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NOTES ON THE CHURCHES OF ST. MYLOR AND MABE. 

 By THURSTAN C. Pi^TKR. 



My lor (or, as it soraetiraes more correctly, though, rarely, 

 called, St. Mylor) is one of the most prettily situated churches in 

 Cornwall, and one of the most frequently visited. Standing by the 

 side of the beautiful river Fal, it is so far down the slope of the 

 hill and so thickly surrounded by trees, that, as you stand on the 

 hill above and look across the water where formerly floated the 

 training-ship "Granges," or up the river to King Harry's Ferry 

 and the pleasantly situated mansion of Trelissick, you cannot 

 see the church though it is so close to you as to be within a stone's 

 throw. Most of these trees are in the church-yard itself, and 

 notable amongst them are two mighty yews, "dismal yews" as 

 Shakespeare calls them, which may well have served the village 

 archers in Tudor times for making bows with which to try their 

 skill around the walls of the church ; and, probably, the 

 villagers held many a meeting under their spreading boughs, in 

 spite of the forbiddal by the Exeter Synod of 1287 of the 

 transaction of any secular business in churchyards. Beneath 

 their " shade, where heaves the turf in many a mouldering 

 heap," are many records of the forgotten dead, none the less 

 pathetic for the simplicity of the language in which the "village 

 muse " has recorded their history. One stone is of the kind so 

 sadly frequent in Cornish churchyards. It is inscribed " To the 

 memory of the warriors, women, and children, who, on their 

 return to England from the coast of Spain, unhappily perished 

 in the wreck of the "Queen" transport, on Trefusis Point, 

 January 14th, 1814." Nearly two hundred lives are said to 

 have been lost, of whom the parish registers record the burial of 

 one hundred and thirty six. All who know how thoroughly 

 mediaeval are still the views of Cornish men on the subjects of 

 smuggling and piracy, will apj)reciate the reference on a stone 

 dated 1814, over the grave of a man who was (no doubt j)roperly) 

 shot by a preventive officer, but whose friends looked on the 



