EARLY CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS The only vestige of carving now remaining is a small loop near the top of the hole, which might perhaps be a bit of the dragon's tail. Cury. This tympanum (Plate XIX, fig. 7) is over the south doorway of Cury church. The greenish-coloured stone of which it is made does not appear to have been procurable in large blocks, and it is made up of four separate stones, the peculiar jointing of which is shown on the drawing. It is 4 feet long, and i foot io inches high. It has a border of chevron moulding within which is a design of five interlacing rings, 1 having a portion of one passing over and under the ring at each end, and terminated at the top on the right side by a rosette, and on the left by a drooping leaf, while in each of the lower corners is a rosette. Mylar. Like Egloskerry, the church at Mylor possesses two tympana, but in addition retains both its doorways, 2 one (No. i) forming the northern, and the other (No. 2) the western entrance to the building ; the former being the larger and finer of the two, while the latter appears to have suffered somewhat by restoration, and a good deal of it is new. No. i, Plate XIX, fig. 8, measures 4 feet 9 inches wide, and 2 feet 4^ inches high, and is carved with a plain cross, in low relief, in a circle ; it has widely expanded limbs and a pronounced inclination to the right. The little quadrants at the intersection of the limbs occur on both the Mylor tympana, and are also found on four of the Cornish crosses, 3 viz., St. Agnes, St. Kew, Roche, and Lesnewth. A line of chevrons with three little bosses in the interior angles runs nearly across the bottom of the stone, and is a continuation of the same moulding on the jambs. No. 2 is 3 feet 9^ inches wide, and i foot lof inches high. The subject is a cross of an elaborate nature, Plate XIX, fig. 9. The bead running along the springing line is a con- tinuation of that on the jambs below, which is thus carried completely round the opening. Rome. This tympanum is now built into the west wall of the south aisle of the church. It was found in this aisle in 1884, and having been used as a building stone is somewhat mutilated. It is made of a similar kind of stone to that at Cury, and measures only 2 feet 9^ inches long, by I foot inches high. The ornament upon it is contained in three circles, a large one in the centre, and a much smaller one on either side ; the bottom of the circles being on a level. In the largest circle is a kind of double cross, Plate XIX, fig. 10. The smaller circle on the right contains a cross like that on tympanum No. I at Mylor, while that on the left is occupied by what seems to have been a six-pointed star, the missing portions of which are suggested by the dotted lines. A star of this kind is found on most of the sides of a particular type of font, of which there are nine examples in Cornwall, namely, Altarnun, Callington, Jacobstow, Landrake, Laneast, 4 Lawhitton, Lezant, St. Thomas the Apostle,' and Warbstow." In conclusion it only remains to add that the illustrations of the tympana, like those of the inscribed stones, the ornamented crosses, and coped stones, have been with four exceptions prepared from the writer's own rubbings, photographed to scale so as to ensure accuracy. 1 A band of plain interlaced rings similar to these extends across the bottom of a tympanum at Beckford, Glouc. See J. R. Allen, Early Christian Symbolism, 261. An ornate fragment of Norman sculpture with interlaced rings, preserved in the Chapter House at Westminster Abbey, is engraved by Parker in his A.B.C. of Gothic Architecture, 3rd ed. 1882, 79. 1 Excellent photo illustrations will be found in the Journ. Royal Inst. Cornwall, xiv (1901), 394. 3 Langdon, Old Cornish Crosses, 76 to 79, and 165. 4 Illustrated in Arch. Camb., Ser. 5, vol. xiii, 159. ' 'Ibid. 347. 'Ibid. 160. 449 57
