184 CHUECH OF ST. JUST-IN-PENWITH. 



Church, the men who in erecting these walls made nature promi- 

 nent, and kept art in the background, the men who designed 

 those wonderful east windows in the aisles, which look like 

 branching shrubs dwarfed by our wild west winds, and those 

 stepped windows west and north, which suggest piles of stones 

 upon the hill-side, were Cornishmen to the very deepest of their 

 natures, men who loved the western storm, men to whom the 

 scent of gorse and heather was as nectar and ambrosia, and the 

 roaring of the sea the voice of the Creator. 



But there is something more in these bare walls which have 

 stood here, some five hundred, and some four hundred, years, 

 than mere beauty ; there is written on them for those who will 

 read it the whole history of the church. Here are the walls still 

 standing east and west of the cruciform church that was here 

 before the present aisles were built ; here at the west end can still 

 be seen where the south nave-window formerly opened on to the 

 cemetery, but now part of an internal wall ; in the north wall of 

 the sanctuary is the whole of a window arch and part of its jamb 

 and splay ; and just behind the jDiilpit can be seen the angle 

 where the wall of the chancel joined the eastern wall of the 

 north half of the transept, whose position is indicated on each 

 side of the church by the arches which at this point are wider and 

 higher than any others in the arcade. Again, it can be clearly 

 seen that the western walls of the two aisles were built on to the 

 old nave wall, for the absence of all plaster enables us to see that 

 nowhere are they bonded together. But a change from a cruci- 

 form church to one with aisles is by no means all the history these 

 walls can tell, as clearly, indeed more clearly, than if the record 

 was a written one. Looking at these two larger arches which I 

 have just mentioned it will be noticed that the voussoirs have 

 been cut away at the top, evidently to allow of a lowering of the 

 roof, and that at some subsequent time the wall has been again 

 built on by those to whom a high roof was a beauty. 



As you enter by the present south door, you will notice that 

 it is not exactly opposite the Devil's, or North, door, as you would 

 expect, and that the porch is of much more recent date than the 

 church itself. Having noticed these facts, step within, and 

 you will see that there was once a south door in the proper 



