264 ALTARNON CHURCH. 



custom ; for in the Registers, until recently, it was invariably 

 spelt non ; and referring to this matter, a MS. letter of Mr. 

 Lysons contains these words : — "All the records of very early 

 date — the Bishop's Register in the 13th century — the old Valors 

 and taxations, — agree in the spelling of Alternon : the fact is 

 Carew is wrong in the spelling of the saint's name, as all the 

 writers of saint-history call her saint Nonnette." 



An incidental example of the identity of Cornish and Welsh 

 ecclesiology is shewn in the juxtaposition of the buildings dedi- 

 cated to mother and son ; for just as near St. David's Cathedral 

 there is St. Non's Well, so here Davidstowe adjoins the parish 

 where is the St. Non's well alluded to by Carew. But it must be 

 observed that nothing remains of that rectangular enclosure 

 referred to by him, of sufficient area to topple an epileptic 

 patient bodily into it — to recover (or drown) as best he might ; 

 all that is left being a narrow three-sided piece of low walling 

 about the size of and resembling an ordinary road-side well, 

 bereft of water through draining the meadow-land hard by, and, 

 till recently, exposed to the ravages of cattle. A covering-stone 

 has now been provided and set in place, the walling repaired, 

 and the corner of the field in which it lies, adjacent to the 

 Sanctuary meadow, fenced off to preserve the genius loei. 



Turning a moment to ancient history, " Curiosus " (Dr. 

 Ceo. Olliver) wrote an article which appeared in the Exeter 

 Flying Post in 1852 upon this parish, amongst other things giving 

 a list of Vicars from 1261 to 1842 : the following is taken there- 

 from ; — " Alternon, supposed to be the Penponta of Domesday, 

 the largest parish in the county (15,014 acres), was granted to 

 Robert, Earl of Mortmain and Cornwall, by his uterine brother 

 King William the Conqueror. This nobleman married Matilda 

 daughter of Eoger Montgomery, and dying in 1091, left a son 

 William, successor to his property. The young Earl became the 

 founder of S.S. Peter and Paul's Cluniac Monastery of Monta- 

 cute in Somerset, and amongst other of his possessions in 

 Cornwall, endowed it with S. Neots, the Eectories of Alternon, 

 Elerky, Carentoek, St. Carioek, and the Bailiwick of Pennard* 

 When Henry I seized the crown, the Earl espoused the cause of 

 the Conqueror's eldest son Robert, and for so doing he was out- 

 lawed, and his estates forfeited ; still, it appears Henry suffered 



