MOORLAND AND BOEDER CHURCHES IN DEVON. 
403 
Their tyde did ebb before full sea, 
Their welcome was their well away. 
Their parents have noe cause to weep, 
Sith they He here but in a sleep." 
A walk of a mile and a half from Peter Tavy will bring us to 
Mary Tavy, "baptized and consecrated" (as Eisdon says) "to the 
memory of the Virgin Mary, a thing frequent with our forefathers 
in erecting of sacred structures, to dedicate them to some peculiar 
saint that, by their protection, they might be patronized." 
The church, of the Perpendicular period, is exceedingly pictu- 
resque and interesting, though much smaller and less ornate than 
its neighbour at Peter Tavy. It consists of a chancel, nave, and 
south aisle. The chancel is about 14 feet by 13, with an original 
piscina on the south side, having a credence shelf of stone over the 
water drain. This arrangement is not to be found in many of our 
Devonshire churches, and is by no means common. On the north 
side of the chancel is the ancient rood turret now blocked up. The 
chancel arch has been completely cut away, a corbel stone only 
remaining over the last of the nave piers. I cannot say when this 
barbarism was committed. It may have been at the Reformation, 
when unfortunately so many fabrics were Reformed, or it may have 
been at a later period when the axes and hammers were brought 
into requisition even more ruthlessly. Happily a more discrimi- 
nating and enlightened feeling now prevails. ~No sober English- 
man would now think of enforcing a principle by knocking about 
and defacing a church, and the demolition of ancient shrines is not 
now inculcated as a religious duty. 
The nave of this church is about 1 3 feet by 1 4, and is separated 
from the aisle by two four-centred granite arches of the same sec- 
tional form as those of most of the other Perpendicular churches of 
the locality. At the eastern end of the aisle was formerly a little 
chapel, and on the south side of this chapel is another piscina, with 
a stone ledge above, very curiously formed in the jamb of one of 
the south windows. Both nave and aisle have cradle roofs in a 
much dilapidated and wobegone state. At the springing of the 
arched ribs of the nave are some peculiar little pendants or drops, 
which are also to be seen at Meavy Church, and at the feet of the 
ribs in the aisle are small carved angels with outstretched wings. 
The ribs where they intersect are enriched with bosses of foliage 
and heads. The font, east of the western respond, is of granite, 
octagonal in form, with stem and base, and quite plain. 
