Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/397

Rh immediately placed over the chancel door by his mother, in her ninety-fourth year.

The glebe land is more extensive and of greater value than in most other parishes, and the vicarage house is one of the best in Cornwall, a new front having been added by Mr. Collins, and some improvements made by Mr. Rhodes. There is also a rectorial glebe; and a large house near the eastern end of the bridge, stands on the spot where formerly was a barn for receiving the tithe corn.

There is a third slab stone in memory of Mr. Richard Shuckburgh, brother to the well-known mathematician and astronomer of Shuckborough, in Warwickshire. Mr. Humphrey Williams, then the resident curate, had married Miss Sarah Bate, his half-sister, who is also buried in St. Earth's church.

The church-yard is still too small for the parish, notwithstanding its being enlarged in the year 1817, chiefly at the expense of the Editor, and by virtue of a general Act of parliament which he brought into the House of Commons for that express purpose, 56 Geo. III. c. 141.

The bridge is said by Leland to have been constructed two hundred years before his time, or about five hundred years ago. The causeway is very long, but there were originally only three small arches. A fourth, somewhat larger, has been added at the eastern end. The roadway was so narrow that a single carriage had, at one part, great difficulty to pass, and the whole created a large expense to the county, occasioned by accidents to the walls, and by wheels always running in the same track. In the year 1816, the Editor procured a grant of fifty pounds, and, expending somewhat more than an equal sum himself, he got the road widened sufficiently for all useful purposes, more especially as in the year 1825 a causeway was made across the river, about a mile further down. St. Earth adjoins to no less than seven parishes: Lelant, Ludgvan, St. Hilary, Breage, Crowan, Gwinear, and Phillaek.