the same peril; the
planting of reed-grass was not then understood as a means of binding
the sand. This time the parishioners moved their church to a greater
distance, establishing their church town at the present Perranzabuloe,
where the materials of the second church were largely used in the
erection of a new one; they also carried thither an old hexagonal
font, which is thought to have come from the original oratory. In
the year 1835 a shifting of sand revealed this earliest church, whose
memory only survived in vague tradition; the secret came to light
after a burial of eight or nine centuries. The discovery made a
considerable stir, and was announced to the public in books written by
two clergymen, W. Haslam and Trelawney-Collins, neither of whom,
however, is a quite reliable guide. Mr. Collins used the occasion as
an opportunity for proving that the Church in England was a Protestant
Church more than nine hundred years before the Reformation; while the
zeal of Mr. Haslam led him to an unfortunate attempt at restoring the
oratory. Then followed neglect, and the tourists who came hither were
left to pilfer and carry away the sacred stones piecemeal; now, when
it is almost too late, such depredation is stopped. The church was a
ruin when it was found; it is something almost less than a ruin now.
As revealed by the shifting sand, it presented an almost exact
resemblance to the oldest oratories in Ireland; its length was about
29 feet, its breadth 16 feet, with an arched doorway, and one little
window, walled up, above the altar. The masonry was of the roughest
description, the stones appearing to have been put together with
little selection; and the floor was a rude kind of concrete, china
clay being used instead of lime. Some skeletons were found within the
church, and many more without; in fact, human remains are still cast
up by the sands. Perhaps this was once a spot of thick population; or,
more probably, the fame of St. Piran may have rendered it a popular
burying-ground. A notice has been placed here, warning against any
disturbance of the soil or of the remains of the dead. The feast-day
of St. Piran falls on the 5th of March, and is not yet quite
forgotten; it was once an occasion of such merry-making as to furnish
a local saying--"As drunk as a Perraner." There is an unhappy
tradition that St. Piran himself died in drink, which we may connect
with the other rumour that he discovered Cornish tin in an effort