3-070-680 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Cornish churchyard, St. Levan, Land's End, 1881. 'St. Levan, who came to this point from Bodillan, scarcely a mile distant, found here a little well of fresh water, on the verge of the cliff. He took stones and built a rude baptistery, the walls of which, overgrown with rushes and aquatic plants, may still be seen; a small chapel was also constructed, of which nothing remains. The church dedicated to his memory, standing a furlong apart behind the hill, in a very sequestered situation, was built early in the thirteenth century, but the tower is not much above a hundred years old...The ground of the churchyard, which lies open to every passer-by, is raised much higher than the floor of the church; so that broad stone steps, as shown in our Artist's drawing, ascend from the low pathway surrounding the church to the level of the churchyard. Here is a stone seat, upon which our Artist has found accommodation for a pair of youthful lovers, attired in an old-fashioned style; and these by their mere presence, inspired with the hopes of life and happiness natural to their age and disposition, might suggest to the meditative observer a wholesome train of kindly thought upon the common experiences of successive mortal generations'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881..