MURAL GRAVE, &C., C ARMING W. 145 



owners in Cornwall ; he was commonly called " the great Arundell," 

 and was ancestor of the Arundells of Wardour. He took the Car- 

 minow and Winnianton estates ; whilst Merthen, Kenel, and other 

 manors went with the two other co-heiresses. 



We learn also from the Episcopal Eegisters of the Diocese of 

 Exeter, that the Rectory of Mawgan was held about this time by 

 one of the Carminows ; for the first Rector of whom there is any 

 record, was Thomas de Carminow, who was admitted August 6, 

 1349, and remained Rector till 1361. 



Hals continues (Davies Grilberfs Cornwall, HI, 132): "In this 

 "local place of Carminow those gentlemen had their ancient 

 " domestic chapel and burying place, the walls and windows where- 

 " of are still to be seen ; in which place also formerly stood the 

 " tombs and funeral monuments of divers once notable persons of 

 " this family ; of which sort, in the beginning of King James the 

 " First's reign, when this chapel was left to run to ruin and decay, 

 " the mhabitants of this parish of Mawgan, out of respect to the 

 " memory of those gentlemen, brought from thence two funeral 

 "monuments in human shape, at full length, made of alabaster, 

 "freestone, or marble, man and woman I take it, curiously wrought 

 " and cross-legged, with two lions couchant under their feet, and 

 " deposited or lodged them in this parish Church of St. Mawgan, 

 " where they are yet to be seen, though the inscriptions and coat 

 " armour thereof are now obliterated and defaced by time." 



The architecture of the original transept had every appearance 

 of the style prevalent at the close of the reign of Edward III, 

 and the commencement of 4)hat of Richard II ; and it seems to 

 me most probable that the grave was that of the last heir male, 

 Sir Thomas Carminow, in whose memory the transept may have 

 been erected, either by funds left by himself for the purpose, or 

 by "the great Arundell," his son-in-law, out of respect for the 

 ancient race represented in the person of his wife. This seems 

 more probable than that the grave should have been the burial- 

 place of the Rector, Thomas Carminow, whose death must have 

 occurred some years earlier than the date indicated by the archi- 

 tecture. 



The niche, which, as has been already noticed, was too small 

 to contain the two effigies mentioned by Hc^ls, may have been in- 

 tended originally to contain an effigy of Sir Thomas ; but, be this 



E 



