66 ANNUAL EXCURSION OF THE 



curious slate slab in the chancel floor in memory of a lady who 

 died in childbed. It represents her in an old four-post bedstead ; 

 date 1625. After a brief visit to the parsonage the party made 

 for Looe. Here, at the entrance to the new Guildhall, they 

 were received by the Mayor (Mr. R. A Peter), to whose words 

 of welcome the President, the Lord Bishop of Truro, replied, 

 happily pointing out how the Eoyal Institution of Cornwall, by 

 its excursions, tended to bind all parts of the county together. 

 The Mayor then invited the visitors to inspect the new Townhall 

 and the Corporation muniments. 



The party afterwards assembled for luncheon at the "Ship" 

 Hotel. Several Looe gentlemen had joined the party at Duloe, 

 and they, as well as the Mayor and Corporation, and the Vicar 

 of Looe, also appeared at the luncheon. After the repast, the 

 President said everyone would agree in the extreme delight of 

 that day's proceedings, and the satisfaction they had had from 

 their first setting out. (Applause.) They had seen more 

 interesting things than they had expected. They began with 

 that wonderful circle, small but most interesting, which they 

 might call the heathen church. He believed, indeed, that good 

 etymologists were of opinion that the very word "church" 

 meant a circle. Then they had been seeing at Duloe and 

 Talland the evidence of the firm Christian faith held by their 

 forefathers. They had marked how superstitions had passed 

 away, by the defacing of certain expressions which would now 

 seem to them as things of the past. And having seen these 

 monuments of the old time, they had now come to a place 

 which was monumental in itself, in the antiquity of its charters 

 and the interest of its associations. (Applause.) They had 

 been received by the Mayor of to-day as the Mayor of several 

 centuries ago would have received what they might call an 

 embassy from the whole of the county. He thanked the Mayor 

 and the people of Looe for their cordial reception, and assured 

 them how welcome they would be to join the Royal Institution 

 of Cornwall. He had put into his hand the bill of an ancient 

 dinner held not far from that place in 1728, on the occasion of 

 the accession of a certain Mayor to office, and this bill his 

 lordship proceeded to read, interspersing it with witty comments 

 on the items, which included sixty bottles of claret, for £4 10s. ; 

 twenty-eight of sherry, for £2 16s. ; six bottles of canary, for 



