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 INTRODUCTION 39 number, or at all events some remnants of these bench-ends. But the evil work of " restoration " has, to our own -certain knowledge, been the cause of the loss of much of this characteristic work. During visits to Cornwall in the " sixties " of last cent., bench-ends and other beautiful bits of fine old oak carving, from roofs and elsewhere, were to be met with worked up into public-house settles, or serving as sideboards or ornamental panelling in the houses of gentlefolk and well-to-do tradesmen. Others could be seen rotting in timber-yards or at village builders, where they could be picked up for a trifle. Especially was this the case in the neigh- bourhood of Tintagel and Boscastle. In some of the rather better " restorations " they did not actually destroy all the old woodwork, but, with strange perversity, wrested it from its proper use« Thus, at St. Breward, some of the best of the bench- ends were painted and gilded and stuck up over the altar to form an unsightly and unseemly reredos. Many others were hammered together to form pulpits. The student of old English wood - carving in Cornwall cannot fail to notice that there were somewhat varying schools of design in different parts of the county. The bench-ends and other carving, for instance, of the Land's End and Lizard churches differ not a little from that of N.E. Cornwall, the former being somewhat more delicate in treatment. The nave of the church of St. Minver has a great number of handsome late bench-ends in