ALTABNON CHTJECH. 267 



purlin, it results that the very arching which gives such vaulted 

 dignity to the roof is attended with conditions eminently favour- 

 able for the rafters to spread themselves ; and when there is 

 taken into consideration the thinness of the walls (often hollow) 

 compared with the weight to be sustained, and the absence of 

 any buttresses, it ceases to be matter of surprise that in Cornwall 

 wagon-roofs and upright walls are seldom found together. 



The tower-arch may be described as a fine semicircular- 

 headed transition Norman example, with small caps and bases. 

 The font is also of late Norman, three feet square, with large 

 heads, painted, at each corner ; wheels of six spokes, each 

 embraced by two serpents as supporters in the spaces between ; 

 octagonal shaft ; circular plinth (modern) ; cable moulding round 

 base of bowl ; the top of the bowl having diagonal mortices, 

 presumably for the tenons of the stone canopy with which 

 Norman fonts are said to have been sometimes furnished. This 

 is the largest of a series of similar foDts in the district ; instances 

 being seen at Laneast, St. Thomas (Launceston), Warbstow, 

 Jacobstow, and perhaps other places. The only other Norman 

 work is a piscina (see " Notes,") and a fragment of a tympanum, 

 with star and circle-work ; suggesting the thought — What an 

 astounding amount of Norman carving must have been destroyed 

 when these 1 5th century churches were erected on the sites, or 

 ruins, of previous buildings ! 



Everything within the rood-screen is considered as being the 

 chancel. This is according to the Cornish style in churches of 

 this period, where there is generally no break for a chancel 

 proper, and the only line of demarcation is, or was, the screen ; 

 consequently where a chancel has been protruded, it may reason- 

 ably be suspected to be of later date. In the present case an 

 examination of the outside walls tends to confirm this view, seeing 

 that the side walls of the protruded chancel (see Plan of Chancel) 

 are not bonded to the east walls, but are built against them, 

 shewing more recent structure ; and one would be disposed to 

 say they were built when the communion rail was added, in 

 1684,* and the eastern wall of the chancel-aisles was originally 



* For some " Remarks on Parson Ruddle and the Botathen Ghost," see 

 Transactions of the Penzance Nat. Mist, and Antiq. Society, 1888-9. 



