TH CHAPTER XVI THE CHURCH OF ST. JUST, OLD AMPHITHEATRE, MIRACLE PLAYS HE first feature which strikes one on entering the church of St. Just is the mourning aspect of the walls, These are composed of stones irregularly shaped and each is surrounded with a black mourning border. The thickness of the black bordering suggests that of the emotionally afflicted widow who you may be sure will shortly marry again. So irregularly sized are these black-bordered stones, that they vary from a bit the size of a marble to the ton in weight, each embedded in black mortar. Once upon a time the walls were covered with plaster, but this has been stripped off except at two spots on the north wall, where patches have been left because they had, on the surface, rude drawings. One of these displays what looks as if it were intended to illustrate the old industries of St. Just, and the other the legend of St. George and the Dragon. When the plaster was stripped from the north wall near these drawings some human remains were discovered entombed in the wall. It is not improbable that these were the remains of a priest, for under certain circumstances ecclesiastics were buried in that strange position.1 Originally the church was called Lafrouda, Lafroudha, or Lafroodha, from the old Cornish of Laf or Lan (church), and Rhoodha, the corruption of the Saxon word rood, or cross, or crucifixion. Dha in Cornish is good, so Lafrouda may mean "Church of the Good Cross." Some of the capitals in the church are finely sculptured with the arms of the Boscawens and other principal families connected with the district, and other prevailing ornaments 1 This subject of the north wall and north side of churchyards I have treated of in the Appendix. are roses, no doubt the distinguishing badge of the houses of York and Lancaster. On the north side of the church is an old Celtic carved stone, probably the stem of an ancient and richly carved cross, which is there used as an arch over an opening. This is said to have come from St. Helen's Oratory at Cape Cornwall. It would be most interesting to have this removed from its obviously false position and restored to an upright position. Then, too, we should find if any inscription is on one of the hidden sides, as is most probable. The arched entrance to a rood-loft (now of course nonexistent) is on either side of the chancel, and the winding staircase leading up to it still extant. A piscina is on the south side of the chancel, and in it is a quern and round grinding-stone, which were found as they now are. This is a feature I have never seen before in a church, the origin or rather the significance of which I know not. A rudely arched doorway on the inside of the south door to the west was clearly the entrance to a priest's room in the porch. There are now no remains of this. The porch is well worth notice. It has string-courses, embattled and supported by buttresses with rudely cut finials. There are seats on either side. It is clear from the numerous bits of carved capitals and other fragments that the present is not the first church on this site. How old was the original edifice on the site it is now impossible to say. In the year 1834, the chancel, being much dilapidated through age, was taken down to be rebuilt. 6,6 This chancel was dedicated by Bishop Grandisson on July 13th, 1336, on the same day with Madern; Paul having been dedicated on the 11th, and Ludgvan on the 14th, of the same month. When this chancel which Bishop Grandisson dedicated in 1336 was pulled down in 1884, an interesting find occurred-the discovery of the Silus Stone.' ." This is three feet and a half long by 1 foot 2 inches wide, and nine inches in thickness. At first it was preserved in the chancel, then it was placed on the south side of the altar, and now it rests, where I photographed it, in the north-west corner of the nave. / WHO WAS SILUS? 165 This columnar stone has carved upon it "SILUS HIC IACET" in roman capitals, and it much resembles an ancient Roman tombstone. Who was Silus ? No one has yet discovered. It is a reasonable conjecture that he was one of those early British bishops who preached the gospel before the mission of Augustine; or Silus may have been one of the missionaries who accompanied St. Patrick from Ireland in the early part of the fifth century. The fact that Silus was a bishop may fairly be presumed, as the stone has a crosier cut on the upper side. The Rev. W. Haslam (in the Archæological Journal, IV, p. 303) writes of the stone: 66 On the adjoining side, the surface of which is more carefully chiselled, there is a line incised along the edge for a border, and in the middle, cut rather deeply, is a monogram representing a cross, and also the two Greek letters XP, the initial letters of the sacred word Christ a favourite monogram of the early Roman Christians." Langdon in his book on Cornish crosses calls this symbol the "Chi Rho Monogram," from those letters of the Greek alphabet. 66 With the exception of the tomb of Silus, there is no monument of any antiquity in the church. The oldest is a tablet to the memory of William Tregartha, which has upon it a whimsical and affected inscription: Reader! The tablet that graces this ancient Pillar is dedicated as a small gratuity to maternal sorrow by a disconsolate mother, for an only child, born an orphan and well acquainted with the thorny paths of affliction. Unfortunate Voyager! He received his dismission the XVIII of February, MDCCLXXI, from this vale of tears where the fluctuating scenes of sorrow are perpetually changing, the mournful voice of woe is ever heard, and care, anxiety, and pain make up the dismal variety. Alas! gentle passenger! perhaps thou mayst in thy pilgrimage through the solitary region taste of this bitter cup of affliction, 'But God tempers the wind,' said Maria, to the shorn lamb.' For know, O thou hereditary heir of Corruption, that Adam wept, when the Archangel recounted to him the misery of human life,' tho' not of woman born." " This is, I think, the finest specimen of the highfalutin epitaph I have ever come across, and I have seen a great many. In the days of the twentieth century it is impossible to read this eulogy to departed worth at St. Just without a smile and a doubt as to whether it could have been seriously meant. There are also two tablets in memory of branches of the Millett family. One has upon it the following lines from the pen of the Rev. C. V. Le Grice, of Trereif : 1741. "With health while glowing, sudden palsey came And, anxious for his summons, yield his breath. C. V. L. G. George Thomas Millett, Surgeon, Died Sep. 23, 1824. Aged 34 years." The great bell of the church, weighing about 1200 lbs., was cast in 1741. It is probably an old bell recast, and bore the name of the patron, St. Just. The inscription, in rude roman capitals, is carelessly executed. The word "warden " was omitted and inserted underneath, and the inscription would seem to begin with the word "So." But it is obvious that it was intended to be: "St. Just bell cast at St. Earth, So bless King George. James Reynolds, James Tregere, and Admoral Vernon, Ch. Wardens." This was just the time of the Admiral's victories in the West Indies, and it is probable that in compliment to him the parishioners of St. Just named him as an honorary churchwarden for that year, or else the churchwardens desired to associate their names with that of the naval hero of the day. This curious making of honorary churchwardens seems not to have been unusual in Cornwall, for I have come across it elsewhere in the county. The two other bells are older. One is dedicated to St. Michael and the other to St. Mary. The inscriptions upon them are: and : 66 Ste Michael ora pro nobis " "Protege virgo pia Quos Convoco Sancta Maria." MIRACLE PLAYS 167 I saw here an old bench-end with a coat of arms carved on it, the date 1625, and the initials “ I. B." below. 66 The parish stocks used to be kept in the porch, but I was informed they were now in an outhouse at the vicarage. I only hope they are carefully preserved, and that they will be replaced in some public position where they may be seen by the public and securely kept. The remains of the old amphitheatre (Plan an Guâre, the plain of sport), where the ancient Cornish miracle plays were acted, is situated right in the centre of St. Just and is almost completely surrounded by the houses of the town. One part of it abuts on the fine open square in the centre of the town. 66 Dr. Borlase, the county historian, thus describes this interesting antiquity as it was in his day (1769), though even then he has to lament that it was now much disfigured by the injudicious repairs of late years." It was an exact circle of "126 feet diameter; the perpendicular height of the bank, from the area within, now seven feet; but the height from the bottom of the ditch without, ten feet at present, formerly more. The seats consist of six steps, fourteen inches wide and one foot high, with one on the top of all, where the rampart is about seven feet wide. The plays they acted in these amphitheatres were in the Cornish language. The subjects taken from scripture history and called Guirimir,' which Mr. Lluyd supposes a corruption of Gauri-Mirki, and in the Cornish dialect to signify a miraculous play or interlude. They were composed for begetting in the common people a right notion of the Scriptures, and were acted in the memory of some not long since deceased.' 6 Borlase's description does not now hold good, all traces of the tiers of seats on the grassy banks of the interior having gone, and the outside of the circular bank of earth is now held up by a wall of stones. On one side of the amphitheatre, on the arena, are some blocks of granite, which were put there in February, 1807, by the miners for a "rockdrilling competition. The seats of this amphitheatre, now all grass-covered, used to be stone, according to John Buller, who wrote a book on St. Just in 1842. The influence of the Guâre over the West Cornish people was so great, that even the Reformation could not abolish |