Books and Bench Ends ~ A Visit to Morwenstow Church

My husband and I paid another visit to Morwenstow in North Cornwall a few days ago, and, in addition to wandering all around taking in the beautiful scenery, we visited The Church of St Morwenna and St John the Baptist. 

Knowing that we intended to visit the church, I took Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall by Robert Stephen Hawker, vicar of Morwenstow from 1834. My copy is the 1908 edition (published by John Lane, The Bodley Head), the cloth cover of which is decorated in relief with designs taken from sections of the woodwork within Hawker's church, and we decided to go and find the original carvings. Inside the book, in the list of illustrations, they are described thus:

'The Panel Design on the Front Cover represents a BENCH END in Morwenstow Church; that of the Border is the VINE CARVING of the roof.'

Well, we went looking for the bench end first, and there are a lot of them in the church, all beautifully carved. Though, for the most part, they feature the same elements, the arrangement of these—their positioning and combination, the choice of border around them, etc.—and the nature of hand carving itself means that they're all very individual. The elements included on the cover of Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall are distinctive, and we looked all over the place without finding the right bench. We came across a very similar floral motif on one bench end (the one where the church warden sits), without the top curling leaf and with a different enclosure (see the photo above). And then we found it! If you go into the church, head for the central aisle, turn to face the front of the church, and proceed to the third bench on your right (I hope that makes sense), you will find the lovely carving that inspired the central panel of the book cover (see photos below).

Next, we looked for the border carving. If you want to see this one, simply head for the lectern (where the light is better for roof searching) and raise your eyes to heaven. It's way up high, and I didn't expect my photograph of it to turn out, but it does show the vine and leaf design (which you can compare with the book cover in the first photo above).

The illustration list in Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall makes no mention of the design on the spine of the book, but it is very similar to the pattern carved down the edge of this bench:

Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall is one of three volumes published with this lovely cover design; the other two are The Life and Letters of R. S. Hawker (1906) and Cornish Ballads and Other Poems (1904).

In case you've not read anything else on this blog and don't know why I am interested in R. S. Hawker and Morwenstow, I shall tell you. While researching Charlotte and Gratiana Chanter (the wife and daughter of the vicar of Ilfracombe), I found out that the Chanters were staying at Morwenstow when Charlotte worked on Over the Cliffs. Gratiana thought Hawker kind and hospitable, and her father spent quite a bit of time with him. Hawker was also a friend of Charlotte's brother, Charles Kingsley, author of The Water Babies and Westward Ho!

Curiosity took me to Morwenstow, then I read ‘The Botathen Ghost’, possibly Hawker's best known prose work (which is included in Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall), and one thing led to another.

My next blog post, which I shall add not long after I publish this one, will include the entire text of 'The Botathen Ghost'.