CORNWALL Christian monuments surviving in Britain, though in Ireland they are paralleled if not surpassed ; and Petrie has drawn attention to the fact that the oldest churches surviving in Greece are exactly similar to those in Ireland, therefore also to these in Cornwall, which are almost identical. That of Gothian, though longer, is even more simple in architecture than that of Piran ; in the chancel are traces of a priest's doorway, and of benches round the walls, but the altar has been destroyed, " when the owner of the land turned the oratory into a cowshed ". The masonry is of the roughest kind — simply a placing together of stones without any sort of cement. Many human remains have been found near. The mere fact of having been buried in the sand does not of itself prove antiquity — a house built last year might be similarly buried ; but from internal evidence St. Gothian's oratory may be as early as the eighth, possibly the seventh, century. Probably it was about four centuries old when it was deserted for the present church, and left to the mercy of driv- ing sands. The earliest part of this newer building is the E.E. transept ; the tower is Perp., with parapet and richly sculptured pinnacles. HalseUnvn (i-^ m. S. of St. Ives) was built by James Hals, Mayor of St. Ives, about seventy years since, as an industrial suburb of that town. Its houses, once occupied by miners, are now largely deserted ; but the place has a special 124
