The rock is in itself the most remarkable object in all that range of crystaline formations, and it is crowned by the building described by Mr. Hals, which bears every appearance of having been the cell of an anchorite, a Stylites, or pillar saint, so far as this climate would admit. Mr. Lysons, but without quoting any authority, says it was dedicated to St. Michael. Mr. Whitaker, clearly drawing on the resources of his own fancy, has transformed Gunett or Gundred, the traditionary daughter of the Leper who retired to this place, into a masculine saint, whom he names St. Conant, and to whom Mr. Whitaker says, that not only the hermitage but the church is dedicated.
As Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Lysons have failed of producing any document, or of alleging any tradition worthy of the smallest reliance, it may fairly be concluded that nothing is known with respect to the origin or specific use of this cell. It may therefore have been constructed as they think, by some proprietor of a neighbouring estate impelled by the insane mythology then in fashion, for it cannot be called religion; and afterwards, as appears to have been the case in various other situations, it may have been used for a place of penitentiary exile from St. Petrock’s Monastery. Mr. Lysons has given a perspective view, and an exact plan of this building, accompanied by measurements, from which it appears to be 14 feet 8 inches long, by 10 feet 6 inches wide, and the wall about 2 feet 3 inches thick, except at the south-eastern end, where the wall is laid down 3 feet 6 inches. No one can wish to see this building again appropriated to its former superstitious purposes; but it may be a fair subject of regret, that such a remnant of antiquity should not be protected from injury by the addition of a roof.
Mr. Treweeke, the incumbent mentioned by Mr. Hals, was succeeded by Mr. John Tregenna, who held also the rectory of Mawgan in Pider, and on his decease in 1754, the Rev. Samuel Furley was nominated by a Society in London, who had purchased this and other livings, especially in populous places, for the avowed purpose of inculcating specific religious opinions. At Roach it is understood that benefit has resulted to the inhabitants from these appointments, and certainly no clergyman could be more exemplary in the discharge of his parochial duties, or more liberal in his conduct, than the able and intelligent individual and excellent scholar who, to the regret of the whole neighbourhood, has recently retired from the arduous care of a flock, consisting chiefly of stream-work miners, the least cultivated portion of a class of men, in general much exceeding the average population of this kingdom in general
knowledge, and consequent good conduct, in relation to their duties both in public and in private life.
Yet, notwithstanding this instance, the Editor cannot but think that such a system of mortmain for making church patronage permanently subservient to self-constituted bodies, as the medium for giving currency to peculiar doctrines, thus erecting mere wealth into an hierarchy as well as an aristocracy in this kingdom, requires a prohibition from the legislature; more especially as the desire and the zeal for acquiring proselytes have been found in all times, in all nations, and under every form of religion, not to bear a very strict relation either to the soundness of doctrine, or to the virtues such doctrine may be likely to produce.
It is clearly impossible that this parish can have been dedicated to St. Roche, since the name occurs in the Valuation of Pope Nicholas made about the year 1291, where, under the Deanery of Pouder, stands: Ecclesia de Roupe, Taxatio, £6. 6s. 8d. Decima, 12s. 8d. while St. Roche is said to have died in 1327, forty-six years afterwards; and if that were not sufficient, the name occurs in the Domesday Survey made two hundred years before the time of Pope Nicholas, and two hundred and fifty before that of the saint.
The similarity of the sounds—parish of the Rock, and parish of St. Roche,—may have occasioned a subsequent adoption of this saint: of whom it is stated, from the very scanty materials remaining to make out his life, that having left Montpellier, the place of his birth, to proceed on a pilgrimage to Rome, he encountered the plague at the city of Placentia; that not obtaining any assistance or human help, after that most dreadful disease had manifested itself on his person, he got into a wood where dogs miraculously afforded him all the aid in their power, after a manner suggested by the parable of Lazarus. Getting well, he bestowed on others in the town that help which had been refused to himself; and fully satisfied with this effort
on behalf of humanity, he returned into France, and spent the remainder of his life in idleness and solitude.
He is fervently adored, and his aid entreated, over France and Italy, as the individual to whom Almighty God has delegated the care and superintendence of all cutaneous complaints or exterior ulcers; and it is rather curious that throughout Cornwall a congeries of pimples is denominated a roach up to the present time.
This parish measures 6,080 statute acres.