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ANCIENT ORATORIES OF CORNWALL.

the height of about 3 ft. from the original floor.

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On the surface of this slab, nearly in the centre, there is a cavity about a foot square, and one inch deep:there appear no crosses upon this altar-slab, nor any moulding whatever. The walls are built of pieces of granite, which is the common material of the neighbourhood, put together much in the same rude style as St. Piran's. The doorway is on the north side fronting the well, it is 2 ft. 9 in. in width, the arched head is gone, as is also that of the little window, which is immediately opposite in the south wall. This window measures about 1 ft. 3 in. in width.

In the next parish to Maddern, eastward, called Gulval, there is another holy well, to which it is customary to resort at the feast time. This well is also, or formerly was, famous for its prophetic properties. It is situated like Maddern well in a moor, called Fossis moor, in the manor of Lanesely. This name implies the existence of a British church upon the manor, and probably it stood near this well: there are a great quantity of stones lying in the immediate neighbourhood, which may once have formed a similar oratory to that at Maddern. In the inquisition of the benefices of Cornwall in the year 1294, this parish is called "Lanesely."

On the manor of Landithy, near the present church of St. Maddern, "a chapel" or oratory once stood, as also at Lanyon; both of them are now destroyed, they were in existence at the time the Domesday Book was compiled.

There are also in the Domesday register records of two other oratories in the parish of Zennor, north of St. Maddern: one of these, by the kind assistance of the Rev. I. Buller, of St. Just, I was enabled to find. It is situated on the brink of the cliff overhanging the sea, near the village of Trereen; the other seems to have stood near a village of the name of Kerrow, but I have not been able to find the precise site. The former of these chapels resembles St. Maddern's, it is about 16 ft. in length by 9 ft.: the walls are 2 ft. in thickness, and are at present about 6 or 7 ft. in height. The floor is buried in earth to the depth of 4 or 5 ft. The altar-stone is like that at Maddern, but is smaller in dimensions, being 4 ft. 6 in. in length, 2 ft.