Page:Cornwall (Mitton).djvu/212

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

CORNISH TOWNS 131 another English town has such a picturesque and continental appearance," but that is a matter of opinion. The name, meaning Church - Castle - Town, is very explanatory, for the church and castle are the two outstanding objects of interest. The former is most curious, for every foot of the walls outside is covered by granite carving, mostly of secular subjects and hacked out instead of chiselled. At the east end beneath the east window is a recess with a figure of Mary Magdalene much worn and tormented, and no wonder, for it is one of the Launceston superstitions that anyone who can chuck a pebble so as to lodge on the statue's back no easy feat as the slope is slippery will have a year's good luck, and many there be that try ! The church is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and is, as churches go, of no great age. Curiously enough it was not at first the parish church but merely the development of a chapel. The present building dates from 1511 and the tower is older. What is very singular, and accounts for the choice of subjects on its quaintly carven walls, is that they were not designed for a sacred building at all. They were done for