The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 2 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 2 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
On the south side of this parish, upon a lofty hill, stands Chapel
Carne Bray, that is to say Bray’s spar-stone Chapel, and suitable to
its name it is situate upon the top of the most astonishing burrow or
tumulus of Carnes, or spar stones, that ever my eyes beheld;
artificially laid together perhaps upon the bodies of human creatures,
interred upon the mountain before the fifth century; on the top of
which burrow of stones, which is about fifteen feet high from the
ground, stands the chapel itself; which riseth about ten feet higher,
well built with moor-stone and lime, with a window in the east, and a
durns, or door, on the south of the same stones; the roof all well
covered or arched over with large flat moor-stones, wrought with the
hammer and strongly fastened together. The chapel being about ten feet
broad and about fourteen feet long (as that on Roach Rock) on the
outside; and round this chapel may be seen, the downfalls of many
sparstone-stairs and walks, by which heretofore the people ascended to
this chapel, and diverted themselves with a full prospect of the
contiguous country by sea and land――St. George’s Channel, the British
Ocean, and the Atlantic Sea towards the Scilly Islands, of which from
hence in fair weather you may have a full view; which lands of Scilly
seem to stand in equal height with this chapel, though the ground
towards the Land’s End, in St. Leucan and St. Lennan, on the sea-shore
towards it, are at least eighty fathoms lower, or under it, as is the
sea itself, betwixt that and the Scilly Islands. Such another chapel
as this, though not built upon a burrow of stones, is to be seen on
Mountague Hill, in Somersetshire, and dedicated to St. Michael the
Archangel, for half a mile ascended up the hill upon stone stairs,
embowed or arched over head right artificially. (See also Camden in
Somerset.) Thus it appears that this tribe of Bray were heretofore men
of great wealth, fame, and renown in those parts; since their name
adheres not only to two local places in this parish, but divers
others, as Castle Carne Bray in Luggan, Bray in Morvall, and many
other places.
In this parish also was formerly St. Ewny’s Chapel, now dilapidated;
see Redruth and Lelant for more of this St. Ewny.
Those spar-stone monuments of Carne Bray Castle, and Chapel Carne Bray
aforesaid, will I suppose perpetuate the name and memory of those
Brays till the final consummation of all things, as aforesaid. Bray,
in Battle Abbey Roll, is recorded to have come into England with
William the Conqueror; but by the names of those local places and the
fabrics aforesaid, it is probable they were here long before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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