56 CBBISTIAK REMAINS IN CORNWALL. 



I shall not, on this occasion, retraverse the line of argument 

 so ably laid down by him on that occasion, but I would suggest 

 that we probably have in this County, — cut in our almost im- 

 perishable granite, Christian remains of a period anterior to the 

 "time of the landing of S. Augustine. 



1. — The interesting tomb of the sixth century of " Silus," in 

 the chancel of St. Just-in- Penwith. This is at the latest of the 

 age of St. Augustine, and possibly anterior to him. The carving 

 of the letters seems Early Christian, and might well belong to 

 the age of the fall of the Western Empire. 



2. — The " Labarum of Constautine," curious to say, is not 

 three miles off from the famous Constantino stone, in St. Hilary 

 Church yard ; it is on a granite stone, which has been built into the 

 south wall of the porch of Phillack Church. It is a record worth 

 noticing by antiquaries. 



3. — The recently discovered stone at Gulval, which, if of the 

 period of S. Uny, (as has been suggested) would be of the 

 latter half of the fifth century. This stone was visited by our 

 Institution at the last excursion, in 1885. 



4. — The famous church of Perran-zabuloe — possibly an 

 oratory of St. Piranus himself, — which may be one of the most 

 ancient rural churches in Western Europe; for country churches 

 of over 1,000 years are exceedingly rare, as they were in most 

 parts of Europe built of perishable materials at that time, or 

 have been nearly all destroyed (accidentally or intentionally) in 

 the lapse of ages. 



5. — The less famous but scarcely less ancient oratory or 

 church at Gwithian (like Perran, dug out of the sands), which 

 probably was the original chapelry of S. Gwithian, built at a 

 period a little before the time of S. Martin's, Canterbury, the 

 oldest parish Church of England (which though now fairly 

 restored has suffered much from mediaeval and modern reno- 

 vations). 



I would suggest to the Society whether special care should 

 not be taken to hand down to posterity the two latter remains of 

 a remote Christian antiquity. The three former are, I believe 



