A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County)
was found within the walls. That there were many bodies
interred both in the chancel and nave of the church is
an unquestionable fact. Several skeletons have been
found deposited about 2 feet below the floor. Three were
discovered with their feet lying under the altar, one of
them of gigantic dimensions, measuring about 7 ft. 6 in....
Their heads, which appeared to be almost cemented together,
lay between the knees of the skeleton deposited nearest to
the south wall.
“On the southern and western sides of this venerable
ruin is the ancient burying-ground, strewed over tens of
thousands of human bones and teeth as white as snow; and,
strange as it may seem, the showers of sand which fall all
around hardly ever remain on these melancholy relics of
mortality.”[20]
Unhappily nothing was done to preserve this little church after it had
been excavated from the sand. The three heads from the doorway were
carried off for Truro Museum; visitors pulled out stones, boys tore
down the walls, and now little more than a gable remains. But to this
was added the mischievous meddlesomeness of the curate-in-charge, the
Rev. William Haslam, who turned the altar-stones about, as he had got
a theory into his head that they had formed a tomb, and rebuilt them
in this fashion, pointing east and west, and cut upon the altar-slab
the words “S. Piranus.” It is purposed to undo Mr. Haslam’s work, and
replace the altar as originally found. More should be done. Cement
should be run along the top of such wall as remains to save it from
falling.
The Rev. C. Collins Trelawny, soon after the discovery, wrote an
account in a book entitled _Perranzabulo, the Lost Church Found_, which
went through seven editions (1837-72).
In 1844 Mr. Haslam published another book on the subject, and again
another in 1888, _From Death unto Life_, in which he assumed to himself
the credit of Mr. Mitchell’s discovery. The church has not the extreme
antiquity attributed to it. The fact of there being a chancel is
sufficient evidence that it does not belong to the sixth century, as
none of the earliest Irish churches possess this feature.[21] It is
about two centuries later, though doubtless a reconstruction of the old
materials, and perhaps on the old lines. Judging from Irish examples,
in one point only is Mr. Haslam more correct than Mr. Mitchell. He
considered the niche over the altar to have been a walled-up window,
and in this was right.
The story of S. Piran, or Kieran, as he is called in Ireland, is of
sufficient interest to be given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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