A preliminary word on the various styles of English architecture is necessary before we consider the churches and other important buildings of our county.

Pre-Norman or, as it is usually, though with no great certainty termed, Saxon building in England, was the work of early craftsmen with an imperfect knowledge of stone construction, who commonly used rough rubble walls, no buttresses, small semicircular or triangular arches, and square towers with what is termed "long-and-short work" at the quoins or corners. It survives almost solely in portions of small churches.

The Norman Conquest started a widespread building of massive churches and castles in the continental style called Romanesque, which in England has got the name of "Norman". They had walls of great thickness, semicircular vaults, round-headed doors and windows, and massive square towers.

From 1150 to 1200 the building became lighter, the arches pointed, and there was perfected the science of vaulting, by which the weight is brought upon piers and buttresses. This method of building, the "Gothic," originated from the endeavour to cover the widest and loftiest areas with the greatest economy of stone. The first English Gothic, called "Early English," from about 1180 to 1250, is characterised by slender piers (commonly of marble), lofty pointed vaults, and long, narrow, lancet-headed windows. After 1250 the windows became broader, divided up, and ornamented by patterns of tracery, while in the vault the ribs were multiplied. The greatest elegance of English Gothic was reached from 1260 to 1290, at which date English sculpture was at its highest, and art in painting, coloured glass making, and general craftsmanship at its zenith.

After 1300 the structure of stone buildings began to be overlaid with ornament, the window tracery and vault ribs were of intricate patterns, the pinnacles and spires loaded with crocket and ornament. This later style is known as "Decorated," and came to an end with the Black Death, which stopped all building for a time.

With the changed conditions of life the type of building changed. With curious uniformity and quickness the style called "Perpendicular"—which is unknown abroad—developed after 1360 in all parts of England and lasted with scarcely any change up to 1520. As its name implies, it is characterised by the perpendicular arrangement of the tracery and panels on walls and in windows, and it is also distinguished by the flattened arches and the square hoods over the doorways, by the elaborate vault-traceries (especially fan-vaulting), and by the use of flat roofs and towers without spires.

The mediaeval styles in England ended with the dissolution of the monasteries (1530-1540), for the Reformation checked the building of churches. There succeeded the building of manor-houses, in which the style called "Tudor" arose—distinguished by flat-headed windows, level ceilings, and panelled rooms. The ornaments of classic style were introduced under the influences of Renaissance sculpture and distinguish the "Jacobean" style, so called after James I. About this time the professional architect arose. Hitherto, building had been entirely in the hands of the builder and the craftsman.

Cornwall does not furnish stately and richly adorned churches as does Devonshire, and even more so, Somersetshire. This is due to the intractable material available, granite, which unlike that of Brittany did not lend itself to rich sculpture. Only the Elvan stone, already described, could be worked with delicacy, and this is easily corroded by the weather, and the Catacluse stone is black. The beautiful Polyphant stone of Lewannick does not seem to have been largely employed. Although so close to Launceston, when the church there was reconstructed by Sir Henry Trecarrel, in the reign of Henry VIII, he employed only granite, which was sculptured with infinite labour, and with poor effect.

Buried Church, Perranporth

Buried Church, Perranporth

The most ancient churches in Cornwall were probably exceedingly rude. Only two of the earliest remain and these are in ruins, Perranporth and St Gothien, very much resembling churches of the most primitive period in Ireland.

Norman Doorway, St Germans Church

Norman Doorway, St Germans Church

There are some important remains of Norman architecture, notably the west front and part of the nave of St Germans, some portion of Blisland, the south door of Kilkhampton, the westernmost arches of Morwenstow, Tintagel, and some tympana of doorways with rude sculpture. In many of the churches the early fonts remain. Originally baptisms took place in tanks or barrels sunk in the earth; then, when adult baptisms ceased, square or circular troughs were placed on the floor, and later were raised on pedestals; and not infrequently the pedestal is an addition, at a later date, to the basin of the font itself.

Of the Early English period, the remains are scanty. St Anthony in Roseland is the most perfect example in Cornwall.

Tympanum, Egloskerry Church

Tympanum, Egloskerry Church

Of the Middle Pointed, or Decorated period, are Padstow, St Columb Major, Sheviock, Lostwithiel—where the very peculiar spire is singularly beautiful and foreign in character—and portions in Lanteglos by Fowey, and St Ive near Liskcard.

Lanteglos Church

Lanteglos Church

But, as in Devonshire, so in Cornwall, there was an outburst of church building in the Third Pointed or Perpendicular period. Then only—since the early sculptors of the crosses—did architects and carvers attack the granite, and most of the churches were then rebuilt. The finest are St Kewe, Mawgan in Pyder with a beautiful tower, Probus with a richly sculptured tower of the reign of Elizabeth, St Austell—also with a good tower, the carvings in Elvan—St Neot, Stratton, and Buryan. One remarkable feature is in the porches, where tracery of an ogival character is introduced in the arch. The Rev. W. Haslam, in the Transactions of the Exeter Dioc. Arch. Society, says of the Cornish churches that they "are low, and somewhat flat in the pitch of the roof, and without buttresses to break the long plain horizontal lines which are so conspicuous. All these are features of the Perpendicular style, I admit, but not to the extent to which they are carried in Cornwall. Besides this, the general form of a Cornish church is plain; externally, the plan of the larger ones is a parallelogram, divided into three low ridges of roof: there is a porch on the south side; this is the only break in the horizontal line I allude to. The smaller churches have generally but one aisle, and these have a transept also, but sometimes two transepts; but even these do not relieve the plainness of the exterior. This is not the character of one church, or two, or three; but more or less of all. It is their character, and I attribute it to the boisterous nature of the climate in that narrow county, exposed as it is, with very little shelter, to violent storms from the sea on both sides."

Launceston Church

Launceston Church

No great elaboration of tracery was possible with granite, and the architects abandoned the thought of making the churches attractive externally, devoting their attention to the internal decoration. The appearance of a large Cornish church now is that it is a long low shed, lacking in height and dignity. But the architect divided it in two by the screen, and thus brought it into proportion. Unfortunately, however, in very few have the beautiful rood-screens been left, which were generally spared in the Devonshire churches. Those of Cornwall in no way fell short of those in Devon, but the Puritans first of all, and then the barbarians of the Georgian period swept them away, and the churches in the nineteenth century fell into the hands of local architects who left them "naked, swept"—but not "garnished." They were, let us hope, the last of the Cornish wreckers. A few, but only a few screens remain.

In the interior of the Cornish churches the chief feature is the absence of a chancel arch, which is almost universal. The arch was unnecessary when the roodloft extended upwards and was backed by a painted board. In some of the churches there are interesting bench ends. At St Austell, the miners' tools are represented on them; on some rabbits running in and out of their burrows are figured, and seagulls are frequent.

In painted glass Cornwall is not rich, except in the 15 windows of St Neot near Liskeard, and in that in the north aisle, and the fragments in the south aisle of St Kewe.

The church towers in Cornwall are for the most part square without buttresses, and with four pinnacles. One peculiarity of these pinnacles is that they are often cut on a curve to lean outwards, probably to mitigate the stiffness of effect.

Landewednack Church

Landewednack Church

A few words must be devoted to the new Cathedral at Truro erected from the designs of the late Mr J.L. Pearson in a French Gothic style of architecture. It consists of a choir of five bays, with retrochoir, transepts, nave with north and south aisles, baptistery and south-west porch, richly sculptured; a central and two western towers. Attached to the south side of the choir is the fine old parish church of St Mary, or a portion of it. There is an elaborately sculptured reredos over the altar. Notwithstanding its faults Truro Cathedral is a notable monument of the enthusiasm and self-denial of the Cornish people.

Dupath Well, Callington

Dupath Well, Callington

The Holy Wells of Cornwall are a distinct feature of the county. In all Celtic lands, previous to the introduction of Christianity, there was a great veneration for wells, and the early missionaries took advantage of this to turn them into baptisteries, or in other ways to consecrate them. Holy wells abound in Cornwall, but they have not always much architectural character. That of Dupath, by Liskeard, is the finest, but there is also another that is fine at St Cleer, and one most interesting and unique at St Clether, where, indeed, there are two, for the water from the first flows into a chapel and is carried under the old stone altar, to decant into another well outside the chapel. The Madron Holy Well was for long famous for cures.