The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 3 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 3 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
From the time of the Reformation, however, all care about maintaining
these decorations ceased, and the whole in a few years more would have
fallen into utter decay, if Mr. Grylls had not nobly stepped forwards,
not to support or repair, but to renew these gems; which he has most
effectually done, at an expense not short of two or three thousand
pounds. The church has now sixteen windows entirely filled with
painted glass of the most beautiful colours and designs; about half of
the whole consisting of the old glass most carefully preserved, and
the new added in a style completely harmonizing with the former: all
executed in London by Mr. J. P. Hedgeland, an eminent artist, to whose
work, with sixteen coloured plates, the reader is referred for a full
description of each window, and of the various subjects it contains:
“A Description of the Splendid Decorations recently made to St. Neot’s
Church, in Cornwall, by J. P. Hedgeland, price £2. 2_s._ To which are
added some Collections and Translations respecting St. Neot, &c. by
Davies Gilbert, M.A. F.R.S. F.A.S.” Printed for the Author in London,
1830, and sold by Messrs. Nichols.
This parish contains a natural curiosity which must not be omitted.
On an elevated part of the uncultivated lands which extend for many
miles to the north and east of St. Neot Church Town, there happens to
be a depression without any channel leading from it; the hollow is, of
course, filled with water, and resting on the granite soil of these
moors, the margin all round is covered by a white siliceous sand, one
of the constituent parts of this compound rock.
Most marvellous stories used to be current respecting this little
lake; no lead could sound the depth of the water, which rose and fell
with the tide, &c.:――but the depth nowhere exceeds two or three
fathoms, and any consent with the tide is obviously impossible. A tale
of a very different nature, connected with this lake, was as
universally repeated, and more than half believed, sixty years ago.
Tregagle is the name of a family not long extinct. Mr. Lysons says
Tregagle, of Trevorder, in St. Breock; arms, Argent, three bucks
passant Or. One of this family having, for some reason, become
unpopular, the traditions respecting a mythological personage have
been applied to him. The object of these tales of unknown antiquity
was, like Orestes, continually pursued by an avenging being, from whom
he could find refuge only from time to time, by flying to the cell or
chapel on Roach Rock; till at last his fate was changed into the
performance of a task, to exhaust the water from Dozmere, with an
implement less adapted, if possible, for its appropriate work, than
were the colanders given to the daughters of Danaus:
Hocc’, ut opinor, id est, ævo florente puellas,
Quod memorant, laticem pertusum congerere in vas,
Quod tamen expleri nulla ratione potestur.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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