Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/107

 CHYANDOUR— ST. CLETHER baptistery, can boast of one of the finest well- chapels surviving in Cornwall. It had fellen into decay and ruin, but within the last few years has been wisely and carefully restored — far happier in this than the neglected oratory of St. Piran. St. Cleer was a busy little place, but has decayed with the mining; its church has a fine tower, and a Norm, zigzag doorway walled up. Some of the guide-books wrongly give the dedication as St. Clare ; as does Dr. Knapp, who ought to know better, in his life of George Borrow. All who have read Lavengro will remember Borrow's boast that his father was a Cornishman. It was at the farm-house of Trethinnick, near St. Cleer, that the elder Bor- row was born in 1758, and his son afterwards paid a pilgrimage to the spot. Many of us wish that he had dealt with Cornwall as he did with " Wild Wales ". St. Clement's (2 m. S.E. of Truro) has a finely placed church containing some good frescoes, discovered during restoration in 1866. The thirteenth century Polwhele aisle has a monument to the Cornish historian of that name. At this place is a sepulchral stone, once used as a gatepost, on which is an inscription, supposed to be of the fifth century, which is read as follows: Isnioms Vitalh filius Torrhi. The cross cut on the stone is considered ot later date than the inscription. St. Clether (about 3i m. S. of Tresmeer Station) is famous for its holy well situated amid most beautiful scenery, and now restored 85