ST. pikan's old church. 141 



strong argument in support of Mr. Mulier's suggestion is, that 

 this does away with the four supports shown as in line in the 

 drawing, a very unnecessary number for so short an erection. 

 Moreover, the altar being of masonry, would not need any such 

 supports at all. Mr. Haslam (who arrived in the county in 1842, 

 seven years, that is, after the excavation) had also heard of these 

 cut-out corners and reproduced them at the end of the ridiculous 

 slab which he erected, and which, with its foolish inscription, 

 " S. Piranus," in fancy lettering, still disfigures this interesting 

 ruin, and misleads the unwary visitor. The jiublic must choose 

 for themselves between the account given l)y the original excava- 

 tor in this document, preserved in his family until the death of 

 the late Col. AV. E. Michell in 1892, and then given by that 

 gentleman's widow to Mr. MuUer, and the stone erected by a 

 gentleman who, without any warrant, perjjctrated the eccentricity 

 of an altar running east and west, and in his published work 

 (Perranzabuloe, p. 75) justified it as a proper position for an 

 altar that was also a tomb ! 



He also tells us (p. 74) that " attached to the east wall was 

 an altar, built of stone and plastered like the rest of the interior. 

 In 1835 it was taken down, and St. Piran's headless remains were 

 discovered immediately beneath it. It has since been carefully 

 rebuilt with the same stones ; a solid block of granite, cut to the 

 exact peculiar shape and dimensions of the original altar, has 

 been placed over it." 



In that extraordiiiary book, " From Death unto Life," first 

 published, I believe, in 1880, Mr. Haslam (p. 20 of 1897 edition), 

 after claiming to have been the discoverer .of the buried church, 

 which had been cleared l)y Mr. Michell seven years before Haslam 

 came into Cornwall, proceeds : "The legend .said that the patron 

 Saint, St. Piran, was buried under the altar, and that close by 

 the little church was a cell in which he lived and died. This was 

 enough. I got men and set to work to dig it up. After some 

 days labour we came to the tloor, where we discovered the stone 

 seats, and on the plaster on the wall tlu^ greasy marks of the 

 heads and shoiUders of persons who had sat there many centuries 

 ago. We found the chancel step and also the altar toml) (which 

 was built east and west, not north and south.) It icaa fdlloi, but 



