LOSTWITHIEL— LUDGVAN of Christianity, religion and the church, they brought a horse to the font in the church, and there, with their kind of ceremonies, did, as they called it, christen the horse, and called him by the name of Charles, in contempt of his sacred Majesty ". One writer has endea- voured to attribute this font to the days of King Arthur, but it cannot be earlier than the thirteenth century ; it is octagonal, its eight panels covered with sculpture, some of which have been mutilated. Among its devices will be noticed a crucifix, a mitred bishop's head, a knight with hawk, horn and hound, lions, hare and dog, and a grotesquely hideous face crowned with snakes. Notice should be taken of the clerestory, a rarity in Cornwall. A portion of the church was blown up with gun- powder during the Roundhead occupation. Lostwithiel is situated on the Fowey River, which is crossed by a fourteenth century bridge. There is good fishing here, but the river is no longer navigable to the town as it once was. One thing should be remembered of the old borough — it was represented in Parliament by Joseph Addison. Ludgvan, pronounced Ludjan (3^ m. N.E. of Penzance), is one of the most perplexing names in Cornwall. Even Mr. Baring-Gould seems at fault ; in his Lives of the Saints (1898) he says the name is Lan-Dwynwen ; in his Connvall (1899) he says it is Lithgean or Lidgean, an Irish saint. The name appears in Domesday as Luduham, in Leland as Ludewin, 169
