136 ST. piran's old church. 



tiling, to apprehend on this score (as a mine had been set to 

 work in its vicinity) determined to make a fresh attempt, and, 

 hapj)ily, he has succeeded. He now lays before his reader the 

 results of his operations and researches, and accompanies them 

 with various notes from ancient drawings of the building^ 

 and in its dilapidated state ; of its doorway, niche, and window 

 (if such it may be designated), and also with a view of the 

 church restored, and the churchyard and scenery around it.'' 



Description or the Church. 



The church, which is built nearly east and west, inclining 

 only 4^ north of west, is but of small dimensions, the length 

 without the walls being 30 feet, and within the walls, 25 feet ; 

 the breadth within, 13 feet in the chancel, and 12 feet in the 

 nave, and the height about 1 3 feet ; but as there were several 

 chapels or oratories in its vicinity, viz. : one on the Chapel Eock 

 in Perranporth, now partially surrounded by the sea, another at 

 Perranwell, and a third at Lambourne very near this well, in all 

 of which. Saint Piran, the venerable Bishop and Pounder, is 

 said to have performed divine service ; it was, no doubt, sufficiently 

 large for the population Of the immediate neighbourhood. There 

 is a very neat Saxon' arched door- way, 7 feet 1 inch,^ by 2 feet 

 4 inch, in a good state of preservation, ornamented with pretty 

 tracery, the arch itself having on its key stone the head of a 

 Tyger, and [at] the points of its curve^ the head of a man and 

 that of a woman rudely sculptured of stone most assuredly of 

 very remote antiquity,^" in the centre of the nave in the south 

 wall, and another door-way in the north east corner near the 

 altar of similar dimensions and style (with the exception of the 



5. [An illegible word]. 



6. [These drawings are missing]. 



7. [Mr. Michell, no doubt, used the word "Saxon," as many others did in his day, 

 without apparently any very exact meaning]. 



8. [By a clerical error Mr. Hingeston- Randolph has given this as 7 feet 4 inches. 

 The MS. is quite clear. There are other differences between hi,>i copy and mine arising 

 from his having corrected the author's phraseology, whereas I have preferred to print 

 it as it stands]. 



9. [The word ' curve' is underlined, and in the margin Mr. Michell has written 

 "qu"]. 



10. [At the foot of the page on which this occurs, the author has written " N.B., 

 date the work — the day when I removed the sand from it." These heads are now in 

 our Museum, as also a piece of the jamb, and are here illustrated]. 



