A Guide to Ilfracombe, and the Neighbouring Towns (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE TOWN. The Town has a singular and irregular appearance, and is composed chiefly of one long street.?Many of the principal lodgings, however, are to the east; where the extent and variety of view, added to the great increase of Visitors to this favored spot, has induced many to speculate in building. The views from Coronation, Hillsborough, and Montpellier Terraces, is commanding and beautiful, and in the centre of the former is a public ball, reading, and billiard room. THE CHURCH. The Church is an ancient structure, and situated on an eminence, at the extreme end of the town, a mile from the pier-head.?It is a large edifice, with every accommodation for visitors, and a good organ has been added of late years by subscription.?Tradition dates the origin of this building to three maiden ladies, who endowed it with lands and funds to a considerable amount, (the whole of which was severed from it at the reformation) and dedicated it to St. Mary Magdalen and the Holy Trinity. The date ofits erection is not ascertained; but it is most probable to have been during; the fourteenth century, a period when most of the churches in Devonshire were built. It contains three aisles, and round the roof of the centre one, are the sculptured remains of many grotesque figures. On the right of the altar is a place for Holy "Water, called a Sacristy; and attached to it were three Stalls, (which have of late been removed,) for the use of the Priest, Deacon, and Sub-Deacon, during certain portions of the Roman Catholic ceremony, all of which were ornamented Gothic. Thii affords a proof of the Church having been formerly Collegiate, while the unevenness of the ground in the neighbourhood of the present building, added to other circumstances, induces a strong belief that it was formerly an ext...