CHITRCH OF ST. JUST-IN- PENWITH. 183 



about which the disputes in Cornwall were almost endless, one of 

 the most famous cases on the subject occurring at Paul, where 

 after much litigation the court delivered a judgment which covers 

 about ten feet of parchment, and leaves the question little clearer 

 than it was before. 



From these same accounts we learn that prices at St. Just at 

 the end of the 16th century were much the same as elsewhere. 

 A lamb was worth a shilling ; a goose 4d. ; and butter 3d. a 

 pound. Wages, however, were only two pence a day, which was 

 rather lower than the average in England. . Tinners' gettings do 

 not appear, they being by custom free of tythe. For instance, in 

 the St. Feock Terrier of 1727 we read : — " And all Tinners being 

 Venturers for Tin to pay according to good consience." I hope 

 they paid up sometimes, but have my misgivings. 



And now to say a few words of the fabric of the church. I 

 am not of course going to give you a detailed account such as one 

 would insert in a printed description of a church ; and I shall 

 take it for granted that most of you know the building. It is 

 undoubtedly one of the most interesting in Cornwall, and its 

 interest has been very largely increased by the good taste of the 

 present incumbent*' in having the whole of the interior cleared of 

 its lime and plaster. In many cases this removal of plaster is a 

 mistake, for a glance at what is revealed shows at once that the 

 original builder never meant the stones to be exposed ; but at St. 

 Just, where every stone is a rough unhewn moorstone showing its 

 natural surface, the effect is beautiful in the highest degree, and 

 I cannot but regret that the late Mr. Sedding, who had such a 

 keen appreciation of the wonderful accord between our Cornish 

 churches and their surroundings, never lived' to see what perfect 

 sympathy there is between these walls which look as if they had 

 grown here, and the beautiful moorlands of one of the wildest 

 and most picturesque parts of Cornwall. Many architects and 

 antiquaries find traces of foreign influence in this church, and will 

 find perhaps more now in the unhewn walls. There may be, and 

 probably is, a trace of France about the church, but of one thing 

 I am confident, and that is, that the men who built St. Just 



* The Rev. G. B. Hooper has left the parish since this paper was written. 



