DAVIES GILBERT, (continued 8)

Mr. Tregion, resolving to do the best that he could, received some money by compounding with various parties to confirm their titles, and thus embarked for Spain, where, as it is said, he was very well received on account of his own and his father’s sufferings for religion, and that he was made a grandee of that Kingdom; and that his posterity still flourish there with the title of Marquis of St. Angelo. Whether this be true or not I cannot affirm, having it only by tradition; however, we hear no more of him in this country.

The next that we find in possession of this barton, and living there, was Ezekiel Grose: he died here, and left it to his only daughter and heir, married to —— Buller, esq. of Shillingham, with a great estate in other parishes, in whose posterity it continued till the year 1710, when James Buller, esq. the last of that branch, dying without issue, gave the whole by will to his great-uncle, who had acquired Morval through a marriage with the heiress of Coode.

Talbot, which is an abbreviation of Haleboat, says Norden, p. 61, is a rock called Ha-le-boate rock, wherein to this day are seen many great iron rings, whereunto boats have been tied, although there is now no show of an haven, but only a little brook running through the valley into a branch of the River Fall.

To the north-east of Gowlden lies Tredenham, a small manor which the late Sir Joseph Tredenham believed to be Denhamstown, and derived himself from a younger branch of the family which formerly resided there, which he also testified by his arms, Argent, a bend lozengy Gules, by way of distinction, as was usual in former times, from the parent stock, which gave Gules, three lozenges in fess Ermine. But however that may be, this was the seat of the Tredenhams for many generations, till they removed, first to Kellion in Cornelly, and then to Tregonnan in St. Ewe.

362 This small manor, from which some estates are held, particularly Corvith in St. Cuby, was sold with the greater part of the Tredenham property in 1727, to Doctor John Hawkins of Pennance, who is the present lord of it.

CURVOZA.

That is the walled or fortified town, so called from an intrenchment, for voza properly signifies a trench or place cast up. This trench was measured for me by Mr. Joseph Webber, steward to Miss Mary Williams of Trehane, the proprietor; and it proved to be two hundred and ten paces in circumference.

[Car or Cair is a fort, and voza and voran are the plural of voz or vore, a ditch (see Pryce’s Vocabulary). Corvoza would therefore be the entrenched fort. Ed.]

THE EDITOR.

The church at Probus is large, but not remarkable for any thing beyond other churches in the neighbourhood. In it are some monuments, and especially one to Mr. Thomas Hawkins of Trewithon, sometime member for Grampound, who died in 1766. This gentleman not having passed the small-pox, and resolving on being inoculated, thought it was his duty to extend the same benefit to all his neighbours in the parish. Several scores had in consequence this dreadful disease communicated to them in its mitigated form, and all recovered except the benevolent individual himself, who thus extensively introduced inoculation, at that time a novelty in Cornwall among the great mass of the people. He is supposed to have carried too far the asthenic system for counteracting fever, and perhaps to have taken the contagion, in what is termed the natural way, previously to the artificial communication.

Although the church is not superior to others around it, the tower is on the whole more magnificent than any other 363 in the county. The tower at Weck St. Mary, near Stratton, is said to be somewhat more lofty; and several exceed that at Probus in elegance and lightness of proportions, but this combines massiveness, altitude, and elaborate decoration; moreover, it has been built since the Reformation, and according to tradition, by the voluntary contributions of the unmarried inhabitants of the parish; but the same is said of a lofty tower at Derby; and of the windows of St. Neot’s Church, one is given by the unmarried men, and another by the single women of that parish.

It is quite clear that this church was collegiate, having a dean and a certain number of prebendaries, founded in very early times before the Norman Conquest, and probably by St. Edward. The Deanery became attached with its share of the endowments to the Church of Exeter, but in a way which Mr. Whitaker himself has not succeeded in clearly making out. The prebendaries or some of them remained till the general dissolution, when the prebends were given or sold, and have passed through the Williams’s, by purchase to the Hawkins family, with some fairs. One fair, however, is the grant of King Charles the Second. Few gentlemen’s houses in the west of Cornwall were without the honour of receiving Prince Charles during his residence in Cornwall, about the middle part of the civil wars; and he is said to have remained for a time longer than usual with Mr. Williams, who, after the Restoration, waited on the King with congratulations from the parish; and on being complimented by him with the question whether he could do any thing for his friends, answered that the parish would esteem themselves highly honoured and distinguished by the grant of a fair, which was accordingly done for the 17th of September; this fair coming the last in succession after three others, has acquired for itself a curious appellation derived from the two patron saints, and from the peculiar pronunciation in that neighbourhood of the word last, somewhat like laest:—

—and from this distinction it is usually called Probus and Grace fair.

It is utterly impossible now to give any account of these two personages, except that they were in all probability missionaries from Ireland. Nor is the Roman name of Probus any objection against this supposition, since such names were frequently assumed. The apostle of Ireland has a Roman name, and many of the religious must have been foreigners.

On repairing the east wall of the chancel some few years since, two skeletons were found in different niches, and one of these was declared by anatomists to have been a female. These were supposed to be the relics of St. Probus and of St. Grace, which may have been true, although the present church cannot be less than eight hundred or a thousand years later than their time.

No obvious indication can be discovered of the ancient college; perhaps the prebendaries ceased to reside after the deanery became absorbed at Exeter.

Mr. Whitaker has left several pages of memoranda on this parish, evidently notes made at the time of his visit there, and not arranged in any order. The Editor thinks it therefore most expedient to adopt such parts only as seem to explain the etymologies, or to give information respecting facts.

Mr. Whitaker observes, that, although the dedication of this parish is to St. Probus alone, yet assuredly St. Grace should be adopted also as a patron saint. The parish feast kept in the early part of July, is always designated by their joint names. No notice is taken of either in Bede.

On Carvean, Mr. Whitaker says, that it means the Little Marsh, as cars is a bay, a marsh, or a moor, corsen a reed, cors-hwyad in Welsh, is a fen-duck, a moorhen.

365 On Trewithgy.—In English a house surrounded by trees, and lying in the water. Trewithgy, Trenowith, and Treworgy, are different parts of the same manor. Trenowith signifies the New Town, and Treworgy a local name, remarkably common, as it is sure to be from its signification, being the town upon the water, or rather perhaps, upon the running stream.

Mr. Whitaker says, the manor of Probus appears from Domesday Book to have been possessed by St. Edward the Confessor; it was therefore one of the demesnes of the Crown at that time, and probably one of those belonging to the sovereigns of Cornwall previously to the conquest by the Saxons. Then I presume that an English family settled on those lands, and held them of the Crown; probably the Walvedons, who held them with Gowlden.

On this barton is an angular fort, says Borlase, p. 313 of his Antiquities, second edition, “on the barton of Wolvedon, alias Golden, in the parish of Probus, which has a wide deep ditch, the entire edge or counterscarp of which was faced upwards with masonry of thin stones in cement, which had round turrets or buttresses (such as neither Saxons, Danes, nor Britons had, as far as ever I can find) of the same masonry, interspersed with the straight lines of the ditch. This is very singular in our county, where most of our ancient fortifications are of a circular plan, without any projections (angular or circular) from the master line. I can judge this, therefore, neither to be British, Saxon, nor Danish, as being like no other work of these people, and from the artful fence of this ditch, as well as from the polygon which the whole forms, I guess it to be a Roman work. There is a large avenue or way from the north, rising from an adjoining valley.

This fortified ground I examined in August 1792. It is an earthwork denominated Warren, containing six Cornish acres, as the farmer told me, or about seven statute acres. It has a high and broad rampart twelve or fourteen feet high, and a deep ditch fourteen or sixteen feet wide. The 366 whole forms a long square, the greatest length from east to west. It has two gateways on the north, and two on the south, one on the east, and one on the west, each answering to the other, and having a raised avenue across the ditch. I therefore conclude it to be a Roman camp, made at the period when that people subdued Cornwall, and calculated for the reception of a large detachment. The revetments mentioned by Dr. Borlase do not appear, nor the projecting turrets. About a mile to the north of this, beyond a deep gully, may be found what is noticed by Mr. Tonkin as Caer Voza, and noticed by Doctor Borlase in his Natural History, p. 324, as Caerfos or Caerfosou. This is an estate, called so from a field close to the house, which has a strong and lofty rampart upon the north side, and a large deep ditch upon the north of that. These continue all along the northern side of the field, and have a slight return on the east and west towards the south; but then they cease, nor can any traces be found of them afterwards. Perhaps this imperfect work may have been a camp of the Britons opposed to that of the Romans, or one commenced at least for that purpose.

Thus far Mr. Whitaker.

Trehane, with a considerable property around it, were given, as Mr. Tonkin has stated, by the last Mr. Williams of that place, to his eldest daughter Mary, who married the Rev. William Stackhouse, D.D. Rector of St. Erme, the adjoining parish. Doctor Stackhouse was from the county of Durham, a brother of the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, Vicar of Beenham, Berks, well known by his learned works.

A complete body of Divinity—A fair statement of the controversy between Mr. Woolston and his adversaries,—and various others; but above all by an History of the Bible from the beginning of the World to the establishment of Christianity, in two volumes folio, first printed in 1732, a work that has gone through various editions, and may be found in every good library.

367 Doctor Stackhouse left two sons, William and John. His eldest son William, married one of the Miss Rashleighs of Menabilly, and settled at Trehane, where he lived universally esteemed and respected till June 1830, when he departed this life in his 90th year, leaving Trehane to his eldest son, who resides there at present. Mr. John Stackhouse, whose son Edward William Wynne Pendarves represents the county in Parliament, is noticed under Cambourne.

TREWITHAN.

This place ranks among the principal seats in Cornwall. It stands on a commanding situation, possesses extensive plantations, and looks over those to the south and east into vallies highly cultivated and rendered beautiful by wood and water, the two most pleasing ingredients in rural landscapes. The house was in part built by Mr. Courtenay Williams, who is said to have dissipated a handsome fortune by indulging himself in low pursuits and in low company, and especially by maintaining a set of people to accompany him from parish to parish, for (what seems quite ludicrous in present times) the purpose of ringing the bells; yet about the middle of the last century a new peal of bells was procured for Kenwyn Church, to accommodate the principal inhabitants of Truro with that exercise and amusement.

After the purchase of this place, together with the manor of Probus, the appropriated share of the great tithes, the lease under the Church of Exeter conveying the remainder part for lives, &c. Mr. Philip Hawkins made Trewithan his residence, and represented Grampound in three or four Parliaments in the Reign of George the Second; but not having any family himself, nor his brothers, almost the whole of their landed properties were devised to their eldest sister Mary, who had married her distant relation, Mr. Christopher Hawkins of Helston, and of Trewinnard in St. Erth. 368 Their only son Mr. Thomas Hawkins, succeeded his uncle at Trewithan, and also represented Grampound: he married Ann, daughter of James Heywood, esq. of London; but being unfortunately taken out of this life while he endeavoured to introduce the most important discovery ever made in medicine, for the benefit of others as well as of himself, he left five children minors, Philip, Christopher, Thomas, John, and a daughter. Philip and Thomas died in early life; the estate, therefore, devolved on Christopher, who having never married, died in May 1829, and in consideration probably of the large fortune possessed by his brother, devised the whole of his real property to Henry Hawkins, his brother’s younger son, then about eight years old, to whom it now belongs.

But the affair which most peculiarly distinguishes this parish is the persecution of Mr. Tregion.

It appears from Camden’s Annales of Queen Elizabeth, inserted above, and from contemporary historians, that, although enactments were made (they must not be honoured with the name of laws) against Catholics, imposing penalties and disabilities, and prohibiting altogether the celebration of their peculiar rites supposed to conciliate the Divine favour—yet if masses were performed without ostentation, and under a decent veil of secrecy, or if auricular confessions were made and absolutions received in private, little notice was taken of them, nor were priests eagerly sought after, who divested themselves in public of all peculiar and discriminating habits, and abstained from attempting proselytism. But when the Church of Rome thundered its excommunications against the Queen, when plots became more manifest at home, connected also with the individual nearest to the Crown, if the custom of hereditary succession were preserved; measures of great severity were adopted, on the ever doubtful plea of state necessity: so that more victims to religious opinions are said to have suffered death, banishment, or the loss of liberty, under 369 this reign, than under that of Mary Tudor, whose very name we have all been taught to associate with an epithet denoting the utmost horror: but her persecutions were conducted without disguise, in the name of religion, and to make forced converts, while Elizabeth professed to act from motives of temporal policy; moreover, the religion of one has been deprived of all its endowments, and been proscribed for two centuries; that of the other, most happily for ourselves, has flourished through the whole period.

It seems this Mr. Tregion and his connections were among the first sufferers under this cruel policy. His father married an Arundell, and himself a daughter of Lord Stourton, both families that have continued up to the present times in the profession of the ancient faith. Mr. Tregion had moreover a very large estate, calculated to excite the zeal of a well-known and detested class of men, who from the time of the Cæsars, and doubtlessly from a period long before, have used all means and all pretences, sacred or profane, to advance their own fortunes by the ruin of others.

Mr. Tregion, it appears, was the first or among the first accused under the inflamed passions and the persecuting spirit of those times, and the sheriff came in person to search his house; but the sheriff is stated to have been a personal friend, or at all events as a countryman and a neighbour, to have made a slight examination, and then to have dined, and unfortunately to have drank with the individual accused: when

which induced him, in the pride and confidence inspired by wine, to reproach his guest with the insufficiency of his search, and to conduct him to a part of the house or premises clearly indicative of his temporary imprudence and contempt. The sheriff, probably heated also by wine, immediately renewed his examination, and finally discovered in a secret hole under a turret, a Catholic clergyman, called Cuthbert Mayne.

370 On this they were both arrested, and subsequently arraigned at the Assizes, and both convicted of those atrocious crimes: Mr. Mayne of being a Catholic Priest, and found in England; and Mr. Tregion of having received into his house a minister of that religion in which he had been bred, of the religion of his forefathers, of the religion of the father and forefathers of the highly talented Female who then mainly directed the affairs of the state, and of the undisputed and sole religion of the whole country about half a century before. And for these ideal offences, (one scruples to stain the paper with so foul a record!) was Mr. Mayne actually hanged, and Mr. Tregion, under the sentence of a premunire, was deprived of his whole property, and suffered an imprisonment of twenty years.

Whether we contemplate the cold-hearted tyranny of Henry the Seventh, the wild despotic sway of Henry the Eighth, the civil dissensions in the nominal reign of his son, the bigotry and unrelenting persecutions of Mary, or the cruelties, however necessary, exercised by Elizabeth, we may indeed rejoice that the great work of the Reformation has been achieved, at any price, by the House of Tudor; but we must join in the exclamation,

Probus measures 7349 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 9392 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 902 12 0

Population,—

in 1801, 1013 in 1811, 1163 in 1821, 1353 in 1831, 1350

giving an increase of about 33 per cent in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Robert Lampen, collated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1828.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The northern part of this parish rests on the porphyritic series, but no where reaches the granite hills: its rocks are very felspathic and metalliferous. The southern part comes 371 into the calcareous series, and its rocks are like those of Creed, Cuby, and Cornelly; the most interesting of these rocks may be seen on the hill to the westward of Grampound. They appear to afford a most decided example of greywacke, exhibiting large grains, and even nodules of quartz on their fractured surfaces; this however can only be seen on surfaces that have been for some time exposed to the weather; for no such appearance can be observed when the fractures are recent and perfect. These rocks are probably masses of compact felspar, in the bases of which silica so predominated at the time of their formation, as to have given rise to large concretions of quartz.

Since Doctor Boase made the geological examination of Cornwall, an abridgment of which he has had the kindness and the liberality to communicate for this work, the road leading westward from Grampound, has been turned to the north, and thus obviated a steep and even dangerous hill, and in consequence the sections referred to can no longer be seen on the highway.

QUETHIOCK.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Quethiock is in the hundred of East, and joins to the west with St. Cleer and Mehinnet, to the north with St. Ive, to the east with St. Mellyn and Pillaton, to the south with St. German’s and Larnake.

372 In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. (Tax. Benef.) this church was valued at one hundred shillings, being then appropriated to the Abbey of Tavistock.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, £15. 11s. 0d.; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Daniel Bawdry, rector also of Worlegan.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says that the ancient name of this parish was Cruetheke; it is commonly pronounced Quithik.

The greater part of this parish belongs to Mr. Coryton of Pentillie. Mr. Lysons gives a detail of the manors, but it is quite uninteresting. One called the manor of Trehunsey, probably gives a name to the principal village, Trehunest.

The church has on the outside an appearance of very great antiquity verging on decay. Within, it contains several remnants of ancient times, and monuments with inscriptions to the memory of former parishioners.

The great tithes were appropriated to a chantry at Haccomb, in the Deanery of Kenn, in Devonshire. Tanner says, in the church of St. Blase here was a college or large chantry of five priests, under the government of an archpresbyter in the reign of King Edward the Third. Dugdale’s Monasticon, new edition, has the following history of this place.

Mr. Oliver, in his Historic Collections, has printed the foundation deed of this college, premising that the public notary has omitted to affix the date to it in Bishop Grandison’s Register: but that by comparing it with the institution of the first archpriest, Andrew de Tregors, in fol. 46 of the 3d vol. of the same register, he was of opinion that it must have been drawn up, either late in the year 1341, or in the early part of 1342.

This foundation deed states that Sir Stephen de Haccombe had formerly applied to Bishop Grandison to erect the parish church of St. Blase at Haccombe, the burial 373 place of his ancestors, into an archpresbytery; that before the prelate could comply with his wishes, the knight died, but that his heir Sir John L’Ercedekne had entered into his views, and renewed the application to the Bishop, who had acceded to the request, and consented to the appropriation of the parish church of St. Hugh de Quedyock in Cornwall, for the better support of the archpriest and his community. The community, besides the archpriest, consisted of five clergymen, who were called Socii, who were bound to sing the canonical office, and to celebrate obits; they dwelt under the same roof with the archpriest, and lived in common. The archpriest was obliged to pay six marks per annum to the Treasury of the Cathedral of Exeter.

Mr. Lysons says, in his Devonshire, p. 250, that the archpriest or rector, as he is now called, continues to exist as the sole representative of this college, enjoying its revenues: but certainly not the great tithes of Quethiock, since they belong to Sir Henry Carew of Haccomb, derived through the Courtenays. The vicarage is in the gift of the Bishop.

It is stated in Dr. Borlase’s Collections, that there was formerly a chapel in this parish, or tower, dedicated to St. Mary.

Quithiock measures 3774 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 5756 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 354 5 0

Population,—

in 1801, 587 in 1811, 585 in 1821, 684 in 1831, 692

giving an increase of 18 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. J. R. Fletcher, collated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1816.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is situated within the boundary of the calcareous series, and with the exception of the serpentine at Clickitor in Menheniot, it exhibits the same kind of rocks as that parish.

374

RAME.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Rame is in the hundred of East, and is surrounded to the west, south, and part of the east by the sea, to the rest of the east by Maker, and to the north by St. John’s.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £12. 7s. 4d. ob.; the patronage in the Honorable Richard Edgcumbe, esq.; the incumbent Mr. Thomas Wolridge.

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. (Tax. Benef.) this church was valued at xlvis. viiid. having never been appropriated.

THE MANOR OF RAME.

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. this is valued in twenty (Carew, fol. 48 b.) In 3 Hen. IV. Johanna de Rame held one great fee of Seviock, meaning (I suppose) that she held this place as a great knight’s fee of the said manor.

I take this Johanna de Rame to be the person that was married to Stephen Durnford, esq. who was Sheriff of Cornwall, 7 Henry V. whose only daughter and heir Jane brought this lordship, with a large inheritance, to her husband Sir Pierce Edgcombe of Cuttvyle, and in their posterity it still remaineth, the honorable Richard Edgcombe, esq. being the present lord of this manor, and in right thereof, patron of this parish, as was said before.

The arms of Rame were, in allusion to the name, Azure, a scalp of a ram’s head Argent, armed; and Durnford’s Azure, an eagle displayed Or.

But the barton of Rame hath since often changed its owners.

THE EDITOR. 375

Rame church is situated in a very peculiar manner, far out on the point of land, and immediately near a rocky cliff. It has several monuments to former rectors and others, but none of general interest.

The manor of Rame, and the advowson of the living, continue in the Edgcumbe family; but the barton has for some generations belonged to the Edwardses, and, under the name of Rame Place, is still their residence.

The remarkable feature of this parish is Rame Head, or as it is usually called, the Ram; and it is a general belief that the name is really taken from the resemblance of the point to the Roman battering ram; as the Lizard is supposed to be so called, from the long flat serpentine formation resembling the body of a saurian animal: but it seems to be much more probable that these observed resemblances should have corrupted some former names accidentally agreeing with them in sound, than that the promontories should be really distinguished by appellations so very modern.

Near the extremity of the point are the ruins of a chapel still very visible, dedicated to St. Michael, as all chapels similarly situated were dedicated by our ancestors, from the habits of a winged angel being assimilated to those of birds.

The Ram Head itself exhibits the appearance of a grand mass of rocks gradually tapering into the sea, much resembling Cudden Point in the Mount’s Bay. It forms the exterior boundary of Plymouth Harbour to the westward, as Penlee Point does of what is technically called the Sound. The extreme point of the Ram Head is laid down in the best tables with lat. 50° 18′ 52″ long. 4° 12′ 29.″ In time 16m. 50s. west from Greenwich. The time of high water at Plymouth dock yard at the new and full moon is 3h. 33m.

As this is the point of land nearest to the Eddystone lighthouse, it may be interesting to add, that the lighthouse is distant from the Ram Head just 8¼ sea miles, 376 bearing about somewhat less than a point to the westward of south, and from Looe Island 11½ sea miles bearing very nearly south-east. Lat. 50° 10′ 55″, lon. 4° 15′ 3.″ In time 17m. west of Greenwich. The Eddystone rocks had been for ages the dread of mariners; they lie nearly in the direction of the line joining the Lizard and the Start, and directly in the way of ships making Plymouth harbour from the westward; their extent is moreover considerable, reaching in one direction to about a mile, with only a small rock appearing above the water.

The desire of a lighthouse was therefore strongly felt, and at last, in the year 1696, Mr. Winstanley, of Littlebury in Essex, undertook this arduous work, and completed it in about four years; but Mr. Winstanley made his wooden fabric of a large size, and of great height, trusting to the tenacity of chains and iron rods for its support; not having learnt from experience that those materials are incapable of resisting, for any considerable time, the repeated percussions of a tempestuous sea.

Mr. Winstanley himself happened to be there on the 26th of November, 1703, when the storm took place, which is believed not to have been equalled since that time. On the following day every thing had disappeared, with the exception of two iron rods which were fastened in the rock, and not a trace of the building was ever discovered.

Three years afterward, in the year 1706, Mr. John Rudyard undertook to erect another light-house, undismayed by the terrible catastrophe of the former; and this gentleman adopted the correct principle of opposing the impact of waves by the force of gravity, a power equally constant, certain and stable, as that by which it is opposed. He therefore constructed a plain framework of wood, nearly cylindrical, with cross beams, and filled the whole with large blocks of granite, leaving no more room than was requisite for the lights, for the attendants, and for their stores; and he made so rapid a progress as to display the light on the 28th of July 1708, and completely to finish the whole in 377 the year following: notwithstanding that a French privateer took off some workmen and their tools in the progress of the work. But Louis the XIV. displayed on this occasion the real spirit of generosity and honour, of which he had endeavoured to support a weak resemblance throughout his long reign. He ordered the workmen and their effects to be restored, and committed to prison the persons concerned in this unprincipled act publicly; declaring that, although he was at war with England, he was at peace with the human race, for whose common benefit such works was constructed.

In Mr. Rudyard’s lighthouse the wooden frame was evidently an imperfection. It must be liable to decay, and might become the prey of flames. To obviate in some degree the former defect, contrivances were adopted for shifting the beams; but on the 2d of December 1755, after the work had stood forty-seven years, the wood-work actually caught fire and was entirely consumed. Boats were dispatched from ships as well as from the shore, when the flames became visible, which brought away the three men, who had used their utmost endeavours, but in vain, to extinguish the fire. Fortunately at that hour the tide was at its ebb, which allowed the men to retreat sufficiently at a distance from the heat to preserve their lives; two had received very little injury, nor was the other apparently much hurt, but standing near the foot of the building in front, and looking intently at the flames as they issued through the top, he gave way to an innate propensity, which anatomists have endeavoured to explain by two tubes leading from near the palate to the ear, by keeping his mouth wide open; when some melting lead descended and passed down his throat, which would otherwise have glanced from his skin without occasioning the least injury. This man, although he had advanced so far in life as to his ninety-fourth year, lived several days, and without suffering much pain. After his decease, a mass of lead weighing seven ounces, five drams, and eighteen grains, little less than half a pound, was taken 378 from his stomach. See a communication by Mr. Edward Spry, Surgeon of Plymouth, in the Philosophical Transaction, vol. XLIX. p. 459, and vol. X. p. 673, of the Abridgment.

Notwithstanding this second disaster, the lessees under the Trinity House were still resolved if possible to discharge their duty. They applied in consequence to Lord Macclesfield, then President of the Royal Society, who recommended the most eminent of our civil engineers, with whom no one can be thought to compare, excepting perhaps the late Mr. John Rennie.

Mr. Smeaton was in consequence of Lord Macclesfield’s recommendation applied to by the proprietors, and most fortunately for mankind he undertook the work.

Mr. Smeaton adopted the essential principle of his predecessor Mr. Rudyard, by opposing weight to the force of the waves: but he made improvements in many respects, by contriving a better figure, by more completely uniting the work into one mass, and by discarding wood altogether.

The construction and the dimensions of every part are given by Mr. Smeaton in an elaborate work with plates; and it may be a sufficient recommendation to say, that the greatest work of this kind executed since his time, and by a most able engineer, that on the Bell Rock near the Forth, is almost an exact copy of the Eddystone.

Mr. Bond, who visited the Eddystone on the 4th of August, 1788, has given the following description of it in his History of Looe, published in 1823.

“Immediately opposite Looe church, fourteen miles off and visible from the parade and hills, is the Eddystone lighthouse, built by the late Mr. Smeaton of Yorkshire. The lantern is an octagon of about nine feet diameter. Till within a few years last past, it used to be lighted with twenty-four very large candles, sixteen in one round frame, and eight in another. Now Argand lamps are used, with highly polished reflectors. The candle light was not frequently seen from Looe by the naked eye: now the light is very strong, and in dark nights does not appear above a league distant.

379 “At highwater the sea nearly embraces the base of the building. You ascend to the door by a ladder on the outside, almost perpendicular, according to my recollection, about fourteen staves long. You then arrive at the stairs within the building, which have, as no space can be lost, a coal place under them. The first room you come to is where the men keep their water, &c.; the next is a store room, where they keep their provisions, candles, &c. Round the room is engraved, as in relief, “Except the Lord keep the house, they labour but in vain that build it.” From this room you ascend to the next, which is the kitchen, by a ladder which goes up into a circular hole in the centre of the room. A large copper cover, like that of a saucepan, is placed to prevent falling through. You ascend to the next room, which is the bed room, in the same manner, this room is about twelve feet diameter. You next ascend in like manner into the lanthorn, which has a seat round it. Outside the lanthorn is a walk railed in round it. The view from hence is singularly and awfully grand, and perhaps has not its like. On the outside of the lanthorn are engraved the cardinal points of the compass, and over the door, “24th August, 1759.—Laus Deo.”

The village of Cawsand in this parish gives name to a bay, which before the construction of the artificial reef, afforded the only shelter in Plymouth Sound.

Rame measures 1296 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 2,872 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 333 15 0

Population,—

in 1801, 904 in 1811, 978 in 1821, 807 in 1831, 896

giving a decrease of one per cent. in 30 years, with great fluctuations in the middle period, in consequence of the differences round Plymouth between war and peace.

Present Rector, the Rev. Thomas Hunt Ley, presented by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1824.

380

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is principally composed of strata of red and greenish-grey slate, inclosing here and there beds of a compact quartzose rock. These rocks are all similar to those of St. Anthony, and to those in the cliff under Mount Edgcumbe, and at Saltash; but whether they belong to the calcareous series, or to a more recent one associated with the fossilliferous limestone of Plymouth, remains to be ascertained.

REDRUTH.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Redruth is situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is bounded to the east and north by Illogan, to the east by St. Agnes, to the south by Gwenap and Stithians. This town and parish takes its name from ryd, a ford, and ruth, red, the red ford, from its being a ford over a river so coloured by the tin works round it. [Ryd (C.) is a ford, as ryd-helik is the Willow-ford; and rydh, rud (C.) is red, as pedn-rydh is red-headed. W.]

It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £19. 11s. but by the Bishop’s Book, £20. The patronage in John Pendarves Basset, esq. in right of his manor of Tehidy, which extendeth itself all over this parish; the incumbent Mr. Hugh Ley. (dead in 1734, now Mr. John Collins.) All the lands in this parish are within the royalty, and held from the manor of Tehidy. I shall begin with

381

THE MANOR OF REDRUTH,

properly so called, which comprehends the town of the same name, and part of the parish, but not entire, and intermixed with several other gentlemen’s lands.

This manor is now divided between three lords, the Right Hon. Henry Earl of Radnor, John Hawkins, D. D. (by purchase lately from Francis Scobell, esq. as heir of Tredenham), and Reginald Haweis of Kelliow, esq.

THE TOWN OF REDRUTH.

This was formerly so inconsiderable as to be wholly past in Mr. Carew’s Survey; who indeed is so much in haste in the whole hundred of Penwith, that he seems to be like a weary traveller, glad to come to his journey’s end. But this town is of late years grown very considerable, and its market the greatest in the West, especially for corn. It owes its rise to the great confluence of people drawn together by the mines of tin and copper, with which it is surrounded; yet it must have been in former days of some note, since in the reign of Edward the Third, William Basset of Tyhiddy, got a patent from that king, to keep “duo mercata” weekly, “et duas ferias annuatim” here. But whether it did not turn to account, or however it was, the market was neglected, and only the two fairs kept, which still continue in that family.

John Buller, of Morval, esq. being trustee for Francis Basset, esq. and finding such an old patent lying neglected among Mr. Basset’s papers, (as I have heard the late Mr. Basset often say,) took out a new patent from Oliver Cromwell (which he got afterwards confirmed by King Charles the Second), for one market weekly on Friday, and another additional fair on ——. And the better to colour the matter, [he] took it in the name of his nephew Francis Buller of Shillingham, esq. grandson to the above-mentioned John Buller, in whom the whole estate is centred.

The town of Redruth consists chiefly of one large street, 382 near half a mile in length, and in it are several fair buildings, the principal inhabitants being Mr. John Cock, Mr. Anthony Cock, Mr. Paul Michell, Mr. Richard Banbury, &c. many of which live upon their own land. At the bottom of the great street, near the river, was the chapel, where service was performed twice a week within the memory of some living; but now it is unroofed, and the bell carried to Trefusis, it lying in Mr. Trefusis’s land.

The family of Trengove, alias Nance, have several houses and lands in and about this town, which being annexed to their manor of Penwinnick and Melgisy, are now enjoyed by Chester Nance, esq.; as had likewise the family of Pendarves, which were sold by Sir William Pendarves, not long before his death, to Samuel Harris, gent. of the family of Park in St. Clement’s, whose son —— Harris now enjoys them. So had too the family of Haweis, who are very antient in the parish; and I have been told that Mr. Haweis of Kelliow is descended from a younger son of this family, but the eldest by a second marriage, to whom came a third of the manor, and several good estates adjacent. Their dwelling-house here, now turned to several tenements, was sold about thirty years since to Mr. Richard Remfry, by David Haweis, gent. father to the present; and his grandson, Mr. John Hussey, now enjoys it. John Collins of Treworgan, esq. hath likewise an estate here, and was born in this town. The estate came by his mother.

Adjoining to the south of the town is

THE MANOR OF TRERUFF.

Abundance of good tin and copper hath been lately dug out of this manor, chiefly out of a mine called Pedenandre; the present lord of which is Robert Trefusis, esq.

Next is the Manor of Tollgus, which I take to signify the hole in the wood, though there [be] but little [of wood] there at present. [Toll-gus, like Tol-verne and Bar-gus before, is Tol (C.) and Kuz (C.), the high wood. W.]

383 The first place of note in it, is Treworthey, i. e. a house on an hedge, suitable to its situation. This has been long in lease, the seat of the Haweises, and is now so of David Haweis, gent. whom I could only wish male issue to, which might inherit his many good qualities.

Next is Tollgus [itself], which gives name to the manor, and was lately the seat of Richard Remfry, gent. an eminent attorney; who having buried his two sons (the eldest of which, Henry Remfry, esq. was a barrister at law), left this to his grandson, by his eldest daughter, John Hussey, gent. who now enjoys it. This manor was anciently Tregian’s, and came as you may see in Golden to Grosse, and is now vested in John Francis Buller, esq.

THE MANOR OF TRELEIGH.

Id est, the dwelling place, lies adjoining to Tollgus, the river only parting them. The barton hereof hath been for three generations the seat of that most ancient family of Pollard, being the chief stock from whence all the others of that name were descended, which is now extinct by the death of the late John Pollard, esq. who died at his lodgings in London, Oct. 25, 1731, leaving only one daughter Margaret, yet unmarried, having buried a few years before two very hopeful sons, Hugh and John, both grown to men.

Yet I cannot leave this place without paying a due respect to the memory of my deceased friend, and saying that for quick natural parts, integrity, and true endeavours to serve to the utmost of his power those whom he pretended friendship to, he hath but few surviving equals. Some time before his death he purchased the manor (which is but a small thing) from Richard Erisey, esq. whose family had been [latterly the lords] of it, and their memory is still preserved in a tenement in it called Park Erisey.

This barton hath produced of late years vast quantities of tin and copper, though but little to the advantage of its owner, who had the misfortune to have his good nature too much abused by a parcel of villains he intrusted to his ruin. 384 To the south of Treleigh, are a long row of houses belonging to the barton, on a level piece of ground called Plain an Guary [a level for sports], from a round in the middle of it for a public playing place.

The church lieth near a quarter of a mile out of the town, at the very western extremity of the parish, with a profitable glebe round it. In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. (Tax. Ben.) it was valued at 50s. having never been appropriated.

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish stands about half a mile south-west from the town, and is wholly modern; having been constructed on the exact situation of the former, so as to adopt its handsome and well-proportioned tower. The new church was built about the middle of the last century, when attention to propriety in adapting architectural designs to their respective uses, civil or religious, seems to have been at its lowest state of depression. This and the church at Helston, constructed nearly about the same time, present in the interior one large room, much more resembling a gymnasium for training cavalry, than a place for religious worship.

This parish, with Crowan and Lelant, are dedicated to St. Uny, or St. Unine, of whom nothing is known, and therefore conjecture represents this saint as one of the missionaries from Ireland. The advowson of the rectory is appurtenant to the honor and manor of Tehidy, which has been in the Basset family since early times of the Plantagenets.

In the town a chapel has very recently been built, probably near to the spot where the one formerly stood, that was dedicated to St. Rumon, of whom little more is known than of St. Uny.

The abbey of Tavistock was dedicated to the honor of Almighty God, in the names of the Blessed Virgin and of St. Rumon, by Ordgar Earl of Devonshire, about the year 960, and confirmed by King Ethelred about twenty years 385 after. In Leland’s Collectanea de Rebus Britannicis, vol. IV. p. 152, are noticed the following heads of a Life of Rumon:

“Rumonus genere fuit Scotus Hiberniensis. Nemea sylva in Cornubia plenissima olim ferarum. Sanctus Rumonus faciebat sibi oratorium in sylva Nemæa Falemutha. Ordulphus Dux Cornubiæ transtulit ossa Rumoni Tavestochiam.”

Doctor Butler says of this saint:

“William of Malmesbury informs us, that the History of St. Rumon’s life was destroyed by the wars, a misfortune he says that has also happened on other occasions in England.

“He was a bishop, although it is not known of what see; his veneration was famous at Tavistock in Devonshire, where Ordulf, Earl of Devonshire, built a church under his invocation, before the year 960. Wilson, upon information given him by certain persons of that country, inserted his name on this day (January the 4th) in the second edition of his English Martyrology.”

Since there seems to be very little probability in the supposition that the name of this parish can have reference to the Druids; and as two strong objections may be alleged against its being derived from a ford of red water, from the absence of any red stream, or ford; is it too hardy to conjecture, that with variations in the orthography, and in the pronunciation of the name, and perhaps with some adjunct syllable, the long-sought-for etymology may be found in a patron saint, when three other parishes, Ruan Major, Ruan Minor, and Ruan Lanihorn, are dedicated to his name.

In consequence of the immense extension of workings on lodes of copper all round the northern and eastern junctions of the forest granite, with the killas or slate, the town of Redruth has grown into a large size, and into considerable opulence. The main street is rendered splendid on both sides by continued lines of shops, and the market on Friday is supplied in great abundance with every thing that can be wanted in the ordinary concerns of life. Large quantities of fish, of pork, and of home manufactures, especially of shoes, are brought from Penzance market, held on 386 the preceding day, so that the road over Hayle Causeway is thronged with carts throughout the intervening night; and the long street of Redruth is scarcely adequate to contain the people who come there from all these populous mining districts, although a new and spacious market place has been constructed within about thirty years, on the south side of the main street, in which all the standings were previously fixed. Much more recently a bell tower and clock have been added, by the liberality of the late Lord Dunstanville.

To the northward of Redruth, and running nearly parellel with it, lies the village of Plengwary, a name undoubtedly connected with the Amphitheatre or Round, which, till within half a century, remained distinctly marked adjacent to it. See Doctor Borlase’s Antiquities, second edition, p. 208; and his Natural History, p. 297, and all that is stated on this subject respecting the Round in Perran Zabuloe.

That gwary means a play or exhibition of games and sports, cannot admit of a doubt. In Lhuyd’s Archæologia Britannica, theatrum is rendered in Cornish guardy. But Mr. Tonkin’s exposition of the first syllable, plan or plen, by flat, level, is very doubtful, being founded perhaps on no other basis than an accidental coincidence in sound with an English word. This village, frequently called Little Redruth, is not only grown into a town, but extends so as almost to join the larger portion.

A curious document relative to this parish was placed in my hands by the Rev. Samuel Gurney, during thirty-two years vicar of St. Erth, and for many years preceding curate of Redruth.

The paper has the following attestation:

Taken from the original, by me, William Rowle, 28th November, 1772.

Redruth 1500.

The copy of a muster book for the said parish made in 387 the year aforesaid, and now in the custody of Richard Crane, esq. Camborn, captain.[13]

24 light horse, and six men to carry meat, and them appointed victuallers; the rest where [wear] bows and arrows.

John Nacothan, senior, doth horse and harness Thomas Renfry.

Richard Michell doth horse and harness Henry Jenkin.

Thomas Polkenhorn doth horse and harness John Raile.

John Robert Lytho doth horse and harness John Robert Vean.

John Torleh doth horse and harness George Monhure.

Edy Webber doth horse and harness Sondry Renfry.

John West doth horse and harness Richard Clemowe.

Regnald Trevingy doth horse and harness Perkin Jenkin.

John Davie doth horse and harness Henry Gwihter.

John Hawes doth horse and harness Thomas Perre.

Thomas Sondry doth horse and harness Richard Vivian.

John Roben doth horse and harness John Stephens.

Thomas Andrews doth horse and harness himself.

Richard John Rawe doth horse and harness himself.

Henry Refry doth horse and harness himself.

Thomas Cocke doth horse and harness himself.

John Henry Woolcock doth horse and harness himself.

George Brend doth horse and harness himself.

Nicholas Rogers doth horse and harness himself.

Pasco James doth horse and harness himself.

Richard Angove doth horse and harness himself.

John Hack doth horse and harness himself.

In all 24 men, with horses, weapons, harness, and victuallers for the same.

(Signed) William George, Richard Andrew, Thomas Webber, Thomas Oppie, David Warren, Henry Gwiator.

On the same paper is the following:

Memorandum.—In the year 1697 there was in Cornwall 388 a great dearth of corn. Wheat was sold at 39 or 40 shillings per bushel (the treble Winchester bushel, or 24 gallons); Barley at 28 shillings per bushel, on Saturday the 27th August, at Helstone, being their market day. On the next market day the barley was sold for 7 or 8 shillings per buhels.

This array was made three years subsequent to the Cornish insurrection, when Michel Joseph and Thomas Flammock led their followers to Blackheath in Kent.

Having omitted to notice in its proper place under Illuggan, the very remarkable coincidence between the measurements of former times and of our own, in respect to the honor and manor of Tehidy, it will not be improper to do so here.

The Cornish, in adopting the Saxon word acre (æcer) applied it in the most extraordinary manner, either through utter ignorance of its meaning, or from an absurd attempt to designate by this term a previously existing measure of their own, between two and three hundred times as large.

The Saxon acre in its true extent, was however adopted afterwards in Cornwall, consisting of one hundred and sixty square poles, each eighteen feet long. The Normans for some reason quite unknown, reduced the length of the pole from eighteen to sixteen feet and a half, and thus established the difference between Saxon or customary, and Norman or statute acres. They differ in the proportion 18 squared to 16½ squared, or as 12 squared to eleven squared, that is as 144 to 121. As 6 to 5 for any approximate conversion, and as 25 to 21 very nearly. This Saxon acre continues, up to the present time, in very general use throughout Cornwall, and is the measure by which woodlands are estimated in most parts of England.

The absurdly denominated old Cornish acre, is believed to contain 280 Norman acres.

Mr. Carew, fo. 46 of the original edition, p. 131 of Lord Dunstanville’s, gives the measurement in these Cornish acres, of various manors and lands as they were returned before the King’s Justices at Launceston, in the 12th year 389 of the reign of Edward the First, A. D. 1284, where the very first article is Decunar. de Tihidi, seventy. Now 70 multiplied by 280, give 19,600 Norman or statute acres.

Mr. Hitchins’s measurement gives for

Illuggan8,028acres

Camborne5,933

Redruth3,763

17,724;

and the manor extends into Crowan: so that if a nearer coincidence were required, land might probably be found there sufficient to complete the exact amount.

The abbreviation “Decunar.” stands in Mr. Carew’s list before de Tehidi; but no word beginning with these letters can be found either in Spelman’s Glossary, or in that of Ducange.

It is impossible for me to turn away from this incidental mentioning of Tehidy, without adding, that scarcely had the press closed on the notes respecting Illuggan, containing a most imperfect and inadequate tribute to the virtues, to the manly character, to the liberality and steady private friendship of its proprietor, then in a state of bodily affliction demanding the commiseration of every one, when the final scene of life came to an end, and he was no more. The event took place on the 5th of February, 1835.

Lord Dunstanville now claims neither our commiseration nor our pity: he has nobly performed the part assigned him by Providence, and we doubt not is receiving the just reward; but by an unanimous impulse the whole population of Cornwall have resolved on recording to future ages, not so much his merits, for that would be superfluous, as their own high sense, consciousness, and estimation of them; and not without the hope that such memorials may tend to excite all persons in their different stations and degrees of life to emulate examples so recorded. Meetings have in consequence been assembled, and contributions made, amply sufficient for placing a monument on Carnbre, a part of Tehidy manor, and visible from the house; on a hill the 390 most romantic of any in the west of Cornwall, venerated as a seat of the religion of our remote forefathers, and now about to be truly consecrated by the spontaneous tribute of a whole country, to the merits of a great and good man.

The families chief proprietors of land in Redruth are:

Basset—High lands of the whole parish, as a part of the manor and honor of Tehidy, and possessed of some part in demesne.

Trefusis.

Buller, through the family of Grosse.

The representatives of the late Mr. J. M. Knighton of Greenofen, in the parish of Whitechurch near Tavistock.

Doctor William Pryce, author of the Mineralogia Cornubiensis, one vol. folio, 1778, and of the Archæologia Cornu-Britannica, one vol. quarto, 1790, practised here as a physician, and was, I believe, a native of the place. He took a considerable part in first making Portreath a safe harbour for coasting vessels, from whence Railways are now extended to all the neighbouring mines.

Redruth measures 3763 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 7631 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 2482 2 0

Population,—

in 1801, 4924 in 1811, 5903 in 1821, 6607 in 1831, 8191

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

Present Rector, the Rev. J. Webster Hawksley, presented by Lady Basset in 1835.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

A small triangular portion, forming the extreme southern part of this parish, rests on granite, as does also an irregular tract on the south-eastern boundary; but all the remainder, that is by far the greater part of the parish, is situated on felspathic rocks, belonging to the porphyritic series, which are very metalliferous, constituting, with similar rocks in Camborne and Gwennap (all surrounding the same central mass of granite) the most important mining district in Cornwall.

391

ROACH or ROCHE.

HALS.

Roach is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north St. Wenn and Withell, east Luxsillian, South St. Austell, West St. Dennis. For the name, in old Gaulish British it signifies a rock of stone, not unsuitable to the natural circumstances of this place; where, on a level piece of ground, stands the loftiest single ragged rock this county can shew, at least thirty foot high, and by it several other rocks of less magnitude.

In the Domesday Book, 20 William I. 1087, this district was partly taxed under the jurisdiction of Tre-roach, that is the rock town, now Tre-garrek, or Trecarrek, (i. e. the rock town, also in Cornish,) the voke lands of the still notable manor or lordship here so called; from whence may be inferred, that before the Norman Conquest here was an endowed rectory church, called Roch (i. e. Rock), and the village adjoining, still Roach Town, and Roach Church Town.

Moreover, in the inquisition of the bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, Ecclesia de Rupe, in decanatu de Powdre, i. e. after the Latin, the church of the Rock, or the Rock church, was valued £6. 6s. 8d.

In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, the rectory of Roach was valued in £20. The patronage in coparcenary between Arundell of Lanherne and Heart alternately, (by a title derived from the heirs of De Rupes, or Roaches, who endowed it). The incumbent Treweeke. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £147. 13s. 6d.

Moreover, in this parish, whereof I treat, upon the top of the stony rock before mentioned, is still extant the moorstone walls, durnes, and windows (the roof long since 392 dilapidated or demolished by time), an ancient chapel for divine service; though now, by reason the old stone stairs ascending thereto are pulled down by the tenants of the manor aforesaid, and converted to common uses, the access thereto is very difficult and dangerous. The wall consists of about twenty feet in length, ten feet in height, and about twelve in breadth; one part of it is cut by art out of the natural rock, about thirty feet high from the ground; the other part built of lime and stone, so strong and curious, that neither time, wind, nor weather can yet disfigure it. In its garret over, as appears by the beam holes, there was formerly a lodge or planchin (both which as aforesaid, long since, with the roof, are fallen to the ground). In this chapel wall is towards the east a large moorstone window where the altar stood, with a moorstone door or durns on the south for entrance, and another such door leading to the west, through which you are brought out into a little garden plot and tye-pit on the Rock, that overlooks the country many miles round. Who built this chapel, whether the De Rupes, lords thereof, or others, it is not recorded, nor at what time. But most certain it is, that from this stone rock, the chapel, church, and parish have the denomination Roach.

Mr. Carew in his Survey of Cornwall, p. 139, (p. 324 Lord Dunstanville’s edit.) tells us, that near this rock there is another, which having a pit in it, containeth water, which ebbs and flows as the sea doth. I was thereupon very curious to inspect this matter, and found it was only a hole artificially cut in a stone about twelve inches deep and six broad; wherein, after rayne, a pool of water stands; which, afterwards with fair weather vanisheth away and is dried up; and then again on the falling of rain water is replenished accordingly; which, with dry weather, abates as aforesaid (for upon those occasions I have seen it to have water in its pit, and again to be without it), which doubtless gave occasion to the feigned report that it ebbs and flows as the sea: of all which premisses thus speaks Mr. Carew further out of the Cornish Wonder-Gatherer:

The last tradition of this hermitage chapel is, that when it was kept in repair, a person diseased with a grievous leprosy, was either placed or fixed himself therein, where he lived till the time of his death, to avoid infecting others; who was daily attended with meat, drink, washing, and lodging, by his daughter, named Gunett or Gundred; and the well hereby from whence she fetched water for his use is to this day shown, and called by the name of St. Gunett’s well, for St. Gundred’s well.

Tre-Roach, alias Tregarreck, i. e. the Rock town as aforesaid, before the Norman Conquest was in the possession of an old British family, from thence denominated Treroach, afterwards surnamed De Rupe or De Rupes after the Latin; and again, after the Gaulish French De Roach, i. e. of the rock: of which family Ralph de Rupe held in Cornwall by tenure of knight service three knight’s fees of land, tempore Richard I. 1189.—Mr. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 49. That is to say, for a man to bear arms in defence of his country was the tenure thereof: viz. at his own proper cost and charges.

Tremoderet en Hell, in this parish, i. e. Aunt’s Hall Town, a place heretofore notable for its hall, was the vokelands of a considerable manor in Roach, taxed in the Domesday Book 1087 (near which is yet to be seen the ruins of Sacra-fons, or Holywell, free chapel or burying place); which formerly was the lands of Bodrigan, who forfeited it by attainder of treason on the part of Richard III. against King Henry VII. who settled it by an entail gift 394 upon his privy councillor Sir Richard Edgcumb, knight, whose posterity are now in full possession thereof.

Hens, alias Hains Burrow, i. e. old ancient graves or tumuli, situate upon the confines of this parish and St. Austell, being the highest mountain or pyramid or promontory of land in Cornwall, upon the top of which unparalleled great tumulus or burying place was the Cornish Avoh Bicken, becken, or beacon; that is to say, the signal, the bakininge watchhouse, or proclamation house; wherein, in times of war, one person was lodged to discover the approach of enemies’ fleets of ships on the sea coasts of Cornwall, and from this place he overlooked part of the Irish sea, Atlantic ocean, and British channel; who, accordingly on the discovery of enemies, was to set fire to his little hut of combustible materials wherein he slept and resided, to give notice, alarm the people, and to make signal, beconinge, or proclamation, to all other bickens to do the like. For heretofore every other parish in Cornwall, upon the highest lands of their said parish, had one of those bickens, beckeners, or beacons, for the same end and purposes. Now those words bicken, becken, beacon, in British, are synonymous, and signify to becken, cry out, to publish, to make known, or to proclaim any matter or thing. (See also Floyd on the word Proclamation.) Of this Hainsburrow Bicken. Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, out of the Cornish Wonder-Gatherer, supplies me with those rhymes:—

Note further, that at coll-freth, i. e. strong neck or promontory of land, is the ruins of an old decayed Christian or Druidan chapel, under the walls of which is a well of pure, rapid, and chrystalline water, not far from Pen-ta-vale Fenton aforesaid.

395 Note also, that haine in French is hatred, strife, contention.

In the side of this mountain or promontory of land, under a rush bush in the Downes, is the original fountain of water called in British Pen-ta-vale Fenton; that is to say, the head, sacred, or consecrated vale, or valley well, or spring of water; from whence in Ptolemy, the Greek Geographer, Anno Dom. 140, we have Valubia and Cornwalia; as from it also we have the old name of Grampound Burrough, coyt-vala; that is, the vale wood, or wood on the river vale, part of which wood is still extant. Also the name of the priory of St. Mary de Vale, formerly in St. Anthony parish in Powdre; as also the name of the famous harbour of Fal or Vale Mouth, known heretofore to Phœnicians, Greeks, and Romans, under the names of ικτα, ikta, Ikta, cove, or harbourgood, and, οςτει, ostei, Ostei; οςτειονες osteiones, Osteiones; that is, the mouth or entrance into the promontory of Cornvaile, or the Vale river.

In this parish, at ——, liveth Mr. John Keen, a surgeon, who hath by his skill and care in his profession got himself considerable reputation and riches thereby,

TONKIN.

St. Roach, in the hundred of Powder, hath to the west St. Dennis and St. Stephen, to the north Great St. Columb, St. Wen, and Withiell, to the east Lanivet and Luxilian, to the south St. Austell.

This parish takes its name from, and is dedicated to St. Roche, born at Montpelier in France, of which city his father was lord. After his father and mother were dead, though but then twenty years of age, he took a resolution to dispose of part of his estate, which he distributed amongst the poor, left the administration of the remainder to his uncle, and from a prince became a pilgrim. He took the way to Rome, and both in his journey thither, and in that city, cured several people of the plague, by making only the sign of the cross. Being at last attacked by it himself, he withdrew into a wood, where a neighbouring gentleman’s 396 dog brought him every day a loaf of bread; at last, being cured, he returned to his own country, but it being in troublesome times, he was taken up for a spy, and by his uncle (who did not know him) shut up in prison, where he suffered incredible evils; and dying there in 1327, he was at last discovered by a writing found about him. The church celebrates his memory the 16th of August. [But this parish was called Roch before this saint was born, without the addition of saint; for it is named De Rupe in Taxat. Ben. 1291, from its remarkable rock, and was then dedicated to St. Conant, whose memory is still preserved by his well on Trefrank, his park and meadow corruptly called St. Gonnet’s. W.]

It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book, £20. 0s. 0d.; the patronage in the heirs of Sir John Arundell; the incumbent Mr. Treweek, dead in 1733, now Mr. John Tregenna, Rector of Mawgan in Pider, who holds them both together by [dispensation,] having bought the perpetual patronage of three times out of four from Lord Arundell, [which was sold again by his daughters and heirs to a Society in London, self-combined for the laudable purpose of purchasing the advowsons of livings, to confer them on religious clergymen. And on the death of Mr. Tregenna in 1754, the representatives for the Society nominated Samuel Furley, M.A. the present rector, the sale of the patronage having been so far completed as to belong to the Society, and yet not so far as to enable it legally to present. W.]

This parish was valued (Tax. Ben.) in anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. at £6. 6s. 8d. having never been appropriated.

There being several manors in this parish, I shall begin with one of the largest extent, royalties, &c. viz. the manor of Tregarick, so called by corruption [rather by the customary variation of a letter in composition, from carick, a rock, the dwelling of the rock, as having in it the famous great rock, which (as is said above) gave the name to this parish. W.] This was antiently the seat of a family of the 397 same name, whose pedigree I have not been able to recover, or to say any more of them, than that John Tregarrek was knight of the shire, 7 Richard II.; [and that] the last of them, —— Tregarick, left only one daughter and heir, Matilda, married to Ralph Trenowth of Fentongollan, esq. anno ——, by whom she had only one daughter and heir Johanna, who as being heir to her mother, carried this manor to her husband, Hugh Boscawen of Tregothnan, esq. anno —— [about 1400, see Peerage.] Ever since which it hath been in the possession of this family, the Lord Viscount Falmouth being the present lord thereof.

[Authors cannot always draw conclusions from their own premises: we have an instance of this here. The parish of Roch has no relation to the noble pilgrim of France. It was called Roch before this saint was born; and the saint of the church was St. Conant, whose memory is still preserved by his well on Trefrank, his park and meadow, corruptly called St. Gonnet’s. But this saint was afterwards superseded by a more modern one, a nameless one, who, actuated with the spirit of the pilgrim in France, renounced the world, retired to this rock, built a small house of stone upon a point at one end of it, and there spent his days in hermetical devotions. The house is still entire in the shell of it, having a small sort of common window at the outer end of it, and a little flat for a garden upon one side; this, from its proximity to the church and church town, was very near to the haunts of men for a hermitage, but it was raised upon a most extraordinary mass of rock, that here rises upon the ridge of a heath in a rough and huge kind of carcass, and spreads in its large limbs to a considerable distance along the heath. On a tall and pillar-like spire of this rock, ascendible only by a ladder, is the hermitage, and the view from it must have been then, not much more wild and savage than it is at present; the house and lands of Tregarick being just under it. Indeed, the hermitage must have been built by the family itself, as it is planted upon their ground. Even one of the family I suppose was 398 the very hermit. Nor could it have been constructed for this purpose at any period earlier than 1291, as appears from the Valor of Edward, which calls the parish only Roche, and knows of no saint of the name; the look of the whole building, and the form of the window particularly, concur to fix the hermit probably as late as the year 1400, and to mark him perhaps for the last of the Tregaricks. Deprived of all male issue, he perhaps grew disgusted with the world, resigned up his mansion and his estate to his daughter, and devoted himself for the remainder of his life to poverty, to sequestration, and to prayer; and from the natural tendency of mankind to revere those virtues of self-denial and devoutness in others, which they are too gross and too indulgent to practise themselves; he became revered in his life, he was canonized after his death, and the parish took its denomination from its native saint, its saint of the rock, and its own St. Roche, preferring him to its old saint, Conant, and for his sake attaching the name of saintship to its old name of Roche. W.]

THE EDITOR.

Roach rock and tower are very conspicuous objects. The tower, like some others in that neighbourhood, is lofty and without pinnacles.

The rock is in itself the most remarkable object in all that range of crystaline formations, and it is crowned by the building described by Mr. Hals, which bears every appearance of having been the cell of an anchorite, a Stylites, or pillar saint, so far as this climate would admit. Mr. Lysons, but without quoting any authority, says it was dedicated to St. Michael. Mr. Whitaker, clearly drawing on the resources of his own fancy, has transformed Gunett or Gundred, the traditionary daughter of the Leper who retired to this place, into a masculine saint, whom he names St. Conant, and to whom Mr. Whitaker says, that not only the hermitage but the church is dedicated.

399 As Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Lysons have failed of producing any document, or of alleging any tradition worthy of the smallest reliance, it may fairly be concluded that nothing is known with respect to the origin or specific use of this cell. It may therefore have been constructed as they think, by some proprietor of a neighbouring estate impelled by the insane mythology then in fashion, for it cannot be called religion; and afterwards, as appears to have been the case in various other situations, it may have been used for a place of penitentiary exile from St. Petrock’s Monastery. Mr. Lysons has given a perspective view, and an exact plan of this building, accompanied by measurements, from which it appears to be 14 feet 8 inches long, by 10 feet 6 inches wide, and the wall about 2 feet 3 inches thick, except at the south-eastern end, where the wall is laid down 3 feet 6 inches. No one can wish to see this building again appropriated to its former superstitious purposes; but it may be a fair subject of regret, that such a remnant of antiquity should not be protected from injury by the addition of a roof.

Mr. Treweeke, the incumbent mentioned by Mr. Hals, was succeeded by Mr. John Tregenna, who held also the rectory of Mawgan in Pider, and on his decease in 1754, the Rev. Samuel Furley was nominated by a Society in London, who had purchased this and other livings, especially in populous places, for the avowed purpose of inculcating specific religious opinions. At Roach it is understood that benefit has resulted to the inhabitants from these appointments, and certainly no clergyman could be more exemplary in the discharge of his parochial duties, or more liberal in his conduct, than the able and intelligent individual and excellent scholar who, to the regret of the whole neighbourhood, has recently retired from the arduous care of a flock, consisting chiefly of stream-work miners, the least cultivated portion of a class of men, in general much exceeding the average population of this kingdom in general 400 knowledge, and consequent good conduct, in relation to their duties both in public and in private life.

Yet, notwithstanding this instance, the Editor cannot but think that such a system of mortmain for making church patronage permanently subservient to self-constituted bodies, as the medium for giving currency to peculiar doctrines, thus erecting mere wealth into an hierarchy as well as an aristocracy in this kingdom, requires a prohibition from the legislature; more especially as the desire and the zeal for acquiring proselytes have been found in all times, in all nations, and under every form of religion, not to bear a very strict relation either to the soundness of doctrine, or to the virtues such doctrine may be likely to produce.

It is clearly impossible that this parish can have been dedicated to St. Roche, since the name occurs in the Valuation of Pope Nicholas made about the year 1291, where, under the Deanery of Pouder, stands: Ecclesia de Roupe, Taxatio, £6. 6s. 8d. Decima, 12s. 8d. while St. Roche is said to have died in 1327, forty-six years afterwards; and if that were not sufficient, the name occurs in the Domesday Survey made two hundred years before the time of Pope Nicholas, and two hundred and fifty before that of the saint.

The similarity of the sounds—parish of the Rock, and parish of St. Roche,—may have occasioned a subsequent adoption of this saint: of whom it is stated, from the very scanty materials remaining to make out his life, that having left Montpellier, the place of his birth, to proceed on a pilgrimage to Rome, he encountered the plague at the city of Placentia; that not obtaining any assistance or human help, after that most dreadful disease had manifested itself on his person, he got into a wood where dogs miraculously afforded him all the aid in their power, after a manner suggested by the parable of Lazarus. Getting well, he bestowed on others in the town that help which had been refused to himself; and fully satisfied with this effort 401 on behalf of humanity, he returned into France, and spent the remainder of his life in idleness and solitude.

He is fervently adored, and his aid entreated, over France and Italy, as the individual to whom Almighty God has delegated the care and superintendence of all cutaneous complaints or exterior ulcers; and it is rather curious that throughout Cornwall a congeries of pimples is denominated a roach up to the present time.

This parish measures 6,080 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 3989 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 577 17 0

Population,—

in 1801, 954 in 1811, 1161 in 1821, 1425 in 1831, 1630

giving an increase of 71 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. Charles Lyne, presented by the Trustees in 1833.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The grand geological feature of this interesting parish is the large mass of granular shorl rock, which towers above the adjacent country. It has all the appearance and form (so far as regards the mechanical structure of this mass) of a projecting tor of granite, such as commonly cap the most elevated hills in Cornwall: but a nearer examination shows that it is a compound of shorl and quartz. This rock is entirely surrounded by a felspathic slate, being about a mile distant from the granite. St. Mewan Beacon is an instance of another large tor of shorl rock, a notice of which was omitted under the head of St. Mewan; this rock differs however from that of Roach in having a base of compact crystalline quartz, throughout which the shorl is disseminated in various proportions. Its position is also different, for that rises immediately out of the granite.

The southern part of Roach parish reposes on granite; 402 the remainder on rocks of the porphyritic series. It corresponds in its geological structure with the parish of St. Dennis.

RUAN LANIHORNE.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north the river Vale, east Kuby, south Verian, west Egles Ross or Philley. As for the first name, if it be compounded of Ruan-Lawn-y-horne, it signifies the iron oak grove rest, temple, or place of tranquillity and repose, referring to the then natural circumstances of the place, heretofore consisting of old decayed groves of oaks, whose withered tops were like horne or iron: of which sort of timber Leland in his Itinerary assures us the river Vale was surrounded. But if Ruan be a corruption of, or derived from the Latin ruina, ruinæ, it signifies woe, destruction, ruin, extreme decay, death, misery, loss, falling down, danger, mischief. Note also, that ruo is to fall, rush, run headlong with great violence, to subvert, overthrow, beat down, batter, or destroy.

Probably at the time of the Norman Conquest this is that district taxed in the Domesday Book under the name of Richan, otherwise under the jurisdiction of Govile, Trethay, or Trefiles. In the inquisition of the bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, it was rated by the name of Ecclesia de Largesshorne, in decanatu de Powdre, cvis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, by the name of Ruon, alias Laryhorne, i. e. the horn or iron learn or erudition, £12. 0s. 0d. The 403 patronage in ——. The incumbent Dell. By Largesshorne, Cornish-French, is signified an iron boon, bounty, or liberality. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of Ruan Lannyhorne, £108. 11s. 0d. as aforesaid. It is also vulgarly called Lary-horne, i. e. iron floor or ground church; perhaps from the stone pavement of its floor.

Tregage, alias Tregago, alias Trejago, synonymous words, a place that heretofore was the vokelands of a manor or tithing: which place gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence after the French mode surnamed de Tregago, or Trejago, some of which built Trejago house and castle, situate upon the vale, creek, or river here, and yet extant in this place, in the reigns of some of the first Norman princes.

Note further, that Jago, Gago, in the Scotts and Irish tongues, signifies, as innis and insula, an island, in British and Latin. (See Floyd’s Scotts-Irish Dictionary.) Also that in this parish is the manor dwelling called Tre-lonk, Tre-lonck, id est, the buttery or house that hath store of food or provisions for housekeeping.

TONKIN.

Ruan Lanihorne is in the hundred of Powder, and is bounded to the west by Philly, to the north by the river Fale, to the east by St. Cuby, to the south by Verian.

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. this church was valued at cvis. viid. having never been appropriated. As for the adjunct of Lan-y-horne, or rather Hoarn, that is, the church of iron, I believe it took it from the castle near it, as being in those times a place of great note and strength with this castle, than as being the principal place in this parish, and the seat of the patrons, I shall begin with the description of it; which, though more properly Lanyhorne Castle, was commonly called Ruan castle: it stood by the south of the church at no great distance from it, the rectory house being 404 between them, in a pleasant situation enough, on the edge of a creek, into which a small rivulet empties itself; and the river Fale, which is here of a considerable breadth, when the tide is in, and surrounded formerly with woods, which are now mostly destroyed. Leland gives account of the state of it in his time: “from Tregony to passe doune by the body of the haven of Falamuth, to the mouth of Lanyhorne creeke or hille, on the south-est side of the haven, is a 2. miles. This creeke goith up half a mile from the principale streame of the haven. At the bed of this creeke standith the castelle of Lanyhorne, sumtyme a castel of 8. tourres, now decaying for lak of coverture; it longgid as principal house to the Archedecons. These landes descendid by heires general to the best Corbetes of Shropshir, and to Vaulx of Northamptonshir. Vaulx part syns bought by Tregyon of Cornewaul.” By this one may guess what a stately castle this formerly was; for in my time was only one tower of the castle standing, which was so large, that if the others were equal to it, the whole building must be of a prodigious magnitude; but I fancy this was the body of the whole, for there is not room enough about it for so great a pile: so that I believe the eight towers mentioned by Leland were only turrets and appendages to this principal part. I wish I had taken a draught of it in season (as I often intended); for this too was pulled down in or about the year 1718, by Mr. Grant, who having obtained leave from the lord to do it, erected several houses with the materials, and turned it into a little town, to which ships of about 80 or 100 tons come up, and supply the neighbourhood with coals, timber, &c. as the barges do with sand. But since the writing of this, I am informed that six of the eight towers were standing within these thirty years, of which that which I have mentioned, was the biggest and loftiest, as being at least fifty feet in height. This belongs to the manor of Elerchy, of which I have given a full account in St. Verian, in which the place which gives name to it is seated, though the castle was no doubt 405 the chief seat of its lords. Thomas Le Archideakene was one of those that had £20 of land or rent or more, 25th Edward I. He was knight in parliament for this county, 33 Edward I. and the 6th, 7th, and 8th, of Edward II.; Sheriff of the county in the 7th of the same king; summoned to the House of Lords, 13th Edward II. This church is a rectory, value in the King’s Book at £12.; patronage in Lord Hobart, as heir to Sir J. Maynard; the incumbent, Mr. Canon Grant, who succeeded in 17— Mr. John Dell, as he did his father Henry.

THE EDITOR.

The parish church is situated on a creek flowing into the Tregony branch of the Falmouth River, and has the appearance of much antiquity. When Mr. Tonkin wrote, about a hundred and thirty years ago, vessels of a size sufficient for enabling them to navigate the open sea, came up this creek; but in common with many other similar estuaries, it has become filled up with alluvial detritus from above, and no longer admits even barges.

Near to the church stood a large and magnificent castle flanked by eight towers, the residence of a very ancient family bearing the name of Arcedekne.

Of this family, Thomas le Arcedekne was summoned to Parliament as a Baron, in the 14th year of Edward the Second, A. D. 1321, as was his son John le Arcedekne, in the 16th year of Edward the Third. This last Baron left a son Warine le Arcedekne, who died, leaving three daughters his coheirs. The arms of this family are stated by Mr. Lysons to have been Argent, three chevronels Sable.

Of these daughters, Alice became the wife of Walter de Lacy; and her coheiresses married into the families of Corbett and Vaux. The portion of Vaux having been forfeited, was given in 1462 to Avery Cornburgh, and afterwards belonged to the unfortunate Mr. Tregian. On 406 the plunder and confiscation of his property, it was purchased by Mr. Ezekiel Grosse.

The manors of Lanihorne and Eleskey belong to Mr. and Mrs. Gregor, and Mr. Lysons adds, that they were formerly held of the honor of Launceston, by the annual render of a brace of greyhounds.

Treviles was the seat of the Lukes, of whom William Luke, esq. held the situation of an admiral.

Mr. Whitaker has added to Mr. Tonkin’s manuscript a history of this parish, sufficient in quantity to make a volume of itself, therefore much too long for a portion of this work; and of which the Editor would not attempt to make an abridgment, since the style discriminates its author, and the detailed quotations from writers little known to the generality of scholars, evince his learning and profound research. Perhaps this example of parochial history may appear at some future time in a substantive form; but whenever that is done, an addition must be made to it of the most interesting and most important circumstance connected with this parish:—the life of Mr. Whitaker himself. It will therefore be sufficient to state here these short particulars.

The Rev. John Whitaker was born in the year 1736, at Manchester; this naturally induced him to write the history of that town, a work which raised its author to a considerable elevation in literary fame. He became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and retired on this living acquired for the college by purchase from the Earls of Buckinghamshire, heirs of Sir John Maynard.

Soon after Mr. Whitaker’s arrival in Cornwall he married a lady, heiress of the Tregennas, a family long distinguished in Cornwall, and known throughout England by the fame of one of its members, a lawyer, a wit, and a man of letters, in the reign of Charles the Second.

Mr. Whitaker died in November 1808, aged 73, and is buried in the chancel of the parish church with this simple memorial:

407

He left two daughters, one of whom is married to Richard Taunton, esq. M.D. through whose kindness and liberality Mr. Hals’ manuscripts have been placed in the Editor’s hands for publication.

Mr. Whitaker stands deservedly high in the estimation of the whole literary world, as a man of superior talent, and as an able and brilliant writer in the various departments of theology, politics, biography, general history, and topography; besides these, he has left sermons and opuscula, which, collected from the British Critic, and from similar repositories, would fill several volumes, all able, but strongly marked by impressions indicating the predominance of fancy, and of an unshakeable determination to support every opinion once entertained, without any reference to the solidity of the foundation on which it may repose; thus stamping a character of dogmatism, which in theological works would seem to be far better suited to a Church claiming infallibility, than to one owing its very existence to appeals made from authority to the exercise of private judgment.

In biography Mr. Whitaker, carried away by imagination and feeling, has wasted the powers of his mind to “make the worse appear the better reason, to perplex and dash maturest counsels,” in an elaborate and learned effort to vindicate the character of one among the most unprincipled and abandoned females recorded in history, because she was beautiful in her person, and finally paid the forfeit of her crimes in a manner perhaps too protracted and informal, and because the blind chance of birth had placed her in the highest political office of her native country.

The following extract from a manuscript of undoubted authority, is given to prove how easily men of the greatest genius may deceive themselves in antiquarian researches, more especially when plausible theories are adopted, and then maintained, on the fallacious evidences of doubtful 408 expressions used by obscure writers, immured perhaps within the walls of cloisters, or removed to considerable distances, both of time and space, from the scene of occurrences pretended to be described, and at periods of our civilization, when no intelligence was circulated, and when the transit of a few miles equalled the fatigue, or exceeded the danger, of modern journeys into distant climates.

Mr. Whitaker has printed two volumes in quarto on the Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall. One great object of this work, replete like all the others with the most extensive miscellaneous learning, is to prove that no Bishop’s see ever existed at Bodmin, and the assertion is maintained with much vehemence of expression, and disregard of individuals the most respected. Even Doctor William Borlase, whose name is consecrated among his countrymen as their boast and their pride, does not escape from invective and contemptuous epithets, for having maintained the affirmative in regard to the existence of this see.

The Reverend Josiah Forshall, late Fellow of Exeter College, and now Keeper of the Manuscripts in the British Museum, has had the goodness to favour me with the following communication.

[The Volume from which the following entries are taken, is a copy of the Four Gospels in the Vulgate Version, formerly belonging to the Church of St. Petroc, and probably at an early period one of its chief treasures. It appears to be of the Ninth Century, and would perhaps by some critics be assigned to a still more remote date. The ornaments of the Ammonian Harmony prefixed, of the initial capitals, and of a page which is found immediately before the Gospel of St. John, are rude and curious, and strongly resemble those which are to be met with in very ancient Mss. executed in Ireland. The volume is in quarto, of rather an oblong form, and 409 is very neatly written, though evidently by a scribe not well informed or of great learning even for those times. It was purchased by a London Bookseller at the sale of a private library in Oxfordshire, about three years ago, and soon afterwards sold to the British Museum, where it is now deposited and designated by the No. 9381. The entries seem to be contemporaneous with the manumissions which they record.]

1. Hæc sunt nomina illorum hominum, Húna et soror illius Dolo, quos liberavit Byrhtflœd pro redemptione animæ suæ super altare sancti Petroci coram istis testibus, Leofric prespiter, Budda prespiter, Morhaytho prespiter, Deni prespiter, Hresmen diaconus, Custentin laicus, Wurlowen laycus, ut libertatem habeant cum semine suo sine fine, et maledictus sit qui fregerit hanc libertatem.

2. Rumun liberavit Halmn super altar sancti Petroci coram his testibus, clerici sancti Petroci.

3. Budic, Glowmœeth, duos [quos?] liberavit Uulfsie episcopus super altare sancti Petroci.

4. Hec est nomen qui liberavit Duihon super altare [sancti Petroci] sancti Leofstan coram istis testibus, Byrhsie presbiter, Morhaetho diaconus, Britail, Iohann.

5. Hæc sunt nomina illarum feminarum quas liberavit Rum, Addalburg et Ogurcen coram istis testibus uidentibus Osian presbiter, Cartgethen diaconus, Leucum clerus.

6. [Wulsige, Cemoyre.]

Wulsige episcopus liberavit Inaprost cum filiis ejus pro anima Eadgar rex et pro anima sua coram istis testibus, Burhsige presbiter, Electus presbiter, Abel presbiter, Morhaetho diaconus, Canseetheo diaconus, Siol diaconus.

7. Hec sunt nomina illorum hominum quos liberabit Ælfsie super altare sancti Petroci pro redemtione anime sue, Onwen, Ewsannec, Iesu, coram istis testibus, Byrrhtsie presbiter, Mermen presbiter, Agustinus lector, Morhaitho diaconus, Siol diaconus.

8. Hoc est nomen illius femine Gluincen, quam liberavit Ordulf pro anima Ælfsie super altare sancti Petroci coram istis testibus, Morhaetho diacono, Tithert clerico.

9. Her ys yt es manes nama ethe Byrhsie gefreade et Petrocys stowe 410 Byhstan hate Bluntan sunu on Æthelhide gewitnyse hys agen wif, et on Byrhisiys mæse preostes, et on Siol, et Myrmen, et Wunsie, Morhæththo, et Cunsie preost.

10. He sunt nomina mulierum, Medhuil, Adlgun, quas liberauit Eadmunt rex super altare sancti Petroci palam istis testibus, Cangueden diaconus, Rit clericus, Anaoc, Tithert.