The Story of an Ancient Parish: Breage with Germoe: With Some Account of Its Armigers, Worthies and Unworthies, Smugglers and Wreckers, Its Traditions and SuperstitionsCoulthard, H. R. (Hugh Robert)
History
The Story of an Ancient Parish: Breage with Germoe: With Some Account of Its Armigers, Worthies and Unworthies, Smugglers and Wreckers, Its Traditions and Superstitions
with the motto of the saintly Margaret Godolphin, "_Un Dieu un amy_."
The fragments of ancient glass, which, as previously stated, were found
in the walled-up staircase leading to the rood loft, were once more
placed in the windows after having been carefully pieced together. It
was also during the restoration that the frescos adorning the walls of
the Church were discovered, hidden beneath successive layers of
whitewash that had accumulated upon them during the course of centuries.
The figures represented in the frescos are St. Christopher, bearing the
infant Christ upon his shoulder, a large figure of our Lord with the
crown of thorns, whilst the drops of blood caused by it are falling upon
the instruments of daily village life and husbandry, thus symbolising
that the business and tasks of our daily lives are blessed and
sanctified by our Lord's sacrifice, and that no human work is too lowly
to be recognised by the Saviour of the world; the two foregoing figures
are in a wonderful state of preservation, whilst the other figures,
which practically cover the walls of the body of the Church, and are
in a more or less faded and obliterated condition, consist of
representations of St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, St. Corentine, St. Michael,
St. Giles, St. Germoe and St. Thomas of Canterbury.
At the time of the restoration, in making certain necessary excavations,
large numbers of human bones in extremely shallow graves were discovered
all over the interior of the Church. One large vault was found in the
nave, a little in front of the site of the present pulpit, quite empty
save for a handful of bones. This vault was about seven feet deep. All
the remains found beneath the flooring of the Church were carefully
buried under the superintendence of Mr. Barnes in this empty vault
beneath a large cross of flowers; the vault was then carefully covered
over with concrete. Amongst the bones deposited in this receptacle were
the six skeletons mentioned in a former chapter, which were found lying
side by side, their skulls perforated with bullet wounds.
In 1910 Mrs. Cornelia Carter, of Philadelphia, U.S.A., placed a clock in
the Church tower to the memory of her husband, Mr. William Thornton
Carter, who, leaving Breage as a comparatively poor lad, rose to a
position of great wealth in America. In his latter years his memory
often turned with affection to the far-off Cornish home of his youth,
and he used to speak fondly of the old village Church with its far
reaching view over the waters of the Atlantic, under the shadow of whose
grey tower he passed as a little lad each morning on his way to school.
At the same time were placed in the Church three windows to different
members of the Carter family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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