on; its
inscriptions have never been deciphered. They are thought to be in
both Saxon and Latin. There is a secret chamber in the older part of
the convent, dating from those Elizabethan days when priests lurked
about the Cornish country-side, nourishing their faith in the
villagers, who were very slow to welcome the Reformation, and always
seeking if possible to stir a rising against the new order. It is said
that a priest was once successfully concealed here for eighteen
months.

Many stirring things are told of the Arundells, who were dauntless
Royalists. One is the siege of Wardour Castle in 1643, when it was
heroically defended by Blanche, wife of Lord Arundell, who was with
the King at Oxford. This lady, with a garrison of fifty, so stoutly
resisted the Parliamentary attack that most honourable terms of
capitulation were granted; but these terms were not kept. It was
another Arundell, then a very old man, who defended Pendennis. The
family had another house at Trerice, about three miles south-east of
Newquay; and at the Restoration, when their confiscations were
removed, the title of Lord Arundell of Trerice, now extinct, was
created. Carew has some curious remarks about them. He says: "Their
name is derived from Hirondelle, in French, a swallow, and out of
France at the Conquest they came, and six swallows they gave in
arms. The country people entitled them the Great Arundells; and
greatest stroke, for love, living, and respect, in the country
heretofore they bear. Their house of Lanhearn standeth in the parish
called Mawgan. It is appurtenanced with a large scope of land which
was employed in frank hospitality."

[Illustration: MAWGAN CHURCH.

_Photo by Alex. Old._]

The next attraction at Mawgan is its church. Perpendicular in style
but dating from the thirteenth century, its pinnacled tower is
surrounded by beautiful Cornish elms, and close to the graveyard runs
a prattling brook. The restoration by Butterfield was not all that
might be desired, but it happily spared the carved bench-ends, the
fine pulpit and the screen. There are also some good brasses and
memorials of the Arundells. In the churchyard is a remarkable
lantern-cross--not Celtic but mediaeval; it is described by Blight as
"the most elaborate of the kind in Cornwall. What is intended to be
represented by this carving is not very evident; an angel seated on a
block in a corner holds a serpent turning round a pillar, and with its
head touchi