arlier
Godolphin had been one of the "four wheels of Charles's Wain." There
are heroic memories clinging to the now extinct family; and it is well
to find that at least the name survives in vital fashion here around
their old manor-house. That house is now a farm, but it retains traces
of old manorial grandeur--some panelled rooms with great windows, a
hall with lofty fireplace, and the fishponds of the gardens. On the
seaward side of the house rises Godolphin Hill to a height of about
500 feet, giving a noble view of St. Michael's Mount and Bay. There
are many remains of former mining. Tregonning Hill, close by, is
somewhat higher, and its summit has a fine entrenchment with a
striking inner vallum. The Latin epitaph to Margaret Godolphin upon
her altar-tomb was written by Evelyn, and the same inscription was
placed upon her coffin. It is followed by her favourite motto, the
beautiful _Un Dieu, un amy_ ("One God, one friend"). Evelyn knew
better than to write any fulsome compliments upon her tomb.

A little westward of Tregonning is Germoe, its church dedicated to St.
Germoe, or Germoc. The pinnacles of the Perpendicular tower are
specially notable, while the gable-cross and corbels of the porch are
of a kind rare in this part of the country. The body of the church is
Decorated, but its font must be far earlier; it is rather like a huge
stoup, of remarkably rude formation, and may perhaps be Saxon in date.
But the structure known as St. Germoe's Chair, in the graveyard, is
even more curious; it consists of three roofed sedilia, fronted by two
pillared arches. W. C. Borlase thought that the erection was simply an
altar-tomb, but, as another writer has said, "there is more than one
story attached to this chair. One is to the effect that the saint sat
in the central chair with the two assessors, one on either side of
him; another legend is that the priests rested in the chair; whilst a
third is that pilgrims to the tomb of the saint also rested therein.
Be that as it may, however, it is possible that this is a shrine, and
that the body of St. Germoe rests underneath it." There is a
folk-rhyme attaching to the parish:--

"Germoe, little Germoe, lies under a hill,
When I'm in Germoe I count myself well;
True love's in Germoe, in Breage I've got none;
When I'm in Germoe I count myself at home."

Pengersick in this parish has still some remains of a castle built in
the time of Henry VIII. by a man named Mi