repelled his advances, in a fit of fury, struck her with
his sword and killed her. She is commemorated at
Noualen, or Noyal-Poutivy, where the screen was
formerly painted with a series of subjects relative
to her story. This was destroyed in 1684 by order
of the vicar-general, because it concealed the new
reredos in the debased style of the period. This
tasteless construction has been in turn demolished, and
the paintings that formerly decorated the jubé have
been reproduced in coloured glass in the windows.
The great towans, or sand dunes, of Penhale extend three miles in length, and almost two in parts inland. They are held in check to the north and north-east by the little stream that finds its way into Holywell Bay. In these sands was found S. Piran's Chapel, of the eighth or ninth century, in 1835, exactly resembling similar structures of the same date in Ireland. It was cleared out by Mr. William Mitchell, of Comprigney, near Truro, and he thus describes it:—
"The church, which is built nearly east and west, inclining only 4° north of west, is of but small dimensions, the length without the walls being 30 feet and within the walls 25 feet; the width within 13 feet in the chancel and 12 feet in the nave, and the height about 13 feet. There is a very neat arched doorway in a good state of preservation at the date of the work, viz. the day when I removed the sand from it, 7 ft. 4 in. by 2 ft. 4 in., ornamented with Saxon tracery [this is inaccurate, no Saxon about it], the arch itself having on its keystone the head of a tiger, and the points of its curve (i.e. label-terminations) the head of a man and that of a woman, rudely sculptured in stone, in the centre of the nave on the south wall; and another
