The church and town of St. Austell are well worthy of notice. The church is much decorated on its exterior surface of freestone by figures and scrolls worked on the stone; and over the south porch is an ancient inscription, KYCH INRI, never explained (engraved in Lysons, p. ccxxxii). The tower, although not so lofty as that at Probus, is perhaps more elegant in its form and proportion. The inside of the church presents a light and pleasing appearance, in consequence of the large space occupied by the windows.
The font is in the form of a bowl, carved with rude monsters, standing on a round column, and supported by four small pillars, which have monks’ heads for their capitals. It is engraved in Lysons, p. ccxxxiii.
An almshouse, with six apartments for poor persons, was erected in 1809.
In the Archæologia, vol. ix. pl. viii. and vol. xi. pl. vii. are engravings of a silver cup, several rings, and other pieces of jewellery, of very early workmanship, which were found, together with a coin of Burgred king of Mercia (expelled from his dominions in 874), in a stream-work in this parish, in the year 1774. They were deposited in a silver cup, which has since been used for the sacramental wine at the church; and therefore had probably been originally collected at some earlier period.
St. Austell measures 10,018 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| The annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 4,628 | 0 | 0 |
| The Poor Rate in 1831 | 2,890 | 6 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 3788 | in 1811, 3686 | in 1821, 6175 | in 1831, 8758. |
Increase on an hundred in thirty years, 131.2, or above 131 per cent.
Present incumbent, the Rev. T. S. Smyth, presented in 1815 by the King.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.