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NOTES ON THE CHURCH OF St. JUST-IN-PENWITH. 



A Paper read at the Joint Meeting of Cornish Societies at Penzance, 1899. 

 By THURSTAN C. PiSTSR. 



Altliougli I can lay before this audience nothing worthy of 

 its acceptance, yet I do not feel that any apology is due from me 

 for my appearance here ; the apology is due from the secretary 

 of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, who, having vainly sought 

 elsewhere for a representative of the Society, remembered that 

 fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and sent to me. But 

 it is only my insufficient knowledge of my subject which gives me 

 any anxiety, for the subject itself is of the fullest interest. There 

 is no branch of history which better repays study than that of the 

 Church, which in all ages of our country has represented what is 

 highest and best in our national character, and is as instructive 

 in its days of failure as in those of its successes. Always chang- 

 ing yet ever the same, from age to age adapting its doctrines and 

 its ritual to its varying environment, it is to the Church's history 

 that we must look for the best information of the state of our 

 country from time to time. And not orJy is its study full of 

 interest, but it is one for which we have a mass of material such 

 as we have for few, if any, other institutions. Yet it is a subject 

 which no writer has yet ventured to tackle as far as our own 

 county is concerned, for works like Mr. Lach-Szyrma's amusing 

 little so-called history can hardly be recognised as serious, and in 

 venturing to make a few observations even on a well-known 

 church like that of St. Just one feels overwhelmed by the want 

 of any real assistance. When Preb. Hingeston-Eandolph's 

 edition of the Episcopal Registers is complete, when the Cartu- 

 laries of such places as Glasney and Tywardreath have been 

 published, and when a decent collection has been made of the 

 various MSS. in public libraries and private hands, then and not 

 till then will it be possible to write a history of tbe county. There 

 is no county in England which has had inflicted on it more lying 

 books calling themselves history than has our own. Except the 

 Messrs. Lysons who honestly tried to get original information, 



