48 NOTES ON TINTAGEL CHURCH. 
form of a tau, for an image. The aspect of this little chapel is 
remarkably quaint and venerable ; and, in my opinion, its erection 
must be ascribed to the Saxon period.* 
The North Transept is principally Early English, with the ex- 
ception of the West wall, which is Modern. The arch is plain, with- 
out mouldings, and appears to have been moved, as it now springs 
from within the old corbels. The East window is an Early English 
triplet, and the North isa Debased Decorated window of two 
lights, with a quatrefoil in the head. The sill of the East window 
is said to have originally been an altar, with the usual crosses ; 
but this has been removed during the last few years. On the 
north side of this window is a bracket, and on the South there is 
a small square Squint, at present blocked. Above its opening into 
the Chancel is a square niche, also plastered up. On the ends of 
the gables a sheep’s and a ram’s heads are carved.+ 
The South Transept is of much greater length than the North. - 
The East and West walls correspond to the masonry in the South 
wall of the Nave, whilst the South wall is Modern. The Transept 
Arch corresponds to the one on the North of the Nave, just | 
described ; and the Transept is lit by a Modern two-light window 
in the South wall, and by a couple of very interesting two-light 
windows with trefoiled heads in the East wall; these latter are 
inserted under Norman Arches, and show the transition from the 
Early English style to the Decorated, as by piercing the heads the 
result would be Plate Tracery. 
A stone bench runs around the west, south, and part of the 
east sides; and here I would point out the judgment exercised by 
the original builders, who carefully guarded against inserting any 
windows in the western wall, where they would be fully exposed 
to the force of the weather. 
The long and narrow Nave is of the genuine Saxon type, lit by 
two narrow round-headed windows (with the characteristic long- 
* During the restoration of the church the splay of a window (the 
jambs having disappeared) corresponding to the Harly Saxon window in the 
South of the Chancel, was discovered, opening into the Ladye Chapel; but 
this does not disprove the date of the chapel to be Saxon, but only (if the 
window was completed) that the Church was built first, whilst the Chapel 
was added shortly afterwards, in the same Period. 
+ During the restoration, a Norman window was discovered in this 
Transept, which had been replaced, at a lower pitch, by a Decorated one, 
