74 OORNTJBIANA. 



and asked for food. The saint called to him his little fish, cut off a 

 piece, and gave it to the cook to prepare for the party. To the 

 surprise of the cook, the king and the whole party, the tiny 

 slice proved sufficient for all. The king, throwing himself at 

 St. Corentin's feet, gave him the forest with a ' maison de 

 plaisance,' which the saint converted into a monastery." Mrs. 

 Falliser would have been probably as much surprised as anyone? 

 if she had been told that years after her book had been pub- 

 lished, this very story would have been found not only to have 

 been known in Cornwall, but actually painted on the walls of a 

 Cornish church about 450 years ago, and then at the time of the 

 reformation concealed from sight by coats of plaster. This 

 obscuration lasted for many years, until it happened in 1890 

 that, when the present vicar was restoring the church of St. 

 Breage, the thick coats of plaster were removed, and there came 

 into view a saint drawing a fish out of water by means of a line, 

 and so that there might be no doubt as to the identity of the 

 saint, the following inscription can still be deciphered " See 

 (Sancte) Quorentyn ora pro nobis." I think I am right, that 

 a more interesting and a more unexpected instance of the same 

 saint and the same legend being remembered both in Cornwall 

 and in Brittany could not have been found. In connection with 

 church-frescoes Mrs. Palliser points out that in the parish church 

 of Carnac there is a series of fresco-paintings of the life of 

 St. Cornelly, of whom an account is given in the " World-wide 

 Magazine" for January, 1899. 



III.— Relics of the Cornish Saints. 



It seems to be a particularly hazardous thing to do, to assert 

 that there are any relics of Cornish Saints now to be found, 

 especially as occasionally able persons are to be found who 

 declare that the Cornish Saints were but a myth, and their 

 names a pious delusion of late growth. I will not enter into the 

 question as to the old practice of calling Cornish parishes 

 after Cornish saints, because that point has been settled by a 

 catena of authorities, beginning with Domesday Book and ending 

 with Carew. With regard to the relics, the question is very 

 difficult on account of the great danger of making mistakes by 

 ponfounding a Cornish saint with sonq.e Breton or Irish saiiit 



