DAVIES GILBERT, (continued 4)

John Trenance of Black Haye, gent. had issue by —— —— only three daughters, married to Elford of Roach or St. Dennis, Buckingham of Probus, and Randolph of this parish; the which Mr. Elford is now in possession thereof [who sold it to Pomery his son-in-law, who leased it to Mr. Trewerne, Rector of Withell.[23]]

The arms of Trenance, out of a supposed allusion to their name, after the Latin, is taken as a corruption of Tre-ensis, i. e. three swords; whereas, Trenance is the name of a local place, and signifies as aforesaid, and Try-clothes, Try-glodes, is three swords.

Bryn, i. e. a hill or lofty place, tempore Edward IV. was the lands of Beare of Killygarth, by whose daughter 162 and heir it came in marriage, together with his other lands, to Peter Bevill, a younger branch of Gwarnack house; whose son, Sir William Bevill, dying without issue male, his brother, Philip Bevill, became his heir; who had issue only one daughter named Elizabeth, which was married to Sir Bernard Grenville of Stowe, knight, in whose issue by her, the name, blood, and estate of this Bevill is terminated. The which Sir Bernard, and his lady big with child, for health and diversion residing at Bryn aforesaid, the said lady happened to fall into childbirth, and there was well delivered of her first-born son, who afterwards was baptised at the font by the name of Bevill; which afterwards proved to be that famous and renowned though unfortunate hero, Sir Bevill Grenville, knight, slain at Lansdowne in Somerset, on the part and behalf of King Charles I. against the parliament army.

Bryn is still the lands of Grenville, and by lease in possession of Robins, who as I have heard, hath since purchased the fee thereof from Grenville’s heirs.

TONKIN.

Withiel is in the hundred of Pider, the manor and manorial house, I believe, being denominated only from the personal name of its owner, Withiel.

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. this church was valued (Tax. Ben.) at £4. being appropriated to the Priory of Bodmin.

This is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £10.; the patronage in Sir Francis Vyvyan, Bart.; the incumbent Mr. Richard Trewren, who succeeded Mr. William Wood in 17—.

The 12 Edward I. this manor, in the extent of Cornish acres, was valued in fifteen. (Carew, fol. 46 b.)

163 THE EDITOR.

Withiel does not present any thing in addition to what has been said of it.

Mr. Lysons does not give any information of the least interest respecting property in the parish. The larger portion belongs to the Vyvyans of Trelowarren, as well as the advowson. A younger brother of that family, the Rev. Vyal Vyvyan, is the present incumbent, and this gentlemen has greatly improved the house.

There is a monument in the church to the Reverend Richard Trewren, his wife, and two daughters, one the widow of Mr. Ustick of Pendavey, which place he sold to the Molesworths of Peranrow. Mr. Trewren was a brother of the family of Tredreva in Constantine: he married Catherine Davies, a sister of the Editor’s grandfather.

This parish measures 2,517 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 2,109 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 72 5 0

Population,—

in 1801, 283 in 1811, 299 in 1821, 339 in 1831, 406

giving an increase of 43½ per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. Vyell Francis Vyvyan, presented by his brother Sir R. R. Vyvyan, Bart, in 1825. The net income of the living returned in 1831 was 324l.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish has the same geological structure as St. Wenn, to which it adjoins.

164

ZENNAR.

HALS.

Zennar is situated in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north the Irish sea, north-east Tywidneck, south Maddarne. For the name, if it be compounded of Sen-nar, it signifies Holy Pool or Lake; otherwise, if it be a corruption of Se-nar or Seynar, English Cornish, it signifies the sea lake, or creek of the sea; and the church is situated in a valley near the sea, with a rivulet of water flowing by it.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Trenwith, or of Alvorton. When the first inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices was made, this church was not endowed, if extant; however, in Wolsey’s Inquisition (1521), it was rated by the name of Zennor or Sennor £5. 5s. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter. This parish was rated to the four shillings in the pound Land Tax in 1696, for one year, at £86. 10s.

This church, I take it, was endowed by the Prior of St. Michael’s Mount, and was formerly wholly impropriate. This parish is comparatively scattered all over with stones and rocks of great bigness; yet amongst those are found very many fertile plots of ground for corn, grass, and barley, as also many tin lodes, tending to the great profit of the farmers and tinners thereof.

In this parish are the ruins of an old free chapel called Chapel Jane, that is the narrow chapel.

TONKIN.

Zennar is in the hundred of Penwith, is bounded to the west by Morva, to the north by the main ocean, to the east by Tawednack, to the south by Madderne.

This parish takes its name from its tutelar saint.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £5. 5s. the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Oliver.

165 THE EDITOR.

This parish is beautifully situated, mainly consisting of a belt nearly a mile wide, between the sea on one hand, bounded by high and rocky cliffs, and on the other hand by a chain of granite mountains.

The belt of land, including the church town, is very fertile, particularly abounding in milk and honey, which we early learn to consider as proofs of the most abundant soil.

The church and tower are neat and plain, and it is probable that Mr. Hals’s conjecture respecting its ancient dependence on St. Michael’s Mount, may be correct, since one or more of the bells are said to bear an inscription declaring them the gift of the prior of the Mount.

Mr. Tonkin says, that the name is taken from a patron Saint, but no such saint can be found; and the parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to the 6th of May, when the festival is observed by the Church of Rome, in commemoration of the virtual martyrdom and miraculous preservation of St. John the Evangelist; when, by the order of Domitian, he was cast into a caldron of boiling oil before the Latin or Lateran Gate of Rome, where the church of St. John Lateran has since been built, the chief sacred edifice in Rome previously to the construction of St. Peter’s, and celebrated for the assemblage of various general councils of the Catholic Church, thence denominated Councils of Lateran. It is probable, therefore, that this parish may be under the protection of the divine and beloved Apostle.

Towards the western extremity of the parish a bold promontory stretches out into the sea, called Trereen Dinas, but in recent times, from some fanciful resemblance, the Gurnet’s Head. This is by much the finest and most romantic point on the north side of the Land’s End, and it would rival the promontory nearly opposite to it on the south, called by the same name, Trereen Dinas, or Castle Trereen, if that were not composed of granite and crowned by the Logging Rock; while in Zennar the sea shore and 166 the cliffs are every where green stone, surrounding the granite.

For a description of this headland, see the Second Volume of the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, p. 200. The Editor was so much struck with the appearance of this bold formation, that he purchased the manor of Treen and Baswedneck chiefly for the purpose of acquiring the property of a mass of rocks so geologically interesting.

The impropriation of the great tithes belongs to George John, esq. of Rosemorron, and of Penzance.

Zennar measures 3,647 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 2,137 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 187 5 0

Population,—

in 1801, 544 in 1811, 671 in 1821, 715 in 1831, 811

giving an increase of 49 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. W. Veale, collated in 1824 by Dr. Carey, the Bishop of Exeter. The net income of the living, as returned in 1831, was £179.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The greater part of this parish is situated on granite, which presents the varieties common to the Land’s End district. The northern part, in the form of an irregular band, consists of schistose rocks, with the exception of a small patch a little to the north of the church, and another which extends from Polmear Cove to the western boundary of the parish. These slates are for the most part felspathic, and, at their points of junction with the granite, exhibit some beautiful illustrations of granitic veins in the slate.

Note, that Penzance, by a mistake, is not numbered among the parishes [nor is Tregoney]; so that the real number of them must be 204 [or rather 205].

167 GENERAL REMARKS ADDED HERE BY MR. WHITAKER.

It is stated by Carew:

Fol. 8. “They [the Cornish Tinners] maintaine these workes [“two kind of Tynne workes, Stream and Load”] to have beene verie auncient, and first wrought by the Jewes with Pick-axes of holme, boxe, and hartshorne: they prove this by the name of those places yet enduring, to wit Attall Sarazin, in English, the Jewes’ Offcast, and by those tooles daily found amongst the rubble of such workes.” So, in the stream-work now prosecuted at Carne between Truro and Penrin, were found two stems of deer-horns, which I inspected at Tregothnan in Nov. 1792, and which had been plainly shaped into pickaxes. One of them was even tinged strongly at the picking end, with the stain of some metallic matter on which it has been employed.

Not far from them was found a brass instrument, that had clearly, from the shade still remaining upon the covered part, once had a handle clipping it round the middle, and leaving out the two ends for striking. July 19, 1794, was promised by Lady Falmouth a sketch of all three, done by the hand of the Rev. Mr. Hennah, Rector of St. Austle; but, as he had pronounced the brass instrument to be no celt, and as I proved it to be one, he never sent the sketch.

“There are also taken up in such works,” adds Carew, “certaine little tooles’ heads of brasse, which some terme thunder axes; but they make small show of any profitable use. Neither were the Romaines ignorant of this trade, as may appeare by a brasse coyne of Domitian’s, found in one of these workes,” stream or load, “and fallen into my hands.”

Fol. 56. “Most of the inhabitants can [speak] no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English; and yet some so affect their owne, as to a stranger they will not speake it: for, if meeting them by chance, you inquire the way or any such matter, your answer shal be, Meea navidua cowzasawsneck, I can speake no Saxonage.” W.]

168

THE ISLANDS OF SCILLY.

THE EDITOR.

Neither Mr. Hals nor Mr. Tonkin has noticed these islands.

It may be proper, therefore, to add a few observations on their ancient history, of which however very little is known.

That the Phœnicians, and after them the merchants of Carthage, traded with the Britons for tin, is established without the slightest doubt; but no possible absurdity can be greater than the supposition that voyagers, having sailed through the Mediterranean Sea, and passed between the Pillars of Hercules into the exterior ocean, and navigated through this boundless and dreaded expanse of water for about a thousand miles, should then stop short at trifling islands, or rather rocks, and that too year after year during centuries, with the country before them, actually in sight, from whence the valuable commodity which they sought must have been manifestly taken, and where they would have been sure of an improved market for the commercial articles to be given in exchange. Yet, relying on the literal interpretation of passages from ancient authors, who never visited the land of tin, nor possibly ever conversed with the adventurous sailors who had been there, persons of account have gravely asserted that the rocks of Scilly were the ancient Cassiterides; while others, to render this strange supposition somewhat less absurd, have glossed it with the miracle, probably invented by Florence of Worcester, of a large tract of country between these existing islands and the Land’s End, having been engulphed within times of recent memory.

Perhaps this mode of induction, directly opposed to common sense and to experience, may be a remnant of the hallucination which bound itself round men’s minds at the 169 period when the stores of ancient learning were first poured on modern Europe; under this delusion they were not contented with ascribing a high degree of merit to the artists, to the writers, to the architects of Greece and Rome; nothing short of absolute perfection was believed to exist in each, and this servile appeal to authority is not even yet quite obsolete, although the time for such delusions being in the slightest degree advantageous either to literature or to science, has long since passed by.

The traders who frequented these remote shores would naturally mistake land in the great unbounded ocean for mere islands, and their vague descriptions, purposely made obscure, proved so successful that Julius Cæsar was not aware when he landed on the coast of Kent that he was arrived in the country producing tin.

The rocks of Scilly, having inhabitants, were visited by monks and anchorites, who formed establishments there, and gradually associated themselves into a small priory; but, so early as the time of King Henry the First, their monastery, with all its appendages, was given to the Abbey of Tavistock. The grant is extant.

“Henricus Rex Anglorum Willelmo Episcopo Excestriæ et Ricardo filio Baldwini, et Justiciæ suæ de Devenesira et Cornegallia, salutem. Sciatis me dedisse in perpetuam elemosinam Osberto Abbati et Ecclesiæ de Tavystok, et Turoldo Monacho suo, omnes Ecclesias de Sullye cum pertinentiis suis, et terram sicut unquam Monachi aut Heremitæ melius eam tenuerunt tempore Regis Edwardi, et Burgaldi Episcopi Cornegalliæ. Et volo et præcipio quod ipse Turoldus et omnes Monachi de Sully sicut proprii Præbendarii mei habeant firmam pacem cum omnibus quæ ad eas pertinent,” &c.

There is also a confirmation by Reginald de Dunstanville, illegitimate son of King Henry the First, who was created Earl of Cornwall in 1140, and died without male issue in 1175.

“Reginaldus Regis Filius Comes Cornubiæ, omnibus 170 Baronibus suis et Ballivis suis Cornubiæ et Scilly, salutem. Sciatis me, pro anima Henrici Regis patris mei, et mea, et pro Carta ipsius quam vidi, concessisse et confirmasse in liberam et perpetuam elemosinam Monachis de Sully, sicut propriis Præbendariis Patris mei, omne Wrec quod in Insulis, quas ipsi totas tenent, advenerit; præter cœtum et navem integram, hoc est, in Rentemen et Nurcho et insula Sancti Elidii et Sancti Sampsonis, et Sanctæ Teonæ. Et prohibeo super forisfactum meum, sicut prohibuit pater meus per cartam suam, ne quis eis aliquam injuriam faciat aut molestiam. Quoniam nolo ut de aliquo tenemento suo in Scilly aut libertate aut consuetudine, quam eis concessi, alicui amodo intendant nisi michi[24] et Abbati Tavistochiæ.

“Teste Radulpho de Bosco-Roardi apud Dorecestriam.”

There is also another document, entitled,

“Confirmatio B. Episcopi Exoniæ de Decimis de Sully.”—It is probable that the person indicated by B, was Bartholomew Iscan, consecrated in 1161, and died in 1184.

“Omnibus fidelibus ad quos præsens scriptura pervenerit, B. divina miseratione dictus Episcopus Exoniæ salutem in Domino. Noverit universitas vestra me vidisse et legisse cartam Ricardi de Wicha, in qua confitetur se concessisse, et in liberam et perpetuam elemosinam dedisse omnes decimas suas de Sully (et nominatim de cuniculis, quas injuste aliquandiu detinuerat, eo quod de rebus hujusmodi decimas dandas esse non putavit,) Abbati et Conventui Tavistochiæ, et Fratribus Monasterii Beati Confessoris Nicholai de Sully, pro salute animæ suæ, et parentum suorum, necnon et Reginaldi quondam Comitis Cornubiæ Domini sui; et hanc donationem super altare Beati Rumoni Tavistochiæ per Librum Evangeliorum manu propria obtulisse in præsentia B. Abbatis et conventus ejusdem loci et multorum aliorum.

“Quoniam autem tam Monasterium Tavistochiæ, 171 quam tota terra prædicti Ricardi de Sully ad meam pertinet Diocesim, ego sicut Episcopus diocesanus prænotatam ipsius Ricardi donationem, auctoritate episcopali, præsenti scripto, et sigilli mei, sicut eam quam gratam et ratam habeo, appositione confirmo.

“Hiis testibus, B. Archidiacono Cornubiensi, &c.”

There is also a letter of protection from King Edward the First for the prior of St. Nicholas, within his island de Scilly. This letter is addressed among others, to the constable of his camp in the island of Enmour in Scilly.

Enmour may well be a corruption of Ennis Moor, the great island, possibly the secular name of St. Mary’s.

In the time of Edward the Third, this priory or cell to Tavistock must have been of very little importance, since in the 19th year of his reign, it appears by the following entry in the Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium, that two monks only were resident. Since, for some reason which it is difficult to discover, secular priests were to be stationed in Scilly during the continuance of a war with France, instead of the monks, which gave rise to the following agreement:

“Abbas et Conventus de Tavistok finem fecerunt cum Rege per viginti solidos, pro licentia habenda, quod ipsi duos capellanos sæculares pro animabus progenitorum Regis, quondam Regum Angliæ, et hæredum suorum, in Insula de Sulley celebraturos, loco duorum Capellanorum commonachorum suorum, quos ibidem ex causa prædicta invenire solebant, durante guerra inter Regem et homines de Francia mota, invenire possint.”

Since the Reformation the tithes have been appropriated, and passed with the different leases of the lands. Remains of the convent, most properly dedicated to St. Nicholas, are still to be seen on the island of Trescow. St. Nicholas was the patron of mariners, and frequently preserved vessels in a miraculous manner when his aid had been fervently invoked; perhaps the right of wreck was given to the convent for the pupose of attaching an increased degree 172 of merit to their prayers in favour of ships likely to be dashed against those rocks.

St. Nicholas had also delegated to him from Heaven the peculiar care of infants, as a reward for his early piety, which induced him, in the first month, to abstain from taking the nourishment afforded by his mother’s breast on Wednesdays and Fridays, and on all occasional fasts appointed by the church.

He was Archbishop of Myra, a city of Lycia, in Lesser Asia, where he died in 342; but in 1087 his relics were forcibly taken from thence, and conveyed to the town of Bavi in Italy, towards the opening of the Adriatic, and where they continue to perform the most wonderful cures, more especially in all cases of infants.

The Scilly Islands first became objects of public attention in the great civil war, and especially towards the latter part of these struggles. After the death of King Charles the First, Sir John Grenville, subsequently created Earl of Bath in memory of the battle at Lansdown, where his father fell in the arms of victory, having collected a small force, kept possession of St. Mary’s island, where they either constructed or enlarged lines, rather than a fortress, which still remain. Their opponents encamped themselves on Trescow, till at last, as relief was clearly impossible, the cavaliers surrendered, but not till they had evinced their honour and true feelings as gentlemen, by refusing to accept any terms from a foreign power, and preserving the integrity of England, although it was in the hands of their deadly foes.

Unfortunately for these islands, they remain public property, or as it is termed, belong to the Crown; and a system has prevailed, at least from the time of Queen Elizabeth, one of the very worst that could be devised, of granting them at an annual rent, and for a short term of years, to private gentlemen; renewed, indeed, in the same line for more than two hundred years, first to the family of Godolphin, 173 and then to the family of Osborne, which succeeded to the property of the former, but always with an uncertain tenure and the impossibility of encouraging others to expend capital on any permanent undertaking.

A better system has, however, been at last adopted, although very inferior to the plain, simple, and natural one of making the land freeholds in the hands of individuals.

Either the former lessee for years no longer wished to retain a source of small patronage, rendered of little importance by well-known changes, or the government resolved on doing something beneficial for the inhabitants and for the country; at all events, a lease for lives has now been granted to Mr. Smith, a gentleman of ability and information, the eldest son of a respectable country gentleman, under certain conditions, and among them a stipulation for essentially improving the harbour by the construction of a pier, the government contributing a certain sum towards the expense, and the lessee undertaking to complete the work. Mr. Smith, it is understood, means to reside there; and great expectations are entertained of the benefit likely to result.

Such a cluster of rocks, from eight to nine leagues west-south-west off the main land, must always be dangerous to ships returning from distant voyages; but the risk has been very greatly diminished by the excellent light on St. Agnes. There is, however, one rock called the Wolf, somewhat more than a third of the distance of Scilly from the Land’s End, on which a light-house might be erected; and the losses of lives and of property on this rock, which lies immediately in the way of all coasting vessels, more especially of those from Ireland, are supposed by many competent judges to exceed the losses occasioned by all the other western rocks taken together.

Before lights were placed on the coast, and the soundings laid down with accuracy, and the nature of the ground described, and before astronomical observations were 174 brought to practical perfection, the wrecks were, perhaps, quadruple to what they are at present, and with not one fourth of the vessels at sea: among the innumerable wrecks that have taken place at Scilly, the most remarkable is that of the Victory, a first-rate ship of war, commanded by Sir Cloudesley Shovel, returning from a series of exploits, which continued adding to his reputation even when they failed of obtaining success. This ship, with two others of a smaller size, struck on the rocks of Scilly in the night following the 22d of October 1705, when between fifteen hundred and two thousand men are supposed to have perished; and there is a tradition of one man having escaped, and of his relating some anecdotes of obstinacy, and even of violence, on the part of the Admiral, discreditable to him as a man, and the immediate causes of the calamity; but these additions induce me entirely to disbelieve the whole tale.

The Scilly Islands are composed of granite, similar to that of the Land’s End district, and intersected by small lodes of tin, but not of a size sufficiently large to have produced at any period a quantity worthy of mercantile account.

The land does not rise into lofty hills, nor are the rocks on a scale of magnificence; and the people have been so much absorbed in trade and in intercourse with strangers from all nations, that they are without any legendary histories or peculiarity of manners.

Although St. Mary’s, Trescow, and St. Agnes’, St. Martin’s, Bryher, and Sampson, have alone permanent inhabitants, yet a great many more islands are dignified with specific names. Among these one rock is honoured with the appellation of Scilly; and this trifling circumstance has given rise to theories about changes and devastations by the sea, by earthquakes, &c. when the name has clearly been given in the same spirit as that which induced seamen to declare that the cord attached to the water bucket is the only rope belonging to a ship.

175 Alterations in the laws respecting Customs and Excise, with increased vigilance as well as greater activity, both at sea and on shore, have materially interfered with the most lucrative trade of these islanders. They are, however, tolerably well supported by their agriculture, which is said to afford more corn than they consume; by their fisheries, particularly of ling, which are exported after being pressed and dried almost without salt; and finally, by the resort of ships in great numbers when the wind happens to be in opposition to their intended voyages.

Doctor Borlase has written a separate treatise on the Scilly Islands, and described in it the scanty remains of their supposed Druidical antiquities.

At the time of the last census (in 1831) the population was as ascertained to be

Statute Acres.

St. Mary’s 1311 said to measure 1640

Trescow 470 880

St. Agnes’ 289 390

St. Martin’s 230 720

Bryher 128 330

Sampson 37 120

2465 4080

The small islands are estimated at 150

4230

A recent benefit has been given to Scilly by the legislature, in respect to their police and to the administration of justice. The sole authority previously existing in the islands resided in a court possessing very limited power, and that undefined, so that no case of any magnitude could be acted on in any other way than by sending the parties over to the main land; an Act of Parliament has now enabled 176 the executive government to appoint magistrates who may act in Scilly, without qualification by the possession of freehold property, in as ample a manner as other justices of the peace may act for the county at large.

St. Agnes Light House. Lat. 50° 18′ 27″. Long. 6° 19′ 23″. In time 25m. 8s. W.

Time of high water at the New and Full Moon, 10 minutes after 4.

APPENDIX.

CONTENTS.

Page

I. Number of acres in each of the Hundreds of Cornwall, and the population in 1831 177

II. Tables relative to the population of Cornwall, at various periods 178

III. List of plants, illustrative of the mild climate of Cornwall 180

IV. Addition to the Parochial History, containing an account of the parish of Broadoak 184

V. Observations on an ancient manuscript, entitled Passio Christi, written in the Cornish language, and now preserved in the Bodleian Library; with an account of the language, manners, and customs of the people of Cornwall. By William Scawen, Esq. Vice-Warden of the Stannaries. (From a manuscript in the library of Thomas Astle, Esq. 1777.) On the manuscript itself. On the description of the Passion contained therein. On the tongue in which the Passion is described, and the properties thereof, and how it relates to and concerns the people and places of Cornwall 190

VI. Extract from the Itinerary of William of Worcester, relative to Cornwall; with a notice of his life and character 222

VII. The Itinerary of John Leland, so far as relates to Cornwall 256

VIII. Extracts from Drayton’s Poly-Olbion, relative to Cornwall 293

IX. On the etymology of names of places within the county. Communicated by the late Thomas Hingston, Esq. M.D. 312

X. Tanner’s Notitia Monastica for Cornwall, from Nasmith’s edition. With additions by Sir Henry Ellis, F.R.S. Sec. S.A. 319

XI. Some documents relative to the Priory at Bodmin, from a MS. in the British Museum 337

XII. Account of the different Earls of Cornwall; extracted from the Baronage of Sir W. Dugdale 346

XIII. On the Hundreds of Cornwall. Extracted from Tonkin’s MSS. 375

XIV. Epitaph of Richard Carew of Antony, Esq. the Historian of Cornwall 378

Index to Carew’s Survey of Cornwall 381

Copious Index to the present Work 393-571

177

APPENDIX. I.

The number of acres in each of the hundreds, according to Mr. Hitchins’s measurement, and the population from the last Parliamentary Statements, including Voltersholm, and the other small pieces of Cornwall artificially placed in Devonshire and the Islands of Scilly.

Acres. Population.

Powder 128,115 Penwith 74,867

East 112,647 Powder 61,911

Pyder 92,713 Kerrier 56,074

Penwith 90,957 East 35,086

Kerrier 89,051 Pyder 25,689

West 81,558 West 18,254

Lesnewth 61,132 Trigg 13,057

Trigg 54,574 Stratton 8,815

Stratton 48,934 Lesnewth 8,277

759,681 302,030

The three south-western hundreds, Penwith, Kerrier, and Powder contain nearly two-thirds of the whole population.

And of the two divisions of Cornwall, the East division is in round numbers about twice as large as the West division, while the West division has twice the population of the East.

178

APPENDIX. II.

The population of Cornwall is given for the years 1700 and 1750, at 105,800 and 135,000; but I know not on what authority. The years 1801, 1811, 1821, and 1831 are from the Parliamentary publications founded on the actual census on each occasion.

POPULATION OF CORNWALL.

In 1700105,800

In 1750135,000

In 1801194,500

In 1811216,667

In 1821257,447

In 1831301,017

The per-centages of increase taken for 30 years, at the rate between each interval, are 15¾ per cent., 24 per cent., 38¼ per cent., 67¾ per cent., and 60 per cent.

At the rate of increase from 1700 to 1750,

1000 would become in a century 1628, and would double in 140 years.

At the rate of increase from 1750 to 1801,

1000 would become in a century 2046, and would double in 96,8 years.

At the rate of increase from 1801 to 1811,

1000 would become in a century 2943, and would double in 64,2 years.

At the rate of increase from 1811 to 1821,

1000 would become in a century 5610, and would double in 40,2 years.

At the rate of increase from 1821 to 1831,

1000 would become in a century 4776, and would double in 44,3 years.

The population of Cornwall being in 1831, according to the actual census, 301,017, if it continued to increase accordingly for a century at the rate ascertained between 1811 and 1821, the number of people in 1931 would amount to one million six hundred and eighty-eight thousand six hundred and fifty!

179 A Table exhibiting the amount to which the population of a thousand persons would amount in a century, and also the time of its doubling for each 5 per cent. of increase in 30 years, the period given for each parish from the Parliamentary Return.

A thousand, with the following increase, in thirty years Will become in a century Will double in

5 per cent. increase in thirty years 1176 426 years.

10 per cent. 1374 218

15 per cent. 1593 148

20 per cent. 1836 114

25 per cent. 2104 93,2

30 per cent. 2398 79,2

35 per cent. 2719 69,3

40 per cent. 3070 61,8

45 per cent. 3451 56

50 per cent. 3863 51,3

55 per cent 4310 47,4

60 per cent. 4791 44,2

65 per cent. 5308 41,5

70 per cent. 5874 39,2

75 per cent. 6458 37,2

80 per cent. 7094 35,4

85 per cent. 7773 33,8

90 per cent. 8495 32,4

95 per cent. 9264 31,1

100 per cent. 10080 30

180

APPENDIX. III.

The Editor has been favoured with the following list of plants illustrative of the mild climate of Cornwall.

The native plant of greatest curiosity is the Erica Vagans, Erica Didima of Withering, Erica Multiflora of Ray and Hudson. This plant spreads over the whole serpentine formation of the Lizard, and observes its limits almost to a foot. It is said to appear again at Clickitor near Liskeard, where the serpentine formation is also found.

The Ligusticum Cornubiense, remarkable only from its extreme rarity, grows near Bodmin, in a place called Margaret’s Wood.

The Tamarix Gallica grows in great abundance about the Lizard, apparently wild, but it is said to have been brought there from St. Michael’s Mount in the early part of the last century; and St. Michael’s Mount having been long a cell to Mount St. Michael in Normandy, the shrub may very probably have been introduced by the monks. It powerfully resists the sea winds, and grows freely on the banks of earth or sand surrounding inclosures near the shore. The wood is so solid as to sink in water.

The Panicum Dactylon grows on the bank of gravel lying between the sea, and the road leading from Marazion to Penzance.

The Sibthorpia Europæa may be found in great plenty about half a mile inland from thence, in a stream flowing westward by the road near Gulval church town. This plant was named by Linnæus in honour of Humphry 181 Sibthorpe, M.D. Professor of Botany at Oxford from 1747 to 1784. The hybrid variety or monstrosity of the Antirrhinum Linaria, called Peloria, is said to grow at the foot of Mabe Hill on the old road leading from Helston to Penryn. The Erica Ciliaris has recently been found at Carclew, near Penryn, the seat of Sir Charles Lemon, M.P. for the county.

And many of the cryptogamia flourish in a degree unknown in other countries, among which the magnificent Osmunda Regalis may be selected as a specimen.

A List of Plants that are growing in the open air at Pendarves, most of which have stood several years without protection.

Agapanthus umbellatus, many years.

Aristolochia sempervirens, two years.

Anthyllis Hermannia, three or four years.

Alvysoa citra odora, several years.

Acacia armata, two years.

Aster argophyllus, four years.

Benthamia pasifera, one year.

Bocconia cordata, several years.

Bouvardia triphylla, three or four years.

Bignonia grandiflora, three years.

Brugmansia suaveolens (datura arborea,) two years.

Calceolaria, five or six species.

Coronilla glauca and valentina, several years.

Calendula tragus, several years.

Cineraria populifolia, several years.

Chrysocoma cernua aurea, several years.

Collectia spinosa (from Chili), two years.

Canna indica and bicolor, two years.

Camellia Japonica, several varieties, two years.

Capraria lanceolata, two years.

Cobœa scandens, two years.

Charlwoodia australis (Dracæna australis) covered in frosty nights last winter with a mat, and is now growing very strong, and is nearly six feet high.

Clethra arborea, three or four years.

Daphne odora, five or six years.

Dolichos lignosus, two years.

Duvaura undulata and dependens, one and two years.

Encomus punctata, several years.

182 Eriocephalus africanus, five or six years.

Ericomus fragrans, two years.

Eriobotrya japonica (loquat), three or four years.

Echium grandiflorum and glaucophyllum, three or four years.

Echium nervosum, stem six inches diameter, five feet four inches high, twenty-five feet in circumference, and from thirty to forty spikes of flowers.

Edwardsia grandiflora, one year.

—— microphylla, two years.

Escallonia rubra and montividiensis, two years.

Fuschia gracilis, nine feet six inches high, circumference forty feet, diameter thirteen feet ten inches.

Fuschia conica, globosa, coccinea, maxima, apetela, adolphina, robertsia, virgata, &c.

Gazania rigens, two years.

Globularia longifolia, two years.

Gnaphalium ericoides, stœchas, fetidum, four years.

Geranium, many varieties, four years.

Hippia frutescens, three or four years.

Heliotropium corymbosum, two years.

Hoya carnosa, two years.

Hypericum monogynum, several years.

Hydrangea hortensis, six feet six inches high, circumference forty-five feet.

Justicia adatoda, two years.

Jasminum revolutum, ten or twelve years.

Lobelia crinus (rock work), three or four years.

Lithospermum erubescens, two years.

Leonitus leonurus, eight feet high, spreading eighteen feet on a low wall, three or four years.

Melaleuca hypericifolia, five or six years.

Maurandia Barclayana and semperflorens, two years.

Melianthus major and coccineus, several years.

Oxalis, several species.

Othonna pectinata, two or three years.

Ornithogalum longibracteatum, two years.

Psoralea spicata, pinnata, and aculeata.

Petunia nyctaginiflora, and phœnicia, two years.

Passiflora cœrulea racemosa, two years.

Richardia Æthiopica (Calla), many years.

Salvia cardinalis, grahami, involucrata, &c.

Saxifraga sarmentosa, several years.

183 Thunbergia coccinea (on a wall), three years.

Tradescantia crassula, three years.

Teucrium latifolia and frutescens, three years.

Vergilia Capensis, seven feet three inches high, diameter five feet, two years.

Vestia lycioides, eight feet high, three years.

Verbena chamoidryoides and pulchella, two years.

Polygala speciosa and myrtifolia, three or four years.

Olea fragrans, ten to twelve years (south wall).

Physalis edulis, three or four years.

Diosma ericoides, three to four years.

The Acacia lophantha, dealbata, and several other plants, have been planted out during the last spring, and will probably stand out the winter as well as the above.

184

APPENDIX. IV.

Since the parish of Broadoak was printed, an additional sheet of Mr. Hals’s manuscript has been communicated to the Editor by his friend the Rev. Richard Polwhele. It contains an account of the important military events which distinguished that parish and the neighbourhood, in 1644, and it is therefore printed as a curious addition to what has here been given in the body of the work, on the same subject. Mr. Polwhele has also sent another sheet relative to St. Stephen’s near Saltash, but that does not contain anything of the least importance.

These two sheets appear to have been separated from the work at Exeter by the carelessness of the bookseller in whose hands the whole had been lodged, and this confirms the suspicion of more important losses having taken place at the same time.

BROADOAK.

Broadoak is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the south Boconnock, west St. Winnow, east St. Pynock, north Cardinham; and by the name of Bradock it was taxed in Domesday Roll, 20 William I. 1087; which word, if it be single, signifies a rebel or traitor, one that betrays the trust and fidelity reposed in him by another; 185 otherwise if it be commonly understood of Brad-ock or Brodock, it signifies broad trees of oak (Saxon).

In the Pope’s Inquisition into the value of Benefices before-mentioned, 1294, Capella de Bradock in decanatu de Westwellshire, appropriata Domui de Lanceston, was valued at xiiis. ivd. from whence it appears the church was endowed by the college of St. Stephen’s or Lanceston; in Wolsey’s Inquisition or Valor Beneficiorum at £8. 13s. 4d.; the patronage in the Bishop of Exon, the incumbent Pearce, the rectory in possession of ——; and this parish was rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £57.

Here let it be remembered that Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, General of the Parliament Army, being in Devon, received orders from his masters, 1644, to march from thence with the same towards Plymouth, in order to raise the siege thereof, it being then greatly distressed by Sir Richard Grenville, as was the west part of that county, who immediately set forward with his army, and marched on towards that place; yet not so quickly but that Grenville had notice of his motion, and, fearing he was not strong enough to engage his great army, he by night privately dislodged from the siege of Plymouth with his own regiment, Colonel Fortescue’s, Colonel Carew’s, and Colonel Acland’s; and the better to shun or avoid his enemy, marching down by way of Plympton, he turned aside towards St. Botolph’s and Saltash Passage, where with boats he passed over his troops, and so entered over the Tamar river into Cornwall; which Essex understanding as soon as he came to Plymouth, having thus raised the siege and relieved the town, forthwith marched after Grenville as far as Lestwithell and Bradoak Downs, himself quartering at Lanhydrock, the Lord Robartes’s house, and sending out troops of horse westwards if possible to attack him. In the mean time, King Charles I. being then in Somerset with his army, and having notice of those facts of Essex’s, forthwith marched out of Somerset through Devon with his army for Grenville’s relief, and entered Cornwall by way of Polston bridge, the 11th of August 1644; from thence advanced to Lanceston, and so directly to Liskeard, which place for some time he made his head quarters, where the townsmen and contiguous countrymen shewed themselves very zealous and loyal towards his service, especially for that the town or borough and manor of 186 Leskeard was his son the Duke of Cornwall’s lands, in right of his Duchy of Cornwall.

Soon after which the country people gave private notice to the King, that on a certain day the quarter-master, General Dalbier, Lieutenant-Colonel Charleton, Colonel Allured, Colonel Barkley, and some other officers of Essex’s army were to dine at the Lord Mohun’s house, not far from Lestwithell.

At the day appointed the King dispatched a party of horse, and by surprise took them all prisoners (except Dalbier, who made his escape) and brought them all prisoners to Leskeard, where soon after Prince Rupert arrived at the King’s army, which gave great hopes of a notable victory over Essex; and, in order to give him battle, the King soon after drew forth his army from Leskeard, and marched west to Bradock Downs in this parish, opposite to St. Winnow and Boconnock Downs, where Essex lay encamped, on the east side of Lestwithell town, and there pitched his camp and standard, he himself, Prince Rupert, and Grenville quartering at the Lord Mohun’s house; from whence he sent a letter August 16th, as he had sent another before from Leskeard by the Lord Beauchamp’s nephew, to Essex, for a treaty of peace, to which he received no answer; then he sent another letter to him in the name of the officers of his army, to which Essex sent a negative answer directed to the Earl of Forth, purporting that he had received a letter from his lordship, and other commanders of the King’s army, by which a treaty with him was desired for a general peace, which he could not admit of without a breach of the trust reposed in him by the Parliament, having no power by his commission to treat in a matter of such importance.

Whereupon happened several skirmishes between the cavaliers and parliament troops; and in particular that challenge and sharp charge between Colonel Straughan’s for the Parliament and Colonel Digby’s for the King, was most remarkable. Straughan’s troop consisted of a hundred young men from sixteen to twenty years of age, on whose faces, as was said, never razor had past in order to shave their beards, all double, if not treble armed for this encounter. This troop of Straughan’s was led forth by himself on Bradock and St. Winnow Downs, having nothing on his head but a hat, and on the trunk of his body nought but a white linen shift, where they braved it for 187 some time as was said before, giving defiance to a like number of the King’s party in sight of the King and both armies; whereupon soon after dislodged the Lord Digby’s troop for the King, to accept and fight this challenge of Straughan’s, who with great resolution and bravery advanced towards him, and gave the first onset or charge, but firing their pistols at too great distance, it did little harm to his adversary, whilst instantly Straughan, like a firebrand of hell, with a led horse by his side, had before commanded his boys, as he called them, to take their adversary’s fire, which they then did with unspeakable hardiness, and rushed on to the very horse heads of Digby’s troopers, that before had spent their shot, himself leading the fore front to the very points of their swords, when he discharged his double-barrelled pistols, and was in like manner seconded by his troopers, who had all the same sort of pistols, and most of them laden with three or four bullets each, which proved so fatal and disastrous a blow to Digby’s troopers, that the one half of them were slain on the spot or mortally wounded; and it was further observable, that scarce horse or man that escaped went not off without some hurt or damage, as I was told by one Mr. William Maye, a gentleman that was one of Digby’s troop, and sorely wounded in this battle, the marks of which through his hands, arms, and legs were visible, though cured to a large degree, till his dying day, 1672; and much the like account I had of this battle or combat from Mr. William Upcott, of Truro, and Mr. Joseph Upcott, of Morval, brothers, that were parcel of Straughan’s troop, who there took some of the King’s horses alive, their riders being slain, upon whose furniture was his proper arms, the star and the letters C. R.

But, alas! notwithstanding this success of Straughan’s troop, the King with his army had so hemmed in or surrounded Essex in his head quarters at Lestwithell, that he could not long subsist or have relief for his soldiers, for the Lord Goring and Sir Thomas Basset, Knt. stopped all provision with a great body of horse, that was coming to him by way of St. Blazey from the west, as Sir Richard Grenville did the like by way of St. Colomb, Bodmin, and Lanhydrock from the north; whereupon it was resolved by Essex’s council, that he should desert his army, and privately by night in a boat go down the river to Fowey, and from thence take ship for Plymouth, which expedient 188 was accordingly put in execution, and the General Essex, the Lord Robartes, and some others the next day got into Plymouth, being the 31st of August 1644. On the same day Sir William Balfour with two thousand five hundred of the Parliament horse, with divers officers, viz. Colonel Nicholas Boscawen, his Lieutenant-Colonel James Hals, of Merther, Henry Courtenay, of St. Bennet’s in Lanyvet, Colonel John Seyntaubyn, of Clowans, and his Lieutenant Colonel Braddon, Colonel Carter, and several other officers and gentlemen of quality, early in the morning forced their passage over St. Winnow, Boconnock, and Bradock Downs, though the body of the King’s army, which lay encamped on the heath in those places, maugre all opposition to the contrary; from thence they rode to Leskeard, from thence to Saltash Passage, and from thence to Plymouth safely the same day, amidst their own garrison and confederates.

Notwithstanding this desertion of the general and other officers as aforesaid, Major General Skippon (a Londoner), like a good commander, resolved to live and die with his soldiers; and in order to their preservation, being at least twelve thousand men, he led them down the banks of the river on the west side thereof towards Foye, in order to transport them over the passage or river to Lanteglos, or ship them from thence for Plymouth, all other roads and high ways being stopped up by the King’s army as aforesaid, during which march Skippon’s men were sorely distressed in the rear by the King’s soldiers, so that five of their field pieces were taken in the lanes, whereupon the next morning his men made a stand, and with a brigade of horse that never deserted the infantry, charged the King’s troops with great courage and animosity, and beat them out of the field which they had lost the day before, with some loss; whereupon immediately the King sent Captain Brett with the Queen’s troop to attack them, who in the King’s sight charged Skippon’s brigade with that fury and violence as forced them to retire from the field aforesaid, whereby not only he regained the ground that was lost, but got some other fields from his party, and then returned in good order, having lost only four men, himself being shot in the arm, for which brave adventure the King knighted him on the spot. After which the Parliament soldiers were so dispirited that they could hardly be 189 brought to stand to their arms; upon which dismay Colonel Butler and a trumpeter came to desire a parley with the King, which was forthwith granted, and a treaty followed on the first of September, when the Commissioners on the King’s part were Prince Maurice and the Earl of Bramford, for Essex’s soldiers Major-General Philip Skippon, Colonel Christopher Whichcott, and others, by whom a cessation of hostility was agreed upon in these terms —

190

APPENDIX. V.

Observations on an Ancient Manuscript, entitled Passio Christi, written in the Cornish Language, and now preserved in the Bodleian Library; with an account of the Language, Manners, and Customs of the People of Cornwall. By William Scawen, Esq. Vice-Warden of the Stannaries. (From a Manuscript in the Library of Thomas Astle, Esq. 1777.)

On the Manuscript itself. On the description of the Passion contained therein. On the tongue in which the Passion is described, and the properties thereof, and how it relates to and concerns the people and places of Cornwall.

Concerning the manuscript itself, (which is the ground of the fabric) the first thing that presents itself is the outside, which is not polished, but in a homely, humble simplicity, and written upon a rough old vellum, which may be supposed to be before parchments here came much into use; and by the rude pictures set out therewith, it may seem to be before the art of painting became better amongst us.

Next to behold the chirography thereof, written in no other than the old Court Hand, not of the best form, but seeming somewhat older than we find it in other places, and some of the letters and characters different from the common Court Hand.

As to the speech itself, it is such as the common speakers of the Cornish now used here do not understand, nor any but such as will be at the pains to study it, no 191 more than the common speakers of the vulgar nation of the Greeks do at this day Homer’s Iliad. So the Lord’s Prayer in the year 700 was thus in English: Vren fader thic arth, &c. In 900, Thu ure fader the eart on heofenum.

As to the antiquity thereof, we observe the name of our Saviour is all along written IHS, after the old form used in crucifixes, and then also the name written Chrest, not Christ. So we find it written in Tacitus, Suetonius, and in some other Roman authors it may be found. So Christians were called Chrestians, as Tertullian observes, Apol. c. 3.[25] And so the vulgar in Cornish speak it Chrest, and not Christ.

In this old piece are no words antiently intermixed of the Saxon tongue or Angles, which shews, in all probability, that it was written before their time at least, if not much further off; whereas, the common speech of it now carries much of those latter figures, to the disfiguring of the face thereof. But of all other intermixion, it seems to receive in it (with a kind of delight) the tongue of the Romans, by whom the people were easily brought to take up that tongue which they brought with them, and afterwards more and more by degrees in succeeding times, the Roman speech was interwoven with the Cornish, out of a natural propensity to it, as that tongue came to be used of all other nations afterwards, as was observed before.

Another argument there is (and that which is to be admired and rejoiced at) that in this old piece of the Passion, there is nothing heretical, little of error to be found, or savouring of ill opinions; which is strange, since it has passed through so many ages, in which so many ill broods have been hatched, and, amongst others, one of our own, the Pelagian heresy, a brat bred here amongst us at Bangor. Nor is there any mention made of any monastical persons, or several orders of men so living. Nothing that refers to Monks, Friars, Priors, or to any other orders, secular or sacred, nor any thing said in approbation or dislike of any such thing.

There is nothing in it savouring of the old bards or their poetry, nor having references to Merlyanisms, but a bare and sober relation of matter of fact.

192 II. As to the description of the Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour, I cannot again but admire, that it is so unpolluted with the Arian or Pelagian heresies. There are, it is true, some inoffensive and harmless traditions, and a word may be let slip of the Virgin Mary; and in those traditions you may observe the concurrence of others.

And, first, concerning this Longis: it is to be inquired whether he be not that Longinus mentioned in our Calendar on the fifteenth of March, or that Longinus on the first of December; for of Longinus there is the same history to be found in Picinellus his Mundus Symbolicus;[26] whose words are, D. P. Comestor ad Longinum vitiosos et caligantes fuisse oculos, cum vero fluentem in Christi latere sanguinem casu illis admovisset, videndi acumen recepisse. In eandem Septentiam canit S. G. Nazian-zenus.[27]

Mr. Lassells, in his Voyages into Italy, tells us, that the picture of Longinus stands under the top of the spear with which Christ’s side was pierced, in the cupola at St. Peter’s church at Rome. It may be conjectured, that this tradition owes its origin to the literal sense of that prophecy; “they should look on him whom they had pierced.”

For the wood of the cross, (another of the traditions,) Genebrard’s account thereof, as reported by Purchas in his Pilgrimage, p. 30, comes somewhat near it, which is, that Seth went to the Cherub which kept Paradise, and received three grains of the Tree of Life, whereof we read in the Apocalypse, “The leaves shall heal the nation.” With these three grains was an oil made, wherewith Adam was anointed, and the stones put into his mouth, whence sprang the tree whereof the cross of our Lord was made, hidden 193 by Solomon in the Temple, and after in the pool of Bethesda; according to which, in a church window at St. Neot’s, is one pictured putting something under another’s tongue, with this inscription, Hic Seth ponit tria grana sub lingua Adæ. If any list to see further about the timber whereof the cross was made, let him read Mr, Evelyn’s Sylva, c. 3, Num. 17. As to that of the smith’s wife, in forming the nails for the crucifixion, perhaps they might think, that as the first woman had the first hand in the transgression, so a woman must be employed in the last act of this tragedy. We may observe,

1. What true and manifest notions these antient people had, and faithfully retained, of the Trinity, and the reverence they gave them.

2. How distinctly and clearly they did set forth, in those dark days they lived in, the several distinct attributes of the Deity, assigning power to the Father, wisdom to the Son, goodness to the blessed Spirit.

4. How well they agree and adhere to the doctrine of the true church of Christ, in the points maintained by us concerning the loss and fall of man and mankind, and the restoration of him, and concerning the eternal decree and purpose of God, in the salvation of man, notwithstanding his fall.

We may observe by the Resurrection, thus shortly declared as it is, that it appears plainly that those people were not Nullyfidians.

Nor were they Solyfidians.

They placed the foundation of their happiness in belief.

And the superstruction thereupon in good works.

Lastly, we cannot think they were any way inclinable to the minds of those scoffers at the day of judgment, which St. Peter meets with in his second Epistle, 2, 9, and 10. Our people acknowledged, that at the Great Day of account a punishment shall be upon the wicked, and a glory expected to be given to the godly. Thus far as a taste only of what is contained therein.

III. On the tongue in which the Passion of our Saviour is thus described, we have, among other things, such as these observables:

1. The Idiom.

2. The Innocency and Cleanness.

194 3. The Wisdom.

4. Significances of it.

1. For the Idioms. They put the substantive before the adjunct or adjective. 2. The preposition sometimes comes after the noun. 3. It is usual to change a letter in the beginning, middle, or end of a word or syllable, and sometimes to omit in each for sound sake. 4. They contract several words into one for sound sake, and that very short also; with many other changes, of which it is hard to know or find any certain rule now, but some may be made out upon reading, due observation and experience had on this that follows; and for the pronunciation, the Cornish is not to be gutturally pronounced as the Welsh for the most part is, nor mutteringly as the Armorick, nor whiningly as the Irish (which two latter qualities seem to have been contracted from their servitudes), but must be lively and manly spoken, like other primitive tongues.

2. For the Innocency of it. What is most remarkable is, that it hath a most excellent defective qualification in it, peculiar to itself; for, whereas all other tongues abound in execrable oaths, the old Cornish have none at all, not so much as reproachful terms. The word that comes nearest to an oath with them is Areire, Areiaree, which is Mary, Mary, spoken by way of wonder. The next good defective qualification is, that there are no great titles in it, which Nutricule Tyrannidis.

3. For the Wisdom, Proverbs (which contain usually the wisdom of a nation) they have had, but we cannot find them in any great plenty. Yet some there are worthy observing, as these:

Cows nebas, cows da, nebas an yeveren an gevella.

Speak little, speak well, little of public matter is best.

Cows nebas, cows da, hada veth cowsas arta.

Speak little, speak well, and well will be spoken again.

Taw Tavas.

Be silent tongue.—To call one Tavas Tavas, Tongue Tongue, is as great a reproach as you can put upon any one.

Reys yw meeras dueth ken lemmell uneth.

Look twice before you leap once.

Neb na gare y gwayn coll restewa.

He that loves not gain loss befall him.

Neb na gare y gy an gwra deveeder.

He that loves not his dog will make him a choaked sheep.

195 Non ges goon heb lagas na kei hebs scovern.

There is no down without eye, nor hedge without ears.

Na reys gara anvor goth ragan vor noweth.

Do not leave the way old for the way new.

Guel gw gwetha vel goofen.

Better keep than ask.—This is spoken of a wariness and precaution concerning lending.

Grova da rag, tha hannen te yn gurd.

Do good, for thyself thou dost it.

4. Significancy of the Tongue. Adam gave names to the creatures, according to their natures; but the people of this land, having no better guide, have given names upon long experience had, and much observation made of the nature of things, and those do mostly appear now as to places and families. I shall adventure upon some instances:

Lanceston, alias Dunhevet. Camden would fain have it to be Fanum Stephani; indeed St. Stephen’s, which is a mile off, seems to be the mother church, Lanceston the daughter church. Others would have it to be Lancelot’s Town, one of the Champion Knights of King Arthur, but that is further from truth. The Chief Justice Foster, talking with me about it, would fain have Dunhevet to be the most ancient name, from Dune a town, and Hevet above it, which there is accordingly. I told his lordship we must fetch the derivation higher, from the Cornish original (and not from the Saxon), and that is Leostofen, which is a place of large extent, or a broad end, which is properly so according to the situation thereof, at the broad end of the county, from whence it grows towards the west still narrower, like to the point of a wedge. I read in a good author, that Radulphus, brother to Alfius, Duke of Cornwall, was founder of Lanceston. I think he means the castle there, not the town.

The names of places above, and from those places downwards, have suffered much violence along the river from Devon side, by reason of the mutations formerly spoken of; but from thence we shall take notice of some that have received their names antiently, passing down the river of Tamar (and on some of the branches thereof) where, by the way, I may say I am astonished at some of our late Geographers, who, in enumerating the famous bridges in all this have omitted altogether ours in Cornwall, of which, among 196 land, other lesser, we have three that are very eminent, one of which, Wadebridge, stands further west; the two others, besides many smaller, are on the river of Tamar; one Horsbridge, the other called Newbridge. But much more I wonder at their omission among the rivers of the famous river of Tamar, a river, after the Thames, not behind any of note in this kingdom, which I mention the sooner, because it is most properly ours in Cornwall; for though it be great and very navigable far up, yet it arises in and floats only in this little county of Cornwall, and its whole course contains within the same, and it is the boundary thereof from other parts, wherein other streams do flow, Linnar, Fiddy, &c. and before it falls into the Estuarium, where it gives entertainment from Devon on the other side to Tavy, Plym, Yeom, and others, where they all lose their names in Tamar. And I do much more wonder that it should be printed by some others, that this famous river should fall into the sea near the Land’s End, whereas this alone possesses the whole honourable harbour of Plymouth (more than sixty miles distant from the Land’s End), and stands appropriated to the interest of Cornwall, belonging to the Duke thereof, the Prince of Wales. And to return to what I said last, in coming down from this broad end of the county to that famous harbour, though our next bordering neighbour Devonshire and the saints, have stolen away from us many of the antient British names, and intruded upon us many strange ones, yet some left us here and there of the antient speech all along, upon the river and the branches thereof, which I am obliged to memorize.

Lawhit, in Glamorganshire, is said to be Fanum Iltuti, to which the Ton being added in Cornish, makes it up. Iltutus was an ancient British Monk in King Arthur’s time. Landue may be the church or chapel of St. David, though Landuan in Cornish is the black church or chapel. And for Lezant, that is the holy saint, meaning St. Michael, to whom that church was dedicated.

As Cargreene, which is a rock in the gravel standing in a green place. Carbeele or Carbilly, a rock mentulæ formæ. Carkeele of the same signification.

Landulph, where St. Dulpho is memorized by the church’s name, and the well there so called St. Dulpho’s well. Halton, i. e. Haelton, a green place near the water.

Pillaton, a round or clue by a green.

Larrake I did formerly suppose to have been from Laun 197 or Lun, which is usually set for a church or chapel; but on better consideration I think otherwise of it now, because I find several other places hereabouts written Larrake, which have no reference to church; and because the manor antiently was written and called Larrake, which is antienter than the church, and it signifies a place of content in Cornish.[28]

Blerrake I take to be of the same signification too; a little from which latter place, if content may be had from a prospect, it is there in my opinion. A place formerly called Ballahow, now the fairest and amplest I know any where, excepting such as are dignified by the sight of a metropolis, or such places of eminency, though it stands not on a promontory, and but a little from the sea in a plain, though but a rough one, and from it you may look directly into the sea, as far as human eye-sight can enable you.

Towards the sea-shore on the one side, you have in eye the Start in Devon, and westward the Lizard, for your boundaries. Towards the land northward, the wild moors of Devon, called the East Moors, and the other side the West Moors in Cornwall. Between those you may observe the vale countries of both, two rich valleys, one in Devon side, and the other in Cornwall, and take the sight of Tamar as their boundaries, and you will wonder, looking at it from above, to know how to think that river should find a way through those countries to the sea, especially if you consider that you seldom see water in those tracts of land by which it passes, yet you see also as it passes Plymouth the royal citadel, Plymton, Millbrooke, and abundance of small villages and boroughs in a country on each side pleasant, and the whole prospect not obscured by hills, or any thing else by which you may be hindered from the sun in any part of the day; besides this overlooks the Eddy-rock or stone, a dreadful place about a league out in the sea, where many hundred of ships have been wrecked, being in the trade way to the harbour from the west; yet I have heard some antient skilful mariners to 198 aver, that if a good artist should go about to strike on this rock purposely, he would not be able to do it, so far doth chance go beyond art.

Cuttenbrake is a concealed head, and E. Trematon, a place on three hills.

Inesworth, which is Ineswartha, the island above, or the higher island, in respect to the situation of the island of St. Nicholas below, where the saint hath gotten the mastery again.

Ints or Ince, which is a proper name for an island, though this be joined, as Insworth is, by a short neck to other parts of the parish of St. Stephen’s. Here passing, we come by the mouth of the river to Pembernose, which is in Cornish the head of the night, or midnight, as if it were said that there is safe coming in there at any time; and from thence we pass to the uttermost point westward, called Penlee, which is the headland to the leeward; and so sailing along by the sea side to the two Gayers, the East and West Gayers near Ramehead, which may give nomination to families of that name in the west, which are now worn out there, and have had a good recruit in Plymouth, and from thence a better in London, by a late Lord Mayor, there so called, but taking his descent from Cornish original, according to the word.

Rame is a long ridge of rocks, and here called Ramehead, because it is so formed towards the sea like a ram’s horn, which hath turnings in it to put mariners in mind thereof: in Cornish Pendenhar. Sailing along from thence by the sea side, we come to Millan Dreth, that is, a mill on the sea sand at Loo,[29] or Lough, which is a common name with most nations for a low or watery place, and so Port-Loo, and Port-pinnion, the little port, nigh to which also is Denloe, or Delough; and stepping a little from thence in the land, is Minhinnitt, which is a hill on a highway, and so indeed it is rightly styled; and the well of St. Lollo, and the foot of Liskeard. Near to it is Liskeard (a near neighbour thereto), some say a place affected; others take it from the Cornish word Leskeveres, like length, like breadth, a square, so it anciently was, and so fortified, as the castle walls yet in part remaining show. Some would not have us go so far back, but would have 199 us take it from a physician so named, and a miracle supposed to be wrought by him there, and this may be right also; but then we must suppose that to be St. Luke the physician, and some ground there is for that also, for the most antient street thereof is to this day called St. Luke’s street. Luke’s Day also is their day of feasting, and for choice of their Governor. This agrees well enough with the former as the fortification of it; and towards the sea again we come to Lestwithiel. Some hold that to be lion’s tail or lion’s train; others take it to be ‘enough together.’ The place, though now grown much in decay, hath formerly been held the only shire town, and where the Knights of the Shire have been still chosen, and the Convocation of the Stanneries held, &c. A great hall was lately there, which was used for those purposes in my knowledge, belonging to the Dukes of Cornwall, who did the like when under them; and here also they kept their court and residence, near to which stands yet their castle Restormell, in Cornish a bellyfull of money, a place of honey; besides which the Dukes had seven others, Liskeard, Tintagell, Lanceston, and Trematon, which is in Cornish three hills on a green top, though that came to the Crown by attainder. As for the river Vz or Vzell, which some speak of, I suppose is a mistake; the river there is the river of Fowey, in Cornish Foath, which hath its head spring in the moors above it, Venton Foath, in English called Foycombwell and Aqua de Fowey. As it comes further down near Foath, is a town or place called Tywardreth, in Cornish, a town on the sand, or above the sand, which agrees well with its situation, where heretofore there stood a priory, the buildings whereof are now decayed. I may not forget as next to Foath the town of Polruan, which is now a small village of fishing, but heretofore famous, standing on the top of an ancient hill, where are the ruins of a spacious fair church, called yet by the name of St. Saviour’s, Polruan is in Cornish, a frosty bottom, or frosty pool, this being seated over against Foath; between those two towns heretofore there went athwart the river a chain of iron from a small castle on each side, for their security against foreigners by sea, but by their neglect of preserving it in time of peace, was stolen away from them by some boats that came from Dartmouth in Devon, and carried there, where the river is of equal breadth, and the harbour is much like that of 200 Fowey, and hath over against the town of Dartmouth a little town called King’s Way, which answers to Polruan against Fowey. The Fowey men have attempted the restitution of their chain, but never could obtain it, because they had been so careless, it being the means of their own preservation formerly. Between these two neighbouring towns of Fowey and Polruan, standing one against the other, in the harbour between them, there used to be antiently a solemn contention of justing performed upon the river every May-day, upon two boats singled out of equal strength, from the one side and from the other, to encounter each other upon the water, there being a stage made on each of them, upon the end of the boat, for the several champions to stand on. Several boats were to row with six oars a-piece, rowing fiercely against one another. The champions were arrayed only in white, slightly but better armed about the breast and neck, and holding a lance rebated in the form of an oar (according to their trade); but a fierce attempt they make upon each other, and one or both of them is usually carried by the push to sound the depth of the harbour, and then a new supply of others for fresh encounter is called for again.

This I have seen to be performed in my time, and it usually drew abundance of people together to behold the sport from the hills on both sides, and from the town, with many others, with boats likewise upon the river, and not without need, to receive up and recover their dejected champions, who end their encounters in peace, not without liquor, the element of their contention.

Mevagissy, or Mevagissey, a hill to keep mares in.

Penwarn, a head beloved.

Bodrigan, a hill by the ebbing of the sea.

Dudman or Gubman, a place where much ore is cast in.

This spot of land called Bodrigan, a spacious fair barton looking towards the sea, was not very long since possessed by gentry of the same name, whose estate was great; and being forfeited to King Henry the Seventh, part thereof was given to Trevanion, a noble family of this county; but this Bodrigan, with many other lands, to Edgcombe, that Sir Richard Edgcombe, of whom let me deliver my judgment, that he was a witty, valiant, wise, good man, and a good commonwealth’s man. Witty, as appears by his hiding himself and throwing his cap and coat away for his preservation, O quantum est subditis casibus ingenium. 201 Valiant, in that he was made a Knight Banneret at Bosworth field. Wise, in that he was made choice of for one of the Commissioners for the happy treaty of marriage of Margaret, the King’s eldest daughter, with James the Fourth, King of Scots, a happiness to the kingdom at this day. A good man, and not a pilferer of the people (as many were in those days); otherwise he would be named in Perkin Warbeck’s Declaration, set down by Chancellor Bacon. A good commonwealth’s man, as appears by that stately and costly fabric of Newbridge built by him.

Peale, a spire, lies to the north of Tolpenwith a mile, and it is the true Land’s-end. This spire, called the Pele, stood on a little island; between it and the shore there is room for a boat to pass with oars; the spire was ten fathom or more above the ordinary flux of the sea, very narrow on the top, hardly room for a man to sit on it; in the floor it was and is fourteen feet square. In the year before King Charles the First was beheaded, it was prodigiously cut off in the floor by a storm, and falling broke in three pieces.

Herles, truly interpreted Hercules’ Pillars, are a ridge of rocks a quarter of a mile in length, standing like pillars divided into small islands, and distant from the Pele a mile. From these by the north coast we come to St. Ives, in Cornish Port Eer of Geer, a port with a pool. Paddestow, so called by Saxon Angles, being Patherickstow. Another place near by, called Little Petherick, which partakes not of the Cornish at all; for in the Cornish it is Lethanneck, a place of much sea-sand, which agrees well with the site, much sea and much sand there is driven. A little above which is the house of Edmund Prideaux, esq. my kinsman, now called Place, formerly Guarandre, or Warthantre, i. e. above the town or above the sand; but that we may do right to latter times also, we find much mention to be made also of Patrickstow, and that St. Patrick, after much time spent in Ireland, and endowments of learning by long study were obtained, he came into Cornwall, and built a monastery there not far from the river of Severn, which comes home to that which is said by Archbishop Usher, as also to the name of the place. Locus ubi Petrocus consedit in Cornubia, Petrocstow, hodie Padstow nominatur, prius Laffeneck. Antiq. p. 292; and after thirty years went to Rome, &c. By other 202 authors it is said, that at Bodmyn his body was buried but stolen from thence, and carried by one Martinus to the abbey of Menevy or Mein, in Little Britany; but upon complaint to the king it was restored, and brought back undiminished to the Prior of Bodmyn. b. §. p. 293. But whether this were to be understood of St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, it is altogether to be doubted, since as to the burial of his body there hath been so much contention that that should be at Glastonbury; but another Patrick there was, perhaps a third, and one of note too, stiled Sænor Sæenex Patricius, as appears by the learned primate. He is said to be at the same time, and that he was Domesticus Sancti Patricii. Another there was also at some hundred years distance. With one of these it may better accord than with the great Patricius, who it may be said, had his name Dignitatis causa, as was usual with the Romans and Athenians, his parental name being Moun or Muun.

The town of Stratton, in Cornish Straneton, a green dispersed with houses. Near this town is the place where the Cornish forces, on behalf of King Charles the Second, obtained the glorious victory over the rebellious army, anno 1643. In memory of which battle Sir Ralph Hopton was created Baron of Stratton, who afterwards dying without issue, the same title was conferred upon Sir John Berkley, both which lords were commanders in the Cornish army at that time.

There is a pretty vulgar fiction that Tamar, Tamara, being a subterraneous nymph, was courted and sought after by Tavy and Tawrage, who found her sitting under a bush at Morewinstow, the furthest part of Cornwall in the north. They being weary in searching after her, sat down by her and slept; she perceiving them to be fallen asleep, steals away from them suddenly and goes directly to the south. Tavy being first awakened, goes away silently after her, not acquainting his co-rival therewith. Tawrage that awakened last, finding them both gone, in haste rusheth out, and angrily runs away towards the north, foaming and fretting all along as he goes, till he loses himself in the Sabrina; whilst Tavy, on the Devon side, sends out some of his small streams to visit and court her, and to observe which way the nymph went, but she having got the start of him, leaves not of her speed till she comes into the Sound.

203 ANTIQUITIES CORNUONTANIC.

The causes of the Cornish Speech’s Decay.

1. The first and great cause of the decay of the Cornish speech was their want of a character, which not only contributed to the decay of the tongue, but to the vanquishing of the nation of the Britons, they being thereby disabled upon emergent occasions to write or communicate with one another against their invaders, and so “dum pugnabant singuli vincuntur universi,” as Tacitus says; and he also observes, “non aliud adversus validissimas gentes pro Romanis utilius quàm quod in commune non consulebant.”

What would have become of the Roman tongue, when the Goths and Vandals broke in upon Rome and all Italy, mixing the Roman tongue with their Runa-Gothica, if there had not been learned men (amounting to 160 elegant classical authors in Augustus his time) who preserved the tongue in their works?

I know it hath been and yet is the judgment of learned men, that the old Britons never had any character, yet I hope they will give me the liberty of declaring the reasons of my dissenting. I. It hath always been supposed that Ireland had a character; now Ireland was always accounted a British Island, however; yet I cannot positively affirm that the character which the Bishop of Tuam sets forth as British be really so, there seeming to be little difference between that and the old Saxon; neither can I consent to what he saith, that the Saxons, whom he calls their neighbours, learned their very characters from Ireland.

2. Though we may depend on Cæsar’s[30] authority, that Druidum doctrina non fuit literis mandata, sed memoriæ fuit, ne aut in vulgus proficiscentur, aut juventus qui eam perdiscebant negligentia aut in curia remitterent, which reasons, in my judgment, rather demonstrate that they had a character to communicate their doctrines by, if they had pleased to use it. II. The great use made of the Roman tongue, the laws of their conquest extending to letters and speech, as well as to territory; and where there is a delight, there are things best retained. Romanam 204 Linguam Britanni non abnuebant, ut eloquentiam concupisserent. Tacit.

Martial.[31]

Afri, Galli, Hispani avido arripuerunt et inducto novo paulatim oblituerunt veterum sermonem. Lips.

III. The great loss of Armorica, near unto us, by friendship, by cognition, by interest, by correspondence. Cornwall has received princes from thence, and they from us. We had heretofore mutual interchanges of private families, but as to our speech we are alike careless. We can understand words of one another, but have not the benefit of conferences with one another in our ancient tongue. I have met with some Friars born and bred there, who, one would think, should be able to discourse of their own pristine tongue, and of their own birthplaces, yet found them, though not totally ignorant that such things had been, yet insensible and careless of their former condition. They could tell me that my name Scawen, was in their tongue Elders, as here it is; that there are those that bear the same name, and one of them a bishop; but when he writ it he changed it to Sambucus, shewing thereby a mind declared to a new, rather than an inclination to his old name, and relation to his country speech.

IV. But, least the tender lamentations of those losses should be thought to put us out of memory of the loss of our tongue, the matter which we have in hand, we are here to mention a fourth cause, and that which most concerns this Peninsula of Cornwall, which is the giving over of the Guirremears,[32] which were used at the great conventions of the people, at which they had famous interludes celebrated with great preparations, and not without shews of devotion[33] in them, solemnized in open and spacious downs of great capacity, encompassed about with earthen banks, and in some part stone work of largeness to contain thousands, the shapes of which remain in many places at this day, though the use of them long since gone. 205 These were frequently used in most parts of the county, at the conveniency of the people, for their meeting together, in which they represented, by grave actings, scriptural histories, personating patriarchs, princes, and other persons; and with great oratory pronounced their harangue, framed by art, and composed with heroic stile, such as have been known to be of old in other nations, as Gualterius,[34] an ancient father, hath been mentioned to be. This was a great means to keep in use the tongue with delight and admiration, and it continued also friendship and good correspondency in the people. They had recitations in them poetical and divine, one of which I may suppose this small relique of antiquity to be, in which the passion of our Saviour, and his resurrection, is described. They had also their Carols at several times, especially at Christmas, which they solemnly sung, and sometimes used, as I have heard, in their churches after prayers, the burden of which songs, “Nowell, Nowell, good news, good news of the Gospel,” by which means they kept the use of the tongue the better.

V. I cannot find that the British have boasted of many miracles done among them; if any such antiently there were, they were deprived of the memory of them by the Romans. I cannot affirm with so much reason (as some of our neighbours have done with confidence) who say, that at the last digging on the Haw for the foundation of the citadel of Plymouth, the great jaws and teeth therein found, were those of Gogmagog, who was there said to be thrown down by Corineus, whom some will have to be the founder of the Cornish;[35] nor am I able to assert, that some great instruments of war in brass, and huge limbs and portraitures of persons long ago, as some say that have been in some of the western parishes, were parts of giants, or other great men, who had formerly had their being there. But we may rather think those to be imaginary things or devices of old bards said to be there, though we have no certain memory of them neither. Nor may we think it strange that such things may be spoken of, since we may well credit some good historians, that 206 write that Alexander, after that he had returned from his journey to India, caused a great representation to be made on the ground on the western side of the river Indus, of a huge campaign almost immeasurable, with tents, cabins, and platforms, and arms also, for horses, racks, and mangers, of such height as were not to be reached at; and that there were also scattered about the ground bits and bridles for horses, of extraordinary length and bigness, and that all this “ut de magnis majora loquantur,” and to make men think upon him and his miraculous acts with the more admiration.

VI. The sixth cause is, the loss of the ancient records, not of the Duchy or the Earldom of Cornwall, (which some affirm were burnt, and others lost in the ancient ruins of the castles of Rostormell, and other such,) but of those of whole Cornwall, whilst one of the four dynasties of this island, (or, as Pancirollus,) one of the five.

VII. The seventh cause is desuetude, or want of a continued use; and it is no wonder, if, after so many losses, the true use of the tongue vanished away or grew not into contempt. Speeches are compounded of words, and both of them of one nature, and continued according to their use, and of one of them it may be said as of the other

VIII. A general stupidity may be observed to be in the whole county. As to other matters monumental, there is little mention made of our antient stately fabrics amongst us, now ruinated; as to the founders of them, castles, battles fought, and other things: and as to churches (though we have abundance of fair ones for so small a county, where there is no city nor any great town in it) excellent foundations, but who the builders were we have no intelligence, only a great many false tutelaries of them we hear of. Little of the monasteries hath been said by those that have written copiously of others elsewhere. Scarcely anything of the ancient bishops here, or of the bishop’s see; only we know it to be said antiently, that it 207 was removed from Bodmyn to St. German’s,[36] and that it was about anno 1000, Danorum turbine, from a country more open, to a place more woodland. The cathedral indeed might have been better memorized by Godwin in his Catalogue of Bishops, and enumeration of all the bishopricks; yet little is said of it or the four several chapels in several distinct places of the parish thereto belonging; and as for the monastery nothing at all. It is strange too that Mr. Camden should say, “Germani viculum nihil aliud est hodie, quam piscatorum casulæ:” whereas, there are no such things belonging to such a trade there seen, but instead thereof a cathedral, maintained at the great cost of the inhabitants, (though a great part, by an accident, about one hundred years since fell down,) a good monastical house yet undemolished, and hospitably inhabited, to the relief of poor people. The bishop’s seat and house are yet eminently extant in a Cornish name. The borough of St. German’s enjoys still the privilege of sending burgesses to Parliament by prescription. Pity it is that St. German, who came hither to suppress the Pelagian heresy, should have so bad a going off; for an old fable remains yet in report, that St. German being ill used fled away, leaving a sad curse behind him, to the cliffs at Rame near the head; where bewailing his misfortunes, the compassionating rocks in the cliffs shed tears with him, at a place ever since called St. German’s Well. True it is, such a spring there is, but the occasion of it cannot be more truly affirmed than the other part of the story that follows, viz. That he should be carried thence into remote countries by angels in a fiery chariot, the tract of whose wheels were said to be seen in those cliffs, but they are invisible. Thus much for the site of the place. As to the person of St. German, who perhaps never saw the place, I need not turn over old fabulous legends, nor a better sort who have written his life heretofore, but I may have liberty to relate what I have from the better hands of learned persons.[37] That besides his disputation and confutation of Pelagius at Verulam, and thereby freeing the church and nation from those heresies by a public edict from the Emperor Valentinian, whereby they were no more troubled with them afterwards, he the 208 said St. German did other great works for this land, viz. 1st. the institution of schools of learning among the Britons; Dubritius and Iltutus being both of them his disciples. Dubritius was made Archbishop of Carlehon; Iltutus sent to Lan Iltut, a church bearing his name to this day; and one Daniell, made Bishop of Bangor; from these famous men the monastery of Bangor, and other monasteries in this land, were so well furnished with learned men, at the coming in of St. Austin from the Pope, they stood upon discreet and honourable terms.

2. The introduction of the Gallican Liturgy into use in the churches of Britany, which was ever different from the Romans, and thereby a happy means to have kept this nation from so much acquaintance with the Pope, as they had with him afterwards, to their great trouble. It is also said that St. Patrick, who carried over into Ireland the education monastic, and good principles therewith, and is held to be the Apostle of Ireland, spent many years under the discipline of St. German, when he came hither; who, after he had been employed in the embassy to the Emperor at Ravenna, died there one year before the Saxons’ arrival.

All this time we are left in the dark concerning the fabric of the Monastery of St. German’s, which could not be built till two or three hundred years perhaps after the Saxons got a perfect dominion here over the land, but we may believe that that and the cathedral might be dedicated to his memory afterwards, in respect of the many good works he had done elsewhere.

IX. As we have had an ill registry of monumental matters, so for five or six centuries past (before the two last), I doubt we had but few learned men here, which induces me to put that to the ninth cause of the decay of the Cornish tongue. After the suppression of the Druids, and that Christianity was received, yet learning decayed some while amongst the people, the best of them being carried abroad by the Romans and never returned; and then the supposed Saints coming in after them, made no reparation thereof, but by their supposed miracles, with which they entertained the people. So they had very few learned men amongst them, places of breeding and obtaining learning being remote, scarcely approachable, and the nation in continual troubles and dangers; and for latter times such learned men as came to us, seeing our own neglect of our tongue, have thought it not fit to take the 209 pains to inquire into it, as a thing obscure and not fit to be studied by them, and so suffered to decay insensibly by them and the inhabitants.

X. The Cornish tongue hath mostly resided for some ages past in the names of the people, the gentry chiefly, and in the names of places, observed to be significant mostly as to the site, &c. or for some things eminent about them. Concerning both these, I must take liberty to shew how the speech has been invaded, and eaten up by intrusion, much of which hath been about churches and their sites, as well as by neglectful inobservation; for those Saxon saints have hungrily eaten up the antient names, which, when they could not well digest for hardness of the words, many catched up others from those whom they fieigned to be the tutelaries of those places, churches, and fountains, and supposed miracles wrought thereabouts, as St. Kaine, St. Gurrion, St. Tudy, St. Ive, St. Endellion, St. Kue, Landulph, St. Ust, St. Just, St. Marthren, &c. Of St. Mardren’s Well,[38] (which is a parish west to the Mount) a fresh true story of two persons, both of them lame and decrepit, thus recovered from their infirmity. These two persons, after they had applied themselves to divers physicians and chirurgeons for cure, and finding no success by them, they resorted to St. Mardren’s Well, and according to the ancient custom, which they had heard of, the same which was once in a year, to wit, on Corpus Christi evening, to lay some small offering on the altar there, and to lie on the ground all night, drink of the water there, and in the morning after, to take a good draught more, and to take and carry away some of the water, each of them in a bottle, at their departure. This course these two men followed, and within three weeks they found the effect of it, and by degrees their strength increasing, were able to move themselves on crutches. The year following they take the same course again, after which they were able to go with the help of a stick; and at length one of them, John Thomas, being a fisherman, was, and is able at this day, to follow his fishing craft. The other, whose name was William Cork, was a soldier 210 under the command of my kinsman, Colonel William Godolphin, (as he has often told me) was able to perform his duty, and died in the service of his majesty King Charles I. But herewith take also this: one Mr. Hutchens, a person well known in those parts, and now lately dead, being parson of Ludgvan, a near neighbouring parish to St. Mardren’s Well, he observing that many of his parishioners often frequented this well superstitiously, for which he reproved them privately, and sometimes publicly in his sermons; but afterwards, he the said Mr. Hutchens, meeting with a woman coming from the well with a bottle in her hand, desired her earnestly that he might drink thereof, being then troubled with cholical pains, which accordingly he did, and was eased of his infirmity. The latter story is a full confutation of the former, for if the taking the water accidentally thus prevailed upon the party to his cure, as it is likely it did, then the miracle which was intended to be by the ceremony of lying on the ground and offering, is wholly fled, and it leaves the virtue of the water to be the true cause of the cure. And we have here, as in many places of the land, great variety of salutary springs, which have diversity of operations, which by natural reason have been found to be productive of good effects, and not by miracle, as the vain fancies of monks and friars have been exercised in heretofore.