A model of Bishop Trelawny's pastoral staff, made of gilt wood with ornaments of copper, is preserved in Pelynt Church, where he was buried; but the most interesting thing in this neighbourhood, as well as the most puzzling, is that great earthwork the Giant's Hedge, which, stretching from Lerrin to Looe, a matter of seven miles, passes through this parish.
"One day the devil having nothing to do
Built a great hedge from Lerrin to Looe."
There is no evidence to say by whom this earthwork, which in parts is 7 ft. high and 20 ft. wide, was built. Once more let us pray for a Passmore Edwards to supply us with this evidence—by judicious excavation.
Boconnoc
By way of Lanreath Church with its painted mediæval rood screen we come to the manor of Boconnoc. This house has seen a succession of noble owners and some interesting visitors. Charles I. spent nearly the whole of the cold and rainy August during which he was in Cornwall under its hospitable roof, and Pitt, Governor of Madras, purchased the place with part of the proceeds of the "Pitt" diamond. The wing in which the King slept was pulled down by Pitt; and the house, which is built on rising ground in a lawn of a hundred acres, remodelled. It was here that his son, the famous statesman, was born. An obelisk has been set up in the midst of the entrenchments made during the Civil Wars—a piece of curious taste, as the man commemorated by it had nothing to do with either king or parliament, living indeed long after both were dust!
Between this obelisk and Bradock Church was fought the battle of Bradock Downs. The Royalists who had marched from Bodmin slept all night under the hedges in Boconnoc Park. Next morning, January 19, 1643, they found the Parliamentarians awaiting them on the rising ground of the common. After keeping up a fire of small arms for some two hours, the Royalists were led forward by Sir Beville Grenville in one of his dashing charges. Their opponents broke and ran, fleeing to Liskeard with great loss of arms and men. Their stay there, however, was but brief, for the Cavaliers pursued them—across the downs, by the main road, and by St. Pinnoc—and so took the town without a blow.