peesident's addbess. 127 



(1844, &c.) ; and tlie Oratory of St. Gotitian, described by Blight 

 in " Churches of West Cornwall," page 89, (1865). These 

 buildings were simple rectangular erections, with only a slight 

 mark separating chancel from nave. In both, the remains of 

 stone benches existed against the walls. Perran Church owes 

 its preservation to being covered with sand, and its subsequent 

 destruction to the sand being removed. Indeed, the only carved 

 work, — the key-stone and corbels as well as one of the carved 

 side stones of the south door, — are preserved in our Museum. 

 Drawings taken at the time of its being uncovered show a plain 

 building of rectangular form with a south doorway and window, 

 a second doorway in the east end to the north of the altar, and 

 a niche (which may or may not have been a window) over 

 the altar in the East wall. Under the altar were found the bones 

 of three persons, headless, but the heads of all were found 

 deposited together between the knees of the skeleton nearest the 

 south wall. Succeeding these Oratories came the Saxon 

 Churches, of which only small remains have come down to 

 us. Indeed, of Norman times we have comparatively few arches, 

 though the interesting set of Norman doorways, numbering about 

 27, and as many as 70 Norman or transition-Norman fonts, are 

 certain proofs that the churches which still retain them existed 

 (in perhaps less complex form) in Norman times, on the same site. 

 There can be no doubt that the oldest form of Cornish church 

 consisted simply of nave and chancel. Later ones were cruciform. 

 We have a number of churches still retaining marks of their 

 origin from the cruciform. Blight, in his " Churches of West 

 Cornwall," has pointed out that in St. Michael Penkevil and 

 at Sheviock, we have that form retained nearly unaltered, 

 and he points out one of the features of nearly all the Cornish 

 churches, namely, that though they have arches opening into 

 both north and south transepts, there is no chancel arch. This 

 shows that for some reason the absence of a chancel arch dates 

 back to early times. Further instances of this, of later date, 

 occur at St. Columb Major and elsewhere. One of the most 

 ancient of Cornish churches is that of Tintagel. The Rev. R. B. 

 Kinsman, who has just passed away (in 1894) told me that the 

 well known antiquary, Parker, of Oxford, was forced to admit 

 that part of the north waU of the nave was Saxon work, and, 



