which represents the window at the east end. Rudeness of construction, indeed, is not by itself any sufficient evidence of antiquity, but viewed in connection with other circumstances, detailed fully in an account of this oratory, already published[1], it may suffice to justify the supposition which I am inclined to adopt, that this building was founded by St. Piran in the fifth century.
From St. Piran's let us pass on to the oratory of St. Gwythian, situated in a parish named after that saint, about sixteen miles west of Perran-zabuloe, on the northern coast: this likewise was preserved under the same circumstances, namely, buried in the sands. Of the patron saint it is only known that he landed in the neighbourhood from Ireland in the middle of the fifth century, and was martyred by Tewdor, sovereign or chief of that district. The present, doubtless also the original name of this parish, is not mentioned in Domesday; a manor only is there entered, that of Conorton, from which I would infer that the church had been lost at the period when that record was compiled. The ruin is not in such good preservation as St. Piran's, because it was not so effectually buried in the sand as to be out of the reach of spoliation, and the influence of weather. The remains of the walls of this oratory are about eight feet in height in the nave, and three in the chancel. There are traces in the south wall of a loop-hole or window, a doorway in the nave, and another doorway in the north-east corner of the chancel, as at St. Piran's, and the floor is also sunken below the level of the external soil.
In general character this oratory corresponds with St. Piran's, and the rude masonry is precisely similar; the ground-plan will shew the points of difference between them. It will be observed that the chancel and nave are more distinct, a narrow opening about 3 ft. 7 in. in width communicating between them. This ground-plan is not uncommon in Ireland.
- ↑ See Perran-zabuloe, an account of the past and present state of the oratory of St. Piran in the sands; by the Rev. W. Haslam. London, 1844.
