400 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the defective light and ventilation of snch places became apparent, 
huts above ground, particularly limited in size, and low, and with 
conical roofs, came into vogue. From these it was an easy transi- 
tion to buildings, small, narrow, and low ; if covered with stone, 
having a plain semi-round arched roof, in form like that of a stage 
waggon. It seems almost certain that the earliest British churches 
in Cornwall were of this simple construction ; and though the 
churches built in that county and in Devon in the middle ages 
were very different in size, arrangement, and detail to these, yet 
they never rose to lofty proportions, even in what is technically 
called the Perpendicular period, when the ancient form of waggon 
roof, though in wood instead of stone, became almost a distin- 
guishing type of the Devonshire churches. Some of these waggon 
or cradle roofs appear to have been boarded immediately over the 
arched ribs, and others — and these the most common — opened to 
the ridge. "We have not far to go to see a good specimen of this 
kind of roof — I mean that at St. Andrew's in this town. Nearly 
all the churches I am about to describe have roofs of this de- 
scription. 
Before giving a technical account of these buildings, it may be 
convenient that I should remind you that the " Early English " was 
the first of the Gothic or pointed styles used in this country ; that 
it succeeded the Norman towards the close of the twelfth century, 
and gradually merged into the " Decorated" at the end of the 
thirteenth; and that out of the " Decorated" grew the ' < Perpen- 
dicular," which was the last of the Gothic styles, and which, 
commencing at the end of the fourteenth century, continued through 
the fifteenth, and was finally lost in the Renaissance at the close of 
the sixteenth century. 
About three miles from Tavistock, lying a little off from the 
Oakhampton Road, and approached by crossing the Tavy at the 
picturesque and genuine old Devonshire bridge of Harford, is the 
pretty church of Peter Tavy. Entering at the south porch through 
a glazed door (which might be suitable for a small Cockney villa, 
but which is very out of place here), we find that the church 
consists of a nave (with four moulded granite arches, three piers, 
and two responds), chancel with bold chancel arch, south transept, 
and north aisle. The church, which is in good condition, is 
throughout Perpendicular, with the exception of the aisle, which 
is decorated, and which, from the character of the wall masonry 
