THE CHAPTER XXXVII MULLYON CHURCH AND COVE HE main interest in Mullyon Church centres round its beautifully carved bench-ends, so let us mention them first. They were set up in their proper places and relieved of their encumbrances of rotten deal in 1870. Tradition says they were wrought from timber grown on, what are now bare, Goonhilly and Kynance Downs. These seat-ends show signs of having been designed and carved by four different hands. The treatment of some is bold, and many of them are in a good state of preservation, even after the lapse of four hundred years. The features of some of the faces are as sharp and clean-cut as on the day which saw them executed. Amongst the subjects are bold initial letters, the emblems of the crucifixion, the heads of Herod, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate and his wife Juditha, the mockers at the crucifixion, the soldiers asleep at the tomb, and others. Caricatures occur, as they do at St. Levan and at all these Cornish churches possessing carved bench-ends, of some of the regular clergy of the period and also of those of minor orders. A keen sense of humour was ever present in the Church in Cornwall. As the Vicar of Mullyon Church told me he " objected very much indeed" to my photographing the bench-ends, I am unable to properly portray them here. It was the first rebuff I have ever had in my life from priest or layman in any country in which I have travelled when engaged in the harmless pursuit of feebly attempting to make known to the public the beauties and interesting relics of the past. From every other vicar and rector in the county of Cornwall I have received much kindness, great encouragement in my work, and often valuable assistance. I wish I could personally thank each of these worthy custodians of these beautiful Cornish churches, but as I cannot, will they please accept this acknowledgment-not packed away in a preface MULLYON CHURCH 373 which few read, but as prominently as I can make it here, in the text? The clergy of Cornwall I found as keenly enthusiastic as I am over the antiquities in and surrounding their churches, and I never met in any country a set of men more ready to help in making known abroad the delightful and priceless monuments of the past committed to their care as life tenants. Would they had always been thus ! In the porch of Mullyon Church are the remains of a plain granite benatura, or holy-water stoup, the well-worn front edge of the basin telling the tale of a time when many more people than now frequented the sacred precincts, of a time before dissent, when people all worshipped at the church of their fathers. A round-headed niche over the door, now vacant, once probably held the effigy of a saint. The roof of the porch is of carved wood, ceiled with only the beam edges now showing. A granite seat runs along on either side. The door into the church is old. The lock upon it, for it is obviously, even intrusively, affixed to the structure-a huge one made of a casing of oak 1 foot 1 inch long by 10 inches broad-is noticeable. At the bottom of the door is another little, even tiny hinged door, just 10 inches square. What this little cat-like entrance through a church door into a church was for I know not. The bookshelf slabs in the pews are of oak, 3 inches thick. The churchyard is entered by a lych-gate over a filled-in stepping-stone stile, and the sunken path to the porch has on either side a long, continuous, narrow granite seat. In olden days these seats in the porch and churchyard were, no doubt, greatly used by parishioners before and after church. They did not hurry into and away from church, but gathered around and discussed local affairs. These seating arrangements were the forerunners of parish meetings and parish councils. Immediately opposite to the four-centred internal archway of the porch is the Devil's Door in the north wall. Many of the Cornish churches possess this feature, so called from the ancient custom of opening this door on the far side of the font at the time of baptism, to allow of the retreat of the Spirit of Evil to his northern abode of darkness when the infant by his sureties renounced him for ever. (See App. III.) The entrance-door to the rood-loft and the exit above were brought to light when the church was repaired in 1870. In this doorway was discovered a marble memorial slab, turned face inwards. This records the death of "Thomæ Flavel Clerice," "Hic Deponuntur Exuviæ Anno ætatis suæ LXXVII Et Doi Nostri Jes. Chi. 1682. Earth take thine Earth, my Sin let Satan havet. This Vicar of Mullyon, from 1634-82 (Mullianensis Vicarii), was a famous man in his day. He may have possessed other good qualities as well, but he had, at any rate, great skill in the art of laying ghosts, and was in much demand for that useful purpose throughout the country-side. It is related that not long ago a spot on the downs was pointed out named "Hervan Gutter," where Thomas Flavel's own ghost was laid by a brother clergyman, of whom he had said before his death, "When he comes I must go." On a prone incised slate is this inscription : "Here lyeth the Body of Who died ye 26th day of March My sun is set My glas is run Death takes no quarter gives no Bail!.. Yet I doe hope to see ye day When death's strong power shall away Yet surely rise again I must To Meet my Sauiour in ye Skey Goe reader goe prepare to dye." The head and arms of the old cross now placed just on the east side of the porch were discovered in 1870 turned upside down in the line of kerbstone which marks the path outside the western lych-gate. It bears the following inscription, getting, I regret to say, almost undecipherable : "To Him Who raised this Cross Grant O LORD. AMEN." |