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)
Elford, now the parsonage of Bude, was the seat of the Arundells,
but it has been so altered as to have lost most of its character.
Marhamchurch has a good Jacobean pulpit, and in the parish is
Marhayes, an interesting house, the basement Tudor, on top of which
a Charles II. house was reared. In one room is a superb ceiling of
plaster-work. At Dunsland is another, richer, but not so good in
design. Sutcombe Church has the remains of a remarkably good screen
and some bench-ends. The church has been judiciously restored and not
wrecked.
In Poughill, close to Bude, old Broom Hill, now turned into cottages,
has a good Elizabethan ceiling. It was here that Sir Bevil Grenville
slept the night before the battle of Stamford Hill.
In the deep glen that leads from Kilkhampton to the sea is the site of
Stowe House, built by John, Earl of Bath, in 1680. The title became
extinct in 1711, and Stowe became the property of the widow of Lord
Carteret, who was created Countess Grenville. The house was pulled down
in 1720, so that the same persons saw it built and saw its destruction.
The Earl of Bath had the best artists brought there to decorate the
mansion, and it is due to this that so much splendid plaster-work is to
be seen in Northeast Cornwall and near Holsworthy. An exquisite plaster
ceiling of delicate refinement and beauty existed at Whitstone, but
was destroyed by the owner of the house, who had not any idea of its
artistic beauty.
Marsland in Morwenstow, without any architectural features, is a
charming example of a small country squire’s house of the seventeenth
century. Stowe Barton, though much altered and spoiled, is the ancient
seat of the Grenvilles; that has stood, whilst the splendid mansion
has disappeared, leaving only its terraces to show where it once was.
Bridgerule Church stands high; its tower, that of Pancras Week, and
that of Week S. Mary were landmarks when all the land except the
combes was a great furzy and rushy waste. The soil is cold, clayey,
and unproductive. It serves for the breeding of horses and for rough
stock, and grew grain when grain-growing paid; now it is reverting
to moor, but anciently it was entirely uncultivated and open, saving
in the valleys. Bridgerule has a fine tower, and in the church is a
respectable modern screen, though not of local character. About the
rood-loft door hangs a tale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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