God. We know his prayers were not in- effectual, or his efforts vain. A little spring welled up beside his lowly dwelling. Here, we may presume, he baptized those whom God had given him. At this spring, which remains to this day, he received his converts, and admitted them to the privileges which the Redeemer of Mankind had purchased for them; assuring them of that pardon, and rest, and glory, and immortality which remain for the people of God. To what extent his labours were blessed during his life, we have no means of knowing. It is not always that the servants of the Lord are permitted, in this world, to reap the fruit of their labour ; “ one soweth, ST. piran’s grave. 39 and another reapeth.” Only to a few is it granted, in fulfilment of their fondest and long-cherished hopes, to exclaim with the gratitude, and in the words of the holy Simeon, “Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace.” The brief records of that portion of his life which was passed in Cornwall, tell us of a few who attended him at his departure, and that they buried him beside the place where he had dwelt. The narra- tive states, “ that, worn out with age and in- firmity, he called his converts, his children in the spirit, around him ; and, having exhorted them for the last time, he commanded his grave to be pre- pared, and, descending into it with calmness, his spirit departed. Modern research has torn down the altar-tomb which once stood over St. Piran’s remains — and “ investigation” confirms the narrative. There is no kist-vaen, or stone chest, but merely the sandy bed wherein the holy bishop rests in peace. Who will venture to say, that an oratory* was not erected over his precious remains, according to the custom of the time? Who will venture to deny, that that oratory is not the same which is now disclosed to view, but, as if only to be utterly destroyed ? But of this hereafter. The events which we have been contemplating * Oratory, derived from o7 koi ivxrjgioi, the houses of prayer, is a term used for a church at a very early period. In those days, as now, the church was especially a house of prayer. 40 perran-zabuloe. are as a dream ; the scene of them, long centuries ago, was removed from human sight. Deluges of sand, which from time to time have been poured upon this devoted spot and its vicinity, have overwhelmed not only this, but another church besides. At first, the sand gathered round the humble oratory of St. Piran, and threatening to overwhelm it, advanced to a river which flowed eastward of the church, along the middle of the valley, or e( coomb,” to the sea. Here, as if by “ secret antipathy,” it could not cross ; and, ac- cumulating into a vast hill, the submersion of the oratory of St. Piran was completed. But so effectually was the progress of the devastation restrained by the stream, that the inhabitants, unwilling to remove far from the burial-place of St. Piran, their tutelary saint, erected another edifice to his memory, about the same distance from the stream, but on the opposite side. It may appear difficult to understand how a narrow stream kept back mountains of loose light sand : but it matters not how , the fact is certain ; his- tory and antiquities confirm that for centuries it did so ; and it was not till the course of the stream had been turned, and the water had been drawn off by the workings of a mine in the neigh- bourhood, that the sand, at last, again began its work of desolation. So secure, indeed, was the second church so late as the year 1420 , that, like almost every church in Cornwall, this was rebuilt in THE SANDS. 41 the style of the period on a magnificent scale. Full a century it continued free of danger from the sand ; but, after that, all historians agree in their report of the devastation and desolation which had begun. In the end of the sixteenth century Carew writes, “ This parishe too well brookyth his name ‘ in sabulo for the light sande carried up by the North-(west ?) wind daily continueth his covering and marring the lands adjoynant.” Borlase, in the middle of the last century, briefly notes, “the second church is in no small danger.” Such was the rapidity with which the sand accumulated, that parishioners still alive remember when, during the winter, it has been blown against the side of the church, so as to bury the porch entirely in one night. The inconvenience and troublesome nature of the sand at length compelled the inhabitants, though reluctantly, to remove their church from the de- struction which threatened it. Accordingly, in the year 1803, it was resolved — by no means una- nimously — to take down the church and rebuild it elsewhere. The tower, windows, arches and pillars, and the porch, were accordingly removed to a distance of two miles, and again erected at a part of the parish called Lamborne. A solitary granite cross, and three roughly- piled hillocks of stone, (over the graves of mem- bers of a family who still bury, and desire to be buried, among the ruins,) mark the site of the 42 PERRAN-ZABULOE. second church. The sand is nineteen feet above the floor of the church ; and, now that its work of spoliation is completed, it seems at rest, a rich turf covers its surface, and sheep pasture where once suffocating clouds of sand were whirled aloft in reckless fury. As if the minister of some evil spirit of destruction, its work being done — it rests ; hut beyond this ruin, in the north and east, the sands may still he seen, like the tem- pestuous ocean, blown about by every wind, and whirled up into grotesque points and hills — a wild and desolate scene ! Not a blade of grass or any verdure meets the eye, save here and there a few tufts of the coarse “ sea-bent,” through which the wind moans and sighs as it passes over the desolate region. The wild scene pre- sents hills and valleys and undulating swells, smooth, solitary, and desolate. At the northern extremity of the sands, about a mile from the second church, it may still be seen how a narrow stream keeps hack mountains and mountains of loose sand. Here glides the little stream peacefully to the sea, — between a green field, where cattle graze in security, on the one side, and the wildest imaginable scene on the other ; a cliff of loose sand, full one hundred feet high, overhangs the stream, and cannot cross. Such, we may imagine, was the scene at the former stream before the destruction of the second church. For at least three centuries the sands THE SPRING AND CELL. 43 have overhung the stream at Helenglaze ; and while the water flows on, as now, it will never go beyond : however it may swell, and tem- pests whirl it aloft in fury, its boundary is fixed, which it must not and cannot pass. But let us return to the oratory of St. Piran. Centuries have elapsed, — the shifting nature of these sands discloses the long lost relic of other days. Once it slept beneath a lofty hill ; and now, behold a valley — and a lake ! Human efforts have hastened the work of exhumation. In 1835 the sanctuary was restored, perfect as the day in which it was overwhelmed. There, too, was the spring, the well of St. Piran, and his bap- tistery : the sand has choked its course ; and in the winter, when it swells, the water forms a lake, and rises within the church to the height of six feet. Accordingly for eight or nine months in the year the floor and seats of the church are under water, and always under sand, for it is impossible to keep it out. Beside the baptistery is a little rude cell, a few yards to the south-east of the church. The words of Spenser do not in- aptly describe the group before us : “ A litle lowly hermitage it was, Downe in a dale, Far from resort of people, that did pas In traveill to and fro : a litle wyde There was a holy chappell edifyde. Wherein the hermite dewly wont to say His holy things each morn and eventyde : 44 perran-zabuloe. Thereby a chrystall streame did gently play, Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth a way.” Spencer, Book l c. 34. The church, we have said, in 1835 — nay, till 1838— was perfect; but how is it now changed, despoiled, and wantonly torn down ! It presents but a wreck of what it was even a few years ago ; a sad spectacle, which is not relieved by the re- mains of mortality that surround it. Long after this church was overwhelmed, hundreds were buried in the hill which covered it, in preference to the cemetery of the second church. The re- mains of all these have been scattered to the winds. Gilbert, who visited this spot thirty years since, thus describes the melancholy scene : “ On the south side is the burial-ground, where there are scattered thousands of teeth and other human bones. Even whole skeletons lie exposed, in regular order ; and, strange as it may appear, the showers of sand that are continually wafted over this desolate spot scarcely ever alight on these melancholy relics of mortality.” Hundreds and hundreds of skeletons have been exposed — destroyed by the shifting of the sands. The valley is full of remnants of bones and teeth ; they whiten the sand round the church ; and, instead of commanding some pity and regard, they seem but to incite visitors to tear up more, which are too easily found, so plentiful are they ; and they are torn up from their resting-place of ages, to PROFANE DESECRATION. 45 gratify mere wanton curiosity. Often disjoint- ed in the attempt, they are left scattered on the surface of the sand, dishonoured and insulted — a sad spectacle in a Christian land. The little ruined church, the uptorn graves, the neglected and dishonoured remains of poor mortality, which are strewed about in that lonely valley, all speak too clearly that it is not the gentle and silent hand of Time alone which has been doing the work of spoliation ; hut a more active and a more ruthless enemy. With just indignation at the sad scene, we cannot but exclaim in the words of the poet of Cooper’s Hill, “ Who sees these dismal heaps, but will demand What barbarous invader sack’d the land ? But when he hears, no Goth, no Turk did bring This desolation While nothing but the name of zeal appears ’Twixt our best actions and the worst of theirs — What must he think our sacrilege would spare. If such the effects of our devotion are ?” and not exclaim in vain ! For there are some who respect that sacred spot; — there are some who look with sorrow upon this scene of un- hallowed spoliation, — who could never put forth their hand to despoil this consecrated place of ages, or dare to desecrate the place where Chris- tians worshipped, and where Christians rest, — and who, moreover, could never find gratification PERRAN-ZABULOE. 46 in disturbing the time-honoured remains of the sacred dead. If we would but reflect on the subject, there is much — very much — which ought to have pre- served this ancient oratory and its hallowed pre- cincts, and preserved them in veneration. There is much which ought to protect them even now, despoiled as they are, from further desecration. There are associations connected with that holy spot, which claim for it our regard and protec- tion. It is true, the general appearance of this church has nothing in it to recommend it to our admiration, particularly in its present ruinous condition, despoiled and broken down as it is, and half buried in sand. It has little to win for it the admiration of the stranger, much less, indeed, than most ruins ; all of which add so much interest, and so many charms, to the beauty of our native scenery : but this little sanctuary possesses features of interest, surpassing those of beauty, which speak not to the senses, but to the heart ; which speak not to those who must see and handle for themselves, but to those who think and believe. Connected as it is with the early history of our Church, it should be interesting to every English- man, and not the less so as a monument of those primitive times when the Church first began its troubled existence in this country. That Church, be it remembered, which, notwithstanding all the THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 47 persecutions and trials to which it was subject- ed, has proved the blessing, safeguard, and ad- vancement of our country above all countries : for it 'is not our arm or our strength that hath delivered us 3 but God, for the sake of His holy Church, has advanced our state among the nations of the world. As of old the Lord blessed the lone widow who entertained His prophet, so that her cruse of oil failed not, neither her barrel of meal, in the time of famine 3 so has the same Lord blessed our land with His holy Church, and for her sake. Can we then in justice, in reason, or in gratitude, boast of our position, and forget the cause of our advancement ? Our forefathers thought not so : the monuments of their gratitude for the spiritual and temporal blessings showered upon this land are around us on every side. The almost sole monuments of their wealth, and skill, and indus- try, remain in their churches and magnificent cathedrals 3 and all dedicated, with piety, to their God. “ The temples of His grace, How beautiful they stand ; The honours of our native place, The bulwarks of our land !” These indicate what is true patriotism 3 that it should be, as it was of old, built upon the Church of God : — surely every Englishman should prize and esteem the things connected with the 48 PERRAN-ZABULOE. Church. In this light should he regard with interest this little edifice of other days, and pro- tect it as a national relic. Besides this, is it not interesting to look upon a memorial of a remote age, disclosed directly to us from most ancient times? Intermediate ge- nerations have hut preserved and handed down its memory to us, without seeing it. After a lapse of perhaps a thousand years, we behold the structure once more disclosed to view. And again. — Can we look upon those rudely-built walls, and feel no interest in the simple piety of those who reared them? — piety we are bound to say; for it is not only unjust to the memory of our primitive brethren, but inconsistent with their character, to suppose they did not give their best and first efforts of their skill and industry — the best offering within their reach — to their God : — this is especially the character of the age. Rude as those walls are, there is still an effort apparent in their structure, which marks them as the work of a simple people who did their best. Even their rudeness and simplicity, therefore, command our esteem, and should engage some interest. But there are higher and holier thoughts con- nected with that humble and unpretending ruin. It has been consecrated to the service of the High God. In it our own brethren, servants of the same Master, called by the same baptism to the CEMETERY. 49 same privileges and hopes, — in it they worshipped in simplicity as simple as their oratory ; and, it may be, they worshipped in many of the very forms and the very words we are still permitted to use to this day ! Long, long may the blessed privilege remain to our favoured land ; and may that day speedily come, when all England’s sons and daughters, united in one fold, shall utter with heart and voice the same pure and Scriptural form of words which are, and have been so long, our national blessing and our national privilege ! There, in that sanctuary, our fellow Christians prayed, and gave thanks ; and, when their day of trial was past, they were consigned to the hal- lowed precincts, there to rest till time shall be no more. The faithful dead were “ committed to the ground” centuries and centuries ago around that humble house of prayer : they were deposited there in pious hope that they would be suffered to rest in peace. Is it not a monstrous act of profanation, unworthy the name and profession of a Christian, to drag them forth for no purpose hut to gratify curiosity ? Is it not an impious and unholy deed 1 — can there be gratification in it ? Oh, let them rest in peace ! they hallow more that hallowed spot — that wild and lonely place, where Christians rest. Surely, then, there are associations and recollections connected with this little sanctuary, and its sacred precincts, which command our respect and reverence, even E 50 PERRAN-ZABULOE. if we can feel no interest. Surely there are only a very, very few, if any, who possess not some better and kindlier feelings of piety, to discoun- tenance such unhallowed and profane desecration. It is not because human laws punish not the un- holy deed, that it may be done with impunity. Human laws can reach it,— piety must denounce it. But there is another consequence which must inevitably follow j for no mortal ever did, and ever will, mock the 3 acred things of God with impunity ! Is it a wonder that so many are found to slight the ordinances of the Lord, and to denounce the truths and doctrines of the Church as supersti- tions, when sense of piety and regard for the dead are at so low an ebb 1 Is it a wonder that so many are incapable of appreciating the beautiful and harmonious system of the Church, especially in this devoted county, when they make no dis- tinction between consecrated and unconsecrated, who for amusement can dare to disinter the re- mains of departed Christians 1 Heretics and apostates are honoured in their unconsecrated graves ; but the dead of pure and primitive times are dishonoured ! This is no exaggerated statement, but sadly applicable to an undiscri- minating age ; though it may be extenuated a little by the plea of thoughtlessness and igno- rance. For there are many who would not wil- fully and wantonly deface or despoil a church, “CHRISTIANITY.” 51 and much less rifle the tombs around it ; hut who, nevertheless, think nothing of “ digging in the sands to find a skeleton,” or, perhaps, to see for themselves the manner of ancient sepulture. They little deem that the remains they disinter are those of Christians, deposited in consecrated ground ; they little think it is a most unhallow- ed deed, and most unholy gratification which can arise from it. It is but just to add, that, in the majority of cases, the desecration complained of may be im- puted to the vague and indistinct notions which are entertained with respect to the religion of early times. It has truly been said, “ the history of the Church of England has too often been written as if it had been nothing but supersti- tion on the one side, and imposture on the other ;” and the general opinion of the world seems un- thinkingly to have acquiesced in this. The term “ Christianity” is vaguely applied to it ; a term which is also, in the liberality of the age, applied to every shade and denomination of heresy. But, in truth, it is a serious word to trifle with ; it is not ours to do as we will with it, or to place upon it what interpretation we please. Applied to the religion of past, or present, or future times, it has one definite meaning, — it is the religion of Christ ; that religion which He established on earth, with its perpetual ordinances and ministry ; which has His Almighty promise that “ the 52 PERRAN-ZABULOE. gates of Hell shall not prevail against it,” and the assurance that “He will be with it to the end of the world.” All whom interest or curi- osity has led to the oratory of St. Piran, have not regarded it as the sacred relic it is. It has been destroyed because they thought not, and did not realize to their mind, that it was a consecrated structure ; and that the sacred dead who rest be- side it were churchmen and Christians — the ser- vants of Christ, who abide His second coming. J O 53 CHAPTER II. Before we come to a description of the oratory of St. Piran as it was when first recovered from the sands in the year 1835, let us dwell for a brief space on the life of the saint in honour of whom it was dedicated to God. St. Piranus, called in Ireland Kyeranus, was born, according to Camden and Archbishop Ussher, about the middle of the fourth century, in the province of Ossory in Ireland. His parents were of noble birth, by name Domuel and Wingela; the latter of whom, his mother, accompanied him to Cornwall, and founded a monastery in the neigh- bourhood of her son’s dwelling, and it is supposed lies buried beside him in the oratory in the sands. Piranus lived to the age of “thirty years without baptism,” and, having received some imperfect knowledge of the Christian faith by the conversa- tion of certain laics, took a journey to Rome, in order to be instructed in the heavenly doctrine and learn faithfully to practise its precepts. At Rome he remained twenty years, diligently study- ing the Holy Scriptures, and was baptized. Up to the end of the fourth century, although Chris- 54 perran-zabfloe. tianity had been some time introduced into Ire- land, it does not appear that it was yet the ge- neral religion of the country. Early in the fifth century, when Piranus returned from Rome, St. Patrick had already, with others, entered zea- lously upon the work of converting his heathen countrymen. Piranus, having received holy orders from St. Patrick, began his ministration in his native province of Ossory. He built himself a cell for his residence,” says Butler, “in a place encompassed with woods, near the water of Fueran, which soon grew into a monastery. A town was afterwards built there, called Saigar; now, from the saint, Sier Kyran. Here he converted to the faith his family and his whole clan, which was that of the Osraigs, with many others. Having given his mother the religious veil, he appointed her a cell or monastery near his own.” * St. Patrick, in the meantime, having been blessed with success in his labours in Cornwall and else- where, returned to Ireland, and consecrated twelve bishops to carry on the good work he had been permitted to begin. Among these, Piranus was advanced to the episcopal office, and soon after en- tered upon his labours in Cornwall. The history of Ireland at this period presents an active scene ; the work of conversion and civilization seem to * A more particular account of his ministrations here are recorded in a work emprynted in the yeare 1500 by De Worde, entitled “ Nova Legenda Angliae.” LANDING OF ST. PIRAN. 55 have been begun simultaneously : the former so earnestly — such was the zeal and self-denying piety of the time — that we find even princes and nobles forsaking crowns and worldly distinctions to become ministers of the Gospel, and cheerfully un- dertaking long and tedious journeys to foreign parts, risking and endangering their lives for the sake of their high commission. So effectual were the efforts and example of this century, that Camden, writing of the next, records, “No men came up to the Irish monks for sanctity and learning. They sent forth swarms of holy men all over Europe, to whom the monasteries of Lux- uiel in France, Pavia in Italy, Wentzburge in Froconia, S. Gall in Switzerland, Malmsbury and Lindisfarne, and many others, owed their origin.” Cornwall may be very appropriately added to this list. Piranus, having embarked with his mother and several other holy women, landed in Cornwall, at “ Pendinas,” hill-head, or a head-land, in a place now known by the name of “ St. Ives,” from la, one of St. Piran’s companions, who appears to have had some influence in that place. For in the Legende of St. Ives, contained in the same book as that of St. Piran, we read that “ Tewdor was king at that time, and had a palace at Pendinas ; and that Dinan, a greate lorde of Cornwall, at the request of St. Ia, built a church at the same place.” From hence St. Piran travelled eastward “an 56 PERRAN-ZABULOE. eighteen myles,” and took up his abode in a popu- lous district we have already described. Here he pursued his ministrations, and did many deeds to the honour and glory of God. Nor does it appear that he confined his labours to this particular dis- trict ; for there are no less than two other parishes called after him, and several wells of “miraculous healing power” in Cornwall. He seems also to have gained influence among the tinners of his time ; for to this day he is esteemed, or rather called, their patron saint, and up to no remote period St. Piran’s day was observed by them as a festival.* At length, however, worn out with age and infir- mity, St. Piran called his followers around him, and, having addressed them for the last time, desired a grave to he prepared. He then took leave of them, and, descending into it with calmness, his spirit departed on the 5th day of March, about the year 480. He rests, continues an old narra- tive of his life, in Cornwall, on the shore of the Severn sea, fifteen miles from Petroc-stowe or Padstow, and twenty-five from Mousehole. t * The late Davies Gilbert, Esq. in his interesting History of Cornwall, states that the banner of St. Piran, a cross argent, on a field sab. in early times was the armorial ensign of Corn- wall. The present arms of the county, a sab. shield, charged with thirteen bezants, was the bearing of Robert Earl of More- ton, the brother of William the Conqueror. + Two ancient harbours of Cornwall, the former on the north, and the latter on the south coast. ST. piran’s burial-place. 57 Nothing can more satisfactorily fix the locality of St. Piran’s resting-place. The several alleged distances from St. Ives, from Padstow, and Mouse- hole, each and all bring us to this very place, which oral tradition has ever pointed to as the burial-place of St. Piran. If further evidence be wanting, there is a record in the Registry at Exeter, which alludes to this spot as the resort of hundreds of “ pilgrims to the shrine of St. Piran.” But there is yet one more record, which, with certain circumstances connect- ed with it, place beyond doubt that St. Piran was buried in that very spot where the ancient church is discovered. The will of Sir John Arundel of Trerice, which we have already referred to for the antiquity of the name of this parish, contains a bequest as singular as it is useful for our purpose. “ Item, lego ad usum parochie S’c’i Pyerani in Zabulo ad claudendum capud S. Pierani honorifice et meliori modo quo sciunt xl. s.” At the time this bequest was made, namely in the year 1433, the “second church” (which was taken down forty years ago, and removed to its present site) had just been completely rebuilt in the perpendicular style, and in all probability the head alluded to was enshrined in a niche in the east wall, behind the high altar.* It is remarkable * The Vicar of Probus has kindly communicated to the writer, that, when the chancel of his church was rebuilt, be- 58 PERRAN-ZABULOE. that only the head of St. Piran is mentioned in the will. In the year 1835, when the sand was removed from the “first church,” beneath the altar at the east end three headless skeletons , one that of a woman, probably his mother, were discovered ; and on further examination the heads were found de- posited together between the legs of one of the skeletons, which was lying on the south side of the altar. The concrete floor of the chancel on this side had been broken before, as the labourer employed to remove the altar assures us. These heads, in all probability, had been enshrined in the second church, and at the Reformation, when relics were not regarded with so much reverence as before, were removed, and again deposited for safety beneath the chancel of the then lost church, where it was known St. Piran was buried ; for Camden, who lived after this period, records, “ In sabulo positum S°. Pirano sacellum ; qui sanctus, etiam Hibernicus, hie requiescit.” There cannot remain any doubt, then, of the place of St. Piran’s burial. History has not handed down the names of his successors in the ministry ; but, nevertheless, the hind the altar a niche was discovered, containing two skulls of different sizes. The church is dedicated in honour of SS. Probus and Grace, who are buried there. It is not improba- ble that these were the venerated relics of St. Probus and St. Grace. DOMESDAY-BOOK. 59 church planted by him in this neighbourhood con- tinued to increase and flourish. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, about the year 1000, (at this time Cornwall had been conquered by the Saxons,) and at least 500 years after St. Piran’s time, we find by the Domesday Book that “Lan- piran” was one of seven collegiate establishments in Cornwall. Reference to the extract below will shew the extent of property the church had ac- quired in the time of William the Conqueror, and that a portion of it was appropriated by the Earl of Moreton, the Conqueror’s brother, to whom he had given the dukedom of Cornwall. CORNUALGE. 121. Canonici S. Pierani ten Lanpiran q liba fuit T. R. E. Ibi st iij. hide. T’ra. e viij. car. Ibi st ij. car 7 ij. servi 7 iiij. villi 7 viij. borct 7 x. ac pasture. Valet xij. solid. Qdo comes*' accepit valeb xl. solid. De hoc Maner ablate st ij e . ?re q reddeb canonicis T. R. E firma iiij or . septimanaru 7 decano xx. solid p esuetudine. Haru una ten Beruer’ de comite Moritoh 7 de alia hid q ten Odo de S. Pierano abs- tulit coin tota pecunia. TERRA COMITIS MORITONIENSIS. 1 23 b. Idef ten Tregrebri. Eduui teneb T. R. E. * Comes Moritoniensis. + Ditto. 60 PERRAN-ZABULOE. Ibi e j. hida q nunq geldav. T’ra e iij. car. Ibi e car 7 dimid cu j. servo 7 iiij. bord 7 xxx. ac pasture. 01! xx. sot. M° vat x. solid. H. ?ra e de possessione S. Pieran. Dugdale’s Monasticon, vol. vi. p. 1449, contains the next account of this place. In this work notice is taken of the college (un- fortunately confused with that at St. Keverne), and it is recorded that the church was given by Henry I. to the bishop and church of St. Peter in Exeter, who still possess the great tithes and ad- vowson of the vicarage. Thus have we followed the history of the church planted by St. Piran in this neighbour- hood, to a period comparatively within reach of more accessible records. Reverence for the memory of St. Piran, and, after his burial-place was overwhelmed in the sand, respect for the place, seem not to have failed with years, or even centuries. Pilgrims, as we have seen, resorted to his shrine in great numbers ; the hill of sand, beneath which his remains were deposited, long continued to be the favourite burial-place of the inhabitants ; and, till within the last fifty years, the Registers of the parish from the earliest period bear the Christian name of “Perran,” which was transmitted from father to son ; but now the custom has ceased. LAN-PIRAN. 61 Now, after we have been assured that St. Piran ministered here, and lies buried in the sands, and that the church planted by him has continued in this place for centuries, is it too much to assume that he built an oratory beside his dwelling 1 It was no unusual deed at his time ; three of the holy persons who accompanied him are recorded to have erected churches. St. Ia, we have seen, had a church erected at her desire. “St. Breage built two churches in the west.” “ St. Buryan built an oratorie in the same place where she lived.” Before St. Piran’s time there were monasteries at Padstow, at Bodmin, St. Germains, and at Lanceston. It is true, the records of the life of St. Piran make no mention of his having erected a church ; but it is scarcely consistent with the cha- racter of the period, and especially the character of the Irish missionaries, to suppose that they built not churches at every place where they mi- nistered. However, whether St. Piran built an oratory or otherwise, there can be no doubt that the British Christians erected a church ; the very name “Lan-piran” implies a British church dedi- cated in honour of St. Piran. And it is most probable that they erected it over his remains, for it seems impossible to believe that St. Piran had no tomb, no church or altar, dedicated to his me- mory, when so many holy men of less fame and reputation for piety had theirs. 62 PERRAN-ZABULOE. St. Piran, doubtless, had an oratory and altar dedicated to him, whether of wood — a wood wattled with mud — or otherwise, according to the style, if it may be so called, of the period. The difficulty still remains ; that is, to prove that this structure, now discovered, is the same which was erected immediately after St. Piran’s departure from the world. Let us, however, pass on for the present : it is hoped in the sequel to shew, from evidence and examples too, that it is by no means impossible that the despoiled ruin in the sands was erected in the sixth century, and overwhelm- ed about the ninth. Let us suppose ourselves then in the tenth cen- tury : there is great trouble and affliction — the Saxons are defeating on all sides the determined and implacable Cornish. The Christians of St. Piran have hitherto with their countrymen valiant- ly maintained their liberty and their own peculiar customs : but other troubles are come upon them ; the sea has thrown up light sand, which the wind carries aloft, and threatens therewith to overwhelm their sanctuary ; in a short time their fears are realized, the sand by degrees accumulates around its devoted victim. They are at length reluctant- ly compelled to dismantle and to desert it. Who would not grieve to be compelled to give up a church, in which he and his fathers had worship- ped, to certain destruction ? It is overwhelmed and lost. Still, for centuries, generation after CHURCH LOST. 63 generation respect the place, and deposit their dead, to rest in peace in its hallowed precincts.* We will suppose, then, this church buried and lost. Camden, as we have seen, comes first to tell us that there is a church buried in the sand in this neighbourhood, dedicated to St. Perran ; that he was a holy man of Ireland, and that he is buried in it. Norden, another historian, who lived at the end of the sixteenth century, tells us, “ This parish is almost drowned in sea-sande, which the north wind whirleth and driveth to the land in such force that the inhabitantes have been already forced to move their church , and yet they are so annoyde as they daily lose their lande.” Carew, who fol- lows a few years after, says, “ This parish too well brooketh his name Zabulo, for the light sand carried up by the north wind daily continueth his covering and marring the lands adjoynant, so as the distresse of this deluge drave the inhabitantes to remove their church : howbeit, when it meeteth with any crossing brooke, the same by a secret an- * This may probably have been continued till the Reforma- tion, for the quantity of bones still found is almost incredible : hundreds and thousands must have been buried here. The custom of burying without coffins, but in graves formed of slate-stones placed on their edge, does not render this impro- bable, for the ancient British custom was continued in many cases till the sixteenth century. See Letter by J. T. Treffry, Esq., to the Royal Institution, Cornwall. 64 PERRAN-ZABULOE. tipathie restraineth and barreth his farder en- croaching that way.” From both these authors we learn of a church which is deserted and lost, and of another which is built on the opposite side of a brook. Neither of them attempt to describe the forsaken church ; from which we may infer, as also from the manner in which they allude to it, that it is still lost, and that no part of it was at all visible at the time they wrote. So it continued till the visit of Bor- lase, the famous Cornish Antiquary, in the year 1752. He records, “the second church is in no small danger.” Even still this sanctuary slept on — the subject only of tradition. A certain sand- hill swelling higher than those around it, whereon human bones were often found, was pointed to as the place where the church of tradition was buried. An old parishioner, Christopher Cotty Jenkin, who has lived all his days in the neigh- bourhood of the sands, tells the writer he w r as the first who saw any portion of the old church. About fifty-five years ago he came to a spring in the immediate neighbourhood to drink, and from thence saw the “end of the church” just appear- ing above the summit of the sand-hill. It was an object of great interest, and no one doubted but that it was the old church, which people used to say had been buried there for centuries. About thirty years afterwards, Gilbert, in his Survey of Cornwall, states that the ruin then REMOVAL OF THE SAND. 65 visible consisted of two ends of a church, and se- veral heaps of rubbish. Adjoining to these, on the south side, is the burial-ground, where there are scattered thousands of teeth and other human bones. Even whole skeletons lie exposed in regu- lar order ; and, strange as it may appear, the showers of sand that are continually wafted over this desolate spot scarcely ever alight on these melancholy relics of mortality. After this period several attempts were made by different persons to remove the sand from what has been termed its “passive victim.” None, however, were successful till W. Michell, Esq., of Comprigney, with cha- racteristic zeal and perseverance, accomplished in September, 1835, the work which had baffled so many before him. By his kind permission and obliging assistance, we are enabled to furnish an account of the state of this church when first restored. The hand of the spoiler has done much to injure it since, a period only of eight years. In a few years more it may be levelled with the sand, which has preserved it for so many centuries, and preserved it in sanctity and reverence, but which now protects it no longer. Under Mr. Michell’s directions the sand was thrown out with great difficulty from the interior by means of stages and platforms, and removed from all the exterior sides except the north. And thus was this little sanctuary, which had been for many centuries the object of tradition and deep F 66 PERRAN-ZABULOE. interest, once more restored from the darkness and mystery in which it had been lost. There it stood, the humble and unpretending monument of the piety of simple times. Once more it is restored to view ; but with how different feelings do we regard it now, compared with the feelings of those who were compelled to forsake their accustomed house of prayer ! How reluctantly those who had worshipped within it forsook it, — with what pious care they provided that, though buried and removed from sight, it should still hold together to remotest ages, — is evident from the state in which it was found. The windows and doors had been built up with stone to strengthen the walls ; the roof, lest the weight of the sand should crush the building, was carefully taken off and removed. The chancel-rail, doors, and other fittings-up of the church, were also taken away ; and it is due to the character of the age to believe that all these things were removed only to be appropriated again to a similar sacred use in some other church, for deeply they of old regarded the consecrated things of God. An examination of the locality in which the church is discovered proves that it must originally have been built in a little bay of the sea, or “ porth ” (as it is termed in Cornwall) ; and that this place, now occupied by wild and desolate mountains of sand, was once a lowly valley, with its DIMENSIONS. 67 little stream murmuring to the ocean — the same stream which for centuries restrained the sand from overwhelming the second church. The foun- dation of the church, like that of St. Levan in the west, near the Logan Rock, which is similarly situated in a valley opening to the sea, is laid in sand. The church lies nearly east and west, in- clining only four degrees north of west.* The external dimensions, taken when the sand was first removed, are as follows : — Length . . 29 feet Breadth . . . 164 Height of gables . 1 9 Height of north and south walls 1 3 Thickness of the walls . 2 At that time, in the year 1835, it was in good preservation ; even the holes or steps in which the rafters rested, along the top of the side-walls, were as perfect as at that distant day when the rafters were taken out of them. The eastern wall, * A question of orientation. St. Piran’s day is the 5th of March ; at this period of the year the sun rises a few degrees south from east. If this church was not built on the principle of orientation, — that is, looking to that point where the run rises on the festival of the patron saint, — it may still be — which is not improbable — that the disciples of St. Piran began to build soon after his death, and turned their church to that part of the heavens where the sun rose on the morning of laying the foundations ; which would have brought them very nearly indeed to the position in which we discovered the church. 68 PERRAN-ZABULOE. which was pierced in two places, for a priest’s door and altar window, fell during the removal of the sand. The masonry of the walls, portions of which we have endeavoured to represent faithfully in our several illustrations, is of the rudest kind, and cannot fail to strike the visitor as a strong evi- dence of the remote antiquity of the structure. There is not any lime used in its construction, or in the plastering of the interior of this building ; the substance employed in its stead is china-clay, mixed with sand. The stones 'which form the building are thrown together without any attempt at regular courses, or any regard to what masons term “joints.” They consist of pieces of moor- stone, quartz, porphyry, slate, &c., all collected in the immediate neighbourhood; and some of them round and smooth, as if taken from the bed of a stream. All these appear to have been put together in the rudest and simplest way, imbedded in the clay-mortar, according to the Roman me- thod, but without the tiles and flat stones the Romans used, to bind their work. The largest pieces of stone, particularly those which possess- ed an angle, seem to have been reserved for the corners of the building, and for the sides of the doors and windows The masonry on the whole looks like that of persons who had seen Roman work, and perhaps assisted in it, without learning the art ; and who had seen lime and used it, but DOORWAY. 69 without learning how it was prepared for use, and who pitched upon this white substance, china- clay, as resembling lime. The principal entrance to this church was on the south side, nearer the west than the east end of the building. It was a small semicircular arched doorway, 7ft. 4in. by 2ft. 9in. ; of parallel sides, without splay. The stone which forms the base of the doorway, which is raised about 2ft. 9in. from the ground, is much worn, as also the steps descending inward and outward, by the feet of the early Christians who worshipped at this oratory. We here give a representation of the doorway, copied from a rough sketch by W. Michell, Esq., at whose expense the church was cleared out. There is a moulding, it will be observed, round the door, in detail, unlike any which has hitherto been known in this country : and which, contrary to Norman and Saxon custom, is carried round the head of the arch, and down the sides of the doorway, without impost, or capital, and base. It is further ornamented with three heads ; that of a leopard on the key-stone, and two human heads of different sizes, one on each side, at the spring of the arch. These ornaments are executed in elvan, a very soft stone found in the neighbouring cliffs. They are most rudely chiselled, or, we should say, merely scratched; for the features of the several faces, and the lines on the moulding, are roughly scratched with some rude instrument on the sur- outer angle of the doorway. This doorway was in good preservation when first discovered, but unfortunately was destroyed within a fortnight after. Such was the interest it excited that, 70 perran-zabuloe. face of the soft stone. Simple and primitive as these ornaments are, they were very possibly a later insertion, for they were loosely fixed into the SOUTH WINDOW. 71 stone by stone, the doorway began to disappear ; whereupon it was deemed advisable to remove the three heads, the key-stone, and corbels, to some place of safety before they were stolen. They were afterwards deposited in the Museum in Truro, and with them one stone of the mould- ing, the only cut stone which could be found among the ruins in 1843, when the sand was again cleared out with very great difficulty, in order to make exact measurements of the church, and to rebuild the altar-tomb of St. Piran. These four stones in the Museum are the only cut stones that remain of all those which formed this interesting doorway ; the rest have been car- ried away as relics by selfish and destructive visitors, and cannot now be traced. On the same side, about five feet from the south- east angle of the building, is a window — the rudest little window that was ever seen. We present a sketch of it, carefully taken, stone for stone. It is about five feet from the ground, and its dimen- sions are 1ft. Gin. by 1ft. Within the head of the archway there is a stone laid across to bear the weight of the wall above, although the radiating edges of the stones which form the semicircular head would appear as if they were upholding the ponderous weight. We leave our reader for the present to judge whether this is like a Norman arch, or a Saxon, or whether it looks more like a rude imitation of a Roman arch. 72 PERRAN-ZABULOE. wall, about five feet from the ground, there was another window, but which, having been closed up on the outside with stone, escaped notice till last year. In the northern corner of this wall there was another round-headed doorway, some- what smaller than the other, and without the or- naments ; but, like it, 2ft. 9in. from the ground, as- From this, let us pass on to the eastern side ; the north and west walls are plain “ dead walls, without any aperture. In the centre of the east EXTERIOR OF WINDOW OF THE OLD CHURCH. GROUND-PLAN. 73 cended by worn steps from the exterior as well as interior. The sides of this doorway are also parallel, and the angles sharp, without moulding or chamfer, possessing therefore another similarity to Roman structure. Through this doorway, which is probably the “ priest’s door,” for the steps turn directly into the chancel, let us descend into the interior of this ancient sanctuary. The floor consists of a concrete, composed of a china-clay and coarse sand, and is hard and level. It is di- vided distinctly into chancel and nave, — the former 10ft., the latter 15ft. — making the internal length 25ft., its breadth being 12£ft. The chancel was separated from the nave by a rail or skreen, which GROUND-PJLiLN . must have been 5 or 6 feet high, as is evident by the groove in the south wall, and marks along the floor. These marks do not extend across the chancel, neither is there a corresponding groove 74 PERRAN-ZABULOE. on the north wall ; from which it is fair to infer that the course of the skreen, and the limits of the chancel, followed the dotted line we have drawn in the ground-plan, running eastward to the steps of the priest’s door, leaving a passage into the nave from the same entrance. Another reason for supposing this is, that the stone seats, which on the south side stop at the chancel-rail, are built round the nave along the remainder of the south wall, along che west and the whole length of the north, to the steps of the little door. Another reason yet is, that the altar is placed, not in the centre of the east wall, but in a centre taken from the doorway, which we suppose was the limit of the chancel. Attached to the east wall was an altar, built of stone, and plastered like the rest of the interior. In 1835 it was taken down, and St. Piran’s headless remains were discovered immediately beneath it, as we have described. It has since been carefully rebuilt with the same stones ; a solid block of granite, nearly a ton in weight, cut to the exact peculiar shape and dimensions of the original altar, has been placed over it ; and as the altar is now r , and likely always to he, more a tomb than an altar, the name of St. Piran has been deeply cut in the granite, in early Roman characters. This altar is peculiar in its position, as well as its shape. It lies lengthwise east and west, (not STONE ALTAR-TOMB. 75 north and south, as we now have them,) with square pieces cut from the north and south angles of the westernmost end of it. This position and shape seem the most natural, and just what we might expect an early altar- tomb would be, which was designed by persons who knew no peculiar rule or custom to follow. There is the length to cover the body, which is laid east and west , the projecting piece to cover the head. The dimensions of the altar are, as they were : Ft. In. Length . . .53 Breadth . . .23 Height . . .40 About ten inches above the altar, a little on the north of it, and quite in the centre, equidistant from the north and south walls, was a recess which has since been cleared out, and proves to have been a window, having a slight internal splay, plastered within with china-clay. This window is two feet wide, and was round-headed, and most probably about two-and-a-half or three feet high. Its arch, as well as that of the priest’s door close by it, have long since fallen in. In the south wall of the chancel is the window we have already noticed from the outside. The interior view represents it as ruder than the ex- terior. In the latter there is a little architectural display in the head of the arch ; but the masons 7 6 PERRAN-ZABULOE. of other days could not afford to sacrifice any more strength for effect, therefore the head of the interior part of the window was differently de- vised, and plastered over with china-clay. There is a slight internal splay in this window also. The stone seats which passed round the nave to the priest's door are 1ft. 4in. high by 1ft. 2in. wide, also plastered with china-clay. There was no THE CELL. 77 wood found in this building except a small piece, eight inches long, two wide, and about one inch thick. Such was this antient church in 1835, and al- most so till 1838. In removing the sand from the south and east parts of the cemetery, another little structure was discovered by Mr. Michell, which we will describe in his own words, tran- scribed kindly from his memoranda respecting the Church of St. Piran in the Sands. * “15th Sept. 1835. “About 100 yards from the church (south-east) are the ruins of a house now almost covered again with sand, which I explored. The dimensions of it were 16ft. by 12ft., and 10ft. high. The door- way, 7ft. by 2ft. 2in., was on the south side. The door had been removed ; but its wooden door-case and threshold remained in their place, although in a very decayed state. This building had only one window, 12in. high by Gin. wide. The beams of this building I found in it nearly rotten. In the front of this house were thousands of mussel and limpet shells, together with frag- ments of earthen pots.” This little cell, which lies parallel with the church, is now almost buried in the sand again. The western gable end, and portions of the north and south walls, alone are visible : they are built in the same manner as the church, but of 78 perran-zabuloe. smaller stones, and are evidently of the same date as the church, or perhaps a little later ; for (the walls being built with smaller stones) the masonry does not look so clumsy, and there is, moreover, a slight attempt at “herring-bone” visible on the eastern side of the west gable. The proportions of the church when entire must have been as peculiar as the structure of the walls, and equally rude. The narrow height of wall, not relieved by string-course or base-line, the scarcity of windows and their smallness, to- gether with the raised threshold of the doorways, must have produced an effect unlike that of Norman and Saxon proportions ; hut which, how- ever correspond exactly with that of the ruins of the early churches in Ireland, many of which are attached to round towers, and evidently contempo- raneous with them. Such was this church only a few years since. Its present state is deplorable and unchurchlike, and has induced many to pro- nounce that it is not, and never was a church ! — that it could not have been a church, for many reasons ! But, nevertheless, there are some few who are credulous enough to believe other- wise. At present the north and west walls alone are standing, for the most part entire ; the south and east, which were pierced for doors and win- dows, have long since become ruinous. Our fron- tispiece represents the present state of that portion of them which appears above the level of the sand, THE SAND. 79 and the little lake which is formed by the rising of the water of the holy spring in the winter time. Its “ old enemy,” the sand, which, however, pre- served the sanctuary from more ruthless enemies for many centuries, is gathering round it again, as if jealous of its own dominion, and jealous of that precious relic, now profaned and destroyed, which for ages had shed such a charm and such deep interest over the desolation and wild solitude of its region. 80 CHAPTER III. What is the date of this oratory ? is a question which is often asked, and often freely and confi- dently answered, upon the authority of Mr. Blox- am. But, as we have said before, the structure requires but to be seen, and its masonry, its shape, and its dimensions to be hut examined, to con- vince the visitor that it cannot be Norman. Nei- ther will it appear that it resembles in any respect the Saxon remains which have hitherto been found in Great Britain, or elsewhere. Such is the opi- nion the appearance of this oratory cannot fail to suggest \ but it is a negative opinion ; — the ques- tion still remains, what is the date of this church ? It is a question, too, which must be answered under many difficulties and disadvantages ; not the least among which is, the unbelieving character of the age in which it is asked. It is untrodden ground, and no one seems to have ventured upon it. General prejudices are against believing that a stone structure can be anterior to Saxon times. Though too ready to believe what they would, and what they desire to believe, men are not always ready to believe all they may. They enter usually CORNISH ANTIQUITIES. 8 1 upon judgment with a previously formed opi- nion : so it is with the comparatively trifling case before us ; so also, unfortunately, with great and important truths. Men too often believe what they will upon far less ground, than re- ceive all they may upon greater. We have shewn that Cornish antiquities are not subject to the rules and theories of archi- tecture which are formed upon examples found in the central parts of England ; for this obvious reason, that the early history of those parts passes almost at one step from Roman to Saxon times ; while that of Cornwall, not to mention other parts, has an intermediate period of 500 years. The Saxons conquered the Britons in the central and more fertile parts of our island almost im- mediately after the departure of the Romans. They could not conquer the Cornish for 500 years after, till the year 930. It is to this in- termediate period we have reason to refer the date of the structure in question. Every archi- tectural evidence and every historical probability bear out our position ; while, on the other hand, there is nothing in the building peculiarly Saxon or Norman, but rather otherwise, and history and oral tradition equally afford no evidence what- ever towards Saxon or Norman antiquity. Upon this ground we venture to ask for the oratory of St. Piran a British antiquity. We ask to refer it to the sixth century, and offer its masonry as a a 82 PERRAN-ZABULOE. specimen of the imperfect and incipient style of building of the early British Christians, in Corn- wall at least. Here it may he permitted to observe, that the oratory of St. Piran is not the only structure of this period still remaining in Cornwall. There is another ancient church, at a place called Gwi- thian, about sixteen miles further west, upon the same coast, and preserved under exactly similar circumstances, — buried in sand. This church cor- responds in general character with St. Piran’s, and in masonry exactly. It has its cemetery and its well ; a doorway and small window on the south side, apparently the only apertures in this wall. It lies east and west ; has a nave, chancel, and altar ; and in the north-east corner a priest’s door, the base or threshold of which is also raised about two or three feet from the ground. In dimensions and internal arrangements, however, the church at Gwithian is somewhat different. The nave is 31ft. 6in. by 15ft. 5in. ; and in the east wall of the nave is a doorway 3ft. 7in. wide, which leads into a chancel, internally 14ft. 4in. by 12ft. Sin. There are no seats in the nave (probably they were of wood) ; but in the chancel there are stone seats, like those in St. Piran’s, built in the same manner and about the same size. These are con- tinued round the chancel to the altar, which is situated in the centre of the eastern wall. The altar is built of stone, and is about 4ft. lOin. GWITHIAN. 83 long from north to south, and probably was not more than 2ft. Gin. or 3ft. wide ; but it is in such a ruinous condition that it is impossible to ascer- tain its former dimensions. At present it is little more than 3ft. high, which is also the height of the walls of the chancel. The walls of the nave, in the highest parts, are about 8ft. high. The walls of this ruin are about 2|ft. thick, and are constructed in the same way as those of St. Piran’s, with rough stones, of all shapes and sizes, put together without any lime in the mortar. This ruin is similarly situated, by the side of a stream on the sea-shore ; and for many centuries, with the land round it, had been overwhelmed in the same calcareous sand as at Perran-Zabuloe. It is lit- tle known, and unfrequented ; and the sacred dead rest in calm security beneath the rich green turf, which now covers the cemetery, and once covered the whole ruin. It was discovered about fifteen years ago by a neighbouring farmer, who em- ployed his men to dig a pond in the vicinity of the spring or holy well. In the course of excavation they came to many skeletons, and soon after to a portion of the eastern wall. Beneath this, under the altar, they found eight skeletons, ranged side by side, at a depth of three feet below the foundation. Below these skeletons they struck upon the ruins of another wall , about three feet high, con- structed rudely, like the upper wall. Beneath 84 PERRAN-ZABULOE. this again they found more skeletons, still in sand, at a depth of fifteen feet from the surface ; here water hindered further search. They then pro- ceeded to trace the walls all round, and to clear out the interior of the ruin. The little window in the south wall was perfect, about two feet high and round-headed, but it soon after fell in. We have not yet been able to find any tradition or history of this church. St. Gwithian, who came over from Ireland a few years before St. Piran, was martyred by King Tewdor in this neighbourhood. Probably this structure was ori- ginally erected in honour and memory of the same holy martyr, to whom the present parish church, which lies within a quarter of a mile from the ruin, is dedicated, and the parish called after his name.* Like almost every other church in Corn- * The name of this place in the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror is Conorton, or rather Canardi-tone. A manor of this name is still in existence. 44 There is a tradition,” says the late Davies Gilbert, Esq., in his his- tory of this parish, 44 supported by the authority of Leland, that a town, so large as to contain two churches, stood on this manor, which has been destroyed by sand ; but the tale must be, at least, a very great exaggeration.” However this may be, in the sand, about a furlong from the ruin above described, there is another cemetery, and quantities of loose stone, which may have formed another church. These were dis- covered in cutting a new 44 sanding road’ 1 a few years ago. It would prove dangerous to remove the rich turf which now confines the sand, for the purpose of further investigation ; for ST. ENODOC. 85 wall, this of St. Gwithian is also in the perpendi- cular style, and has a pinnacled tower, the pro- portions of which are beautiful, as also those of the church itself; but unfortunately, like too many Cornish churches, it is in wretched condi- tion and repair — sadly symbolical of the spiritual state of the Church in a country once so famous, and deservedly renowned, for “ loyalty to God and the king.” Besides the ancient ruin in Gwi- thian, there is another on the north coast of this county, in the neighbourhood of Padstow. It is nothing but that turf, humanly speaking, preserved the church and church-town of Gwithian, from being utterly overwhelmed with sand. In a sandy region, two miles westward from this spot, a buried village has lately been traced by persons em- ployed in carrying away sand for agricultural purposes. In the course of a few months, when more of the sand is removed, it will be practicable to examine this interesting place. At pre- sent there is not enough uncovered to give any opinion of the date or character of the houses. Nothing at present is known of this village, what was its name, or when it was over- whelmed. The following statement may give some idea of the rapidity with which this light calcareous sand accumulates. “ The late Rector of the parish, the Rev. Mr. Ilocken, stated to Mr. Lyson that the barton of Upton, one of the principal farms, was suddenly overwhelmed ; that his great-grandfather remembered the occupier residing in the farm-house, which was nearly buried in one night ! the family being obliged to make their escape through the chamber windows ; and that in consequence of the wind producing a shifting of the sand. In the winter of 1808-9, the house, after having been lost for more than a century, again came to view.” — History of Cornwall. 86 PERRAN-ZABULOE. situated in a portion of the parish of St. Minver, which borders upon the sea near the little church of St. Enodoc,* and probably was dedicated in honour of the same saint. It was discovered about fifty years ago in a high sand-hill ; and near it there was a spring or holy well, and on the south side a cemetery : but all traces of it are now lost again. In addition to these sanctuaries of the early Christians of Cornwall which we have referred to, there are ruins of others, and records of many more, throughout the country, especially along the coast. Some of these, it is true, bear traces of a * This interesting church, in all probability, was originally built when the above oratory was overwhelmed. It is situ- ated near the huge sand-hill which contains the lost church, but on the opposite side of a stream. It was probably erected in this situation, like the second church of St. Piran, to be as near the original sanctuary as possible, and in the hope that it would be out of every danger of sharing the same fate. But, unfortunately, subsequent eruptions of sand from the sea, which is close by, within a quarter of a mile, have deluged the opposite bank of the little river also ; and the chapel of St. Enodoc is surrounded by sand-hills, which have risen as high as the ridge of its roof. On first approaching this sacred edifice, little can be discerned of it but its tiny tower, surmounted with a crooked wind-worn spire of stone. The sand is now in a manner subdued and kept down by grass, which has been cultivated on its surface with diligent care and attention. This is all which could have been done to save the church from being entirely lost. The north side of it is, at this time, com- pletely buried ; but on the east, south, and west sides the ORATORIES OF CORNWALL. 87 comparatively late style of architecture; but in many cases their names, their diminutive size, and the vicinity of a spring and cemetery, indicate that these small churches of Cornwall, though rebuilt at a later date, were originally the oratories of the early Cornish. To return, then, to St. Piran’s. We venture to olfer its masonry, its construction, its smallness, and all its other peculiarities, as those of the early architecture of the Celtic Christians. We say Celtic Christians ; for these peculiarities are by no means confined to Cornwall, but are still to be found in 6and has been cleared away from the windows, to admit light within ; and in front of the porch a passage about eight or nine feet deep has been cut, to afford admission to the church for its regular though small congregation. This little church was built about the year 1430, in the perpendicular style, and is, with its sister church of St. Michael in the same parish, very small in dimensions. It consists of a nave and chancel under the same ridge of roof, a south transept, and eastward of it a Lady chapel, beside the chancel. The tower is on the north side, opposite the south transept. This church contains a Norman font, which indicates the existence of a church prior to the present structure ; and another interesting indication of an- tiquity is in an ancient bell which once belonged to this church. It was rudely cast, and bore the inscription “ ALFRED VS REX it was sold in the middle of the last century by the churchwardens of the time, in order to defray the expenses of repairs about the church. A portion of the old rood-screen, which, according to Cornish custom, always extended across the whole church, is still in existence, and a great portion of the old carved open seats. 88 PERRAN-ZABULOE. other places, which, like this county, remained free from Saxon control and Saxon influence for centuries after the central parts of the island, — such, for instance, as Wales, and Anglesea, and Guernsey, and Ireland, and, we believe, the same peculiarities may be traced in Brittany also. All these places afford evidences and examples of a particular style, if we may use the term, of ecclesiastical architecture which belonged to the Celts, the original inhabitants of these islands prior to the Saxon invasion. The writings of our earliest historians confirm this opinion. The oratory of St. Piran, therefore, we presume to be British ; and, if further confirmation be wanting, it can be shewn that, differing entirely from Saxon and Norman remains , it corresponds ex- actly with the sacred structures erected at this period by the Irish, whose intimate connexion with Cornwall so early as the fifth century we have already had occasion to notice. The evi- dences we adduce will bring us to an early period of the history of this county j that, namely, which preceded its conquest by the Saxons, and consequently that which immediately succeeded the government of the Romans. Now it will, perhaps, prove not a little interesting to shew that St. Piran’s corresponds also with the churches which were built by the Christians early in the fourth century during the reign of Constan- tine the Great, who, it will be remembered, was CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 89 the instrument, under God, to restore, or rather we should say, give peace and toleration to the early Christians both here and abroad. Hitherto they had suffered much from persecutions and oppres- sion. Constantine the Great first openly tolerated Christianity, and, it is fair to believe, introduced into Britain the same customs which prevailed in other parts of his extensive dominions. It will, therefore, be not only interesting, hut useful, to shew, first of all, the similarity of St. Piran’s to the structures of the early Christians, especially in the East — at Byzantium and Antioch ; which will also support us in our theory of the Eastern observances of the early British Church throughout Britain before the arrival of St. Augustine. In order, then, to trace the alleged similarity between St. Piran’s and the early churches of the fourth century, let us briefly inquire into the character of the latter. We find, then, that as soon as the decree of Constantine the Great openly sanctioned and ac- knowledged Christianity, the early Christians seem, one and all, in all parts of the very extensive empire under Constantine’s sole government, to have not only set to the pious work of erect- ing churches with zeal and alacrity, but to have followed simultaneously one and the same form and arrangement in their structures. That form and arrangement, under these circumstances, we may presume had been agreed upon and handed down from former generations. Of these, it should 90 PERRAN-ZABULOE. be premised, that they prove upon examination to be a comprehensive and significant form and ar- rangement, not adopted for convenience, but with a deeper and a holier aim — that of expression and symbolism. This is the character of the eccle- siastical architecture of the early Christians. They seem to have intended, by the material fabric, to figure the spiritual edifice, and thus to lead the mind of the devout Christian, previous to his entering upon the sacred duties for which it was set apart, from the earthly to the heavenly Jerusalem, of which the former was intended to be the type. This is no fanciful opinion : all churches, more or less, have been built upon this significant plan, from the earliest times to the present ; and the writings of the early Fathers allude to these forms, and decorations, and ar- rangements as symbolical : they write of them as intentionally so, as if their meaning were defined and fully understood. Nor is it at all improbable that this should have been the case, when we con- sider through whom the Gospel has been transmit- ted to us. Salvation has been to us, in more senses than one, from the J ews : the Jewish race gave birth to the Messiah — the Jews have handed to us the Moral Law of God — the Jews were the first apos- tles, and for the most part the first teachers of the Gospel of the New Covenant — to them, humanly speaking, we are indebted for the truths of the Gospel they have proved, for the most part, the SYMBOLISM. 91 channel through which the glad tidings of the Gospel have come to us, although, under God’s inscrutable dispensation, they themselves now remain ignorant of its tidings. Their religion was symbolical and highly mystical. In it, in its ordinances of worship, and in its Temple, were shadowed from the beginning, we may say pro- phetically, the great mysteries of the latter Dis- pensation. Their Temple, especially the great Temple of Unity, — for thither all true Israelites assembled to worship with one accord, — that Temple was symbolical throughout in its form and arrangements. Built under the commands of the Most High God, the several parts and decorations even, of the Temple had each and all their comprehensive, dark, and mysterious, and prophetic meaning. We find St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, affectionately endeavouring to confirm the faith of his converted countrymen by this very subject of symbolism : he opens to them the dark, mysterious meaning of the various parts of their late religion and the Temple, and explains their fulfilment in the new Dispensation. It is probable, therefore, that these Hebrew Christians in their subsequent designs of churches studied to follow a system which custom and habit had long endeared, and which had proved so interesting and significant. Therefore to them, our earliest brethren, we are indebted for the symbolical character of our ecclesiastical archi- 92 PERRAN-ZABULOE. tecture. This art, preserved through three cen- turies of dire persecutions, we see, when persecu- tions were at an end, universally and simultane- ously followed, and especially by the Emperor Constantine the Great. How interesting is it to trace, in our earliest remains and records, simi- larity to the several peculiarities of this style ! We may fairly affirm it was introduced to this country in the time of the great Emperor. Still to this day the holy symbolic art remains in this our favoured land ! — in its purity it remains, though marred often by superstition on the one hand, and hard unbelief on the other : it still continues in spirit and in character, speaking the same pure language it spoke long centuries ago. From the writings of the fourth century we learn, first, that a portion of land was enclosed,* separated * It is not known when this enclosed space was first used for the purpose of burial. We learn from Bingham, that, among the primitive Christians, burying in cities was not al- lowed for the first three centuries, nor in “ churches strictly so called ” for many years after. The earliest canon we have been able to find on this subject is one of the Council of Nantes, which was held in the year 658. This canon allows general burial in porches and out-buildings of the church. The pro- hibitions above given as to burials, only refer to cities, churches, and out-buildings of the latter, and not to the pre- cincts of a church. We shall see presently that at a very early period churches were erected over the remains of apos- tles, and martyrs, and confessors. The same pious feelings which induced the early Christians to do this, would have led them to deposit the remains of others, whom they rever- BAPTISTERY. 93 from the world, as it were, and all secular pur- poses, and consecrated to the service of God. It contained within its limits, and generally upon its boundary, a spring of water for the appointed cleansing. This we find the indispensable accom- paniment of a central early church, intentionally enced, near the church, if not within it ; and thus at an early- period the custom of burying in the enclosed space round the church may have been fully established. Gregory the Great, about the end of the seventh century, writes in favour and approbation of the custom of bmying near a church : he sanc- tioned and encouraged it. As when on earth Christians turned to the east in prayer and devotion, so, when they ex- changed this state of existence for another, they were deposited looking upward and eastward, as if for the coming of the Lord. There is a tradition that bishops and priests were buried with face to the west, as they stood in ministering to their respective flocks, who were looking eastward ; and that they will come with the great Judge hereafter, to call those who had been en- trusted to their care, to judgment. No passage or inference in Holy Scripture, however, can sanction the reason assigned for this different position of burial for the ministry. We are all indiscriminately, all and every one, commanded to await and watch the dread advent of the Judge. There are only a few examples of this to be found in England ; one, we under- stand, in the church at Clovelly, in North Devon. We may be permitted here to notice the custom of carrying the dead with psalmody to the grave ; it is still observed in Cornwall, and was the usage of the East so early as the fourth century. Thus St. Chrysostom writes on the subject : “ What mean our hymns ? do we not glorify God and give Him thanks that He hath crowned him that is departed — that He hath delivered him from trouble — hath set him free from all fear ? Consider what thou singest at that time.” 94 PERRAN-ZABULOE. symbolical of the necessity of baptism ; for, how- ever we may neglect this holy sacrament now, it was not neglected then, and in serious reality must not be neglected. Its necessity is not nul- lified by an opinion ; it is decreed in words which cannot pass away, that without it no one shall enter the kingdom of God ; S. J ohn iii. 5 — 7. With the element of water it has been promised the rege- nerating influence will descend, and seal once and for eternity, whether effectually or otherwise, the children of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. In those days, a spot of land so fur- nished with a spring was not denied. Devotion to God was the first consideration of the period ; it swayed more than all other considerations ; and Nature, the faithful handmaid of God, as if to emulate the pious devotion, seems in almost all cases to bestow beauty around a spring and well ; and thus in a beautiful and retired locality, appropriate for the position of a church, the little structure reared its simple head. A peculiarity of the time, which deserves particular notice, is, that the baptistery was distinct from the church, never in it, and seldom even touching it. Eusebius, in the fourth century, speaking of the church which Paulinus built at Tyre, says, when that curious artist had finished his famous struc- ture within, he then set himself about the exedrse or out-buildings, by which places he tells us he chiefly meant the place which was for the use of PASTAPHORIUM. 95 those who “ needed cleansing and sprinkling of water, and the Holy Spirit.” Constantine, we learn, built churches at Antioch and elsewhere which were furnished with the usual exedrse ; and again, Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, says, in his Epistle to Severus, that he had built two churches with a baptistery between them. St. Austin also intimates that the baptistery was distinct and apart from the church, and that there were separate apartments in it for the men and women likewise ; which, perhaps, may be the reason why St. Am- brose speaks of it in the plural number, thus, “ the baptisteries of the church.” — Bingham, book viii. ch. 7. Besides the baptistery, there were other out-buildings set apart for religious pur- poses within the limits of the consecrated pre- cincts. One of these we will especially notice, which was the most general and most constant companion of the baptistery. It is called, in the Apostolical Canons, pastaphorium, and corresponds with our word “ cell.” This place was used for keeping the consecrated vessels of the church, and the elements of bread and wine for the Lord’s Supper, and the alms of the people. And also, says Bingham, it was a habitation for the bishop or clergyman, or the guardian and keeper of the church, as Schelstrate rightly concludes from a passage in St. Jerome, where he explains pasta- phorium to be the chamber or habitation where the ruler of the Temple dwelt. These two were 96 PERRAN-ZABULOE. the most important and most usual accompani- ments of every church. From the baptistery a path, symbolical of the efficacy of the baptismal rite, led to the church ; but, before we enter, let us examine its position. It lies east and west universally. We are accustomed to see churches built in this position; to us it is nothing strange : but, if it has no meaning, is it not stranger still that many churches should have been built at the same time, and in different countries, and all pointing to the east 1 But there is a meaning in it which must place beyond doubt that the position was intentional and premedi- tated. The Jews in the old Dispensation, in their devotions, turned towards Jerusalem, the holy city, which was the type of the light of the Gospel. In the present and new Dispensation, our Lord is to us our light ; the sun which rises daily is His symbol to us, and should ever remind us of Him, and of His future coming. Our duty, as His servants, is to be ever looking for that light, His second advent ; as the Jews looked, and blindly still look, for His first. We should do this in compliance with His affectionate request to “ watch and pray,” and also in obedience to His positive command ever to be mindful of His coming. We turn, then, eastward in expectancy ; thus have all Christians in all ages and countries done, and their churches have indicated and still indicate the same obedient watchfulness. There ORIENTATION. 97 was always a window in the east wall over the altar as if to carry out the idea of this symbolical watching more completely. In reverence to the memory of Saint or holy Martyr, in the cause of the Church, Christians from early times have turned, it is supposed, to the point of the horizon where the sun appears on the festival of the tutelary Saint to be commemorated : that point was regarded the east, the symbolical east of that day. Hence the slight variations which are seen in the position of our churches at this day. Or, if this opinion will not be received, and cannot be established, we may suppose, — for some reason there must he for the variations alluded to, — we may suppose the builders turned to the sun rising on the day of laying the foundation, considering that position the true east, but still in compliance with some significant custom. Let us come now to the doorway of the early churches. We find a path from the baptistery leading directly to the principal entrance, which is always found at or near the west end of the edifice, indicative of the state of pupilage and discipline which it is appointed should lead to perfect devotion. Here the newly-admitted ser- vant of God entered from the baptistery, through a low portal, bowing in humility, into the House of God. It is the House of the Lord ; here the world and worldly thoughts are banished from the mind. The interior of the church was symbolical H 98 PERRAN-ZABULOE. of that entire devotion which God requires from His servants ; entire and exclusive devotion, “ for we cannot serve two masters.” Every church was distinctly divided into chancel and nave, which was indicative of the twofold character of human devotion ; namely, that which is required from men called to be the ministers of God to their fellow-men, and secondly, that which is required from those who are ministered to. The nave is for the latter, wherein were the appointed places of those who held offices of secular authority, — four divisions, for four states of life : here a place for the married — there for the unmarried ; here for the men, generally the north side, — and there for the women. All had their own places sym- bolical of their own respective duties. Through the nave a passage led to the chancel, but an impassable rail of division indicated here the real and positive distinction between chancel and nave ; that is, between the appointed minis- ters of God and the people. This rail we find as customary as its meaning renders it necessary. Eusebius, describing a chancel, (a word of Latin derivation, from cancelli , rails,) says the altar was divided from the rest of the church by certain rails of wood curiously and skilfully wrought in the form of net-work, to make it accessible to the multitude. Theodoret also, writ- ing on the same subject, uses the usual Greek phrase which corresponds with our word chancel, CHANCEL. 99 “ the space within the rails which, it will be observed, is equally decisive : and Synesius also affords evidence in his phrase, “ to lay hold of the rails meaning thereby to take sanctuary or re- fuge. The rail, then, we see, was never omitted in early times, neither was the marked distinc- tion disregarded between the minister of God and the people. As the nave, in its distribution, was indicative of the duties of the people, so the chancel also was furnished equally in reference to its own meaning, and was symbolical of the duties of the clergy. First, it contained the altar — the one altar symbolical of the one great Sacrifice — where the priest “ waited,” and from thence ministered to his people. It contained also three graduating seats for the three orders of the ap- pointed ministry. Within this space the minis- ters of God were enclosed by an impassable rail of division, distinct from the people, and set apart to do the work of God for the good of men. Hither God has appointed the faithful should look for the means of grace and pardon and reconciliation. The position of the chancel was symbolical to this end, lying between the people and the east, where was the object of their devo- tion. The ministers of God wait in that interme- diate space, and administer to the spiritual wants of the people ; to intercede on their behalf, not in- tercept, but forward their petitions to the Throne of Grace. 100 PERRAN-ZABULOE. The altar, then, whereon it has pleased the Lord to place “ His Holy Name there,” was in- tentionally placed in the east. Before the time of Constantine the Great, altars were generally formed of wood ; we learn from St. Austin, who lived in the third century, that they were of wood in the African Church in his time ; Optatus also implies that altars were of wood. Athanasius writes thus on the subject : “ Communion-tables were of wood, as also the throne and seat of the presbyters.” But after the conversion of Con- stantine, about the year 320, altars began to be constructed of stone. Constantine erected several altars of stone, and in some of his more splendid churches they were “covered over with silver .” Gregory Nyssen, writing soon after this period, in his discourse on Baptism alludes thus to the stone subject : “ This altar,” says he, “ whereat we stand, is by nature only common stone, whereof our walls are made ; but, after it is consecrated to God, it becomes a holy table, an immaculate altar, which may not be promiscuously touched by all, but only by the priest in time of divine service.” Here we have given a description of the po- sition and arrangement of the churches of the early Christians of the fourth century. Thus beautifully and harmoniously, full 1500 years ago, were the several parts of the sanctuary arranged ; it was the studied, intentional plan of our ear- liest brethren — ages and generations have con- CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. 101 firmed the wisdom of it — and, with only a few al- terations, it should be our pride to remember that the same symbolical plan is with us to this day. The inclemency of climate has driven the principal entrance of the church to the south, though there are very few churches indeed which have not a western doorway also ; and for the same reason, probably, the Saxons introduced the font within the church ; but in both these cases the spirit, if not the letter, of the significant plan has been preserved. The south entrance is placed near the west end of the church, as also the font, near to it. Thus is our ecclesiastical architecture symbolical, and, we may add, worthily so. It is worthy that an art, which is, as it were, dedi- cated to the service of God, should have more than the mere beauty of its proportions, or the value of its ornaments, to recommend it to our attention. How much more worthy is it of such structures that they should not only gratify the eye with their beauty and elegance, and the heart with reverence for the piety of those who built them, but also that that beauty and elegance and piety should all unite in speaking to the faithful a mystical language, and remind them of their spiritual state, as it is, and it will be ! Yes : the ancient and significant, and it is our glory to add the national, architecture of our Church has a language ; as if God Himself had given to in- animate structures a voice to speak, since the 102 PERRAN-ZABULOE. time that the Lord directed Solomon to build His symbolical Temple at Jerusalem. Strangely it speaks, even when the pious efforts of human in- genuity never intended it to speak. The opi- nions and doctrines and even tones of thinking in each succeeding age from the beginning seem to have taken substantial form, and to speak to us at this distant day, the mystic chroni- cle of the faithful ! Strangely it speaks of sim- plicity and the purity of ancient faith, of advan- cing skill and advancing piety and devotion ; but it is too much to expect a long continuance of the same lofty strain. Man is prone to fall : while persecutions and troubles were at hand, religion was zeal and firm attachment, and while the heart still glowed with gratitude for deliverance from bitter trials ; but too soon in prosperity did man’s heart seek out many inventions. Ecclesias- tical architecture tells the sad tale of declining purity and rising superstition — of rising love of the world, and pomp, and display of empty vanity. In ruin and spoliation, it tells of fanaticism, and worse than Pharisaical sanctity. Thus may we trace the history of our Church in its architecture, from right to wrong, from wrong to over-right ; trace its past state, and compare it with the pre- sent. Strange language ! how often does it tell of piety and devotion, and often again of cold neglect. There is not a church in all the land which has not its simple tale. Too often, in neg- A LANGUAGE. 103 lect and dilapidation, it mournfully tells how love has grown cold, and piety departed. Still it stands open, and ready to receive its children still, the few who have not turned away. Once the pride and glory of her children, many, many a church feebly calls, and often calls in vain ; and even in ruin warns the heedless of the conse- quences of neglect. But, thanks he to God ! our country seems to be rising from her long lethargy. There are many churches throughout the land which speak more joyfully in these days ; which tell of acts of piety and acts of self-denial, done often in secret, for the honour of God and His Church. These have a voice too ; their language is of thankfulness : they sing the song of praise to the wakeful faithful heart in the still night, when the world is, as it were, lost in sleep ; these sing on in the silence the praises of our God ; they tell of grace and blessing descending upon our beloved land ; they tell of returning piety and zeal, of returning love and self-denying devotion ; devotion which seeks not the praise of men, but does all for the glory and honour of God. Many, many churches restored to their original beauty and order, and many others which have risen and are rising around us, speak in the voice of hope, and assure us that the mighty stream of zeal and piety now flowing so irresist- ibly, is not in vain ; it flows in cause of the Most High God and His holy Church ; it is strong, 104 PERRAN-ZABULOE. therefore, and will flow on, and tell to generations yet to come how God has continued to bless our land. It will he a blessing, and be blessed ; it has the Almighty’s unfailing promise ; the Lord will not forsake His people. He will never forsake His Church, “ for His great name sake, be- cause it hath pleased Him to make us His people.” To return, then, to our immediate subject, the churches of the fourth century. We have shewn the form and internal arrangement of them at this early period of the history of the Church ; let us pass on to another custom with regard to them which is worthy of notice. We find they were often erected over the burial-places of saints and martyrs, who were esteemed and reverenced for piety or suffering, or both. During the period of which we are treating this was a common custom ; particularly at this time, when the late persecutions and trials under Diocletian had endeared the memory of those who had suffered and gone to their rest. It is one of the blessings of affliction that it draws nearer to us in person and ‘attachment those who have been involved in it with ourselves. It was a natural though a melancholy desire in the survivors of the troubles of the second century to cherish the memory of those whom they reverenced, and perhaps reverenced the more since they had been removed from them. It was a holy and godly and a happy sorrow which sought consolation in CHURCHES IN CEMETERIES. 105 bereavement by associating the memory of the departed with the duties of worship and praise to that God who had inflicted that sorrow ! Still, even at that time there were some to cavil, and to object to this act of worship to God associated with homage to man ! We find St. Austin thus firmly defending the pious cus- tom, and at the same time explaining it. “We build not temples to our martyrs as gods, but only memorials of them as dead men whose spirits live with God ; nor do we erect altars to them in those memorials, or offer sacrifice thereon to our martyrs, but to the only God, both theirs and ours.” In times of persecution the early Chris- tians were accustomed to meet in the private vaults and burying-places, and especially at the graves of martyrs. The canons of the Council of Eliberis, which was held in the heat of the Diocletian persecution, several times allude to the congregations which assembled at such places, and we find the edicts of persecuting emperors publicly prohibiting such wonted assemblies. However these commands were obeyed at the time, the feelings of reverence survived till after the persecution, when the Christians proceeded to erect oratories over those graves of martyrs and others which they had been forbidden to frequent before. Hence the term “ ccemeteria,” which is sometimes applied to the early churches, and the term “ martyrium,” which we had occasion to allude 106 PERRAN-ZABULOE. to before ; and those of “ apostoleum” and “ pro- pheteum,” which are also used at this period. Sozomen writes of the apostoleum of St. Peter at Rome, and the apostoleum of St. Paul and St. Peter near Chalcedon ; and elsewhere we find mention of the “ propheteum of Esaias,” and that of “ Samuel, in which his relics were laid up.” All these terms were in common use, and gene- rally understood to denote churches erected over the burial-place and in memory of martyrs and apostles and prophets. In allusion to this cus- tom of building over the graves of holy men, St. Chrysostom writes, “ One might see whole cities running to the monuments of martyrs ;” and again, “ We depart not from their sepul- chres ; here kings lay aside their crowns, and continue praying for deliverance from dangers, and for victory over their enemies.” Nay, he triumphs that the “ apostles in their death were more honourable than the greatest kings upon earth ; for even at Rome, the royal city, emperors and consuls and generals left all, and ran to the sepulchres of the fisherman and tent-maker ; and at Constantinople it was thought honour enough by those that wore the diadem to be buried, not with the apostles, but before their porches, and kings themselves became the door-keepers of fish- ermen !” Thus “ mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed ! ” But a century before, and the servants of God were the outcasts and the CHRISTIAN BURIAL. 107 despised of the people ; now kings did homage to them ! This custom of building oratories over the graves of martyrs and others, and especially in cemeteries, probably led eventually to the pecu- liarly Christian usage of burying the departed near the place of worship. The tone and cha- racter of these early times justify us in supposing that our primitive brethren were equally capable with us of appreciating a custom so appropriate to our hopes, and in other respects so worthy to be observed. The heathen, who had no certain hope beyond the grave, thought not to associate their dead with their religious devotions ; they deposited them in outskirts of their cities, and in unfrequented places ; but with the Christian the case is far different. No place can be so appropriate for his resting-place as the frequented precincts of that church in which he has wor- shipped, and where his hopes of eternity have been formed and advanced. To lie down to his rest when his toil is done, among his brethren who have gone before him, and beneath the sha- dow of the venerable church of his fathers, is truly and appropriately a Christian’s hope. It is an appropriate custom also with respect to the feelings and the consolations of survivors ; our hearts naturally yearn towards those who have been taken from us : to what place more appropriately could our thoughts be carried than to the hallowed precincts where the dead rest in peace — the 108 PERRAN-ZABULOE. sacred precincts of the Church of God, which ever should be a source of consolation and our re- fuge in trouble? — and deep and lasting consolation has it afforded to many, and will afford still to all who will seek it there. How superficial then is the excuse which is often urged for non-attend- ance at the services of the Church, that the mourner cannot bear to frequent the House of God so frequently as he was wont ! The Chris- tian should not fear to be reminded of sorrow and death, and most especially in that holy place where there are stores of comfort and balm to soothe his pain and to heal his wounds. Our primitive brethren were not incapable of such feelings as these. Once suggested to them, as it most probably was by the circumstances above alluded to, we cannot suppose they deferred long before they adopted a custom so congenial to Christian hopes and Christian consolation. In each and all these points which we have been considering, and especially in those which, compared with existing customs, are distinctive and peculiar to the early Christians, we find the oratory of St. Piran accords with the churches of the fourth century. It is erected over the burial-place of St. Piran, a bishop and a confes- sor ; it lies east and west, with a slight inclina- tion to that point of the horizon where the sun appears on or about the 5th of March, which is St. Piran s day. It has its principal entrance SIMILARITY. 109 near the west ; it is internally divided into chan- cel and nave, and possesses to this day the marks of the rail which divided them. It has a stone altar, and a small window above it looking east- ward. It is surrounded by consecrated precincts, which are enclosed by a wall, portions of which have been seen at different times when the wind has disturbed the sand. It has an out-building, which accords with the descriptions of the ancient pastaphorium, and evidently was intended for the same purpose ; and lastly, it has a spring within twenty yards of it, in an easterly direction, to- wards the amphitheatre we have referred to, and the probable site of the dwellings of the original inhabitants of this district. Here we may imagine was the entrance to the enclosed space in which the church was built, where the baptistery stood, and perhaps stands to this day beneath the sand. Thus far we trace a similarity between this structure and the structures of early Christians abroad ; and let it be humbly submitted, the si- milarity we have traced is not a fanciful but a serious one, and one of importance to our sub- ject. The period of which we have been treating is the great epoch in the history of the Church. In this century not only did persecution cease, but the holy religion of peace was openly ac- knowledged, and, by God’s blessing, adopted as the religion of the first empire in the world ; kings and emperors after this become its “ nurs- 110 PERRAN-ZABULOE. ing fathers,” and queens its “ nursing mothers.” Under the protection of Constantine the Great, the forms and ceremonies of religion began to be developed throughout all the Roman empire, not excepting Britain. Let it be remembered also that the writers we have referred to are those who give us the history of the Church in the neighbourhood of Constantinople and other places, where, afterwards, when the schism between the Eastern and Western branches of the Church began, the custom called Eastern or Greek, from the former branch, were maintained and defended. By the glimmering light of our early history we find that the same custom prevailed in this coun- try also among its original inhabitants. This circumstance will prove an additional argument in favour of the similarity we have traced be- tween this oratory and the oratories of the churches abroad. It is but reasonable to suppose that the Ro- mans introduced the same customs to this country which they observed abroad, especially in Con- stantinople the capital of their empire j and rea- sonable also to suppose that the British, after the final departure of the Romans, in retaining the religion, retained also the customs which they had in a great measure received from their former masters, and observed together with them. To this, then, we have attributed the similarity which we have traced between the churches of the fourth BRITISH CHURCHES. Ill century and the oratory of St. Piran ; and, if our premises are not unreasonable, we may venture yet farther, and suppose that all the early churches erected in this country by the Roman British, and by the British after the departure of the Romans, also corresponded with the same models which we find in the writings of the early Fathers and historians of the Church ; and there- fore we may presume to state that St. Piran’s was not a solitaiy instance of similarity to those primitive structures, but one of many others, which, under peculiar circumstances, has been preserved to this distant day. There is then a reasonable probability in supposing that we may regard St. Piran’s oratory as a fair specimen of the structures of the British times. We have so few records of those times, and so few remains, that it is difficult to make any positive statement. We are compelled to follow conjectures and pro- babilities. But thus much we may say in favour of our conjecture, that all the few records we can gather, directly or indirectly, and all the remains which are still in existence, bear out the alleged correspondence between St. Piran and the struc- tures of those early times ; and, what is more, these not only agree among themselves, but in some important points differ from Saxon remains, and more so yet from Norman. We learn from Gildas, our earliest historian, that the Diocletian persecution raged very severely in 112 PERRAN-ZABULOE. Britain, and that many churches were destroyed ; but that, after the persecution had ceased, the Romans and British built their churches again new from the ground, and many more besides, as so many trophies of their martyrs. Here, then, at the very onset, so early as the beginning of the fourth century, we find the Christians in Britain following exactly the same custom with respect to the position and dedication of their churches as that we have noticed above. After this, records fail us ; and again, after a few cen- turies, by the faint light of early history we find that other customs, similar to those observed in the East, were still remaining among our coun- trymen. As time advances and the light of his- tory becomes brighter, we see the British, even through persecution, and troubles, and ejectment from portions of their own country, still observ- ing the same, and with jealous tenacity defending them to the last, while their liberty remained. In the mean time, during the course of these centuries of persecution, in secure and remote places churches are built, what is the character of them ? We have no minute descriptions of them, but the earliest writers whose works have reached our time give us a general impression of their cha- racter. They had means of ascertaining this which we have not, and it is interesting in this general character to trace the exact peculiarities of St .Piran’s. EARLY WRITERS. 113 But, before we come to the evidence we derive from our historians, there is yet another source of information on this point, which we think is not to be despised ; we refer to our old writers ; they give no architectural description, but some valuable information nevertheless. Spenser, for in- stance, who was deeply read in the early chronicles and legends of the British and Irish of early times, gives us some general impression on the subject, many of which are out of our reach now. The general character of religious edifices he mentions in the course of the Faerie Queene and other works is, that they are small “ and lowly chap- pels,” beside their gushing springs, and the little hermitage. Again, in a curious old work entitled the “ Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of Kinge Arthure,” first printed by Caxton in 1485, there are similar al- lusions to the character of the sacred edifices of early times ; at chapter xvii. we have the follow- ing : “ And at the last Sir Lancelot came to a stony crosse, whiche departed two wayes in waste lande ; and by the crosse was a stone that was of marbel, but it was so derke that Sir Lancelot myghte not wete what it was. Thenne Sir Lan- celot, he loked by hym and saw an old chappel , and ther he wend to have fonde peple.” And elsewhere in this work we have mention of “ holy chappels and fayr aulters, full rychely ar- rayed with clothe of clene sylke, whereon stode fayre candlestyks whiche were of silver f and “ the i 114 PERRAN-ZABULOE. spring al silverie, and the hermitage and crosse.” These we urge not as authority, but they may still he received for the purpose we have quoted them, — to afford a general impression of the cha- racter of early churches. Some doubt that such a person as the renowned King Arthur ever lived, but that is not the point ; we have not to do with the subject-matter of the work, but with its casual and undesigned allusions to certain features of scenery, let us call them. We have reason, too, to believe that these chapels and crosses are not merely imaginary but taken from real existing chapels and crosses of the time to which they refer ; for to this day, in the places and among the people that the renowned Sir Lancelot “ is said to have rod in quest of the Sancgrael,” there are remains of lowly chapels, and crosses, and springs, and hermitages. However, let us not be supposed to be trifling with the credulity of our readers • we have graver testimony to ad- duce in favour of this character of the early churches among the Celts. To this day, we have said, there are remains of small churches, and crosses, and holy wells, and “ hermitages they are to be found in places where the original in- habitants of these islands remained comparatively free, such as Cornwall, and Wales, and Ireland, and Guernsey, and Anglesea ; these places we have had occasion to refer to before. St. Piran’s will bear to be compared with these, and to be classed with them. EARLY CHURCHES SMALL. 115 But there is other evidence which we gather from the allusions of our early historians. We, who are accustomed to larger churches, and many windows and a font within the church, are struck as we contemplate St. Piran, with its peculiarities under these heads : first, its smallness, and paucity of windows ; secondly, its want of a font within. We find some of our earlier historians have se- lected these very points as worthy of notice; very probably for the same reason that we notice them, their peculiarity in these respects. Let us take first its smallness : this we suppose to be an evidence of the remote antiquity of this structure, and to be peculiar to early times. The earliest churches in these islands appear generally to have been small. Bingham attri- butes this to the poverty and uncertainty at- tendant on times of persecution. Mathew of Paris, in describing the Church or Martyry erected by the British over their first martyr, St. Alban, uses the word “ Ecclesiola” — small church : he writes at a period when churches were usually built larger ; and hence, probably, his especial notice of the smallness of St. Alban’s. William of Malmesbury also uses the same word frequently in his accounts of the early churches of the Bri- tish. From Venerable Bede, too, we obtain some little evidence. In his general descriptions he does not enter upon the subject of size ; he calls them oratories, and we may infer that they were 116 PERRAN-ZABULOE. of the customary size of the time. But, in de- scribing the church Bishop Paulinus built at Lin- coln, he calls it a large church, as if it were an exception to the usual structures ; and we have some reason for supposing it was, for St. Nynyan’s in Scotland, which he mentions, as others, without reference to size, proves to have been very small. We come now to the second peculiarity we have to notice, — the Baptistery distinct from the Church. There is no font in St. Piran’s, nor even traces on the concrete floor to mark where one stood ; therefore we have concluded that the spring in the immediate neighbourhood was the baptismal well belonging to the oratory. In this respect it can be shewn that St. Piran’s corre- sponds with the early British custom ; and not only so, but it differs from that of the Saxons. We will confine ourselves to the testimony of Venera- ble Bede for this matter, and begin with his ac- count of the Saxon usage with regard to the Sa- crament of Baptism. We gather from his his- tory that in his time and among his countrymen it was customary to baptize “within” the oratory. The following is his account of the erection of an early, if not the first, Saxon church in Eng- land : u On Easter-day, April 12, 627, Edwyn king of Northumbria was baptized at York in the church of St. Peter, which he himself built of timber, 4 while he was catechising and instruct- ing, in order to receive baptism.’ * * * But, as st . peter’s in york . 117 soon as he was baptized, he took care, under the directions of Paulinus, whom he made Bishop of York, to build a larger and nobler church of stone , in the midst whereof that same oratory was en- closed.” “ Parts of this fabric,” says the Rev. „ Aylifie Poole,* “ were discovered beneath the choir of the present cathedral during the repairs ren- dered necessary by the mad act of the incendiary J onathan Martin. In the first number of Brown’s History of the Edifice of the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter, York, in plate iii. is given a plan of Paulinus’ second edifice ; where the probable position of the wooden baptistery, enclosing a spring still remaining , is pointed out, and, though obscured by several successive subsequent erec- tions, this discovery is very valuable to the Eccle- siastical antiquary.” This interesting discovery explains beyond a doubt the Saxon historian’s meaning, of persons being baptized in oratories. He writes thus more than once, implying that it was the universal custom in his time among the Saxons.f But we find an important exception to this custom. There was a spring beside the stone church of St. Nynyan in Scotland : this worthy bishop, he informs us, came from Ireland, and observed * Lectures on the Structure and Decorations of Churches. + The font in St. Martin’s church at Canterbury is sup- posed to be Saxon, and to have been fixed in its present posi- tion by the Saxons. 118 PERRAN-ZABULOE. Easter according to the custom of the Greek Church. And again, he thus describes St. Cuthbert’s oratory at Lindisfarne. The holy bishop “ built a small house and made a trench about it. He then commanded his brethren to dig a pit in the floor, although the ground was hard and stony, and no hopes appeared of a spring. Having done this, upon faith, and at the prayer of the servant of God, the next day it appeared full of water, and to this day affords plenty of its heavenly bounty to those that resort thither. * * Beside this fountain he built an oratory .” The spring which afforded the heavenly bounty in this case is not within the house of prayer, and there is a reason for it. St. Cuthbert was a bishop from Ireland, and, though living among Saxons, he still retained to the last the customs of the Eastern Church.* Hence we learn what was the British and Irish observance with regard to the Sacrament of Baptism, and also that the Saxons were the first in England to introduce the font within the church ; a custom which the Normans followed, and all succeeding generations have continued to observe. * When his grave and coffin, in Durham Cathedral, were opened for the purpose of gratifying curiosity in 1827 , a small Greek cross was discovered on his breast, which was taken out , and is now to be seen in the Library of the Dean and Chapter, together with an ivory comb and portions of his embroidered vestments, which were entire. SAXON FONTS. 119 The oldest fonts which remain to the present time are Saxon, and they are found in those parts of England where the Saxons became naturalized, and there alone ; we have not been able to find any traces of Saxon fonts, or any so ancient, in Cornwall or Wales, Guernsey or Anglesea. The Saxon font, perhaps, was a mark of civilization which had not reached these parts ; be it so. Our object is to shew that the Celtic custom was to have the baptistery distinct from the church. The earliest fonts in these places are of a late Nor- man date ; and the strong similarity which exists between them, in their peculiar shape and cha- racter, is a proof of the intimate communion which must have existed between these places to a com- paratively late period. Thus far have we traced this custom ; St. Piran’s, let it be remembered, has no font , but a spring “ beside it.” Let us now turn to Ireland. With respect to the baptistery, we find precisely the same custom throughout Ireland, where it had been intro- duced from the East by the same people, the Romans, in the time of Constantine, if not be- fore. We read of St. Patrick baptizing a royal convert near Dublin at a well, in the beginning of the fifth century. We read of St. Kyeran’s well, near his monastery ; St. Kyeran is none other than our worthy tutelary St. Piran. Be- side this well he lived and taught in his own country before he came to Cornwall ; and a great 120 PERRAN-ZABUL0E. many other instances may be cited. But let it suffice to give but one more, which will shew us that the custom continued so late as the tenth century, and was followed by the Danes, who conquered and settled among the Irish, and were converted by them. In Grose’s Antiquities of Ireland there is an account of St. Dolough’s church, which was built by the Danes in the tenth century. He says, “Beside it there is a holy well of great celebrity “ it is enclosed with- in an octagon building.” Though the learned antiquary does not tell what was the purpose of this building, its shape and position near the church at once decide the point. The octagon is a baptismal figure ; the No. 8, a baptismal number. St. Ambrose, in the fifth century, writes of the octagon as symbolical of the new and perfect Dispensation, of which holy Baptism is the great initiatory rite. The No. 7 was sym- bolical of the natural Creation, which was per- fected in seven days ; the No. 8 indicates another degree of perfection beyond that, namely, which was effected by our Lord’s glorious Resurrection on the eighth day. This mighty triumph over death and the grave fully established the new Dispensation under which we live, the perfect and last Dispensation of trial, of which holy Bap- tism is a great and indispensable feature. Bap- tism is the gate of Christian life, and affords ad- mission to all the blessed hopes and privileges of ST. AMBROSE. 121 that state purchased for us and sealed to us by the Resurrection on the eighth day ; hence the application of the perfect octagon to baptismal purposes : it has an intentional meaning, and was adopted at a very early period, and continues to this day the general and appropriate form of fonts. St. Ambrose, in the fourth century, writes thus of this symbolical figure : “ Octachorum sanctos templum surrexit in usus, Octagonus fons est, munere dignus eo. Hoc numero decuit sacri baptismatis aulam Surgere, quo populis vera salus rediit. Luce resurgentes Christi, qui claustra resolvit Mortis, et a tumulis suscitet exanimes.” We have shewn, then, by our protracted as- similations, which however have been as brief as we could make them, that St. Piran’s corresponds with the churches of the fourth century, and, as far as we have been able to trace, with those of the Celtic Christians of these islands ; we have endeavoured also to trace several important points of difference between this structure and those of the Saxons : let us now in conclusion turn our thoughts to Ireland. Here we shall find most interesting and striking similarities — all the pe- culiarities which St. Piran’s possesses, — the dis- tinct baptistery, the adjacent cell, the smallness of the edifice, the scarcity of windows, the round- headed doorway ornamented with three heads , and the raised threshold, the nave and chancel di- 122 PERRAN-ZABULOE. vided, the stone altar and stone seats, and, lastly, the rude masonry, constructed without the use of lime : all these we find in Ireland, from whence St. Piran came hither. It is surprising what a great number of ruins there are of this kind in that island : surprising, we say, because they are so little known, and theories of British early architecture or ma- sonry have been formed without mention of this very large class of authorities. It is true they are not strictly British, but the intimate con- nection between Ireland and Britain in early times is quite sufficient to justify allusion to them as specimens of the early structures of this island ; and more especially as we have remains of churches, and records of many more, similar in character to these. First, let us visit the spot where St. Piran (in Ireland called Kyran) mi- nistered previous to undertaking the charge St. Patrick laid upon him in Cornwall. It is si- tuated in King’s County in Ireland, and called at this day “ Seir-Kyran,” in honour of its tute- lary Saint and former minister. In this neigh- bourhood, which was his native place, or, at any rate, in his native province of Ossory, St. Kyran first began his ministrations, after his return from Rome. “Here he built a cell* beside a spring in a place encompassed with woods,” near a stream * Probably derived from the Irish “ ceall-cill-kil,” a temple or a church. ST. KYRAN’S IN IRELAND. 123 called “ Fueran,” and at St. Patrick’s request founded a monastery, or a house of regular canons of a St. Austin. His mother, whom he converted and baptized, also presided over a monastery or convent, to which a church was attached, called “ Ceall Lidair,” in this neighbourhood. We are informed by kind correspondents, that at Seir- Kyran, in King’s County in Ireland, there are to this day ancient ruins situated a little westward of a stream called Fueran , and that near the ruins there is a well called “ St. Kyran’s Well.” The ruins of the walls which formed what we suppose was the “Ceall” of St. Kyran, indicate that it was “ very small on the south-east corner of it there is a round tower, evidently one of the ancient ones of this country. The masonry of the ruin and tower corresponds : it is very rude, and formed of uncut stone put together without lime in the mortar . In the east wall of the pre- sent parish church, which is in miserable repair, is inserted the grotesque figure we here represent. It is about sixteen or eighteen inches high, and seven in breadth, and is executed in a “ soft white stone” This figure is called, and looked upon, as an ancient “ statue of St. Kyran,” the patron Saint of the place. In size and character, it will be readily admitted, the “statue” is peculiar enough ; but, strange to say, the head of this figure corresponds exactly with two of the heads which ornamented the doorway of St. Piran’s, of 124 perran-zabuloe. ANCIENT STATUE OP ST. KYRAN. which we have given a representation above. The projecting ears, the peculiar lines by which the features of the face are delineated, correspond exactly, line for line, with the heads alluded to, which are in the Museum in Truro. Evidently these were copied from the figure itself, or exe- cuted by the hand of the same ingenious sculptor of remote times. The position in which the figure is carved is singular, and may also have its meaning, if we did but know it. It will be observed the Saint is sitting in a very unnatural posture, and shewing his heels ; indeed it seems the great effort of the position that he should shew his heels. The word “ Seir,” in the name “ Seir-Kyran,” signifies a “ heel /’ but what connection there is between these in- cidents, or what interesting legend ought to be known concerning the Saint’s heels, we have not SEIR-KYRAN. 125 been able yet to discover. The date of this figure we suppose must be subsequent to the period of the Saint’s departure from the place of his first ministration : probably it was executed as a mo- nument to his memory soon after, and we should add, very soon after, his departure ; for the his- tory of the progress of the arts in Ireland would lead us to expect better specimens of it even so early as the sixth century. St. Kyran lived in this place in the middle of the fifth : at this time, and before this period, we may suppose it was a place of importance, for there are many remains of early military defences, such as fosses and ramparts ; among them, in pretty good pre- servation, is a square encampment, formed by a turf rampart and ditch. The ancient name of this place was “Saiger,” derived, it is supposed, from “ Saigeoir,” a sawyer, “ owing to the wooden buildings* of which the town was originally com- posed.” There can be little doubt that the stone * About eight or nine years since, an ancient Irish wooden house was discovered by some men who were probing a peat- bog (with long iron rods). Captain Mudge, in a letter to the Antiquarian Society, minutely describes this house : “ It was built of rough timber ruddy split , and evidently belonged to a period or a people who knew not the use of iron. Within the house was found a wedge or chisel of stone, sharpened at one end ; this instrument had been used for mortising the principal timbers and posts of this house together. The house was only twelve feet square, had a flat roof, and was in good preserva- tion.” 126 PERRAN-ZABULOE. buildings now in ruins, together with the round tower, were in existence in the time of St. Kyran. We here beg to insert an extract from the Dub- lin Penny Journal,* on the subject of the latter, which is not only interesting, but valuable and conclusive on the point ; but without further com- ment we will give it : “ By far the most curious thing at Seir-Kyran’s is the round tower, and to which I have never seen a similar one. It is only about twenty feet high, with a conical stone roof, and was evidently erected subsequent (?) to the fabric that once stood beside it, and against the south-east angle of which it is built. It contains a great many loopholes around it. These are three or four inches square on the outside, but are bevelled off so as to adjoin each other on the inside ; some of the holes are not on a level with the others. I suppose this tower to have been used for keeping up a consecrated fire in it. These religious fires were by no means so rare * This Journal, together with the Dublin Penny Magazine, which interesting publications are unfortunately given up, is one of those valuable works we have been able to find on the subject of Irish antiquities. We have reason to be assured that the statements in them are correct, and acknowledge to have drawn the greatest part of our Irish information from them. We believe we are indebted to the Journal for the representation, inserted above, of St. Kyran. We have also great pleasure in making our many acknowledgments to the ready and obliging correspondents we have had the honour to meet with in Ireland. CONSECRATED FIRE. 127 as some suppose. This is not a convenient place for entering upon a dry and lengthened treatise respecting them ; suffice it, therefore, to remark that the Druids kept fires ignited as emblems of the sun or life. “ In Toland’s history we find, that on a certain evening all the people of the country, out of a religious persuasion instilled into them by the Druids, extinguished their fires entirely; that every master of a family was obliged to take a portion of the consecrated fire home, and to kindle the fire anew in his house, which for the ensuing year was to be lucky or prosperous. Macgeogha- gan, tom. i. p. 81, writes : ‘There was an annual Druidical fire lighted at Ilachta, in the Barony of Clonlisk, in King’s County.’ The same his- torian tells us, that this was an institution of the monarch Tuathal-Teachmar, and that the place it was held in had been cut off from Munster by the same king. He adds, it was forbidden to supply fires with fuel in November eve until they were first renewed from that holy fire. We are informed by early writers that this practice was continued after the introduction of Chris- tianity. We are told that St. Patrick * had his * This was probably at Downpatrick, where there is a round tower. The monastery in this place, the ruins of which adjoin the tower, was founded by the apostle of Ireland early in the fifth century, on a hill (dun) granted to him by the chieftain of the Dal-dechu, who had been converted to Chris- 128 PERRAN-ZABULOE. 4 consecrated fire / and St. Brigid had, at Kildare, her ‘ perpetual fire.’ Ware, in his ‘ Antiqui- ties,’ c. 17, § 6, informs us that Henry de Loun- dres, Archbishop of Dublin, 4 put out St. Brigid’s fire, because the custom was not used elsewhere.’ It is strange how so learned a writer as Sir James Ware could have fallen into so great a mistake. In a paper by Mr. Cooke of Birr, giving an ac- count of the Barnaari-Cuilawn, (a curious an- cient c fire-cover’ in that gentleman’s possession,) published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, as read before that learned body in the year 1822, he shews that relic to have been the cover of the perpetual fire instituted in the parish of Glankeem, County Tipperary, by St. Cuilawn, brother to Cormac M‘Cullenan, who was King and Bishop of Cashel upwards of 900 years ago. In like manner St. Kyran had his conse- crated fire at Saiger, in imitation of the Druidical tianity by him. Here the body of St. Patrick was buried in the year 493. Cambrensis relates that his remains, together with those of SS. Brigid and Columba, were discovered by Sir John de Courcy in the year 1 1 85, with the following epitaph over them : Hi tres in Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno, Brigid a, Patricius, atque Columba pius. Sir John obtained a bull from Pope Pius Urban III. for the removal of these relics, and placed them in shrines within the abbey, which he greatly repaired and beautified. There is a round tower at Kildare also, near the monastery founded in the year 453 by St. Brigid, who was originally buried here, but subsequently removed to Downpatrick. CONSECRATED FIRE. 129 fire at Ilachta, which was but a short distance from his monastery. Colgan (de Vita S } Kierani, c. 35, p. 462,) relates, * St. Kyran , the Bishop, re- solved that the fire consecrated at Easter should not he extinguished in his monastery for the whole year" The same authority informs us that a ‘ boy named Chichideus, of Cluain, who belonged to the monastery of Clonmacnoise, having spent some days with St. Kyran at Saiger, extinguished the fire, and was killed by wolves as a judgment from heaven ; which when his master, St. Kyran the younger, Abbot of Clonmacnoise,* learned, he went to Saiger to St. Kyran, and was received * Clonmacnoise, in King’s County, is now one of the shrines of some of the most valuable and interesting antiquarian remains in Ireland. It is a poor village, but covered with ecclesiastical ruins, and hallowed by so many undistinguished graves of kings, nobles, and bishops, as to be aptly designated the Iona of Ireland. The consecrated ground encloses about two Irish acres, on which are the remains of the cathedral or ancient abbey and nine other small churches. Here, also, is a round tower at the north-east angle of one of the M small chapels.” The windows of the tower are pointed, but they are clearly a later insertion. The tower itself, and the fabric beside it, are very venerable in appearance, and claim a remote antiquity : at the west end of the latter there is a small door- way with a rude round-headed arch ornamented with three heads , as was the doorway in our oratory; one on the key- stone, and one on each side at the spring of the arch. There is one small window on the south side, and there may have been one in the east wall. A monastery was founded here by St. Kyran about the end of the fifth century. K 130 PERU AN-Z ABULOE. with great honour, but there was not then any fire in the monastery , because the fires all through the place used daily to be kindled from the con- secrated fire? “ This story, divested of what relates to the wolves, plainly shews that there was formerly a sacred fire kept up here, and it is most likely the tower I have described was used as the fire-house. Such is at least my opinion, which I offer for the correction of those more learned in these matters.” An opinion, moreover, which has some reason- able probability, as examination of the tower it- self, and reference to a work by L. C. Beaufort, which obtained a prize offered by the Eoyal Irish Academy, will satisfactorily prove. It is clearly shewn in that work that these towers were ori- ginally introduced by Sun worshippers, and for the purpose alleged, of preserving in them the consecrated fire, the emblem of the Sun, and for which purpose they continued to be used in Christian times. But it is insisted by others that these structures are not to be assigned to the pagan times, but to the early Christian of Ireland ; moreover, that they were not fire-houses, (which affects our argument materially,) but observa- tories or watch-towers, used also for the keeping of vestments and vessels of the church, and even as the dwellings of the attendant minister. It would be out of place here to enter minutely into this subject ; it is a subject on which much ROUND TOWERS. 131 has been said, and several Irish prizes awarded. But, whatever their purpose really was, it seems more likely that they were receptacles of the sacred fire, than observatories, or watch-towers* or vestries, or hermitages ! As observatories, to be good observatories and effectual, they would in reason have possessed more windows and loop- holes for the purpose of watching ; and, as to their being vestries and hermitages, we cannot but imagine that they would have been more comfortable if erected in a more convenient shape for that purpose. The tower at Seir-Kyran, how- ever, has no loop-holes for watching, but has air- holes around it, such as we should look for in a fire-house ; and it is not unlikely that the lower portion, the ground-floor, was the dwelling of the attendant on the fire and the church. It is contended, in a paper in the 9th volume of Archseologia, that these towers were not fire- houses, but bell-towers , and therefore not pagan ! In the East, near Jerusalem, there are several towers, not round, but square, in which bells were hung; ; and in one of them no less than three hermits lived in the different stories of the tower, one above the other ! But this is by no means conclusive that these structures were always, from the beginning, assigned to such use, or that they were not anterior to Christian times. It would not injure the bell and hermit theory to believe that they were pagan edifices, and used for re- 132 PERRAN-ZABULOE. ceptacles of consecrated fire ; and that, after paganism had been dispelled and the fire ex- tinguished, these towers were used as hell- towers : and it is very probable indeed that hermits should have climbed up into the deserted towers — they loved such remote and secluded places. We can imagine a hermit looking out of the loop-holes, — several of them in one tower, looking out different ways from their respective loop-holes, and fancying themselves all alone, without at all overthrowing, nay, rather support- ing, our theory that the places thus occupied had once been used for a different purpose ! That they were introduced into Ireland from the East is probable, and indeed the fact ; and it adds much interest to them on that account : Sun worship and Druidism also, not only Christianity, were introduced from the same quarter. We refer our readers to the note below for further proof that they were used in early times as fire-houses, and even in Ireland.* Consecrated fire is a common ob- * At Kinneigb, near the parish church, is a round tower about seventy feet high. It contains only four small apertures for air and light ; one facing west, another south-west, and the others at opposite sides and different heights, all cor- responding to the floors now gone. A stone-flagged floor remains at the landing from the doorway, in the centre of which is a square opening, large enough to admit a man to go down into the dark chamber. The neighbouring peasantry are quite ignorant of the original use of this tower, they simply call it “ cillcagh a name, however, sufficiently indicative of FIRE-TEMPLES. 133 ject of worship among the heathen in the East, who regard it as an “ emblem of the Sun the its meaning and also its heathen original. “ Cill ” signifies a temple or place of worship, and “agh” fire. (In Persia, and other places in the East, the same word is still used.) They state tnat it was erected by holy men in former times. The “ cillcagh ” announces at once a fane devoted to that form of religion compounded of Saboeism, or star- worship, and Budhism, of which the Sun was the principal deity in all the kindred mythologies of India, Persia, Phoenicia, Phrygia, Samothrace, and Ireland. Zerdust, or Zoroaster, the “ Persian reformer,” was the first who had Pyreia and fire-temples erected. Ilan- way tells us he saw four of them at Sari : they were composed of most durable material, round, about thirty feet in diameter, and one hundred and twenty feet high. Lord Valencia describes two round towers he saw in India, near Bhaugul- pore, his lordship observes : “ They resemble those buildings in Ireland.” In the early annals of Ireland there is mention of “ Muighe Tuireth na-bh-Fomoroch ;” that is, the Plain of the Fomorian Towers: “ Maytura,” the Tower in Mayo : “Tur- innis,” the Island of the Tower. The Tower of Temor, and many others, are mentioned with reference to a most remote period of Irish histoiy. The Ulster Annals, in the year 448, record the occurrence of a terrible earthquake by which fifty-seven toivers were destroyed and injured. The “ Annals of the Four Masters,” in the year 890, mention “ the Turaghan Angcoire,” the Fire- tower of the Anchorite at Inis Cailtre, an island in the Shannon. The same Annals, in the year 995, tell that Armagh was destroyed by lightning ; its hospital, cathedral, palace, and Fidhnemead , or “ celestial index.” These remarks shew their origin and purpose ; that they were applied afterwards for Christian purposes is not improbable. It is even probable that they were so used, and also that others were built by the Christians. It is striking that so many of the remains of monasteries and churches founded by holy men and 134 PERRAN-ZABULOE. shape of the tower pointing upward to the sky seems appropriate to the purpose. Why may not Christian missionaries have also adopted this heathen custom with respect to fire and tower also 1 It is probable they did ; for doubtless there were household superstitions con- nected with the sacred fire, and it was reasonable and politic, in order to win souls, to follow the same custom, though not necessarily with the pa- gan meaning : nay, it is due to policy and the earnest character of the time to suppose that the Chris- tian minister likewise had his sacred fire, for the same reason that the Druids had theirs. It was a significant custom to adopt, and one likely, under the circumstances, to have been a very effectual means of “ winning souls,” and more- over of keeping them, by bringing them con- tinually to the minister of the true God, and to His Church, for a fresh supply of the sacred fire. It is a significant custom ! Did all Christians every- where kindle the sacred fire of devotion daily at the Temple of the Lord, the sincere and faithful ministration of His servants would be more ef- fectual, and the homes of their respective flocks would not be dark or gloomy ; but the pleasant cheerful light of peace would shine upon them, women of the fifth and sixth centuries have generally a tower near them ; generally speaking, they are on the north and east angle of the church, with a communicating doorway: we shall have occasion to refer to these hereafter. SEIR-KYRAN. 135 and light them onward through the necessary toils and trials of this world, even through bitter trials, still cheerfully and thankfully to the end. We have only one more short quotation, and then we will go onward with our subject. We find it was the general practice of the early clergy to place their churches on the site of Druidical fanes, and to seek to consecrate places which were already endeared by the superstitions of a pagan people, to the purposes of the true religion. “ Thus in the old life of St. Mocteus, by a writer of the seventh century, it is related, that, when he came to Louth, he found the place in possession of the magi; whereupon he lighted a fire, which they seeing endeavoured to extinguish, lest their own idola- trous fire should fail, but Mocteus proving victor founded his monastery there and it is an in- teresting fact, there is a round tower here also. But we have wandered long and far about the use of round towers, but we trust not in vain, or without an object. The quotations which we have already made on the subject of the conse- crated fire of St. Kyran will decide in some mea- sure the date of the ruins at Seir- Kyran, and thus render it not entirely incredible or impossi- ble that a stone church could have been erected so early as the fifth century, or the beginning of the sixth, in Cornwall ; and by St. Piran, who had already built a church (ceall) and round tower in Ireland. This removes the greatest difficulty, 136 PERRAN-ZABULOE. with respect to the date we ask for the oratory of St. Piran ; namely, that stone structures were not usual at this period. It is true, our examples are in Ireland : but St. Piran came from Ireland ; and it is hoped that the precise similarity we are able to shew between St. Piran’s and the ancient stone churches of Ireland will, if not prove, at least induce us to believe that they are contem- poraneous.* Ireland abounds with ruins, — ruins of magni- ficent churches and abbeys despoiled and torn down, and ruins also of a humbler class, which have no beauty, but much interest and their rudeness to recommend them ; we refer to the ruins of old churches in Ireland, called “ Damh- liags ,” which are supposed to have been erected in the period immediately subsequent to the depar- ture of the Romans, and prior to other foreign invasion. There are a very great number of these ruins throughout that country : they are no longer used for the sacred purposes of their erection ; time and the destroyer have despoiled them, but they are not profaned. V eneration, or super- Here we should say, that, though driven by the scarcity of evidence to urge the probability that the model upon which this oratory is built is derived from Ireland, we are by no means disposed to make this the general rule in every case ; for, after all we have said and quoted, we beg to maintain still that the art was derived from the Romans in both places, not in Corn- wall from Ireland only: this, it will be observed, will also account for the alleged similarities. ORNAMENTED DOORWAY. 137 stition be it called, still clings to them ; their hallowing influence is not scorned or despised. The sacred precincts of most of these churches are enclosed to this day, and used as “ favourite burial-places.” Almost every cemetery contains also a spring , and a hermitage or chamber for the dwelling of the attendant minister of the oratory. The churches lie east and west : the doorways are principally in the west or south ; and a small doorway in the north-east corner, which generally communicated with a round tower or cell. At Glonmacnoise, where a “ monastery” was founded by St. Kyran, there is a doorway which corresponds, as we have mentioned before, with St. Piran’s ; it has a round archway, and is orna- mented with three heads, one on the key-stone, and one on each side at the spring of the arch. Other peculiarities, such as the smallness of the church, the scarcity and diminutive size of the windows, we find also prevail in these structures. At the island of Inniscattery, near the mouth of the Shannon, in the fifth century St. Sennanus (who also built a church in Cornwall near the Land’s End, where a parish is still dedicated to his memory,) erected eleven churches, whereof only seven now remain, but of these only three are supposed to be untouched. One called “ Simon’s Own,” standing to the north-west of the cathe- dral, is not more than twenty-three feet long. 138 PERRAN-ZABULOE. “ Teampul-an-eird,” that is, “ the Temple on the Height,” is of similar dimensions and equally un- adorned. The light is admitted into each of these “ Liliputian temples” by one or two very small windows, little superior to loop-holes ; so narrow, that, when entirely open, we must be struck with surprise how the light which they admitted could have sufficed. There is a round tower among these ruins. Again, there is the damhliag or little stone church of St. Nissan, in an island called Ireland’s Eye, near Howth. This structure was built by St. Nissan in the sixth century : at this place he founded a monastery, to which he gave a copy of the sacred Gospels. The ruin is 24ft. by 1 2ft. : the walls are composed of rough pebbles and frag- ments of flint, which give an evidence of very re- mote antiquity. There are no traces of windows but in the north, where there is an aperture which may possibly have contained one, but that must have been a mere loop-hole. There is a round tower at the north-east angle of the ruin, and a small chamber near it : this was probably the priest’s dwelling. At Trummery, in County Antrim, there is a ruin of a church 40ft. by 15ft. : it presents nothing worthy of regard or notice with respect to architecture. The west gable, which has but one pointed window, the only window of the church, is entire ; but it was evidently a late insertion, and speaks for the antiquity of the remainder of GLENDALOUGH. 139 the church. The door is on the south side. On the north-east corner of the ruin is a round tower, with a cell* or apartment beside it, between it and the church. One of the earliest of the old churches in Ireland is that at Banagher in Lon- donderry ; it is supposed to have been built in 474. It is small : the door is raised from the ground y it appears the steps to it were of stone. The tradition is, that “ 0‘Heney the Saint” was the founder of the church, and that he used to shew himself occasionally from this raised thresh- old. But let it suffice to look at one more place. This is one of great interest, the valley of Glen- dalough, where are ruins of seven churches.* The first of these is now called the “ Ivy Church,” is very small, and was, like all the “ dam- hliags” of Ireland, roofed with flat stones. Not far from this ruin is a small building, “ probably the sacristy, where reliques and vestments were kept.” The next is called the “ kitchen ” of St. Kevin, who was the founder of these churches. It is the most perfect of the seven, is roofed with stone, and has a steeple resembling a round tower, but of mi- niature proportions. It was lighted by only one window. The interior measures twenty-two feet * Besides the seven churches in this romantic valley, there are seven at Clonmacnoise, seven at Inniscalty , “ seven altars” at Holy Cross, seven at Clonfert : “ the same mystic number may be traced throughout Ireland,” probably adopted in allu- sion to the seven Churches of the East. 140 PERRAN-ZABULOE. in length and sixteen in breadth ; at the east end is an arch which communicates with a small chapel. The chancel is 10ft. Gin. by 9ft. 3in., in which there is a small east window or loop-hole. In this chancel are the remains of a stone altar. The remaining five correspond with these, and have been described so often that it is needless to trespass longer upon patience and indulgence with “ examples.” There is a round tower among these ruins also. The similarity which we have traced between St. Piran’s and the early structures of the Irish Christians not only cannot fail to strike us as such, but there is another point of view which renders the similarity of so much the more consequence to our purpose ; namely, that, agreeing among them- selves, these structures differ from those of the Saxons and Normans. Whether these peculiarities, which we find in St. Piran’s, were introduced from Ireland, or whether they were derived in Britain and also in Ireland from the identical source, the Romans, is not of so much importance as the point that they — peculiar and agreeing in them- selves — differ from Saxon structures, and more still from Norman. If it be shewn that they do not belong to either of these periods or people, they necessarily belong to an earlier. We have elsewhere, in the early part of the work, remarked on the art of building with stone ; but, with all deference to existing theories on the sub- MASONRY. 141 ject, it does not appear that it was wholly unknown in these islands prior to its practice by the Saxons. It would be assuming our argument to offer St. Piran’s as an example of it : but there are amphi- theatres and hill-castles in Cornwall built of stone ; and the structures in Ireland, under the circumstances we have already mentioned, may also he regarded as specimens of the art prior to any communication with the Saxons ; nay, it is yet to be proved that the latter did not learn the art from the Irish, among other arts of civiliza- tion introduced by that people. Assuming then that the art of building with stone in Cornwall was anterior to the time of the conquest of it by the Saxons in the tenth century, let us briefly examine the masonry of St. Piran’s as compared with that of the Saxons and Normans. First, the rudeness of the masonry. In this re- spect the oratory of St. Piran differs materially from well-authenticated Saxon buildings : there are no hewn or cut stones , no long and short ar- rangement in the quoins, no regular layers of “ work ,” no lime in the mortar, no string-courses or mouldings on the doorways or windows or in other parts of the church, except on one of the doorways, and that, we think, is not Saxon. The masonry of this structure we have already de- scribed : in rudeness it surpasses every Saxon struc- ture we have ever seen, while, on the other hand, it resembles that of the Romans in the peculiar 142 PERRAN-ZABULOE. manner in which the stones are imbedded in the mortar ; they do not appear to have been laid one by one upon each other in regular layers, but thrown together in some unaccountable way, some of the large stones resting upon the lower ones by their angles ; but they have no layers of tiles or flat stones to bind the work according to the Roman manner. Again, there is no lime used in the masonry, but a white substance re- sembling it in appearance, though by no means in efficacy : it is evident from this that the use of lime, or of the manner of preparing it for use, was not known by the builders of this church ; we cannot suppose it was omitted for the sake of economy. This is not the character of the time, they to whom we refer “ did not sit down to count the cost of glorifying God it must have been quite as expensive to have procured the China clay, which is used, as lime, for it is not to be had nearer than fourteen miles. Evidently, then, they knew not the use of lime. Grose, in his “ Antiquities of Ireland,” informs us that the Irish did not know the use of lime till the ninth century, when the Danes taught it to them ; and if in Ireland the use of it was not known — Ireland was at this time the academy of the West — it is not to be wondered at that in Cornwall it was unknown also. If these remarks will apply to Saxon remains, they apply yet more to Norman, which are so much more perfect in GLASS WINDOWS. 143 material as also in construction. Again, the di- minutive size of St. Piran’s does not accord with Saxon and Norman structures, the scarcity of windows and their smallness. The Saxon and Norman churches had more windows and larger ones, and, besides that, had glass in them ; here there are no signs whatever of glass (it was intro- duced among the Saxons in the eighth century) : there are no grooves* for frames in the two win- dows we boast of in St. Piran’s ; that in the east wall, indeed, was plastered throughout the splay, when discovered. There is certainly an internal splay in the win- dows, though not in the doorways ; but this has not been shewn to be peculiarly Saxon or Nor- man. It seems probable, even from the reason of the case, that the same ingenuity which devised an aperture in a wall to admit air and light, would also devise to have as much of the latter as possible without the inconvenience of too much of the former : the internal splay seems naturally to have this twofold object. Besides the manner in which the head of the arch is formed, we should certainly say the art was derived from the masonry of the Romans ; it is formed, as reference * The apparent groove in the south window represented in our ground-plan is only the intermediate space between the two layers of stone which form the window externally and on the inside ; the groove is very irregular, according to the sizes of the stones of which it is formed. 144 PERRAN-ZABULOE. to our illustration will shew, with flat stones, re- sembling in shape Roman tiles, arranged side by side, without any moulding or even chamfer on the outer or inner angles. The doorways are round- headed, without a splay, or chamfered angles ; and that at the north-east corner, the priest’s door, without any moulding or other ornament. At the principal entrance on the south side there is a moulding, but it is not only unlike any Saxon or Norman moulding we have ever met with, but it differs from them by being carried up the sides and round the head of the arch, without any ca- pital or base ; and besides, there are three heads arranged about it, at the key-stone, and on either side of the doorway at the spring of the arch ; which was not a Saxon or even a Norman fea- ture, but one which is found in Ireland in a structure supposed to have been erected to St. Piran , at Clonmacnoise. If there is a peculiarity in a Norman doorway more striking than an- other, it is the massive pier with capital and base on each side, and the moulding of the arch rest- ing on the capital ; in larger doorways a string of mouldings is sometimes carried down the side of the pier : but we know of no instance of a Norman doorway without capital or base ; and the Saxon, if anything, had more massive and conspicuous capitals and bases to the doorways. We have specimens of Norman masonry and architecture in this county which are not inferior to those in other NORMAN FONT. 145 counties ; which, placed beside the oratory of St. Piran, would at once indicate all we have been contending for. We have even evidence of Nor- man skill in this parish which is far above any that is displayed in the little structure in ques- tion. In No. vi. of the Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts there is a representation of the Norman font, which is still used and in good preservation, in this parish ; reference to this will shew that it is rather of an early Norman date, but still indi- cates a much later date than any portion of the oratory of St. Piran. And lastly, to sum up our arguments and to bring them to a close, we have endeavoured to prove that this church corresponds with the models we have in the writings of the Fathers and historians of the fourth century ; that it cor- responds, as far as we are able to ascertain, with the structures erected by the British about the same time in this country ; that, differing from Saxon and Norman structures, it corresponds ex- actly with those erected by the Irish both in Ireland and in Britain. In short, we know what this church is like, and what it is not like ; that it resembles the earliest churches, and differs from Saxon and Norman : we may conclude, therefore, that it is British. The history of this parish, and a few other cir- cumstances, will confirm the opinion. Our earliest record informs us that St. Kyran built a cell L 146 PERRAN-ZABULOE. beside a spring. It has hitherto escaped us that the word translated “ cell ” in this instance means “ church,” derived from the Irish “ ceall” or “ cill ” “ kil,” church ; the same term is used for the struc- ture he erected in Saiger, or Seir-Kyran. The next record informs us the name of this place is Lanpiran : the word “ Lan ” is the British word which answers to the Irish “ Ceall,” and, like it, means church — the British church of St. Piran. So early as the time of Edward the Confessor, who was the son of Athelstan who conquered Cornwall, and who made the first Register of Cornish churches or ecclesiastical establishments, — at this time there was a house of canons regular here ; it will be remembered St. Kyran founded similar establishments in Ireland, at Seir-Kyran and Clonmacnoise.* We need follow this history no further. It re- mains now to be judged whether this oratory was erected by St. Piran himself, or soon after his * We have just been favoured with another evidence of the British antiquity of St. Piran’s, by the sight of a ring and portion of a brooch discovered on a skeleton which was buried almost on a level with the foundation of the church, and there- fore probably before its submersion. The ring, which is now the property of Mr. Thomas Hoblyn, the representative of an ancient family of this parish, is of silver, very massive, and has an elongated zigzag pattern upon it, which corresponds exactly with that which is found on British sepulchral urns ; and on one side there is an attempt to represent the head of some monster, serpent or dragon. We hope, through the medium of LANPIRAN. 147 departure, or whether it is Norman ; and this we must leave to our candid readers to decide for themselves. We can only add, in conclusion, that there is a strong probability that this oratory was over- whelmed before the conquest of Cornwall, under Athelstan, by the Saxons, in the year 936 ; for it is impossible to suppose that this little struc- ture, with the humble dwelling beside it, formed the collegiate establishment of Lanpiran, which the Saxons found here, and which is mentioned in the Register of Edward the Confessor. We are inclined to believe that at this period the “mo- nastery” stood on the opposite side of the stream that proved so effectual a barrier from the sand, and was located on that site which is now oc- cupied by the ruins of the “ second church.” The solitary granite cross which at present stands, the sole monument of former days, among ruinous heaps, is not a slight confirmation of this opi- nion ; for it is a Greek cross, and its venerable and time-worn appearance also attests that it be- longs to a period anterior to the introduction of some antiquarian publication, to furnish the public with an engraving of this interesting ring. The portion of the brooch discovered is of copper. It was probably the pin of the brooch ; it is twisted in the manner of the British tore or collar, and is about two inches long; the remainder of the brooch may have been composed of ivory or other material which is now decomposed. 148 PERRAN-ZABULOE. the customs of the Western or Latin Church into this country by the Saxons. Lastly, it may he that we have arrived at con- clusions not clear to others, and that we have put forward theories which cannot be supported ; but we trust we are open to conviction, and ca- pable of conceding readily points which we have assumed inconclusively. The opinion we enter- tain of the oratory of St. Piran is, that it was built by St. Piran himself in the fifth century, or soon after by his successors; that it continued to be used for the holy purpose for which it had been erected for the space of two or three or perhaps four centuries, certainly not longer, if we may judge from the state in which it was found, — in- deed, we can scarcely believe that it could have stood so long as four centuries previous to its submersion, rudely built as it is, and in a situa- tion so exposed to violent storms ; that it was overwhelmed in the eighth or ninth century, and that another church was erected on the opposite side of the stream, in the cemetery of which church the “ four-holed” Greek cross we have described was set up ; and to the religious establishment of this church we suppose the Register of Edward the Confessor to refer, under the name of “ Lan- piran.” After the Norman conquest the church was probably rebuilt, and a Norman font intro- duced into it, the same which still remains in use in this parish. In the year 1430 the church ST. perran’s well. 149 was again rebuilt, in the perpendicular style : such it remained till 1803, when it was deemed ex- pedient to take it down and rebuild it elsewhere, which was accordingly done in the year following. The tower, porch, the pillars and arches, and windows, having been removed to a part of the parish called Lamborne, were again set up, and form a pretty country church, very creditable to those who built it, considering the low ebb of taste in church architecture at the time. Such is the history of the churches of St. Piran in Zabuloe. There are records of another small church about one mile eastward of “ the oratory a field near “ St. Perran’s Well,” in a village called “ Perran Well,” is known by the name of the “ Old Church,” and within the memory of some of the inhabit- ants of the neighbourhood portions of “ rude ma- sonry” have been torn up at different times in ploughing the field and preparing it for the re- ception of seed. But this structure cannot be identified as the resting-place of St. Piran. It may have been built in his time, or soon after, or at any rate in British times ; as also a small church which gave the village of Lamborne its name, Lan-bron, “ a church on an enclosed hill and another at Callestoc Veor, “ the great valley of oaks.” Lyson, in his History of Cornwall, informs us there were seven chapels in this Parish, and there are traces and traditions of as many still remaining. 150 perran-zabuloe. If there be any portion of the evidence we have adduced in support of the antiquity of St. Piran’s oratory which we would revert to, or would urge before every other, in confirmation of the British antiquity of this structure, it is the internal evidence of antiquity which the ma- sonry affords. It is, in fact, the great evidence ; all others are as a confirmation of it. It is a portion of evidence, too, which is worthy of re- gard, not only on its own account, but also in honour and respect to the memory of those who reared this little edifice. Rudeness in a struc- ture may proceed, it is true, from negligence or ignorance, or from motives of pecuniary consider- ation ; but neither of these can be detected here. Look at it as attentively as we will, there is rude- ness, but also some care and a little thought too ; there is unskilfulness, but also an effort to do the best in the builder’s power : these mark it at once as the work of a people who did their best, and therefore deserve our respect. It would have proved far more difficult to a Norman mason to have arranged the stones in the way they are here thrown together than to have laid them in regular courses. Again, the specimen of the carving in the door-way, even on soft stone, confirms that they had but imperfect instruments for their work. Nothing can be ruder than the building itself, and the three heads ; still they were put up, and ST. piran’s oratory. 151 we cannot but believe put up as the best their simple art could produce to decorate their house of prayer. The interior of the church bears evi- dence of even still greater care and attention. It was smoothly plastered with china clay, which is perfectly white and clean, even after it has been buried in sand for centuries. All these taken together bespeak an effort which we must respect, though we cannot admire the result. As to the other motives mentioned, it is unnecessary to dwell upon them, for it is especially due to the character and piety of the time we treat of to exonerate them from such motives. It was their praise, as it has been well expressed, “ that they did not sit down to count the cost of glorifying God.” They gave freely of the best and costliest in their power ; it was their pride and happiness to be permitted to devote of their substance to the Lord. We regard the masonry of the church, therefore, as a strong evidence of its antiquity; and, rude and imperfect as it is, still we look upon it with interest as the best and most perfect our primitive and simple brethren of early times were capable of devoting to the service and glory of our God. THE END. .London : Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, Bangor House, Shoe Lane, London , ‘lud September , 1844. BOOKS PUBLISHED BY JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. ILLUSTRATIONS OF BAPTISMAL FONTS, Comprising 124 Engravings, with descriptions; and with an Introduction by F. A. Paley, M.A., Hon. Sec. of the Cambridge Camden Society. 8vo., 21s. GEOLOGY, INTRODUCTORY, DESCRIPTIVE, AND PRACTICAL. 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I.A. etc. Containing generic and specific descrip- tions of all the known British species of Sea-weed, and of Conferva, both marine and fresh-water. — 8vo. 9s. A CORNISH FAUNA; Being a Compendium of the Natural History of the County. By Jonathan Couch, F.L.S., etc. 8vo. Parts 1 and 2, each 2s. A FLORA OF SHROPSHIRE. By the Rev. W. A. Leighton, M.A., F.R.S.E., etc. — Comprising the flowering Plants indigenous to the County, arranged on the Linnaean system. 8vo. 24s. ON THE GROWTH OF PLANTS IN CLOSELY-GLAZED CASES. By N. B. Ward, F.L.S. — 8vo., 5s. A FLORA OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF REIGATE, SURREY ; CONTAINING THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS. By George Luxford, A.L.S., F.R.S.E. — 12mo. with a Map of the District, 5s. DESCRIPTION OF THE SKELETON OF AN EXTINCT GIGANTIC SLOTH. With Observations on the Osteology, natural Affinities, and probable Habits of the Megatherioid Quadrupeds in general. By Richard Owen, F.R.S., etc. 4 to. 1/. 12s. 6 d. A HISTORY OF THE FOSSIL FRUITS AND SEEDS OF THE LONDON CLAY. By James Scott Bowerbank, F.G.S., etc. The first Part, in Royal 8vo. price l6s., contains the description, and 423 figures engraved on 17 copper plates by Mr. James De Carl Sowerby. INDEX GEOLOGICUS. A Diagram 3 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 9 in. ; showing the position and age of every deposit, and their “localities;” the classification of their Fossils, Metals, and Minerals; the statistics of Soils and indigenous Flora of each surface in Britain, &c. By G. Bartlett. — O n roller or in case 25s. TRANSACTIONS OF THE MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Part I. Royal 8vo., with eight plates. 7s. 6d. JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, TATERNOSTER ROW. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ARTS AND MANUFACTURES; being a Series of Papers on Pottery, Limestone, and Calcareous Cements, Gypsum and its uses, Furs and the Fur Trade, Felting and Hat-making, Hone and its uses, Tortoiseshell and Whalebone, Antiquarian and Metallurgical History of Iron, En- graving and Etching, and on Paper. Read before the Society for the Encourage- ment of Arts, Manufactures, &c. By Arthur Aikin, F.L.S., F.G.S., etc. late Secretary to that Institution. In foolscap 8vo., Illustrated. Price 8s. cloth.* LETTERS FROM THE VIRGIN ISLES. Illustrating Life and Manners in the West Indies. In post 8vo. 9s. Gd. A WINTER IN THE AZORES, AND A SUMMER AT THE BATHS OF THE FURNAS. By JosEPn Bullar, M.D., and Henry Bullar, of Lincoln’s Inn. Two vols. 8vo., with Illustrations, 28s. * DOCUMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF LUDLOW AND THE LORDS MARCHERS. Edited by the Hon. Robert H. Clivb. — Imperial 8vo., 31s. Gd. ELEMENTS OF PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE ; OR, THE YOUNG INQUIRER ANSWERED. Explaining, in question and answer, and in familiar language, what most things daily used, seen, or talked of, are ; what they are made of, where found, and to what uses applied. Second Edition, 18mo., with Illustrations, 3s. LITTLE FABLES FOR LITTLE FOLKS. Selected for their moral tendency, and re-written in familiar words, not one of which exceeds two syllables. 18mo. Is. Gd. UNIVERSAL STENOGRAPHY; OR, A NEW AND PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF SHORT-HAND WRITING, On the basis of Taylor. By William Harding. 12mo. 3s. swd, 3s. Gd. bound. A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHRIST’S HOSPITAL, FROM ITS FOUNDATION BY KING EDWARD THE SIXTH. By J. I. Wilson. Seventh Edition, with Six Illustrations, and a List of the Governors. — Small 8vo., 4s. A CABINET EDITION OF THE ECONOMY OF HUMAN LIFE. IN TWELVE BOOKS. By R. Dodsley.— With twelve plates, engraved on steel, from original csigns, by Frank Howard, Harvey, Williams, &c. 18mo., gilt edges, 5s. ORIGINAL AND SELECT POEMS AND HYMNS. 32mo. half-bound, 2s. Gd. JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. Works now in course of Publication. INSTRUMENTA ECCLESIASTICA. Edited by the Cambridge Camden Society. 4to., 3 parts published, 2s. 6d. each. PROFESSOR OWEN’S HISTORY OF BRITISH FOSSIL MAMMALIA.* In about 8 monthly half-crown parts. Four published. A HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MADEIRA. By Richard Thomas Lowe, M.A., British Chaplain. With original figures from nature of all the species, by the Hon. C. E. C. Norton and M. Young. Price of each part, in 8 vo. 2s. 6 d , plain, 5s. coloured; or in 4to. 7s. 6d. coloured. Four published HEWITSON’S BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. Coloured illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds, accompanied with Descriptions of the Eggs, Nests, &c. By William C. Hewitson. — Will be completed in 32 monthly half-crown parts. Fifteen published. THE ZOOLOGIST, a Journal of Natural History. Is. monthly. THE PHYTOLOGIST, a Botanical Journal. Is. monthly. In Preparation. PROFESSOR BELL’S HISTORY OF BRITISH CRUSTACEA. Part I. on October 1st. DECORATED WINDOWS, a Series of Illustrations of the Rise and Progress Decorated Window Tracery in England. By Edmund Sharpe, M.A., Archi- tect. Part I. on Nov. 1st. 8vo. price 2s. 6d. PROFESSOR RYMER JONES’S LECTURES ON NATURAL HISTORY. Vol. I. nearly ready. A CATALOGUE OF BRITISH VERTEBRATED ANIMALS, derived from Bell’s British Quadrupeds and Reptiles, and Yarrell’s British Birds and Fishes ; so printed as to be applicable for labels. 8vo., price 2s. 6 d. Next week. Mr. HERBERT’S TRANSLATION OF GROTIUS’ INTRODUCTION TO DUTCH JURISPRUDENCE. Nearly ready. TRAVELS IN LYCIA AND THE NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES OF ASIA MINOR. By Professor Edward Forbes and Lieut. Spratt, R.N., in company with the late Rev. E.T. Daniell. A MANUAL OF GOTHIC MOULDINGS; with many Illustrations by F. A. Paley, M.A., Hon. Sec. to the Cambridge Camden Society. THE FARMER’S BOY, and other Rural Tales, by BLOOMFIELD. With Illustrations by Sidney Cooper, Horsley, Frederick Tayler, and Webster. PROFESSOR EDWARD FORBES’ RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. Rev. LEONARD JENYNS’ OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES ON VARIOUS BRANCHES OF NATURAL HISTORY. AN ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE of theWorks published byJoHN Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, London, first door on the right coming from Cheapside. 8vo. price Is. This Catalogue contains a specimen of the illustrations contained in the 16 works thus (*) marked. JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. London ; Printed by S. & J. Bentley, Wilson, and Fley, Bangor House, Shoe Lane. '2 ir ////A