But a splendid addition has been recently made to the decorations of the church by Lord De Dunstanville, on his retiring from the office of recorder in the corporation. The large east window of the chancel is entirely filled with painted glass, and the middle part contains a well-drawn representation of the Ascension.
Bodmin parish contains 5279 statute acres.
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815: | £. | s. | d. | |||
| The Town | 7784 | |||||
| The Parish | 3077 | |||||
| 10,861 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Poor Rate in 1831: | ||||||
| The Town | 1012 | 0 | ||||
| The Parish | 318 | 10 | ||||
| 1330 | 10 | 0 | ||||
| Population,— | ||||
| in 1801: | in 1811: | in 1821: | in 1831: | |
| The Town | 1951 | 2050 | 2902 | 3375. |
| The Parish | 348 | 383 | 376 | 407. |
| Total | 2299 | 2383 | 3278 | 3782 |
Increase on a hundred in 30 years, sixty-four and a half per cent.
GEOLOGY.
Dr. Boase says of the Geology: the town of Bodmin is about midway between two insulated groups of granite, and it is principally built of a stone quarried on the spot, and which well deserves the attention of geologists. This rock in the deeper parts of the quarry becomes more blue; but its common appearance presents various shades of drab or fawn colour, with irregular spots of an ochreous yellow. It breaks into thick laminæ, or slabs, which are traversed by parallel joints; so that, with care, this stone may be obtained in oblong quadrangular masses. It is soft; sometimes so much so as to lose its cohesion. The substance appears to be almost entirely argillaceous.
All the cultivated parts of this parish, north and north-west of the town, rest on this rock: and the barren parts on a schistose rock, which is very siliceous, affording by its partial disintegration no more than a shallow, meagre soil; silica predominating in the one, and argillaceous earth, or alumine, in the other. The characteristic rocks of these genera occur next to the granite in the parishes of Blisland and St. Breward, and they will be noticed in the description of the latter parish.
The editor is aware that the article Bodmin has extended to a very great length. It might easily have been extended much further from interesting materials collected by Mr. Wallis relative to the past and present state of this chief seat of our ecclesiastical establishments. On their abolition the town unquestionably fell into great decay, till about the middle of the last century, when roads were made in all directions, and Bodmin, from being almost inaccessible by the modern system of travelling, became an extensive thoroughfare; the market has grown into one of the first in Cornwall, and the whole town is renovated by trade and industry.