Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/361

ERECTING AN ORGAN. 325 burrough, for our licence and leave to erect an Organ within the said parish church, and also, by reason of the populousness of the said town and burrough, to erect a loft or a gallery at the lower end of the said church, between the north and south doors, con- taining in length fifty two foot, and eight inches or thereabout, in ye midst of which said loft or gallery the said organ is to be placed : We, haveing duely considered thereof, have, upon certain conditions by us made, and by the said major and comonalty for their part, and by the minister, churchwardens, and inhabitants of the parish of St. Mary Magdalene within the s d burrough for their part, covenanted for, promised, and agreed to by Indenture tripartite bearing date 14th September, 1723, given and granted, and by these p r sents do give and grant unto the said major and comonalty and minister, churchwardens, and other inhabitants of the said town and parish, our leave to erect and build ye said loft or gallery and organ ; provided no particular person's right be invaded or p r judiced by means thereof. The negotiations in Exeter for this faculty were con- ducted by a Mr. Liven, who on the 1st October, 1723, thus wrote to the mayor : " I have at Last gott ye Licence sealed, but won't undertake ye like trouble and attendance againe for a brace of guineas. I hope you '1 go on briskly now, with yor Organ, that if I ever come againe to Lanceston I may heare them play, tho' I never heard yor bells ring." In 1724 the corporation repaired the canopy of the pulpit, and probably the pulpit itself, although we have not discovered any specific allusion to the fact. The pulpit is very elegant in form, and exquisitely carved. It is, we think, as old at least as the building dedicated in 1524, and it bears numerous marks of having been carefully restored in the eighteenth century from injuries which had previously been inflicted upon it. Between the years 1727 and 1746 many grants of pews were made, and licences for monumental erections issued. Among the latter was the authority for fixing the elaborate