218 BUILDING AI^D ORNAMENTAL STONES OF CORNWALL. 



readily to Perpendiciilar than to Decorated forms. Moreover, the 

 columns of the arcades were no longer built up of small pieces, 

 as had been commonly the case in the preceding periods ; and 

 granite was the only material fitted to supply the larger blocks 

 required. The fifteenth century was thiis not only an age of church 

 building, but of revival of granite masonry. How far that 

 revival was carried we have abundant and interesting evidence 

 in the ornately- wrought granite church of St. Mary Magdalene^ 

 Launceston. But there is granite and granite, and so it quickly 

 seems to have been discovered that in the parish of St. Stephens- 

 in-Branwell there was a granite to be found which could be 

 worked with remarkable ease. This was very much the same 

 as that which we now know as — indeed, in some instances quite 

 identical with — China-stone. It speedily grew in favour, es- 

 pecially for the clustered columns of the period ; and will be 

 found employed in many churches, its range extending so far 

 west even as the Lizard district. For the time it successfully 

 rivalled Pentewan stone ; and it is a curious fact that the two 

 finest towers in Cornwall — those at Probus and St. Austell — are 

 built, the first of St. Stephens' stone and the second of Pen- 

 tewan. 



Of late years, when church restorers want to make their 

 money go as far as possible, they generally fall back upon Bath 

 stone or Caen. St. Stephens' stone goes to the potteries ; and 

 Catacleuse is hardly ever heard of. Pentewan is still wrought 

 on a small scale. It was employed recently in making additions 

 to Antony House, which was originally built of that material. 

 Polyphant, however, is rapidly coming once more to the front, 

 and appears likely to obtain a deserved popularity. Our granite 

 quarries, for so many centimes confijied to the supply of merely 

 local wants, have developed into one of the most important 

 resources of the county, though, from the varying character 

 of the demand, their operations are of necessity somewhat 

 spasmodic. 



The more specially local varieties of building stone do not call 

 for further note ; but it should be remarked with reference to 

 the roofing slates of the Delabole district, that so far back as 

 the days of Elizabeth, according to Carew, they were largely 

 shipped to Brittany and the Netherlands, and that they have in 

 no wise lost the reputation which they then enjoyed. 



