Page:County Churches of Cornwall.djvu/28

 6 THE CHURCHES OF CORNWALL to realise the Death of Our Lord. Hence the costly and beautifully carved rood-screen at one time present in every Cornish church both great and small, the older chancel arches being removed for their greater display; hence, also, the symbols of the Passion, in every possible variety and com- bination, were everywhere the favourite designs, emphatically of the wood-carver of the bench-ends, but also of the painter of glass and the sculptor of stone. Somewhat later, too, reference is made in these pages to the appearance of the tools and implements of everyday life on not a few of these bench-ends, and their presence seems to signify that the Cornish craftsmen were thereby devoting all forms of honest labour to the Carpenter's Son. And this must certainly have been their intention when they painted on the walls of many of their churches pictures of the Wounded, Suffering Saviour shedding His Blood on the emblems of countless trades — a subject not found, we believe, outside the confines of Cornwall. 1 With regard to the material of which the churches are constructed, granite occupies the first place. It abounds in Cornwall, running in a direction N.E. and S.W. through the county, coming to the surface in four large rounded patches, and adding gloomy grandeur and dignity 1 Wall-paintings of Christ blessing Trades came to light at St. Breage, St. Just-in-Penwith, Lanivet, Linkinhorne, and Pound- stock, and may therefore be fairly assumed to have been common in Cornish churches.