Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/153

Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 117 For the aged and infirm a stone bench was frequently built along the wall of nave or aisle. Such benches are down each side of the nave in Exeter Cathedral. Another remains in the Lady Chapel at Ottery St. Mary : portions may be found in the north choir aisle at Crediton, and on the north east in the Church at Newton St. Cyres. There is a stone bench round three sides of the north transept at Tintagel Church. In this, and some other cases, we may suppose the places were used for local meetings, when the incumbent with his churchwardens and the principal parishioners would sit round (as in a Chapter House) and discuss parochial affairs. As both the nave of Exeter Cathedral and the church at Ottery were completed in the 14th century (circa 1350) we may regard the stone benches as dating (at the latest) from this period. The massive oak seats with carved bench ends which remain in many of our churches are of various dates, but none seem earlier than the end of the 15th century. Where they are carved with sacred emblems or saints we may feel sure that they are fairly early. Some beautiful work remains at Coombe-in-Teignhead, decorated with figures of St. Katharine, St. Barbara and other saints, and completed in purely gothic style. At Braunton we find St. Brannock with his cow. The emblems of the Passion are universally represented on this earlier work, though the fine series at Poughill and Launcells near Bude verge on the Renaissance in style, but at Poughill the purely gothic Hell's mouth appears among the carvings. At Trull in Somerset a celebrated series of bench ends represents a religious procession, with the priest bearing the pyx, accompanied by a crucifer, and choristers with candles. On another bench end in this church we find the date 1 5 10; and elsewhere a craftsman has added his name and date to later work : — " Simon Warman, maker of this work. Anno Dni. 1560." Armorials are always helpful for dates. At Landulph, Cornwall, we find the arms of Courtenay, the label differenced with annulets, and the shield surmounted by a mitre, for Bishop Peter Courtenay (1478-1486.) The emblems of the Passion are represented, and some curious sporting devices,