ST. piran's old church. 135 



By the courtesy oi; Mr. Muller, I have here the original 

 account given by Mr. Wm. Michell, of Comprigney, of his 

 excavation of the church in 1835. He did not discover the 

 church ; that had been done many years before. It is stated that 

 an ohl man called Jenkin observed the tops of its walls very 

 early in the last century; in 1817, when Gilbert wrote his 

 "Survey of Cornwall," the two end walls were partly visible, 

 and on the south side was observable the burial ground, full 

 then (as it still is) of human bones. But Mr. Michell was the 

 first who excavated the church. The following is a complete 

 copy of his notes, except the introductory portion as to the 

 history of the saint, which, as of no value, I omit. I have not 

 attempted to correct, or even to interfere with the peculiar 

 phraseology of tlie original. Notes within [ ] are not Mr. 

 Michell's: — 



" Descriptiox of St. Piran's Church, &c., &c. 



The coast of Saint Piran has been regarded from the 

 earliest times as the most dangerous to mariners of all the coasts 

 of Cornwall. 



As a proof of this assertion, the numerous hillocks raised as 

 mementos to the human bodies deposited underneath them may 

 be brought forward in full confirmation. Even where the author 

 now resides (Ponsmere Cottage) human bones* innumerable have 

 been discovered, owing their premature interment equally as well 

 to the tremendously high cliffs as to the violent storms by which 

 they were assailed, and which rendered their escape impossible. 

 In one of those storms of unexampled violence and unpreceden- 

 ted duration, tradition reports that the most fertile parts of 

 St. Piran were destroyed by the sands of an island situated at a 

 short distance from its shores being broken up and thrown over 

 them.* The venerable church of the Saint, its founder, shared a 

 similar fate, and remained covered therewith until the month of 

 September, 1835. 



Many previous attempts had been made to remove those 

 sands, but all proved unsuccessful, in consequence of water 

 impeding them. The author imagining that he had little, if any- 



3. [Mr. MicheU has erased " bones " and written over it " bodies "]. 



4. This tradition is supported by the fact of every species of the shells common 

 to this coast being to be found in the bosom of the Sand Hills covering it. 



