Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/334

302 CHAPEL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE. perhaps this lease had something to do with evoking Mr. Cokevvorthy's liberality and spontaneous promise of a book for the church ? The book was to be of undoubted value. It would necessarily be in manuscript, and, being specially for use in the chancel, might be expected to contain some of the costly and beautiful illuminations of the period.] A curious question suggests itself with reference to the Tower which, in 1302, the Prior and Convent claimed to have belonged to them, and which the Earl Reginald had destroyed, (p. 11.) Was it a tower which stood at the west end of the original Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, removed by the Earl to enlarge his Keep Court, and to enable him the better to protect and preserve his Castle at Dunheved ? And was the substituted tower of the four- teenth century erected at the cost of the Black Prince, " for the health of the soul of his good predecessor," who had committed the semi-sacrilegious act imputed to him by the Prior ? Be this as it may, the present Tower is of great strength, and has survived 500 years ; while its adjoining chapel, built by the less wealthy burghers, be- came dilapidated within 150 years. In the middle ages there existed a class of men called minstrels. They were apparently successors or imitators of the ancient bards, and usually sang to the harp. The monks at first named them jesters and mimics. In 141 5 Henry V. on going to France took eighteen minstrels with him. On the 15th June, 1440, the Bishop of Exeter (Lacy) granted an indulgence of forty days to all true penitents who should contribute to the support of the " minstrels of the Blessed Mary Magdalene at Launeston." Our pages have shown that the minstrel was thenceforth for many years a familiar institution at Dunheved. He was not only the guest (or the assistant) of the mayor and his companions in the merry vigil of Mary Magdalene