COLLECTIONS, &c.

THE Parish of BODMIN includes the Borough, and contains, within a circuit of about 16 miles, 5,279 statute acres, or 8 square miles.

It is bounded, sunways, by the seven parishes of Cardinham, Lanhydrock, Lanivet, Withiel, St. Breock, Egloshayle, and Helland.

It is a Vicarage in the gift of Lord De Dunstanville, situated in the Deanery of Trigg Minor, and Hundred of Trigg, in the centre of Cornwall; distant from London 230 miles, from Exeter 62, and from Plymouth and Falmouth about 34.

The population in 1801 was 2,299; in 1811, 2,383; and in 1821, 3,278.

The following are the dimensions of the Church, which is the largest in Cornwall:-Length, 151ft. 3in. Breadth, 63ft. Area, 8,733 square feet. The greater part was rebuilt in the reign of Edward the fourth. It was roofed in 1472, as appears by an inscription on the cornice of the northern side of the south aisle of the chancel, an dni m° cccco-I**° ijo doma fem fuit"

The northern chancel and the tower appear to be of an earlier date.

The walls of the tower are eight feet thick at the base, made for the support of a lofty spire, which was destroyed by lightning, between 7 and 8 o'Clock on Saturday evening, December 9, 1699. The present awkward pinnacles were then erected: three of them are dangerous from the decay of the stone. The ancient building in the churchyard, adjoining the vicarage house, was, it is believed, a Chantry Chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas. The interior, 44ft. 9in. by 18ft. was used till lately for the Free Grammar School, and is now occupied by a National School for girls. Under it is a kind of crpyt or bone house. The isolated tower at Berry, on the north of the town, belonged to the chapel of the Holy Rood. The building of it was commenced on the 12th Sep., 17th Henry the seventh, 1501. The church, &c. and vicarage, which has no glebe, contain nearly two statute acres, viz.

Since the year 1814 both the Church and Churchyard, which were in a very ruinous and neglected state, have been greatly altered and improved. Before the alterations there was affixed within the church, over

the porch door, a tablet, (soon to be replaced,) with the following list of donations :

"The names of those Good Benefactors whome God in his mercy hath stirred op to be helpfull unto the poore of ye Burrough of Bodmyn.

Imp. Nicholas Stoyle, Pson of Blisland, gave xx pownds to be put to use for the releefe of the poore of Bodmyn.

It. Hugh Atwill, pson of St. Tewe, gave liiis. iiiid.

It. George Job, of Bodmyn Towne, gave xis.

It. William Austen, of London, Gent. gave v pownds.

It. George Parret, of Blisland, gave xxxiiis. iiiid. It. Thomas Grose, of Lavedon, Gent. gave to the poore of Bodmyn iii ponds.

It. Richard Cundy, of St. Goran, Gent. gave 100 pownds, to be lent for x ponds p. ann. and v powds 4s. of ye said x pownds to be distributed in ijs. every Sunday in ye yeare in bread to the poore, at the Church by the Churchwardens, and 16s. to the Wardens for their paines; and the other 4 pownds to be bestowed in cloaths for ye pore of Bodmyn, at every Christmas, by the Mayor and Magistrats of Bodmyn.

It. Mrs. Phillip Roscarock, the wife of Humphry Roscarock, Gent. gave £6. 13s. 4d. to be lent out for 20d. the pownd, the which use money is to be distributed to the poore, by the Mayor, on Good Fryday perpetually. The said Phillip Roscarock, Widow, gave other x pownds at her death, to the use of the poore

of Bodmyn.

It. Thomas Dewrant, of Bodmin, Tanner, gave v pownds to the use of the poore of Bodmyn.

It. Digory Dag, of St. Kew, yongman, gave to the use of the poore of St. Anthonye's Chappell, in Bodmyn, 40s.

It. Nicholas Sprey, Gent. gave a peese of land, in Cobbshorne, at the value of 53s. 4d. p. ann. to be bestowed in clothes for 6 poore boyes for ever.

It. Robert Wilton, Gent. gave to the use of the poore of Bodmyn x powds.

William Stone, Mayor

of Bodmyn, 1623." It was also recorded, on another tablet in the southern chancel, that in the year 1700, John Mountsteven, of Lancarfe, Esq. gave £10. and Nicholas Glynn, of Glynn, Esq. gave £5. towards the repairs of the church and tower. On the walls of the church were also written or suspended on tablets, various sentences from scripture, the commandments, table of degrees, the letter of King Charles the first to the inhabitants of Cornwall, and the arms of William the third. Over the old poor's box was an ancient painting of the good Samaritan ; and on the second board of the old pulpit was written, "Fac opus evangelistæ, 2 Tim. ch. 4, v. 5," which has been carved on the ornamental moulding round the base of the new pulpit, with the addition of the time, (10th December, 1826,) when the latter was first used, thus,-"° decembrisan • dni° m° dece° FF ° vj°."

Over the porch are the remains of two small rooms, each about eleven feet square, formerly the record and the council room of the corporation. The floor of the higher, the record room, gave way about 80? years ago, whilst Mr. Wallis, an attorney of Camelford, with some other gentlemen, were inspecting the papers in it. In the lower, the council room, some valuable records had lain for a long time neglected, when in the year 1807 or 1808 they were removed to the Guildhall, and there examined and arranged. They contain many curious particulars relative to the history of the parish, and, incidentally, of the county of Cornwall, during a period of five hundred years; the oldest document being dated 14th Edward the second, (1320.) Among them is a Charter of 36th Edward the third, (1362,) and also one, in good preservation, of 3d Richard the second, (1380,) which has reference to the reigns of Henry the first and second ;—a minute account of the receipts and payments for the rebuilding of the church in the years 1469, 1470, and 1471;— and also for the erection of Berry Tower, in 1501 ;the contract with Matthy More, carpenter, for making the pulpit and open seats, &c. throughout the church, in 1491, the carved remains of which are at present much admired ;-the resolutions of the corporation on the destruction of the spire, in 1699;—a petition to King Henry the eighth, on the eve of the reformation, conveying some ludicrous charges against the Prior;-&c. &c. &c.