42 THE ECCLESIASTICAL SEALS OF COBNWALL. 



Mr. Borlase's description of the garb and tonsure which pre- 

 vailed in the early church bore on this point. I therefore con- 

 sulted him and the Bishop, in order that everything might if 

 possible be settled correctly, and to guard against any misrepre- 

 sentation of the British tonsure [" ab aura ad aurem perfrontem 

 in coronse modum incisus est capiHus, ab aure ad aurem per 

 occipitium capillus intonsus dependebat."] I took advantage of 

 the presumed effect of the saint's old age, and this rendered it 

 unnecessary for me to adopt any distinctive form of cutting. 



To prevent the appearance of stiffness with regard to the 

 Sacred Yolume and the Crook, I had placed them in opposite 

 diagonal positions in the hands of the saint, but the Bishop 

 preferred a more severe mode of treatment. A sloping staff, 

 he thought, might be a hindrance to progress, and the G-ospels 

 ought not to be carried carelessly. I therefore set both upright 

 — sacrificing the more picturesque arrangement. 



Further, with regard to the crook, Bishop Hobhouse recom- 

 mended that its head should not be turned outward, as on the 

 Priory Seal, but inward, to signify the internal rule of a monas- 

 tery rather than the care of an exterior Diocese. With this 

 suggestion I also complied, because some recent instances had 

 made such a difference significant, although in former times no 

 such distinction was observed, as may be proved not only by 

 Bodmin Priory Seal but by a comparison of many Bishops' and 

 Priors' monuments, &c., in various places. 



Lastly, the Archdeacon desired me to introduce some evidence 

 of the extent and limit of his Archdeaconry. It contains St. 

 G-erman's in the east, Bodmin in the west, and Launceston in 

 the north, I therefore inserted the insignia of those places, as 

 old religious foundations, — not raising any question as to what 

 superior authority, if any. Archdeacons possessed in such com- 

 munities, but merely indicating that their sites are within the 

 Archdeaconry, and these particular symbols seemed to har- 

 monize, better than other badges of the same localities, with the 

 ecclesiastical character of the Seal. Moreover, I arranged them 

 in such a manner as to illustrate their relative position with 

 regard to each other on the map. 



My drawing for the die-sinker having been completed, the 

 Seal was made, and it may with some repetition be thus des- 

 cribed : — 



