NOTES ON THE CHURCU OF ST. IVES. 259 



tion of it that lias been worked into the low chancel screen 

 recently erected and into a sedile now in the sanctuary of the 

 south aisle), to Ealph Clies, a master smith, and points to the 

 front panels of two large seats (now in the choir, but formerly at 

 the west end), on which are sculptured hammer and anvil, 

 pincers, a horse-siioe, nails, bellows, a ladle and other imple- 

 ments of the smith's craft, as having reference to him, and to a 

 man's and woman's heads on two of the panels as the portraits of 

 himself and of his wife. This is mere fancy ; and it is, more- 

 over, a distinct breach of the wholesome maxim " De mortuisnil 

 nisi bonum " to mistake for him the jester, and for his wife a 

 woman, on every line of whose ill-tempered face is written in 

 unmistakeable characters " The village scold." This does not, 

 however, disprove the tradition that we owe these exquisite 

 carvings to the generosity of Ralph Clies. In the list of inhabi- 

 tants of the neighbouring parish of Zennor taxed to the subsidy 

 of 1571, we find this name, standing, perhaps, for a descendant 

 of the benefactor of St. Ives church. Quite the best wood-work 

 is found in the eastern standards of these same benches, and of 

 two others adjoining them, the figures of St. Andrew and St. 

 Peter, ^*' and those of the two angels kneeling, one holding the 

 pyx, being especially tine. They are probably portions of the 

 old stall-desks in the chancel. Above the panel of St. Andrew 

 are two clerks supporting the arms of the Peyn family (in a plain 

 field, three pine apples, and an arrow head in pale reversed), and 

 above that of St. Peter, two other clerks supporting a shield on 

 which the name of John Peyn is inscribed. One John Peyn (or 

 Payne), no doubt one of the family just named, was the unfor- 

 tunate portreeve of St. Ives, who was hanged by Sir Anthony 

 Kingston, the provost marshall, for his share in the Cornish 



10 Matthews in his History of St. Ives (Xondon, 1892) states that at the conse- 

 cration of the church on the 3rd of February, 1434, St. Peter and St. Andrew were 

 added as patrons. We do not know the authority for this statement, and believe it 

 to be an error altogether. Bp. Lacy Regr. ii. 21) in a document dated at Penryn, 

 18 March, 1431, refers to St. Ives church as " the chapel which we have lately 

 consecrated" sane, cum uos, ««/>c/- Capellam Sancte Ye Virginis de Porthia . . . . 

 rite et libere fecerimus consecrari , and the church is called in the Registers " St. 

 Ives " (St. la up to the end of the i8th century. It is, however, at present known by 

 the name of St. Andrew, though when first so called we are not sure. St. Andrew's 

 Street, close by, bore that name in 1780. 



Some of the benches are illustrated in Hingeston's .Specimens of Ancient Cornish 

 Crosses, &c. 



