Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/301

 CRANTOCK, NEWQUAY, MAWGAN 295 chased Wardour Castle, in Wiltshire, and gifted it to his son Sir Thomas, who was married to a sister of Catherine Howard ; and it is at Wardour that the family of Arundell still flourishes. The family remained Catholic through the Reformation, and the sanctuary lamp in Lanherne Chapel was never extinguished ; so that English Catholics have a very special regard for this spot, where the light of their faith still burns brightly after so many cen- turies. The front of the old house dates from 1580 ; but many buildings have been added of late years for the accommodation of the nuns, whose seclusion is very strict. It came into possession of the Carmelites in 1794, when a party of nuns, driven from France by the Revolution, came to England, having in vain tried to find safety at Antwerp. They were given this mansion by Henry, eighth Lord Arundell of Wardour. Here they have been ever since, the settlement having been much enriched and enlarged more recently. Their presence has drawn other Catho- lics to the spot, so that the district is quite mediaeval in its spiritual atmosphere ; besides which many visitors not of the faith come hither to worship in the beautiful chapel, and to try to obtain glimpses of the fair recluses. Having once taken the veil, these nuns never again leave the precincts. They attend the services in a gallery concealed by a grating ; they take exercise in a high- walled garden ; when they die they are buried in the convent cemetery. There cannot fail to be a touch of sadness in thinking of these ladies thus secluded from the " stir of existence," severed from the interests of their brothers and sisters, not even having the fair country-side and grand coast as a feast for their eyes, their lives spent in ceaseless