St. Germain's, an inconsiderable town, pleasantly situated near the Lynker creek. The town derives its name from St. Germanus, a bishop of Burgundy, who came over hither to suppress the Pelagian heresy.— The inhabitants are chiefly fishermen, and the number, as returned under the last population act, amounts to 2139. There are about 383 houses in all, built upon an irregular rock, in the form of an amphitheatre, washed by the river Tidy. The occupiers of houses, residing one whole year within the town, are nominally invested with the right of returning two members to Parliament; but the proprietors of what are called burgage tenements, of which at present there are not more than twenty, are the real electors. The town is governed by a portreeve, annually elected at the court-leet of the lord of the manor. This officer is also bailiff of the borough, and can make any house in the place the prison of the person he arrests. Here is a small free-school, supported by the Elliot Family.

The parish of St. Germain's, is the largest in the whole county; being twenty miles in circumference, containing seventeen villages, and a greater number of gentlemen's seats and lord ships than any other parish in the kingdom.

The most remarkable objects worthy of notice in this town are the remains of the cathedral church, and the seat of Lord Elliot.

The church was originally included within the body of a priory supposed to have been founded by King Athelstan, and dedicated to St. Germaine, bishop of Auxere in France, the St. Germanus before-mentioned, who came over into Britain A. D. 429. Here were at first several canons, and King Athelstan is said to have appointed one canon to the bishopric of their see in 936. But Tamar and Borlase both think it more probable that the episcopal see for Cornwall was not fixed here, till after the burning of the bishop's house and cathedral church at Bodmin in the year 981; after which King Canute more amply endowed this church, and about 1050, Leofric bishop of Crediton, then the only see for the counties of Cornwall and Devon, having united both bishoprics in the church of St. Peter at Exeter, changed the seculars here into regular canons; the yearly revenues of this priory were valued in the 26th of Henry VIII. at 2431. 8s. its site was granted by that monarch to Catherine Champeruoun. The great and small tithes of this parish belong to the dean and chapter of Windsor, and the officiating clergymen receive a small salary from them.

The church was originally more extensive than at present; but the necessary repairs having been neglected, the ancient chancel fell suddenly to the ground in the year 1592, only a short time after the celebration of divine service. It now consists of two aisles and a nave; the latter, and the south aisle are of nearly equal proportions; but the north aisle is lower and more narrow.

The west front is furnished with two towers, both of which have apparently been once octagonal. The upper part of the south tower is now square, and surmounted with embrazures, though the lower part exactly corresponds with that on the north, which is nearly enveloped with ivy. Between the towers is the ancient entrance doorway, which is a very fine circular receding arch, in the shape and ornament somewhat similar to that at Dunstable. Its whole width is twenty feet; of this space six feet are allotted to the door, and the remainder to the pillars and sides of the arch. The pillars are four on each side, having plain square bases and capitals, and are contained in semicircular niches. The arch contains seven mouldings: the two innermost are plain and round; the third and fourth have a zigzag ornament; the next is round, the sixth and seventh are zigzag. A sculptured ornament of leafage surrounds the whole, and is terminated at each end with some rude ornament resting on the capital of the outer pillars. Between the pillars is a zigzag ornament in alternate succession. The height of the pillars is seven feet six inches; that of the door ten feet. The whole height of the arch is about sixteen feet. Over the arch is a pediment, with a cross at the top, resembling an heraldic cross patee; with a circle on each side, is a small pointed window, and above these are three small narrow round-headed windows. The north aisle is divided from the nave by five short thick round columns, each connected with a half pillar opposite to it in the north-wall, by a low surbased arch. All the capitals of the columns are square and curiously ornamented with Saxon sculpture. The third from the west end is embellished with grotesque figures, having bodies resembling dogs, opposed to each other, with their foreparts meeting at the angle of the capital in one head; the upper part human, but the lower like a scollop shell. Above these range six plain arches, some of them apparently of the same age and style with those of the nave of St. Alban's, in Hertfordshire. In several windows of this aisle are a few coats of arms, on painted glass. The architecture of the south aisle is very dissimilar from that in the north. Here we discover the ornamented niches, and the pointed arch windows. The six arches which divide it from the nave are pointed : the two western arches are quite plain, and very sharp : the pillars that support them are round, massive and clumsy : the four eastern are higher and less pointed, having round capitals, ornamented with mouldings; the pillars sustaining them are more slender. The windows of this aisle are large and handsome; they are divided into compartments by stone mullions; but ail are dissimilar in their tracery. In the south wall, near the middle of the aisle is a niche, ornamented with sculpture, supposed to have belonged to some ancient monument of an abbot; but no particulars to it are now extant. The table of the recess in the wall is covered with a stone, seven feet six inches long, which appears to have had some figure let into it; but the form of the outline cannot be distinguished. The length of the church within the walls, is 104 feet, six inches; its breadth, 67 feet, six inches."In that partnow employed as the chancel is a rude ancient seat, generally called the bishop's chair; but more probably nothing more than a stall-seat of one of the monks: several of the same kind being yet preserved in the church at Bodmin Its height is about three feet. Beneath the seat is carved the figure of a hunter, with game on his shoulder, and accompanied by dogs. The chair is now placed on part of a tesselated pavement, about fifty yards from the present east window : this pavement was about ten feet square. Nearly ten feet east of it was the foundation of a wall, which, from its thickness and materials, seems to have been the original extent of the building." Leland, in his account of this church, says, "also upon another creke west of the said river (Tamar) and nearer up, is a town called St. Germains, wherein is now a priori of black canons, and a paroche church, in the body of the same. Beside the high altar of the same priori, in the right hand, is a tumbe in the walle with an image of a bishop; and over the tumbe a XI bishops, paynted with their names and verses, as token of so many bishops beried there, or that there had been so many bishops of Cornwall that had theyre seet theer : and at this day the bishop of Exeter hath a place called Cuddon Boke, joining hard upon the southeast of the said town." There are several monuments in the church to the memories of the Elliot's, Scawan's, and Glanville's families, anciently possessing considerable property in this neighbourhood, which is still enjoyed by their descendants. The monument most worthy notice, was executed by the celebrated sculptor, Rysbrack, and erected to the memory of Edward Elliot (the present Lord Elliot's uncle) by his widow.

There is a curious Latin inscription of eight lines, upon a monument belonging to one of the Glanvilles, so contrived that the initial letters of the words at the beginning and middle of the lines, when connected, form the words johannas glanville, and the letters at the end of each line minister.

Carew, in his survey of Cornwall, in describing the town of St. Germain's, and the priory, relates, in the following words, the manner in which the site was obtained by Champernoun :' "The Church Town mustereth many inhabitants and sundry ruins, but little wealth; occasioned either through abandoning their fishing trade, as some conceive, or by their being abandoned by the religious people, as the greater sort imagined : for in former times the Bishop of Corn wall's see was from St. Petrock's, in Bodmyn, re moved hither, as from hence, when the Cornish diocese united with Devon, it passed to Crediton.

But this first loss received relief through a succeeding priory, which, at the general suppression, changing his note with his coat, is now named Port Elliot; and, by the owner's charity, distributeth pro virili the alms accustomably expected and expended at such places. Neither will it, I think, much displease you to hear how this gentleman's ancestor, of whom Master Eliot bought it, came by the same. "John Champernoune, sonne and heire apparent to Sir Philip, of Devon, in Henry the Eighth's time, followed the court, and through his pleasant conceits, of which much might be spoken, won some good grace with the king. Now when the golden shower of the dissolved abbey lands rayned well near into every gaper's mouth, some two or three gentlemen, the King's servants, and Master Champernoune's acquaintance, waited at a doore, when the King was to pass forth, with purpose to beg such a matter at his hands. Our gentleman became inquisitive to know their suit; they made strange to impart. This while out comes the King: they kneel down, so doth Master Champernoune; they prefer their petition, the King graunts; they render humble thanks; and so Champernoune. Afterwards he requireth his share; they deny it: be appeales to the King: the King avoweth his equal meaning in the largesse; whereon the overtaken companions were fayne to allot him his priory for his parlage." Port Elliot, the seat of Lord Elliot, occupies the site, and a great part consists of what were formerly the lodgings and offices of the priory of St. Germain's. Indeed the refectory actually occupied the space now used as the dining-room. Although the external appearance of this mansion is very irregular, and without any particular characteristic of magnificence, vet the principal apartments are convenient and spacious; and, as a late tourist observes, "perhaps its simplicity is more correspondent to the scenery by which it is surrounded, and which is rather to be called pleasing than picturesque or grand." There are among the paintings in this house several good portraits of the ancestors of the family; a small cabinet picture, by Rembrandt, from the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon; and an exceeding fine portrait of an old man, which is curious, as being in the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the production of two artists of great talents : the head was painted by Quintin Matsys, and the drapery and back ground by Rembrandt. There is also, among the portraits, one of the celebrated John Hampden, the champion of liberty, which is said to be the only original portrait of this distinguished character in the kingdom.

ST. GERMANS is a large village and parish on the Lynher creek, with a station on the Great Western railway, 256 ½ miles from London, 8 south-west from Saltash by road, 9 north-west from Devonport and 8 south-east from Liskeard; it gives name to a union and is in the South Eastern division of the county, southern division of the hundred of East, petty sessional division of East South, Liskeard county court district, rural deanery of East, archdeaconry of Bodmin and diocese of Truro. The town returned representatives to Parliament from 1562 till the passing of the Reform Act of 1832. The church of St. Germanus was originally attached to a monastery of Austin Canons, founded here by Bishop Leofric in 1050, and in 931 was the seat of the see of Cornwall, united to that of Crediton on the death of Byrhtwold, 13th bishop of Cornwall, about 1030; the see of Petrocstowe, or Bodmin, was removed here in 981: the church is a structure of local stone and granite, in the Norman, Early English and later styles, and consists of chancel, nave south aisle, north transept, Moyle chapel, south and west porches and two western towers, one of which the south-western tower, contains a clock and 6 bells, all cast in 1775; and there was once a peal in the north tower also: the west front, which is Norman, consists of a gable pierced with three round-headed windows, below which is a projecting gabled porch with a deeply recessed Norman doorway: the north tower is Norman in its two lower stages, with plain round-headed windows of one light in each; the upper story is octagonal, with pointed Early English windows in each face and an embattled parapet; the south tower is Norman in its lower stage only; it was also at one time octagonal, but is now square, with a battlemented parapet of Perpendicular date; both towers have newel stairs in the thickness of the walls: the nave, 102 feet in length, is of six bays; it retains two Norman pillars on the south side, but its eastern portion is Perpendicular: the south aisle, rebuilt in 1261, is Early Decorated and Late Perpendicular and contains canopied sedilia, a Decorated drain, a granite stoup and an ancient miserere chair, the movable seat of which is rudely carved with figures of a hunter carrying game, and attendant dogs: in this aisle formerly stood the costly and elaborate monument with effigies of Edward Eliot esq. of Port Eliot, 1722, and his two wives, by Rysbrack, now removed to the north tower: one of the windows has the arms of Scawen and Spry, and there are memorial windows to Louisa and Elizabeth, daughters 08 Charles, second Marquess Cornwallis, and to the late Earl St. Germans: two memorial windows have also been placed in the south wall at the cost of Earl St. Germans, one in 1873 to Lady Caroline Eliot, and the other in 1877 to Harriet, widow of John, first Earl of St. Germans: the narrow north aisle was taken down towards the end of the last century: the south porch has two entrance arches, a stone roof and battlemented parapet: on the north side is a memorial window to the Rev. Tobias Furneaux M.A. 47 years incumbent of this parish, erected by his children in 1876: there are various memorials to the families of Moyle of Bake, baronets, 1661—1762; Glanvill, 1599—1847; Boger, 1755—92; and Eliot, Earl St. Germans, 1761—1864, with others: a cenotaph was erected in 1854 by the tenants of the St. Germans estate, which bears the following inscription:-" To the memory of the Hon. Granville Charles Cornwallis Eliot, second son of the Right Hon. Earl of St. Germans and Jemima, his wife, Lieutenant and Captain of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, who fell while acting as Adjutant in the battle of Inkerman, November 5th, 1854: the ancient font, which was broken up in 1793 and its fragments thrown in the north tower, was restored by the Rev. T. Furneaux, vicar, in 1840: the oak stalls are carved with representations of the life of the patron saint, and the carved oak parclose screens have portions of the original screens incorporated ; the stalls and screens are the work of Hems, of Exeter: the priory on its suppression was valued at £227, and was granted to the Champernownes in 1541, by whom, in 1565, it was alienated to John Eliot esq. : the church was restored in 1889 at a cost of £2,128, and in 1893 was new roofed, at a cost of £1,700: a further general restoration was carried out in 1894, at a cost of £2,000, and in 1896 a stained east window, designed by Sir Edward Borne Jones bart. and the late William Morris esq. F.S.A. was erected, at a cost of £750: there are 500 sittings: in 1785, that portion of the churchyard lying within the grounds of Port Eliot was levelled and a new cemetery laid out on the opposite side of the road, in which is the vault of the Eliots. The register dates from the year 1590. The living is a vicarage and peculiar, net yearly value £284, with residence and 3 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, and held since 1890 by the Rev. Walter Westmacott M.A. of Exeter College, Oxford. The Wesleyan chapel, built in 1753 and rebuilt in 1825 and 1881, is a plain edifice of stone, seating about 250 persons. There is a cattle fair held here on the 28th of May. The Freemasons have a lodge here, and meetings are held on the Thursday of or before the full moon. The St. Germans Mutual Improvement Society was established in 1868, and in 1892 the Earl of St. Germans provided for use of the members two large rooms in the Town Hall buildings, one for a library containing 500 volumes, and reading room, and the other for a recreation room. The poor have £1 14s. yearly distributed ini bread, and on the north side of the town there are 12 almshouses, erected by one of the Moyle family, to the inmates of which one shilling and a peck of wheat are distributed yearly on New Year’s day by the owner of the estate charged, who is also bound to keep the dwellings in repair. Port Eliot, the seat of the Earl of St. Germans D.L., J.P. is a large embattled mansion of stone, irregularly built, on the site of the ancient priory, in park-like grounds of about 500 acres, the higher portions of which command very extensive views of the surrounding country; in the dining-room, which occupies the site of the monastic refectory, there is a series of portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of members of the Eliot family, and there are also some other good pictures by old masters; the chief entrance lodge to Port Eliot, built in 1848, is a Gothic structure, bearing the arms of the family. The Earl of St. Germans, who is lord of the manor, and Mrs. Somers-Cocks, of London, are the principal landowners. The soil is loam and clay; subsoil, argillaceous slate and limestone. The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley and turnips. The area of the parish, including Tideford and Hessenford, is 9,997a. 2r. 16p. of land and 298 of water, and of St. Germans alone about 2,317; rateable value, £14,834; the population, including the now separate ecclesiastical parishes of Tideford and Hessenford, was in 1891, 2,389; St. Germans alone in 1891 was 743.

SCHOOLS

Endowed (boys only), endowed with £1,252 £2 ¾ per Cent. Consols & 8 acres of land, by Nicholas Honey in 1657; the school will hold 100 children; average attendance, 45.

Earl of St. Germans (girls & infants), built in 1830 & enlarged in 1891, for 125 children, at a cost of about £250, defrayed by the Earl of St. Germans; average attendance, 60.

ST. GERMANS UNION.

Board day, alternate Thursdays at 10.45 at the Workhouse, Torpoint.

The union comprises the following places:-Antony, Botus Fleming, Landrake with St. Erney, Landulph, Maker, Pillaton, Quethiock, Rame, Saltash, Sheviock, St. Germans with Tideford & Hessenford, St. John’s, St.

Workhouse, Torpoint, a building of stone erected in 1838, to hold 205 inmates; J. Williams, master; Rev. F. C. Cardew M.A. chaplain; S. G. Vintner, medical officer; Mrs. Williams, matron. The children attend the National & Wesleyan schools.