THE CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW, PLYMOUTH. 245 
and others more particularly connected with the town, we have 
the arms of many county families, members of which have inter- 
married with Plymouth ones, or have become otherwise connected 
with the parish,—the Heles, the Gilberts, the Morsheads, the 
Skeltons, the Calmadys, the Trelawnys, the Rashleighs, the Bassets, 
the Drakes, the Pollexfens, and many others. 
I must not omit to mention the six framed panels containing 
arms, of the history of which I have no information; nor the 
painted panel in memory of Philip Pearse, with winged skulls 
and cherubs’ heads, and the inscription: ‘“‘In memory of Philip 
Pearse, of this town, painter, who died the 16th day of February, 
1724, in the 70th year of his age, and was buried near this place ; 
as were also nine of his children.” I spoke of Philip Pearse a 
little time since. He painted among other things the portrait of 
Charles I. which was set up in the church. He seems to have 
been the artist of his time ; and doubtless the sign of many a Ply- 
mouth hostelry was his handiwork. 
To Mr. Alfred Hingston, now and for many years past one of 
the churchwardens, it is owing that the monuments are so well 
preserved. Before his time they had had little or no care be- 
stowed upon them. Some were against the pillars, some were hid 
in corners; the Strelly monument, found in fragments, was stowed 
away in some forgotten locality, the Lechmere monument fell, and 
was broken into a hundred pieces, but Mr. Hingston turned them 
out, had them cleaned, put together, and painted, and so preserved 
them, we may hope, to many a succeeding generation. 
Up to the end of the first quarter of the present century St. 
Andrew’s Church was a forest—pews here, pews there, galleries full 
of pews, pews everywhere. Wherever it was possible to get in a 
pew, a pew was got in. And these pews were pews of the approved 
fashion of a hundred years since, comfortable boxes, high and snug, 
fit perhaps for sitting and sleeping in, but unfit for everything else. 
In addition to the large number of pews, to add to the general effect, 
the ceilings were coloured dark blue and red. But this was the 
usual state of things in every church at this time, and I do not 
wish to imply that St. Andrew’s was worse than most others. The 
parishioners became aware of the defects in their church in 1816, 
and in 1817 a committee was appointed to take the matter (in 
addition to others) into consideration. In October, 1818, there was 
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