THE "MYSTERY" OF THE " PASSION." 
379 
round, except at the entrance and exit of a road, which is driven 
right through the centre, though it is uncertain whether this was 
always so. There is the same thing at S. Just; but the round 
there, in Borlase's plan, has only one breach, while in Perran 
round Borlase gives two breaches, as at present — one would at all 
times be necessary to allow the entry of players and people. 
According to Borlase's measurement, S. Just round is 126 feet in 
diameter; Perran round about 130 feet. S. Just round had six 
tiers of stone benches in the sloping interior of its circular rampart ; 
Perran round seven of turf : this rampart at S. Just rose six feet 
in height from the area ; that at Perran eight feet. The benches* 
or steps, as we may call them, at S. Just were fourteen inches wide 
and one foot high; at Perran they would be much the same; so that 
they would be calculated more for enabling spectators to see over 
each other's heads as they stood than to make comfortable seats, 
though when not overcrowded persons might sit. There is also in 
both these rounds a level space at the top of the rampart seven 
feet wide, where many could stand. The enclosed circular space 
at S. Just is perfectly level ; but in that at Perran, the level area is 
broken up by a circular pit and trench. Borlase says in his time 
the pit was thirteen feet in diameter and three feet deep, the sides 
sloping, and half way down there was a bench of turf, so formed 
as to reduce the area at the bottom to an ellipsis. The trench 
runs from the pit, four feet six inches wide and one foot in depth, 
to the benches on the rampart, terminating in a semi-oval cavity, 
which breaks the continuance of the four lower tiers of benches. 
Borlase conjectures that in some way or other these were contri- 
vances to represent heaven and hell, the grave and the resurrection. 
Notwithstanding what is stated in a generally accurate local guide, 
this pit, trench, and cavity still remain, and are known in the 
neighbourhood, from their shape, as " the devil's dish and spoon; " 
the central pit, the "dish," is also sometimes called " the pit of 
hell." In all probability a stage 3 was erected over this, and ex- 
3 In the performance of the English mysteries in towns a lofty stage, two 
or three stories high, was used, movable from place to place on wheels, open 
at the top ; in the bottom a room for the players to dress, and at the side an 
opening leading to what had the appearance of a dark cavern, to represent 
hell, from whence issued fire and flames, hideous yellings and noises, devils 
and evil spirits. The opening was sometimes decorated with a monster head 
and jaws, to represent the mouth of hell, as it was frequently depicted on 
church walls, one of the most recent discoveries of the kind being at Chaldon, 
