258 NOTES ON THE CHITECH OF ST. IVES. 



moulded and others carved), and except for its size — 72 feet by 

 51 feet— '' and the exceptional beauty of its waggon roofs, is in 

 no way remarkable. But it is nevertheless a church well worth 

 a visit if only for the sake of its font and wood carving. 



The arcades are well designed, and the wave moulding 

 between the shafts of the piers that is carried up into the arches 

 is distinctly superior in effect to the usual shallow hollow that 

 constitutes the moulding of most Cornish piers. 



The font is apparently of the 14th century, and, unless it is 

 merely a copy, must have been brought from elsewhere, as 

 St. Ives was not at that date licensed for baptisms. On the 

 eastern side of the band that connects the four angels bearing 

 shields, there is inscribed a legend, somewhat mutilated, but 

 apparently " Oes (i.e. Omnes) baptisate gentes." The beasts 

 around the base (said to represent the evil spirits exorcised in 

 baptism) should be compared with those on the base of the font 

 formerly in Camborne parish church and now at Treslothan, and 

 of the one at Crowan. 



But the finest feature of St. Ives church is its 15th and 16tli 

 century wood carving.* Not only is there some very beautiful 

 old work left in the wall plates and in the roofs themselves, but 

 the bench-ends are of exceptional mei'it, and different fi-om any- 

 thing else in the county. Tradition attributes these bench-ends, 

 as also the rood screen (now gone,^ though perhaps it is a por- 



7 These measurements exclude the tower and Trenwith chapel. 



8 The late Mr. J. D. Sedding considered the St. Ives carving- to show strong 

 traces of Brittany influence, and the unusual number of Bretons who are shown by 

 the Subsidy Rolls to have lived here in the 15th and i6th centuries, lends colour to 

 this suggestion. 



9 The following extracts from the borough accounts tell their own tale 

 (1647-8) :- 



" Received of Mr. George Hicks, being churchwarden, towards the charge in 

 bringinge down the Organs, Raylinges and other Implements of the 

 church, i8s." 

 " More payd the Joyners for takinge downe the organs and Railings of the 

 church, .^i 15s. 7d." 

 The plural " Organs " does not mean that there was more than one instrument. 

 Hicks, in his MS. history of St. Ives (1722), says that this instrument was of unusual 

 size for a 15th century one, that it cost £30, and was one of the first erected in Corn- 

 wall. He saw some of the pipes, a few of which were serving as water- spouts. The 

 "railings'" was the curt and inelegant name by which the Puritans described the 

 rood-screen. 



The carving of screen and sedile are far less bold than that of the pew ends, and 

 it is very unlikely that they were by the same hand. 



