Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/259

Rh workmen were advised, upon their last operation, to inscribe in the stone thereof, "God bless and preserve this work;" since which time it hath stood invincible for about sixty years. But, alas! notwithstanding this pinnacle hath been thus exempted from the raging of the fiery element, yet its next neighbour, the lofty spire or steeple on the said tower, a strong and well-built structure, bound or cramped together with iron and cast lead through the moor-stones thereof, (so that, comparatively, according to man's judgment, it might last till the final consummation of all things,) yet so it happened on a Thursday in July 1690, that about one of the clock in the afternoon, when the people were at their traffic in the market place contiguous with the church-yard, the said spire or steeple was torn and shattered to pieces with a flash of lightning, and totally thrown to the ground, and the iron bars therein wreathed and wrested asunder as threads, to the great terror and astonishment of the beholders. It was further observable when this concussion happened, only divers flashes of lightning appeared, but no sound or crack of thunder was heard; from whence I infer that when the voice of thunder is heard, the fiery matter in the middle region, perhaps not three miles above our heads, hath spent its force and strength. This spire also was soon after re-edified by the inhabitants of this parish, though much short of its former height and bigness, as it now stands.

Again, contiguous with this church-yard was formerly extant a college of Black Monks or Canons Augustine, consisting of three fellows, for instructing youth in the liberal arts and sciences; which college, when or by whom erected and endowed I know not. However, I take it to be one of those three colleges in this province named in Speed and Dugdale's Monasticon, whose revenues they do not express, (nor the places where they were extant,) but tell us that they were dedicated to the