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WHITEWASH

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especially in the flowering season. The originator of this plantation at Lizard Churchtown is said to have been brought hither by a carter from St. Michael's Mount, who, having lost his whip, gathered a rod at that place, and when he arrived here at the end of his journey stuck it in the hedge and forgot all about it. This plant, with its greyish-green delicate foliage, always grows well by the sea, and if the leaves are tasted they will be found to have a distinct salt flavour.

As the churchyard is entered, on the left is a bare patch of land on which grow five fine elm trees, in a straight

row.

These were planted on the spot where, in 1645, the bodies of those who died of the plague in Landewednack were buried.

In that year the clergyman of the place, Mr. Robert Sampson, also died of the plague. About a hundred years afterwards the ground was opened to receive the bodies of a number of shipwrecked mariners, upon which the plague reappeared, but in a milder form. In consequence of this, trees were planted upon the plot of land to mark it out for ever, so that it shall never be reopened.

I remember hearing of a similar case at Beer, near Seaton. A number of plague victims were buried in the churchyard, and when, long after, the plot was reopened for fresh interments, the plague broke out afresh.

The porch of Landewednack Church is a fine specimen of Norman architecture in a fair state of preservationthanks to the preservative properties of numerous layers of whitewash with which the tracery was covered up. I know that it is usual to bitterly condemn whitewash, but I have found in several churches in Cornwall that we may bless it, for had it not been for its preservative effect we should not have had handed down to us many interesting frescoes and delicate traceries. Much that is of value in Sherborne Church, in Dorset, is, for example, due to whitewash having been freely used in past times.

Above the door in the porch is a niche, or bracket, now empty, which was no doubt intended for a figure of the Virgin Mary. It may once have supported such an effigy, but I could see no evidence thereof. The roof of the porch is

groined with three ribs on either side, and in the centre where the six meet is a carved angel holding what looks like a flaming torch. When I was there a swallow flew out from behind the angelic wings, where evidently she was nesting.

The doorway in the porch into the church is smallerin the Perpendicular style of architecture..

Landewednack Church is small, and strikes one as being remarkably low inside. Four granite pillars run down the centre, and the arches between are nearly flat, only very slightly pointed. The font is of granite in the late Norman period, and is most interesting. At a later date, probably quite recently, the bowl has been supported by four pillars of the local serpentine marble.

In this church there is a hagioscope, and opposite it on the west wall of the side aisle is the famous letter from Carolus Rex painted on a board-" Given at our camp of Sudeley Castle, this tenth day of September, 1645," etc. And then, in the bottom left-hand corner of the frame, appears: "H. T. Coulson, Rec Domum Dedit 1829." Many of these old letters of acknowledgment of loyalty, as in Landewednack Church, wore out in the course of time, and were replaced by newly painted ones, which were often presented to the churches.

At the present time the church is seated with movable plain deal stained benches, and lit with oil-lamps suspended from the centres of the arches. The tower possesses three bells.

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In the churchyard I came across one name which struck me as not common, Curgenven," and in the north-west end this acrostic on a headstone to Jane, the wife of Peter Roberts, who died 10th July, 1842, aged twenty-four years:

"I nter'd beneath, just in the bloom of life

A loving Mother and a faithful Wife:

No physick's aid, no weeping friends could save,
E v'n fruitless all to keep her from the grave:

Removed from earth, from sickness, care, and pain,
Our painful loss is her eternal gain.

B lest are the faithful dead God has declared,

E ternal joy in heaven is their reward:

R est here in hope till the last trumpet sound,

To rise again with joy and glory crowned,

Safe then at Christ's right hand may she be found."

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