DAVIES GILBERT, (continued 8)

Doctor Boase says of the geology of this parish, that Kilkhampton is entirely situated on the dunstone, which forms the substratum throughout the north-eastern part of Cornwall.

LADOCK, commonly pronounced LASSICK.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Ladock is in the hundred of Powder, and confines on 353 the west to St. Erme, on the north to St. Enodor, on the east to St. Stephan’s in Branwell, on the south to St. Probus.

This parish takes its name from Saint Ladoca, whom I take to be an Irish Saint; and probably she came over with St. Breage.

This parish is a rectory, valued in the King’s Books at £18. The patronage in Kelland Courtenay, and Thomas Pitt, Esqrs. Governor Pitt, grandfather of Mr. Thomas Pitt, purchased this alternate right of the Lady Mahon, together with all the Mahon property in Cornwall. The incumbent Mr. Wm. Wood.

The manor of Nansoath, in this parish, signifies the fat (i. e. fertile) valley, the name being compounded of nans, a valley, and soath or soa, fat, tallow, &c.

To the north of Nansoath is Hay. This was the seat of the Randyls, and was sold to Mr. William Tregea, of Lambrigan, who did not keep it long, but parted with it to Richard Bone, Gent. who dying without being ever married, left it by will, with several other estates, to his kinsman Richard Bone, Gent. who now lives there, and hath married Anne, the daughter of Mr. John Andrew, of Trethurfe, by whom he has issue. Mr. Randyll’s arms were, Gules, on a cross Argent, three mullets pierced Sable. Mr. Bone’s are, Ermine, a fess indented Sable.

Joining with Hay is Boswaydel, usually called Boswidle, which I take to signify a house in an open place, or one easy to be seen from.

The manor of Bedocke or Bessake. Francis Tregian, Esq. forfeited this manor, with his other lands (see Probus). To the east of this is the church and rectory house; and the manor of Trethurfe or Tretherf. This was anciently, perhaps before the Norman Conquest, the seat of a very eminent family of the same name, who gave for their arms, Azure, a buck’s head cabouched Argent. John Tretherfe was one of the Knights returned to Parliament for this county in the 15th year of King Henry VI. Reginald 354 Trethurf married Margery, the second daughter and coheir of John St. Aubyn, Esq. by Catharine his wife, the daughter and heir of Sir Robert Challons, of Challons Legh in Devonshire, as appears by a bill in the Treasury, of 7 Henry VI.

THE EDITOR.

In the Taxation of Ecclesiastical Benefices by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, under the authority of Pope Nicholas, will be found:

Taxatio. Decima.

Ecclesia de Sancto Ladoca £6 0 0 0 12 0

In Wolsey’s Valuation, Ladocke 18 0 0 1 16 0

Besides the church town there is one considerable village in this parish called Bedock or Besock, after the manor of which it forms a part.

Mr. Pitt not only acquired the alternate presentation to this rectory by purchase from the family of Mahon, as is stated by Mr. Tonkin, but also the manor of Ladock, which had previously belonged to the Carminows and Courtenays. The barton of Trethurfe has passed by the heiresses of Kelland Courtenay to the families of Poyntz and Boyle. The barton of Nansaugh is the property and the residence of Mr. Andrews.

Hay, noticed by Mr. Tonkin as belonging to Mr. Richard Bone, came by purchase to the Hearles of Penryn, and in the division of the lands belonging to that family, it has fallen to Mrs. Stephens, of Tregenna.

The manor of Bessake was acquired by Mr. Francis Tregian, son of the gentleman from whom it had been seized, but soon afterwards it passed by sale to the Arundells, from them by gift to the Moncktons, who have added the name of Arundell; and finally Robert Monckton Arundell, Viscount Galway, sold it in 1780 to the late Sir Christopher Hawkins.

The Rev. John Eliot, rector of this parish, and of Truro, 355 who died in 1760, founded two exhibitions at Exeter College for young men from Truro school.

The vale, extending from north to south quite across this parish, is one of the most beautiful in Cornwall: it was, however, little known beyond the immediate neighbourhood, till the line of road forming the great communication from Falmouth, and the whole western part of the county, with London, was carried through it in the year 1830. The church and tower, which are handsome in themselves, stand on a commanding situation, and are seen to great advantage from the new road.

Ladock measures 4,859 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 4,566 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 310 2 0

Population,—

in 1801, 542 in 1811, 651 in 1821, 806[8] in 1831, 761

giving an increase of 40 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is entirely situated on rocks belonging to the slate series; its northern corner, however, approaches very near to the boundary of the granite.

Its different kinds of slates are the same as those of the adjacent parishes of St. Enoder and St. Erme; the rocks of its northern and eastern boundaries resembling those of 356 St. Enoder, the southern part corresponding to those of St. Erme.

Most of the vallies have been excavated for stream tin, and these have yielded some of the largest pieces of gold that have been found in Cornwall.

LAMORAN.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Lamoran is in the hundred of Powder, and hath on the west and north St. Michael Penkivell; on the east Cornelly; on the south the river Fale, between it and Ruan Lanyhorn.

The right name of this parish is Lan Morun, the church of St. Morun, to whom it is dedicated; but as to who St. Morun was I must plead ignorance, except that I believe him to have been one of those who came from Ireland in the fifth century.

This parish is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £6. The patronage is in Sir John Molesworth, in right of the manor of Lanmoran, to which it belongs.

The incumbent Mr. Samuel Ley.

This little parish hath but one manor in it, and that is called by its own name.

THE EDITOR.

In the valuation of Pope Nicholas the taxation is £1, the tenths nothing.

357 This parish has but two villages, the Church Town and Tregenna.

The manor of Lamoran, including the whole parish, has passed through various families; Halep and Trevenor, from that family by coheiresses to Roscarrack and Chamond, then Vermans and Sparks, and Molesworths, from whom by purchase, it passed to Boscawen. The advowson is an appendage to the manor.

The church is said to be most curiously situated on the edge of the river, and with a tower more venerable than itself, at a certain distance from it.

The church has some monuments to the Vermans. Their old manor house is fallen into decay.

This parish measures 1130 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 895 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 25 3 0

Population,—

in 1801, 78 in 1811, 94 in 1821, 93 in 1831, 96

giving an increase of 23 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The geology of this little parish is precisely the same as that of Filley, of the lower part of Kea, and of other parishes situated around the numerous creeks communicating with Falmouth harbour.

Present Rector, the Rev. William Curgerven, presented in 1803 by the Earl of Falmouth.

LENDAWEDNACK, or LANDEWEDNACK.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN. 358

Landawednack lies in that part of the hundred of Kerrier which is called Meneage. It hath to the west, south, and east, the English Channel, to the north Ruan Major and Grade.

The name signifies the church of St. Wednack, or Wynnock; (although Mr. Carew, I know not on what authority, calls it St. Landy,) to whom is likewise dedicated Towednack, in the hundred of Penwith, and St. Winnow. It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £11. 16s. 8d. The patronage in the heirs of George Robinson, Esq.

The manor of Lizard, so called from the famous Point of that name, which is a part of it. This manor was one of those given to the Earl of Morton.

THE EDITOR.

This parish has but two villages. The Church Town and an assemblage of small houses near the Point, and called Lizard, or Lizard Town.

Mr. Lysons says, that the very extensive manor of Tretheves, Lucies, and Rosswick, extends over a great part of this parish, and into Ruan Minor and Grade: it belonged to the Carminows, then to the Reskymers, and to Robinson, by whom it was sold in 1768 to Mr. Thomas Fonnereau, after whose death it was purchased by the late Sir Christopher Hawkins.

Mr. Fonnereau came into Cornwall as an adventurer, and chiefly for the purpose of constructing Lighthouses on the Lizard Point, under one of the improvident grants which were frequently made in those times.

A single lighthouse stands on St. Agnes Island at Scilly, and three, forming a triangle, on the rocks of Guernsey. Two towers were therefore built on the Lizard, that each Point might be distinct from the others, and experience has proved their utility to be very great. For many years after their construction the lights consisted of coal fires in 359 each lantern, after the manner of a smith’s forge, and urged in a similar way by bellows; but the blowing could not be always maintained, and when that had been intermitted for a short time the lights nearly disappeared.

Since the expiration of the grant made to the first projector, the affairs have been under the intelligent, scientific, and liberal management of the Trinity House. They have substituted large Argand lamps, each placed in the focus of a parabolic mirror, plated with burnished silver; and these cast a continued and steady light, visible in clear weather to the extremity of the horizon.

Latitude of the Lizard flagstaff 49° 57′ 55″.8; longitude west from Greenwich 5° 11′ 17″.7. From the Trigonometrical Survey.

In Mr. Lax’s Table, the Western Light House is stated to have latitude 49° 57′ 44″, and longitude 5° 11′ 5″.

This parish measures 1,843 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 1,187 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 126 4 0

Population,—

in 1801, 244 in 1811, 303 in 1821, 387 in 1831, 406

giving an increase of 66 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. H. T. Coulson, presented in 1827 by Henry Coulson, Esq.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

By far the greater part of this parish is composed of serpentine, which is generally of the red variety, with dark-coloured and shining scales of diallage.

South of a line drawn east and west, a little north of the church, across the peninsula of the Lizard, the rocks are for the most part schistose, and are covered with a deep soil, which is exceedingly productive.

The cliffs around this part of the parish are very interesting, and if minutely scrutinized would probably throw some additional light on the nature and position of the 360 serpentine. To this end it would be necessary to make the survey from the sea, which could only be effected occasionally, and under very favourable circumstances.

At Perranbonse Cove, near the church, the slate is a variety of schistose diallage rock, such as has been already described at Cadgwith.

Near the lighthouses the cliff is formed of a glossy decomposing talcose slate, which has been called by some geologists Micaceous schist, but talc appears to be the characteristic mineral, as it is present in a distinct form throughout the veins, with nodules of quartz abounding in this slate.

At Hensall Cove the blue slate is much intermixed with calcareous spar in various forms, resembling the slate adjoining the calc shists, and blue limestones at Veryan, Padstow, and some other parts of Cornwall.

The Editor would take the liberty of adding that in this parish veins of steatite run through the serpentine formation; and that considerable quantities have been raised by the late Mr. Wedgwood from some veins larger than the others, and near the cliff. The soft and unctuous qualities of this substance gave it the popular name of soap rock. Thin veins of native copper traverse also the serpentine formation; but never in sufficient quantities to bear the expense of mining. In some places specimens of semitransparent serpentine are found shot through by branches of native copper, forming what has been termed dendrites.

At Kynans Cove the assemblage of rocks possesses such an extraordinary degree of beauty and magnificence as to render it one of the spots most worthy of attention on the whole coast. The interest excited by the general effect is heightened, on a more close inspection, by natural caverns, and the intervals between the rocks are perpetually varied in their appearance by the swell and by the subsidence of waves from the sea.

This spot possesses further interest to a botanist by the production of some rare plants. The asparagus officinalis, 361 the beta maritima, the carduus acoulis, rare in Cornwall, and some others.

Doctor Borlase records some instances of great longevity in this parish, but such generally occur in all dry and unconfined districts, more especially when they are somewhat elevated above the ordinary level of alluvial countries.

A manufactory has been recently established for producing ornamented trifles from the beautifully coloured and variegated serpentine of this district, and with so much success that vases have been turned in lathes, exceeding a foot in height, and they hope to polish chimney-pieces on a large scale.

LANDRAKE.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this perish is lost.

TONKIN.

Landrake is situate in the hundred of East, and hath to the west St. Germans; to the north Quethiock; to the east Pillaton, Botus Fleming and St. Stephan’s; to the south St. Erney.

This church, in A. D. 1291, the 20th Edward I., is valued at £4. 13s. 4d. being then appropriated to the Priory of St. Germans; the vicarage at £10.

The vicarage is valued by Wolsey at £18. 12s. 4d. The patronage in Lord Hobart, as heir to Sir John Maynard.

The manor of Lanrake, as the parish should also be written, is reckoned to be the very best in the county. It was valued in the 1st year of Edward I. at £100, which no 362 other estate came up to but Sheviock and Pawton, which last however was valued at £120.

THE EDITOR.

There seems to be but little of importance connected with this parish. The extensive manor of Lanrake is said by Mr. Lysons to have belonged at an early period to the family of St. Margaret, and in the seventeenth century to have belonged to Sergeant Maynard, from whom it passed by marriage to the family of Hobart, and from that to Edgecumbe. This manor includes the advowson of the vicarage; and the impropriation of the great tithes belonged also to Sergeant Maynard, having been a part of the endowments taken from the Priory of St. Germans.

The church town is rather a large village, and the church and tower are of the form and size common throughout Cornwall. The church contains several monuments.

In this parish is another village, called Wotton Cross, and part of a third called Tidiford, where a small river, navigable for barges, and communicating with the Tamar at Hamoaze, divides Landrake from St. Germans.

The facility of water communication has established some trade at Tidiford, but it is chiefly remarkable by the great quantities of Plymouth limestone burnt there for manure.

The system of using lime in agriculture does not date further back in this district than the early part, or perhaps than the middle, of the last century; and it is supposed at the least to have doubled the value of all the land, and in consequence to have increased the population, improved the country, and largely added to all the sources of honest industry and employment.

Wotton, as a seat of the Courtenays, must have been in former times a place of some consequence. It belonged to the family of Blake, the heiress of which family has married Francis Dogherty, Esq.

363

St. Erney.

The little parish of St. Erney, being in fact a part of Landrake, except that its church still exists as a chapel supported by a local rate, is not noticed by Mr. Hals under the letter E, and his account of it is therefore lost, with this part of his manuscript.

TONKIN.

St. Erney, St. Erna, or St. Erne, stands in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Landrake, upon the south St. Germans Creek, upon the west St. Germans, upon the east Botus-Fleming.

San Erna in the Cernawish tongue signifies holy hour, with reference to, I apprehend, the time set apart for the celebration of divine service. In the Saxon and Kernawish combined, San Erna is an holy or sacred eagle; and if so, I take it, the name must be construed as relating to the person that officiates at divine service, who, as an eagle, ascends up to heaven for metaphysical or supernatural mysteries—as St. John the Evangelist, whose similitude is an eagle. In this sense we have Eagle vicarage in Graffo hundred, Lincolnshire.

This is a daughter church to Landrake.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons notices the manor of Trelugan, of which Wotton in Landrake seems to be the barton; and also the manor of Markwell, which he says belonged to Thomas Earl of Lancaster, attainted in the reign of Edward II. Then to the Bodrugans, and after the attaint of Henry de Bodrugan, in the reign of Henry VII. it was granted to Sir John Paulet, and descended to the late Duke of Bolton.

Mr. Lysons states, that this being a daughter church to Landrake, is entitled to service but once a month; it is 364 probably entitled once in three weeks, which is the general custom or canon.

Landrake measures 2217 } statute acres.

St. Erney 881

3098

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property in both parishes, as returned to Parliament in 1815 5818 0 0

Poor Rate in both parishes 1831 459 2 0

Population of both parishes,—

in 1801, 613 in 1811, 768 in 1821, 841 in 1831, 872

giving an increase of 42 per cent. in 30 years.

Rector of Landrake, the Rev. Wymond Cory, presented in 1802 by the Countess of Mount Edgecombe; of St. Erney, the Rev. H. Molesworth, presented in 1823 by Lord de Dunstanville.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

St. Erney consists principally of a blue slate or calcareous schist, and it probably also contains limestone, as is the case in St. Germans, the two parishes being separated only by a small creek.

Landrake. This parish is entirely constituted of rocks belonging to the calcareous series, like those of the adjacent parishes, St. Erney and St. Germans.

LANDULPH, or LANDILIP.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Landulph is in the hundred of East. To the west of it is Pillaton and Botus-Fleming, to the north St. Dominick, to the east and south the river Tamar.

365 This signifies the church of Dilp.

It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Books at £20. 3s. 6d. The Duke of Cornwall patron.

This church was valued in the time of Pope Nicholas at £4, having never been appropriated, the prior of St. Germans receiving out of the rectory a pension of £8; and if I understand the entries rightly, the same did the abbat of Tavistock.

THE EDITOR.

The church of Landulph is situated almost on the margin of the shore, and looks directly down the river. It contains monuments of the Lowers, but it has one monument of extraordinary interest, to the memory of Theodore Paleologus, descended from the last Emperors of Greece, or as they styled themselves in the single city of Constantinople, Emperors of Rome.

A very ample account of all that can be collected with respect to this personage, has been given by the present learned and ingenious rector Mr. Francis Vyvyan Jago Arundell, in a communication to the Society of Antiquaries, in 1815.

“In the parish church of Landulph, in the eastern extremity of Cornwall, is a small brass tablet fixed against the wall, with the following inscription:—

‘Here lyeth the body of Theodore Paleologus, of Pesaro in Italye, descended from yᵉ Imperyal lyne of yᵉ last Christian emperors of Greece, being the sonne of Camilio, yᵉ sonne of Prosper, the sonne of Theodoro, the sonne of John, yᵉ sonne of Thomas, second brother of Constantine Paleologus, the 8ᵗʰ of that name, and last of yᵗ lyne yᵗ rayned in Constantinople until subdued by the Turks, who married wᵗ Mary, yᵉ daughter of William Balls, of Hadlye in Souffolke, Gent. and had issue 5 children, Theodore, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy; and departed this life at Clyfton, yᵉ 21ˢᵗ of Janʸ, 1636.’

“Above the inscription are the imperial arms proper, of 366 the empire of Greece—an eagle displayed with two heads, the two legs resting upon two gates; the imperial crown over the whole, and between the gates a crescent for difference as second son.

“The Paleologus dynasty were descended from the imperial race of the Comneni; and the first of the family was Michael Paleologus about 1270; to whom succeeded Andronicus the First and Second, John I., and Emmanuel, who died 1425, leaving six sons. The eldest, John II., who was associated with his father in the government during his lifetime, succeeded him. Andronicus, the second son, had the principality of Thessalonica, and died of a leprosy soon after the sale of that city to the Venetians. Some fortunate incidents had restored Peloponnesus, or the Morea, to the empire; and in his more prosperous days Emmanuel had fortified the narrow isthmus of six miles with a stone wall and 153 towers. The wall was overthrown upon the first blast of the Ottomans; the fertile peninsula might have been sufficient for the four younger brothers, Theodore and Constantine, Demetrius and Thomas, but they wasted in domestic contests the remains of their strength, and the least successful of the rivals were reduced to a life of dependance in the Byzantine palace. On the death of John II., who survived four years the Hungarian crusade, the royal family by the death of Andronicus, and the monastic profession of Isidore (or Theodore), was reduced to three princes, Constantine, Demetrius, and Thomas. Of these, the first and last were far distant in the Morea; but Demetrius, who possessed the domain of Selybria, was in the suburbs at the head of a party. His ambition was not chilled with the public distress, and his conspiracy with the Turks and the schismatics had already disturbed the peace of the country. He would have supplanted his brother, and ascended the throne, but for his mother and the great men, who prevented him. His younger brother, the despot Thomas, also accidentally 367 returning to the capital, asserted the cause of Constantine, who was crowned emperor.

“Demetrius and Thomas now divided the Morea between them; but, though they had taken a solemn oath never to violate the agreement, differences soon arose, and Thomas took up arms to drive Demetrius out of his possessions; Demetrius hereupon retired to Asan, his wife’s brother, by whose means he obtained succours from Amurat, and compelled Thomas to submit the matters in dispute to the emperor’s (Constantine’s) arbitration. But that prince refusing to deliver to his brother the territories that fell to his share, Mohammed ordered Thuraken, his governor in the Morea, to assist Demetrius, and demolish the wall that shut up that country. Hereupon Thomas gave him the city of Kalamata, in lieu of the territory of the Skortians, which he detained. Immediately on this event, Mohammed besieged and took Constantinople, in defence of which Constantine was slain.

“The dissensions of the two brothers may be considered a principal cause of the fall of the Greek empire.

“After the capture of Constantinople, Mohammed makes war on Demetrius and Thomas, under pretence of recovering the tribute due to him from them as despots of the Morea; but he is obliged to retire, and soon after comes to agreement with them. At this time the Albanians, Thomas’s subjects, revolt, and attack Pattras, a city of Achaia, where Thomas resided, but are repulsed; they would have been, however, ultimately successful, had not Mohammed sent his general Thuraken to their assistance.

“The two brothers again falling out, and endeavouring to supplant each other, Mohammed takes advantage of it, and in 1458 sends an order to the despots of the Morea to pay three years’ arrears of ten thousand ducats tribute, or quit the country. In spring following, he marched to attack the Morea, and reduced Corinth, without using force. At the first news of his appearance, Thomas, one of the despots, retired to Italy with his wife and children; and Demetrius, 368 the other, submitted of his own accord to the Soltân, who carried him away to Constantinople.

“Such is the account given in the Universal History from Dukas. The relation of Khalcondylas in the same work is more particular, as well as more favourable to the character of Thomas: ‘Prince Thomas having retired from Pylos, repaired to the island of Korfu, where he left his family, and set sail for Italy; at the same time he sent an ambassador to know if Mohammed would give him a great extent of country along the sea coast in exchange for the city of Epidamnum. The Soltân, by way of answer, put the envoy in irons, but soon after sent him back. Thomas arriving at Rome 1461, was lodged in the Pope’s palace, and had a pension of three thousand livres for his other expenses.’

“Rycaut, in his History, gives a still higher character of Thomas: ‘Thomas getting into the castle of Salmenica, defended the same against the infidels a whole year, when, despairing of relief, he escaped into Italy, where the Pope allowed him a pension till the day of his death.’ Of him Mahomet gave this character: ‘That he had found many slaves, but never a man in the Grecian province besides Prince Thomas.’

“But Gibbon has a very contemptible account of the ultimate fate of this unfortunate family. He says, that Demetrius died at Constantinople in a monastic habit, and abject slavery; that the misery of Thomas was prolonged by a pension of six thousand ducats from the Pope and cardinals; that he died leaving two sons, Andrew and Manuel, who were educated in Italy; that Manuel the younger returned to Constantinople, where he was maintained by the Soltân, and died, leaving a son, who was lost in the habit and religion of a Turkish slave. The elder brother, Andrew, contemptible to his enemies, and burthensome to his friends, was degraded by the baseness of his life and marriage, and sold his title to the empires of Constantinople and Trebizond to Charles VIII. in 1494, 369 who assumed the purple and title of Augustus. And in a note he says, from Du Cange, that the Palæologi of Montferrat were not extinct till the next century, but they had forgotten their Greek origin and kindred.

“So degrading is the account this historian gives us of the remains of this celebrated family. It is a grateful task to endeavour to prove his representation in some respects incorrect and undeserved; as we shall then be authorised to hesitate upon what he tells us as to the rest, and to put a more liberal construction upon the whole.

“From the inscription at Landulph it is clear Thomas had three sons: the third, called John, whose family, though we have no particular mention of them, remained in Italy, at Rome probably, and Pesaro, till the time of Theodore. From the inscription it is also certain that this family was not extinct in 1636, and perhaps some of the descendants are still living in England at this moment.

“The imputation thrown on the Montferrat Paleologi certainly does not apply to this branch, that they had forgotten their Greek origin and kindred; on the contrary, the inscription proves, from the accuracy of the pedigrees and the arms with the difference of second brother, that the family of Theodore Paleologus, had neither forgotten their Greek origin nor high descent, but still gloried in them, and were scrupulously exact in perpetuating the same.

“The names of Theodore and John occurring in this pedigree, and continued in the family of Theodore, are still stronger evidences. Camillo, Prosper, and Ferdinando, were probably acquired on their connection with Italian families.

“It would be absurd to make any conjectures as to the history of Theodore’s predecessors, as we have no documents to warrant any conjecture. If we hazard any opinion at all, we may suppose, that when, in 1464, the Venetians under Vetorio Capelli warred against the Turks and attacked Pattras, Thomas’s former residence, he probably joined them, perhaps fell there; and in the frequent 370 wars which afterwards occurred between those powers, John, Theodore, Prosper, and Camillo, were probably not idle spectators, but joined against the common enemy, as well from a recollection of former wrongs, as a hope to regain some part of their ancient possessions. Indeed, their settlement at Pesaro might have been whilst the duchy of Urbino belonged to the Venetians, and in consideration of the part they took in those wars.

“Theodore Paleologus was born, we may infer from the inscription, at Pesaro. Of his mother we know nothing; his father was called Camillo. The time of his birth is also uncertain; though, from his marriage in 1615, then a widower, we may suppose him to be then about forty, which carries back his birth to 1575.

“Theodore’s removal from Italy, and settlement in England, must have been either compulsive or voluntary. If the former, it was probably either on account,

“1. Of his religion; or,

“2. From other causes.

“As to the first, the Paleologus family, from the time of John II., were reconciled to and in union with the Latin church; and to this circumstance is probably to be attributed the protection afterwards afforded to Thomas by the Pope, perhaps through the interest of Cardinal Isidore, the resident nuncio at Constantinople. But the Greek church still differed very materially in many points from the Latin; and though Gregory XIII. founded a college at Rome for the education of the Greek children in the sciences and religion, (and here perhaps Theodore was educated), yet we find him opposing what he called the errors of the Greeks; and in particular, on his alteration of the calendar he is much incensed against them for refusing to receive it. And again, in the pontificate of Clement VIII. we find him particularly anxious to reform the Greek church, and much enraged at being imposed on by a pretended embassy from the metropolitan of Russia, which proved to be a forgery. If Theodore, as is most probable, 371 was still of the Greek Church, these circumstances might have induced the Pope to withdraw the protection and support hitherto afforded to the family.—But if,

“2. To other causes, is to be attributed Theodore’s departure from Italy, it was perhaps from the rigid decree of Sixtus the Fifth, (about the year 1585), prohibiting foreigners from living at Rome, unless they brought a certificate that they were able by some trade or profession to maintain their families. If Theodore’s family were then at Rome, and in dependance on the papacy, perhaps Sixtus might enforce this decree to rid himself of a family whose high descent he possibly regarded with a jealous eye, recollecting the meanness of his own origin. Or, the severe famine, which in 1590 afflicted all the ecclesiastical state, might oblige Theodore, among others, to emigrate to another country.

“If, on the other hand, Theodore’s departure from Italy was voluntary, as is most probable, it might be from having formed some acquaintance, either with natives of this country, or with foreigners who were coming hither.

“About the same time that the Greek college was founded at Rome, (and where we may imagine Theodore to have had his education), another was founded called the Scotch college, for children of refugees from Scotland and England. Here we may suppose Theodore to have had some acquaintance; nor is it unlikely that when the jubilee in 1601 attracted a vast assemblage of persons from all countries to Rome, some one of these might have prevailed on Theodore to return to England with them. In the same year 1601, the Duke of Braciano, a neighbouring state to Pesaro, came to England, or rather Scotland, on a visit to the King of the Scots his relation. Did Theodore accompany him? Again, we may suppose him to have volunteered in the war against the Turks under Rodolph II. in whose army were many Englishmen, and in particular Sir Thomas Arundel, whose namesake, and probably friend, Thomas Arundel, resided at Clifton, the subsequent residence of 372 Theodore. Did he come over with him? If not, we may lastly imagine he came here through Sir Henry Killigrew, ambassador about this time to the Venetians or Genoese. The connection between the Arundel, Killigrew, and Lower families, give the most plausibility to the two last conjectures.

“But whatever may be our conjectures as to Theodore’s removal from Italy, we know that in 1615 he was actually in England, at Hadley in Suffolk, and (then a widower) married Mary, daughter of William Balls, of that town. No traces of the Balls family remain at present, either from tradition or otherwise, except the register of Theodore’s marriage; and even here, Mr. Wilkins, the minister, who has favoured me with a copy of this register, says that it is too mutilated and imperfect to decipher accurately the name of Paleologus.

“The issue of this marriage, as the monument tells us, were five children, Theodoro, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy, all of whom must have been born before Theodore left the eastern part of the kingdom; for the register of Landulph, perfect till the year 1629, makes no mention whatever of the name. He could not therefore have settled at Clifton in Landulph earlier than 1622 or 1623.

“Clifton, a few years before this, in 1600, was the mansion of the Arundels; but in 1630, Sir Nicholas Lower, a Cornish gentleman, who married Sir Henry Killigrew’s daughter, was living at Clifton. Between these two dates Paleologus must have come here; and what is more particular, he died at Clifton in 1636, at the very time that Clifton was the residence of Sir Nicholas Lower.

“I have made repeated inquiries of the old people of the parish, but not the slightest tradition remains respecting him; and here again conjecture must supply the place of fact. When Theodore came to Clifton, he came with his family, for by the register it appears one of his daughters married in the parish, and the other died here unmarried. 373 There must then have been some connection either between the Arundel or Lower families and himself.

“As to the first supposition, if it is probable he came into England with Sir Thomas Arundel from the battles in Hungary, we may suppose Sir Thomas recommended him to Landulph, as from its vicinity to the sea and warmth of climate, more nearly resembling the climate and situation of Pesaro than any other place in the kingdom. In this case we may suppose him to have taken Clifton for a term, and as the house appears to have been originally divided into two, the subsequent occupier, Sir Nicholas Lower and Paleologus, might be both living at Clifton at the same time, unconnected with each other.

“The more probable supposition, however, is, that he settled at Clifton from the connection that subsisted between Sir Henry Killigrew (who, I feel strongly inclined to believe, brought him to England) and Sir Nicholas Lower. Sir Nicholas Lower married Sir Henry’s daughter, and as they were now advanced in life, without any family, the society of Paleologus and his children might be desirable to them; particularly when we recollect that this was the time when the Greek language was so much in fashion in England, that even ladies studied it most zealously; that Lady Killigrew was one of the learned daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke, celebrated for her literary attainments, and particularly her knowledge of Greek; and it is reasonable to suppose her daughter, Lady Lower, wife of Sir Nicholas, was brought up with the same fondness for the classic languages; and where could she expect to find so able an instructor as a descendant of the first family in the Greek empire; or what place could be more suited to classical pursuits than the retirement of a country mansion, such as Clifton.

“On the 21st of January 1636, as appears by the monument, Theodore Paleologus died at Clifton, Sir Nicholas and Lady Lower being still alive; of whom the latter died in 1638, and Sir Nicholas in 1655.

374

“The Landulph register, perfect from 1540 to 1628, has then a great chasm till the year 1649; and during this interval all the entries that would have been probably most interesting to our inquiries were made.

“Some little time since I examined the duplicates of parish registers, deposited in the room of archives in Exeter cathedral; and after a laborious search among the registers of two centuries, thrown promiscuously together without arrangement as to either parishes or dates, and those for the most part obliterated by the damp, I had the good fortune to recover the Landulph register for the year 1636, which had the following entry:

“‘Theodore Palleologus was buryed the 20th daye of October.’

“By the monument Theodore is said to have died the 21st of January 1636; from the register it appears he was buried October 20, 1636. It can hardly be supposed the body was kept from January till October, and the difficulty is increased from the knowledge, that by the mode of calculation in use at that time, the year commenced at Lady-day; so that, if he died January 21, 1636, the 20th of October following must have been in 1637.

“The body, if it remained any considerable time uninterred, would have been inclosed in a lead coffin; but this was not the case, for about twenty years ago, when the vault was accidentally opened, the coffin of Paleologus was seen, a single oak coffin; and curiosity prompting to lift the lid, the body of Paleologus was discovered, and in so perfect a state as to ascertain him to have been in stature much above the common height, his countenance of an oval form, much lengthened, and strongly marked by an aqueline nose, and a very white beard reaching low on the breast.

“Of the five children left by him, no traces remain of two sons, John and Ferdinando. Whether they joined the brothers of Sir Nicholas Lower, who were distinguished cavaliers on the king’s side in the unhappy wars that distracted 375 the country soon after the death of Theodore, and in which Major Lower gallantly fell; or whether the miserable state of England induced them again to re-visit Italy, cannot be ascertained.

“Theodore was a sailor, and served on board the Charles II. Captain Gibson. He died at sea 1693, as appears by a will and power in the Commons, obligingly communicated to me by Francis Townsend, Esq. Windsor Herald. This is dated August 1, 1693, and solely in favour of his wife Martha. If he had any children they are not named in it. The signature is Theodore Paleologey; and though described simply as mariner, it should seem he was possessed of landed estate, as there are four witnesses, Charles Gibson, commander, J. Wright, John Corneth, Richard Roberts.

“Mary Paleologus died at Landulph unmarried in 1674; and her sister Dorothy was married in 1656 to William Arundel, the grandson probably of Alexander Arundel, of Clifton. This marriage is registered at Landulph and St. Mellion, as solemnised in both parishes; the entry at the latter is, ‘Dorothea Paleologus de stirpe Imperatorum.’ Soon after their marriage they settled in St. Dominick, an adjoining parish, the registers of which having been accidentally destroyed, it is impossible now to determine if they had any issue, though it seems highly probable. They were both buried at Landulph, Dorothy in 1681, and her husband in 1684; and as some years after, a Mary Arundel was married to Francis Lee, the imperial blood perhaps still flows in the bargemen of Cargreen!”

The manor of Landulph is traced back to the family of D’Alneto, from whom it passed to the Courtenays, and fell to the Crown on the attainder of Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, in 1539, soon after which it was annexed to the duchy of Cornwall.

The manor of Glebridge has passed through various families, and is now the property of Mr. Bluett.

But the principal place in this parish was Clifton. Sir John Arundell is said to have built the house about the 376 year 1500. It is believed to have afterwards belonged to the Killigrews, as it passed in succession to Sir Nicholas Lower and Sir Reginald Mahon, who married the daughters of Sir Henry Killigrew. The former died without issue; and it was ultimately sold with the other property of the Mahons to Pitt.

The Lowers had their principal seat at St. Winnow, and were eminent during several successions. Some of this family were distinguished by their proficiency in science, and by their friendships with scientific men. This has been very recently made prominent in a work that cannot receive too much commendation, either for the accuracy, the ability, or for the industry displayed by its author. The Life of Dr. Bradley, by Stephen Peter Rigaud, M.A. Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford, and Director of the Radcliffe Observatory, 1 vol. 4to. 1832.

Landulph measures 1564 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 3596 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 363 0 0

Population,—

in 1801, 529 in 1811, 590 in 1821, 579 in 1831, 570

giving an increase of not quite 8 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. F. V. Jago, F.S.A. presented by the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall in 1805.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Doctor Boase says of the geology of this parish, that it is situated like the last on the calcareous series, and that its rocks are similar.

LANEAST.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN. 377

Laneast is in the hundred of East. To the west of it is St. Clether, to the north Egloskerry, to the east Trewren, to the south Alternun.

This parish taketh its name from its situation to the east of St. Clether.

It is an impropriation, belonging formerly to the Priory of Launceston. The great tithes are at present in the hands of the Earl of Radnor (Robarts); and the small tithes, out of which seven pounds a-year are paid for the supply of the cure, are in the possession of Mr. Arthur Squire and Mr. King.

THE EDITOR.

This parish contains three villages, the Church Town, Badgall, and Trespearn.

The principal or only seat is Tregeare, belonging to the family of Baron.

The late Mr. Jaspar Baron either rebuilt or greatly improved the house. This gentleman was for some time a member of Pembroke College, Oxford, but did not proceed to a degree. He died in early life, leaving a son and a daughter. The son became a member of Wadham College, Oxford. He died unmarried, and still earlier than his father. The sister, heiress of the very considerable property possessed by this family, has married a son of the late Mr. Christopher Lethbridge, of Madford in Launceston.

The great tithes now belong to Mr. George Bennett, and the impropriate vicarage to Mr. Baron and Mr. Cook.

This parish measures 2111 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 851 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 148 19 0

Population,—

in 1801, 179 in 1811, 149 in 1821, 229 in 1831, 279

giving an increase of 56 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE. 378

The geology of this parish is precisely similar to that of the adjacent parish of St. Clether.

The northern part is situated on that range of downs which extends from Launceston to the British Channel. These downs consist principally of varieties of dunstone, which are sometimes felspathic; but in general they are very siliceous, and even quartzoze. They are interesting in an economical point of view, as containing extensive deposits of the ores of manganese. A mine of this substance has been long worked at Letcot in Laneast. The ores occur in a lode or cross course of capel, running north-east and south-west; the lode is about twelve fathoms in width, and is composed of siliceous materials, or rather varieties of compact felspar, in which silex greatly predominates. The ore is arranged throughout the substances of the lode in veins and branches. In the latter form it was originally discovered, not many feet below the surface, and in such abundance that it was obtained at a very trifling cost, for the hardness and tenacity of the capel permitted the ore to be followed in all its ramifications without needing support: and the result of these operations has been to produce a large chasm, with curiously irregular and indented sides.

LANHIDROCK.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Lanhidrock is in the hundred of Pider; hath to the west 379 Lanivet; to the north Bodmin; to the east Fowey river, between it and St. Winnow; to the south, Lanlivery.

This parish takes its name from St. Hidrock, and is the church of St. Hidrock.

This probably may be the manor that in Domesday is called the Lanredock; and if so, it is one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, with the Earldom of Cornwall.

In the year sixteen hundred and —— John Lord Robarts, being disgusted on some occasion or other with the town of Truro, left his barony-house there, and new built a large one in this place, quadrangularwise, to which he added afterwards a noble gate-house, and enclosed a very handsome park, well-wooded, and watered by the river Fowey.

This noble lord was afterwards, in 1662, made Lord Privy Seal, in the place of William Lord Say, deceased. In Sept. 1669 he was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, but continued there no longer than the May following; and about this time he received the honour of being made Custos Rotulorum of Cornwall. In 1679, July 20, he was created Earl of Falmouth and Viscount Bodmin, but he kept the title of Falmouth only six days, when he got it changed to that of Radnor. In October of the same year he was made Lord President of the Council, in the room of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. He was twice married, 1st. to the Lady Lucy Rich, daughter of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, by whom he had issue Robert Lord Viscount Bodmin. He married, secondly, a daughter of John Smith, Esq. of Kent, a lady of great beauty, who, it is said, was to have married his eldest son the Lord Bodmin; for which reason there was never a good understanding between the father and son. By her he had several children, the eldest of which was Francis Robarts, a very ingenious man, and a great mathematician, author of several small works. He was twice married, first to Penelope, daughter of Sir Courtenay Pole, of Devonshire, by whom he had no issue; secondly, to the Lady 380 Ann Fitzgerald, daughter of the Earl of Kildare, and widow of Mr. William Boscawen, of Tregothnan. The said John Robarts, Earl of Radnor, died at his house in Chelsea, very aged, July 17, 1685, and was brought to Lanhidrock, where he had constructed a vault for himself and family, and was succeeded by his grandson Charles Bodville Robarts.

Robert Robarts, Lord Bodmin, his father, was much esteemed by King Charles the Second, for his bright, lively parts and ready wit. He was sent Ambassador to the King of Denmark in July 1679-80, but died soon after his return. Charles Bodville Robarts, second Earl of Radnor, married Mary, the daughter and heir of Sir John Cutler, by whom he acquired a great accession of fortune, but no issue. He succeeded the Earl of Bath as Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, and he was also Lord Warden of the Stanneries. He was succeeded by his nephew Mr. Henry Robarts.

Trefry, that is, the house on the hill, (for bre, bray, vre, fray, are synonymous terms, indicating a hill or a mountain,) adjoins Lanhidrock, and was formerly a barton belonging to the Trefrys of Fowey; although they took not their name from this place, but from Trefry in Linkinhorne. It now belongs to the Earl of Radnor, who keeps it as a domain to Lanhidrock. The Earl of Radnor’s arms are, Azure, three estoiles, and a chief wavy Or; the crest, a lion rampant Or, holding a flaming sword Proper, the pommel Or; supporters, two goats Argent, with a ducal coronet round their necks Or; the motto, “QUÆ SUPRA;” which coat was thus given by John Robarts Earl of Radnor, but for what reason I cannot tell, since the arms of the family granted to Sir Richard Robarts, afterwards Baron Truro, by the celebrated William Camden, Clarencieux King-at-Arms, were, Azure, on a chevron Argent three mullets Sable, as may be seen in their house at Truro, and also in the church.

THE EDITOR. 381

Henry Robarts, the third Earl of Radnor, in possession of the property when Mr. Tonkin wrote, was succeeded by his cousin John Robarts, son of Francis Robarts, youngest son of John Robarts, the first Earl of Radnor; and with him, who died in 1764, the family became extinct in the male line; and the estate reverted to a sister’s son of Henry Robarts, who had married Thomas Hunt, Esq. of Mellington in Cheshire.

Mr. George Hunt, the eldest son of this marriage, resided occasionally at Lanhidrock, and represented Bodmin in several Parliaments. This gentleman never married, and he was succeeded by his brother’s daughter, Anna Maria, now (1834) the widow of the Hon.Charles Bagnal Agar: left with an only son, who has assumed the name of Robarts.

It is obvious that all families, to whatever degrees of elevation they may afterwards ascend, must at some period or another have emerged from the ordinary fortunes of mankind. At the time of the Norman Conquest, hundreds started forth at once by successful warfare and confiscation; others have risen or fallen by the chances of civil war, favouritism, marriages, adventures, or speculation in foreign countries, by professions, or commerce; these last have recently been more efficacious for ordinary individuals and families than force of arms.

The family of Robarts, illustrious as it has since been, derives its origin entirely from trade, and that too conducted in the town of Truro, now indeed, and for a century past, a place of opulence, and connected with a productive mining district, where several ample fortunes have been acquired; but in the reign of the Tudors it could have been no more than an obscure place in a remote province.

There is nothing known of any particularly fortunate occurrence which might have heaped wealth on this family; 382 they probably accumulated patiently through several generations from father to son, when the rate of interest on all capital gave a facility to the increase of wealth unknown at the present day. That the family made their progress in the world after this manner, is evinced by the nature of the possessions transmitted to their heirs. Extensive on the whole, but instead of being made up of large masses, like those acquired in feudal times, it mainly consists of small pieces of land scattered over the country, on which the successful merchant or dealer lent his superfluous money on mortgage, and afterwards entered into possession or foreclosed.

The first Lord Robarts, created a Baron through the influence of George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, with King James the First,[9] who emerged from Truro, and built or improved the house at Lanhidrock, and planted in all probability the magnificent avenues, must have been a man worthy of his high fortune.

The editor remembers the house, a complete square, with a superb barbican in front, united to the house, or rather castle, by two lofty walls.

These walls were first taken down, and then the front, by Mr. George Hunt, which he replaced by green palisades. This gentleman had the reputation of being a classical scholar, and he travelled into the south of Europe, where Taste once fixed her abode, and where she still lingers or loves often to return; but according to all the opinions now entertained, he never met her in his walks, nor profited by the contemplation of her works. Perhaps in his youth the prejudice had not disappeared which confined all the elegance and beauty of architecture to upright pillars with horizontal cornices, and esteemed the word Gothic as of the same import with barbarous, and inviting destruction wherever it was applied.

This parish was heretofore a complete impropriation to the priory at Bodmin, in respect to small tithes as well as the great; and being situated so near the monastery, it was 383 probably served from thence, and considered as exempt from the canon enjoining the residence of some spiritual person on all benefices, and it has continued a donative to the present time. Mr. Tonkin conjectures that the parish is dedicated to a Saint Hydrock, or Hidrock. No such name is to be found; but it may belong to the list of missionaries.

The Editor remembers to have heard as facts, from an old lady of Bodmin, who died many years before the words ‘political economy,’ were pronounced in England, that the last Lord Radnor kept house at Lanhidrock in the style of ancient baronial magnificence; that a bullock was killed every week, and a sheep every day; and that whatever remained over-night of meat, of broken bread, or of certain allowed quantities of beer, were on the morning distributed at the gate; and that in consequence the whole neighbourhood became idle, depraved, and vicious, to such a degree as to force itself on the notice of every one, and to produce a full conviction of the utter destruction that must ensue if it were possible that such mistaken liberality could be common.

The manor of Lanhidrock belonged in former times to the Glynns, of Glynn. Mr. Lysons says that it passed from them as a marriage portion to the family of Lyttleton, and from them by a heiress to Trenance; and that in the year 1620 Lyttleton Trenance, Esq. sold it to Sir Richard Roberts, afterwards created Lord Truro. Mr. Tonkin has stated that this gentleman built the house; but the whole place has the appearance of much greater antiquity: that he improved and decorated the building, and perhaps added the barbican and the connecting walls, is very probable.

Lanhidrock measures 1659 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 1213 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 137 6 0

Population,—

in 1801, 187 in 1811, 235 in 1821, 251 in 1831, 239

giving an increase of 28 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE. 384

The south-western corner of this parish touches on the granite; the rest is composed of rocks belonging to the porphyritic series, being principally varieties of compact and schistose felspar rocks, containing mica or horneblende, or a mineral of an intermediate nature, not easily discriminated.

LANIVET.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Lanivet, in the hundred of Pider, hath to the west Withiel, to the north and east Bodmin and Lanhydrock, to the south St. Roach, Luxilian, and Lanlivery.

This parish is a rectory, valued in the King’s books at 24l. The patronage in Kelland Courtenay, Esq. and the heirs of Anthony Nicholl, Esq. of Penrose, alternis vicibus. The incumbent Mr. Vasnoom.

A. D. 1291, 20th Edward the First (the valuation of Pope Nicholas) this Church is rated at 8l. having never been appropriated.

In treating of the estates of this parish, I shall begin with Tremere, the great town, called in Domesday book Tremer, being one of the numerous manors in this county given by William the Conqueror to his half brother, Robert Earl of Morton, with the Earldom of Cornwall. Mr. Carew calls it Tremore.

It had formerly owners of the same name, who, I suppose, held it in vassalage under the Earls of Cornwall; 385 they gave for their arms, Argent, three reap-hooks conjoined in the blades Sable. The last of whom was John Tremere, Esq. of this place, who left two daughters and heirs; Alice, married to Geoffrey St. Aubyn, of Clowance, Esq. which Alice, as appears by the inscription on her husband’s tomb-stone in Crowan church, died the 1st of May 1400.

And …

This place hath been for several generations the seat of the Courtenays, whom I take to be a younger branch of those of Trethurfe, to whom they have at length been heirs; for the present owner’s grandfather, Humphry Courtenay, Esq. during many years, and up to his decease, Representative in Parliament for the borough of Michell, married the daughter of Sir Peter Courtenay, of Trethurfe, and eventually sole heiress to her brother William Courtenay.

Their son, William Courtenay, married the daughter of —— Kelland, of Peynsford in Devonshire, and their son Kelland Courtenay, Esq. is the present possessor, 1734; Member of Parliament for Truro; he has two daughters, both as yet unmarried.

THE EDITOR.

On the decease of Mr. Charles Courtenay, son of the last-mentioned Kelland Courtenay in 1761, all the property devolved on his two sisters; one of whom married William Poyntz, Esq. of Berkshire, and the other Edmund Boyle, Earl of Cork.

Tremere, with much of the other property, has been sold; and Mr. William Stephen Poyntz has acquired the Boyle share of what remains.

This extensive parish contains several villages. The Church Town, Bodwanick, Bokiddick, Lamorick, St. Inganger, Trebell, Tregullan, Tremoore, and Woodly, with 386 a part of St. Lawrence, the locality of an ancient incorporated lazar-house.

The church and tower may be considered as handsome models of western ecclesiastic architecture, where all are superior to the average of other districts. This tower, as well as the adjoining one of Roach, are without the usual ornament of pinnacles.

In the church are some monuments; one to the memory of Mr. Richard Courtenay and Thomasin his wife, dated in 1632, is remarkable for its simplicity and quaintness of its inscription:

The advowson of this parish was purchased about the middle of the last century by Mr. Phillipps, a substantial yeoman of Roach; and the Editor has heard for a thousand pounds. It now belongs to his great-grandson, the Reverend William Phillipps, who is the Rector.

This parish possesses the curious and interesting remains of a convent or female monastery, dedicated to St. Bennet.

Very little is known of its history. The remote, and in former times almost inaccessible, situation of Cornwall, and perhaps the frequent insurrections during the reign of Henry the Seventh and of Edward the Sixth, have involved the history of its religious institution in a greater obscurity than what hangs over any other part of England.

This nunnery is believed to have been a cell to some foreign convent; and it is not certainly known whether it was entirely suppressed by Henry the Fifth, or whether, as some have conjectured, it became attached to the priory of Bodmin, and remained a parcel of that house till the general dissolution.

It belonged for a considerable period to the Courtenays 387 of Tremere, and in a state of repair, for there is a tradition of its having made some defence in the great Civil War, till cannon were used against it.

It was sold in the year 1710; and about ten years afterwards became the property of Mr. Grose, a farmer of the parish. His son or grandson, about the year 1775, built a new house on the farm, when some remains of a beautiful cloister, which the Editor faintly remembers, afforded a ready supply of materials. It is said, that Mr. George Hunt, of Lanhidrock, more impressed by the elegance of these ruins than by the splendour of his own house, interfered to the extent of remonstrance for their preservation; but when the proprietor replied that he would willingly spare them, if the difference of expense for getting stone from a neighbouring quarry were paid him, nothing further was done.

The mere site of the building has been purchased within twenty years by the Rev. Francis Vyvyan Jago Arundell, Rector of Landulph; and in the present year this sequestered spot—scarcely visible in any direction at the distance of half a mile, inclosed in a deep vale, and surrounded by trees more lofty than its half-ruined tower; the appropriate retreat of those who choose their lot—

—is by the progress of recent improvement laid open to public view, and above all to the inspection of strangers. A hill so steep as to be dangerous for carriages, and extending to a mile in length, has been avoided, by conducting the London road through this valley, which, after an interval, perhaps, of a thousand years from the time when it was devoted to superstitious observances, directly opposed to the benevolence inseparable from the Author of all Good, and congenial only to the demon of evil, has at last become subservient to general utility.

This parish is possessed of certain lands, some within its 388 own limits, but others at considerable distances in other parishes. These are held by twelve feoffees, called the twelve men of the parish, a species of select vestry, which existed in all large parishes in Cornwall down to the early part of the last century, till it was tacitly done away by those improvident or insane acts of the legislature, made no doubt in conformity with the existing prejudices of the times, which have generated a rapidly increasing tribe of lazzaroni, threatening, if their progress cannot now be checked, most infallibly to reduce this once flourishing country, the favoured seat of arts, of science, of morals, and of legitimate refinement, to a state of vice and of degradation, worse than that of savages in their primeval condition of wandering hunters.

The rents are applied to the support of a school, and to some specific charities, and the surplus given in aid of the poor rate.

Mr. Lysons says, that these lands belonged to Credys in Padstow, a cell to St. Bennet’s. This does not, however, seem to be very probable, considering the nature of St. Bennet’s foundation. It is more likely that the lands were the immediate possession of this convent; and no such place as Credys is noticed by Tanner.

The history of Lanivet would here close, but the Editor hopes that he may be allowed to bestow a few lines on the Reverend John Lake, Rector of this parish more than thirty years; possessed of learning, piety, and benevolence,

He was educated in Truro, according to a custom evidently derived from Catholic times, in the acquirement of some classical knowledge, and then placed in an inferior line of business at Leskeard, where at that period resided Mr. Heydon as schoolmaster, an ornament to his country by every species of learning and of acquirement. Here Mr. Lake, forgetful of his having married early in life, and of a growing family, devoted his time to assisting Mr. Heydon, and in obtaining knowledge from his conversation, till on 389 a sudden he found himself deprived of his wife, left with two daughters, and his business failed.

Thus circumstanced, Mr. Lake placed the two daughters with his father; and having collected a hundred and thirty pounds, he proceeded to Oxford, became a member of Magdalen Hall, and contrived, on this scanty supply, to keep terms and to obtain orders. He then returned into Cornwall, served the curacy of Roach, and there married the daughter or sister of Mr. Phillipps, who had purchased the advowson of Lanivet; and a vacancy occurring in the course of a few years, he obtained the rectory.

Here he again became a widower, and married a third time Miss Bridget Hoblin, of Bodmin, by whom he had two sons. The eldest became a Fellow of Wadham, and the other of Exeter College. Both his daughters were dead; and in May 1805, Mr. Lake departed this life, having completed his 76th year, in peace with all men, having been pious without fanaticism, and to the utmost of his power, a practiser of the good doctrines which he taught.

His widow was left with a competence; and his sons were advanced by their merits and their talents into situations at once honourable and lucrative; but permanent happiness in this world was not to be their lot. William went to sea, and was lost with Admiral Reynolds in a first rate ship of the line; and the second, after struggling with a consumption, expired in his mother’s arms.

Lanivet measures 4690 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 4086 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 375 12 0

Population,—

in 1801, 513 in 1811, 687 in 1821, 803 in 1831, 922

giving an increase of 80 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The southern part of the parish reposes on granite; and proceeding northward, the next portion is composed of 390 rocks of the porphyritic series, which are again succeeded by those of the calcareous series. The middle portion is by far the most extensive, the other two occupying only a narrow part, on the extreme southern and northern parts of the parish. The middle, or porphyritic series, presents the most interesting phenomena.

Lanivet Hill is covered with large boulders and projecting torrs of massive rock, which have the appearance of granite; but on examination it proves to be a felspar rock. The greater part of this hill is composed of lamellar and slatey varieties of the same kind of rock, as may be seen in the rubbish of the numerous shafts that occur on the side of this hill. On the road to Bodmin, near the boundary of the parish, is a very interesting elvan course. The upper part of it is completely decomposed, resembling a mass of prepared China clay; the perfect rock is a greenish yellow compact felspar, with disseminated grains of quartz; it bears the same relation to the porcelainous granite of this and of the adjoining parishes, that the hard porphyritic elvans do to the common Cornish granite, near which they generally occur.

LANLIVERY.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Lanlivery is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath to the west Luxilian, to the north Lanivet and Lanhidrock; to the east Lestwithiel and the river Fowey; between it and St. Winnow, to the south, Tywardreth and Golant.

391 The name Lanlivery signifies the church of bucks; for livrou in Cornish is the plural of levar, or livar, a buck; but for what reason I cannot so much as guess. This parish is sometimes called Lanvorch, the church of St. Vorch, to whom it is dedicated.

It is a vicarage, valued in the King’s books at 13l. 6s. 8d. The patron, Walter Kendall, of Pelyn, Esq.; the incumbent, his father, Mr. Archdeacon Nicholas Kendall.

In 1291, the 20th of Edw. I. this church was valued at 9l. 11s. 8d. for the rectory, and the vicarage at 15s. being the appropriate to the priory of Trewardreath.

Since the writing of the above I have thought upon another etymology, which I believe to be the true one; that this name is no other than a softening of Lan-le-Vorch, St. Vorch’s church-place, which is a very easy and natural alteration.

THE EDITOR.

The church and town of Llanlivery are very conspicuous objects for miles round, and especially from the Plymouth or great southern road.

The church contains various monuments to the family of Kendall. This family were originally of Treworgy, in the parish of Dulo, but have long resided at Pelyn, in this parish. The house is beautifully situated in a small wooded valley, joining in a transverse course the river Fowey, about a mile below Lestwithiel. There appears to be a vague tradition of some religious establishment having existed here, dedicated to St. Chad, or Ceada, the patron of Lichfield, Worcester, and Shrewsbury. No trace, however, can be found of any such establishment; and it is probable that these tales frequently rest on no more solid foundation that the casual residence of some monk or anchorite, or perhaps on the dedication of a domestic chapel. There still exists at Pelin a small summer house, considered as under the protection of this saint; and an inscription records the festivities and friendly meetings of four gentlemen 392 annually on the 2d. of March, to commemorate the day, when, according to the legend, this Saint expired amid a company of angels, singing hymns for the solace of his dying moments, and for joy of such an accession to the heavenly mansions.

The inscription is as follows, under a portrait of the Saint:

The glory of this parish, however, is Restormel Castle, but these buildings have been so amply described by almost every writer on Cornish antiquities, that it would be idle to repeat what has been so often done. It presents one of the finest objects in the whole country.

Richard, King of the Romans, is believed to have kept court here, and in his more commodious habitation at Lestwithiel, and he was the last who exercised even the semblance of independent authority. The earldom and dukedom of Cornwall have, since his time, done no more than afford a revenue and bestow a name, like the shadows of a shade, with which the private gentlemen, holding hereditary seats in Parliament at the present time, continue to decorate themselves, by assuming the verbal denominations of offices extinct above three centuries, and which habit alone enables us to pronounce, as applicable to them, without a smile; but which offices, like the ancient earldom of Cornwall, while they had any existence, conferred real feudal sovereignty, proportionate to their different degrees.

The palace at Lestwithiel has degenerated into a prison for the stannary courts; and that town no longer witnessing the county election, nor holding any of its own, may still boast of its being in some degree at the head of a duchy jurisdiction.

There is a handsome seat almost at the foot of Restormel 393 Hill now called, Restormel, but formerly Trinity. It seems to have been built after leases of the park were granted by the Crown. It has passed through various hands, and finally into those of the Edgecumbe family, who have been supposed desirous, up to very recent times, of acquiring all species of property, and, most of all, gentlemen’s residences, situated near Lestwithiel.

The late Mr. Francis Gregor lived here in 1790, when he was first elected member for the county, and it is at present held under Lord Mount Edgecumbe by Mr. Francis Hext, a gentleman of ancient family and ample fortune, and universally esteemed.

This parish measures 5,951 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 5,232 0 0

Poor Rates in 1831 622 17 0

Population,—

in 1801, 778 in 1811, 965 in 1821, 1,318 in 1831, 1,687

giving an increase of 117 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Nicholas Kendall, instituted in 1815.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

A gently undulating line, drawn north and south through this parish, a little to the eastward of the church, would divide it into two parts; of which, the western is the larger, and rests entirely on granite; the eastern division on schistose rock. Both of which exactly resemble those of St. Blazey, already described.

LANREATH.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN. 394

Lanreath is situate in the hundred of West, and hath to the west St. Veep, to the east Duloe, to the south Pelynt. This parish, in the taxation of Pope Nicholas, is called Lanraithow, by Mr. Carew Lanrethon, and the same in the King’s book.

Rhaith is in old British a law; Rhaithow the law; so that it signifieth the church of laws, or of the laws, according to this etymology, which I will not venture to say is a true one, but it is the best that I can give at present.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at 32l. The presentation in John Francis Buller, Esq. by purchase from the late Charles Grills, Esq. The incumbent, Mr. Richard Grills, only brother of the late patron.[10]

As I take Court to be the head place of this manor, from whence it is so called, to have been the chief seat of these Seriseauxes, I shall here insert what I find of them.

Richard de Seriseaux or Cereseaux, junior, was one of the men-at-arms who had 40l. in rent of lands 17th Edward II. (Carew, p. 139, Lord Dunstanville’s edition).

Richard de Cereseaux, I suppose father to the former, was one of those that had 20l. per annum of lands or rent, or more, 25 Edward I., and was summoned to attend the King, and to go into parts beyond sea.

Richard Sargeaux, son, I believe, of the former, was Sheriff of this county the 12th of Richard II. A.D. 1389. This I take to be the same person with that Richard de Seriseaux who sold his estate in the 3d. of Henry IV. He held lands also in Kelland and Kilkoid in the hundred of Trigg. Carew, p. 126.[11]

395 This Sir Richard Ceriseaux or Sergieaux, for he was knighted, had one only daughter and heiress, called Alice, who first was married to Sir Guy St. Alban, Knt. and secondly, to Richard de Vere, Earl of Oxford; and, thirdly, to Sir Nicholas Throwley, Knt. By the first she had issue; and the last Earl of Oxford of the Veres, Aubrey de Vere, who died in 1702, quartered her arms, Argent, a saltire Sable, between twelve cherries slipped Proper; from whence I guess that Sergiaux was only by way of abbreviation, their coat alluding to his name, cerise being in French a cherry. This Sir Richard Ceriseaux must have lived to a great age, since his great-grandson, Geffrey St. Aubin, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall but ten years after him, in 22d Richard II. A.D. 1399, or, I rather suppose, that this Sir Richard Ceriseaux may have left a son, who was the Sheriff, and that upon his death, without issue, Alice his sister became the heir.

THE EDITOR.

It appears from Mr. Lysons’s researches, that the manor of Lanreath, with the barton of Court, passed from the Serjeaux to Pashleys, Chudleys, and Chamonds, from which last they were carried by heiresses to Trevanion and Grylls.

William Grylls, of Tavistock, is said in a pedigree of that family to have married the widow of Knight, and to have settled at Court in Lanreath; perhaps this lady was the coheiress of Chamond.

Their son, Charles Grylls, bred to the higher department of the law, married Agnes, daughter of Charles Tubb, Esq. and by this marriage a very considerable property was acquired in the parish of St. Neot, where one of the painted windows, the sixth, had been given by the Tubbs; but where their descendant the Reverend Richard Gerveys Grylls has, with equal taste and munificence, raised the splendid decorations of this church to a degree of perfection exceeding that of their original state, although 396 they are some of the most curious and beautiful specimens of the arts and of the piety of former times, that have escaped the fury of passions excited by great changes in religion and in civil government. See Mr. Hedgeland’s coloured prints of the sixteen windows, with descriptions of each, and the life of St. Neot, from Capgrove, 1 vol. 4to.; printed for the Author, No. 6, Claremont-place, Brunswick-square, and sold by Nichols and Son, Parliament-street, London, price 2l. 2s.

The church, which is a fine one with a lofty tower, yet almost obscured by trees, has a monument recording the decease of Charles Grylls, Esq. on the 2d. of March 1612, and of Alice his wife on the 13th of June 1607.

Their son, John Grylls, took a part in the Civil War, as indeed every Cornish gentleman was obliged to do, on one side or the other; for in Cornwall, which might well have been conjectured likely to remain almost free from actual conflicts, two considerable armies were routed in pitched battles, and two still larger were forced to capitulate.

This gentleman was knighted by King Charles the First on the field of battle. He married Grace, daughter and coheiress of William Bear, Esq. A monument in Lanreath church testifies that he was buried there on the 30th day of September 1649.

Their eldest son, Charles, resided on his estate in this parish, and married a lady of the family of Mahon.

John, his son and heir, resided also at Court; he married Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of Richard Gerveys, Esq.

Charles, their eldest son, married Mary, daughter of Edmund Spoure, Esq. of Trebartha, but died without issue. This gentleman sold the manor of Lanreath, with the barton of Court and the advowson of the living appended, to Mr. Buller, of Morval. His brother, the Reverend Richard Grylls, held the living till his decease in 1735; and succeeded his elder brother as heir of the family property.

397 His son, Richard Grylls, settled at Helston, where he married Cordelia, daughter, and eventually heiress, of Thomas Glynn, Esq. descended from the Glynns, of Glynn.

Their son is the Reverend Richard Gerveys Grylls. It would be presumptuous in the Editor to attempt any particular praise of this gentleman, universally esteemed and respected.

The manor of Botelett is stated by Mr. Lysons to have belonged at an early period to the family of Botreaux, the last of whom, Lord Botreaux, died in the year 1462, leaving an only daughter, who married Robert Lord Hungerford.

It has in more recent times belonged to the families of Roberts and Treville. It became divided by coheiresses of the latter between Trelawny and Cross; and the latter half has passed to the family of Lethbridge in Somersetshire. The manor of Treyer is also stated by Mr. Lysons to have been the joint property of Rashleigh and Glynn; but in consequence of an exchange to be now Mr. Glynn’s solely; and that Trewen, a seat of the Dandys, and Trecan, a seat of the Lowers, are now farm-houses.

Lanreath measures 4358 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 3110 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 485 8 0

Population,—

in 1801, 478 in 1811, 548 in 1821, 629 in 1831, 651

giving an increase of 36 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. Stephen Puddicombe, presented by John Buller, Esq. in 1827.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is entirely situated within the calcareous series; its rocks are similar to those of Boconnock and Duloe.

398

LANSALLOS.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Lansallos is in the hundred of West, and hath to the west Lanteglos juxta Fowey, to the north and east Pelynt and Tallant, to the south the English Channel.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at 18l. The patronage in Thomas Long, Esq. as heir to the Speccots. The incumbent Cummin.[12] The church was valued for Pope Nicholas in 1291 at 5l. 6s. 8d. and the tenths 10s. 8d. under the name of Lansalewys, having never been appropriated.

Richard de Seriseaux held (3 Henry IV.) three small fees de Mort. in Lanrethon, Kilgather, et Lansalwys. (See Carew, p. 125, Lord de Dunstanville’s edition, quoted in Lanreath). But however this may be, it is quite certain that the family of Boligh had been possessed of property here long before that time, for here lived John Boligh, who married the daughter of Killigarth. He was succeeded by his eldest son William Boligh, who by Avice, the daughter of Richard Pentine, had issue a son, of his own name, which last William, by Isabel, the daughter of William Bodrigan, afterwards married to Ralph Vivian, had issue one sole daughter and heir, married to John Kelliow, who brought with her this manor, which continued the principal seat of this family, although they have sometimes lived at Lanleke in South Pederwyn, and sometimes at Rosesilian in St. Blazey. Here they flourished in good esteem, having married the heiresses of 399 Leveddon, Trehawke, and Trefusis of Landew, and matched into several considerable families of this county, until such time as Christopher Kelliow, of Lanlake, Esq. having first mortgaged it to pay the debts of the family, at last sold the property outright to John Speccot, of Penheale, Esq.; and this is gone with the rest, or with the major part of Col. Speccot’s estate, as he devised it by will, to Thomas Long, of Penheale, Esq. who is the present lord of this manor.

The arms of Kelliow, Or, a chevron between two cinquefoils and a mullet pierced Sable.

This manor is one of those given by William the Conqueror to the Earl of Morton.

THE EDITOR.

This church is situated on very high ground; and one of the stations for the great trigonometrical survey was chosen immediately by it. When the latitude and longitude were determined, latitude, 50° 20′ 25.7″; longitude, 4° 32′ 45.7″; in time, 18m. 11s. west of Greenwich. Besides the church town, this parish contains three villages, Tregavethick, Tregou, and Trenewan.

The manor of Lansallas has been traced by Mr. Tonkin to Mr. Thomas Long, of Penheale.

Mr. Long left three daughters, as has been noticed under Egloskerry. One of these ladies married Mr. Charles Phillipps, of Camelford, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cornwall Militia, and Member for Camelford. Neither of the sisters had any family; and on a division of the property, this manor came to Mr. Phillipps, who left it jointly to his two brothers, Jonathan Phillipps, a Captain in the Militia, and the Reverend William Phillipps, Rector of Lanteglos by Camelford. The former gave his share of this manor to his sister’s daughter, married to her relation Mr. Winsloe, directing them to take the name of Phillipps; the latter gave his portion to his sister’s son, Mr. John Phillipps 400 Carpenter, of Mount Tavy, from whom the shares have respectively descended to Thomas Phillipps, Esq. of Landue, and to John Carpenter, Esq. of Mount Tavy.

Mr. Lysons mentions the manor of Raphel, formerly Rathwell, which belonged to the family of Hywis, and was sold to Speccot; and has followed the great manor of Lansallas, to which the rectory is appended.

The manor of Tregavithick belonged to the family of Avery, but has been purchased by the Rev. Joshua Howell.

The manor of Polvethan belongs to Mr. Rashleigh, of Menabilly.

The most remarkable place, situated partly in this parish, is Polperro, a small town lying on a cove, rendered secure for coasting vessels by a double pier, and affording an admirable staking for the fisheries. It was also distinguished for a precarious trade, occasionally heaping great wealth on individuals, but in general taking it away more rapidly than it accumulated.

This is, however, at an end, or greatly diminished. The situation of the place is romantic and wild, so that an excursion from Fowey, along the cliffs to Looe, through Polperro, is one of the most interesting on the whole coast of Cornwall.

This parish measures 2774 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 3218 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 616 18 0

Population,—

in 1801, 847 in 1811, 804 in 1821, 880 in 1831, 884

giving an increase of little more than 4 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. William Rawlins, jun. instituted in 1822; son of the Vicar of Padstow.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE. 401

The rocks of this parish belong to the calcareous series. A little north-west of the church a copper mine has been worked; among the rubbish of which a fine blue slate is very abundant, but which appears to differ from the rocks at the surface, merely by those having acquired a red colour from further oxidation of the iron. The strata near the coast dip landward at an angle of about 45°, being broken here and there by narrow gorges, through which the rivulets flow into the sea. At Polperro the scenery is very fine; and the narrow entrance into the harbour, which seems to indicate some great catastrophe, is an object of much interest to the speculative geologist.

LANTEGLOS, juxta CAMELFORD.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Lanteglos by Camelford is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith; and hath to the west St. Teath; to the north Tintagell; to the east Davidstow; to the south Advent alias St. Anne, and Michaelstow.

This parish is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book, together with Advent, at 34l. 11s. 2d. The patronage in the Duke of Cornwall. The incumbent Dr. Lombard.

This parish is wholly within the manor of Helstone in Trigg, so termed to distinguish it from that in the west 402 called Helstone in Kerrier, they both having the same lord, that is the Duke of Cornwall. This parish is now said to be in the hundred of Lesnewith; yet formerly, when the three northern hundreds of Trigg, Lesnewith, and Stratton composed but two, Trigg Major and Trigg Minor, it was in the hundred of Trigg Minor, in which deanery it is still reckoned as to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

The manor takes its name from its once chief place, though now but a village, about a mile to the west of Camelford. Here, I suppose, the Duke had a castle; for there were two parks, which, though now disparked, do still retain the name. They are adjoining to this village; the one called the Deer Park, and the other Hellesbury Park, the walls of which are still standing; and the latter of the two is of large extent, formerly well wooded, and watered by the river Alan, being a place exceedingly well fitted for country sports; and no doubt, when the Earls of Cornwall held their Court at Tintagel Castle, this place was in much repute, not being five miles distant from it.

These two parks are now held by a lease of three lives from the Duke of Cornwall, by Mr. Nicholas Dennithorne of St. Agnes.

I next come to the town of Camelford, so called from the ford here over the Alan; “called also,” saith Mr. Camden, “Comb Alan and Camel from its winding channel, for Cam with them implies as much.”

At the head of this river Alan is seated Camelford, otherwise written Galleford,— a little village, formerly called Kambton, in the opinion of Leland, who tells us that Arthur, the British Hector, was slain here. For, as he adds, pieces of armour, rings, and brass furniture for horses, are sometimes digged up here by the countrymen; and, after so many ages, the tradition of a bloody victory in this place is still preserved. There are also extant some verses of a middle age poet, about “Camels” running with blood after the battle of Arthur against Mordred.

403 In the mean time, not to deny the truth of this story concerning Arthur, I have read in Marianus, mentioned also in the Saxon Chronicle, of a bloody battle here between the Britons and Saxons in the year 820, so that the place may seem to be sacred to Mars. And if it be true that Arthur was killed here, the same shore both gave him his first breath and deprived him of his last. Harrison also saith, that to this day men that do eare (till) the ground there, do oft plough up bones of a large size, and great store of armour; or else it may be (as I rather conjecture) that the Romans had some field or castra there about, for not long since (and in the remembrance of men) a brass pot full of Roman coins was found there, as I have often heard.

To these Mr. Carew adds (p. 288, Lord de Dunstanville’s edition) “Camelford, a market and fair, but not fair town, fetcheth his derivation from the river Camel, which runneth through it, and that from the Cornish word Cam, in English crooked, as Cam from the often winding stream. The same is incorporated with a mayoralty, and nameth burgesses to Parliament; yet steppeth little before the meanest sort of boroughs for store of inhabitants, or the inhabitants’ store. Upon the river of Camel, near to Camelford, was that last dismal battle stricken between the noble King Arthur and his treacherous nephew Mordred, wherein the one took his death, and the other his death-wound. For testimony whereof, the old folk thereabouts will shew you a stone, bearing Arthur’s name, though now depraved to Atry.” Then follows what is before quoted out of Mr. Camden.

Mr. Willis, in his Notitia Parliamentaria, says, Camelford was created a borough by Richard Earl of Cornwall, who, when King of the Romans, by his charter made this place a free borough, and granted the burgesses a Friday market, and a fair on the eve, day, and morrow of St. Swithin, all which liberties were confirmed by his brother King Henry the Third, by his charter, dated at Westminster June the 12th, 1259, and in the 44th year of his reign, 404 as appears from an inspeximus in Queen Mary’s time, of confirmation of liberties to Camelford, in whose reign this poor borough was encouraged to send burgesses to Parliament, which it had begun to do in the preceding reign of Edward the Sixth. The present charter of incorporation is said to be granted by King Charles the First; and the manor of the borough to be held by the corporation of the duchy of Cornwall to which it belongs. It is governed by a mayor and eight burgesses or aldermen, who with ten freemen, elect the members of Parliament.

The corporation, which is doubtless ancient, enjoys the tolls of the markets and fairs, with an estate also of 15l. per annum, which helps to support the dignity of otherwise a very mean magistracy. All these revenues are reputed worth about 80l. per annum. The seal of arms pretended to by this town, seems to be in imitation of the device of Oxford, for as the arms of that city are an ox passant over a river, so this has a camel.[13]

Here is only one street of ordinary building, of not above fifty or sixty houses, all of which are in the parish of Lanteglos; to the church of which place, distant about a mile, the inhabitants repair to hear divine service. There was formerly a chapel, which is reported to have been converted into a dwelling-house: it is not known to what saint this chapel was dedicated.

Dodridge’s History of the Duchy of Cornwall tells us, that the chief rent payable to the said Duchy by this borough, is 4l. 5s. 4d.

THE EDITOR.

The manor of Helston in Trigg is of very considerable extent. Mr. Lysons says, that the ancient site or barton 405 of the manor is supposed to have been at Michaelstow Beacon, called St. Syth’s, where vestiges remain of a camp. Besides the town of Camelford, this parish abounds in villages: Fenterwarson, Fooda, Helston, Trefrew, Treegoodwell, Tremagenna, Trevia, and Trewalder.

At Fentonwoon in this parish was born Capt. Wallis, celebrated for his voyage round the world and the discovery of Otaheite.

The right of voting for members of Parliament having been declared by a Committee of the House of Commons, reported on the 10th of November 1796, “to be in the freemen, being inhabitants and paying scot and lot; and that the capital burgessess as such, have not the right;” it became important to acquire as much as possible of the property within the borough to secure political influence; and after various sales and transfers, Lord Darlington at last succeeded in acquiring the whole.

The civil corporation hold the manor, mentioned by Mr. Tonkin to have been given by Charles the First, in the capacity of lord of the manor; but the freemen are persons presented by the homage in the Lord’s Court. It is almost needless to add that, when the whole property came into a single hand, and that residence with the payment of scot and lot were requisite to complete the power of voting in one presented by the homage, the Borough became what is well understood by the term “quite close,” and that it continued so till its extinction in 1832, since which the property has been sold in parcels.

When Mr. Thomas Pitt, of Boconnock, received in 1784 the grant of an hereditary seat in Parliament, and it became necessary, according to the established custom, to create an imaginary office for the purpose of bestowing on him a new appellation, Camelford was feigned to be a barony.

Mr. Macpherson, the author, editor, or paraphraser of Ossian, represented this borough in several Parliaments. This gentleman made a considerable figure in his day, and excited universal attention, chiefly from his publishing 406 what are called the Poems of Ossian. He is now perhaps best remembered by his correspondence with Doctor Johnson, who argued with the force always exerted by his mighty genius, against the authenticity of this work; and Mr. Macpherson, probably unable to meet the reasoning, attempted to establish his case by recurring to a practice almost as obsolete as the achievements of his supposed heroes, which was by reviving the ordeal or wager of battle, as the best mode of ascertaining truth; and with this view, according to the modern phrase, he wrote a challenge to Doctor Johnson, and obtained the following answer: