The Church of Lanhydrock, almost adjoining the house, is a beautiful small edifice, with an embattled tower, finely mantled with ivy. The whole fabric has recently undergone a complete repair, and at the same time the antient character of the building has been judiciously preserved as much as possible.
The plantations in the grounds near the grand entrance lodge, are daily improving; and in a few years time will tend materially to the beauty of the domain.
About three miles from hence, is Bodmin, a large town, situated on the high western road, 243 miles from London, 30 from Plymouth, 21 from Launceston, and about 12 from the two channels on the north and south sides of the county. The late learned Mr. Whitaker, in his History of the Cathedral of Cornwall, has with much ability, proved the fallacy of the grounds upon which it was supposed to have been a bishop’s see; an error into which Dr. Borlase, Browne Willis, and other eminent antiquaries, had fallen; and has shewn very satisfactorily, that it was not the monastery at Bodmin, but another religious house dedicated to St. Petroc, near the sea-side, at Padstow, that was burnt by the Danes.
In early times, however, Bodmin possessed a Priory, a Convent of Grey Friars, and several other religious structures, of which there are now but few remains.
The Priory, which stood near the church, has gone entirely to decay, but a handsome modern house, called the Priory, erected on its site, is now the residence of Walter Raleigh Gilbert, Esq. This spot was first selected for religious retirement as early as the sixth century, by St. Guron and St. Petroc. It owed its origin to the circumstance of St. Petroc, its founder, having taken up his abode in a valley, now occupied by the town of Bodmin, but then the residence of St. Guron, a solitary recluse, who having resigned his hermitage to St. Petroc, it was by him enlarged for the residence of himself and three other devout men, who accompanied him with the intention of leading a monastic life according to the rules of St. Benedict. Here St. Petroc died before the middle of the sixth century. His shrine was preserved in a small chapel, attached to the east end of Bodmin church, as we learn from Leland and William of Worcester. The hermitage which he had founded, continued to be inhabited by monks of the Benedictine Order, till the reign of King Athelstan, who, in 926, founded, on or near the same spot, a priory of Benedictines: but this convent having been dissolved at an early period, and its possessions fallen into the hands of secular canons, Robert, Earl of Moreton and Cornwall seized them for his own use, and, after the death of his son William, Earl of Moreton and Cornwall, they became vested in the crown. Algar, to whom it is probable they had been granted, with the King’s license, and that of William Warlewast, Bishop of Exeter, re-founded the monastery, and replenished it with Austin Canons, who continued till the general dissolution of religious houses, when its revenues were valued at 270£. 0s. 11d. clear annual income. The Prior had, among other privileges, a market and fair, gallows, pillory, &c. as proved in a quo warranto, in the reign of King Edward I. The site, with the demesnes, was granted to Thomas Sternhold, one of the first English translators of the Psalms.—Various relics of antiquity have been found at different times on this consecrated spot; among which were some columns with ornamented mouldings and a mutilated effigy of a skeleton, finely executed, which has been placed against a gateway in the garden belonging to the Priory House.
The Convent of Grey Friars is said to have been founded in the year 1239, under the patronage of Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, and principally supported by the benefactions of Sir Hugh and Thomas Peverell, of Egloshale, who were buried in the friary church. In the year 1565, it was conveyed to the Corporation of Bodmin, to whom it still belongs. Since the early part of last century, it has been fitted up as an Assize Hall, 150 feet long and 60 in height; but the removal of its two beautiful Gothic windows is to be lamented. The two ends are appropriated for the Courts of Assize, and the intermediate space for the business of the Corn Market, &c. Above is the Grand Jury Room, and a large Ball Room, often used during the races in August.
The only remains of the Chapel of Bery, is a ruinous tower, standing on a hill north of the town.
Some ruins of St. Leonard’s and St. Nicholas’ Chapels were standing when Dr. Borlase published his work on the Antiquities of the County; but they have long since been entirely removed.
The Church, which is the largest in the county, and stands at the north-east end of the town, on rising ground, was rebuilt in 1472, as appears by the inscription on the cornice of the south chancel, viz.
Anọ dn̅i Mọ CCCCọ LXX.ọ II doma fem fecit.