113 The Ancient Stom Crosses than the base that once supported the cross, turned upside down. It is nearly square, measuring thirty-three by thirty inches, and is sixteen inches high, and the top edge is bevelled. On the left of the gate, close outside the wall, are five granite stones laid on the ground so as to form a kind of low seat. These stones, I learn, formed part of the pedestal on which the cross stood. They are over a foot square, are all worked stones, and at the end of one there is a tenon. Two of them are about three feet in length, and two are several inches less than this, while the other is about three feet and a half. A fragment of what is very probably the shaft of this cross is built into a wall near the brook that runs through the village. It was first noticed by the Rev. W. A. G. Gray, the former rector of Meavy. It is saddening to reflect that this cross should have been so wantonly destroyed. That such objects are permitted to become dilapidated through neglect is a matter for much regret, but it is doubly deplorable when they are swept away by an act of vandalism. Some worked stones may also be seen in a mounting- block near the cottage door hard by, and opposite this there is one doing duty as a small gate-post, but this has the api)ear- ance of a piece of an old mullion. The quiet of the churchyard at Peter Tavy is wonderfully striking on a summer day, for then the foliage of the noble trees that grow within it, completely embosoming the church, hides all but a bit of blue sky from view, and the visitor feels that he is truly alone with those who sleep beneath the green turf, upon which a patch of sunshine is here and there seen, as the sun darts his rays through some opening in the leafy canopy. Very near the path leading to the south porch are two large tombs side by side, with slabs having letters cut in relief upon them. One is that of Walter Cole, buned in 1663, and the other of Roger Cole buried in 1670, and of his son Walter, who survived him but a year. They have the appearanceof one monument, and standing upon massive granite supports, have been likened to a dolmen, or cromlech, though the height is scarcely sufficient to suggest this very forcibly. The Rev. E. A. Bray in an account of an excursion on the moor, in September, 1802, mentions an upright stone near
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