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THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL.

J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT-STREET.

THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL,

FOUNDED ON THE MANUSCRIPT HISTORIES

OF

MR. HALS AND MR. TONKIN;

WITH ADDITIONS AND VARIOUS APPENDICES,

BY

DAVIES GILBERT,

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY,
F.A.S. F.R.S.E. M.R.I.A. &c. &c.
AND D.C.L. BY DIPLOMA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SON;

AND SOLD BY

J. LIDDELL, BODMIN; J. LAKE, FALMOUTH; O. MATTHEWS, HELSTON; MESSRS. BRAY AND ROWE, LAUNCESTON; T. VIGURS, PENZANCE; MRS. HEARD, TRURO; W. H. ROBERTS, EXETER; J. B. ROWE, PLYMOUTH; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS IN CORNWALL AND DEVON.

1838.

HISTORY

OF THE

PARISHES OF CORNWALL.

STITHIANS.

HALS.

Stithians is situate in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath upon the north Gwenap, west Gwendron, east Gluvias and Peran-well, south Mabe.

I take it to be the same place taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, by the corrupt name of Stachenue.[1] At the time of the first inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices this church was not endowed if extant, nor its daughter church Peranwell; but in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated by the name of Stedians, £14. 0s. 8d. The patronage formerly, as I am informed, either in the rector and fellows of the College of Regular Priests at Glasnith, or the Governor of St. John’s Hospital at Sithney, now in Boscawen; the incumbent —— Hillman, and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, £104. 4s. 0d.; the rectory in —— Boscawen.

This church is dedicated to St. Thomas à Beckett, and accordingly their parish festival is kept on St. Thomas’s 2 Day, July 7th, as was its superior collegiate church of Glasnith, founded by Walter Branscomb, Bishop of Exeter, A. D. 1256.

The barton and manor of Penalmicke, id est, the head or chief coat of mail armour, so called for that such armour was made or lodged in this place in former ages by the possessors or proprietors thereof; which place gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen from thence surnamed de Penalmick; from whose heirs it passed to Skewish, tempore Queen Mary, of whose posterity Collan Skewish, gent. tempore 3d of James I. sold the same to Sir Nicholas Hals of Fentongollan, knight, whose son John Hals, esq. sold the same to Pendarves, now in possession thereof as I am informed.

Tretheage, alias Tredeage, in this parish, is the dwelling of John Morton, gent. that married —— Wilton.

On the south-west part of this parish towards Gwendron, near the highway, are still to be seen nine stones perpendicularly erected in the earth, in a direct manner, called the Nine Maids or Sisters, probably set up there in memory of nine religious sisters or nuns in that place, before the fifth century (See St. Colomb Major and Buryan); not women turned into stones as the English name implies, and as the country people thereabout will tell you. See also Gwendron.

This parish is enriched with streams and lodes of tin in abundance.

TONKIN.

Stithians is in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath to the west Gwendron, to the north Gwenap, to the east St. Piran Arwothall, and to the south Constanton and Mabe.

This parish takes its name from its guardian saint St. Stithians [rather Stithian. But who was he? W.]

It is a vicarage, valued together with St. Piran Arwothall in the King’s Book [see Piran Arwothall before], 3 and hath the same patron, impropriator, and incumbent with that. I shall begin with the chief estate in it,

THE MANOR OF TRETHEAGE,

—the fair town or dwelling. [The fair house. W.] And so it may be well called, considering the country it lies in, as being for that pleasantly situated on the river which runs under Ponsannowth or New Bridge, and emptieth itself under Piran Arwothall church. This was formerly a manor of large extent, but now strangely curtailed.

Of late years it hath been the seat of the family of Morton; the last of which who lived here, John Morton, gent. who married —— the daughter of John Wilton of Dunveth, gent. was oddly outed of it (169..) by Nicholas Pearce; who having gotten a great deal of money in Magdalen Ball in Gluvias, settled it on his son Nicholas Pearce, lately dead, leaving by —— his wife, the daughter of —— Trewren, esq. of Trewardreva, one son Nicholas Pearce, a minor, who is the present lord of this manor. Morton’s arms were, Argent, a chevron between three moorcocks Sable.

THE EDITOR.

The church and tower of this parish are handsome objects built of granite, which abounds throughout all that district.

Mr. Lysons gives, as usual, on account of the ancient manors. The manor of Kennal, he says, belonged in the reign of Edward the Second to Matthew Penfern, afterwards to the Carminows, one of whose coheiresses brought it to the Arundells of Lanherne; by whom, in the year 1800, it was sold to three brothers of the name of Bath, who are the present proprietors. The manor of Roseeth is the property of Thomas Hocker, esq. the devisee of Thomas Reed, esq. The barton of Tretheage is the residence of 4 Mrs. Curgenven, widow of the late proprietor, Captain Curgenven, of the Royal Navy. The barton of Penalurick belongs to Mr. Hocker, and Stephen Ustick, esq. The bartons of Treweek and Tresavren belonged to the family of Hawes, but now to Mr. James Brown.

Tretheage, situated near the turnpike road leading from Truro to Helston, has a very pleasing appearance in the midst of a country almost bare of trees. About fifty or sixty years ago this place was the residence of a gentleman called Tincombe, who had been a practitioner of medicine, but retired to Tretheage, where either he or his father had built the present house. He married a Miss Kniverton of Tredreath in Lelant, but died without children.

Trevales has been for many years the residence of the late Mr. Thomas Reed, and of his ancestors; who having been long what is termed good livers in the parish, advanced themselves by successful adventures in mines, and by conducting a tin smelting house in the parish of Perran Arworthall. Mr. Thomas Reed never married, and devised the greater part of his property to Mr. Hocker his near relation.

Mr. Lysons says, the church of Stithians was given by Edward the Black Prince, to the abbey of Rewley near Oxford, in exchange for the manor of Nettlebed. It appears from the printed documents relative to that abbey, that Edmund Earl of Cornwall, in pursuance of his father’s direction, Richard King of the Romans, founded Rewley Abbey in the year 1280.

His charter, inter alia, has these words:

Sciant præsentes et futuri quod nos Edmundus, claræ memoriæ domini Ricardi regis Alemanniæ filius, et Comes Cornubiæ, dedimus, concessimus, et hac præsenti carta nostra confirmavimus Deo et Ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ de Regali-loco juxta Oxon. et Abbati inibi commoranti, et quindecim Monachis capellanis ordinis Cisterciensis sibi professis, pro anima Ricardi quondam Regis Alemanniæ patris nostri divina celebrantibus, et eorum successoribus 5 ibidem commorantibus, Deo servientibus et imperpetuum servituris, omnes terras et tenementa quæ habuimus in North Oseneye juxta Oxon —— cum Advocatione Ecclesiæ de Sancta Wendrona et aliis pertinentiis suis in hundredo de Kerier in Cornubia. Preterea dedimus —— totum nemus quod habuimus apud Netlebedde ——.

And in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, taken after the dissolution by Henry the Eighth, is this entry:

Com. Cornub.

Wendrono et Stadyon, Firma Rector’ £22. 0s. 0d.

But nothing appears relative to the exchange of Nettlebed for Stithians.

The late vicar, the Rev. Edward Nankivell from St. Agnes, had been for several years Chaplain to the Factory at Smyrna.

Stithians measures 3987 statute acres.

giving an increase of 47½ per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. C. W. Woodley, presented by the Earl of Falmouth in 1829.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

With the exception of a small patch on its eastern extremity, this parish is situated entirely on granite, affording varieties similar to those of Gwennap, Redruth, Camborne, and Crowan, all of which are intersected by beds of porphyry, called by the miners elvan courses. The slate which occurs on the eastern side of this parish is felspathic, resembling that of the adjoining parish of Gwennap.

[1] There is no such name in Domesday Books; Mr. Hals must have misread Stratone or some similar name.

STOKE CLIMSLAND.

HALS.

Stoke Climsland is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Lezant, west Southill, east Calstock and the Tamar River, south Killington.

This parish and church take their name from the manor of Stow Climsland in this parish aforesaid, and by that name it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. It was first given by Orgar Duke of Devon, or Elphrida his lady, to Tavistock Abbey in Devon, which he had founded. (Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, page 360.) Afterwards it became the possession of the Kings of England or Earls of Cornwall, and was by King Edward III. incorporated into the Duchy of Cornwall 1336. (See the charter under Lestwithiel.) And to remove an action at law out of the Court Leet of this Duchy or Stannary Manor, or any other in Devon, as I have elsewhere noted under Helleston, the writ must be thus directed:—

Gardiano Stannarum Devon et Cornubiæ, Capitali Senescallo Ducatus sui Cornubiæ, aut suo Deputat. ibidem. Et precipue sibi aut suo Deputat. Senescallo infra manerium de Stow Climsland parcell. Ducatus Cornub. pred. infra Com. Cornub. &c.

Of Hengiston Downs, King Egbright’s victory, and tin works in this parish, I have spoken under Killington. And of this manor of Climsland, and the park of Cari Bollock in this parish are mention made in the Duke’s Charter aforesaid. Now the modern name Cary-Bollock, I take to be only a corruption of Carow-Bollogk, female deer of a stag, probably kept here in the Duke’s park, when brought out of the forest of Dartmoor.

It appears from the ancient Survey of the Duchy of Cornwall in the Exchequer, tempore Edward III. (and 7 Blount’s Tenures, from thence also extracted page 107), that the old tenure of this Duchy Manor of Climsland or Clemsland, was villanage.

The manor of Rillaton in this parish, was invested with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and is annexed to the Duchy of Stoke Climsland, with all its privileges, as I am imformed. To remove an action at law from which, the writ must be thus directed: Senescallo Decanorum, Præposit. et liberis tenent. Manerii sui de Rillaton, parcell. Ducatus sui Cornub. in Com. Cornub. salutem.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Stoke, in decanatu de Est, was rated at cvis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, Stoke Climsland Church was valued at £40, the patronage in the Dukes and Earls of Cornwall that endowed it; the incumbent ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, £424. 14s.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Is situate in the hundred of East, and hath to the west Linkinhorne and Southill, to the north Lezant, to the east the river Tamar, to the south Kellington and Calstock.

Stoke is the same with Stow, a place; and hath the adjunct of Climsland from the great duchy manor here.

[The word is Clema’s land, Clemmow being a personal name still in Cornwall, pronounced there Clemma, and meaning Clement. W.]

This is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £40; the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall, the incumbent Mr. John Heron.

THE MANOR OF CLIMSLAND.

This, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. (Carew, fol. 48) is valued in fifty, by the name of Clemysland, in which I suppose is comprehended the park of Carybullock 8 belonging thereto. This being one of the ancient manors belonging to the Duke of Cornwall, and so settled by Edward the Third on his son Edward the Black Prince in the eleventh year of his reign, I shall say no more of it here, but come to the most remarkable places in it; and first to

CARY BULLOCK PARK.

So Mr. Carew calls it (fol. 115), “Carybullock,” saith he “some time a parke of the Duke’s, but best brooking that name now it hath lost its qualitie, through exchanging deere for bullocks.” Sir John Dodridge (History of Wal. and Corn. p. 84, &c.) calls it Kerry-bollock; but what if I should say the right name was Caer-bollick, and did signify the intrenched inclosure on the river?—the situation would exactly answer this derivation; but, since the writing of this, I find (Salmon’s Survey of England, vol. II. p. 714) that Mr. Baxter, in Bullœum or Buelt (according to Mr. Camden) in Brecknockshire, interprets it to be Caer-Bulack or “Principis Domus,” the Prince’s town or inclosure, which (if true) would suit very well with this. [This is a judicious application of one of Mr. Baxter’s etymons to the present place; Bulœum, as Baxter says the name is written in the superior copies of Ptolemy’s Geography, Baxter thinks with Lhwyd to be the modern Caer Phylli. Bel, he says, is properly a head, and figuratively a king. This makes Caer Bulack, “quod ara est Regia.” “Certe,” he adds, very usefully, “vel ipsi novimus in Montegomerica nostra Regione Domunculam antiqua Rhesi filii Theodori progenie nobilem;” ennobled by the birth of Rhys ap Tudor, “vel hodie nominatam Caer Bulach, tanquam Principis dicatur domus.” In proof of Mr. Baxter’s seemingly unfounded interpretation of Bel, Bol, or Bul, a head and a king, we may observe the name of the sun Beal, in the Beal-tine of Cornwall and the Beil-tine of Ireland for the fires on May-day in 9 honour of the sun; Beal, Bil (I.) a mouth; Bil (W.) the mouth of the vessel; Bollog (I.) a shell, a scull, the top of the head; Fal (I.) a king or great personage; Folar (I.) to command; Folarthoir (I.) an emperor; Folladh (I.) government; Ffelaig (W.) a general, a captain, a leader; Belee, plural Belein (C.) a priest or priests; Belek (A.) a priest; Pol-kil (C.) the hinder part of the head or the top of the neck; and in Belinus, Cunobelinus, and the promontory Bolerium of the ancient Britons; and Caer-Bulack, as a royal house is called equally in Wales, would in the Cornish mode of pronunciation be Cerry-bullock, as Car-hayes is Carry-hayes at present. W.]

Which since its being disparked by King Henry VIII. has been set out at lease to several gentlemen, and is now held by Sir John Coryton, of Newton, Bart.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons enumerates the manors; the principal of which are the manor giving its name to the parish, part of the ancient possessions of the duchy of Cornwall, and the manor of Climsland Prior, extending into Linkinhorne, which formerly belonged to the priory of Launceston; and after the general dissolution was given with many other manors forming the modern duchy in exchange for the honour and castle of Wallingford.

Carrybullock, disparked by King Henry the Eighth, was held under a lease from the duchy by Mr. Weston Helyar.

Mr. Lysons mentions other manors and bartons of no general interest, with the exception of Whiteford, on account of its late proprietor.

Mr. John Call was one of those individuals of whom the country adjacent to the Tamar may be proud.

It is understood that he was born on the Devonshire side of the river, and various tales are related of his first advancement in life; these are usually little worthy of attention, 10 and are most frequently exaggerated from an innate love of the marvellous. Mr. Call having proceeded to India as an engineer, most eminently distinguished himself in that field, more ample than any recorded in history for the successful display of abilities, and active persevering industry; and where, for the first time since distinct nations have been brought into contact by the improvements of navigation and of commerce, the vanquished have become debtors to the more successful party for protection, for the administration of equal laws and of impartial justice, and for the introduction among the inhabitants of the spirit of honour, the glory of modern Europe.

Here Mr. Call having served his country, and justly acquired the legitimate rewards of fame and of ample fortune, retired to his native country, purchased Whiteford, which he converted into a handsome seat, and much other property in the neighbourhood. His active mind could not, however, remain unemployed; he became a banker, a manufacturer of plate-glass, and a copper smelter. He served the office of Sheriff for Cornwall in the year 1771; afterwards represented Callington in Parliament, and was finally created a Baronet.

It may be interesting to insert some miscellaneous information which the gentleman communicated to this Editor in Oct. 1798, while he resided for a few weeks or months at Marazion, and which was imperfectly noted at the time.

He received the whole of his education as an engineer under Mr. Benjamin Robins, F.R.S. Engineer-General to the East India Company, the well-known author of various mathematical tracts, and especially of a treatise on the principles of gunnery, the force of gunpowder, and on the resisting power of the air to bodies in swift and in slow motion. This treatise his pupil Mr. Call transcribed for the press; and no doubt he assisted in making those admirable experiments and mathematical deductions from them, which have given a new character to this important branch 11 of military science, as well in respect to small arms, and more especially to rifled barrels, as to cannon and mortars, in reference to which Mr. Call made an additional improvement so as to discharge shells from long guns by placing the fusee internally, with its orifice concentric to the surface instead of projecting, and thereby securing it from injury as the shot rolls in passing out of the gun.

He successfully defended Fort St. George at Madras; and in 1761 conducted the siege of Pondicherry, which ended in the capture of that place, the chief seat of the French power in India. Sir John Call also mentions as a curious circumstance, illustrative of the decisive effects produced by the well-directed fire of field artillery, that in a battle where he was present (query, was it Plassey?) a shell from an howitzer caused the explosion of a carriage containing gunpowder, which produced some confusion and disorder in the enemy’s line; the commander instantly ordered a charge, and the victory was decided.

And he related another anecdote on a very different subject. That having with other amateurs of astronomy made preparations for observing the transit of Venus by constructing a temporary observatory on the flat roof of the government house at Madras, they waited with impatience after a long continuance of fine weather, for the important 3d of June 1761, when a most violent storm on the preceding night injured or destroyed their instruments so as to render any observation impossible; and, what added to their mortification and disappointment, a long continuance of fine weather succeeded this tempest.

Whiteford is now the residence of his son Sir William Pratt Call, who was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1807, and has a family.

The manor of Climsland Prior paid to the monastery at Launceston, the free tenants 8s. the conventionary tenants £6. 13s. 9d.

The advowson of the living seems to have been appurtenant to the ancient duchy manor of Stokeclimsland.

12 This parish measures 7973 statute acres.

giving an increase of 39½ per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector the Rev. C. Lethbridge, presented by the Prince of Wales in 1805.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The southern part of this parish includes the whole of the granite of Kit Hill, which is for the most part of the coarse-grained crystalline variety so common in Cornwall. Proceeding northward, the rest of the parish is found to belong to the schistose rocks; those next to the granite are felspathic, and contain beds of porphyry, but those more remote, which form the greater part, must be referred to the calcareous series.

STRATTON.

HALS.

Stratton is now situate in the hundred from thence denominated Stratton, (formerly Major Trigshire Cantred) and hath upon the north Powghill, east Lancells, south Marhamchurch, west Bude Bay and the Channel. As for the name, after the Saxon, it is compounded of Strat-ton, i. e. street or highway town, a lane or public road, derived perhaps from the Latin strata, a street or Roman highway; and by this name of Stratton, it is taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester aforesaid 1294, Ecclesia de Stratone, in decanatu de Major Trigshire, was rated £7. 13s. 4d. vicar’ ibidem 20s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was valued 13 £10. 11s. 6½d. The patronage formerly in the prior of Lancells, who endowed it as I am informed; now ——; the incumbent ——; and the rectory in possession of ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, £290. 18s. The town of Stratton is privileged with a weekly market on Tuesdays, and Fairs annually on the 8th of May, 28th of October, and 30th of November.

Thurlebere, Thurle-ber, bir, in this parish, was another district taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, from whence was denominated an ancient family of gentlemen surnamed De Thurlebere, or whurle-ber; i. e. cast, whirle, twine, the spit, short spear, dart, pike, lance or broach, for so the terminative particle ber, bere, bir, indifferently signifies. See Floyd upon Obelus. In this place John de Thurlebere held by the tenure of knight’s service, twenty pounds per annum in lands, tempore Edward III. and John de Cobham had likewise in it by the same tenure the third part of a knight’s fee. (Survey of Cornwall, page 40 and 52.) One of those Thurleberes married the daughter and heir of Thomas de Waunford, Lord of Ebbingford, alias Efford in Bude Bay, and afterwards made it the place of their residence, tempore Henry V. till at length the daughter and heir of those Thurleberes was married to Arundell of Trerice, tempore Edward IV. whose posterity are now in possession thereof.

Near this town of Stratton, in a field called —— there happened on Tuesday the 16th of May 1643, a sore and bloody battle between the army or soldiers of King Charles I. under conduct of his general Sir Ralph Hopton, knight, and Major-General Chudleigh, Commander of the Parliament Forces in those parts; where, after a sharp contest from five of the clock in the morning till three in the afternoon, the fight or success continued doubtful: so that Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight, was unhorsed, and his troop put into disorder by Chudleigh’s men; and 14 the king’s party had been totally overthrown had not Sir John Berkeley with great courage and conduct led up the musketeers he commanded to their seasonable assistance, maintaining the charge with that stoutness, that the Parliament army, after the loss of about three hundred soldiers, gave ground, and Chudleigh was taken prisoner, with seventeen hundred more of his party. The king’s army having sustained the loss of about two hundred persons, had the plunder of the field, wherein they found seventeen brass pieces of ordinance, seventy barrels of powder, three thousand arms, with ammunition, provision, and biscuit, proportionable.

The country people hereabout will tell you, that the field aforesaid where this battle was fought, being afterwards tilled to barley, produced sixty bushels of corn, Winchester measure, in every acre (See St. Sennan); the fertility whereof is ascribed to the virtue the lands received from the blood of slain men and horses, and the trampling of their feet in this battle.

For this victory, Sir Ralph Hopton, knight of the Bath, was by Letters Patent dated at Oxford, 4th September, 19 Charles I. by him created Baron Hopton of Stratton; but he dying without issue at Bruges in Flanders, King Charles the Second, in the 12th year of his reign, conferred that honorary title of Straton, upon Sir John Berkeley aforesaid (younger son of Sir Maurice Barkley of Bruton in Somerset) who also was one of the four managers of martial affairs in Cornwall for King Charles I. together with the Lord Mohun, Sir Ralph Hopton aforesaid, and Colonel Ashburnham; he also reduced Exeter, and was made governor thereof, and gave for his arms in a field Ruby a chevron Ermine, between ten crosses pattee Pearl, six in chief, and four in base.

The ancestor of this Sir Ralph Hopton, knight, came out of France or Normandy, a soldier or huntsman under William the Conqueror 1066, by the name of the Norman 15 Hunter, to whom he gave Hopton in the Hole in the county of Salop, (from whence afterwards he was denominated De Hopton,) which he conveyed to him and his heirs, and failing the remainder, to the crown.

Sir William de Mohun, one of the founders of the Abbey of Newham in Devon, 30th Henry III. gave to the same the bailiwick of the hundred of Axminster, and also the manor of Norton, with the hundred and bailiwick of Major Trigshire, now Stratton in Cornwall. (See Prince’s Worthies of Devon.) After the dissolution of Newham Abbey, 26 Henry VIII. it fell to the crown, from whence the present titles of those bailiwicks are derived.

TONKIN.

Stratton is in the hundred of the same name, and is bounded to the west by the north or Severn channel and Poughill, to the north by Kilkhampton, to the east by the river Tamar, to the south by Lancells, Marhamchurch, and Poundstock.

As for the name, it is no other than the street town, from its consisting chiefly of one street, and being a great thoroughfare, but more probably from a Roman Way. [from the Roman stratum or street certainly, on which it lies. W.]

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory was valued (Tax. Ben.) at £7. 13s. 4d. being appropriated to the Priory of Lanceston; and the vicar at 20s.

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, at £10. 11s. 6d. ob.; the patronage in the crown.

THE MANOR OF STRATTON.

In Domesday Book Stratone was one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, 16 fol. 48), it is valued in 21. In 3 of Henry IV. (Id. fol. 40 b.) Ranulph de Albo Monasterio (Whitchurch) [a family in this parish, formerly called Blancminster] held here one knight’s fee.

THE EDITOR.

Stratton is a neat although a small town. Before the great roads were made through the middle of the county along the central ridge and above the formation of deep valleys, a northern entrance into Cornwall passed through this town.

Mr. Lysons says, that the manors of Stratton and Binomy belonged at an early period to an ancient family called in various records De Albo Monasterio, or Blanchminster and Whitminster. The property passed by an heiress to the family of Hiwis; and Emmeline the heiress of Hiwis, married first, Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, who lost his life through popular violence in the year 1388; and secondly, Sir John Coleshill.

Sir John Coleshill, son of the above, was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, leaving an infant son; after whose death in 1483 the large estates of this family passed by a female heir to a younger branch of the Arundells, and were afterwards divided among its numerous representatives.

The manors of Binomy and Stratton having been purchased by the Grenvilles, have descended to Lord Carteret.

The manor of Efford or Ebbingford, belonged at an early period to the Waumfords or Waunfords, from whom it passed by a coheiress to the Durants, and from them by an heiress to the Arundells of Trerice, from whom it is derived to Sir Thomas Dyke Acland of Killerton.

The church and tower are fine specimens of the style of architecture prevalent throughout the West of England. There are also several monuments; and Mr. Lysons quotes 17 from the register, the baptism and death of Elizabeth Cornish, who lived between these two dates, 113 years 4 months and 13 days. She was baptized in Oct. 1578, and was buried March the 10th, 1691.

The great tithes and the manor denominated Sanctuary, or Sentery, as was usual with such professions, belonged to the Priory of Launceston. After the dissolution of monasteries, this manor carrying with it the advowson of the vicarage, was annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall, with various other lands, in exchange for the honour and castle of Wallingford.

The great tithes were granted to the family of Wadder, but they have since been sold in parcels.

The place of most importance in this parish after the town, is Bude. This place has always given some shelter for boats, and afforded sand for manure. It has within about twenty years received most essential improvement. A pier or jetty has been built out into the sea, and a canal with inclined planes has been made for the conveyance of coal and merchandise into the country, and for bringing down slate and the produce of land; but above all, for supplying sand as a manure. The sand at this place consists entirely of powdered shells, as it does along the whole north coast of Cornwall, and it is found to be so efficacious for imparting fertility to clay lands, that it is frequently conveyed in wheel carriages to so great a distance from the coast, as to require the draft cattle remaining out a night.

The boats used on this coast are formed like boxes, having within each side a closed trough containing two wheels, which project a very little beyond the lower surface. These wheels are consequently no impediment to the boats floating on the water, but they enable them to ascend or to descend the inclined planes with the facility of other carriages. See a Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, by R. Fulton, 1 vol. 4to, London, 1796, p. 32, where this plan is suggested perhaps for the first time.

18 Bude is also become a place of resort for sea bathing; and several houses for the accommodation of strangers have been built by Sir Thomas Acland, so that it has acquired the well-known appellation of a watering place.

The Editor having omitted through inadvertence to notice in the adjoining parish of Launcels a gentleman one of the most respectable in the north-eastern part of Cornwall, hopes that he may be excused for inserting his name here.

Launcells House, a modern building on the spot where formerly stood the residence of the Chamonds, is the seat of George Boughton Kingdon, esq. respected by every one who has the honour of his acquaintance, for scientific and literary acquirements, and esteemed as a benefactor to his neighbourhood in the characters of a magistrate and of a worthy country gentleman.

An instance of longevity has been given in the parish of Stratton, and an occurrence has been stated to the Editor, which proves that Launcells participates in the general healthiness of that district.

It seems the identical six men who rang the bells in Launcells tower on the Coronation of King George the Third, rang them also on the day of his jubilee, having continued the parish ringers during all that time.

Their names are recorded in the parish, and may therefore be inserted here.

John Lyle, Henry Cadd, Richard Venning, John Ham, John Allin, Richard Hayman.

And of these, John Lyle rang at the accession of King George the Fourth, and of his present Majesty King William the Fourth, being then in his ninety-sixth year: but all are now gathered to their fathers.

And here, as appertaining more to the general character of the country than to any particular parish, in reference to the terrific cliffs which surround this coast, it may be proper to state a fact communicated by Mr. Kingdon; that, from actual measurement taken by himself, Hennacleve cliff on Westcot Down, in the parish of Moorwinstow, is 430 feet above the level of the beach.

19 Stratton measures 2300 statute acres.

giving an increase of 68 per cent in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Jacob Hawker, presented by the King as Prince of Wales in 1833.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish, like the adjoining one of Kilkhampton, is composed of compact and of schistose varieties of dunstone, occasionally interspersed with beds of calcareous schist and limestone.

TALLAND.

HALS.

Talland is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north Pelynt, east the haven or harbour of Looe, south the British Channel, west Lansallas.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the Jurisdiction and in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Talland 1294, was rated at £8. vicar ejusdem 40s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was not valued or named. The patronage is in ——; the incumbent ——; and the rectory in possession of ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, £156. 15s. But if the word Talland be compounded only of Ta-land, it signifies the good acceptable land.

20 West Looe, alias Porth-Vyan, Porth-Byan, alias Porth-Bichan or Porth-Bigan, or Pigan, all synonymous words in British, only varied by the dialect, which signifies the little gate, cove, creek, or entrance, according to the natural circumstances of the place, where daily the sea makes its flux and reflux some miles up into the land or country, through a narrow passage betwixt the parishes of St. Martin’s and Talland aforesaid, over which is a curious and strong stone bridge of about twelve arches, which as an artificial ligament fastens those parishes and the towns of East and West Looe together; which latter, by the name of Porth Byhan, was taxed as the voke lands of a privileged borough or manor in the Domesday Book as aforesaid, 1087, and still known by the name of Porth Byan or West Looe; and by this name all its privileges were confirmed, and the town incorporated 16th of Queen Elizabeth, by the name of the mayor and burgesses thereof, consisting of a mayor and twelve burgesses.

The members of Parliament are elected by the majority of freemen; and the precept from the Sheriff, or the writ for electing those members, as also for removal of an action at law depending in this court to a superior, must be thus directed:

Majori et Liberis Burgensibus Burgi sui de Porth Byan, alias West Looe, in comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.

And as a further testimony of its present grandeur, though I take it much inferior in riches and building to the late erected town of East Looe, it hath ever, and still stands as a noun substantive in the Exchequer, and was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of the borough of West Looe, £15. 13s. 1696. Whereas, the borough of Michell falls under the tax of Newlan and St. Enedor parishes; Bosinney or Trevena under Dundagell; and Camelford under Lantegles, in the Exchequer, without name or value.

This town is also privileged with a fair yearly, on 25th April, and markets weekly.

Seal of “Portuan otherwys called West Lo.”

The arms of this borough are, a soldier or man of war Proper, with a bow in one hand, and an arrow in the other. For the etymology of Looe, see East Looe.

This manor of borough of Porthbyan, as I am informed, was heretofore villanage tenure, and pertained to the Bodrigans.

In this town of West Looe, was born Charles Wager, as I am informed, son of —— Wager; who, being placed an apprentice at sea, grew so expert in navigation and the mathematics, that he became a great master in that art; and being after in the sea fight between Queen Anne and the French and Spaniards, he behaved himself so well in his valour and conduct, though to the loss of one of his arms, that by Queen Anne or King George he was afterwards knighted, and preferred, not only to the command of a third-rate frigate, but made Admiral of the Red Squadron of Men of War, for him and his son King George the Second, in the Baltic Sea and British Channel 1729.

In this parish stands the barton and manor of Killygarth. This lordship, tempore Edward III. was the lands of the Sergeaulxes, and particularly of Richard de Sergeaulx, who is mentioned in Mr. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 52, 25 Edward III. then to have held in 22 Cornwall, by the tenure of knight service, £20 per annum in lands and tenements. His son Sir Richard Sergeaulx, knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall, 12 Richard II. whose son Richard Sergeaulx held in Killygarth, Lanreth, and Lansulhas, three little knight’s fees of land of Morton, as also two fees and a half in Colquite, (idem librum, p. 42,) 3 Henry IV. (five knight’s fees was four thousand acres of land); who dying without issue male, his three daughters or sisters became his heirs, and were married to Seyntaubyn and Beare of Cornwall, and Marney of Essex, as I am informed; after whose decease, Beare became seised of this lordship, was married and had issue Thomas Beare, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 4th of Edward IV.; and William Beare, Sheriff of Cornwall, 6th of Edward IV. who gave the bear for his arms, the colours I know not.

This William Beare had issue only one daughter, married to Peter Bevill, a younger brother of John Bevill of Gwarnack, esq. who had issue by her, John Bevill, esq. that married Mileton of Pengersick; who by her had issue Sir William Bevill, knight, Sheriff of Cornwall, 31st of Elizabeth 1591, that married ——, but had no legitimate issue: so that his brother Philip’s daughter Elizabeth became his heir, and was married to Sir Bernard Grenvill of Stowe, knight, father of Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight, that sold this lordship of Killygarth to Killygrew, from whom it passed to Hallet, and from him to Kendall of Middlesex, now in possession thereof.

The arms of Bevill are Ermine, a bull passant Sable.

Hen-darsike in this parish is a contraction of Hen-dowers-ike, i. e. old, ancient cove, creek, lake, or bosom of waters, lands probably under such circumstances. It is the dwelling of John Morth, esq. that married —— Buller of Morvall; his father William Morth was Sheriff of Cornwall 2 William III.

This family in genteel degree hath flourished in this place for many generations, though I am not informed as to the particulars.

23 In this parish at Trenake is the dwelling of Thomas Achym, gent. which family hath flourished in those parts for many generations in genteel degree, and give for their Arms, in a field Argent a maunch mantail Sable, within a bordure of the First charged with cinquefoiles of the Second. If the name of Achym be a monosyllable, it signifies in British a descendant, issue, offspring, or progeny.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Talland is in the hundred of West, and is bounded to the west by Launcells, to the north by Pelynt, to the east by Looe river, and to the south by the British Channel.

This is a vicarage, not valued in the King’s Book; but in anno 1291, 20 Edward I. it was valued, the rectory (Tax. Benef.) at £8, it having been appropriated to Launceston Priory; and the vicarage at 40s. The patronage is in Archdeacon Kendall, and the incumbent Mr. Doidge.

Mr. Thomas Kendall had a younger brother, Colonel James Kendall, who was Governor of Barbadoes in ——, one of the lords of the Admiralty under Queen Anne, and a member of Parliament in several Parliaments: he died suddenly, unmarried, July the 10th, 1708, at his house in London, very rich, and left a natural son by Mrs. Colliton, who now goes by the name of Kendall.

Under Killygarth is Porth-Para, vulgo Polpera, id est, the sandy port. “A little to the eastwards,” saith Carew, (fol. 131 b.) “from Killygarth, the poor harbour and village of Polpera coucheth between two steep hills:” [from which circumstance, as I know of no word similar to para in the Cornish, and signifying sand in English, I might more aptly take the name to be (as Carew writes, and as usage sounds it) pol-pera, pol-poran, the close or strait pool. But the fact is, that the name is purely English, with a Cornish pronunciation. “By est, the haven of Fowey upon a iiii miles of,” says Leland, Itin. vii. 121), “ys a smawle creke cawled Paul Pier, and a symple and poore village upon the est side of the same, of 24 fisharmen, and the bootes ther fishing by [be] saved by a Peere or key. In the est side of this Paul Pirre,” &c. And since the cove is still written as Leland first writes it, “Paul Pier” (See Borlase’s map) so is it obviously allusive to the “Pier or Key,” which he mentions at it. W.] where plenty of fish is vented to the fish-drivers, whom we call “jowters” [men who jolt about with horses and panniers to sell fish]. And between this and the church is Porth Talland.

The manor by the name of Tallan, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. is valued in six. (Carew, fol. 49.) [Here let me just note what Mr. Tonkin has omitted, the etymology of the name of the parish, and of the manor. Written originally Tallan, and gaining only the final T. by vicious pronunciation, the manor and the parish derive their name apparently from the church; and this takes its appellation from its site, I apprehend, being seated upon the high bold shore of the channel, and so being called Tal-Lan, the high church or the church upon a high position; just as Tal-ar (C.) signifies a high land or headland, and as a high rock in St. Allen is called Tal-Carne. W.] Of the ancient lords of which manor I shall give a full account on the other side [see towards the end]; and only take notice here, that within it, and

Next is the church. Near this the family of Murth hath long dwelt. “In the same parish where Killingworth is seated,” saith Carew, (fol. 131), “Master Murth inheriteth a house and demaynes: hee maried Treffry: his father Tregose. One of their ancestors, within the memory of a next neighbour to the house called Prake (burdened with a hundred and ten yeeres of age), entertained a British [a Bréton] miller; as that people, for such idle occupations, prove more handie than our owne. But this fellow’s service befell commodious in the worst sense. For when, not long after his acceptance, warres grew between us and France, he stealeth over into his country, returneth privily backe againe with a French crew, surpriseth suddenly his 25 master and his guests at a Christmas supper, carrieth them speedily unto Lantreghey,” [or the church town in Bretagne] “and forceth the gentleman to redeeme his inlargement with a sale of a great part of his revenues.”

The present owner is Jeffry Murth, esq. who is a Justice of the Peace, and a very honest good-natured gentleman: he is married to the daughter of John Oxenham, of Oxenham in Devon, esq. His father, John Murth, esq. married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Buller, of Morval, esq. Arms of Murth, Sable, a chevron between three falcon’s legs erased, with bells, Or.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Bond has given so good and ample an account of this parish in his Topographical and Historical Sketches of East and West Looe, 1 vol. 8vo. printed by Nichols, 25, Parliament Street, Westminster, 1823, that the whole which is addative to Hals and Tonkin, is here inserted.

West Looe is situated in the parish of Talland, within which parish is a hamlet called Lemain, and part of West Looe lies in this hamlet. On the barton of Portlooe in the parish of Talland, just opposite Looe Island, was a cell of Benedictine Monks, called Lammana, subject to the Abbey of Glastonbury, to which the site appears to have been given by the ancestors of Hastulus de Solenny; there are some remains of the chapel still in existence.

I measured this chapel on the 13th of April 1815, and found it, within the walls, about forty-seven feet long by twenty-four wide. About three or four hundred yards to the eastward of the chapel are the remains of some antient building, perhaps that in which the monks dwelt. The remains of the eastern end wall thereof, at present eight or ten feet high, have two very narrow windows or openings, still in being. The situation of this chapel and house is very pleasant; they lie in a sort of natural amphitheatre, sheltered from the north winds by high land.

26 In Hearne’s Appendix to Adam de Domerham, is a grant of Hastulus de Solenny, confirming the Island of St. Michael de Lammana (most probably that of St. George opposite Looe) to the Monks of Glastonbury; a grant of Roger Fitzwilliam quitting claim to the lands of Lammana, which he held for life under the Church of Glastonbury (reserving the house which Mabil his sister occupied), and one of Richard Earl of Cornwall, granting the Monks a licence to farm out the church, and the Island of Lammana. It appears that Abbat Michael, about the middle of the thirteenth century, leased it to the Sacristary of the Convent. The Free Chapel of La Mayne in Cornwall, was granted to Edward Bostock, 5th Jac.—Lysons’s Mag. Brit.

Two of the grants noticed by Mr. Lysons, are printed in the New Edition of Dugdale’s Monasticon.

Carta Hastuli filii Johannis de Soleneio.

Universis Christi fidelibus, ad quos præsens scriptum pervenerit, Hastulus filius Johannis de Solenneio, salutem in Domino. Universitati vestræ notificetur, quod Ego Hastulus filius Johannis de Solenneio concessi, et præsenti carta confirmavi, Deo et ecclesiæ beatæ Virginis Mariæ Glaston. et ejusdem loci conventui, totam Insulam Sancti Michaelis de Lammana, cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, et terris, et decimis, quam ab antiquo, dono prædecessorum meorum, tenent; ut in omnibus, tam libere, et quiete, et honorifice, ab omni servitio sæculari et exactione servili, ipsam possideant, integre, plenarie, et pacifice, in planis et pascuis, et in omnibus consuetudinibus liberis, sicut Ego melius et liberius terram meam in dominiis meis possideo, et ut omnia pecora sua cum meis ubique pascantur. Concedo etiam eis plenarie decimas dominii mei omnes de Portlo, et ut jura, libertates et consuetudines, sicut ego in mea curia, ita ipsi in sua curia habeant. Prohibeo siquidem, ne aliquis ex ballivis vel servientibus meis, illis quacumque occasione aliquam molestiam inferant; vel 27 sæculare servitium ab eisdem exigere præsumant, unde fratres mei, Monachi Glastonienses, in prefato loco Lammana Deo servientes, ab eisdem famulatu, ullatenus præpediantur. Si quis autem huic concessioni meæ fidem et effectum adhibuerit, a pio Judice mercedem condignam inveniat. Qui vero eam in irritum ducere præsumpsit, deleat eum Deus de libro vitæ, et cum Juda proditore sine fine pœnas exolvat. Ne igitur facti mei tenor vacillet in dubio, præsentis scripti paginam sigilli mei appositione roboravi. His testibus,

Helya, tunc ejusdem Priore, et ejus socio Monacho Johanne —Henrico filio Milonis —Willelmo Milite —Grimbaldo —Roberto Clerico —Jordano Decano —Angero de Surtecote —Jocelino Milite fratre ejus —Gervasio Capelleno de Sancto —Marco —Rogero Ruffo —Rogero Cileintenat —Willelmo filio Roberti —et multis aliis.

Carta Ricardi Comitis Cornubiæ.

Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos præsens scriptum pervenerit, nobilis vir Ricardus Comes Cornubiæ salutem in Domino. Noveritis nos, pro salute nostra, et hæredum et successorum nostrorum, remisisse et quieta clamasse in perpetuum pro nobis, heredibus et successoribus nostris, viris religiosis, Abbati et conventui Glaston. ac Ecclesiæ ejusdem loci, Hospitia cum arreragiis, sectas comitatum, schire hundredorum, et curias de factum, et omnes alias sectas et consuetudines quæ ad nos et hæredes et successores nostros alicujus jure pertinebant seu pertinere poterant, de terris et possessionibus suis de Lammena, cum pertinentiis, videlicet —pro x solidis sterlingorum annuatim solvendis senescallo nostro vel ballivo Cornubiæ apud castrum de Lanstavetone ad festum sancti Michaelis. Concessimus etiam, in puram et perpetuam elemosinam, dictis Abbati et conventui ecclesiæ Glaston, pro nobis et hæredibus et successoribus nostris imperpetuum, plenam licentiam et liberam potestatem ponendi Ecclesiam et insulam 28 de Lammana, præfatas ecclesias, terras et possessiones ejusdem loci cum pertinentiis, ad firmam alienandi. Insuper eas, si voluerint, vel aliter de eisdem, pro ipsorum bene placitodis ponendi, sine aliqua contradictione, exactione vel impedimento nostri vel hæredum aut successorum nostrorum.

Et ut hæc nostra remissio, quieta clamantia, et concessio rata sit et in posterum perseveret, huic scripto sigillum apposuimus. His testibus, Dominis Ricardo de Latur, Willelmo Talebot, Petro Gandi, Olivero de Aspervile, Petro de la Mare, militibus, Johanne de Latur, Ricardo Basset, et aliis.

MIDMAIN ROCK.—PORTNADLER BAY.

Between the main land and Looe Island stands a rock, higher than the surrounding ones, which is called Midmain or Magmain. Small vessels frequently pass between the island and the main land, when the tide is in. An imaginary line drawn from Looe Island westward, to a high rock called horestone or orestone, about a mile distant, would form the outer boundary of a piece of water called Portnadler Bay; from whence the name is derived I know not.

CORPORATION.

Queen Elizabeth incorporated West Looe 14th February 1574, in the sixteenth year of her reign, by the name of Mayor and Burgesses of the Borough of Portbyhan, otherwise West Looe, in the county of Cornwall. Twelve chief burgesses were appointed by this charter. The mayor is elected from the Chief Burgesses, by their votes and the votes of the Free Burgesses, on Michaelmas-day annually, between nine and twelve of the clock in the forenoon, and then sworn into office. The mayor is also a Justice of the Peace, as is likewise the steward. The mayor has no power 29 to appoint a deputy. The steward, however, has such an authority; but his deputy is not a Justice of the Peace.

WEST LOOE DOWN.—GIANT’S HEDGE OR MOUND.

Just above the houses (the intermediate space filled up with gardens and orchards) is a common or down, called West Looe Down, of near a hundred acres, on which are the remains of a mound of earth that runs many miles across the country, and is noticed by Borlase, who, from its extent and other circumstances, supposed it to be a Roman work. His account of it as follows: “That the Romans had ways in the eastern parts of the county about Loo and Lostwithiel, the following antient work, shewn me by the Rev. Mr. Howell, Rector of Lanreath (June 25 and 26, 1756), will abundantly confirm. It is called the Giant’s Hedge, a large mound, which reaches from the valley in which the Boroughs of East and West Looe are situated, to Leryn, on the river Fowey. It is first visible on West Looe Down, about two hundred paces above the Mills; whence it runs to Kilminarth Woods; from and through them to Trelawn Wood, about three hundred paces above Trelawn Mill; then through Little Larnick to the barton of Hall, in which there are two circular encampments, about four hundred paces to the north of it; thence quite through the said barton, making the northern boundary of fields to the glebe of Pelynt Vicarage, called Furze Park; then cross the barton of Tregarrick; and thence, through the north grounds of Tresassen and Polventon, to the glebe lands of the rectory of Lanreath, where I measured it seven feet high and twenty feet wide at a medium; thence it stretches through the tenement of Wyllacombe to Trebant Water; whence it proceeds, through the barton of Longunnet and some small tenements, to Leryn; from which there is a fair dry down, called St. Winnow Down, leading north along to Lostwithiel. This risbank, or mound, ranges up hill and down 30 hill indifferently; has no visible ditch continued on any brow of a hill, as intrenchments always have; there is no hollow, or foss, on one side more than the other; it is about seven miles long, and tends straight from Looe to Leryn Creek, in the direct line from Looe to Lostwithiel. By all these properties, its height and breadth, in wanting the fosses of fortification, its straightness and length, the grandeur of the design, and the labour of execution, I judge that it can be nothing less than a Roman work. In this supposition I am the more confirmed, first, because several Roman coins have been found on the banks of Fowey river (as see “Antiquities of Cornwall,” p. 282), and, as I have been informed, also in the run of this notable work; secondly, by its tendency to the first ford over the navigable river of Fowey; for it must be observed that the Romans, thoroughly sensible of the delays and hazards of crossing friths and arms of the sea, and the danger of bridges getting into the possession of the natives, were equally averse both to bridges and passing large rivers; they had therefore in constant view the nearest and most commodious fords of rivers, and directed their roads accordingly. Now near Leryn Creek, where the work ends, there is a ford, and no where below is the river Fowey fordable; which plainly accounts for their conveying this road so high up the country, that it might at once convey their troops towards their station at Lostwithiel, and afford them a safe passage over the river Fowey into the western parts, through Grampont and Truro.”

Borlase also, in his Natural History, says, “There are the remains of a causey between Liskeard and Looe, near Polgover, the seat of Mr. Mayow, which, as well as the cross road from Dulo to Hessenford, vulgar tradition makes to be Roman.” This causey I have never been able to find out.

The above-mentioned mound is first visible directly above Looe bridge; so that, if a line was drawn west, as 31 the bridge tends, it would come to it at the head of a field called Bridgend meadow, where a small orchard is planted. There is a very visible ditch all along West Looe Down to the north of the rampart. On the barton of Hall, however, the ditch is to the south of the rampart. This rampart on the barton of Hall is at least fifteen feet high and about twenty feet thick at the base. About four hundred paces north of it, as Borlase says, there are two apparently (though not perfectly, as I was informed by Captain Dawson, who assisted in taking the Trigonometrical Survey, under Colonel Mudge) circular encampments, situated in a field called Berry Park. Berry Park contains about eighteen acres, and may be termed a tongue of land. It has a valley on each side, and also at the bottom. Across the isthmus, if I may so term it, of this tongue of land, runs the mound, protecting that part of the field which the valleys do not extend to. The circles (or rings, as they are now called by the tenant) consist of one entire circle of about 122 paces diameter, surrounded with a rampart, ditch, and breast-work; the height of which rampart, from the bottom of the ditch, is, I imagine, upwards of fifteen feet, and must originally have been much higher. This circle has but one gateway into it, which is guarded by mounds without ditches, running upwards of fifty feet into the circle. The part of this circle where the gateway is, is surrounded by about three fourths of another circle, whose sweep, had it been continued, would have intersected the inner circle; but the southern part of this outermost circle, when it comes within twenty or thirty feet of the inner, falls into the segment of another circle, which runs parallel to the inner circle, leaving a platform of about fifty feet breadth between the two ditches, and surrounding about a third part of the inner circle. From the gateway of the inner to the opposite point of the outward circle, is about 144 paces, which may be about three fourths of the diameter. The outer circle has a similar rampart, ditch, and breast-work with the inner circle, and one gateway, 32 which is not quite opposite that of the former. These circles command very fine prospects both of land and sea. Rame Head and the entrance into Plymouth are visible from Berry Park. You can see these circles from Bindown Hill with the naked eye; and from the elevation of that hill you look down on them so as to see their areas.

In a field a short distance south-west of Pelynt church-town, and about half a mile in a direct line from the said circles, are many barrows. The field in which they are, is I believe, called the The Five Barrows. At the bottom of this field is a highway, leading from Pelynt Church-town to the Fowey road. In this highway, just at the bottom of the said field, a few years since, a grave was discovered by some men mending the highway. It was formed by four stones on their edges, and a covering stone. In this kestvaen was an urn, with burnt ashes in it; and round the urn were piled, in a regular manner, the unburnt remains of human bones. I went to Pelynt purposely to see this curiosity, but found the grave had been filled up, and its contents buried. The urn was described to me by a man who saw it as having ornaments of flowers and leaves on its outside, and that it fell into sheards when touched. I could not learn that any coin or other thing was found in the urn or grave; indeed, I fancy there was a lack of curiosity in all concerned.

Part of the mound on West Looe Down has been from time to time dug down, to obtain earth for building and plastering. I have several times desired the labourers, in case of their finding any coin or other thing curious, to preserve it; but have never heard of any thing being found of late years. A celt (commonly called in this neighbourhood a thunderbolt[2]) was some years ago found on this Down; and it was given by the late Mr. Bawden, of Looe, 33 to Mr. James, of St. Kevern. I have a celt, made of a hard black stone, which was found in pulling down an old house at East Looe a few years since; it is between six and seven inches long, and very perfect. I lately saw some like it in shape and stone, but not so large, in the British Museum.

I also remember seeing a celt that was found, about thirty years ago, at Kilminarth, near the ruin of the said mound: about which time a gold chain and several instruments of brass were found in a decayed hedge, or side of a highway, near Little Larnic, by an apprentice girl. Her mistress described them to me as being somewhat like hatchets, and said “she believed they were things which the warriors used in antient times.” I applied to the mistress, in hopes of getting a sight of them; but her apprentice had sold them to a buyer of old brass. The hedge formed one side of the high road, not far from the said mound. The apprentice told me that the gold chain was about a foot and a half in length —that when she found it, not thinking it was gold, she tied it to the end of a stick, and made a sort of whip of it to drive home the cows. She some time after discovered that it was gold, and kept it by her for several years, when she gave it to her brother, who sold it to a Mr. Patrick, a jeweller at Dock, for three pounds. The brother told me that Mr. Patrick said it was Corsican gold; and he (the brother) also told me that he well remembered the brass instruments, and that some of them were like the tops of spontoons.

POLVELLAN.

On West Looe Down the late John Lemon, esq. (M.P. for Truro, and who died April 5, 1814), about the year 1787 erected a small but extremely neat house in the cottage style, and inclosed some ground round it by virtue of a grant from the Corporation. He gave it the name of Polvellan, and laid it out with great taste. Pol, in Cornish, 34 signifies a Pool, and Vellan a Mill; and below the house are a mill and pool, inclosed by a stone wall of about half a mile sweep, in a circular direction. I cannot describe the contrivance and use of this pool better than in the words of Mr. Carew, in his “Survey of Cornwall.”—“Amongst other commodities afforded by the sea, the inhabitants make use of divers his creekes for grist mills, by thwarting a banke from side to side, in which a flood-gate is placed, with two leaves; these the flowing tide openeth, and, after full sea, the weight of the ebb closeth fast, which no other force can doe; and so the imprisoned water payeth the ransome of driving an under shoote wheel for his enlargement.” I apprehend the mill and pool-wall were built by one of the Arundells of Tremodart, in Duloe parish. The wall is about six or eight feet high, and almost broad enough for a coach to pass over it, and must have cost a great deal of money. It appears by a deed which I have seen, that the Mayor and Burgesses of West Looe, on the 30th of May, in the twelfth year of the reign of James the First (1614), granted all that parcel, quantity of ground, oze, or water, now surrounded by the said mill-pool-wall, to Thomas Arundell, of Tremodart, in the parish of Duloe, esq. for 500 years, from thence next ensuing; that afterwards the said Thomas Arundell built a mill-house, and four grist-mills, and other houses, and also the mill-pool-wall. On November 3, 1648, the said Thomas Arundell made his will; and I believe the mills and mill-pool-wall were built by him before he made his will. Afterwards this term in these premises were assigned over by the Arundells (father and son) and one Drew (perhaps a mortgagee) to Sir Jonathan Trelawny, for the remainder of the said term. I am apprehensive, however, that there was a mill at this place previous to the aforesaid grant.

INCLOSURE OF THE DOWN DESIRABLE.

It is much to be regretted that West Looe Down is not wholly inclosed; the soil is very good, as is apparent from 35 the fine state of the grounds of Polvellan. The Looes being bounded by the sea on one side, and by rivers and woods on the other, arable land is much wanted. The objection raised against this inclosure is, that the poor of West Looe would be deprived of gathering furze and fern for firing. But does not the labour wasted and cloaths worn out in gathering this fuel more than counteract the gain? If an inclosure were to be made, in a year or two the hedges would produce greater quantity and more substantial fuel than can now be obtained. The Down belongs to the Corporation; but various tenants of houses and fields claim a right of putting what is called Breaths (cattle), some more, some less, to depasture on it. To such as are entitled to put breaths on this, common allotments should be made in proportion to the number of breaths they are entitled to; and an allotment to the poor might be made in lieu of their claim (if it is a legal one) to take furze and ferns for firing. The many advantages which would arise to the poor in particular from an inclosure, should be considered. Exclusive of the numerous productions which would follow, labour would be demanded, hedges must be made, manure procured, land ploughed, corn tilled, cut, &c. &c. &c. Milk, potatoes, &c. &c. would be obtained at a much more moderate price than at present; and, no doubt, the poor rate would soon find the beneficial effect of an inclosure. In short, the advantages arising herefrom would be very great; and I sincerely hope the prejudices of the interested will soon be done away, and that the commoners will get an Inclosure Act passed. Formerly the Corporation used to let out certain parts of this Down for tillage. There are several memorandums of such lets in the Town Books. In 1621 that part of West Looe Down which lieth on the west part of the Homer Well, was let to rent, for two crops, at 6s. 8d. per acre.

36 TRADE.

Formerly a pretty considerable trade was carried on at Looe, and many ships belonging to this port used to go from thence to France, Spain, and up the Straits, &c.

Even so late as the beginning of the last century there were several ships kept here, principally employed in foreign voyages; but, for seventy or eighty years last past, few, if any, have been so employed.

Tallan Church is most romantic in its situation; it contains a curious monument to one of the Bevilles. Polbenro, divided between this parish and Lansallos, affords picturesque scenery superior to any on the southern coast of Cornwall; and the whole road from Fowey to Looe, by Polruan, Lansallas, Polperro, and Talland, will amply compensate the fatigue of climbing hills, and descending into deep vales, by the singular and striking prospects varied at every point.

The manor of Killigarth belonged at an early period to the family of Kilgat, evidently implying some relation between the names.

Kilmenawth, or Kilmenorth, formed a part of the large possessions belonging to Lord Chief Justice Trevilian, who was murdered under some forms of law in the year 1388, the 11th year of Richard the Second. This place was the residence of Admiral Sir Charles Wager.

The hamlet of Lemain or Lammana, which seems to have included a considerable portion of the parish with the island, must have been of importance, since a record exists, which states a division of the monastic property of Glastonbury, between the bishop and his chapter on one part, and the monks on the other, when about the year 1200, Pope Innocent the Third removed the see of Wells to that place.

The words are, “De Prioratibus quoque ad Glastoniensem Ecclesiam pertinentibus, ita ordinatum est. Ut 37 Prioratus de Hibernia ad ordinationem Episcopi, Prioratus vero de Basselake, et de Lamana ad ordinationem conventus pertineant.”

Portlooe appears to have been the principal estate of the hamlet, but no traditions are extant about its antiquity. It belonged about the middle of the last century to Mr. John Hoskins of East Looe, probably by purchase; he left an only daughter, who married first Mr. Edward Buller, a brother of the Judge, This gentleman had been educated in Holland according to the customs of those times, with a view to trade, which however he never pursued, but settled on his wife’s barton of Portlooe, and died there, leaving several children. Mrs. Buller, nevertheless, married secondly Mr. Thomas Escott, an officer in the Cornwall Militia.

The island has probably passed through different hands since the dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey. It recently belonged to the family of Mayow, by whom it was sold for a very trifling consideration, to Sir William Trelawny, afterwards Governor of Jamaica.

Pel-Vellan, (the Mill Pool,) created and named by the late Colonel John Leman, is an exquisite specimen of that gentleman’s taste. The editor remembers it a wild uncultivated uninclosed common, adjacent to the tide Mill. About twenty years after the commencement of decorations, he placed the following inscription where a rill of water formed a small cascade under the shelter of some shrubs, and of three or four trees which had stood on the Down.

Mr. Bond has given a detailed history of Admiral Sir Charles Wager, pages 165 to 173.

38 The Admiral represented West Looe in Parliament, and resided in the parish, but Mr. Bond has not been able to collect any traces of his birth, either from tradition or from records. There is a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, with a long and appropriate inscription.

The barton and manor of Kyllygarth, including a division of Polperro, are within this parish. The great tithes and the advowson belong to the family of Kendall.

Talland measures 2208 statute acres.

giving an increase on the parish of 10½ per cent., on West Looe 57 per cent., on both together of 26 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. N. Kendall, instituted in 1806: he is also the patron. The net income of the vicarage in 1831 was £110. The impropriator of the great tithes is J. Graves, esq.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of Lansallos and Lanteglos near Fowey.

[2] The common people believe these celts to be produced by thunder, and thrown down from the clouds; and that they shew what weather will ensue by changing their colour.

TAMARTON.

HALS.

Tamarton vicarage, alias North Tamarton, is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon the north, part of Whitson; south, part of Devon and Boyton; east, the Tamar river, from whence it hath its denomination Tamarton, that is to say, the town situate upon the Tamar river; which river on the Devonshire side gives also name to Tamarton Decenna, or hundred there, as also to Tamarton vicarage parish, and Tamarton chapel, situate on the banks of that famous river; as also Stoke Damarell vicarage and parish. For Stoke Tamar-oll parish; that is to say, Stoke chapel or college in Cornish British, in Devon; and for the etymology of the word Tamar, see my Cornish Vocabulary, and Liber I. Chap. III.

This is the ταμαρα ποταμος, the Tamara Potamos, mentioned by Ptolomy the Greek geographer 1500 years past; that is to say Tamar fluvius, flumen, amnis fluentum, the Tamar river, in the province of the Cornavy, for Cornubia, or Danmonij.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was then taxed under the name and jurisdiction of Hornacott, i. e. iron cot or house, so called from Hornacott free chapel then extant there, and for aught I hear yet standing. The present church of Tamarton is either of late erection or endowment, since it is not mentioned in either of the inquisitions as to its value of First Fruits, unless it passed as a daughter church to some other, or was wholly impropriated. The parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, at £48. 16s. 4d. The manor of Tamarton was formerly the lands of Walesbury, by whose heir it passed to Trevillian of Somerset, now in possession thereof, as I am informed.

40 Upon the bastard King Athelstan’s victory over the Cornish Britons, Anno Dom. 930; and dismembering from that regniculum the district of Devon, and confining their dominion only to the west side of the river Tamar, the Saxon poets triumphed in verse, one of which hath those words of this division.

Hinc Anglos, illic cernit Tamara Britannos, i. e. on this side Tamar beholds the English, on the other the Britons.

TONKIN.

Tamarton is in the hundred of Stratton, and has to the west St. Mary Wike, to the north Whitstone, to the east part of Devonshire and the river Tamar, to the south Boyton.

As for the name, it took it from the old Roman Tamara [which however did not stand here, but at Saltash, a long way below. W.]; as that did from the river Tamar, turned into the English termination, to signify a town on the river Tamar.

It is not valued in the King’s Book, but in the Taxatio Benefic. anno 1291, 20 Edward I. this church, by the name of Capella de Tamerton, is valued at 46s. 8d. and was formerly appropriated to ——.

It is now a rectory, being endowed by the endeavours of the present incumbent Mr. John Bennet; who, and his successors for ever, are to pay a fee-farm rent to the crown of £6. 13s. 4d. out of the sheaf; the patronage being alternately in Henry Rolle of Stephenton, and Richard Coffin of Portledge, both in Devon, esquires. [The sheaf then appears to have belonged to the Crown, and had been set by the Crown, at £6. 13s. 4d. to its lessees the patrons. The chapel was therefore inserted as a mere curacy in the last Valor, but has been now endowed by the lessees giving up their lease to it, and so improving their own patronage. W.]

41 THE MANOR OF TAMARTON.

This, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, fol. 48), is valued in eight. In 3 Henry IV. (id. fol. 40 b.) Halvethas Malivery held half of a knight’s fee here.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons gives the descents of property in this parish. He says the manor of North Tamarton was given by Roger de Valletort to Richard Earl of Cornwall, and that Roger Earl of Cornwall gave it to Gervase de Harningate. It was afterwards in the Carminows. In 1620 it belonged to Tristram Arscott, esq. and afterwards to the Rolles, of whom it was purchased by the late Sir John Call of Whiteford.

The manor of Hornacot or Horningcote belonged at an early period to a family of that name; in 1620 it was possessed by Sir Charles Howard, in right of his wife, the daughter of Sir John Fitz of Fitzford near Tavistock, and was afterwards in the Courtenays; and finally passed from them by purchase to the late Mr. George Browne of Bodmin.

Ogbere, called by Norden Ugbere, was in his time the seat of William Lovice, and had been the residence of Leonard Lovice, probably the father or grandfather of William, and is stated, by a monumental inscription still extant in the church, to have been Receiver-general of the Duchy Revenues for Queen Elizabeth.

Vacye, in remote times the seat of a family bearing the same name, is now the residence of George Call, esq. younger son of the late Sir John Call.

This parish contains besides the church town three small villages called Alvacot, Headon, and Venton.

Tamarton measures 4788 statute acres.

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

Present incumbent, the Rev. C. P. Coffin, instituted in 1813.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The geological structure of this parish is the same as that of Boyton.

ST. TEATH.

HALS.

St. Teath is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Dundagell, south-east Michaelstow and Lantegles, west the Irish Sea, or Trevelga, south-west St. Kewe and St. Udye.

As for the name, if St. Eata, alias St. Eatah, be the tutelar guardian of this church, note that he was a Briton of Wales by birth, and Bishop of Lindisfarne, predecessor of St. Cuthbert 678, who was translated from thence to the diocese of Hexham, by the Latins called Axelodunum; by Bede, Hagulstadiensis, and by us Hexhamshire, in Yorkshire or Northumberland. He was succeeded by ten other Bishops, who enjoyed his chair, till by reason of the Danish depredations it was annexed to York, and made the see of the Archbishopric, and had the reputation of a county palatine; but discontinued by the statute of 37th Henry VIII. 43 chap. 16, and annexed to the county of Northumberland. In this see St. Etha sat six years after his translation to Hexhamshire, as Bede saith, but two as others; and was buried in his Cathedral Church there.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Dundagell. At the time of the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, this Church was not endowed, if extant. The parish is rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, £156. 8s.

Bodanan, in this parish, was the lands of that old British family of gentlemen surnamed de Cheiney, so called from Cheynoy in St. Endellyan; of which place, name, and family was John de Cheyney, Sheriff of Cornwall, the 5th and 6th of Edward I. 1280. Ralph de Cheyney, his son or grandson, had £20 lands and upwards in Cornwall, held by the tenure of knight’s service 24th of Edward III. Survey of Cornwall, p. 51. Robert de Cheyney, probably his son, held also by the tenure of knight’s service in this place, the fourth part of a knight’s fee of land 3 Henry IV. idem liber, p. 42; whose son William Cheyney, Esq. married the daughter and heir of [Stretch] in Devon, lord of Pinhoe, and made it the place of his residence, and accordingly was made Sheriff of Devon 11 Henry IV. 1410; John Cheyney, his son, was Sheriff of Devon 22 Henry VI. 1444; John Cheyney, his son, was Sheriff of Devon 1 Edward IV. 1480; John Cheyney, his son, was Sheriff of Devon 12 Edward IV. 1472.

In this Church are to be seen the gravestones of some of those gentlemen interred here, and in the same, and the glass window of this Church, the arms of those gentlemen, viz. in a field Gules, on a fess of four lozenges Argent, as many escallops Sable; in memory, as tradition saith, that one of their ancestors, going into the Holy Land and War with King Richard or King Edward I. carried such shells with him for taking water to drink in the hotter clime of Asia.

44 Sir John Cheyney of this family was chosen Speaker of the Parliament 6 Henry IV. called indoctum Parliamentum, or Parliamentum indoctorum; so called, for that in the writ of summons there was a clause no lawyer should be chosen therein. Sir John Cheyney was also Speaker of the House of Commons 1 Henry IV. and styled not only Parlour, but Procurator, de les Commons. Hakewell’s Catalogue of the Speakers, p. 202.

TONKIN.

St. Teath is in the hundred of Trig, is bounded to the west by Endellian and St. Kew, to the north by the sea and Tintagell, to the east by Lanteglos and Michaelstow, to the south by St. Tudy.

I take St. Tathius to be the tutelar saint of this parish, of whom Mr. Camden saith, (Brit. in Monmouthshire,) that he was a British saint, who governed an academy at Caer Went, and also founded a church there in the reign of King Kradock ap Ynir, circa an. Dom. ——.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £12.; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the impropriation of the sheaf in the heirs of the late Matthew Beale, Esq.; the incumbent ——.

In the Taxatio Benef. an. 1291, 19 or 20 Edward I. is this note, Thechd, which, if meant for St. Teath, then it is valued, “Prebend’ Mag’ri Osberti iiijl. xs.; Prebend’ Mag’ri W. de Wymondesham iiijl. xs.; Vicar’ ejusdem xxs.”

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons gives in this parish, as in every other, the descents and sales of lands.

The manor of Tregordock, formerly in the Mohuns, passed in the general purchase to Mr. Pitt.

Mr. Agar, the Molesworth family, and Mr. Sandys of St. Minver, have lands in this parish; and Mr. Trevanion, 45 of Carhayes, possesses in this parish either the whole or a part of Drillavale or Dinnavale quarry, producing the finest and most durable roofing slate of all that district; and said by Bishop Watson, in his Chemistry, to be the very best in England.

Treveares was for a long time the residence of a family which began to rise about a century ago into considerable opulence. Mr. Phillipps, of this place, settled as an attorney in Camelford; and availing himself of the valuable privileges possessed by that place, acquired a fortune. He had three sons. The eldest son, Charles Phillipps, married one of the coheiresses of the Longs of Penhele, and, not having any family, transmitted her ample fortune to his brother; he represented Camelford in Parliament, and was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cornwall Militia. The second son, Jonathan Phillipps, originally a surgeon in the navy, married the coheiress of the Amys of Botreaux Castle, and through them of the Cottons, and also of the Gilberts of Tacbear; this gentleman had several children, but survived them all. He was knighted on the celebrated occasion of Margaret Nicholson.

The third brother, William Phillipps, a clergyman, never married.

They had one sister, who married Mr. Carpenter, of Tavistock; and her descendants are possessed of nearly the whole of the Phillipps property.

This farm, however, was demised by Mr. William Phillipps to his relation Mr. William Dinham.

It would be improper not to mention, that Captain William Bligh was a native of this parish, who commanded the Bounty in the unfortunate expedition to procure plants of the Bread-fruit tree (Artocarpus) from the South Sea Islands in the years 1789 and 1790; but which object he effected in a second voyage, and afterwards received the appointment of Governor of New Holland.

There does not appear to be any remains of the College or habitation appropriated to the Canons, who from receiving 46 certain shares of the tithe for their maintenance, were sometimes called Portionists. The Church is conjectured to have been built in the reign of Henry the Seventh, from the circumstances of his arms appearing there in a manner to denote them coeval with the fabric.

There are several monuments, and among them one to Mr. William Phillipps, probably father of the gentleman who removed to Camelford as an attorney, and grandfather to the three brothers mentioned above. He is stated to have been of Treveans, and to have died on the 12th of April 1712, in the 62d year of his age. The turnpike road leading from St. Columb by Wade Bridge and Camelford to Launceston, nearly surrounds this Church. It was for some years the great line of communication to the west of Cornwall, till in 1767 a commencement was made on a more direct line over Tregoss Moors on one side of Bodmin, and Temple Moors on the other. This road so entirely superseded the former as to cause an entire loss of capital to those who contributed towards making it; and the road itself fell back into a state of repair inferior to that of most parish roads. It has, however, recently been taken up as a new concern, and in 1835 a stage coach has been established on it.

The Editor has heard from the Rev. William Phillipps, who died in 1794, that the making of this road was taken up as a matter of patriotism; and that to assist the undertaking, he cut with his own hands the figures on the granite mile stones, which still remain.

The entry of this parish, in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, mm is thus:

“Sech (and in a note, Eccƚia S[~c]e Thete) taxat’ ut sequitur.

St. Teath measures 4,721 statute acres.

giving an increase of 40½ per cent. in 30 years.

It is not improbable but that the 8 printed in the place of hundred, under the return of 1811, should have been a 9.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Joseph Fayrer, collated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1830.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is situated on rocks belonging to the calcareous series. On the eastern boundary, however, near the church, the slate is nearly connected with the porphyritic series; here at Treburget is a lead mine in a blue pyrituous slate; the lodes run north-east and south-west, varying from two feet to five feet in thickness. The matrix of the ores consists of angular pieces of slate like fragments cemented by quartz, in which galena, blend, iron pyrites, and spathous iron occur.

Proceeding northward, this lamillar blue slate is succeeded by a shining talcose slate; and at Rediver Mills on the road to Port Isaac, a hard compact rock is quarried for the roads, which contains veins of magnesian minerals; this rock occurs on the side of a steep round-backed hill; and those circumstances, combined with the talcose slate, render it probable that magnesian rocks may exist in the neighbourhood. These rocks are succeeded by slate traversed by veins of antimony, similar to what occurs in Endellion.

TEMPLE.

HALS.

Temple is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Brewar, south part of Cardenham and Warliggan, west Blisland, east part of St. Neot and Altarnun. As for the name, it is derived from the Latin Templum, and signifies amongst Christians, a church, chapel, or temple for performing Divine Service or worship to God, by contemplation or action of body or mind.

But here, in a more especial manner so called for, that this church or chapel was a cell or temple pertaining to the great master of the Knights Templars of Jerusalem, under its superior in the Middle Temple of London, now the lawyers’ Inn, where was their chief manor or commandery. This religious fraternity took an oath of confederacy, for aiding and assisting all persons, pilgrims, and strangers, that intended by way of Joppa to visit Jerusalem and the sepulchre of our Saviour; who, for that by licence of the abbot of a church there called the Temple, in which they had their seats (as is now used in our churches), they were from thence called Templars.

This district now in Cornwall, consisting only of eight tenements of land, and about thirty human souls, in the Domesday Book 1087, was taxed under the jurisdiction of Nietstone, still contiguous therewith. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Capella de Templo was rated to First Fruits at 10s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition it is not named. After the dissolution of the Knights Hospitallers in England (to whom the lands of the Knights Templars had been given) this manor of Temple fell to the Crown.

49 TONKIN.

Temple. This little parish is in the hundred of Trigg, and has to the west Blissland, to the south Cardenham and Warlegon, to the east and north Brewer, alias Symonward.

It is so called, because it belonged formerly to the Knights Templars; and lying in a wild wastrell, exempted from the Bishop’s jurisdiction, many a bad marriage-bargain is there yearly slubbered up [now precluded by the Marriage Act, which is bad in many points, but good in this]; and grass widows with their fatlings put to lie in and nurse here. [This practice still continues, and has given rise to a mode of expression, which sends off unmarried but pregnant women to lie in privately, by despatching them to the Moors, meaning that long range of wilderness which is called Temple Moors. W.]

It is not valued in the King’s Book. In Tax. Ben. anno 1291, 20 Edward I. it is by the name of Capella de Temple, 10s.

THE EDITOR.

This church was certainly founded by the Knights Templars, in compliance with a custom very prevalent among the military monastic orders, of establishing Preceptories in desert and uncultivated places, with the view of introducing inhabitants, or of civilizing the few that might be scattered over a wilderness. The benevolent intentions of these gallant knights failed however in this particular instance: the parish, which, judging from the analogy of similar cases, must have been large, perhaps co-extensive with the Moors to which it imparted a name, has shrunk into one of the least in Cornwall. Its church has disappeared. The churchyard is not distinguishable from any other inclosure; and the few parishioners resort to neighbouring churches for divine service, for marriages, or for the administration of the sacraments.

50 Cultivation is, however, introducing itself by means of the potatoe, a vegetable destined to produce most gigantic effects on the condition of mankind; greater perhaps than any other cause arising from the discovery of a new world.

This little settlement was probably attached to the manor of Trebigh in St. Ive’s, where the Knights Hospitallers had a preceptory. Certain it is that the two properties have since travelled together, and are now jointly reposing with the Devonshire family of Wrey. The Rev. B. W. Wrey was instituted to the benefice in 1789.

Temple measures 936 statute acres.

about doubled in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This little parish rests entirely on granite, which is of the same nature as that of Blisland, Cardinham, and the adjacent parishes.

ST. THOMAS.

HALS.

St. Thomas is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north St. Stephen’s, east Launceston, south South Pedyrwin, west Egloskerry and Trewinn. For the name, it is derived from the tutelar guardian and patron of this church, St. Thomas the Apostle and Martyr (though as some say St. Thomas à Becket). In the Domesday Book 1087, this parish was taxed under the jurisdiction of Lansen, now Launceston. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Capella Sancti Thomæ in decanatu de Trigmajorshire, was then rated at 30s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 51 1521, it is not named, having long before been wholly impropriated to the abbat or prior of St. Stephen’s, who endowed it.

TONKIN.

St. Thomas is bounded to the south by Launceston and South Pederwyn, to the west by Trewinn and Egloskerry, to the north by St. Stephen, to the east by Launceston.

This little parish is something in the form of an obtuse pile, being very narrow and wedged in to the east, where the church stands, in the very extreme part, between Launceston and St. Stephen’s, but stretches itself out in length and breadth to the west.

Part of it, which is called St. Thomas’s Street, is within the borough of Launceston, and comes home to Launceston North Gate, but is divided from Newport and St. Stephen’s by the little river Kensey, which runs by the wall of the churchyard.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons treats of Launceston, St. Stephen’s, and St. Thomas together. There is very little remarkable about this parish. The church, which is very small, and provided with a tower scarcely more lofty than the roof, stands close by the water; but it occupies the spot where the stately Priory described under Launceston heretofore extended its hospitality to travellers, and bestowed well intended, although mistaken charity, to all the neighbourhood. Nothing more remains of the Priory than the foundation of walls and an arched well of excellent water. The church has some monuments.

This parish measures 1750 statute acres.

giving an increase on the parish of 43 per cent.; on the street of 107 per cent. on both together, of 76 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Minister, the Rev. C. Lethbridge, elected by the inhabitants in 1791.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is composed of rocks belonging to the calcareous series, and similar to those of Launceston, and of the adjacent part of South Petherwin.

TINTAGEL.

This parish will be found under the name of Dundagell in the first volume.

TOWEDNACK.

HALS.

Towednack is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north the Irish Sea, east St. Ive’s and Lelant, south Ludgvan, west Zennor.

In the Domesday Book this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Amall, now Amall Veor or Trenwith. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de 53 Tywidnick, in decanatu de Penwith, is rated at cxiiis. iiiid. vicar’ ibidem, xxvis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it goes in value, consolidation, and presentation, with Lelant and St. Ive’s, £22. 11s. 10½d. The patronage in the Bishops of Exeter, who endowed it; the incumbent —— Hawkins; the rectory in Pitz; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year, 1696, £51. 3s. 2d.

In this parish are two notable camps, castles, or intrenchments of our ancestors the Britons, wherein they fortified themselves against their enemies in former ages, the ruins and downfalls of which are yet to be seen, the one called Castle-an-Dunes,[3] or Denis (See St. Colomb.); the other Tre-crag-an, the ragged rock town, situate upon Tre-crag-an hill or mountain, as I take it.

TONKIN.

Towednack lies in the hundred of Penwith, and has to the west Zennor, to the north the sea, to the east St. Ive’s and Lelant, to the south Ludgvan.

I take the name of the parish to signify no other than St. Wednock or Wynnock; for Ta and Da are synonymous terms for good. [It is perhaps only Ti Widnak (C.) the Whitish House. W.] It is a daughter church or chapel of ease to Lelant, and goes in the same presentation.

THE EDITOR.

There can scarcely be a doubt of this parish, Landewednack, and some chapels, being dedicated to one of the Missionaries from Ireland.

Towednack, like most of the districts situated on granite, exhibits a strange and almost unaccountable mixture of cultivated and of unreclaimed soils. On one side of a fence may be seen land producing abundance of grass and excellent for daisies, or bearing ample crops of barley, and of clover hay and on the other side, an inclosed waste, named throughout Cornwall a croft, producing nothing better than 54 the species or variety of furze, Ulex Nanus, and some of the most coarse grasses.

This parish has been productive of much tin near the surface; but a wide stripe of granite nearly resembling that of St. Stephen’s in Brannel, extends from the parish of Zennor through Towednack, and thence into Ludgvan, including Castle-an-Dinas, which Mr. Hals by mistake places in this parish. Its course is distinctly marked by the absence of all bolder rocks from the surface, and in some places it has been wrought for china clay, found quite equal in quality to that near St. Austell, but occurring in layers of but little breadth, and therefore expensive to pursue. This soft granite, called by the miners whetstone, permits the lodes to continue their courses through it from the hard and crystallized granite, but the tin in a great measure disappears at a trifling depth.

There is little connected with Towednack of any curiosity, that does not refer to the Editor and his family.

I am possessed of a manor still extending into five parishes, of which the vokeland, to use Mr. Hals’s term, was Amellibrea in this parish. It has descended to me from the Noyes, and particularly from my direct ancestor William Noye, the Attorney-General. I have the Court Rolls in complete succession for nearly three centuries. On these Rolls the names of Godolphin, Grylls, Mahun, Praed, St. Aubyn, Veal, occur with others as free tenants, and a great number of persons held by copy of Court Roll.

At Amellibrea are the remains of an extensive foundation said by tradition to have formerly supported a prison.

But the free tenants have been lost, and the copyholds converted into leases for life, as indeed has been the case generally over Cornwall, with the exception of ecclesiastical property; the copyholds not being renewable on the payment of a fine not exceeding two years’ value, as is the custom over most parts of England, but dependent wholly on the pleasure of the lord. The tenures were therefore in themselves much the same; and as I remember to have heard, the tenants preferred chattle property, as they termed 55 it, to copyhold, in consequence probably of the uniform rules of succession and the facility of disposing by will.

The last copyhold that appears on the Rolls was in the very beginning of the last century.

The particulars of holding a Court in those days, with the Steward’s charge, happen to be preserved on the Roll for 1688, and seem to me sufficiently curious to warrant their insertion.

At a Court of William Davies, esq. Lord of the United Manors of Amyll and Tillie, holden on Friday the 27th day of April, 1688.

The Homage.

Sampson Veale, esq. Foreman.

Robert Michell, James Trewhelow, John Curnow,

Francis Quick, John Quick, John Williams,

Oller Vaynfleet, John Baragwanath, John Trewhella,

Anthony Quick, Christopher Trewhella, John Gilbart,

George Beriman, James Quick.

The Oath.

You shall swear that you, as Foreman of this Homage, with the rest, shall duly inquire, and true presentment make of all such copyholds and things as shall be given you in charge; wherein you shall spare no man, from love, favour, or affection; nor present any man for malice, hatred, or envy; but according as things are presentable, shall or may come to your knowledge, by information or otherwise, so shall you make thereof true presentment without concealment,

So help you God, and the contents of this book.

The Charge.

Sirs —You that be sworn!

You know the customs of this court, and what you ought to present, which is grounded all on these three things, that 56 is to say, upon truth, judgment, and justice, for this comprehends all you have to do.

It standeth upon truth, for that you ought to present nothing but the truth, and likewise not to omit any thing that is true and presentable being here unpresented.

It standeth upon judgment, that you do not present any thing rashly, or unadvisedly; but certainly to know the truth thereof before you do present it.

And it standeth upon justice that you do not for favour, affection, corruption of money, or other reward, for fear of any man’s displeasure, or for any private gain or profit, leave any thing unpresented that is here presentable; neither for malice present any thing contrary to truth.

These three principal things you ought duly to consider of; and so hoping that you will have a special care thereof according to your oaths and duties, and the trust that is reposed in you, I will cease to trouble you any further about them.

First, you shall inquire whether all such persons as owe suit and service to this court be here to do the same; and all that make default you must present.

Also you shall inquire if any tenants be dead since the last court, or before, and his death not yet presented; and you shall inquire what lands he held of these manors, and what is due to the Lord on his death;[4] and also if any copyholder has leased his copyhold for any longer term than a year and a day, without the Lord’s license, it is a forfeiture of his copyhold. And also if any copyholder deny to pay his rent, or deny to come to his Lord’s Court, or deny to be sworn of the homage, it is a forfeiture of his copyhold.

And also you are to present all alienations that you may know among the tenants, who they are, and for what.

You are also to present all such as remove any bounds bounding the lands of these manors and the lands of any other Lord, or between tenant and tenant, or elsewhere in those manors.

You are likewise to present any one that has taken any 57 goods out of the pound wilfully by force, or any pound-breaker by the way, as they are driven to pound.

You are likewise to present any man that hath fished or fowled in these manors, or hawked or hunted.

And also you are to present any that doth refuse or neglect to grind at the mill of those manors; and if you are not well served, you that are ill dealt with by the miller, he is lyable to be prosecuted, and make satisfaction.

You are to present all tin broken in these manors that hath not paid farme nor toll.

You shall swear by the contents of that Book; that you will be true and faithful to the Lord of those manors, and shall from henceforth bear, do, and pay to your said Lord, and to his heirs, at times assigned, all such rents, customs, and services as you ought to pay, and for all such lands and tenements as you claim to hold of him; So help you God.

As the Steward’s name in not appended, I am unable to say who was the author of this perspicuous, eloquent, and argumentative address. It is probably in a great measure conformable to the approved model of that day.

Having omitted to insert in its proper place axPetition from my great-grandmother to King Charles the Second, I shall give it here, as being in some degree connected with the property.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The humble petition of Hester Noye, widow of Humphrey Noye, esquire, son and heir of the Attorney-General Noye, and eldest sister and coheir of Edwyn Lord Sandys, deceased,

 Humbly sheweth,

That King Henry the VIII. in the 14th year of his reign, created your Petitioner’s great-grandfather William Sandys a Peer of this Realm, by the style of William Lord Sandys, Baron of the Vine, who granted a Patent of the said honor 58 to him and his heirs, which hath been ever since enjoyed by his descendants both male and female accordingly; and last of all by the said Edwyn Lord Sandys, who is lately deceased, leaving your said Petitioner and five other sisters his coheirs.

That your Petitioner’s father served your late Royal Father of glorious memory in the late unhappy wars, and raised a Regiment of Foot, and another of Horse for that service, and was himself slain therein.[5]

That your Petitioner’s late husband was likewise active in his late Majesty’s service, being a Colonel in the Army, and suffered very much for his loyalty in the late rebellious times, by whom your Petitioner had issue William Noye, esq. his son and heir, who is still living.

Now forasmuch as your Petitioner is advised that upon the death of the said Edwyn Lord Sandys, it is in your Majesty’s power to dispose of the said honor to which of the said sisters and coheirs your Majesty pleases,

Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays, that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to permit your Petitioner and her heirs to enjoy the said honour and title.

And your Petitioner shall ever pray.

It is almost unnecessary for me to add that this Petition did not prove successful.

Towednack is now included with Lelant in the borough of St. Ive’s, sending one member to Parliament.

The great tithes belong to Mr. Praed of Trevethow, who, together with the heirs of the late Duke of Bolton, possess the remainder of the parish.

The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to April 28.

This parish measures 2,569 statute acres.

giving an increase of 58 per cent. in 30 years.

59 THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The extreme northern part of this parish is formed of a narrow slip which runs out considerably beyond the regular boundaries, and terminates on the sea shore; about half of the protuberance is composed of felspathic rocks, belonging to the porphyritic series, and all the rest of the parish is situated on granite.

[3] This is in Ludgvan.

[4] An Inquisitio post mortem.

[5] April the 6th, 1644.

TREMAINE, or TREMEAN.

HALS.

Tremaine or Tremean is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north St. Mary Wike and Jacobstow, east North Pederwyn, south Tresmere, west Treneglos. As for those names, they are of one signification, viz. the town of stone, or stone town, a place, it seems, notable for those inanimate creatures. This church was endowed by the Abbat or Prior of St. Stephen’s by Launceston, to which abbey it was wholly impropriated; the patronage was in ——: the incumbent ——; the rectory in ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year £42. 5s. 0d. I take it this church is now a chapel of ease to Egloskerry, altogether wholly impropriated as aforesaid.

TONKIN.

Tremaine or Tremean is in the hundred of East, and is bounded to the west by Warbstow and Treneglos, to the 60 north and east by part of Devonshire, to the south by Tresmere.

The name in Cornish signifies a dwelling of stone, or the stony town. [Tre-maen, stone-house.]

It is a daughter church to Egloskerry. The great and small tithes are wholly impropriated; and only £5 per annum allowed to the service of the cure out of the sheaf, taxes included, which taxes ought to be paid by the impropriators of the said sheaf.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Tremayne belonged to the family of Treise, whose heiress brought it to that of Morshead; it has passed by sale to Mr. John Jolliffe, the present proprietor; but the greater part of the parish is within the manor of Penhele in Egloskerry.

The church of Tremaine, now a daughter church to Egloskerry, was consecrated in 1481, by the name of the chapel of Winwolaus of Tremene, with a cemetery adjoining, since which time it has probably been esteemed a separate parish.

The benefice, as a daughter church to Egloskerry, is in the gift of the Crown. G. W. Owen, esq. is impropriator of the great tithes, which belonged formerly to the priory of Launceston.

Saint Winwaloe, whose festival is kept on the third of March, has been noticed in vol. ii. p. 127.

Tremaine measures 806 statute acres.

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

61 THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are the same as those of Boyton and Otterham.

TRENEGLOS.

HALS.

Treneglos is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Warstow, south and east Tresmere and St. Cleather, west Davidstow. For the name, it refers to the church, and signifies a stout, strong, robust or firm church. Under what name it was rated in the Domesday Book I know not. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester aforesaid, ecclesia de Treneglos was valued at £7. vicar’ ibidem 20s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated, together with Warstow, as to First Fruits, £9. 19s. 6d.; the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall I take it; the incumbent Wood; the rectory in ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, together with Warbstow, as I remember, £87. 16s. which church is consolidated into Treneglos, and goes in presentation with it.

TONKIN.

Treneglos is in the hundred of Lesnewith, hath to the west Davidstow, to the north Warbstow, to the east Tremaine, to the south St. Cleather.

The meaning of this name is no other than the church 62 town, the common appellation which we give to all dwellings round or near the church.

In 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory here was valued (Tax. Ben.) at £7. being appropriated to the priory of Tywardreath, and the vicar at 20s.

It is a vicarage not valued in the King’s Book; the patronage in the Crown; the incumbent Mr. Charles Porter.

THE EDITOR.

There cannot be a doubt as to Mr. Tonkin’s being the real etymology of this name.

Mr. Lysons says, the greater part of the manor of Downeckney, anciently Donnegny, which formerly belonged to the Dinhams and Cardinhams, by descent from Richard, Steward of the household to William the Conqueror at the time of the Domesday Survey, is now vested in fee in William Braddon, esq. of Treglith in this parish, who is lessee of the remainder; that remainder belonging in equal shares to the Trefusis family from the Rolles and Walpoles; and to the representatives of the Gilberts of Tacbear through Cotton and Amy. Mr. Braddon inherited this property from his father-in-law John Spettigue, esq. who had purchased it from the family of Symons, who resided at Treglith.

The church of Treneglos was given by the above-named Richard, so early as the time of the Conqueror, to the priory of Tywardreth. The great tithes, with the exception of some endowed on the vicarage, belong to the Eliot family of St. German’s.

The vicarage is in the gift of the Crown.

Treneglos measures 2362 statute acres.

63 It is clear from the above figures, that there must have been some mistake, since such fluctuations never take place in parishes entirely agricultural.

The present Vicar of Treneglos, with Warbstow, is the Rev. J. H. Mason, presented in 1804 by the Prince of Wales.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish lies on rocks of the calcareous series, except that its southern extremity reaches the Downs, where the rocks become felspathic, as has been noticed under the heads of Laneast, Egloskerry, and St. Stephen’s.

TRESMERE.

HALS.

Tresmere, alias Tresmoore vicarage, is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Tremayne, east Egloskerry, south Lanest, west St. Cleather. Under what name or jurisdiction it was taxed in the Domesday Book I know not. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Capella de Tresmoore was valued xxvis. viiid. which Church I apprehend was partly endowed by the Prior or Abbat of Tywardreth, and the other part by the Prior of St. Stephen’s, for in that Inquisition I read Prior Tywardrayth percepit de garba de Tresmoore 11s. afterwards wholly impropriated to the Prior of St. Stephen’s, who doubtless purchased in that title. The parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year 1696, £42. 12s.

TONKIN.

Tresmere, in the hundred of East, hath to the west 64 Treneglos, to the north Tremaine, to the east part of Devonshire, to the south Egloskerry.

This signifies the same with Tre Mere, the great town or dwelling. [N. B. This name, and that of Tren-eglos, are very remarkable in thus containing a supplemental letter. W.]

This Church, by the name of Capella de Tresmore, an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. is valued (Tax. Ben.) at xxvis. viiid. being then appropriated to the Priory at Tywardreath.

It is wholly impropriated, the great and small tithes belonging to Sir John Molesworth and Francis Manaton, Esq. who ought to pay out of it for serving the cure £6 per annum, lately detained by both, the Curate not being able or willing to recover it at law. The Prior of Tywardreth did receive out of the sheaf of Tresmore ijs.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says, that this parish is an appendage to the manor of Werrington. This would indicate its being impropriated by the Abbey of Tavistock, as Werrington was the chief seat of the Lord Abbat; but Tresmere is not noticed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of that Abbey; but in the Valor Ecelesiasticus of Launceston Priory there occurs this trifling entry:

The tithes of this parish are completely in lay hands. When tithes were first bestowed on monasteries, the duties of the Church to which they appertained, were performed by members of the Convent, who occasionally travelled there, and succeeded each other; the “book-bosomed priests” of the Last Minstrel. In times more remote, secular clergy went on circuits from the Cathedral or seat of the Bishop and his priests; till the inconvenience of this itinerant system became strongly felt, and decrees were made in several General Councils of the Latin Church, 65 enacting that each benefice should have a permanently resident priest, and that a competent provision should be made for his support. This was usually done by assigning to the deputy, the Vicarius or Vicar, all the tithes except those of corn, although others were occasionally retained; but in various instances, instead of tithes, an allowance was made in money, equivalent perhaps at the time, but long since reduced to nominal payments, by the gradual depreciation in the value of gold and silver from natural causes, and by the fraudulent reduction of the standards practised in various degrees by all governments, or lastly, by the non-convertible paper currencies.

The very great difference in the circumstances of those deputies, arising from the nature of their endowments rather than any legal distinction in the offices, has affixed to one the name of Vicar, and to the other that of Perpetual Curate.

It appeared from Mr. Tonkin’s narrative, that the stipend in this parish amounted to six pounds a year, and that it had been withholden by superior force; without doubt, the liberality of modern times has long since caused it to be restored and increased.

Mr. Lysons states, that the impropriation has passed through the families of Molesworth and Manaton, and that it is now vested in Edward Coade, Esq. and that this great piece of preferment is in the Crown.

Tresmere measures 982 statute acres.

giving an increase of 32½ per cent. in 30 years.

Perpetual Curate, the Rev. W. A. Morgan, presented by the Lord Chancellor in 1821.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The geology of this parish is in every respect the same as that of Trenegloss.

TREVALGA.

HALS.

Trevalga Rectory is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north the Irish Sea and Ferabery, east Minster, south and west Dundagell and St. Teth.

In the Domesday Book 1087, it was taxed by the name of Trevaga or Trevalga. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Trevalga, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was rated xxxxs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition £7. 6s. 8d. which probably was a free Chapel, erected before the Norman Conquest; since it hath not then or now admitted of any alteration of its name, though I judge from that Inquisition, that it was after the Conquest partly endowed by the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Exeter; since therein I read, Canonicus Exon. percepit de Ecclesia Trevalga vs. The parish was rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £59. 4s. 8d.

TONKIN.

Trevalga, in the hundred of Lesnewith, is bounded to the west by Tintagel, as it is to the north by the sea, to the east by Feraberry.

In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this Church is valued (Tax. Benef.) at xls. and the Canons of Exeter did receive out of it vs.

This Church is a Rectory, valued in the King’s Books £7. 6s.; and the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent ——.

67 THE MANOR OF TREVALGA.

In Domesday Book this is mentioned as one of those given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall. In the extent of Cornish acres 12 Edw. I. it is valued in eighteen.

[This manor, which has given name to the parish, has drawn its own from Trev Alga, the noble house; Alga (I.) signifying noble, as in Inis Alga, an old name for Ireland; and this affords one instance more of the necessity of recurring to the kindred dialects of the British in explaining Cornish names. W.]

THE EDITOR.

This parish is situated in the most wild and apparently most desolate part of Cornwall, although the soil is not unproductive. The Church stands near to the cliff of this iron-bound coast.

Mr. Lysons states, that the manor giving name to this parish, belonged in the reign of King James the First to James Welsh, Esq. from it has descended through the family of Bolitho to that of Stephens, and that it now belongs to Mr. Richard Stephens, of Culverhouse, near Exeter.

The Dean and Chapter of Exeter are patrons of the Rectory. The present Rector is the Rev. J. T. Symons, instituted 1831.

Trevalga measures 1094 statute acres.

giving an increase of 92 per cent. in 30 years.

68 THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of the adjacent parishes of Minster and Ferabury.

TREWEN.

HALS.

Trewen or Trewenn vicarage is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north and east Egloskerry and South Pederwin, south Lawanack, west Altarnun. As for the modern names, it signifies a white town or dwelling. The same, I suppose, in the Domesday Book 1087, taxed by the name of Trewin, i. e. the beloved town. The value of this Church’s revenues is not mentioned in any Inquisition, the same being wholly impropriated by the Abbat or Prior of St. Stephen’s, who endowed it, and was Patron thereof till the dissolution of the Abbey of St. Stephen’s aforesaid, 26 Henry VIII. when it fell to the Crown; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £46. 8s. 8d.

In this parish, September 29th, is held yearly a public fair or mart for goods and cattle.

In this parish is Polyfunt or Polyvant, synonymous words, i. e. the top spring or fountain of water, so called from some spring of water that rises in some high lands of that tenement, in which place the Prior of Minster in Kerryer, by the tenure of knight service, held one little knight’s fee of lands of Morton, 3 Henry IV. Survey of Cornwall, p. 41. It is now, as I am informed, the lands of —— Hicks, Gent.

69 TONKIN.

Trewen, in the hundred of East, hath to the west Altarnun, to the north Laneast, to the east Egloskerry, to the south Pederwin; as for the name, the plain meaning of it is, the White Town, but from whence so denominated I must plead ignorance.

[Tre Wen (C.) is the white or fair house, the manor house of the district, so called from its elegance, and then lending its name to the district and parish. W.]

THE EDITOR.

This parish is supposed to have belonged to the Priory of St. German’s as an appendix to South Petherwin, to which it is now united.

Trewen is not noticed by name in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of the 26th Henry VIII.; but South Petherwin, probably with the daughter parish included, is there stated to have paid to St. German’s annually,

The great tithes belong to the University of Oxford, as does the presentation to the vicarage through the Mother Church.

This parish measures 868 statute acres.

giving an increase of 10 per cent. in 30 years.

70 GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is situated on rocks of the calcareous series, which are for the most part like those of Laneast; but where Trewen joins Alternun, bounded only by the small river Inney, some strata occur which deserve more particular notice. It has already been stated, that on the opposite side of this stream, a potstone or ollareous serpentine occurs; on the Trewen side a talcose schist first appears, which is followed by a calcareous schist, with its surface talcose and glossy, resembling the slate at Cotele on the Tamar. This slate gradually passes into a compact limestone, which is light-coloured and talcose, especially in such parts as come in contact with masses of hornstone diffused through the mass. This limestone is quarried and burnt on the spot, but after the selection of such portions as abound with calcareous spar.

TRURO.

HALS.

Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Kenwen, east Clement’s, south an arm of Falmouth Harbour, where twice a day, upon spring tides, the sea makes its navigable flux and reflux to the walls, keys, and streets thereof.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this place was taxed under the appellations of Trewret and Treured, which shews that it then consisted of two privileged manors or jurisdictions, viz. the borough of Trewret and the manor of Treured, 71 now known, and still distinguished, by the names of the borough and manor of Truro, under the like circumstances.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Trewroe, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated liiis. ivd.

By the Charter of its incorporation from King John, the town was incorporated by the name of Burgus de Trewrow.

In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, this church’s revenues were valued at £16. The patronage formerly in Bodrigan or Trenowith, now Edgecumb. The incumbent Pagett; and the borough of Truro was rated to four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £186. 7s. That here was a Christian free chapel before the Norman Conquest I doubt not, implied in the word Trewrow, now a Rectory Church; in the glass windows of which, the north side thereof, is yet extant the arms of John Earl of Cornwall, who succeeded to the Crown of England 1199, and was made Earl of Cornwall by his father King Henry II. at nine years old (though he had not the possession thereof till the time of Richard I. 1190, which was but a hundred and twenty-four years after the Norman Conquest, and but one hundred and three years after the Conqueror’s death); which arms were: in a field Ruby, three leopards in pale passant gardant Tophaz, over all a bend Sapphire, which leopards are now called, and metamorphosed in the blazon of the Kings of England’s arms to lions, as it is testified by Nicholas Upton, who wrote his Book of Heraldry 1440, whose words be these: “Monsieur Johanes Roy d’Angleter, port de Gowles, ove trois lyopers d’Or.”

There is likewise extant in the same windows, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall’s badge, in a field —— three ostrich feathers with this motto or inscription, Ich Dien, or Ich Thyen, Saxon, I serve, which coronet was won by Edward the Black Prince, the first Duke of Cornwall, 72 from John of Luxemberge, King of Bohemia, at the battle of Cressy, 1346, and ever since worn by him and his successors, Dukes of Cornwall and Princes of Wales; which arms we may conclude was erected in this glass window soon after that victory, he being High Lord of this borough, which is held of his contiguous Duchy Manor of Moris, together with the Coinage Hall, which King John built and gave it; as also the royalty over the whole Harbour of Falmouth as far as Carike Road and the Black Rock Island (see Falmouth) in consideration of twelve pence rent and suits to that Manor Court, which privileges and royalty this town enjoyed till the time of King James II. and executed their water processes all over the said harbour for debt and damage; but then, upon the petition of Sir Peter Killigrew, Bart. it was given by him as an augmentation of profit to Mr. Quaram, Rector of Falmouth, and his successors for ever, but under what rent I know not.

The church was built at the proper cost and charge of the inhabitants, and other pious benefactors, with free-stone, in that costly and curious manner as it now stands, in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. as appears from an inscription in the glass windows thereof, under the name and arms of Margaret Tregian, one of those benefactors 1514; wherein also are yet extant the arms of the Arundells, Bevills, Trenowths, Carmenows, Edgecombs, and other benefactors; however, this church hath no tower or steple of bells as other churches.

And moreover, as when it was a free chapel, the minister subsisted on the oblations and obventions of the altar, so now, comparatively, upon the piety and charity of his hearers by voluntary subscriptions; from whence it may be presumed the rector must demean himself well, and labour hard in his vocation, to get a competent maintenance, at least he must walk with such upright and wary conduct as he that went barefoot upon the edge of a sharp knife and did not hurt his feet; since he must converse with, and have to do with, men of divers principles and opinions 73 in religion in this place, viz. Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers, as of old his predecessors had with monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars, who were sharers or peelers of his profits by their predicaments. I shall not enter into the controversy whether the Gospel were better preached before churches were endowed with revenues, or since, the one being a motive to pride, sloth, and laziness; as the other is an inducement to humility, temperance, and virtue.

In this church stands a curious monument erected to the memory of John Robartes, esq. that married Gaurigan (ancestor of the Right Honourable Charles Bodville, Earl of Radnor) though much defaced in the interregnum of Cromwell; whose ancestor John Robarts, Mayor of Truro, that lies entombed thereby, mightily enriched himself in this town by trade and manufactures.

There is also near the same another funeral monument, erected to the memory of three brothers of the Mitchells, tempore James I. viz. Thomas, John, and James, as I remember, who, as the inscription saith, had all one God, one womb, and one tomb.

On the west side of this town was of old a Dominican Chapel and Friary; part of their house and consecrated well yet standing; their revenues dispersed into several hands since the dissolution of their house 26 Henry VIII. and now in possession of ——.

In the centre of this town was a nunnery of Clares closed up, who had considerable revenues, now in possession of Sir John Seyntaubyn and others; their consecrated walled well at Edles in Kenwen, and their house called Anhell, i. e. the hall or tabernacle, was fairly built of free-stone, though lately pulled down, and converted to shops and dwelling houses.

The town of Truro was made a coinage town by King John as aforesaid, and had all its privileges confirmed by a charter from Queen Elizabeth, by the name of the Mayor and Capital Burgesses; and consists of a Mayor, Recorder, 74 and twenty-four Capital Burgesses. The members of Parliament are elected by the majority of inhabitants of the said Corporation; the arms of which are, a ship man-of-war in full course, with sails spread, on the seas, wherein are fishes swimming.

The precept on the Parliament writ from the Sheriff, and a writ for removing an action at law depending in this court leet, must be thus directed:

“Majori et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Trewrow in comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.” als. “Manerium de Trewrow, viz. Senescallo et Ballivor. Manerij sui de Trewrow in Comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.”

This place is more notable as being the birthplace and honorary title of John Lord Robarts, Baron Robarts of Truro (see Lanhydeiock). It is also privileged with fairs annually, on the 19th of November, the 8th of December, Wednesday after Midlent Sunday, and on Whitsun Monday or Tuesday, and markets weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays; wherein all commodities necessary for the life of man are vended in great plenty at a moderate rate, viz. fresh fish, oysters, lobsters, and crabs of all sorts, corn, fruits.

The salary of the collector of the Custom House here is yearly £40, two tidemen and a waiter £80 per annum.

The chief inhabitants of this town are John Manly, esq. barrister-at-law; Mr. Gregor, Dr. Maye, Dr. Cloake, Graduates in Physic; Mr. Hawes, Mr. Hickman, Mr. Granvill Hals, Mr. Hickes, Mr. Herle, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Mayow, Mr. Williams, Mr. Foxworthy, Mr. Grebhle, Mr. Pawley, Mr. Michell, and others.

Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall 1602, tells us this town of Truro, for wealth and riches, exceeded any other town in Cornwall, and for buildings all other except Lanceston; I think it still under the same circumstances.

In this town at some time lived Captain William Upcott that married —— Bruce of Scotland, daughter of Edward Bruce, esq. of Edinburgh; after her death, Anne, 75 daughter of Adam Bennet, of this town, gent. son of John Bennet, of Penton in Devon, gent. a man of approved valour and conduct in the war, who in all the unhappy Civil Wars between King Charles I. and his Parliament, was bred up in the school of Mars from his youth, first an Ensign, then a Lieutenant, lastly made a Commander of a foot company under the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax’s armies for the Parliament; afterwards he was made Coronet of General Monk’s Horse Troop or Brigade, who specially favoured him, and in that capacity accompanied him throughout all the fatigues of the English, Scots, and Irish wars, managed by him and Cromwell against Kings Charles I. and II.; and when Monk came out of Scotland and returned into England with his army, and restored King Charles II. to his throne.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the south, west, and north, by Kenwin, and to the east by St. Clement’s, being washed on each side by two rivulets (of which that which comes from St. Allen is the principal), and which joining together at the bottom of the town, fall into an arm of Falmouth Harbour, and form a beautiful basin and key there. This takes its name from the town, as that does from the three principal streets of which it consists, Tri, three, and Ru, a street, turned to Truro, euphoniæ gratiâ. [See below concerning this Etymon, which is adopted from Camden, and is obviously absurd, as the town must have had a name long before it forked out into three streets; and indeed from the first moments of its existence as a town, as a parish, or as a manor. W.]

This church, which is dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £16; the patronage in the Honourable Richard Edgcombe, esq.; 76 the incumbent Mr. Joseph Jane, who in 17— succeeded Mr. Simon Paget, as this last did Mr. Samuel Thomas.

In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at liijs. iiijd. having never been appropriated.

Leland (Itin. vol. III. fol. 11) speaketh thus of this town: “This Creke of Truru afore the very toun is divided into two partes, and eche of them hath a brook cumming down, and a bridge, and the toun of Truru bytwixt them booth. The White Freres house was on the west arme yn Kenwyn Streate.

“Kenwen Streate is severed from Truru with this arme, and Clementes Streat by est is separate on the est from Truru with the same arme.

“One paroche chirch in Truru; Kenwen, and Clementes Streates have several chirchis, and bere the name of the Sainctes of the paroche chirchis.

“Coynage of tinne at Midsomer and Michaelmas at Truru.

“Truru is a borow toun, and priviledged. There is a Castelle, a quarter of a mile by west out of Truru, longing to the Erle of Cornwale, now clene doun. The site therof is now used for a shoting and playing place. Out of the body of Truru creake, on the est side, breketh a crek estwarde a mile from Truru, and goith up a mile ——, perhaps to Kigan, and thens to Tresilian Bridge.”

Nothing can be better described than the situation of this town is here by Leland; only as to the castle, it is so far from being a quarter of mile out of the town that it is in it at the head of St. Pancras-street, to the left hand of the way as you go to Kenwyn church, which by the bye is no Saint as Leland has here made it, or ever called St. Kenwyn. [The difference between Mr. Tonkin and his author concerning the castle, is no difference at all. Mr. Tonkin forgets the interval of time between Leland’s writing and his own. At that time the castle was assuredly out of the town; St. Pancras-street then going up but a little way from the open area by the church-yard, and the castle 77 being now “at the head” of this street.] It lies very pleasantly, and from it you have a view of the whole town, the country around it, and the river, or rather arm of the sea, which, when the tide is in, looks like a fine canal of two miles in length, [and in coming up the canal by boat, the town with its new spire below, and the church of Kenwin with its new vicarage-house above, form a most pleasing view]; but the castle itself is more like an old Danish camp or round, than a place that had been once inhabited, there not being the least sign left of any wall, &c.

At the last visitation of this county (Heralds’ Office) it is said that “the town and borough of Truro was incorporated by the name of mayor and burgesses by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry I. which as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy alias Lacam, testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Raddona, Aldredo de S^to. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal with a man on horseback.

“And at the time of this present visitation, the 9th of October 1620, was Gregory Frignis Major, Thomas Burgess, Richard Daniell, James Lawarren, William Catcher, aldermen, Everard Edmonds, Henry Williams, Edward Kestell, William Avery, Walter Penarth, Germaine Grees, Francis Noseworthy, Francis Gregor, Cuthbert Sidenham, Humphrie Sidenham, Gawen Carverth, Thomas Burgess, jun., Richard Hill, John Adlington, Nicholas Paule, Edward Grosse, Robert Kemp, Nicholas Stephens, John Pernall, and William Cosens, burgesses, Hugh Boscawen, esq. recorder, and John Michell, town-clerk of the said borough and corporation.

“We find also that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Major of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant now in the custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses doth appear.”

78 WHITAKER.

Here I shall add some remarks that will illustrate the origin of this town more than Mr. Tonkin has done.

Truro takes its name from its castle. This, in Leland’s time, belonged to the Prince of Wales as Earl of Cornwall, and was therefore one of the castellated palaces of the Cornish Earls; it was only a small one, however. This the ground of it shows when the walls are gone. Even in Leland’s time, it was “clene doun;” and the area was used as a place of exercise for shooting with bows and arrows, and for other diversions. It “is now,” says Mr. Tonkin, “more like an old Danish camp or round than a place that had been once inhabited.” What ideas Mr. Tonkin had of an “old Danish camp,” I cannot say; but the castle carries no appearance of a camp at all, either Danish, Saxon, or Roman. Nor is it more like a round, if by “a round” Mr. Tonkin means a Cornish one, like the amphitheatrical “round” of Piran. The only remains of the castle, indeed, are the name, a waste area, and the old mount or keep, the earth of which is nearly gone, and is daily vanishing by application of it to other purposes. This artificial mount marks the centre of the castle, had the main tower upon it, and constituted the principal part of the whole; and a small ward must have gone round it, standing on the natural ground, and forming the offices to this petty palace.

This was plainly the origin of the town:—where an ancient Earl’s house was, however small in its extent, and however occasional in its use, it naturally drew the traders of the country to it. The wants of such a Lord’s household, and the accompanying treasury of a kingdom in a county, created such a call for wares, and produced such a currency of wealth, as made it for its season the little centre of trade to the adjoining country; and a town grew up in time, the weakly child of its castle at first, but able to subsist without the castle at last. Such, undoubtedly, was the 79 origin of Truro. This lay upon the more westerly of the two currents; the westerly side of the town, therefore, would be the primitive and original part of it; accordingly, we see the White Friars’ house constructed with it. From this current it extended, as it enlarged, to the easterly one. The erection of a church on that side, when a district was taken out of Kenwin parish, and the peninsulated ground between the currents was formed into a parish of itself, drew it easterly with great power. The town consisted at first, probably, of the street running from the foot of the hill on a part of which the castle stood, and extending backwards with its yards and gardens to the western current; and this part of course adopted the previous appellation of the castle, and was called with it Tre-vereu, Tre-ureu, or Truru, Treuro, or Truro, the house or castle upon the Uro or Uru, the same denomination of a river with that of the Vere in Hertfordshire, the Vera-lamium of the Itineraries, the Uro-lanium of Ptolemy, and with that of the Eure in Yorkshire, the Uluracum, and the Is-urium of the geography and itineraries.

So originating from the castle, in that primary part of the whole, the western side of the town, and in that most primary point of all, the line of houses above, the town would naturally shoot out next in the line of houses opposite to this on each side of the opening towards the church, and beside the church on each side, drawn on by the strong attraction of the church itself. The roads into the town from east and west would then allure it down to their respective passes over the current; the road from the west then coming down, as it still does, at the bottom of the first line of houses; and that from the east coming within these thirty years by the narrow street near the church, at the corner of which is the rectory-house. The town would then extend from the western access into it, in a street of houses running at right angles with the original street of the whole, and pushing directly in a line from the access. These must have been the three streets from which Camden supposed 80 the name to have been derived: “Truro, Cornwallice Treuru, a tribus plateis dictum,” (page 138); but this last street was afterwards split by the corporation into two, by the erection of a town-hall above and a market-house below, along the middle of it. In this state stood the town probably for some time, with the continuance of this middle row of buildings, with the erection of a coinage-hall for tin a little beyond the termination of it, and with the extension of the two original sides of this third street up to it. It then stretched up the hill towards the castle, ranged over the confining currents on the east and west, into the parishes of St. Clement’s and Kenwin, and expatiated down to the quay and beside it. It ranged over the western current, now probably covered with a bridge, before it pushed up the hill towards the castle, as that line of houses is called Kenwin-street, even by Leland, and this is denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; that was then the way, the circuitous way to Kenwin Church, when this is the direct way, and the present; and the principal alteration which has happened to Truro since, has resulted from the erection of a new bridge over the eastern current, longer and grander than the other, a few yards lower in the channel than it, lining with the eastern road, and leading directly to the Town-hall and market-house. This naturally produced a Bridge-street, leading up at one end of the Coinage-hall, so falling into what was then the principal stem of the town, and thus communicating with all the branches; and all will be consummated in a few years by executing an Act of Parliament which has already passed, in taking down that middle row of buildings which is formed by the town-hall and its accompaniments, restoring this street to its original width, and multiplying houses for the dislodged inhabiters in the extreme parts of the town.

When the church was originally built I know not, but it was then dedicated to St. Pancras, I apprehend, though it is now to St. Mary, as the street leading down to one corner of the large area at it, which is popularly denominated 81 Pider-street at present, is still denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; but the present church of St. Mary is of that light and elegant sort of Gothic architecture which took place among us in the reign of Henry VII. and which perhaps might be wished to have still continued among us, as being a happy union of the solemn solidity of the Gothic and of the luminous lightness of the Roman. At this period the church must have been built, the architecture of London by degrees reaching out its influence into Cornwall; and accordingly in the southern window, which is the third from the east, is a date of 1518.

But let me be more particular concerning the antiquity of Truro. The castle is not mentioned in Domesday Book;[6] it was therefore later than the Conquest. It was built by some of the Norman Earls of Cornwall, and was one of the rural palaces, as it were, which they had in the county subordinate to their grand capitals at Launceston, Tremarton, and Restormel. The town must be still later than the castle; yet it is noticed within a century after the Conquest, so nearly coeval was it with its cause, the castle. It is noticed above to have been in the possession of Richard de Lucy. It was incorporated, says the Visitation above, “as appeareth by record, by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam.” “Truro, Truru, or Trevereu,” adds that best investigator of our constitutional antiquities, because the most grounded on the evidence of records, Dr. Brady, “was some time in the possession of Richard de Lucy, a person of great note in the reigns of King Stephen and Henry II. in the eighth of whose [Henry’s] reign,” or, an. Dom. 1162, “he was made Justice of England.”[7] This Richard had got possession of this part of the old estates of the earldom, either by one of those half-alienations, which were only sub-infeodations in reality, or (as we shall soon see) by being Earl of Cornwall himself. He actually resided in the castle, as he is styled in an instrument 82 of Henry the Second’s, “Ricardi de Lucy de Trivereu;” and he encouraged the little town of the Earls, by incorporating it, and so giving it a legal dignity in granting it an internal jurisdiction. He even proceeded to allow it that last and highest privilege of a borough, a freedom of exemption from toll; nor was this confined to the borough itself; it extended beyond it; it extended into all the country round; it was commensurate with the whole county; and Richard must, therefore, have acted with a power, not merely of the lord of the borough, but of the earl of the county, as no one less than an earl could have given such an ample sweep of exemption. The proof of all this lies in the original charter of the town, not now in existence, but referred to in a succeeding charter, and particularised so as to be equal to the very charter itself. The town thus began about the year 1100, was incorporated about 1130 perhaps, and was made a free borough (as we shall instantly see) before 1140.

In the reign of King Stephen, who came to the throne in 1135, and in the fifth year of it, or 1140, Lucy resigned up the possessions of the earldom; as then, “Reginald Fitzroy, who was one of the illegitimate sons of King Henry the First, was created Earl of Cornwall.”[8] Reginald was, therefore, invested with all that Lucy had possessed. This he retained till his death, which happened in the 21st of Henry II.[9] or the year 1175. We accordingly find him extending his more than half-royal graces to his borough of Truro, by granting it a charter confirmatory of the privileges which Lucy had conceded to it before. “The town and borough of Truro,” says the Visitation, “was incorporated by the name of the Mayor and Burgesses, by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry the First (which, as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam), testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Radiona, Aldredo 83 de St. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal, with a man on horseback.” This description shows the charter to have been actually inspected by the visitors; yet Dr. Brady knows it only from the recital of a subsequent charter.[10] The original is lost in the Tower, I suppose, while its counterpart is preserved at Truro; and it runs thus in the Inspeximus, 13 Edw. I. No. 61. “Reginaldus Regis Filius,” not as in descriptive terms the son of the King, but merely as a personal and family appellative, Fitzroy, “Comes Cornubiæ; omnibus Baronibus Cornubiæ, et omnibus militibus, et omnibus libere tenentibus, et omnibus tam Anglicis quam Cornubiensibus, salutem. Sciatis, quod concessi,”—a word that shows even confirmatory charters to do, what our legal antiquaries are naturally unaware that they do, to use the language of granting just as if they were original charters, and so leave us to decide from other circumstances, which are original and which confirmatory —“Liberis Burgensibus meis de Trivereu,” where the note of previous freedom in the Burgesses proves them to have been already freed from toll, “habere omnes liberas consuetudines et urbanas,” the same exemption from toll that all cities (which were in the King’s demesne) had, “et easdem in omnibus quas habuerunt in tempore Ricardi de Lucy,” a plain evidence that they had “free customs,” and that they themselves, therefore, were “free Burgesses” in the time of Richard de Lucy, “scilicet Sacham et Socham, et Tholl et Them, et Hinfangenethuf [Infangthief],” that is, all those rights of judicature over themselves, and over others who came among them, that then belonged to all the manorial courts, and that were necessarily given to the Burgesses of Truro when they were incorporated, and by incorporation were enabled to exercise a jurisdiction independent of the common officers of justice: “et concessi eis, quod non placitent in Hundredis, 84 nec Comitatibus, nec pro aliquâ summonitione eant ad placitandum alicubi extra villam Trivereu,” a privilege consequent upon the grant of an internal jurisdiction, and necessary to its completion: “et quod quieti sint de Tholneo dando per totam Cornubiam, in feriis et in foris, et ubicunque emerint et vendiderint,” a privilege which must have been a very valuable one to a society of traders, and the more valuable from its long reach over all the fairs and markets of the county: “et quod, de pecuniâ eorum accreditâ et non redditâ, namium capiant in villâ suâ de debitoribus suis,” by distraining the cattle, and arresting the persons of their debtors, that came into the town, though they did not belong to it.[11] This charter is without a date; with so many and such witnesses no date being necessary; and as it must have been prior to the Earl’s death, it was before the year 1175.

Henry the Second confirmed Reginald’s charter, as Reginald confirmed Lucy’s; and all were re-confirmed by Edward the First in 1284.[12] But in all these charters, we have no intimation of that grand privilege which we are sure Truro to have possessed, and which is alluded to in the Visitation above. “We find also,” says the Visitation, “that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Mayor of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant, now in custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses, doth appear.” The superiority of Truro over all the harbour of Falmouth we see is here attested by a record of 1622; and “an ancient grant, now in the custody of the Mayor and Burgesses,” is appealed to by the record. This distinguishing privilege had been ceded to Truro by a grant of a particular nature; but from the manner in which the Visitation refers to it, the grant must have been so early as to be without a date, and so be like Reginald’s and Lucy’s charters before; and it was probably, therefore, about the same age with them. [Whitaker.]

85 THE EDITOR.

Truro has long claimed to be the first town in Cornwall; and the station has generally been allowed, although several others exceed it in beauty of situation. Penzance in that respect, as well as in foreign trade and the magnitude of its internal commerce; and Falmouth in the number of inhabitants.

Truro, situated adjacent to the largest mining district, at the head of a navigable river, and nearly in the centre of population, has acquired the lead in all county concerns, and has the good fortune to possess many large handsome houses, and breadth of streets unknown in the other towns. Here, too, for a long series of years, was situated the chief place of education for the heirs of Cornish families, at a time when the state of communication between places two or three hundred miles apart, rendered it a matter of serious importance to think of sending a lad to either of the public schools. Two very eminent masters of the school at Truro are still remembered, Mr. Conor, a layman, from the north of England, or Scotland, by the tradition of our fathers; and the Rev. Dr. Cardew, by some among the best classical scholars in both Universities. There is a monument to Dr. Cardew in St. Erme Church. It is also understood, that their predecessor, Mr. Jane, either established or maintained the reputation of this school. Mr. Jane is understood to have been a native of Leskeard, and a nephew of Doctor William Jane, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Dean of Gloucester, who drew up the strong Declaration adopted by the University in favour of the principles which would have retained King James on the throne of England, and when the Revolution was effected, supported the opposite side, which gave occasion to the following epigrams:

The Rev. J. Jane, son of the gentleman who kept the school at Truro, became a student and tutor at Christ Church, from whenee he retired to the college living of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire.

Truro has produced its fair proportion of men distinguished by their proficiencies in literature, arts, sciences, and arms. Of persons living, I would select the Rev. Richard Polwhele, as an eminent historian, poet, and divine; and the Right Honourable General Sir Hussey Vivian, companion in arms of the Duke of Wellington, an active partaker in the glories of Waterloo, since commander-in-chief of Ireland, and now (1836) occupying, perhaps, the highest office of the government not included in the cabinet.

An individual, little if at all remembered, emanated from Truro in the sixteenth century, if he was not born there. Wood says, in the Athenæ Oxonienses:

“Thomas Farnabie, the most noted schoolmaster of his time, son of Thomas Farnabie, of London, carpenter, son of —— Farnabie, sometime Mayor of Truro in Cornwall, was born in London about 1575, and became a Student of Merton College in 1590; but being wild he made no long stay there, but left the college very abruptly, and went into Spain, and was for some time educated in a college belonging to the Jesuits. He left them, however, and being minded to take a ramble, went with Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkyns in their last voyage; afterwards, it is said, he was a soldier in the Low Countries. Having suffered great distress after his return, he at last succeeded in establishing a school in Goldsmiths’ Rents, near Red Cross Street in London, where at one time he made up a number exceeding three hundred generous 87 youths. At length, upon occasion of some sickness, he removed about 1636 to Sevenoaks in Kent, in the neighbourhood of which place (at Oxford) he had purchased an estate, and taught there the sons of several neighbouring gentlemen, by which he acquired considerable wealth, and purchased another estate near Horsham in Sussex. He suffered some loss and imprisonment in the Civil War on account of his taking the Royalty side, and died at Sevenoaks, where he is buried, in the chancel of the church, with the following inscription:

“P. M. Viri ornatissimi Thomæ Farnabii Armigeri, causæ olim Regiæ, reique publicæ, sed literariæ vindicis acerrimi, obiit 12 Junii 1647.

His principal works are,

Notes on the Satyrs of Juvenal and Persius.

Notes on the Tragedies of Seneca.

Notes on Martial’s Epigrams.

Notes on Lucan’s Pharsalia.

Notes on Virgil.

Notes on Terence.

Notes on Ovid.

A System of Grammar.

Index Rhetoricus and Oratorius.

Phrasiologia, Latin and English.

Anthology of Greek Epigrams, with a Latin Translation.

Tables of the Greek Language.

Various Letters to Learned Persons.

Boyle says of him in his Dictionary, that Farnaby was a learned classic, and that his notes on the greater part of the ancient Latin Poets have been of much use to young persons; that he dedicated his Horace to Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James the First, and that he was most favourably received by the Prince when he presented his 88 work; and that he received an order, or a request, to make similar commentaries on all the Latin Poets, in anticipation, in some degree, of the great work afterwards executed for the King’s son in France.

But the most remarkable and striking feature in the history of Truro consists of the great wealth acquired there by various families in succession during a long series of years.

The first on record is the family of Roberts, or Robartes, who are said to have began their career by retail trade in a house remaining at the commencement of this century, near the north-western extremity of what has been made the great street, by the improvement of taking down the middle row of houses, noticed by Mr. Whitaker, and completed by a new street leading from it southward towards Penryn and Falmouth.

It is possible that the very humble commencement of the Roberts’s fortunes may have been invented since their splendid elevation, to augment the wonder; but certain it is, that they resided for several generations in Truro, conducting extensive mercantile concerns, and accumulating capital, rather than obtaining it by any sudden effort; and employing their savings in the acquirement of land by great or small purchases, or more frequently, perhaps, through the medium of advancing money on mortgage, till they acquired the most scattered estate of any in the county. About the reign of James the First, this family rose into high consideration; they acquired an hereditary seat in Parliament, in a manner not very honourable at least to the Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards became decorated with the nominal office of Earl of Radnor: held the Lord Lieutenancy of Cornwall, with the Lord Wardenship of the Stannaries; and, lastly, the office of highest dignity in the gift of the Crown, the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.

The next considerable family emerging from Truro was the Vincents; in their case the practice of law was added 89 to trade; they repeatedly represented Truro in Parliament, and were among the first people of the county. One of their seats was Tresimple in St. Clement’s, now the property of Mr. Vivian, of Penkalenick in the same parish; but the family of Vincent has disappeared, and their very memory is almost extinguished.

After the Vincents will come the Gregors, who have now been for a long period country gentlemen. The late Mr. Francis Gregor represented the county in three successive Parliaments, from 1790 to 1806, when he retired on account of ill health.

The next large fortune acquired at Truro was by Mr. Lemon. A short account of this very extraordinary person has been given under Germoe parish. His very splendid career, not merely of acquiring wealth, but of high reputation for himself and of benefit to his country, began in the neighbourhood of Penzance; and his removal to Truro is understood to have been occasioned by the discernment of Mr. Coster, a gentleman concerned in copper smelting works at Bristol, and a representative in Parliament for that city.

Mr. Coster greatly augmented his fortune by purchasing the copper ores of Cornwall, for some time without a competitor; and undertaking to work some of the Gwennap mines in depth for copper, which had previously been productive of tin, he selected Mr. Lemon for one of his partners, with unlimited confidence in managing the whole concern.

Mr. Lemon was succeeded by Mr. Daniell, who took the whole of his great mercantile concerns off the hands of Mr. Lemon’s executors in 1760, having acquired the command of capital by his marriage with Miss Elliot, niece of Mr. Allen, of Bath. The late Mr. John Vivian acquired also a large fortune residing in Truro; and of persons now living, several might be added to the list.

Mr. Richard Hussey has been noticed in the parish of 90 Feock as an eminent lawyer, and likely to have attained some of the highest honours of the profession; he died unmarried in 1770. His father, who practised in Truro as an attorney, was the son of the Reverend John Hussey, vicar of Okehampton in Devonshire.

The late Mr. John Thomas may also be included among those who have acquired fortunes and displayed ability at Truro: after retiring early in life to Chiverton, a paternal property in Perran Zabuloe, where he built an excellent house, Mr. Thomas was placed in the honourable office of Vice-Warden, which he executed with great credit for more than thirty years.

Among persons distinguished for talents, one cannot omit Mr. Samuel Foote; he was born here about the year 1720, although the family seat was Lambessa, in the adjoining parish of St. Clement. His mother was the sister of Sir John Dinely Goodere and of Samuel Goodere, a Captain in the Navy, whose history almost equals in depth of misery the well-known tragedy of Penryn; and it is a curious circumstance that Mr. Foote’s first publication is a complete narrative of this most melancholy affair, in a pamphlet signed with his name, and addressed to Henry Combe, Esq. then Mayor of Bristol, in 1741. Mr. Foote’s life and adventures are before the public in various forms.

Recently two natives of Truro have distinguished themselves throughout Europe by a most important geographical discovery. The Mr. Landers, as is well known, descended a large river from the interior of Africa to the sea, at what is called the Bite of Benin, where the river loses itself by flowing in divided streams through a delta created by the deposit of alluvial debris, brought down from the highlands by the force of its own current.

A monument is now constructing on an elevated piece of ground at the southern extremity of the town, in memory of the brother, who has most unfortunately lost his life in a second expedition, intended for the establishment of a 91 friendly and commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of countries thus brought within our reach.

An anecdote seems worth preserving relative to an invention, completely in anticipation of the use now made of steam for propelling vessels in all parts of the world. The mere idea of using this gigantic power instead of the human arm for moving boats and ships through the water, must have occurred to thousands; the mode of effecting the application is the real invention.

About sixty years ago Mr. Charles Warrick resided at Truro, a young man of some family and fortune, and bred to the law; a person of singular and eccentric habits, displaying much ability and genius in some cases, with an apparent want of both in others. Mr. Warrick partook of a taste very common in places situated on navigable rivers, for spending a large portion of his time on the water, or in making contrivances relative to navigation; and he constructed a boat with slender ribs, covered either with canvass or with paper soaked in substances that excluded water: on each side he appended a wheel connected together by an axis turned in the middle into the form of a staple, or what is called a double crank. In this boat he frequently paddled from Truro to Falmouth Harbour, moving the crank with his hands, and out-running all other boats; but no one thought of applying the construction to larger vessels, nor had he, in all probability, the slightest notion, that within half a century similar wheels and cranks, moved by steam-engines, would impel vessels of many hundred tons burden through the most tempestuous seas, and against winds and tides, over extensive oceans, with a safety and a precision almost equal to land conveyance.

As illustrative of the changes in all respects, that have taken place in the last three-quarters of a century, the following curious relation, although trifling in itself, may be allowed to find a place.

A family about to embark at Falmouth, no longer ago than the year 1748 or 1749, hired a coach and horses in 92 London to convey them there, a system of travelling practised on the continent up to the present time; the driver having delivered his charge, made known his desire for obtaining, what he perhaps denominated a back-freight, on easy terms, and a party of young men availed themselves of the opportunity, stipulating, however, that in the event of their reaching a town at any part of the day where cockfighting would take place in the evening, the coach should lie by to afford them an opportunity of being present at the diversion.

Truro has not been measured as a distinct parish, and is therefore included in Kenwyn.

giving an increase of 24 per cent. in 30 years.

It must be observed, that the amount of Real Property, the Poor Rate, and the Population, relate only to the ward rather than the parish of St. Mary, constituting Old Truro. In a note attached to the last Population Abstracts, it is said that the whole town is supposed to have contained 8,468 inhabitants in the year 1831.

The present Rector of Truro is the Rev. E. Dix, who was presented by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1833. The net value of the living, as returned in 1831, was 135l.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The town of Truro stands on the same kind of argillaceous slate that prevails in the adjoining parishes of Kenwyn and St. Clement’s.

[6] Brady on Boroughs, p. 42.

[7] Brady, p. 43.

[8] Brady, p. 43, from Dugd. Bar fol. 610.

[9] Brady, ibid.

[10] Brady, p. 44.

[11] Brady, p. 44.

[12] Ibid.

ST. TUDY.

HALS.

St. Tudy, alias St. Tidy or Tudy, is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Michaelstow, east Brewar, south St. Mabyn, west St. Kew. For those names, they are all synonymous, and signify St. Udye, or St. Udith, (or the Holy Udith,) referring to the name of St. Udith, the tutelar guardian and patroness of this church, and by the name of Mama Tedy or Tidy,[13] i. e. Mother Udith, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, which plainly shows here was an endowed rectory church dedicated to her before that time. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de St. Tudy, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was valued 1294 for its revenues, cs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £31; the patronage in ——; the incumbent Trelawny. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of St. Udy, £144.

The history of St. Udith is as followeth: she was the natural daughter of King Edgar, by the lady Wolfchild, who was afterwards made Lady Abbess or mother of the maids of the Nunnery of Wilton in Wiltshire, wherein she demeaned herself so well as to her conduct, piety, and purity, that, as Capgrave tells us, she obtained the reputation of a saint, though the author of Polychronicon, Liber 6, chapter 9, tells us, that Bishop Ethel wold sharply reproved her, for deviating from her rule, and being too curious in her attire; to whom she replied that God regarded the heart more than garments, and that sin might be 94 covered as well with rags as robes; to which the Bishop answered, that, though our corrupt mortal bodies were covered with silk, silver, and gold, it could neither procure a minute’s life or health for us, nor hide our sins from God’s sight, but were rather an argument of our pride and vanity, than sincerity or humility.

After the brother of St. Udith, Edward the Martyr, was slain, St. Dunstan had a mind to make her Queen of England to defeat Etheldred the lawful heir, but her piety or policy would not permit her to accept the proffer: she died Anno Dom. 984, and was buried in the church of Denis of her own building at Wilton. She is commonly called Udith the younger, to distinguish her from St. Udith her aunt.

Hengar was formerly the seat of the Billings, alias Trelanders, whose daughter and heir was married to John Trelawny of Coldrinick, esq. by whom she had no issue; after his decease she was married to Dr. Lower, Physician in Ordinary to King Charles the Second, by whom he had three daughters, one married to Edward Morice of Werrington, esq. (by whom she had no issue); after his decease she was married to the honourable Major-General Charles Trelawny, governor of the Royal Citadel of Plymouth, now in possession of this place. Another daughter was married to Captain Mitchell; the third to —— Lower of St. Winnow.

Pen-vos, alias Pen-vose. It is now the dwelling of Humphrey Nicoll, esq. Commissioner for the Peace, that married —— Cudworth.

In this parish as I take it, or St. Kew, is still to be seen the ruins of a once famous and treble intrenchment of our ancestors the Britains, called Dameliock Castle, and taxed by the name of Dimelihoc, in the Domesday Book 1087, wherein Gothlois, (i. e. purple back or spear,) Earl of Cornwall immured or fortified himself against Uter Pendragon’s soldiers: in which place he was by them slain about the fifth century, as our annalists tell us (see Dundagell).

Damelyock, alias Daimelack, as a monosyllable in British, 95 Scotch, and Irish, signifies the hazard, skirmish, or battle house or place. The lands about this fort and castle, since its first erection, have been enclosed and cultivated, so that now it is comparatively defaced, but not so much as to obscure this treble ditch, camp, or intrenchment, from the sight of spectators or observators, or to obliterate its ancient name aforesaid; but query, whether this Dameliock Castle be not in St. Kew and St. Teath?

Those Billings, alias Trelawders, mentioned on the other side, were gentlemen of blood and arms of three or four descents, and at Hengar, alias Hanger or St. Mabyn, married with the daughters of Blewet of Colon (who gave for their arms, Gules, a chevron between three eagles displayed Vert), Babb of Tingraze in Devon, Hockyn of Helland, and Helston in Cornwall, and gave for their own arms, in a field Or, on a bend Sable three stag’s or buck’s heads couped at the neck Or, attired and armed of the Field. The which Billing, heir of St. Mabin, was married to Hamley of Treblethick 1630.

Note further, that Tredinick of St. Breock gave the same arms as Billing or Trelawder of Hengar, only differenced with the colour of the stag’s or buck’s heads, viz. in a field Or, on a bend Sable, three buck’s heads attired or armed Argent.

TONKIN.

St Tudy, in the hundred of Trigg, hath to the northwest St. Kew, to the north that and St. Teath, to the east Michaelstow and Brewer, to the south St. Mabin.

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. this church by the name of St Tudy, was valued (Tax. Ben.) at cs. having never been appropriated.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book very high, £31; the patronage in Christ Church College, Oxford; the present incumbent Mr. George Allanson (vicar likewise of Budock and Gluvias) who succeeded —— Collier.

96 The manor of Tinten, id est [as the name appears below to be Tynton, Din Don, Tin Ton, the hill house. W.]

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, fol. 47 b.) this is valued in twelve.

This was anciently the seat of the family of the same name. Johannes de Tynten is named among the knights of the county of Cornwall, 17 Edward II. when John de Treiagu was Sheriff (Ibid. fol. 51). Johannes de Tynton (probably his father, for this was no knight) was one of those that had £20 per annum of land or rent or more, in the county of Cornwall, 25 Edward I. John de Tinten held one fee Mort. [of the honour of Morton] in Tynten, and in Trewinneck, 3 Henry IV. (ibid fol. 42 b.)

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish is adorned with several splendid monuments, one to Mr. Anthony Nicoll, who distinguished himself in the Civil War, and another representing a mother and three daughters kneeling, with various arms emblazoned over them, Reskymer, Courtenay, Mohun, Trelawny, &c.

St. Editha, the patroness of this church, as Mr. Hals conjectures on the assumed authority of Domesday Book, must have acquired a high degree of sanctity at a very early period of life, having died in her twenty-fourth year, after passing her time from childhood in the convent at Wilton, of which her mother was abbess; and, therefore, as it is observed in the Roman Martyrology, “She may be said rather not to have known the world than to have left it;” but she fasted, wore hair-cloth next her skin, and chose to perform every office that was most disgusting or loathsome. In recompense, her beatitude was attested, according to William of Malmesbury, in a most decisive manner; who says, that while Canute celebrated the festival of Whitsuntide at Wilton, he spoke with ridicule of St. Editha, adding, that he never could believe the daughter 97 of King Edgar could be a saint, who had always addicted himself to acts of tyranny, and to the indulgence of bad passions. Ethelnodus, the archbishop, then present, contradicted the king, and proceeded to open the tomb of the virgin saint; when, raising herself up so as to sit, she seemed to attack the contumaceous king; and he, terrified, fell prostrate on the ground, apparently without life; but recovering, he expressed great joy, that by a renovation of his existence he found himself in a situation to be penitent for his fault.

The presentation to this rectory is in the Dean and Canons of Christ Church. The Rev. Charles Hodgson, late student, presented in 1817, is the present incumbent.

The whole parish appears to be well cultivated, notwithstanding that it adjoins the granite district of St. Breward or Simonward, and it is agreeably diversified by hill and dale.

It appears from Mr. Lysons that the manor of St. Tudy belonged to the family of Nicoll, but that it was sold together with Penrose, the family seat, to Mr. Trehawke of Leskeard, by whom they have been devised to Samuel Kekewich, esq.

The manor of Tinten, like so many others, either gave its name to the ancient proprietors, or received it from them. An heiress took it to the Carminows of Boconnoc. The Carminow property passed to the Courtenays, and fell to the Crown on the attainder of the Marquis of Exeter. This manor was included by King Henry the Eighth in the exchange given for the honour of Wallingford.

The manor of Kellygreen belongs to Walter Raleigh Gilbert, esq.

Tremeer was a seat of the Lowers, the birth-place of Sir William Lower, the author of various works.

The Phœnix in her flames, a Tragedy.

Polyenetes, or the Martyr, a Tragedy.

Horatius, a Roman Tragedy.

The Enchanted Lovers, a Pastoral.

98 The Amorous Fantasme, Tragi-Comedy.

Noble Ingratitude.

Journal of the Travels of King Charles the Second in Holland; and others.

He died in 1662.

Here also was born Richard Lower, M.D. brother of the former, who lived to the year 1690. This gentleman published various medical works, and some papers in the Philosophical Transactions. One of his works, “Tractatus de Corde, item Motu et Calore Sanguinis et Chyli in eorum transitu,” reached a third edition in England, and was reprinted abroad.

Hengar is a handsome seat, very pleasantly situated on a rising ground, and at a small distance from the house a prospect is obtained of great extent and beauty, in consequence of an admixture of all the varieties of scenery which distinguish Cornwall —granite mountains, undulating hills of the slate formation, deep valleys with streams of water, and trees, and finally the sea. This place was the occasional residence of Matthew Michell, esq. acquired under the will of Samuel Michell, a Colonel in the Guards, who died there in 1786, after attaining his eighty-fifth year. Mr. Matthew Michell has left this place with all his property to his widow, who is again married to a gentleman of the name of Searle.

St. Tudy measures 2881 statute acres.

giving an increase of 31 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish no where reaches so far as the granite hills. Its eastern part is composed of rocks which pass into the 99 porphyritic series of St. Breward; the western part rests on the same kind of rocks as those of the adjoining parish of St. Teath.

[13] No such name appears in the index to Domesday Book; nor should we expect it. On the contrary, this place is probably the Tewardevi of the Domesday survey. Edit.

TYWARDRETH.

HALS.

Tywardreth is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Lanlivery and Luxillian, south the British Channel, east Giant and Fowey Town, west St. Blazey. The name signifieth the house upon the sand; and by the same name of Tywardrai, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Ecclesia de Tywardreth, in decanatu de Powdre, was valued at cvis. viiid.; in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £9. 6s. 8d.; the patronage formerly in the abbat of Tywardreth, now Rashleigh; the incumbent —— Woolridge; the rectory in Rashleigh; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year £205. This church is wholly appropriated or impropriated to the prior or abbat of Tywardreth, before the statute of Richard II.; and the vicar was paid only with £11 modus or stipend per annum, out of the Duchy Exchequer of Lestwithiel. It was the chief alien priory in those parts, which name of alien priors or abbats arose soon after the Norman Conquest, when certain Englishmen, Normans, and French, gave lands in England to Monasteries beyond the seas; upon which the monks built convenient houses 100 for increasing the number of those under their own rule, and to inspect their revenues and tithes, in which houses they planted a suitable number of monks, under a superior or steward. This priory or abbey was therefore accordingly made subject to the Abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus of Angiers in France, soon after the Norman Conquest (to whom also is dedicated their church of Luxillian).

The history of whom is as followeth: These saints were Christians and Noblemen of the City of Constantinople; the one Primicerius, and the other Secondicerius; that is to say, Sergius the First, and Bacchus the Second, Secretaries of State to the Emperor Maximian; who for that they would not join with him in sacrificing to the Roman gods or idols, were cruelly tormented by the common hangman, and lastly had their heads chopped off, 7th October 310. There is pious mention of those saints in the Second Nicene Council, Martyrologers, and otherwise; and many churches are dedicated to them in Constantinople, and other parts of Christendom; and the place in Asia where St. Sergius suffered, is called Sergiopolis to this day.

This abbey was first founded by William Earl of Morton and Cornwall, according to the rule of Augustine and Benedict. It was afterwards re-edified and greatly augmented in its revenues by Robert de Cardinham, tempore Richard I. 1190, (see the Monasticon Anglicanum of Dugdale); for which reason he is by some persons taken to be the founder thereof.

This Robert de Cardinham I take to be the same person mentioned by the name of Robert de Cardinam, (Survey Cornwall, page 44), who held by the tenure of knight service seventy-one knight’s fees of Morton in Cornwall, tempore Richard I.

This abbey or priory house and church of Tywardreth, was dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle and Martyr of Christ, whose history followeth. He was born at Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, elder brother of St. Peter, 101 and disciple of St. John Baptist, and was present when he pointed at Jesus, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;” whereupon he left St. John Baptist and followed Christ. Who, for that, after our Saviour’s Crucifixion, he would not sacrifice to the Roman Gods or Idols, at the command of Egeus Proconsul of Rome, sent governor into the province of Achaia, was crucified as his Lord and Master was, 30 November, Anno Dom. 60, in the reign of the Emperor Nero.

His body was afterwards translated to Constantinople, from thence to Italy, and lastly to Amalphy in Naples, where it still remains.

Now, by reason these alien priories transmitted to their superiors beyond the seas the news and state of affairs in this land, whereby the designs and undertakings of our princes were divulged to their enemies in their French wars; therefore all those sort of religious houses of this kind were suppressed by Act of Parliament, tempore Edward III. Richard II. Henry V. and Henry VI.; and amongst them in Cornwall, Minster, alias Tolcarne, in Trigmajor, and Minster in Kerryer; St. Neot and St. Bennett’s in Lanyvet in Pider were put down, and their lands confiscated to the Crown; but this priory of Tywardreth, for its loyalty or integrity, or for some other reason of security, stood firm till the general dissolution of all those religious houses, 26 Henry VIII. when the revenues of this abbey, according to Dugdale, was £123. 9s. 3d. Speed £151. 6s. 8d. as is set down in their Monasticon Anglicanum.

Mena-belly, alias Mena-billy, in this parish, is the dwelling of Jonathan Rashleigh, esq. Commissioner for the Peace and Taxes, and some time Member of Parliament for Fowey, that married Carew of Anthony, his father Sawle, his grandfather Bonython, his great-grandfather Lanyon. Originally descended and denominated from the 102 local place of Rashleigh house, in or about Raneleigh parish in Chulmleigh Hundred in Devon.

In this parish, towards the sea coast, is that famous camp or treble intrenchment, called Castle Dore, consisting of a threefold trench cast up of earth, in which heretofore our ancestors the Britons fortified themselves against their enemies; out of which, as common report saith, tempore Charles II. some dreamers of money hid in this camp or place, upon search made, accordingly found such treasure as they much enriched themselves thereby.

TONKIN.

Trewardreth is in the hundred of Powder; for the name, it signifies the village or the house upon the sand. It is a vicarage, not valued in the King’s Book, as having been but lately endowed; the late incumbent was Mr. May, likewise Rector of St. Mewan, who died this year (1732).

In the year 1291, 20th Edward I. the rectory of this church was valued at £5. 6s. 8d. being appropriated to the priory here; and the vicarage at 13s. 4d.

In 3 Henry IV. William de Campo Arnulphi [or Champernoun] held here one fee, from whom the prior held three acres and a half in the same. There are what are still called the priory lands. But to go further back, as Robert de Cardinam was the founder of this priory in the time of Richard the First, according to Bishop Tanner in his Notitia Monastica, this must be one of the seventy knight’s fees, which the said Robert held in this county, 6th Richard I. who by consequence must then have been lord of this manor. In Domesday Book it is, by the name of Tiwardrai, numbered among the manors which William the Conqueror gave to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

Leland says of this place, Tywardreth, “A praty town, but no market, lieth a quarter of a mile from the east side of the bay; there is a parish church, and there was a priory 103 of black monks, a cell sometime to a house in Normandy. Some say Campernulphus was founder of this priory; some say that Cardinham was founder. Arundell of Lanherne was of late taken for the founder.

“I saw a tomb in the west part of the church of this priory, with this inscription:

Hæc est Tumba
Roberti filii Wilhelmi.

“This Robert Fitz William was a man of fair lands, tempore Edwardi tertii Regis Angliæ.”

THE EDITOR.

The parish church and tower bear on the exterior an appearance of antiquity. Internally, much decoration was displayed, and especially by a rood-loft which has been recently taken down. These alterations of our ancient churches are justly lamented by all persons capable of admiring the beauty and imposing splendour of Gothic architecture, but they seem to have almost inevitably grown out of the change of purpose to which churches are applied. Originally, the chancel, protected by the rood loft and by a veiled entrance, was destined for the astounding miracle of repeatedly transforming bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ, while the outward or less sacred part of the edifice, was used for processions and scenic exhibitions; accompanied by dirges or by triumphant choruses, adapted either to the death or to the resurrection of our Saviour. In modern times, on the contrary, a room is required so constructed as to admit of whole congregations joining with an individual in prayers, or of listening to his instruction.

The monastery has so completely disappeared, that its precise locality was not remembered; but a gentleman of the neighbourhood having taken considerable pains to 104 ascertain whatever could yet be discovered about it, made the following communication to the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1822.

“The ancient priory of Tywardreth has long been so entirely levelled with the ground, that it is not very easy even to ascertain its site. Some time ago the present vicar obtained leave to dig the ground on its supposed site in search of stones for erecting a vicarage house. The place where he made an excavation for this purpose appears to have been the east end of the priory chapel; and as some measurements were taken at the time, and I have, with the permission of the landlord, opened the ground in several places, partly with the hope of ascertaining the form of the chapel, and partly of throwing some light on its architecture, the following particulars may not be unacceptable.

“The chapel appears, so far as could be ascertained by measurement, to have been eighty feet long, by fifty-seven wide, with a semicircular end towards the east, strengthened by four buttresses of wrought Pentewan stone, two feet wide, and ornamented by four pilasters; within the shafts are a single half-column, fourteen inches in diameter. At each angle was a handsome piece of architecture, as it was described to me, of which pilasters, resembling those already described, formed a part, but with the base five inches wide, and the mouldings in proportion.

“In the vicarage garden, adjoining the west end of the chapel, a fragment of a stone arch was found, with a fleur-de-lis elegantly carved in deep relief; the same devise appears on the church stile, and in a coat of arms in one of the windows of the church, and appears from Tanner to have been part of the arms of the priory. The wall of the chapel is the south wall of the churchyard.

“The chapel was paved with beach pebbles, and was built partly of common clay slate raised on the spot; the wrought stones were of compact hard porphyry, from Pentewan Quarry in the parish of St. Austell, and hornblende from the cliff between Duporth and Charlestown in the same 105 parish. All the carved work is executed with much skill and taste.”

Several charters granted to this monastery are preserved in Dugdale’s Monasticon. The earliest is in the 19th year of Henry the Third, A. D. 1234, as follows:

“Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Dominus Hiberniæ Dux Normandiæ et Aquitaniæ, et Comes Andegaviæ, omnibus Archiepiscopis, &c. salutem. Inspeximus cartam Roberti de Cardinam, in hæc verba:—

“Robertus de Cardinam omnibus Sanctæ Matris Ecclesiæ filiis salutem. Sciatis me, pro Dei amore et animæ meæ salute, concessisse et præsenti carta mea confirmasse ecclesiæ sanctorum martyrum, Sergii et Bachi Andegavi, et ecclesiæ Sancti Andreæ de Tywordrait et Monachis ibidem Deo servientibus et servituris, omnes donationes et concessiones quas antecessores mei, seu quicunque fideles de feodo meo ipsis fecerint,” &c.

The seal of the convent is understood to have been a saltire, or St. Andrew’s cross Or, between four fleurs-de-lis, which accounts for the sculptures noticed above.

St. Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland, and popular throughout the whole island, after an Abbat, said to have borne the name of Regulus, had brought some of his relics to a place then called Abernethy, but where a Monastery, a University, and a city, have since arisen to commemorate the Apostle.

The priory of Tywardreth appears to have been suppressed with the other alien houses, but afterwards to have been re-established as an independent society, or made denizen according to the legal phrase, having at the time of the general dissolution the Priory of Minster attached to it as a cell, which had been originally dependent with itself on the Abbey of St. Sergius and St. Bacchus at Angiers, the former capital of Anjou, and now of the department of the Maine and Loire.

A very curious correspondence between Thomas Cromwell, Vicar-General and Vicegerent of the King’s Supremacy on the one part, and Thomas Collyns the last Prior 106 on the other, is said to exist among the papers and documents preserved by the Arundells of Lanhearn, and of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire.[14]

In one of the letters Cromwell is understood to have complimented the Prior on the possession of every active virtue, especially as displayed in the good government of his convent; he assures him that the King is fully sensible of his merits; and in consideration of his great age and faithful services, the King out of special grace and favour would allow him not only to resign the painful office of governing such a society, but would admit of his recommending a successor.

Collyns’s answer is full of thanks to the Lord Vicegerent, and of gratitude to the King, whose approbation he esteemed above all worldly matters, and next to the conscious satisfaction of having discharged faithfully his duties towards the Almighty in the station to which it pleased God that, without any merits of his own, he should be advanced. He offered his most humble and grateful thanks to the King for the great favours profferred to him; but that, feeling his health and strength sufficient for enabling him to continue the discharge of duties which the King had approved, he owed it to his conscience not to withdraw from them.

This brought a letter from Cromwell, declaring that the horrible savour of his sins, his crimes, and his iniquities had ascended before the Lord; and that, unless he immediately relinquished an office which he had most grossly abused, an ecclesiastical commission would proceed to inquire into his misdeeds, and to punish him accordingly. This latter is understood to have produced either an immediate surrender of the priory, or Collyns’s resignation preparatory to it. He was elected in 1506, and died in 1539, as appears from his tombstone in the chancel.

107 The site of this priory was granted in 1542 to Edward Seymour, then Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, and Protector. It subsequently became the joint property of the St. Aubyns and the Pendarveses of Roscrow. The late Lord Dunstanville inherited the latter portion, and acquired the former by purchase.

It seems that a manor of Tywardreth, which in early times must have been paramount over the others, passed from Ricardus Dapifer to the Cardinhams. Mr. Lysons says it was sold towards the latter part of the 13th century, by Isolda de Cardinham to the Champernownes, for a hundred pounds. From this family it passed to the Herles and Bonvilles, and fell to the Crown on the attainder of the Duke of Suffolk in 1554. It belonged to the family of Rashleigh, in the early part of the subsequent century; with whom it still remains, including the entire impropriation of the great and small tithes.

Menabilly has been the seat of that distinguished family for a period of at least two hundred years. At the last visitation of the Heralds in 1620, Jonathan Rashleigh of Fowey, who married Alice, daughter of —— Bonithan of Kertleowe, is said to be alive, having two sons. The eldest John Rashleigh, aged 34, and Jonathan Rashleigh the second. John Rashleigh, ancestor of these two brothers, in the fifth degree, is stated to have been of Barnstaple.

Individuals of this family have represented Fowey during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Charles the First, Charles the Second, and King William; and since the accession of King George the Second, up to very recent times, scarcely a Parliament has been assembled that could not count a Rashleigh among its members.

Mr. Jonathan Rashleigh was elected Member for Fowey in 1728, and continued to represent that town in eight successive Parliaments, and in the last with his eldest son.

This gentleman married Mary, daughter of Sir William Clayton of Surrey, and died in 1764, leaving a very numerous family, all of whom have been distinguished as persons 108 of ability, of integrity, and of honour, followers of the best advice said ever to have been given by a parent.

Mr. Philip Rashleigh, the eldest brother, represented Fowey during a length of time almost equal to that of his father. He greatly improved the family seat, but especially distinguished Menabilly by placing there the most extensive and magnificent collection of Cornish minerals, enriched by others from every part of the known world, that could any where be seen. And Mr. Rashleigh has given to the public, in two thin quarto volumes, fifty-three coloured plates, with descriptions of the most choice or rare specimens. The work is entitled, “Specimens of British Minerals, selected from the Cabinet of Philip Rashleigh, with general descriptions of each article,” printed by Bulmer and Co. the first volume in 1797, and the second in 1802. At the end of the second volume is added a Geological Plate, being a section of the stream work at Porth in the parish of St. Blazey, about a quarter of a mile from high water-mark, containing the position and measurement of ten distinctly marked deposits, with subdivisions, accompanied by descriptions of each; the whole extending to a depth of 44 feet: and what adds to the value of this section, the stream work was destroyed by a very high tide about the period when the volume was published.

In addition to this scientific collection, Mr. Rashleigh constructed a grotto at some distance from the house, encrusted on the inside by some common but splendid minerals, exhibiting also the position of lodes, their heaves, their slides, &c. and this was liberally thrown open to all persons applying for admission.

Mr. Rashleigh married very late in life, and dying without children, left his ample estate to William, the eldest son of his next brother, the Reverend Jonathan Rashleigh, Rector of Silverton in Devonshire.

109 Mr. William Rashleigh succeeded his uncle in the representation of Fowey, but voluntarily retired from public life to enjoy domestic happiness, with the esteem and regard of every one who has good fortune to be numbered among his acquaintances.

Polkerris, a small harbour near Menabilly, as indeed is indicated by the first syllable of the name, has been improved, perhaps as a matter of fancy, by the Rashleigh family. Mr. Jonathan Rashleigh built a pier capable of giving shelter to coasting vessels and boats; and his son the late Mr. Philip Rashleigh continued a sean fishery for the benefit of the neighbourhood.

Kilmarth, which formerly belonged to a family called Baker, is also the property of Mr. Rashleigh; the house is placed on a very elevated piece of ground near the road leading from St. Austell to Fowey.

Treveryan once belonged to a branch of the Courtenays: it passed by a purchase to John Thomas, esq. by whom the house was built. Mr. Thomas devised it to the Reverend John Thomas Thomson, who died at Penzance in 1811; and the estate now belongs to his son Henry Thomson, esq. resident at Lostwithiel, a magistrate, and late a captain in the Cornwall militia.

Tywardreth measures 2967 statute acres.

giving an increase of nearly 215 per cent. in 30 years.

This great increase in the number of inhabitants is occasioned by that parish and the neighbourhood becoming a mining district.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Thomas Pearce, presented by W. Rashleigh, esq. in 1820. The net value of the living, as returned in 1831, was 135l.

110 GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The extreme northern part of this parish, in an angular form, extends upon the granite, surrounded on all sides by the granite of Lanlivery. The remaining parts of the parish are composed of schistose rocks, which next the granite are of the porphyritic series, but become of a doubtful nature in the southern extremity; these latter belong perhaps to the calcareous series, as do also some of the rocks in the adjoining parish of Fowey. The felspathic rocks next the granite, like those of St. Austell, are metalliferous, as is proved by the important mines of Lanescot and Fowey Consols.

[14] A list of the Priors of Tywardreth, and extracts from a Calendar of the Priory, now in the possession of Lord Arundell, have been recently published in vol. III. of “Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” 1835.

ST. VEEP.

HALS.

St. Veep is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north St. Wenow, east Lanreth, south Lanteglos, west Fowey river or haven. It was the church of the Abbat or Prior of St. Carock’s monastery in this parish, for whom William Earl of Morton built and first endowed it.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Lanreth. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Wepe or Weep, in decanatu de West, was rated cs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £5. 0s. 6d. by the name of St. Wepe. The patronage formerly in the prior of St. Carock, now in Wrey; the incumbent —— Tyncomb; the rectory in possession of —— Wrey; and the parish rated 111 to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, £229.

In this parish is the priory called Carock St. Pill, in which place William Earl of Morton and Cornwall founded and endowed an house of Cluniac monks, and dedicated the same to St. Sergius.

In this cell of St. Syriac lived that celebrated author Walter de Exeter, a Benedictine Monk 1292, as Isaack in his Memorials of Exeter calls him, with greater probability than that he was a Dominican friar, as Bale saith, or a Franciscan friar as Mr. Carew tells us (Survey of Cornwall, page 59); who, at the request of Baldwin of Exeter, writ the life of Guy Earl of Warwick, who was the son of Syward Baron of Wallingford, and married Felicia, daughter and heir of Rohand Earl of Warwick; which Guy, at the request of King Athelstan, fought a combat with Colbrand the Danish giant, and slew him, since which time his valour and conduct hath been very famous.

And Walter of Exeter for this book, and his skill in other histories, hath by Bale given him this character:—“In historiarum cognitione non fuit ultimus,” that he was none of the meanest historians of his time; though Mr. Carew saith he only deformed the history of Guy of Warwick.

The house and chapel aforesaid, except the windows, is now quite dilapidated, the burying place made a garden, and a new dwelling house erected near it with the stones thereof on its barton lands, now pertaining to the heirs of Carter and Sillye. The fee-farm rent of £5 per annum is paid to the king or prince, and is exempted from payment of tithes.

In this parish at Botowne, i. e. cow town, is the dwelling of —— Hawke, gentleman.

TONKIN.

St. Veep, in the hundred of West, is bounded to the west by the river Fowey, to the north by St. Winnow, to the east by Lanreath, to the south by Lanteglos.

112 This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, £5; the patronage in Sir Bourchier Wrey, Bart.

In anno 1201, 20 Edw. I. the rectory of this church was valued (Tax. Ben.) at cs. being appropriated to the Priory of Montacute in Somerset; but “vicar ejusdem taxatur nihil propter paupertatem.”

The chief, or at least one of the most noted estates in this parish, is

THE MANOR OF MANELY OR MENELY.

This, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. is valued in twelve. (Carew, fol. 49.) In 3 Henry IV. Matilda de Hewish held half of a small fee of Mort. [Morton honour] in Manely. (Ibid. fol. 42.)

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish is situated on an elevated ridge of land, and is therefore conspicuous to a considerable distance. It contains several monuments, and in the churchyard is a memorial of Nicholas Courtenay, one of the family to whom lands in this parish, parcel of Montacute priory, were granted by King Henry the Eighth.

There are two places in St. Veep especially deserving of attention. One the site of an ancient monastery constituted on the smallest scale.

Tanner has given a list of the various names by which this little priory appears to have been called in early times. St. Syriac, St. Ciriac, St. Carricius, St. Kerrocus, St. Cyret, and St. Julette. It was a small cell of two monks only, dependent on Montacute; and being mentioned by Gervase of Canterbury, it is known to have existed at the least so early as the time of King Richard the First.

The church of St. Currie, or Karentocus, was given to the monks of Montacute by their founder.

113 This cell occurs but once in Pope Nicholas’s Taxation.

Prior de Sancto Karabo (or by a various reading S^to. Karoko) habet de redditu in decanatu de Westweleschire, et Major Tregeschire, £2.

In the valuation returned to King Henry the Eighth, and preserved in the Augmentation Office, this small establishment is said to possess a revenue of £11. 1s.

It appears to have been valued as a separate house from the parent establishment, although the return states, Cella Sancti Kaboci in comitatu prædicto, dicto Prioratui de Monte Acuto appertinens, unde Laurencius Castelton est Prior, est dative et removabile dicti Prioris de Monte Acuto.

The site was granted in the 37th of Henry VIII. as parcel of the possessions of Montacute, to Laurence Courtenay.

St. Cyric’s Creek, by which this house stood, is said to have derived its name from a saint so called, who was buried there, perhaps in the very place where the small monastery stood. The place has long since acquired the appellation of St. Cadix; it belongs to the coheiresses of the family of Wymond.

It is certainly a curious circumstance, that a work which engaged the attention and even the admiration of England for a long period of years, should have emanated in any way from a remote cell, consisting of two monks. Mr. Carew assigns 1292 for the date of this work; but Mr. Warton says, in his History of English Poetry, that a life of Guy Earl of Warwick was written by Giraldus Cambrensis, who died about the year 1220; but the history of our renowned champion has been composed in Norman French, and in old English, both in prose and in verse; moreover, the first part of the romance describing the adventures of a preux chevalier combating à la outrance to recommend himself to the favour of his lady love, is clearly by a different hand, and even of another age from the second part, which represents him deserting the idol of 114 his affection; journeying to Palastine; and on his arrival back to England, instead of repairing to Warwick Castle, the abode and rich inheritance of his wife the Lady Felicia, retiring to a cell, and taking alms at the castle gate, on the supposition that a powerful and malignant demon, the creation of perverted imagination in those times of ignorance, and blasphemously named after the Divinity, might be propitiated by such disgusting observances, and by human misery. The monk of St. Cyric may therefore have blended, enlarged, abridged, versified, or rendered into prose the achievements of Sir Guy, and his performance may have been peculiarly suited to the taste of his age.

The second place to be noticed is Trevelyan, the original seat of the very ancient and respected family that has resided for the last three hundred years at Nettlecombe in Somersetshire, which they acquired by a marriage with the heiress of Whalesborowe. The names of Whalesborough and of Trevelyan occur among the Sheriffs of Cornwall in the time of the Plantagenets, and also together as representatives of the county; and the name of Trevelyan may be found in the same lists for the county of Somerset. It is extraordinary that of this ancient seat one half only belongs to the family. It would almost suggest the suspicion of the other part being lost from want of attention, when the intercourse between distant places was interrupted by difficulties unknown to modern travellers. Few traces remain of the ancient mansion.

Mr. Lysons notices several manors in this parish, with their descents or sales, but without any thing that can make them interesting, except perhaps the notice that a manor called Manely Coleshill formed a part of the ample estate possessed by Lord Chief Justice Trevilyan.

Mr. Howell and Mr. Rashleigh are proprietors. The advowson of the vicarage is divided, and in private patronage.

The Rev. Nicholas Every the present incumbent.

It is said that the cavalry commanded by King Charles 115 the First was stationed at St. Veep when the infantry of the opposite army capitulated at Fowey. This station was probably selected for the purpose of preventing a retreat to Plymouth; which however the cavalry effected by passing the river some miles higher up, but not without much blame attaching to many officers on the royalist side, and especially to General Goring.

St. Veep measures 2394 statute acres.

giving an increase of 38 per cent. in 30 years.

Net Value of the benefice in 1831, £215.

Since the above was written, Mr. Every, Vicar of this parish, and a magistrate in the prime of life, is no more.—1836.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish belong to the calcareous series, and are similar to those of Lanreath and Lanteglos.

VERYAN.

HALS.

Veryan is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Tregony and Ruan Lanyhorne, east Caryhayes, west Philley, south the British Channel.

Sure I am that in the Domesday Book 1087, this church 116 or district was taxed under the name and jurisdiction of Elerchy, situate upon the lands of the Bishop of Bodman, now the Bishop of Exeter’s manor of Elerchy; and by the same name it was taxed in the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, where we read Ecclesia de Elerky in decanatu de Powdre £10. vicar’ ejusdem 40s.; and in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, alias St. Verian as aforesaid, £19; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent ——; the rectory in possession of ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, £216. 9s. by the name of Verian.

Note further, that Cæsar in his Commentaries mentions several places in Gallia, called Elerci and Aulerci, from whence this word came into Britain. Those were of four sorts, viz. Aulerci Eburorices, now Eureæ in Normandy, Aulerci Diablentres, Aulerci Cenomanni, now Mans, and Elerci Branovices.

In this parish is the dwelling by lease of Richard Trevanion, gent. captain of a foot company in the militia, that married —— Maunder, his father ——, his grandfather Arundell, originally descended from the Trevanions of Tregarthin and Caryhayes, and giveth the same arms with them. His son Richard, that married —— Verman, was bred up in the school of Mars, under King William III. in his wars, wherein he accompanied him as captain of a foot company in all his Irish and Flanders war; and lastly, was posted to the command of Pendenis Castle in Cornwall, where he died. His son Nicholas was also bred up in the marine regiments of King William III. and afterwards had the command of the ——, a third-rate man-of-war, and demeaned himself so well therein, in point of valour and conduct, that after King William’s death, he was knighted by Queen Anne, and is now one of the commissioners at the dock of Plymouth for the Admiralty.

In this parish also at ——, by lease, is the dwelling of John Robins, esq. some time Commissioner for 117 the Peace and Taxes, that married —— Thomas, his father —— Lawry, his grandfather ——, and giveth for his arms, of a supposed allusion to his name, Argent, a fess nebulé, between three Robin Red-breasts Proper; whereas, robin in Cornish is Robert in English, and roobron is red-breast.

In the Domesday Book are taxed also the vokelands of two other manors, which I take it are now dismembered and situate in this parish, viz. Treviles, or Trefilies, and Govile.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Veryan is in the hundred of Powder, and is bounded to the west by St. Just, [by Gerrans,] by Philleigh, by Ruan Lanyhorne, and by St. Cuby, [by Ruan Lanyhorne and the Fal,] to the east by St. Ewe and St. Michael Carhays, to the south by Gerrans and the sea [rather by the sea only, Gerrans being only west and south-west].

The name of this parish is a corruption, or rather abbreviation of St. Symphorian, of which name there are two; one, saith Mr. Willis (Not. Parl. vol.II. page 119), “born (as the Legenda Aurea tells us) in Augustinum, the head city of Burgundy, where he suffered martyrdom on the 22d of August, about the year 270.” The other [Mr. Willis’s own words are these, “though besides this person, I find mention made of another St. Simphorian, in Leland’s Collectanea, vol. I. a martyr, buried with St. Wolfran a Bishop at Grantham, to whose memory that church is dedicated. This St. Wulfran’s festival [was] celebrated the 15th of October.” (Note, that in many fines, records, &c. this parish is called Sancta Symphrogia, or Simphrosia, who was wife to Getulius, a rich citizen of Rome, and suffered martyrdom with him and seven of her sons at Rome, A. D. 136, under Adrian. See Le Seur, Hist. de l’Eglise et l’Empire, vol. I. page 516).

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, 118 £19; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Fincher; the sheaf in Mr. Richard Kempe of Tregony, by lease [from Mr. Weston, who had a lease transmitted, I believe, from his father, Bishop Weston]; who resigning in 1734, was succeeded by Mr. Question.

But the antient name of this parish was Elerky, and so it is still called in the King’s Book, as it is too in Taxatio Benefic. 20 Edw. I. “Ecclesia de Elerky 10 lib. vicar’ ejusdem, xl. solid.” from the great

MANOR OF ELERKY.

In Domesday Book it is called Elerchi, which signifies the swan’s house or swannery; for Elerk in Cornish is a swan, and there are the remains of a large pool under the house, which seems to have been designed to that end.

It is in the said book inserted among the manors given by William the Conqueror, to his half-brother Robert Earl of Morton and Cornwall.

Francis Tregian, esq. among the rest of his estates, forfeited his half of this manor.

WHITAKER.

The original name of this parish was the same with the name of the manor Elerchi, or Elerky; that the appellation of the manor in Domesday Book, this in the present time, and both derived from the manerial house. This house stood upon a rising ground, nearly opposite to the church, and on the west of it, which is now covered with several houses of a mean condition, and yet marked as something considerable to the eye, by a grove of tall trees upon it. The great house, which the ancestors of these trees shaded, has been long down, I suppose; and the mean houses on the ground have been constructed of the poorest remains of it. It was bounded on the south by the lane leading down 119 to its own mills, still called Elerky Mills, and distinctively noted as higher and lower; and on the east and north by its lively brook, without a name, that divides the glebe from the manor, then environs the house, and finally runs to the two mills below. The manor is accordingly noticed so late as the 5th of Charles the First, to have two mills within it. These mills even now proclaim their original relation to each other, by the restrictions which the higher is under to the lower, in not being able to keep up the water from the other, beyond a certain space of time. And the house thus environed by the brook could not have been very small, as it was the mansion of a district, which in the 12th of Edward the First was reckoned at forty-two acres, when so many are valued in much less, and when so few are valued in more; but whence is the original name of this house derived? Mr. Tonkin derives it from Elerk (C.) a swan, and makes Elerky to signify the swannery, adding, that “there are the remains of a large pool under the house, which seems to have been designed to that end.” In all that part of antiquarian researches where the eye is to be assisted by the imagination, and the past to be collected from the broken appearances of the present; every active and lively mind is apt to cry out against the creative fancies of the antiquarian poet, and to exclaim in the language of Shakspeare,

But this spirit of exclamation should be checked. What depends in any degree upon imagination, may by minds without imagination be easily turned into ridicule. What is only to be inferred by slow and painful collation of circumstances, will be ridiculed at once by those who are too brisk to be slow, and too lively to take pains. And the very ingeniousness of antiquaries themselves, will at times 120 be a snare to them also, by inducing them to cut short the labour of investigation, to ridicule the dull laboriousness of conjecturing industry, and to leap over the difficulty which it will not take the trouble to remove. On the whole, therefore, I think Mr. Tonkin’s etymology of Elerky to be the only one which is easy and natural, and his reference to “remains of a large pool under the house,” to be sufficiently grounded. There has evidently been something of the kind there. A little dam below would easily make one now. The remains were probably more in Mr. Tonkin’s time than they now are. And these corroborating, and corroborated by the positive import of Eala, (I.) Alarch (W.) and Elerk, Elerchy (C.) a swan, and the undoubted signification of the latter when thus combined Elerch Chy (C.) for a swan’s house, compel us to adopt the etymon.

But this name has been entirely superseded in popular use by the name of the saint. So much was the spiritual patron of a church considered and talked of, that his name was used to the total neglect of the other. But who was the saint of this church? Symphorian, says Mr. Tonkin; and Mr. Tonkin is right. It seems odd indeed to suppose such a corruption of a name as this; Symphorian changed into Veryan. But we see in Leland, (Itin. ii, 112), that the parish of Trevenny at Tintagel in this county, “is of S. Symphorian, ther caullid Simiferian.” This is exactly in point. Symphorian was called in this parish, as well as in Trevenny, Simiforian or Simiferian, in order to accommodate it more to our liquified pronunciation. It would then be sure to be abridged soon, for the more rapid pronunciation of it, by leaving out the first half of the name, and taking only the last, just as Elizabeth is popularly abbreviated into Bet. The name would thus be Phorian, Ferian, Voryan, or Verian; as we have an estate in the parish before, denominated Tre-Veryan, and as the ordinary appellation of the parish is St. Veryan in a record above, and in common conversation Veryan. And the time of observing the parish feast coincides with all, and 121 confirms it; Symphorian, of Autun in Burgundy, having suffered martyrdom the 22d of August; and the feast in honour of his martyrdom being observed accordingly. Eight years ago the feast was agreed, for the sake of the harvest, to be postponed one month; as, upon the same principle, the memory of the parishioners says, it had been previously postponed one fortnight. It is now kept on the first Sunday in October, was previously kept on the first in September, and originally on the third Sunday in August.

Nor can the name of St. Symphrogia, or Simprosia, which is said to occur as the title of the parish “in many fines, records, &c.” be any thing else than a corruption of St. Symphorian. And as a full evidence, I find the picture of St. Veryan and his wife were within memory to be seen in the eastern window of the church.

The square tower of Veryan church appears from its position on the side of the church, and at the south-western end of the chancel, to have been an addition to the church. After the lord had deserted Elerkey for Ruan, the lord’s chapel was lengthened out into a belfry, with a tower over it. The architecture of this tower seems to a passing eye different from that of the church itself. And within, I doubt not, evident traces will appear on examination, of the posteriority of the tower to the church.

THE EDITOR.

There is very little to add respecting Veryan. Mr. Lysons states that the manor of Elerkey, which gave its secular name to the parish, now lost in that of the patron saint, belonged with Ruan Lanihorne to the family of Archdeknes, from them it passed to the Lucys and Vaux, &c. and that it was finally purchased by the late Mr. Francis Gregor in 1790.

The Dean and Chapter of Exeter have the great tithes, and they are patrons of the vicarage; and, what is perhaps without example in reference to so fluctuating a body, three 122 successive vicars have stood in near relationship to each other. The Reverend Mr. Mills was succeeded by his son-in-law the Rev. Jeremiah Trist, and Mr. Trist by his son, the Rev. S. P. J. Trist, who was instituted in 1829. The net income of the benefice in 1831 was £339.

In the charter of William Earl of Morton, founding his priory of Montacute, among the endowments is the following: “Et in Cornubia Ecclesiam de Lerky,” which cannot be any other than Veryan, by its original name.

The late Mr. Trist built a very excellent house on his own land adjoining to the glebe.

Veryan measures 4864 statute acres.

giving an increase of 51½ per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This extensive and interesting parish is entirely situated within the boundaries of the calcareous series. The prevailing rock is a blue argillaceous slate, the surface of which, when perfect, is either glossy and irridescent, or finely striated: it alternates with several kinds of massive or coarsely lamellar rocks, into which it gradually passes. These rocks present the following varieties: a fine grained rock abounding in scales of mica; a variety of greenstone or cornean quartz rocks; and dark-coloured limestone.

This suite of rocks offers many objects worthy of a minute inquiry, far beyond the limits of these short notices.

123 THE EDITOR.

A very excellent account is given of the Veryan limestone by S. J. Trist, esq. in the first volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall.

Mr. Trist says,

The limestone occurs on the coast at Pendower Beach, and may thence be traced for a mile and a half inland.

It comes to the surface, in three different places, nearly equidistant from each other, but at different elevations, the most inland being probably a hundred and twenty, or thirty feet above the level of the sea. In each instance it creeps out at the brow of a hill, and no where appears in the vale below, where it would seem originally to have stretched across the valleys, but to have been subsequently carried away, together with the accompanying matter, by diluvian action.

In breadth it extends over a superficies of 350 yards, but alternates with an argillaceous schist, the lime itself never exceeding three feet in thickness, and that only in the upper beds of the strata. The lime scarcely amounts altogether to one eighth of the whole mass.

According to an analysis made by the Rev. William Gregor, a good specimen of this stone consists of about nine parts in ten of carbonate of lime.

Mr. Trist then gives a comparative statement of the results from calcining this limestone, and the well-known limestone of Plymouth, that 200 Winchester bushels of lime from the kiln, provincially called shells or foreright lime, are produced from 11 tons of the Veryan limestone, by the consumption of 46 Winchester bushels of culm, more universally known as Welsh stone coal; but that 14½ tons are required of the Plymouth limestone to give the same quantity of lime from the kiln, with the consumption of 56 bushels of culm, which would make the Plymouth limestone inferior to that of Veryan, in about 32 per cent. 124 as to quality, and about 22 per cent. more in regard to fuel. As a cement, its quality is remarkably good. Small spherical masses of oxide of iron occur in great abundance; they are, in the opinion of Mr. Gregor, pyrites in a state of decomposition, the sulphur having escaped.

The colour of the rock is blue, and it is frequently traversed by veins of calcareous spar.

In the schist which immediately reposes on the limestone, mica appears in considerable abundance, and the whole is strongly impregnated with lime. It is of a soft crumbling nature, decomposing on exposure to the atmosphere, and in that state it is much esteemed as a manure.

The floor on which the lime rests (probably the whole alternating formation) is an argillaceous schist, with veins of manganese, which have been partially wrought.

Mr. Greenough has laid down on his map a broad line extending about E. N. E. from Gerrans and Veryan, crossing St. Blasey Bay and ending near Looe, with the inscription, “calcareous matter along this line”.

WARBSTOW.

HALS.

Warbstow vicarage is in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Jacobstow, east Tremayne, south Trenegles, west Davidstow.

In the Domesday Book this district was taxed under the name and jurisdiction of Treveliad, now Trevelian.

This church was not endowed at the time of the first inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 125 1294, and therefore not named therein. It now goes in consolidation and presentation with Trenegles, and is also taxed together with it. The patronage in the Duke of Cornwall; the incumbent Wood; the rectory in possession of ——.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Warbstow, in the hundred of Lesnewith, hath to the west Otterham, to the north Jacobstow, to the east part of Devonshire and Tremain, to the south Davidstow and Trenegles.

The true name of this parish is St. Warbury-stow, St. Warbury’s Place, from St. Warbury alias Warburg. She was the daughter of Wolpher King of Mercia, son to the famous Penda. The church celebrates her memory the 21st of June, a holy virgin, to whom Leofrick dedicated a church in Chester, which Hugh Lupus, the first earl of Chester of the Norman blood, repaired and granted to the monks, and it is now the cathedral there. [N. B. a Saxon Saint in Cornwall, introduced by the Saxons on their early settlement on this eastern and detached part of Cornwall.] This [church] is now attached to Treneglos, and passes in the same presentation; the present incumbent being Mr. Charles Porter.

In this parish is a noble fortification, which perhaps might give occasion of dedicating it to such a Saint as carried it with it such a warlike sound [or, as the fact assuredly is, the fortification was called Warborough, and the parish from it, Warborough-stow or Warbstow. W.] I measured, and took a more particular view of it than I had formerly done, this present year 1731.

THE EDITOR.

This part of Cornwall abounds in military antiquities, but it has been far less carefully examined than other districts 126 of the county; judging from the present aspect of the country, one is induced to wonder that camps or fortresses should ever have been established there, or that stationary armies could by possibility have received support.

The Editor recollects having seen the entrenchment many years ago; that it struck him as much resembling the Roman works in Dorsetshire; and as being of dimensions far more extensive than those of the usual earthworks in Cornwall.

St. Walburge, the patroness of this parish, was the daughter of St. Richard, a King of the West Saxons, who is said to have died at Lucca in the year 722, on his way as a pilgrim to Rome.

His daughter having become a nun in the monastery at Wimbourn Minster, was permitted by the Abbess Testa to depart with several other females who had taken the vows, for the purpose of assisting her relation St. Boniface in his conversion of the Germans, and in establishing the angelic life among the women of this country.

Crediton in Devonshire had the honor of St. Boniface’s birth about the year 680, and Exeter has to boast of his education under the pious Abbat Wolphard. At about twenty-six years of age he undertook the conversion of Germany, but was driven back by the war of Charles Martel. He was, soon after his return, elected Abbat of Nutcell, a place subsequently destroyed by the Danes, and never restored; he left this high situation, however, and, fortified by the Pope’s blessing and encouragement, he went a second time into Germany, where he succeeded to so great a degree as to found the Archbishopric of Mentz; to receive a plenitude of power with the gift of a pall from Rome, so as to establish Bishoprics at his discretion; and with an alteration of his name, which from an unfortunate association in the English language, seems to us very contrary to what was intended. The original name of the primate, the apostle of Germany, was Winfrid, but that 127 sounding neither sufficiently soft nor harmonious in Teutonic ears, Boniface was substituted in its place.

The saint is distinguished by an invention perfectly singular within the period of authentic history; he enriched the alphabet with an additional letter, the (w) double u.

Having ascended to the pinnacle of terrestrial glory, he at last obtained the crown of martyrdom through the medium of an ignorant mob excited by the priests, whose craft he had destroyed.

Little is recorded of St. Walburga except the general piety of her life and the miracles performed by various minute subdivisions of her relics, which sufficiently attested her beatitude. There is a church dedicated to St. Walburga at Bristol.

The great tithes of this parish are in the Eliot family. The vicarage is in the gift of the Crown, being annexed to Treneglos.

Mr. Lysons says, that the chief manor in this parish, called Fentrigan or Ventrigan, belonged to the Priory of Tywardreth, and that it was one of those given to the Duchy of Cornwall in exchange for the honour of Wallingford. Another manor called Donneny or Downniney belonged to Oto Colyn, who died possessed of it in 1466, and has since passed through the families of Champernownes and Arscotts to that of Molesworth.

Warbstow measures 3557 statute acres.

giving an increase of 45½ per cent in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of the adjacent parishes of Otterham and Tremaine.

WARLEGGON.

HALS.

Warleggan or Warleggon rectory is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north Temple, east St. Neot, south St. Pineck, west Cardinham.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this place was distinguished and taxed by the name of Cabell-an, id est, the chapel, (ab-Capella-an, Cornish Latin) or Neot’s-ton, and at-Cabillian, now Cabilla, i. e. the chapel in this parish tempore Henry III. and Edward I. Petrus filius Ogeri tenet quadraginta acras terræ per serjantiam in Cabillian, in com. Cornub. per unam capam de gresenge, in adventum dicti Regis in Cornubiam, i. e. a grey cape coat with a cape or capouch.

At the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Ecclesia de Warliggan was rated xxs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, Warliggan was valued 5l. 17s. 6d. The patronage is in Gregor, in right of his manor of Warliggon; the incumbent Trigg; and the parish is rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax of one year, by the name of War-liggan, 55l. 4s.

Tren-Gove, alias Tren-Goffe, in this parish, synonymous words signifying a stout, strong, robust, or courageous smith, so called for that some such mechanic person heretofore lived in this place, or was lord thereof, gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence surnamed de Trengoffe, according to Verstegan’s rhyme, by me set down under Angove in Illogan parish:

129 One of whose posterity sold those lands to Tubb, in whose issue it remained for several descents; till by them sold to Parker, whose son or grandson sold the same to John Trengoff, alias Nance, Esq. now in possession thereof, some time Commissioner for the Peace and Taxes; a younger branch of those Trengoves or Trengoffs that sold this barton to Tubb aforesaid, and were so transnominated from living at Nance in Illogan, whereof they had a lease. This gentleman married Chester, his father Heale; and giveth for his arms, Argent, a cross hammed (i. e. couped) Sable.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Worleggon, in the hundred of West, hath to the west Cardenham, to the north Temple, to the east St. Neot’s, to the south Bradock.

As for the name, I take it to be an abbreviation of Warth-la-gan, the higher place on the downs, or the higher downy place, which will agree very well with the situation of this church and parish, which lies high, and mostly coarse ground, though some of it be now much improved. [War Le Gan, upon the down, forms a nearer etymon. W.]

This is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £5. 18s. 6d. the patronage in Francis Gregor, Esq.; the incumbent Mr. Daniel Bandry; [who was succeeded by Mr. Samuel Gurney, of Tregoney. W.]

In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at xxs. having never been appropriated.

THE MANOR OF WARLEGGON,

[Which gave name to the parish, and took it from its own house, being built upon a down. W.]

130 THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons states, that the manor of Warleggon, carrying with it the advowson of the rectory, has been long in the Gregor family. Another manor of the same name, belonging to the Corytons, was purchased by John Trengove, otherwise —— Nance, Esq. in the year 1680, from whom it has descended to James Wyard Gooch, Esq. of Orford in Suffolk.

The manor of Carborro or Carburrow has been for a considerable time in the family of Arscott Bickford, Esq. of Deansland in Devonshire.

The church and tower of this parish suffered most severely from lightning so recently as in the year 1818, when on Saturday the 14th of March, according to the accounts then published, the tower was almost shivered to pieces, and a part falling on the church, nearly destroyed the whole interior, as well as the roof.

The improvidence and carelessness of mankind, in respect to contingent dangers, more especially when they are unconnected with individual interest, is not in any instance more manifestly displayed than in what regards precautions against the tremendous effects of lightning. Tower after tower has been struck in the county of Cornwall, and scarcely one is provided with a simple metallic rod, which would obviate all danger; and, more astonishingly still, vessels of war, with hundreds of persons on board, and merchant vessels, laden with the richest cargoes, are allowed to proceed on voyages, exposed to the danger of utter destruction from this cause, on account of a reluctance to incur an expense almost imperceptible in the general outfit, if no value were placed on human life. On this subject the reader may be desired to consult the writings of William Snow Harris, Esq. F.R.S. of Plymouth, one among the distinguished natural philosophers of modern times.

131 Warleggon measures 1807 statute acres.

giving an increase of 60 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. D. Clements, instituted 1833; the net income of the living in 1831 was £125.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish, like the adjoining and parallel parish of Cardinham, commences in the northern part on granite, and in proceeding southward gradually passes from rocks of the porphyritic series into those of the calcareous series.

WEEK ST. MARY.

HALS.

Week St. Mary is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon the north Marhamchurch, west Jacobstowe, south North Pendyrwyn, east Tamerton.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1292, Ecclesia de Wi-Wyke, in decanatu de Trigmajorshire, was valued cvis. viiid.

In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, by the name of Wike St. Mary, £17. The patronage was formerly in —— that endowed it, now alternately in Rashleigh and ——; the incumbent ——; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, by the name of Wike St. Mary, £170. 11s. 6d. It is called Wike St. Mary (to distinguish it from St. Mary 132 Magdalen’s church at Lanceston), this being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as its tutelar guardian.

This Wike St. Mary was the birth-place of that famous minion of fortune and example of charitable benevolence Thomasine Bonaventure. Whether so called from her success in worldly affairs, or from her ancestors, is altogether unknown to me; most certain it is she was born of poor parents about the year 1450, tempore Henry VI. but not so poor but that her father had a small flock of sheep that depastured on the wastrell of Wike St. Mary downs or moor, whereof she was the shepherdess, (see Carew, p. 282, Lord Dunstanville’s edition,) who on a certain day in that place doing this office, it happened that there passed by a London mercer or draper that traded in this country, who was going to visit his customers in those parts, and gather up such monies as there were due from them to him for such wares as he sold. This gentleman, at first sight, observing the beauty of Thomasine, desired to talk with her, and, after some discourse, found her discreet answers suitable to the beauty of her face, much beyond her rank and degree. Then inquiring into her circumstances, as to her riches, and understanding that she was poor, and she likewise inquiring into his wealth, and where he lived, which was as aforesaid; whereupon he told her, if she would go to London and reside with him as a servant, he doubted not but it would be very conducive to her wealth and preferment.

Thomasine replied, that she was under the guardianship of her father and mother, and that she could not accept his proposal without their consent; but if they were made acquainted therewith, and approved thereof, and he appeared to them to be such a person as he pretended, she knew nothing to the contrary but that she might embrace his offer.

Whereupon this Londoner forthwith applied himself to her parents, and gave verbal assurances, that if they would permit their daughter Thomasine to go to London, 133 and become a servant to him, she should not only have good wages and be well used, but in case he happened to die while she was with him, he would so effectually provide for her that she should not have occasion to try the friendship of any other person afterwards; and to strengthen those his proposals, he produced some of his acquaintance and debtors in those parts, who satisfied her parents as to his reputation and integrity for performance of what he promised.

Upon which report Thomasine’s parents consented to his request, so that soon after she was conveyed or carried up to London, and entered as a servant in this gentleman’s house, when she demeaned herself very well, to the good liking of himself and family; when it so happened that in a few years after, this tradesman’s wife sickened of a mortal distemper and died, and some time after Thomasine and her master were solemnly married together as husband and wife, who then, according to his promise, endowed her with a considerable jointure in case of her survivorship; and about two years after, having no issue, he died; and by his last will and testament further made her his sole executrix, leaving her a rich widow whom he took a poor servant.

This dower, together with her youth and beauty, procured her to the cognizance of divers well deserving men, who thereupon made addresses of marriage to her, but none of them obtained her affection but only Henry Gall, an eminent and wealthy Citizen of London, to whom, after he had made another augmentation of jointure in case of her survivorship, she was accordingly married, and lived in great amity and reputation with him as a wife for some years, till in fine this Mr. Gall sickened of a mortal distemper whereof he died, and left Thomasine a richer widow than he found her, aged about thirty years.

After which the fame, virtue, wealth, and beauty of the said Thomasine spread itself over the City of London, so that persons of the greatest magnitude for wealth and dignity there courted her; and amongst the rest it was the 134 fortune of John Percivall, Esq. to prevail with her to become his wife; after which it happened that he was chosen Carver at the table of the feast of Sir John Collet, Knt. Lord Mayor of London, the 2d of Henry VII. anno Dom. 1487, at which time, according to the custom of that City, Sir John drank to him in a silver cup of wine, in order to make him Sheriff thereof for the year ensuing (in conjunction with Hugh Clopton, Esq.); whereupon he covered his head, and sat down at the table with the Lord Mayor of London, and was accordingly one of the Sheriffs thereof. Afterwards, in 14 Hen. VII. 1499, the said John Percivall, was elected Lord Mayor of London, and knighted by that King, at which time Thomas Bradberry and Stephen Jenings were Sheriffs thereof.

By this gentleman our Thomasine had a third augmentation of jointure and wealth, together with the title of Dame or Lady, which she lived many years to enjoy after the death of Sir John Percivall, Knight. After which, Dame Thomasine, having no child by either of her three husbands, spent the remainder of her days, till about the year 1530, when she died, in works of piety and charity; as repairing highways, building bridges, endowing or providing funds for poor maids, relieving prisoners, feeding and apparelling poor people, with her treasure and riches; and especially in this parish of Wike St. Mary, where she was born, she founded a chantry and free school to pray for her soul, the souls of her father and mother, her husbands and relatives. To this chantry and school she added a small library, with a fair house for lodgings for the schoolmaster, and chanters or singing men, and others, parts of which are yet extant; and endowed the same with £20 lands for ever. In which place, during the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII. many gentlemen’s sons, both in Cornwall and Devon, had their education in the liberal arts and sciences, under one Cholwell, a good linguist, as Mr. Carew saith.

But, alas! afterwards, in the Parliament of the fourth of 135 November, first of King Edward VI. 1550, all colleges, free chapels, chantries, fraternities, and guilds, throughout this kingdom, being dissolved and given to that King, this chantry and free school underwent with others the common downfall, and its revenues vested in the Crown, from whence it passed to ——, now in possession thereof.

There are two fairs kept yearly in this parish on the 8th of September and the 10th of December.

THE EDITOR.

The church is situated on an eminence, and is therefore conspicuous at a considerable distance in all directions; it is large, and built in the usual manner of western churches with three aisles of equal height; but the tower is so lofty as to exceed in height (according to report) any other in the county, even those at Probus and St. Mabyn.

The church town is large; and the inhabitants preserve a shadow of former traditionary importance by electing an annual mayor, who used at least to receive some voluntary obediences from his townspeople in the settling of small differences between them.

The etymology of the prefix Week seems to be less obscure than most other additions to proper names. Week is in Cornish literally, sweet, an epithet frequently applied to female Saints.

These lines are from modern compositions, but made in imitation of others much older.

136 St. Mary Week is, therefore, sweet or beloved St. Mary; indeed Treweek is known to mean sweet, beloved town or village. The Saxon wick is never, I believe, lengthened into week.

Mr. Lysons says,

The church town is in all ancient records called the borough of Week St. Mary, and the occupiers of certain fields are still called burgageholders.

The ancient manor of Week St. Mary appears to have been merged in that of Swannacot, which belonged to the late Lord Dunstanville by inheritance from his great grandmother, heiress of the Heles.

The manor of East Orchard Mauvais was purchased from Mr. Dennis Rolle by the late Sir John Call.

There is a place near the church town called Castle Hill, believed to be the site of an ancient fortress.

The advowson of the rectory belongs to Sidney-Sussex College in Cambridge, having been given to that Society in exchange for another immediately connected with his residence by Lord Carteret, who inherited the disposal of this preferment from the family of Grenville.

Week St. Mary measures 5,167 statute acres.

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

Present Rector, the Rev. Walter Gee, presented by Sidney-Sussex college in 1821; net value of the living in 1831, £388.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are of the same nature as those of Poundstock and Jacobstow.

WENDRON.137

This parish has been already described under the name of Gwendron, in the second volume.

ST. WENN.

HALS.

St. Wenn is situate in the hundred of Pider, and hath upon the north St. Breock, east Withiell, south Roach, west St. Colomb Major; but whether named from its tutelar guardian and patron, Sanctus Wina, or Wena, the Bishop of Winchester, anno Dom. 660, translated to London anno Dom. 666, who died 670; or from Anwena or Unwena, Bishop of Dorchester, anno Dom. 786, I know not.

This place is that San Vene, or Wena, taxed in the Domesday Book, and the only church or district in all that book in Cornwall to which was added the pronoun Saint, of which I have spoken elsewhere. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Sanct. Wenne in decanatu de Pidre 1294, was rated at vil. xiiis. iiiid. Vicar’ ejusdem xiiis. iiiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £16. 6s. 8d. The patronage was formerly in the Prior of Bodman, who endowed it; afterwards, when that Priory was dissolved, in the Crown; from whence it passed to Prideaux of Netherton, by him sold to Rashleigh, now in possession thereof. The incumbent Bedford; the rectory in Rashleigh; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, £126. 4s.

138 About the year 1663, the tower and bells of this parish church were struck down with thunder and lightning, and broken to pieces in a stormy night, and a great part of the roof of the church broken in.

(Here is another deficiency in the manuscript.)

And in particular those lands to the Lord Botreaux, by whose heir it passed in marriage to Hungerford, from Hungerford to Hastings, from Hastings to Edgecomb, from Edgcomb to Parkinge, from Parkinge to Vivian of Truan, from Vivian to Hals (the writer hereof), now in possession thereof.

Of this family was Michael de Tregury, a man of great learning, made first governor or professor of the University founded at Caen in Normandy by King Henry V. He was afterwards by him made Archbishop of Dublin, where, after twenty-two years’ residence, he died, 1471, and lies buried in St. Patrick’s Church there, with this bold epitaph:

Præsul Metropolis Michael hic Dublinensis

Marmore tumbatus, pro me Christum flagitetis.

i. e. Michael, the Metropolitan Bishop of Dublin, lyes under this marble tomb, for whome Christ shall earnestly intreate or desire.[15]

Lan-cor-la, in this parish, was formerly parcel of the manor of Ryalton, the Prior of Bodman’s lands, who endowed this church upon part of the said manor’s lands, with a considerable glebe, at least eighty statute acres of ground.

This little barton of Lancorla was anciently the voke lands of a considerable manor, now all dismembered, held, 139 by the Records of the Exchequer and Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 46, by the tenure of knight’s service.

It is now by lease in the possession and dwelling of the writer hereof, from Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. Sir John Seyntaubyn, Bart. and Sir George Cary, of Clovelly, knight, as heirs to Jenkin of Trekeninge, to whom it came by purchase from Botreauxes and Parkinge’s heirs and assigns.

This manor of old contained fifteen Cornish acres of land, before dismembered tempore Edward I. that is to say, 638 statute acres, and was privileged with the jurisdiction of a Court Baron or Leet, and had a steward or bailiff pertaining thereto as dependant on Ryalton aforesaid.

Checkenock, now Killignock (S. T.) in this parish, was another district taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, from whence was denominated an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Killignock, where they flourished in good fame for many generations, till the time of Henry VIII. when the only daughter and heir of Thomas Killignock was married to Richard Nanskevall, alias Typpet, of St. Colomb, which marriage brought these lands into his possession, where for three or four descents his posterity flourished in genteel degree, till the latter end of the reign of King Charles II. when Matthew Typpet, Gent. that married Ringwood, of Braddock, having encumbered his estate with much debts, sold this place and the manor of Borlace Varth to Mr. Joseph Hawkey, his attorney-at-law, to pay costs in defence of actions brought against him by his creditors; and his other lands to Bligh, Vivian, and Hals, the writer of these lines, and left his son and heir a beggar. The arms of Typpet, —— three tippets, as I remember.

Tre-with-an, in this parish, i. e. the Tree Town, or Town of Trees, tempore Henry IV. was the land of Stephen de Trewithan, who held in this place and elsewhere, by the tenure of knight service, 25 Edward III. £20 per annum in lands of Barkley’s manor of Tremore (Survey of Cornwall, p. 52), from whose posterity, tempore Queen 140 Mary, it passed by sale to Renphry, whose son sold it, tempore James I. to Parkings, whose great-grandson Francis Parkings is now in possession thereof. The arms of Parkings are, in a field —— three pigeons ——.

In this parish stands Damelsa Castle, a treble entrenchment of earth on a high mounted bank or hill, on the south side of, and contiguous with, Damelsa House and lands. Probably it was erected before the Norman Conquest, to resist the incursions of the Danes, since those three rampiers consist of rude stones and earth after the British manner, as a hedge, not a wall. (See Castle an Dinas, in St. Colomb). For after the Conquest aforesaid, castles in England were generally built of lime and stones after the manner of the French. Probably it was demolished tempore King Stephen or King Henry II. when, many hundreds of those castles by their decree were pulled down in this island, as our chronologers all tell us.

In this parish, at Treganatha, i. e. the Spinster’s Town or dwelling, is held annually a fair or mart on St. Mark’s day, April 25, and another on August 1.

TONKIN.

St. Wenn is in the hundred of Pider, and hath to the west St. Colomb Major and St. Ennodor, to the north St. Breock, to the east Withiell, to the south St. Roche. This parish takes its name from St. Wenna, its female patroness.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £16. 6s. 8d. The patronage in Philip Rashleigh, Esq. the incumbent Mr. John Bedford.

In an. 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory here was valued (Tax. Ben.) at vil. xiiis. iiijd. being appropriated to the Abbey of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire; and the vicarage at xiiis. iiijd.

The manor of Borlase, id est, the green summit or rising [as Bar Glas or Las (C.)] This lordship was given by King William II. surnamed Rufus, to —— Lord of the 141 Castle of Palfer in Normandy, ever since which his posterity have flourished here and at Treluddero, &c. in great esteem, by the name of Borlace (V. Upton de re militari). [N. B. This is a singular, perhaps a single, instance of a Norman or Saxon family assuming a Cornish name. Indeed I suspect it not to be true; and what is more certain, that species of apples which in Cornwall we call a Borlase, and more commonly a Treluddera, pippin, appears plainly to have taken its name from this family and that place, and serves as a good opening for explaining all those other names of apples which are merely Cornish in themselves like this. Whitaker.]

THE EDITOR.

It seems that Great Skewish, in this parish, belonged to a family of that name, one of whom was an author at a period so early as the reign of Henry the Sixth, when he compiled an abridgment of the Chronicles and the Wars of Troy; but in all probability the work has never been printed, since it is not noticed by Warton; nor is the author’s name to be found in the catalogues of our public libraries.

But the glory of this parish is Michael Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin.

Six or seven years ago, my attention having been drawn to this individual, who may justly be considered an honour to Cornwall, I applied to the Very Reverend J. R. Dawson, Dean of St. Patrick’s, through his brother the Right Honourable George Robert Dawson, when the Dean most kindly and liberally supplied me with a drawing of Archbishop Tregury’s tomb, as it is restored by the celebrated Doctor Swift, and furnished me with all the particulars known of my distinguished countryman.

I procured a wood engraving to be made of the drawing, and sent it, with whatever I could collect of Tregury, to the Gentleman’s Magazine, a reprint of which will here be inserted:

142

SEPULCHRAL EFFIGY OF ARCHBISHOP TREGURY, IN THE CATHEDRAL OF DUBLIN.

143 Mr. Urban, Tredrea, Cornwall, March 2, 1831.

You will much gratify me, and, I may venture to add, many other correspondents, by inserting in your most excellent repository, which has now survived one century with a spirit and vigour that give promise for its continuing through another, some particulars of an individual sprung from this county, who must have been a man of talent and of learning sufficient for adding lustre to any origin; but who is now almost entirely forgotten, his family having long since become extinct, and the records of the University, of the Church, of the Diocese, and of the Province over which he presided, having in great measure perished in the devastations of the civil war, and especially of those aggravated by religious dissensions.

Mr. Lysons, in his History of Cornwall, states, that in the parish of St. Wenn is situated Tregury, Tregurra, or Tregurtha, the seat of a family so called, of whom was Michael de Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin, who died in 1471. The last heir male of the elder branch of this family died in the reign of Henry the Fifth, leaving three daughters coheirs, who sold this barton to the family of Botreaux, from whom it passed successively, by inheritance or sale, through the families of Hungerford, Hastings, Edgcumbe, Parkins, and Vivian, to Mr. William Hals, who wrote the Parochial History of Cornwall, and resided here in the latter part of his life. The estate, now called Tregotha, is the property of Thomas Rawlings, Esq.

This brief notice of the Archbishop scarcely made any impression on my mind beyond a mere recollection of the circumstance, when a Cornish gentleman informed me that he had observed a monument to this Prelate in the Cathedral at Dublin. I then took the liberty of applying, through Mr. Dawson, Member for the County of Londonderry, to his brother the Dean of St. Patrick’s, who not only gave me every information and reference that is known to exist, but also a drawing of the monument, of which I have sent a wood engraving.—Since this was engraved, I 144 have seen a tracing from an old drawing in the possession of Sir William Betham, Ulster King at Arms, which shows that the sides of the original altar-tomb were adorned with trefoil-headed arches rising from short pillars.

It appears that few records are extant of the Prelates and Dignitaries of Dublin prior to the Reformation, in places where they might most reasonably have been expected to be found; and the monument itself would have perished but for the care and attention of the celebrated Doctor Jonathan Swift, who, with the Chapter, exactly a hundred years ago, rescued it from a dilapidated chapel, and carried the monument to its present situation in the Cathedral.

Michael Tregury attained his reputation for learning at the University of Oxford. He was Junior Proctor in the year 1434, under which Anthony Wood gives the following notice of him in his “Fasti.” He “was now Fellow of Exeter College, and about these times Principal of several Halls successively that stood near to the said College. But the King, having a special respect for him (being now accounted the utmost ornament of the University), made him Prefect or Governor of [the College at] Caen in Normandy, lately erected by King Henry the Fifth of England; which office he performing with singular applause, became at length, through divers preferments (of which the Deanery of St. Michael of Pencryche[16] was one) Archbishop of Dublin in Ireland.”

The foundation of the College or University of Caen, is again mentioned by Wood in his Annals, under 1417. In consequence, he says, of discontents regarding preferment and tithes, “the corruptness of provisions, and especially the wars between England and France, many dispersed themselves to other places. And because Normandy, Angiers, Poyctou, 145 Aquitaine, Bretagne, Gascoigne, and other places that were subject to the Crown of England, could not for that reason exercise their Scholastical Arts at Paris publicly and without murmurings, they receded to Caen in Normandy,[17] and studied there, which place Henry the Fifth, of England, made an University, causing one Michael Tregorie, an Oxford Doctor, sometime Fellow of Exeter College, to be governor and reader there, to the end that the doctrine of the University of Oxford might dilate itself and take root in those parts.”

The following memoir is extracted from Ware’s History of Ireland, vol. I. p. 359:

“Before the close of the same year (1449), Michael Tregury, a native of Cornwall, and Doctor of Divinity of the University of Oxford, was consecrated Archbishop of this See. He was a man of such great eminence for learning and wisdom, that in the year 1418, King Henry the Fifth invited him over to Caen in Normandy, to take upon him the government of a College, which that Monarch had then founded in the said city; to whom he joined, out of the Mendicant Friars, learned professors in all sciences.[18] There he is said to have discharged the trust committed to him with great applause, both by his public prelections and writings. A catalogue of his works may be seen in Bale and Pits. At last, upon the death of Talbot in 1449, he was promoted to this See by a papal provision, and was the same year, on the 10th of February (English style), restored to the temporalities by King Henry the Sixth, whose Chaplain he was: [But was obliged to submit himself to the King’s favour, and renounce every clause in his Bull prejudicial to the Crown.[19]] He was called into the Privy Council immediately, and had twenty pounds per annum[20] 146 granted him by the King, pro sano consilio, for giving good counsel, as his predecessors, Archbishops of Dublin, who were of the Council, had; and in 1453 King Henry the Sixth, for securing an arrear of two years and a half, and the growing salary, granted him a custodium on the manor of Tassagard, and the town of Ballachise, parcel thereof, to continue during the time he should be Archbishop of Dublin.[21]

“In certain Annals ascribed to Dudley Firbisse, there is a mention made under the year 1453, that an Archbishop of Dublin was taken prisoner at sea. I must leave the passage to the credit of the Annalist, not having met any hint of it elsewhere. There is extant in the Black Book of the Archbishop of Dublin (p. 82), a copy of a Bull of Pope Pius the Second, dated the 23d of November 1462, and directed to the Bishop and Archdeaconry of Ossory, commanding them to pronounce excommunicated, Geofrey Harold, Thomas and Edmund his sons, Patrick Birne, Thady Sheriff, Thomas Becagh, Robert Burnell, and other laymen of the city and diocese of Dublin, for laying violent hands on this Prelate, and committing him to prison; and that they should keep them under excommunication until they went to Rome for absolution, with the testimonials of the Bishop and Archdeacon. The reason of this insult is no where mentioned, that I can find. He repaired the manor house of Tawlaght, and died there in a very advanced age, on the 21st of December 1471; having governed this See about twenty-two years. His remains were conveyed to Dublin, attended by the clergy and citizens, and buried in St. Patrick’s Church, near St. Stephen’s altar [as he had directed by his will], where heretofore might have been seen a specious monument, adorned 147 with his statue, of elegant workmanship, on which are inscribed the following verses, penned without the aid of the Muses:

And at the head of the statue,

‘Jesus est Salvator meus.’

“This monument was found under the rubbish in St Stephen’s Chapel; the cover of it was preserved by the care of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, and the Chapter, who in the year 1730 fixed it up in the wall, on the left hand, as you enter the west gate, between the said gate and the place where heretofore the Consistory Court was held; and they have placed this inscription over it: ‘Vetus hoc Monumentum, è ruderibus Capellæ Divi Stephani nuper instauratæ erutum, Decanus et Capitulum hùc transferri curaverunt, A.D. 1730.’

“The will of this Prelate, dated the 10th of December 1471, is extant among the manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (B. 52), whereby he deviseth his two silver gilded saltsellers (salsaria) with their covers, to make cups for St. Patrick’s, to serve in divine offices. He also bequeathed his pair of organs to the said Church, to be used at the celebration of divine service in St. Mary’s Chapel. ‘I devise also (says he) that William Wyse, whose industry for this purpose I choose, shall in my stead visit with a decent oblation St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, which by vow I am bound to perform either by myself or proxy;’ and also orders him to give some largesses towards building the neighbouring churches near where his friends dwell.

“The registry[22] of the Dominican Abbey in Dublin gives an account, that above fifty persons went out of the 148 Diocese to Rome in 1451, to celebrate the jubilee then held under Pope Nicholas the fifth, and that this prelate gave them recommendatory certificates to the Pope; that seven of the number were pressed to death in the crowd, besides what died in their return. This squares with the relation given by Mathias Palmerius, in his additions to the Chronicle of Eusebius, ‘That there was so great a concourse of people from all parts of the Christian world at this jubilee, that at Hadrian’s Mole almost two hundred perished in the press, besides many who were drowned in the Tiber.’ They who returned sate in 1453, brought the melancholy news, that Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and the Emperor Constantine Palæologus slain. Our Archbishop was so afflicted at the account, that he ordered a fast to be kept strictly throughout his diocese for three days together, and granted indulgences of an hundred years to the observers of it; and he himself went before the clergy in procession to Christ Church cloathed in sackcloth and ashes.”

The works of Tregury are thus noticed by Pits, in his volume “De illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus:”

“Multa scripsisse perhibetur, quæ Gallis inter quos vixit vel Hibernis apud quos obiit, magis quàm Anglis e quibus natus est, nota esse poterunt. Hos tamen paucos titulos sequentes invenio:

Yours, &c. —— Davies Gilbert.

De Restitutione Temporalium Archiepiscopatus Dublinensis.

[Rymeri Fœdera, tom. xi. p. 260.]

Rex Cancellario nostro, vel ejus deputato, seu Custodi Magni Sigilli nostri in terrâ nostrâ Hiberniæ, qui nunc est vel qui pro tempore fuerit, salutem. Cum dominus Summus 149 Pontifex, nuper vacante ecclesiâ metropolitanâ Dublinensi, per mortem bonæ memoriæ Richardi ultimi Archiepiscopi ejusdem loci, dilectum Capellanum nostrum Magistrum Michaelem Tregorre, sacræ theologiæ professorem, in Archiepiscopum illius loci præfecerit et pastorem, sicut per literas bullatas ipsius domini Summi Pontificis nobis inde directis nobis constat, Nos, pro eo quòd idem Archiepiscopus omnibus et singulis verbis in dictis literis bullatis contentis nobis et Coronæ nostræ prejudicialibus coram nobis renunciavit, et gratiæ nostræ humiliter se submisit, volentes cum eo agere gratiòse, cepimus fidelitatem ipsius Archiepiscopi, et temporalia archiepiscopatûs illius, prout moris est, restituimus eidem; et ideo vobis mandamus quòd eidem Archiepiscopo, seu ejus in hac parte attornatis, deputatis, seu procuratoribus, temporalia prædicta infra terram prædictam, cum pertinentiis, per brevia nostra inde in cancellariâ nostrâ terræ nostræ prædictæ, tot et talia quot et qualia sibi in hac parte necessaria fuerint, seu quomodolibet opportuna, sub magno sigillo nostro ejusdem terræ debitè conficienda deliberari demandetis, habenda in formâ prædictâ, cum suis juribus et pertinentiis universis. Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium, decimo die Februarii.

Et mandatum est militibus, liberis hominibus, et omnibus aliis tenentibus de Archiepiscopatu prædicto infra terram nostram prædictam, quod eidem Michaeli tanquam Archiepiscopo et domino suo in omnibus quæ ad Archiepiscopatum prædictum pertinent, intendentes sint et respondentes, sicut prædictum est. In cujus, &c. Teste, ut supra.

Pro Archiepiscopo Dubliniæ.

[Rymeri Fœdera, vol. xi. p. 325.]

Rex omnibus ad quos, &c. salutem.

Sciatis quòd, cùm venerabilis in Christo pater Michael Dublinensis Archiepiscopus habere et percipere debeat viginti libras per annum, de nobis pro suo sano consilio utilitatem et politicum regimen terræ nostræ Hiberniæ concernente, 150 nobis impenso et impendendo tempore quo Archiepiscopus ibidem extiterit, prout ejus prædecessores, Archiepiscopi loci prædicti, ac de consilio nostro et progenitorum nostrorum Regum Angliæ existentes, habere solebant de nobis et progenitoribus nostris prædictis pro hujusmodi consilio suo,—dictoque nunc Archiepiscopo summa quinquaginta librarum, de dictis viginti libris annuis (videlicet, a quarto die Novembris, in anno regni nostri vicesimi-noni usque quartum diem Februarii in anno regni nostri tricesimi-primi, scilicet per duos annos integros et unum dimidium annum, per quod tempus ipse venerabilis pater Archiepiscopus Dublinensis extitit, et sanum suum consilium ad utilitatem terræ nostræ prædictæ impendit,) per nos debita jam existat,—volentes eundem Archiepiscopum tam de dictâ summâ quinquaginta librarum contentari, quàm de viginti libris annuis hujusmodi, pro tempore quo ipsum Archiepiscopum ibidem fore contigerit percipiendis et habendis, ipsum Archiepiscopum securiorem fieri et reddi, de gratiâ nostrâ speciali ac de mero motu et certâ scientiâ nostris, commissimus eidem nunc Archiepiscopo custodium manerii sive dominii de Tassagard cum pertinentiis, necnon villæ de Ballachize, parcellæ manerii prædicti, cum pertinentiis, in manu nostrâ certis de causis existentium, habendum et tenendum eidem Archiepiscopo, unà cum proficiis, commoditatibus, curiis, juribus, emolumentis, et pertinentiis suis quibuscunque, per totum tempus quo ipsum Archiepiscopum Dublinensem fore contigerit, reddendo inde nobis per annum, pro custodiâ prædictâ, durante tempore illo, ad Scaccarium nostrum in Hiberniâ, tales et tantas denariorum summas, de qualibus et quantis nobis pro custodiâ manerii et villæ prædictorum cum pertinentiis modo responsum existet; et ulteriùs volumus et præfato Archiepiscopo concedimus quòd ipse centum solidos annuatim de denariorum summis, quæ per ipsum Archiepiscopum de custodiâ prædictâ deberi contigerint, in manibus suis propriis habeat et retineat, quòdque ipse dictam summam quinquaginta librarum inde sic levaverit, perciperit, et in manibus suis retinuerit.

151 Et insuper quòd ipse Archiepiscopus annuatim, durante toto termino prædicto, quo ipse Archiepiscopus ibidem et de consilio nostro fuerit, de hujusmodi denariis, de custodiâ prædictâ nobis per ipsum Archiepiscopum debendis et extunc proveniendis, in manibus suis propriis habeat et retineat viginti libras per annum, habendas, percipiendas, et retinendas in satisfactionem dictarum viginti librarum per annum, quas ipse Archiepiscopus pro consilio suo prædicto de nobis per tempus prædictum percipere debet, quamdiù ipse Archiepiscopus Dublinensis extiterit, pro sano suo consilio nobis impendendo; et ulteriùs concedimus præfato Archiepiscopo quòd ipse, in solutione dictarum denariorum summarum et custodiæ prædictæ, ad Scaccarium prædictum de omnibus hujusmodi summis, quas ipse Archiepiscopus, prætextâ harum literarum nostrarum patentium, habuerit, perciperit, aut retinuerit, de tempore in tempus, debitam habeat deductionem et allocationem; aliquo statuto, actu, ordinatione, sive restrictione in contrarium factis, editis, seu provisis, sive aliquâ aliâ re, materiâ, vel causâ non obstantibus. In cujus, &c. Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium, nono die Maii [1453].

Per Breve de Privato Sigillo.

St. Wenn measures 3,858 statute acres.

giving an increase of 81 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Incumbent, the Rev. R. P. Gilbert, instituted in 1810.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish resemble those of the northern half of St. Columb Major.

[15] Mr. Hals has very inaccurately translated the last words of the second line. The Archbishop requests the readers of the Epitaph earnestly to entreat Christ for himself.

[16] The Deanery of Penkridge in Herefordshire was not, however, an early preferment of Tregury, it having been annexed to the see of Dublin as early as the reign of King John.

[17] “Jo. Rous, in lib. de Regibus, MS.”

[18] “Pits, de Script. 663.”

[19] See the act of restitution of his temporalities, at the close of this letter, p. 148.

[20] By Sir George Shuckburgh’s Tables, printed in the Philosophical Transactions for 1798, this sum would be equal to almost six and a half times as much as the same nominal sum at the commencement of the present century; that is, 130l. a year.

[21] See the letters patent hereafter, p. 149.

[22] Ware’s MSS.

WHITSTONE.

HALS.

Whitstone is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon the north part of Bridgerule and Marhamchurch, west Wike St. Mary and Tamerton, south Werrington and St. Stephen’s.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Witeston, in decanatu de Trigmajorshire, was valued at £4. 6s. 8d. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £14. 11s. 0½d. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it; the incumbent Tregena or Hosken; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year £124. 12s. 6d. tempore William III.

The barton of Benett, in this parish, was formerly the seat of George Heale, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 4 and 5 of Charles I. that married ——; as also of Edmund Hele, esq. his son, Sheriff of Cornwall, 22 Charles I. whose son dying without issue, those lands and much other descended to his daughter Lucy, the wife of John Basset, of Tehidy, esq. now in possession thereof. The name Hele, Heale, is Saxon English, and signifies the same as hell in British, viz. a hall, either of a dwelling house or refectory, or a place of judicature or prætorium, a tabernacle or a tent.

The arms of Heale are Gules, a bend lozengy Ermine.

TONKIN.

Whitston is in the hundred of Stratton, and hath to the west St. Mary Week, to the north Marhamchurch and Bridgerule, to the east the river Tamar, between it and Devon, to the south Tamerton.

The name of the parish is derived from a white rock, on which part of the church is founded. It is a large white 153 stone in the south side of the church; the part which appears is of an oval form. This account I had from Mr. Nicholas Hoskins, jun. and vicar of Boyton, son to the rector of this.

In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at £4. 6s. 8d. having never been appropriated.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book, £14. 11s. ob.; the patronage in the heirs of Sir John Arundell; the incumbent Mr. Nicholas Hoskins.

THE MANOR OF WHITESTONE.

This, in Domesday Book, is called Witestan, being one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he created Earl of Cornwall the said Robert.

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. (Car. f. 48), this, by the name of Wilston and St. Petnell (St. Petronel, I suppose), is valued in two.

The 3 Henry IV. (Idem, f. 40 b.) John de Cobbeham held one fee in Wiston and Serpeknol, which I take to be the same with the former, only wrong spelt.

[The name of the parish is not derived, I apprehend, from any white stone on which the church is founded. From the very description here given of it, it could never have given name to the church itself. Only “part of the church is founded” on it. Nor is this part “founded” on it. There is only “a large white stone in the south side of the church;” and this is plainly built up in the side, as it is said to be “of an oval form.” The reference of the name to this stone, therefore, has been merely the idle play of intellect, in those who in antiquarian matters did not know how to exert their understandimg seriously. The real name of the church is “St. Petnell, St. Petronel, I suppose.” The church then could not give name to the parish. And the parish actually received its name from the manor, as the manor received it from its manerial 154 house, this being built upon a white rock, that very rock assuredly from which the white stone in the wall of the church had been brought. W.]

THE EDITOR.

The church and tower of this parish, like several others in the north-eastern part of Cornwall, are fine objects in themselves, and are placed on commanding situations.

There are several monuments to former residents and proprietors in the parish. Among these is one to the memory of George Hele, of Bennetts, esq. who died in 1652, and of his son Warwick Hele, who died in 1650. The family of Hele had resided for many generations at Bennetts, which came into the Basset family in the latter part of that century, by the marriage of John Basset, esq. of Tehidy, with Lucy Hele. Their great-grandson, the late Lord Dunstanville, was in the habit of visiting Bennetts for several weeks at a time. This place had been leased for lives to a respectable family of the name of Webbe, probably soon after it came to Mr. John Basset.

The advowson of the living belonged to the Arundells of Lanherne and Wardour, who sold it about fifty years ago; and, after passing through various hands, it came to the Rev. John Kingdon, who is also the incumbent, instituted in 1793. The net value of the living in 1831 was £231.

Whitstone measures 3429 statute acres.

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

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Whitstone, like all the other parishes in this division of Cornwall, is situated on the calcareous series, more particularly on the compact schistose varieties of dunstone.

ST. WINNOW.

HALS.

St. Wennoe is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north Braddock and Cardenham, west the Foye river or sea, south St. Veepe, east Lanreth.

In the glass windows of this church, the Patron Saint is called after the Latin St. (Sanctus) Winotus, but further knowledge of him I have not.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed by the name of Tre-vocar-Winoe. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Sancto Winotho was valued lxs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated 5l. The Patronage in ——; the incumbent Laurence; the rectory in possession of ——; and the parish rated at 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, £210. 8s. 8d.

In this parish is a chapel of ease dedicated to St. Nectan, vulgo vocat. St. Knighton, or Nighton, whose revenues in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, were thus rated, Capella de Nectan, in decanatu de West, vs. This Nectan was born in Devon about the year 940, a man of singular piety and holiness, as most of those days afforded, who lived a monkish or eremitical life, at Hartland, in Devon, where he died about the year 1010. After his death his relics (see Rawlegh’s Relicta Nomen viri) were enshrined and set up in the same little chapel where he served God there; in which place Githa, wife of Godwin Earl of Kent (or rather Goditha his daughter, afterwards married to Edward the Confessor), as Malmesbury informs us, 1030, built and endowed a monastery of secular priests, which might marry wives; valued at the suppression, 26 Hen. VIII. at £350 per annum; and the reason of this her pious foundation is said to be, for that 156 she was fully persuaded that her husband, Earl Godwin, escaped the danger of a shipwreck in a raging tempest at sea by his merits and intercessions.

Galfrid de Dynham, Lord of Hartland, was a great benefactor to this monastery, and changed the Secular Priests into Black Canons Augustine, who were prohibited marriage by their rule. See the Monasticon Anglicanum, tome II. p. 285, concerning Nectan and Hartland.

This barton and manor of St. Winow gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence surnamed de St. Winow, of which family was that Philip de St. Winow, who had £20 lands and upwards in this place, held by the tenure of knight service, 25 Edward III. 1352 (Survey of Cornwall, p. 52,) from whose heirs it passed by descent or purchase about Henry VIth’s time to —— Upton, which Upton was originally descended either from the Uptons of Upton and Colombton, or Lupton, in Brixham parish, in Devon, whose elder brother’s estate passed by his daughter and heir in marriage to the Wingfields; as also the estate of this Upton of St. Winow did by marriage with his daughter and heir to William Lower, esq. of Trelaske, in Lawanack, Sheriff of Cornwall 16 Henry VIII. 1525. William Lower, esq. his son, or grandson, was Sheriff of Cornwall 20th of Elizabeth; he married one of Reskimer’s heirs, and had issue Nicholas Lower, esq. afterwards knighted, Sheriff of Cornwall 8 Charles I. Sir Nicholas married ——, and had issue one only daughter, that became his heir, and was married to Sir William Drummond, knight, who had issue by her two daughters that became his heirs; the one married to Charles Trevanion, of Caryhayes, esq. and to —— Roper, esq. now Lord of this place in fee. The possession by lease in Stephen Robins, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall about the year 1700, who married —— Robins, his father William of Probus, and giveth for his arms the same as Robins of Verian.

157 Tethe, in this parish, alias Eade or Ethy, was the seat of some of the Courtneys of Boconnock, from whose heirs it passed by purchase, as I am informed, to John Trevill, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 18 Charles II. whose three daughters and heirs carried those lands, together with themselves, in marriage, to Burthog, Savery, and Arscott; but Arscott’s lady dying under age, he purchased this barton and manor of Tethe, or Ethy, from Burthog and Savery, whose younger son Denis Arscott, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 4th King George, was then in possession thereof.

Tre-vego, alias Tre-vega, in this parish, that is to say, the town upon the top of a stiff hill or precipice, according to the natural circumstances of the place, is the dwelling of Warwick Hankey, esq. barrister-at-law, that married Jane, daughter of Giles Risdon, of Babeleigh, esq.

In this parish stands Lar-an Bridge, i. e. the Floor Bridge.

TONKIN.

The tutelar saint of this parish is St. Winnocus (Moreri’s Dictionary, vol. I. voce Bergh St. Vinoc), who was born in Armorica, or Little Britain, and having associated himself about the year 680 with St. Bertin, Abbat of Sithien, established a monastery at a place in Flanders, and died there the 6th of November 717, which place has been once called from him Bergh St. Winnox, a town being built there and surrounded with walls in 950; since that it has been regularly fortified, belongs to the French, and is about four miles from Dunkirk.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book at £5.; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Thomas Laurenc.

In 1291, 20 Edward I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at cxs. being appropriated to the Chapter of Exeter; and the chapel of St. Nectan at vs.

158 THE EDITOR.

The Church of St. Winnow is beautifully situated on the eastern bank of the river, at its most beautiful part, between Lestwithiel and Fowey. The church, with its tower, are fine objects as seen from the river, which does not yield in this spot to the Dart itself. The Church contains several monuments.

The vicarage house and glebe partake of the splendour of the scenery; and during the life of their late proprietor, the Reverend Robert Walker, were among the most attractive spots in Cornwall. Mr. Walker, possessed of strong abilities, had an ardent desire to discharge all the duties attached to him as a clergyman and as a country gentleman, in a manner the most beneficial to all with whom he had any concern; in the relations of private life he was equally estimable; and as a most decisive proof of his real merits and high deserts, it may be truly said, that, although he was induced on principle to take a strong part in politics, he had not a single personal enemy.

The chapel, dedicated to the Recluse of Hertland, has still divine service occasionally performed in it, although it does not form any practical division of the parish.

The history of Ethy has been brought down to the period immediately preceding its possession by the Edgecumbe family; the house has been occupied of late years by several gentlemen, and especially by one who has done honour to the nation by his naval and military services, and to Cornwall as a private man. Admiral Sir Charles Vinicombe Penrose distinguished himself on so many occasions, that to enumerate them all would be to write a life. Two, which do not relate immediately to the more obvious features of the military profession, may, however, be selected.

In the year 1797, when the navy of England underwent the greatest disgrace it has ever experienced, by the prevalence of a mutiny which threatened our safety as a country, 159 this excellent officer preserved his ship in due subordination.

In the year 1814, when the Duke of Wellington invaded France from the Pyrenees, and his passage was disputed across the Adour, Admiral Penrose, uniting to scientific acquirements the skill and the bravery of an English seaman, constructed a bridge of boats where it was thought impossible to place them, and thus greatly contributed to the success of this important part of the combined attack.

In the Parliamentary Edition of the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Pope Nicholas IV. p. 145, the entries respecting St. Winnowe are as follow:

This parish measures 5,501 statute acres.

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

Present Vicar, the Rev. Percival Frye, who succeeded the Rev. W. Molesworth in 1834, on the presentation of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. Mr. Molesworth had been instituted in 1816. The clear value of the benefice in 1831 was £197.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of the adjoining parishes, Broadoak, Boconnoc, and St. Veep.

WITHIEL.

HALS.

Withiel is situate in the hundred of Pider, and hath upon the north St. Breock, east Lannyvet, south Roach, west St. Wenn. As for those names, they are synonymous in Cornish, and signify in that phrase, a place of trees, which heretofore it was; and is so called, for that this church is situate upon the manor of Withell Goose, i. e. Tree Wood, or a place heretofore consisting in its voke lands of a wood of trees (neither is it altogether destitute of wood and trees to this day, though within the memory of man, much of them have been cut down for buildings and charcoal there, and all the parish over).

At the time of the Norman Conquest, this district was rated in the Domesday Book by the name of Ber-neves (still the voke lands of a manor in this parish, of which, see more under), as also Trenant or Trenance. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Withell, in decanatu de Pider, was rated at £4. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1621, £10. The patronage was formerly in the Prior of Bodman, who endowed it out of his manor of Withell Goos aforesaid; which lands and patronage, when that Priory was dissolved, fell to the Crown, from whence it passed to Glanvill of Killivor; from Glanvill to Vivian of Truan; from Vivian of Truan, by marriage of his daughter, to Vivian of Trelowarren, now in possession thereof; the incumbent —— Wood; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, tempore William III. £18. 4s. 2d.

Thomas Vivian, Prior of St. Pedyr at Bodmyn, Bishop 161 of Megara, a city of Achaia in Greece, on the borders of Attica, built the rectory house in this place, as appears from his paternal coat armour, and that of the arms of Megara bishoprick, lately extant in the glass windows thereof, tempore Henry VII. and VIII.

Bor, Ber, or Bur-nevas or Nefas, is still the voke lands of an ancient dismembered manor, taxed as aforesaid, otherwise Buro-neves.

Tre-nance in this parish, i. e. the valley town, or town in the valley, was also rated in the Domesday Book 1087, as then the voke lands of a manor, which place gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Trenance, one of which family married Littleton’s heir, and afterwards removed to Lanhydrock, whereof they were lords, tempore James I. when Littleton Trenance, esq. sold that barton to the Lord Robartes, as a younger branch of this family, living at Black Haye in this parish, sold Trenance to Mapowder; and Mapowder sold it to Bone; Bone gave it to Harris of St. Stephen’s; and Harris sold it to Hawkins, now in possession of part thereof. The other moiety of this little barton of Trenance, is in possession of the Arundells of Lanherne.

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.

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.

[23] This is a more recent insertion.

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.

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.]

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

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.

[24] Michi for Mihi, Ducange.—Ed.

APPENDIX.

CONTENTS.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 —

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.

Howbeit, there are some old names yet remaining of places of prayers or oratories, and the ruins shewing them to be such, as V. Gr. Paderda, which is prayers good, (of which many places are so named); Eglarose, the church in the vale, supposed antienter than the names of their churches. Their sites are eminent and ancient, standing towards the east, though no mention made how they came to be in decay, but supposed to be after the Saxon churches came to be erected, and miracles supposed to be wrought by those whose names they bear. Churches’ sites took new names, whereas the old Cornish names remain in all other places of the parishes generally; yet the names of the four old castles remain, and of manors also for the most part, and some other things in the Cornish, and do so continue the better, by reason of men’s particular interest in them: and so are the eminent hills likewise, especially towards the sea, and the hundred or hamlet names of the country remain so chiefly in the western parts; those on the eastern, standing towards the borders, have their 211 names wrested away by neighbourhood, as are other things by like accidents in the eastern parts of the county; other names have been encroached upon by fantastical or vainglorious builders calling their houses after their own names, and others upon vain toys; but these are not many. Moreover, concerning the loss of our speech, and the names of families, I must here (but tenderly though) blame the incuriosity of some of our gentry; who, forsaking the etymologies of their own speech, have studied out new derivations of their names, endeavouring to make themselves as it were descended from French or Norman originals, in adopting or adapting their names thereunto; whereas, their own names in the Cornish are more honourable, genuine, and true; from the Conquest, forsooth, those would have their descent, (no illustrious thing in itself) whereas the ancestry of many of them have been here long before. How finely many have cozened themselves thereby, might be shewn, if it would not be offensively taken, by taking up of coat armour as from French originals. The art of heraldry hath been drawn out to us in French terms and trickings, mostly begun when our kings had most to do in those parts, and so from thence it hath continued ever since; and our Cornish gentry, finding the English so much addicted thereunto, have followed in that tract the same mode, and would fain have themselves understood such, when they were much better before than those French or Latin terms could make them, in which many of the English may be blamed as well as we; for the herald’s art hath many mysteries in it under their French and Latin terms, and many mistakes may be thereby to us and others who are not well acquainted with them, but in those that concern our own tongue, it is evident many have wronged themselves, and more may do so if not well heeded.

The grounds of two mistakes are very obvious. 1st. Upon the Tre or Ter. 2dly. Upon the Ross or Rose. Tre or Ter in Cornish commonly signifies a town, or rather place, and it has always an adjunct with it. Tri is the number. 3. Those men willingly mistake one for another; and so in French heraldry terms, they use to fancy and contrive those with any such three things as may be like or cohere with, or may be adapted to any thing or things in their surnames; whether very handsome or not, is not much stood upon. Another usual mistake is upon Ross, 212 which, as they seem to fancy, should be a rose; but Ross in Cornish is a vale or valley. Now for this their French-Latin tutors, when they go into the field of Mars, put them in their coat armour prettily to smell out a rose or flower (a fading honour instead of a durable one); so any three such things, agreeable perhaps a little to their names, are taken up and retained from abroad, when their own at home have a much bttter scent and more lasting.

Some, however, amongst us, have kept themselves better to the antiquities of their Cornish names in their coat armour, as that honourable family Godolphin,[39] in keeping still displayed abroad his white eagle, from the Cornish Gothulgon. Richard, king of the Romans, Emperor elect, supplied his Cornish border with silver (perhaps tin) plates, deducing them from the antient earls of Cornwall, as borne by them before the Norman Conquest, and, in honour to them and himself, still bearing the same afterwards. Chiverton, whose name in Cornish is a house on a green place or hill, he beareth a coat thereunto accordant, a castle with a green field under it; which may be well thought on as to the name in[40] Cornish, though, in the heraldry it had been more complete. V. a castle A. as I apprehend; Scaberius, which is sweepers or sweeping, A. 3 broom besoms V.; Gavergan, a goat; Keverel, a he-goat, or he-goats; that creature taking most delight, as it is observed, in the cliffs thereabout. These are better significations taken from home, than the other that are foreign; and yet the assumption of a coat from any particular act of a man’s own, is better than such as have reference barely to names, without some special signification therewith.

I had thoughts formerly, and made preparation to give many more instances, where many amongst us have been mistaken in those two particulars; but since it is a hard thing to convince men of old errors, and a harder to make a question against any concerning their gentelicions and the old forms thereof, though intended more for their honour, I shall forbear the further prosecution thereof; but in this, however, I shall do them right, that they, i. e. their ancestors, in this way thus trodden, have walked 213 generally as antiently as any other gentry of this nation, and to my seeming, it had been better if they had stood still super vias antiquas avorum suorum, since most of those ancient families who have strayed abroad as aforesaid, have yet some of them, and many more had, lands and places of their own names in their possession long enjoyed; and a nearer passage it had been to their journey’s end, viz. their honour, if they had not adventured abroad: a testimony whereof we have in that great contention which happened in the time of King Edward III. between Carminow of this county (a family to which most of the ancient gentry here have relation) and a great person[41] of the nation, for bearing of one and the same coat armour, Azure, a bend Or. After many heats about it, a reference was made of it by the king to the most eminent Knights of that time, of which John of Gaunt, King of Castille, was one, before whom Carminow proved his right by the continual bearing thereof, and that before the Conquest, which was not disapproved nor disallowed, but applauded: yet, because the other contendant was a baron of the realm, Carminow was adjudged to bear the same coat still, but a file in chief for distinction sake. The decision was no way dishonourable, and the remembrance of the contention continued to the glory of his posterity, to which his motto in Cornish seems to have an allusion —in English, “A Straw for Whifflers or Dissemblers;” or as some have said to be, “A Fig Cala Rag Whetlow;” but we may take the same better, I think, from the very name of Carminow being in Cornish a rock immoveable, as a sign of his resolution, from thence, or formerly taken up.

Having gone through this passage, which I know not how it may be taken by my countrymen, let me make this observation, that since the gentry here have thought fit, or endeavoured by mistake, to forsake the antiquity of their Cornish names, and thereby their greatest interest, might perhaps prognosticate that their language, which was their ancient glory, should in revenge forsake them, as now it hath almost done; and I shall proceed to assign some other causes of the decay thereof.

XI. The vicinity, or near neighbourhood with Devon. I may say that vicinity only with the Devonians, we having none else, which next to the corruption of tongues by 214 time and superstition to saints, hath most devoured the names of places, especially on the borders of Cornwall with Devon; and there is the worst language commonly spoken, and spoken rudely too, which corrupts not only their own country tongue but ours also, in the places that are nearest to them, and those infect others nearest to them. The names of the places are thereby also much altered in the Cornish, which antiently they had generally, and the particulars that do yet appear, do stand as marks only to shew that what were formerly had are now much eaten away, on the borders especially. ’Tis observed also elsewhere in this county furthest west, where the Cornish hath been most spoken, that the English thereabouts is much better than the same is in Devon, or the places bordering on them, by being most remote from thence from whence the corruption proceeds.

XII. Our gentry, and others, antiently kept themselves in their matches unmixt, commonly at home in their own country, both sons and daughters desiring much to do so, whereby they preserved their names here, and races the better; and when their names changed, it hath been observed to be to the places of their abode, sometimes willingly, sometimes by accident. So it hath continued the Cornish names to the places, and consequently the tongue. But indeed of late our gentry have frequently sought out foreign marriages in other counties, whereby, though it may be confessed they have brought in much wealth, and have goodly inheritances abroad, yet their offsprings have been dissipated, and their affection less intire to the county, the country-men, and country speech; yet it is to be observed, that not many of them have been very prosperous or of long continuance in other counties, where they cannot muster up very many of our names of gentry, Prideaux, Trevilian, Tregonwell, Penruddock, and a few others excepted, which shews that our Cornish are like those trees that thrive best and live longest in their own peculiar soil and air, which yet is fruitful and durable to those that come in amongst us. Not only gentry, which are very many, that have great inheritance by their matches here with Cornish families, but many others also, which seldom leave this country when they have been planted here.

XIII. The coming-in of strangers of all sorts upon us, artificers, traders, home-born and foreigners, whom our 215 great commodities of tin (more profitable to others than ourselves) and fishing, have invited to us to converse with, and often to stay with us; these all, as they could not easily learn our tongue, for which they could not find any guide or direction, especially in these latter days, nor the same generally spoken or affected amongst ourselves, so they were more apt and ready to let loose their own tongues to be commixed with ours, and such, for the novelty sake thereof, people were more ready to receive than to communicate ours to any improvement to them. But ministers in particular have much decreased the speech; this country being far from academies, strangers from other parts of the kingdom have sought, as they still do, and have had their promotions here, where benefices are observed to be very good, and those have left their progenies, and thereby their names, remaining behind them, whereby the Cornish names have been diminished, as the tongue also: so that, as the reputed saints heretofore where they seated themselves, have robbed the places where their churches now stand for the most part of the Cornish names they had before, so the ministers since those times coming from other places, and other strangers, have filled up in many places the inhabitants and places here with their new names and titles brought amongst us, to the loss of many of the old. Here too we may add what wrong another sort of strangers have done to us, especially in the civil wars, and in particular by destroying of Mincamber, a famous monument, being a rock of infinite weight, which, as a burden, was laid upon other great stones, and yet so equally thereon poised up by nature only, as a little child could instantly move it, but no one man or many remove it. This natural monument all travellers that came that way desired to behold; but in the time of Oliver’s usurpation, when all monumental things became despicable, one Shrubsall, one of Oliver’s heroes, then governor of Pendennes, by labour and much ado caused to be undermined and thrown down, to the great grief of the country, but to his own great glory as he thought, doing it as he said, with a small cane in his hand. I myself have heard him to boast of this act, being a prisoner then under him.

XIV. Another cause I shall mention as a great loss of the tongue, though it be a great and wonderful advantage 216 to the people otherwise: the orders of the church and state, commanding all the people young to learn the Lord’s Prayer, Belief, &c. in the vulgar tongue, supposing that to be intended the English, if a mother, surely a stepmother to us. Younglings take in that most, and retain longest, wherewith they are seasoned and bred up in their education.

Herein we must complain also of another new neglect to our speech, that the like care was not taken for us as for our brethren in Wales, in the making of the late act of Parliament for the uniformity of the Common Prayer, by which the five Bishops for Wales were commanded to see the Service Book to be printed in the Welch tongue. If it had been so here it had been a good counterpoise for the loss formerly mentioned concerning the young people; this might also perhaps have saved us some labour in this our undertaking, and it would have been of good use for some of our[42] old folks also, for we have some among these few that do speak Cornish, who do not understand a word of English, as well as those in Wales, and those may be many in some of the western parts, to whom Mr. Francis Robinson, parson of Landawednack told me, he had preached a sermon not long since in the Cornish tongue, only well understood by his auditory. This should have been taken into consideration by our gentlemen burgesses in that and other Parliaments, and by our bishops also; but better it had been if our ancient bishops when they fled hither from their invaders, had brought with them a character of their ancient speech, or left books written therein; or, in defect thereof, they or any other had done for us as Ulphius the bishop did for the Goths when they came to be seated in Italy, who there invented new Gothic letters for his people, and translated the Holy Scriptures into that language for them. This indeed had deserved 217 our greatest thanks from our bishops, as no doubt they had them from those persons who received so great a benefit by their former and latter kindness therein; nor let that good old bishop Ulphius be censured (as he seems to be) for doing a superfluous work, because he might perhaps know that the then service of the church was celebrated in the Greek and Latin tongues, but rather let him be commended for his zeal in religion, and his love to his country and to his country people then with him, dwelling with strangers in another land, that continued so mindful of them and their speech, as we have been neglectful of ours. He by that means continued that tongue in use; we by his example might have regained ours, if the like care had been taken; but our people, as I have heard, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, desired that the Common Liturgy should be in the English tongue, to which they were then for novelty’s sake affected, not out of true judgment desired it. But, besides negligence, fatality is to be considered; fatality is a boundary beyond which nothing can pass; it hath been eminent in kingdoms and states, and those have had commonly fatal periods, as to a time determined five hundred years commonly. But more usual it is, that upon such mutations of kingdoms there have happened losses and mutations of tongues; it may therefore be the more wondered at, that this of the British, being none of the learned tongues to which the Lord had intrusted the writing of his Sacred Scriptures, should have here lasted so long through so many mutations, and that there is yet such a record thereof, as our old manuscript imports, with the purity of the doctrine therein contained, and some other small things in the Bodleian Library.

XV. The little or no help, rather discouragement, which the gentry and other people of our own have given in these latter days, who have lived in those parts where the tongue hath been in some use. In the time of the late unhappy civil war, we began to make some use of it upon the runnagates that went from us to the contrary part from our opposite works, and more we should have done if the enemy had not been jealous of them, and prevented us. This may be fit to be improved into somewhat, if the like occasion happen, for it may be talked freely and aloud to advantage, to which no other tongue hath reference. The poorest sort at this day, when they speak it as they come 218 abroad, are laughed at by the rich that understand it not, which is by their own fault in not endeavouring after it.

XVI. The want of writing it is the great cause of its decay; for, though there wanted a proper character for it, yet we might have written it in the character now in use, but I never saw a letter written in it from one gentleman to another, or by any scholar; which is to be wondered at, and blamed as a thing unbecoming such as ought to be studious in every thing that is ancient: but since I began to set about this work, I prevailed upon those that translated it to write me several letters, which they at first found very hard to be done; but after some practice it seemed easier.

Here I cannot but lament the want of such persons, books, records and papers, which were late in being, and not now to be had, and my misfortune in not having translated them, that most unhappily escaped me; one was the manuscript of Anguin, who had translated out of Cornish into English —— his relations, after his decease, (having suits before me as Vice-Warden of the Stanneries for tin bounds) promised me the favour of those translations, but before their return to their houses, their people tearing all about for their controverted goods, had torn to pieces all those papers. In another place I was promised the sight of a Cornish Accidence; but that by another such-like accident was totally spoiled by children before it could be brought me. I have heard also that a Matins in Cornish was amongst the books of Dr. Joseph Maynard, but I could never attain to it. But besides the no helps by which I lie in this labyrinth, I have likewise had discouragements amongst ourselves at home. I have been often told that, besides the difficulty of the attempt, it would be thought ridiculous for one to go about the restoring of that tongue which he himself could not speak nor understand truly when spoken, to which I have made answer with these two following instances: one is of a countryman of ours, Langford by name; who being blind was yet able to teach others the noble science of defence, only he desired to know still the length of the weapon of his fellow combatant, with a guess of his posture, and this he practised with good success. The other is of one Grizling, of whom Mr. Camden says, that he being deaf could see words; that is, that notwithstanding his deafness he could answer any man’s 219 question that set at table with him by the motion of his lips. This man I have seen also, and he would complain of such men as in those days wore great munchadoes, as they then called them, i. e. nourishing of much hair, by which he was hindered somewhat of the observation of their lips.

I may place these two men, one blind, the other deaf, for these qualities among the observable things of the county, knowing them to be true,—if the mentioning these examples in their comparison do not excuse me from being laughed at by those men that have censured me for my attempt.

Hic facit Adam et dicit Deus.

In English thus:

By this small part of a greater piece given (as I conceive) for Welsh, by a Welsh gentleman, it appears how near the Cornish and Welsh tongues are affined.

[25] Dr. Hammond’s Exposition to the Apocalypse.

[26] Tit. Dij et Homines, 1. 3. p. 457, cap. 163.

[27] Gr. Naz. in Trag.

[28] Here passing down the river, I would willingly have given by the way an account of the antient Cornish name of that eminent place now called Mount Edgcombe, but by reason that the present, and some other generations, have been so much inclined to the name it now bears, and the other generations before them had given it the name of West Stonehouse, as in relation to that on the eastern side of the river East Stonehouse, where the mansion of those gentlemen formerly was, (according to which I have seen an entry of it, Cum Perco et Passagio, in an antient Ouster le main) I could not attain to it.

[29] Off from Seaton, a valley between Ramehead and Loo, there is to be seen in a clear day in the bottom of the sea, a league from the shore, a whole wood of timber on its side, uncorrupted.

[30] Cæsar de Bello Gallico, lib. VI. ch. 14. Neque fas esse existimant, ea literis mandare cum in reliquis Græcis utantur literis. Id mihi duabus de causis instituisse videntur; quod neque in vulgum disciplinam efferi velint; neque eos, qui discant literis, confisos minus memorise studere.—Ed.

[31] The two first lines are from Lib. VII. Ep. 88. The last line from Lib. XI. Ep. 3.—Ed.

[32] Signification of which word in Cornish is “speeches great.”

[33] And so were the other devotions exercised, sub Dio, as you may see by the discourse of Ed. Jones.

[34] Gualterius, mentioned by Archbishop Laud in a speech in the Star Chamber.

[35] These bones must evidently have been found in a Cavern, the nature of which has been most ably ascertained and described by Doctor Buckland; and the Rev. Richard Hennah has examined another cavern of precisely the same nature, comprising bones of various large Mammalia, in the limestone formation, not far from Plymouth.—Ed.

[36] At St. German’s, the place of the author’s nativity, endowed by King Etheldred with lands, liberties, and privileges, but what or where non patet.

[37] Archbishop Usher, in Primordiis. Bishop of St. Asaph. Dr. Stillingfleet, Orig. Britt.

[38] Bishop Hall, in his Mystery of Godliness, says, that a cripple, who for sixteen years together was fain to walk upon his hands, by reason the sinews of his legs were contracted, upon monitions in his dreams to wash in St. Mardren’s Well, was suddenly so restored to his limbs, that he saw him both able to walk and get his own maintenance.

[39] Godolanac, in the Phœnician, is a place of tin.

[40] So Molenneck, signifying Goldfinches, a chevron Sable, between three goldfinches Proper.

[41] Lord Scroope.

[42] Amongst which, as one of the fresh antiquities of Cornwall, let not the old woman be forgotten, who died about two years since, who was 164 years old, of good memory, and healthful at that age, living in the parish of Gwithian, by the charity mostly of such as came purposely to see her, speaking to them (in default of English) by an interpreter, yet partly understanding it. She married a second husband after she was 80, and buried him after he was 80 years of age. Her maiden name no one could remember, nor perhaps she herself. She was usually called after her two husbands’ several names severally and sometimes together, as it is usual for the meaner sort of people to do. As for her maiden name, she might say with a wench in Petronius, “Junonem meam iratam habeam si unquam meminerim me virginem fuisse.”

APPENDIX.
VI.

WILLIAM OF WORCESTER’S ITINERARY.

As no account of William of Worcester is to be found in the common Biographical Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, it has been thought proper to prefix a short notice of his life and character to the following extract from his Itinerary:

William was the son of William of Worcester, and of Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Bottoner. His surname he took indifferently from either; and he is consequently sometimes denominated William Worcester, and William Bottoner. Bishop Tanner describes him as descended of a knightly family, but upon what evidence is not known; yet from certain passages in the Itinerary his father would seem to have been a substantial householder.

He was born in the parish of St. James at Bristol in the year 1415; and as he speaks of a stone vault in that city as having been built in 1428, at his own expense, it is probable that he lost his father, and came to his inheritance at a very early age. Of his childhood nothing is known; but there is some reason to suppose that he was taught the rudiments of learning by Robert Lane, whom he has commemorated as a very eminent schoolmaster at Bristol when he was a youth. In 1432 he first went to Oxford, where he was admitted of Hart Hall, now Baliol College.

It is said, that he was supported at the University by the celebrated Sir John Fastolf; the same who, in his own day, had great renown for his valour and munificence, and 223 who was afterwards exposed to dishonour by Shakspere, with a trifling variation of his name, and a considerable distortion of his character. But it may be presumed that Worcester was indebted not so much to his bounty as to his protection; for if we may judge of Worcester’s patrimony from the few notices he has given us of his father’s property in Bristol, it is not likely that his own means would have been inadequate to the small expense of a collegiate course in those simple times; and we may therefore believe, that the connection which subsisted between Worcester and Fastolf, was merely a compliance with the general custom of the age, when youths of gentlemanly birth and competent fortune sought the patronage and entered the household of wealthy and powerful men. But, however this might have been, it is certain that he afterwards lived with Sir John at Caister, in Norfolk, where he acted as the knight’s secretary and confidential friend, and subsequently as one of his executors.

At Oxford Worcester prosecuted his studies with great diligence and success; and we are informed that he became eminent for his knowledge of history, medicine, and astronomy. On these subjects he is said to have written many books: yet it is likely that they were rather extracts and memorandums, than original and formal compositions. Besides these, he executed some translations from the classics; and we learn from his Itinerary, that on the tenth of August 1473, he presented the Bishop of Winchester with a translation of Cicero on Old Age. He tells us, however, that this gift was not sufficient to conciliate the good prelate’s regard; but he seems to insinuate, that the failure was owing less to the faults of the performance, than to the intervention of an enemy. Yet, whatever he might have suffered from the malice of his neighbours, it is possible, that the offering itself was considered of small value; and it might have been the less esteemed, if it be true, that the same treatise had been already rendered into English by John Tiptoft, the accomplished and unfortunate Earl of Worcester.

But it is on very slender evidence that this nobleman is said to have translated Cicero on Old Age. He had left in manuscript a translation of Cicero on Friendship; and when Caxton printed it, many years after his death, with an anonymous version of the essay on Old Age, in the same volume, he was at once supposed to have been the 224 author of both; but the translation, thus published without a name, was professedly executed in honour of Sir John Fastolf, the friend and patron of William of Worcester; and as it is well known that many of his dependant’s literary performances were undertaken expressly for his sake, and, as at the same time William of Worcester might have been easily confounded with the Earl of Worcester, there is considerable probability that William, and not the Earl, was the author of the translation in question, and consequently William could not have suffered on a comparison with him in the manner suggested. Nor is it sufficient objection to this inference, that the productions of a writer, whose style has been chosen as an example of the barbarous taste of the age in which he lived, were not likely to be imputed to one whose extraordinary attainments had won the admiration of the polished and fastidious scholars of Italy; for whatever might have been the Earl’s superiority in classical knowledge, it does not appear that he had cultivated his native tongue with greater care than his contemporaries; and William of Worcester might not have fallen below him in the rude and unsettled English of that time.

Of William’s writings, of whatever kind, very little is now extant; and though for a few things the credit which he deserved has been given to others, it has been reasonably conjectured, that he has enjoyed in return the merit of some performances of which he was not the author; but however he might have laboured in the promotion of learning, he loved the acquisition of it so well, that he was accustomed to say, he found more pleasure in his books than some men derived from their estates; and to the attainments which he had made at the University, he added, by the help of one Giles, a Lombard, some acquaintance with French and Poetry.

Yet study was insufficient to satisfy him without observation: τὸ εἰδέναι δίττον ἔλεγεν εἶναι· τὸ μὲν ἐπιστήμῃ, τὸ δὲ τῇ πείρᾳ. He consequently sought to enlarge his knowledge by travelling; and he has been considered worthy of respect as the earliest topographer of England, “Primum Angliæ perlustratorem ne flocci facias;” but however this may be, he is certainly the first traveller who has left us any memorials of a journey into Cornwall; and the interest and value which his observations derive from this 225 circumstance, have made them worthy of a place in the present Appendix.

The book, in which these notices are found, is entitled Itinerarium, sive Liber Rerum Memorabilium Willelmi Botoner dict. de Worcester. It had existed in manuscript only, till the year 1778, when it was published at Cambridge, from the original autograph in the Library of Corpus Christi College, by James Nasmith, formerly a Fellow of that Society. Besides this, indeed, there is another manuscript of the journal in the same library, but it is only a copy of the former, made by the procurement of Archbishop Parker; and as it is very incorrect, it is of no value in itself, and could have been of little use to the editor.

This Itinerary seems to have been a memorandum book, which the author kept with him on his journeys, not only into this county, but to other parts of this kingdom; and accordingly we find it stored with desultory notices of separate facts, and distant places, and abounding with trifling and unconnected observations, which seem to have been associated on the same page, only as the book was accidentally opened, and recorded rather from some present impulse, than with any settled and ultimate design. Nothing can be more rude than the style, or more worthless than many of the statements; and whatever might have been the writer’s real intention, it is very certain that his remarks, in the condition which they have actually come down to us, could not have been meant for publication. It might have been his purpose, when leisure and opportunity should serve, to arrange and expand the hasty and unconnected notes thus made by the way; but the brevity of the greater number would have insufficiently secured him against perplexities and mistakes; and as he might have erred occasionally through the acknowledged failure of his memory, or the unconscious influence of his imagination, it is possible that a careful and regular composition subsequently made, might have been less useful, than even the confused and scanty memorandums we possess.

Worcester came into Cornwall in the year 1478. Mr. Whitaker says, that it was in 1440. How he could have committed such a mistake, it is difficult to conceive, as the date is expressly recorded in the Itinerary itself. Mr. Polwhele, indeed, appears to have erred likewise; for, 226 according to him, William’s journey was performed in 1473; but this is evidently nothing more than a misprint. In one of our county histories, the journey is stated to have occurred in 1460: it is probable, however, that the writer had never seen the Itinerary.

He set out from Norwich, on Monday the 17th of August, and reached London on the Thursday following. On the first of September he came to Bristol, and took his departure for Cornwall on the next day. He arrived at Launceston on Sunday the 13th, and on Monday pursued his journey towards the west. Near Bodmin his horse fell with him, but it does not appear that he received any injury. On Tuesday night he slept at Polwhele; and having visited the preaching friars at Truro on Wednesday, he came in the evening to Marazion. The next morning, Thursday 17th of September 1478, he attended mass in the chapel on the Mount. In the afternoon of the same day, he departed for Penryn; and going thence to Bodmin, he returned eastward, through the towns on the south coast. The towns and villages on the north coast of Cornwall he did not visit; and the statements which he makes respecting them, were merely the result of his inquiries. He seems, indeed, to have been as diligent in seeking information from others, as in making observations of his own; and no persons, whether smiths, ropers, or ferrymen, were considered unfit to furnish him with the knowledge which he wanted for his journal. Amongst those in Cornwall, from whom he learned most, was his cousin, Robert Bracey, at Fowey; but it is likely that he depended mainly upon the secular and regular clergy, who entertained him on the road, and gave him access to their chronicles and registers.

With regard to the nature and purpose of this journey, from the manner of the record itself, it would not be easy to conjecture, whether it was undertaken with feelings of devotion or of curiosity. The coldness of the whole narrative, and the careless brevity with which the accomplishment of the acknowledged object is related, were scarcely consistent with a fervid and lively devotion; and the insertion of so many facts and observations, which must have been useless when they were written, and now owe their value to their subsequent antiquity, while the documents of early times, and the traditions of the people, were almost wholly neglected, could not have happened 227 under the influence of an active and judicious curiosity. And besides this, when William of Worcester was in Cornwall, it was impossible for an intelligent visitor to overlook the state of our ecclesiastical architecture. Many of our present churches had been recently built, and others were then building; and some account of their style and condition, of their founders and builders, and of the circumstances attending their erection, would have been far more amusing to his contemporaries than what he wrote, and of unspeakable interest in after times. And any other man, we may suppose, would have found something to say of the manners and habits of the people, and of their mines and fisheries; but from William of Worcester we know only by implication or accident, that he travelled in an inhabited country.

Yet without devotion he would not have visited the Mount, and without curiosity he would have made no observations by the way. The shrine of St. Michael, which had been the resort of superstitious people in remote times, had lately recovered its ancient reputation, after an interval of some accidental obscurity; and pilgrims were again attracted by the privileges conferred on it in the eleventh century, and were coming even from distant places in considerable numbers. William of Worcester was one of these; and as his penitence had brought him so far, it might be thought that his admiration would have delayed his return.

But the hospitalities of a place so ‘kind to strangers,’ the natural beauties of the Mount, and the venerable antiquity and romantic traditions of the castle and monastery, were not enough to detain him for a day; and with scarcely any regard to such things, he stayed but a few hours. In that short space he could not occupy himself with many inquiries; and we have received from him only a few bare facts, which he appears to have recorded rather as the justification of his pilgrimage, than with any precise knowledge of their value.

His subsequent pursuits, and the time of his death, are not known, nor have we any account of the number and the fortunes of his children. It is certain, however, that he was married; and he is reported to have taken a wife in opposition to the wishes of his patron. For Sir John Fastolf had designed for him some ecclesiastical preferment, and had consequently advised him to obtain orders 228 in the church. Tanneri Biblioth.—Paston Letters.—Lelandus de Script. Brit.—Henry’s Hist. of Engl.

Incipiunt notabilia per W. Worcestre scripta in viagio de Bristolia ad Montem Sancti Michaelis in anno Christi 1478.

*  *  *  *  *

• Castellum Tregtheney-Pomerey de Devonia edificatum stat juxta Mousehold, per 7 miliaria ultra Montem Sancti Michaelis.
• Castellum Trethyn dirutum in fine occidentalissima Cornubiæ.
• Turris castelli Karnbree, Sir John Bassett, chevalier, stat.
• C. Helston dirutum: comes Cornubiæ Edmundus.
• C. Trurew dirutum: comes Cornubiæ.
• C. Treclysten dirutum.
• C. Morisk, ubi comes Cornubiæ Edmundus manebat.
• C. Fust, quondam Ricardi comitis Anarwit in Carnanton, dirutum.
• C. Dynas super altum montem dirutum, et fons in medio castri ubi Tador dux Cornubiæ maritus —— matris Arcturi fuit occisus, juxta villam Sancti Columpnæ.
• C. Carloogus, dirutum, in villa prope Sanctum Columpnæ.
• C. Keynok dirutum cum tribus wardis.
• C. Laner dirutum in villa Laner.
• C. Godollon dirutum in villa Lodollon.
• C. Tregheny stat, pertinet Pomereys, in Trefeny burgagio super le South.
• C. Lanyhorn stat in villa Lanyhorn quondam Archedes.
• C. Dirford dirutum prope Golonant villa.
• C. Frampton aliter Castrum Trevyan dirutum prope Seynt Terbyn.
• Castrum Tyntagelle fortissimum dirutum prope Camelford, ubi Arthurus fuit conceptus.
• Castrum vocatum Botreaux castel distat per duo miliaria ultra Tyntagele castelle.
• C. Hyllysbery dirutum per 4 miliaria ultra Tyntagele.
• C. Lescars stat, domini Principis.
• C. Bynamy stat, domini J. Colshill chevalier.
• 229 C. Restormalle stat prope Lastydielle, in parco principis, quondam Edmundi comitis Cornubiæ ubi manebat.
• C. Lanceston villa per comitem Cornubiæ fundatum.
• C. Tremyton quondam principis prope Saltash.
• Falmouth villa: ecclesia Penryn.
• Turris Fowey Treweryestowe.
• Turris apud Pollrewen.
• C. Bodleet dirutum prope Tremedart villa ubi Colsell chevalier habet mansionem.
• C. Kellysberve dirutum prope Bokehelle villa.
• C. Polwhele dirutum in villa Polwhele ubi Other Phelip manet.
• C. Morysk juxta Truro dirutum.
• Turris Blekennok ab antiquo prope Lastydyall nupe Hugonis Curteney.
• Turris in parochia Sanctæ Columbæ quondam Johannis Tregose armigeri, per 8 miliaria ex parte occidentali Bodman.

Itinerarium Cornubiæ ad occidentalissimum finem.

• Prima inceptio comitatus provinciæ Cornubiæ est apud Polston-brygge per unum miliare ex parte orientali de Lanceston.
• Polston-brygge per 1 miliare ex parte orientali de Lanceston.
• De Lanceston usque Lyscard 10 miliaria.
• De Lyscard usque Low 5 miliaria.
• A Low usque Pollerewan 5 miliaria.
• A Pollerewen usque Bodennek 2 miliaria.
• A Bodenhac usque Fowey ex altera parte aquæ de le havyn de Fowey distat jactu unius arcus sagittæ.
• A Fowey usque Trewardreth prioratum villæ ejusdem 2 miliaria super mare.
• A Trewardreth usque Colonant super mare 2 miliaria.
• A Colonant usque Lastydielle 3 miliaria super mare Fowey.
• A Lastydielle usque Bodman 3 miliaria infra terram.
• A Bodman usque Padisco super mare boriale 8 miliaria.
• A Padisco usque Seynt Columbe infra terram in medio comitatus 5 miliaria.
• A Seynt Columbe usque Methsholle infra terram 5 miliaria.
• 230 A Meschylle usque Graundpond 5 miliaria circa partem meridionalem comitatus Cornubiæ infra terram.
• A Grantpont usque Treghonyburgh 5 miliaria in patria.
• A Tregonye usque Trewrwborough super meridionalem partem versus mare australe infra patriam 5 miliaria.
• A Tregran usque Seynt Mandyt 6 miliaria super mare meridionale ultra brachium maris.
• A Seynt Mandyt usque Trewrewborough ovyr the water 5 miliaria, vocatum brachium maris de Falmouth.
• A Trewrewborough usque Penryn 6 miliaria super le south see.
• A Penrynborow usque Helstonborowgh 8 miliaria super costeras maris per circa 3 miliaria de le south see.
• A Hellestonborow usque Marchasyowe juxta montem Sancti Michaëlís super litus maris 6 miliaria.
• A Markysyow usque Pensans duo miliaria.
• A Pensans usque Moushole 2 miliaria: Porthennys.
• A Porthenys usque le Londys-ende 4 miliaria.

[These obits are more fully extracted again in p. 239.]

[43] Acle is in Norfolk, and this portion of the extracts from Worcestre’s very indigested collections, together with some other passages, ought to have been omitted, but they were not noticed in time. Edit.

APPENDIX.
VII.

THE ITINERARY OF JOHN LELAND,
SO FAR AS RELATES TO CORNWALL.

(Hearne’s Edition, vol. II. fol. 69.)

From Depeford to Lanstoun a xij miles by hilly and much morisch groude baren of wodde. Or ever I cam to Lanstoun by a mile I passid over a bridge of stone, having 3 arches and a [one] smaul, caullid New Bridge; thorough the which the ryver of Tamar rennith, that almost from the hed of it to the mouth devidith Devonshir from Cornewaule. This New Bridge was of the making of the Abbates of Tavestok, and mainteinyd by them; for Tavestoke Abbay had fair possessions thereaboute.

The Ryver of Tamar risith a 3 miles by north-est from Hertelande and thens cummith to Tamerton, a village on the est ripe yn Devonshire; and ther is a bridg over Tamar of stone: and from this bridg to Padestow xx miles. Yalme Bridge of stone 2 miles lower. New Bridge 2 miles lower. Pulstun Bridge 2 miles lower. Greistoun Bridge a 2 miles or more lower. Tavestoke about a 4 miles from Greston Bridg; and Grestoun Bridg, being about a 3 miles from Launston, is the way from Launston to Tavestok. Hawte Bridg. Another bridg caullid New Bridg. Caulstoke Bridg next the se, begon by Sir Perse Eggecumbe. Lideford Bridge is not on Tamar.

After that I had enterid a litle into the suburbe of Launstoun, I passed over a brooke caullid Aterey, that rennith yn the botom of the stepe hil that Launstoun 257 stondith on. This water, as I there lernid, riseth a x miles of by west-north-west towards Bodmyne; and, passing by Launstoun, goith in Tamar by est, as I did gather, a litle above Pulston Bridg. After that I had passid over Aterey, I went up by the hille thorough the long suburbe, ontylle I cam to the toun waul and gate, and so passid thorough the toun, conscending the hill ontylle I cam to the very top of it, wher the marketplace and the paroche chirch of S. Stephane, lately reedified, be. The large and auncient Castelle of Launstun stondith on the knappe of the hill, by south a litle from the paroche chirch. Much of this castel yet stondith; and the moles that the kepe stondith on is large and of a terrible highth, and the arx of it, having 3 severale wardes, is the strongest but not the biggest that ever I saw in any auncient worke in Englande. Thir is a litle pirle of water that servith the high parte of Lanstoun.

The Priorie of Launstoun stondith in the south-west parte of the suburbe of the toun, under the rote of the hille, by a fair wood side; and thorowgh this wood rennith a pirle of water, cumming out of an hil therby, and servith al the offices of the place. In the chirch I markid 2 notable tumbes, one of Prior Horton, and another of Prior Stephane. One also told me there, that one Mabilia, a Countes, was buried ther in the Chapitre House. One William Warwist, Bishop of Excestre, erected this Priorie, and was after buried at Plymtoun Priory that he also erected. Warwist, for erection of Launston Priory, suppressid a collegiate Chirch of S. Stephan having Prebendaries, and gave the best part of the landes of it to Launstoun Priory, and toke the residew hymself. There yet standith a Chirch of S. Stephan, about half a mile from Launstoun on a hille, wher the Collegiate Chirch was. Gawen Carow hath the custody of the Priory. There is a Chapelle by a west-north-west a litle without Launstowne, dedicate to S. Catarine; it is now prophanid.

From Launston to Botreaux Castelle, vulgo Boscastel, first a 2 miles by enclosid ground having sum woodde and good corne. Thens an 8 miles by morisch and hilly ground and great scarsite of wood, insomuch that al the countery therabout brennith firres and hethe. And thens a 2 miles to Boscastel by enclosid ground metely fruteful of corne, but exceding baren of wood, to the which the bleke northern se is not there of nature favorable. The 258 toun of Boscastelle lyith apon the brow of a rokky hille by south-est, and so goith doun by lenght to the northe toward the se, but not even ful hard to it. It is a very filthy toun and il kept. There is a chirch in it, as I remembre of S. Simpherian. The Lorde Botreaux was lord of this town, a man of an old Cornish linage, and had a manor place, a thing, as far as I could —— of smaul reputation, as it is now, far onworthe the name of a castel. The people ther caulle it the Courte. Ther cummith down a little broke from south-est out of the hilles therby, and so renning by the west side of the towne, goeth into Severn se betwixt 2 hylles, and ther maketh a pore havenet, but of no certaine salvegarde. One of the Hungrefordes maried with one of the heires generale of Botreaux, and so Boscastel cam to Hungreford. Then cam Boscastelle, by an heir generale of the Hungrefords, unto the Lord Hastinges. Hastinges Erle of Huntendune and the late lord Hungreford had a lordship of the Botreaux in partition, caullid Parke; and ther is a manor place or castelet. It is a vi miles from Botreaux by south.

Ther is no very notable toun or building from Botreaux by est-north-est, along apon the shore upper on Severn to Hertland point, but Strettoun, and that is a xij miles from Botreaux, and ther is a praty market. It stondith about a mile from the se. There is a place near to Stretton caullid Ebbingford, but now communely Efford, wher John Arundale of Trerise was borne, and hath a fair manor place, in the which Syr John Chaumon now dwellith, that maried the mother yet lyving of John Arundale of Trerise.

Olde Treviliane, a man of pratie land, but cumming of a younger brother of the chife house of that name, dwellith toward Stretton, at a place caullid ——. Hertland Point is a x miles upper on Severn from Strettoun.

From Botreaux to Tredewy village, on the shore about a mile, and ther cummith downe a broke rising in the gret rokky hilles therby.

From Tredewi to Bossinny, on the shore about a mile. This Bossinny hath beene a bygge thing for a fischar town, and hath great privileges grauntid onto it. A man may se there the ruines of a gret numbre of houses. Here also cummith down a broke, and this broke and Tredewy water resort to the se at one mouth betwyxt ij hilles, 259 wherof that that is on the est side, lyith out lyke an arme or cape, and maketh the fascion of an havenet or pere, whither shippelettes sumtime resorte for socour. A frere of late dayes toke apon hym to make an haven at this place, but he litle prevailid theryn. There ly 2 blake rokkes as islettes at the west-north-west point or side of this creeke; the one, saving a gut of water, joyning to the other. And yn these brede gulles, be al lykelihod.

From Bossinny to Tintagel Castel on the shore a mile. This castelle hath bene a marvelus strong and notable forteres, and almost situ loci inexpugnabile, especially for the dungeon, that is on a great and high terrible cragge, environid with the se; but having a drawbridge from the residew of the castelle onto it. There is yet a chapel standing withyn this dungeon of S. Ulette, alias Uliane. Shepe now fede within the dungeon. The residew of the buildings of the castel be sore wether-beten and yn ruine; but it hath beene a large thinge. This castelle stondith in the paroche of Trevenny; and the paroch therof is of S. Simphorian, ther caullid Simiferian.

Passing a mile from the chirch of S. Symphorian by hilly and hethy ground, I cam over a brooke that ran from south-est-north to Severn se, and about half a mile beyound the mouth of this brook lay a great blak rok like an islet yn the se not far from the shore.

Porthissek, a fisschar village, lyith about a 3 miles from the mouth of th’afore sayd brook, lower by west on Severn shore. There resortith a broke to Porthissek, and there is a pere and sum socour for fisschar botes.

Porthguin, a fisschar village, lyith a 2 miles lower on the shore, and there is the issue of a broke and a pere. And a 3 miles lower is the mouth of Padestow Haven. From Dindagelle to S. Esse village a 4 miles; meately good ground about S. Esses selfe. From S. Esse to Trelille village 2 miles. From Trelille to —— wher Master Carniovies, alias Carnsey, hath a praty house, fair ground, and praty wood about it.

Thens 3 miles by good corne grounde, but no wood, to Wadebridge. Wher as now Wadebridge is, ther was a fery a 80 yeres syns, and menne sumtyme passing over by horse, stoode often in great jeopardie.

Then one Lovebone, vicar of Wadebridge, movid with pitie, began the bridge, and with great paine and studie, good people putting their help thereto, finishid it with 260 xvij fair and great uniforme arches of stone. One told me that the fundation of certein of tharches was first sette on so quick sandy ground that Lovebone almost despairid to performe the bridg ontyl such tyme as he layed pakkes of wolle for fundation.

The ryver of Alawne rennith thorough Wadebridge, evidentley seen at lower.

The first memorable bridge on Alane is caullid Helham Bridge —— miles lower then Camilforde, but Alane is almost a mile from Camilford Toun.

Dunmere Bridge of 3 arches a 2 miles lower. Here doth Alaune ryver ren within a mile of Bodmyn.

Wadebridge a 3 miles lower by land and 4 by water. This is the lowest bridg on Alane.

Ther cummith a broke from S. Esse 5 myles from Wadebridge, and a litle above Wadebridge goith into Alane by the est side of the haven. This broke risith a 2 miles above S. Esse by est-north-est. There cummith a brooke from Mr. Carnsey’s house, and goith into Alane, by the est side of the haven a 3 miles lower than Wadebridge: and here is a creeke at the mouth of this brooke that ebbith and flowith up into the land.

In the way passing from Dunmere Bridge toward Bodmyn, there rennith a praty broket thoroug a bridge of one stone arche, a very litle way beyond Dunmer Bridge: and a litle lower goith into Alane bynethe Dunmer Bridge by the west ripe of Alane. This litle broke servith the milles, and rennith by the est ende of the town of Bodmyn.

There cummith a brooke into Alaune about a 2 miles byneth Dunmere bridg on the west ripe. This brooke riseth by south-est: and at S. Lawrence, scant a mile owt of Bodmyn, I passid over a bridge on this water in the way to Michale.

From Wadebridge to Padestow, a good quick fischar toun but onclenly kepte, a 4 miles. This toun is auncient, bering the name of Lodenek in Cornische, and yn Englisch, after the trew and old writinges, Adelstow, Latine Athelstani locus. And the toune there takith King Adelstane for the chief gever of privileges vnto it. The paroch Chirch of Padestow is of S ——. There use many Britons with smaul shippes to resorte to Padestow with commoditees of their countery and to by fische. The toun of Padestow is ful of Irisch men. Padestow is set on the weste side of the haven. Padestow toun is a —— 261 miles from the very haven mouth. From the mouth of Padestow Haven to S. Carantokes a —— miles.

From Wadebridge to Dunmere a 3 miles, and thens a mile to Bodmyn. Bodmyn hath a market on every Saturday, lyke a fair for the confluence of people. The showe and the principale of the toun of Bodmyn is from west to est along in one streate. There is a chapel of S —— at the west ende of the toune. The paroch chirch standith at the est end of the town and is a fair large thyng. There is a cantuarie chapel at th’est ende of it. The late Priory of Blake Chanons stoode at the est ende of the paroch chirchyard of Bodmyne. S. Petrocus was Patrone of this, and sumtyme dwellyd ther. There hath bene monkes, then nunnys, then seculare prestes, then monkes agayn, and last canons regular, in S. Petrokes chirch. Willyam Warlewist, Bishop of Excestre, erectid the last fundation of this Priory; and had to hymself part of th’auncient landes of Bodmyn monasterie. I saw no tumbes in the Priory very notable, but Thomas Vivianes, late Prior ther, and Suffragane by the title of the Bishoprike of Megarensis.[44] The Shrine and Tumbe of S. Petrok yet stondith in th’est part of the chirche. There was a good place of Gray Freres in the south side of Bodmyn town. One John of London, a merchaunt, was the beginner of this house. Edmund Erle of Cornewaul augmentid it. There lay buried in the Gray Freres Sir Hugh and Sir Thomas Peverelle, knightes, and benefactors to the house. There is another Chapel in Bodmyn beside that in the west ende of the toune, and an Almose House, but not endowid with landes.

From Bodmyn to S. Laurence, wher a poor Hospital or Lazar House is, about a mile. One of the Peverelles gave a litle annuitie onto this house. Here I passid over a stone bridge, and under it rennith a praty broke that cummith out of the hylles from south-este, and goith into Alane a 2 miles above Padestow by the weste ripe, and by the meanes of the se and creke it ebbith and flowith up into the creke of this river. From S. Laurence I passed by morisch ground al baren of woodde a vj m[iles], leving about this vj miles ende S. Columbes, about a 2 miles off on the right hond.

262 And ther about I left Castelle an dinas on the same hand, a good mile of. But I saw no building on it, but an hille bering that name.

Thens to Michel, a litle thorough fare, a 2. or 3. miles, by morisch ground, all baren of wood.

Thens a 5 miles to a litle village and paroch church, callid Alein. And hereabout there is very good corne.

And so a myle to Gwernak, Master Arundale’s house. This Arundale gyveth no part of the armes of great Arundale of Lanheran, by S. Columbes; but he told me that he thought that he cam of the Arundales in Base Normandy, that were lordes of Culy Castelle, that now is descended to one Mounseir de la Fontaine, a Frenchman, by heir generale. This Arundale ys caullid Arundale of Trerise, by a difference from Arundale of Lanheron. Trerise is a lordship of his, a 3 or 4 miles from Alein chirch. Arundale of Trerise had to his first wife one of the 2 doughters and heires of Boville, alias Beville, and Graneville had the other; and they had betwixt them litle lak of 400 markes of landes by the yere in partition.[45] The house that John Arundale of Trerise dwellith yn was Bovilles, and this Boville gave the Ox in Gules in his armes. There is yet one of the names of the Beviles, a man of a c. li land purchased by the grandfather of —— Beville now living. This Beville hath —— [ed] —— [brother of Sir John] Arundale of Trerise ——.

Armes in Castel Cairden.

Sir William Godolchan and Strowdes daughter his wif, of Pernham in Dorsetshire.

Sir William Godolchan and Margaret Glynne his first wife. Margaret was one of the 3. heires of Glyn of Morevale, by Low [Looe] water toward S. Germans. Vivian of 263 Trelowarren[46] maried the second daughter and coheire of Glynne. Richard Kendale of Worgy had the 3.

William Godolchan the sunne, and Blanch Langdon his wife. Langdon dwellith at Keverel by S. Germanes.

S. Albine his stok cam out of Britaine. There is another house of the S. Albines in Somersetshire.

Grainville.

Milatun dwellith at Pergroinswik.

*  *  *  *  *

Campernulphus, alias Chambernon, d’n’s de Trewardreth, et fundator prioratus monachorum, qui post D’ni erant ejusdem manerii. Campernulphus nunc dominus de Modbyri in comitatu Devoniæ. He was lord of Bere toward Excestre.

Cowlin at Treneglis.

Cavel, maried Sir William Godolcan sister.

Petite was a man of very fair landes in Cornewaulle; and among other things he was lord of the isle of Pryven that now descendith to Kiligrew.

Bewpray, id est, de Bello prato.

Archedecon.

Tresinny, at Penrine, a man of 40 mark landes; most part of it lyith about Padestow.

Ex vita Sanctæ Breacæ.

Barricius socius Patritii, ut legitur in vita S. Wymeri. S. Breaca nata in partibus Lagoniæ et Ultoniæ.

Campus Breacæ in Hibernia in quo Brigida oratorium construxit, et postea Monaster. in quo fuit et S. Breaca.

264 Breaca venit in Cornubiam comitata multis Sanctis, inter quos fuerunt Sinninus Abbas, qui Romæ cum Patritio fuit, Maruanus monachus, Germmochus rex, Elwen, Crewenna, Helena.

Breaca appulit sub Revyer cum suis, quorum partem occidit Tewder.

Breaca venit ad Pencair.

Breaca venit ad Trenewith.

Breaca ædificavit eccl. in Trenewith et Talmeneth, ut legitur in vita S. Elwini.

Pencair, an hille in Pembro paroche, vulgo S. Banka.

Trenewith, a little from the paroch [church] of Pembro, wher the paroch church [was] or ever it was set at Pembro.

Talmeneth, a mansion place in [Pembro].

Cairdine, an old mansion of the Cowlines, wher now William Godolcan dwellith.

Carne Godolcan, on the top of an hille, wher is a diche, and there was a pile and principal habitation of the Godolcans. The diche yet apperith, and many stones of late time hath beene fetchid thens; it is a 3. miles from S. Michael’s Mont by est-north-est.

Cair Kinan, alias Gonyn and Conin, stoode in the hille of Pencair. There yet apperith 2 diches. Sum say that Conin had a sun caullid Tristrame.

S. Germocus, a chirch 3 miles from S. Michael’s Mont, by est-south-est, and a mile from the se; his tumb is yet seene ther. S Germoke’s chair in the chirch yard. S. Germoke’s welle a litle without the chirch yard.

Garsike, alias Pengarsike, nere the shore a 3. miles by est from S. Michaeles Mont.

Milatun hath part of Mewis landes in Devonshire, by one of the heires generall of Mewis, of Mewis Urth, a daughter and heire of the Godalcans, married to Henry Force. Yonge Milatun hath sir Godalcan’s daughter to his wife. One of the Worthes wives gave a late this land with a daughter of hers to one of the Milatuns of Devonshire.

Markesju,[47] a great long toun, burnid 3 aut 4 anno Henr. 8 a Gallis. The paroch chirch a mile of. A pere by the Mount. Markjue and the Mount be both S. Hillaries paroche. There was found of late yeres syns spere heddes, axis for warre, and swerdes of coper, wrappid 265 up in lynin scant perishid, nere the Mount in S. Hilaries paroch in tynne works.

Comes Moritoniæ et Cornubiæ made a celle of monkes in S. Michel Mont. This celle was ons gyven to a college in Cambridge. Syns given to Syon. A fair spring in the Mont.

Ludewin, alias Ludevaulles, wher, as sum suppose, was a castel, a mile by west from Markesju; it longid to the Lord Brooke.

Pensandes, 2 miles of by west; there is a litle peere.

Newlin, a mile lower on the shore; there is a peere. Newlin is an hamlet to Mousehole. Mousehole a mile lower. There is a peer. Mousehole in Cornish Port-enis (Portus insulæ). A bay from Newlin to Mousehole, caullid Gnaverslak. A litle beyond Mousehole, an islet and a chapel of S. Clementes in it. There hath bene much land devourid of the sea betwixt Pensandes and Mousehole. An old legend of St. Michael speaketh of a tounelet in this part now defaced, and lying under the water.

King Ethelstane, founder of S. Burien’s College, and giver of the privileges and sanctuarie to it. S. Buriana, an holy woman of Ireland, sumtyme dwellid in this place, and there made an oratory. King Ethelstane goyng hens, as it is said, onto Sylley, and returning, made ex voto a College wher the Oratorie was.

Tredine Castel ruines at the south-west point of Penwith; manifesta adhuc extant vestigia. I hard say that one Myendu was lord of it. Myendu signifieth blak mouth or chimne.

Ryvier Castel, almost at the est part of the mouth of Hayle River on the north se, now as sum think drounid with sand. This was Theodore’s castle.

Combe Castelle, ubi tm (?) loci vestigia, and Pencombe a little foreland, about a mile upper than Kenor on Severn. Basset hath a right goodly lordship caullid Treheddy by this Cumb. There cummith a good brooke down by Combe.

Cayl Castelle a mile by est from River in S. Filake’s Paroche.

Nikenor,[48] a 2 miles from Ryvier, sumtyme a great toun now gone. 2 paroche chirchis yet seene a good deale several one from the other, sumtyme in the towne, but it 266 is now communely taken to be in S. Guivian’s paroch; and there cummith a broket to the sea.

Carnbray, on a hil, a castelet or pile of Basset’s, a mile west of Revier town. There was sumtyme a park, now defacid.

SCYLLEY.

There be countid a 140 Islettes of Scylley, that bere gresse exceding good pasture for catail. S. Mary isle is a 5 miles or more in cumpace; in it is a poore toun, and a meately strong pile: but the roues [roofs] of the buildinges in it be sore defacid and woren. The ground of this ile berith exceeding good corn: insomuch that, if a man do but cast corn wher hogges have rotid, it wyl cum up.

Iniscaw longid to Tavestoke, and ther was a poore celle of monkes of Tavestoke. Sum caulle this Trescaw: it is the biggest of the Islettes, in cumpace a 6 miles or more.

S. Martines isle.

S. Agnes isle, so caullid of a chapel theryn. The isle of S. Agnes was desolated by this chaunce in recenti hominum memoria. The hole numbre almost of v. housoldes that were yn this isle cam to a mariage or a fest into S. Mary isle, and goinge homewarde were al drownid.

Ratte islande.

Saynct Lides isle; wher yn tymes past at her sepulchre was gret superstition.

There appere tokens in diverse [of] the islettes of habitations now clene doun.

Gulles and puffinnes be taken in diverse of these islettes, and plenty of conyes be in diverse of these islettes. Diverse of these islettes berith wyld garlyk. Few men be glad to inhabite these islettes, for al the plenty, for robbers by the sea that take their catail of force. These robbers be French men and Spaniardes. One Davers, a gentilman of Wilshir, whos chief house is at Daundesey, and Whittington, a gentleman of Glocestreshire, be owners of Scylley; but they have scant 40 markes by yere of rentes and commodites of it.

Scylley is a kenning, that is to say, about an xx miles from the very westeste pointe of Cornewaulle.

Petites principal house was at Ardeverauian in Falmouth Haven by the peninsula, caullid Ardeverameur. Petites landes be now descended to Arundale of Trerise, Granville, knight, and Killigrew.

267 Thomas Levelis about S. Burianes.

Kiwartun at Newlin by Mousehole.

John Godolcan at Mousehole.

Cavelle is S. Cua paroch at Trearach.

Carnsew at Brokelly in S. Cua paroch.

Nicolle in S. Tedy paroch by Bokelly.

Trecarelle, at Trecarelle by Launston.

From Mr. Godolcan to Pembro, wher the paroch chirch is [i. e. appertains] to Mr. Godolcan. The personage impropriate to Heyles in Glocestreshir. The south se is about a mile from Pembro.

From Mr. Godolcan to Lanante a 4 miles. Passage at ebbe over a great strond, and then over Heyle river.

No greater tynne workes yn al Cornwall then be on Sir Wylliam Godalcan’s ground.

Heyle Haven shoken [choaked] with land of tynne works.

Heile ryver cummith of 4 principale heddes or brokes; one riseth by south, and other by south west; another by south-est; the 4 by north-est.

Mr. Mohun hath a fair lordship by S. Erthe’s, caullyd ——.

Trewinard, a gentilman dwelling at Trewinard yn S. Erth paroch. S. Erth, a good mile above Lenant. S. Erth bridge, a good mile from Lannante, of 3 archis a litle byneth the paroche [church?] that stondith on the est side of the haven. This bridge was made a 200 yeres syns, and hath a 3 arches. Afore ther was a fery. Ther cam to this place ons, the haven beyng onbarrid, and syns chokid with tynne workes, good talle shippes.

There was a castel caullid Carnhangives, as apperith, or manor place, now clene doun, not far from the bridg. Dinham, as sum say, was lord of this place, and to the court thereof be longging many knightes and gentilmens services.

The toune of Lannant [now Lelant] is praty. The church thereof is of S. Unine.

S. Fës [St. Ive’s] a 2 miles or more from Lannant. The place that the chief of the toun hath and partely dooth stonde yn, is a very peninsula, and is extendid into the se of Severn as a cape. This peninsula, to compace it by the rote, lakkith litle of a mile. Most part of the houses in the peninsula be sore oppressid or overcoverid with sandes, that the stormy windes and rages castith up there. This calamite hath continued ther litle above 20 yeres. 268 The best part of the toun now standith in the south part of the peninsula, up toward another hille, for defence from the sandes. There is a blok house and a fair pere in the est side of the peninsula; but the pere is sore chokid with sande. The paroch chirch is of Iva, a nobleman’s daughter of Ireland, and disciple of S. Barricus. Iva and Elwine, with many other, cam into Cornewaul, and landid at Pendinas. This Pendinas is the peninsula and stony rok wher now the toun of S. Ives stondith. One Dinan, a great lord in Cornewaul, made a chirch at Pendinas, at the requist of Iva, as it is written yn S. Ive’s legende.

Ther is now at the very point of Pendinas a chapel of S. Nicolas, and a pharos for lighte for shippes sailing by night in those quarters. The town of S. Ive’s is servid with fresch water of brokettes that rise in the hilles thereby. The late Lord Brook was lord of S. Ive’s, now Blunt lord Monjoy, and young Poulet.

S. Piranes in the Sandes, is an xviij. miles from S. Ive’s upward on Severne; and S. Carantokes is a 2 miles above that on the shore. Els litle or no notable thing on the shore for so farre. The shore from S. Ives is sore plagued to S. Carantokes with sandes. There dwellith a gentilman of a 50 markes land by yere, caullid Glynne, yn S. Ive’s.

From Mr. Godalcan’s to Trewedenek, about a 4 miles, wher Thomas Godalcan [yonger] sun to Sir Willyam, buildith a praty house, and hath made an exceding fair blo-house mille in the rokky valley therby.

Alle the brookes that cummith from the hilles thereabout gather to[ward] this botom, and go into Lo Poole a 2 [miles beneath.] Lo Poole is a 2 miles in lenght, and betwixt it and the mayn se, is but a barre of sand: and ons in 3 or 4 yeres, what by the wait of the fresch water and rage of the se, it brekith out, and then the fresch and salt water metyng makith a wonderful noise. But sone after, the mouth is barrid again with sande. At other tymes the superfluite of the water of Lo Poole drenith out thorough the sandy barre into the se. If this barre might be alway kept open, it wold be a goodly haven up to Hailestoun. The commune fisch of this pole is trout and ele.

Hailestoun, alias Hellas, stondith on an hill, a good market toun, having a mair and privileges; and coinage twis a yere for tynne blokkes. There hath bene a castelle. One paroch chirch at the north-west ende of the towne. 269 An hospital of S. John yet stonding at the west-southwest of the town, of the foundation of one Kylligrew. The fresch water that goith to Lo Poole cummith down on the west side of the toun, but not even hard by it. Wike Mille water cummith within about half a mile on the east side of the towne.

From Hailstoun to Mogun Bridge, about a 2 miles dim. Thorough this bridge rennith at ebbe a litle brooke that riseth a —— miles upper by weste. It ebbith and flowith aboute a mile above this bridge. I saw on the left hand, a litle beside this bridge, the principal arme of Hailford Haven, caullid Wike, the wich flowith about a 3 miles upland by north to Wike Mille; and this arme is beten[49] with 2 litle fresch brokes bering the name of Wyke. A flite shot beyond this bridge I cam to a causey of stone, in the midle whereof was a bridge having but one arche. It flowith above this bridge; and at the ebbe there resortith a broke thourough this bridge, that cummith down from south-weste. A litle beneth these bridges both thes brokes in one run into Wik water. These bridges be a 4 miles or more from the mouth of Heilford Haven. About a 2 miles beneth this confluence rennith up on the est side of the haven a creeke of salt water, caullid Poulpere, and hemmith in a peace of Mr. Reskymer’s Parke at Merdon, so that with this creke, and the main se water of the haven, upon a 3 partes the parke is strenkthyd [surrounded]. Poul Wheverel about half a mile lower, having a brooke resorting to it. There is on the same side half a mile [lower] another creke callid Cheilow, alias Chalmansak. There be 4 crekes, (eche of thes crekes hath a broket resorting to them,) on the south-west side of the haven thus named. Pencastel the first, from the mouth, 4 miles beneth the bridges, whither shipes do resorte; and here is a trajectus from the one side of the haven to the other. This is a mile from the haven mouth, and here the shippes cummunely do ly. [2.] Caullons, half a mile upward. Then [3.] Mogun, a 2 miles higher, wher the bridge is, with the broken stone. S. Mogun’s Chirch upon Mogun Creeke. [4.] Gaire, wher the bridge is, with the causey and one arch, so that this brekith as a creke out of Mogun.

S. Mawnoun chirch, at the very point of the haven on 270 the side toward Falmouth, a se marke. Gelling creeke, agayne S. Mawnoun’s on the other side, hard without the haven mouth. Gilling creke brekith at the hed into 2 crekes.

S. Piranes, alias Keverine, wher the sanctuarie was, a mile from S. Antonies, and not a mile from the main se.

The patronage of S. Antonies longid to Trewardreth. S. Antonies chirch or chapel beside at —— sand. S. Antonies standith in the point of the land of Gilling creke, and the mouth of Hailford haven. Mr. Reskimer hath a maner caullid by his own name a mile from Moreden. There hath bene a fair house, but it felle to ruine in tyme of mynde. Mr. Reskimer berith in his armes a wolphe. One of the Reskimers gave land to S. Keverines, for sustentation of certein poore folkes. S. Keverine’s, 2 miles from Gilling creeke, and not a mile from the se. S. Keverine’s longgid to Bewle Abbay in Hampshir, and had a sanctuarie privilegid at S. Keverin’s.

From Gaire bridg to Tremain, wher Mr. Reskimer now dwellith, a good mile. This litle house longgid to Tremain, and in tyme of mynde cam by heire general to one Tretherde. This Tretherde hath, beside, landes and a praty maner place at —— John Reskimer’s mother was Tretherth’s [daughter.] There is in Devonshir one of the Tremayns a man of fayre landes.

From Tremayn over Heilford Haven to Morden, where Mr. Reskimer hath a ruinus maner place, and a fair park well woddid; wherof 3 partes is within the principal streme of the haven, and a creke caullid Poole Penrith, hemmid yn. Morden [is] in Constentine paroch.

Then I rode half a mile and more from Morden over the fresch water, that riseth no far distance off yn the hilles, and goith strait into Poulpenrith creeke. About half a mile farther, I rode over an arme of the broke that cummith doun to Poulwitheral creeke; and sone after I rode over the greater arme of the same broke, the salt arme lying in the bottom hard under it.

Then I rode a 4 miles by morey and rokky ground. And then within the space of half a mile, I cam to S. Budocus church. This Budocus was an Irisch man, and cam into Cornewalle, and ther dwellid. A litle from the chirch there enterid betwixt ij hilles on the shore a short creke lyke an havenet, but it was barrid.

And a quarter of a mile farther I cam to Arwennak, 271 Mr. Keligrewis place, stonding on the brimme or shore within Falemouth Haven. This place has been of continuance the auncient house of the Killigrewes. There was another house of the Keligrewis descending out of this, and it was in the toun of Penrine. Now both these houses be joynid yn one.

The very point of the haven mouth, being an hille wheron the King hath builded a castel, is caullid Pendinant, and longgith to Mr. Kiligrewe. It is a mile in cumpace, and is almost environid by the se; and where it is not, the ground is so low, and the cut to be made so litle, that it were insulatid. From S. Mawnon to Pendinas by water a 4 miles.

There lyith a litle cape or foreland within the haven, a mile dim. almost again Mr. Kiligrewis house, called Penfusis. Betwixt this cape and Mr. Kiligrew’s house, one great arme of the haven rennith up to Penrine toun.

Penrine 3 good miles from the very entery of Falmouth haven, and 2 miles from Penfusis. There dwellith an auncient gentilman, callid Trefusis, at this point of Penfusis.

Levine Prisklo, alias Levine Pole, betwixt S. Budocus and Pendinas; it were a good haven but for the barre of sande.

The first creke or arme that castith out on the northwest side of Falemuth, goith up [to] Penrin, and at the ende it brekith into 2 armes, the lesse to the College of Glasenith, i. viridis nidus, or wag-mier, at Penrin; the other to S. Gluvias, the paroch church of Penrine therby.

Out of eche side of Penrine creke, breaketh out an arme or ever it cum to Penrin. Stakes and foundation of stone sette in the creeke at Penrine, afore the toun, a little lower than wher it brekith into armes. A gap in the midle of the stakes, and a chain.

Good wood about the south and west syde of Penrith. One Walter [Brounscombe], Bishop of Excestre, made yn a more caullid Glesnith, in the bottom of a park of his at Penrine, a Collegiate chirch, with a provost, xij prebendaries, and other ministers. This college is strongly wallid and incastellid, having 3 strong towers and gunnes at the but of the creke.

Betwixt the point of land of Trefusis, and the point of Restronget wood, is Milor creek, and there is S. Milor’s church, and beyond the church is a good rode for shippes. 272 Milor creke goith up a mile. Good wood in Restronget.

The next creek beyond the point in Stronget Wood is caullid Restronget, and going ij miles into the land, it brekith into 2 armes; and St. [Feock’s] Church standith in the land betwixt; and on the arme is a stone bridg caullid Carr Bridg in the way thens to Truru. Betwixt Restrongith Creke, and the creke of Truru, be two creekes. Truru Creeke is next, and goith up a 2 miles creking up from the principal streme. This creke brekith withyn half a mile of Truru, and castith yn a creke westward by Newham Wood. This creke of Truru, afore the very toun, is devidid into 2 partes, and eche of them hath a brook cumming doun, and a bridge, and the toun of Truru betwixt them both. The White Freres house was on the west arme, yn Kenwyn streate. Kenwen streat is severid from Truru with this arme; and Clementes streat by est is seperate on the est side from Truru with the other arme. One paroche church in Truru self. Kenwen and Clementes streates hath several chirches, and bere the name of the sainctes of the paroch chirches. Coynage of tynne at Midsomer and Michelmas at Truru. Truru is a borow toun and privilegid. Ther is a castelle a quarter of a mile by west out of Truru, longging to the Earl of Cornwale, now clene doun. The site therof is now usid for a shoting and playing place. Out of the body of Truru creke on the est side, brekith a crek estwarde a mile from Truru, and goith up a mile dim. to Tresilian Bridge of stone. At the entry and mouth of this creeke is a rode for shippes, caullid Maples Rode. Here faught a late xviij sail of Marchant Spaniardes, and 4 shippes of warre of Depe. The Spaniardes chac’d hither the French men.

A mile and a half above the mouth of Truro Creke, caullid La Moran Creke, of the church of S. Moran. This creke goith into the land a quarter of a mile from the maine streme of the haven. The mayne streame goith up 2 miles above Moran creeke, ebbing and flowing; and a quarter of a mile above is the toune of Tregony, vulgo Tregny. Here is a bridge of stone aliquot arcuum apon Fala ryver. Fala river riseth a mile or more off Rochehille, and goith by Granborrow, [“Pons grandis,” i. e. Granpound] wher is a bridge of stone over it. Graunpond, a 4 miles from [Roche,] and 2 litle miles from Tregony. Mr. Tregyon hath a maner place richely begon and amply, but not endid, caullid Wulvedon, alias Goldoun. Fala ryver, is betwixt Graunpond and Tregony.

273 From Tregony to passe doune by the body of the haven of Falamuth, to the mouth of Lanyhorne creeke or pille on the south-est side of the haven, is a 2 miles. This creke goith up half a mile from the principale streame of the haven.

At the hed of this creeke standith the castelle of Lanyhorne, sumtyme a castel of an 8 toures, now decaying for lak of coverture. It longgid as principal house to the Archedecons. Thes landes descendid by heires general to the best Corbetes of Shropshir, and to Vaulx of Northamptonshir. Vaulx part syns bought by Tregyon of Cornewaul. From Lanyhorne pille is a place or point of land of 40 acres or therabout as a peninsula, and is caullid Ardeuerameur, and is a mile from Lanyhorne creke; and the water or creke that cummith or rennith into the south-south-est part is but a litle thyng, as of an half mile. The creke that hemmith this peninsula up into the land, yn on the west-south-west side, is the mayn land betwixt Crameur creke and this.

From the mouth of the west creke of this peninsula to S. Juste creeke a 4 miles or more. From S. Juste pille or creeke to S. Mauditus creeke is a mile dim.

The point of the land betwixt S. Juste creke and S. Maws is of sum caullid Pendinas, and on this point stondith, as yn the entery of S. Maws creek, a castelle or forteres late begon by the king.

[Vol. iii. p. 46. Inscriptions made [by Leland] at the request of Master Trewry at the Castelle of St. Maw’s.

This creke of S. Maws goith up a 2 myles by est-north-est into the land, and so far it ebbith and flowith; and ther is a mylle dryven with a fresch brook that resortith to the creke. Scant a quarter of a mile from the castel on the same side, upper into the land, is a praty village or 274 fischar town with a pere, caullid S. Maw’s; and there is a chapelle of hym, and his chaire of stone a little without, and his welle. They caulle this Sainct there S. Mat —— he was a bishop in Britain, and [was] paintid as a scholemaster.

Half a mile from the hedde of this, downward to the haven, is a creke in a corner of a poole with a round mark, made in charte, on the which is a mille grinding with the tyde. A mile beneth that, on the south side enterythe a creke half a mile, and this is barrid by a smaul sand banke from the main sea. A mile beneth this, and almost agayn S. Maw, a creeke or poole goynge up a litle in —— at the but of this is a myle. And a celle of S. Antone longging to Plympton Priory, and here, of late dayes, lay 2 chanons of Plympton Priory.

All the crekes of Fala welle woddid.

From S. Antonies Point at the mayn se to Penare Point a 3 miles dim.

Grefe Islet lyith scant half a mile est of Penare, wherein breadeth gullis and other se foules. This Grefe lyith north from the Forne, a point or foreland in Britain, bytwene the wich is the entery of the sleve of the ocean. And betwixt Forne and Grefe is a v. kennynges; and here is breviss. trajectus by estimation from Cornewaulle into Britaines continent.

About a myle by west of Penare is a forte nere the shore in the paroch of S. Geron’s. It is a single dikyd, and within a but shot of the north side of the same apperith an hole of a vault broken up by a plough yn tylling. This vault had an issue from the castelle to the se. And a litle by north of the castelle a 4 or 5 borowes or cast hilles. A mile dim. from this there is another in the syde of an hille —— a quarter —— from the lordship of —— thy, sumtyme the Archdekens, now Corbettes and Tregions.

Dudeman Foreland or Point is about a 3 miles from Grefe. No wood on the very cost from S. Antonies Point to Dudeman. Inward yn the land is some woode ——. This chapelle land or point is in the park of Bodrugan; and yn this park was the house of Sir Henry Bodrugan, a man of auncient stok, atteyntid for takyng part with King Richard the 3 agayn Henry the 7; and after flying into Ireland, Syr Richard Eggecomb, father to Sir Pers Eggecombe, had Bodrigan and other parcelles of Bodrigan’s 275 landes. And Trevagnon had part of Bodrigan’s landes, as Restronget and Newham, both in Falamuth Haven.

From Chapel land to Pentowen, a sandy bay, witherto fischar bootes repair for a socour, a 2 myles. Here issuith out a praty ryver that cummith from S. Austelles, about a 2 miles dim. off. And there is a bridge of stone of the name of the town. This ryver rennith under the west side of the hille, that, the poore toun of S. Austelles stondith on. At S. Austelles is nothing notable but the paroch chirch.

From Pentowen to the Blake Hedd a mile. There is a fair quarre of whit fre-stone on the shore betwixt Pentowen and Blak Hed, whereof sum be usid in the inward partes of S. Mawe’s forteresse. The residew of morstone and slate. And Pendinas Castelle is of the same stone except the wallinge.

And in the cliffes between the Blak Hed and Tywartraith Bay is a certeyn cave, wheryn apperith thinges lyke images gilted. And also in the same cliffes be vaynis of metalles as coper and other.

There is, a mile from the entery of Tywartraith Bay up yn the land at the but ende of it, a paroch chirch of S. Blase, and ther is a new bridge of stone of the sainctes name over a broke that ther cummith into the bay.

Tywardreth, a praty toun but no market, lyith a quarter of a myle from the est side of the bay. Ther is a paroch chirch, and ther was a priory of blak monkes, a celle sumtyme to a house in Normandy. Sum say Campernulphus was founder of this priory. Sum say that Cardinham was founder. Arundale of Lanhern was of late taken for founder. I saw a tumbe in the west part of the chirch of the priori, with this inscription:

Hæc est Tumba Roberti filii Wilihelmi.

This Robert Fitz William was a man of fair landes tempore Edwardi 3. reg. Ang.

From Tywardreth toun to Fawey town a ij miles. The point of land on the est side of Tywardreth Bay is caullid Penarth Point. From Penarth to the haven mouth of Fawey is a 2 miles. Ther is at the west point of the haven of Fawey Mouth a blok house devised by Thomas Treury,[50] and made partely by his cost, partely by the town 276 of Fawey. A litle higher on this point of the hille is a chapel of S. Catarine. And hard under the roote of this hille a litle withyn the haven mouth, is a litle bay or creke bering the name of Catarine.

About a quarter of a mile upper on this the west side of Fawey haven is a square toure of stone for defence of the haven, made about King Edward the 4. tym; and litle above this tower on the same side is Fawey Town, lying alonge the shore, and builded on the side of a great slatey rokkid hille. In the midle of the toun apon the shore self is a house buildid quadrantly in the haven, which shadowith the shippes in the haven above it from 3 partes of the haven mouth, and defendith them from stormes. The name of the toun of Fawey is in Cornisch Conwhath. It is set on the north side of the haven, and is set hangging on a maine rokky hille, and is in length about a quarter of a mile. The towne longgid to one Cardinham, a man of great fame, and he gave it to Tywartraith Priorie, of the which sum say that Cardinham was founder; sum say Campernulph of Bere. But at this gift Fawey was but a smaul fischar toun. The paroch chirch of Fawey is of S. Fimbarrus, and was impropriate to the priorie of Tywartraith. The glorie of Fawey rose by the warres in King Edward the first and the thirde and Henry the v. day, partely by feates of warre, partely by pyracie, and so waxing riche felle al to marchaundice, so that the town was hauntid with shippes of diverse nations, and their shippes went to all nations. The shippes of Fawey sayling by Rhie and Winchelsey, about Edward the 3. tyme, wold vale no bonet beyng requirid; wherapon Rhy and Winchelsey men and they faught, when Fawey men had victorie, and therapon bare the armes mixt with the armes of Rhy and Winchelsey, and then rose the name of the ‘Gallaunts of Fawey.’ The French men diverse tymes assailid this town, and last most notably about Henry the vj. tyme, when the wife of Thomas Treury the 2. with her men repellid the French out of her house in her housebandes absence. Wherapon, Thomas Treury buildid a right fair and stronge embatelid tower in his house, and embateling all the waulles of the house, in a maner made it a castelle, and onto this day it is the glorie of the town building in Faweye. In Edwarde the 4. day, 2. stronge towers were made a litle beneth the town, one on eche side of the haven, and a chayne to be drawen over. When warre in Edward the 4 dayes seasid bytwene the 277 French men and Englisch, the men of Fawey, usid to pray [spoil], kept their shippes and asaillid the Frenchmen in the sea agayn King Edwardes commandement; wherapon the capitaines of the shippes of Fawey were taken and sent to London, and Dertemouth men commaunded to fetche their shippes away, at which tyme Dertmouth men toke them in Fawy, and toke away, as it is said, the great chein that was made to be drawen over the haven from towre to towre.

From Fawey town end by north in the haven is Chagha mille pille, a litle uppeward on the same side. A good mile above Chagha mille pille is on this west side Bodmyn pille, having [a landing place] for wares, then to be caried to Bodmyn.

A quarter of a mile from Bodmyn creek mouth up into the haven on the same side is Gullant a fischar tounlet.

From Gullant to Lantian pille or creek about half a mile: it goith up but a litle into the land. Lantiant lordship longid to the Erle of Saresbyri. Barret, a man of mene landes, dwellith bytwixt Gullant and Lantient pille.

From Lantiant pille to Bloughan pille or creke nere a mile; it crekith up but a litle.

From Bloughan to Lostwithiel scant a mile on the principal streame of Fawey river. It hath ebbid and flowen above Lostwithiel; but now it flowith not ful to the toun. In Lostwithiel is the shir haul of Cornewaul. Therby is also the coynege haul for tynne. The town is privilegid for a borow; and there is wekely a market on Thursday. Richardus Rex Rom. comes Cornubiæ privilegid this town. The paroch chirch is of S. Barptolome. There comithe a broket from west throghe the side of Lostwithiel, and goith est into Fawey ryver, dividinge Penknek from Lostwithiel.

Penknek is yn Lanleverey paroch.

Carteis, a gentleman of almost an 100 mark land, dwellith betwyxt Bloughan and Penknek by Lostwithiel.

The park of Restormel is hard by the north side of the town of Lostwithiel. Tynne workes in this parke. Good woode in this parke. Ther is a castel on an hil in this park, wher sumtymes the Erles of Cornewal lay. The base court is sore defacid. The fair large dungeon yet stondith. A chapel cast out of it, a newer work then it, and now 278 onrofid. A chapel of the Trinite in the park, not far from the castelle.

The castel of Cardinham, a 4. miles or more by north from Lostwithiel. To this castelle longith many knightes services. Arundale of Lanherne. The Lord Souch, Compton and —— partith Cairdinham’s landes.

The ryver of Fawey risith in Fawey more about a 2. miles from Camilford by south, in a very wagmore in the side of an hil. Thens to Draynesbridge, of flat more stones. Thens to Clobham bridg, drownid with sand, ij miles and more. Thens to Lergen bridge of 2 or 3 arches, a mile lower. Thens to Newbridg of stone archid, a 2 miles. Thence to Resprin bridge of stone archid, alias Laprin, about 2 miles. Thens to Lostwithiel bridge of five arches, two miles. A litle above Lostwithiel bridge of stone, the ryver of Fawey brekith into 2 armes; wherof at this day the lesse goith to the ston bridge, the bigger to a wodde bridge even again[st] and but a litle way of from the stone bridge; and after a praty way lower the armes cum again to one botom. The great part of Fawey water is by policie turnid from the ston bridg for choking of it, and for to put the sande of from the botom of the toun. The stone bridge, in tyme of memorie of men lyving, was of arches very depe to the sight; the sande is now cum to within a 4 or 5 feete of the very hedde of them. The sande that cummith from tynne workes is a great cause of this, and yn tyme to cum shaul be a sore decay to the hole haven of Fawey. Barges as yet cum with marchanties within half a mile of Lostwithiel.

From Lostwithiel doun along Fawey ryver to S. Winnous, an abbate chirch, a good myle. By the wich chirch of old tyme enhabitid a gentilman, Joannes de S. Winnoco. After the Lordes Hastinges wer owners of it; and then sold to Guiliam Loures gret-grandfather now lyving. This Lower hath to wife one of the 2 daughters of Thomas Treury. By this chirch is a warfe to make shippes by. Much good wood at S. Ginokes, and on the other side of the haven agayn it. From S. Guinows chirch to the point of S. Winows wood, half a mile. Here goith yn a salt crek half a mile on the est side of the haven, and at the hed of it is a bridge caulled Lerine bridge, and the creke berith also the name of Lerine.

At the north side of this Lerine creke, almost at the 279 hedd, is Teuthey, Laurence Courteneis house. It longgid ons to Stonnard, sins to Cayle, and now last to the Courteneis of the house of Devonshir descendinge. From Lerine creke to S. Carac pille or creeke, about half a mile lower on the said est side of the haven; it goith a mile dim. up into the land.

In midle of this creke on the north side was a litle celle of Saint Cyret and Julette, longging to Montegue Priory. From the mouth of S. Carak pille to Poulmorlande pille about a mile. It goith scant a quarter of a mile up into the lande, and at the hedde goith into 2 armes.

From the mouth of Poulmorlande to Bodenek village half a mile, wher the passage is to Fawey, and from —— Mr. Mohun hath a maner place, caullid the Haul, on an hil above this village.

From Bodenek to Pelene Point a quarter of a mile, and here enterith a pille or creeke half a mile up into the land.

At the hed of this pille is a chapel of St. Wilow, and by it is a place caullid Lamelin, lately longging to Lamelin, now to Trelauny by heir general. Trelauny’s house is at Meneheneth by Liscard. On the south side of this creke is the paroch church, caullid Lanteglise juxta Fawey, being the paroch chirch of Bodenek and Poulruan. From the mouth of this creke to Poulruan, a good fischar town, a quarter of a mile. And at this Poulruan toun is a tower of force, marching again the tower on Fawey side. Ther was ons, as it is said, a chaine to go over the haven from tower to toure. The haven mouth of Fawey is a 2 bow shottes of.

The very point of land at the est side of the mouth of this haven, is caullid Pontus crosse, vulgo Paunch crosse.

From Lostwithiel to Castledour, now clene doun, 3 good miles by plentiful ground of corn and grasse. Castledour longgid to the Erle of Sarisbyri.

A mile of is a broken crosse thus inscribed, Conomor et filius cum Domina Clusilla.

From Pontus Crosse to Poulpirrhe about a six miles, wher is a little fischar toun and a peere, with a very litle creke and a broke. Ther is a crikket betwixt Poulpirrhe and Low. From Poulpirrhe to Low creke dry at half ebbe a 2 miles. On eche side of the entery of this creke is a toun, the one caullid Est Low, the other West Low.

Est Low is a praty market toun. There is a great bridge 280 of a 12 archis over Low creke, to go from the one toun of Low to the other. Good wood about Low creke.

Ther is a maner place caullid Trelaun about this Low creke, sumtyme Bonvilles, now the Marquise of Dorsetes. Salmon taken yn this creke. Kendale and Code, gentilmen, dwelle yn Morel paroche on the est syde of this creke.

From Low creeke to Seton bridge of stone of a 2 archis, and Setoun ryver a 3 miles.

From Seton to Ramehed, about a 9 miles.

From Fawey over the haven to Bodenek, a fischar town, wherby Mr. Mohun hath a manor place.

Thens a 5 miles by very pleasaunt inclosid ground prately wooddid, plentiful of corn and grasse.

Then a 3 miles by mory and hethy ground.

Then 2 miles by hilly and woddy ground to Liscard.

About half a mile or 1 cam to Liskard, I passid in a wood by a chapel of owr Lady, caullid “our Lady in the Park,” wher was wont to be gret pilgrimage. This chapelle of ease longgith to Liskard, and so doth 2 or 3 more.

Liskard stondith on rokky hilles, and is the best market town at this day in Cornwaul, saving Bodmin. In this toun the market is kept on Monday. The paroch chirch is of S. Martin, stondith on an hil, and is a fair large thing. The personage is impropriate to ——. Ther was a castel on an hille in the toun side, by north from S. Martin. It is now al in ruine. Fragments and peaces of waulles yet stond. The site of it is magnificent and looketh over al the toun. This castelle was the Erles of Cornwaul. It is now usyd somtym for a pound of cattell. This towne knowledgith fredom and privileges by the gift of Richard King of Romanes, and Erle of Cornewaul. Ther is a goodly conduct in the midle of the town very plentiful of water to serve the town.

• From Liskard to Fowey 10.
• From Liskard to Launstoun 12 miles.
• From Liskard to Lostwithiel 10.
• From Liskard to Bodmin 10.
• From Liskard to Low Market 7.
• From Liskard to S. Germanes a 6 miles.
• From Liskard to Plymmouth a 12 miles.

Cumming out of Liskarde, about half a mile, I left Cortyder, a goodly lordship and an old maner place, on the right hond; it is a hunderith pounde by the yere. This is now fawllen onto heir-general in partition. Cotyder, 281 and the lordship of Tregelley, now caullid Minheneth lordship, longgid (as Mr. Trelawney told me) to one Heling or Eling. Cotyder cam after hime, therof named Cotyder —— had male —— and Cotyder, now Beket hath Cotyder self ——. Corington and another of them had ——.

From Liskard to Minheneth 2 miles, wher is a fair large old chirch. The personage of it is impropriate to ——. From Mynhenet to the ruines of Bodulcan’s place a 2 miles. The maner of Minheneth was sumtime caullid Tregelly, wherof the name and sum ruines yet remaine. Trelawney now lyving, is the 4. of that name that hath be lord of Minheneth. Ther was one Sir John Trelawney, sn auncient gentilman, father to the first Trelawney of Minheneth, but be likelihod he had an elder sun; for Trelawney now living hath none of the landes, but it is descendid to heires generales.

Half a mile off, a great brooke, after the course of a 4 miles, resorting to Liner and S. Germanes creke a this side S. Germanes.

Another broket a quarter of a mile beyond, that resortith to the other.

Thens to Natter Bridge of 2 or 3 archis, 4 miles. It stondith on Liner Ryver. This ryver, as far as I could lerne, riseth by north-est up towardes the quarters of Launstoun.

The soile betwixt Minheneth and Natter bridge very good and enclosid, and metely wel woddyd. From Natter bridge to S. Germanes about a 2 miles.

The town of S. Germanes on the side of Liner as I came to this bridge. S. Germanes is but a poore fischar town. The glory of it stoode by the priory. S. Germanes stondith about a 3 miles in Liner creke from the mayne strond of Tamar haven.

From Liner bridge to Asche aboute a 4 miles by much like grounde. Asche is a praty market toun, and is set from the toppe of a rokky hille, as by west to the roote of the same, and very shore of Tamar haven by este. The tounes men use boothe marchandise and fischar. Thir is a chapel of ease in Asche. The paroch chirch is caullid S. Stephan’s, about half a mile off by south, the personage wherof is impropriate to Windesore College.

By S. Stephanes, and in S. Stephanes paroch is the graunt and auncient castelle of Tremertoun, apon a rokky 282 hille, wherof great peaces yet stond, and especially the dungeon. The ruines now serve for a prison. Great libertees long to this castelle. The Valetortes, men of great possession, wer owners, and, as far as I can gather, builders of this castel, and owners and lordes of the toun of Aische.

These crekes I notid on the west side of Tamar. Fyrst, I markid in sight above Asche toun, a 2 miles or more, the principal arme of Tamar haven going up into the land about a 10 miles from that place to Caulstoke bridge, witherto it almost ebbith and flowith. And shippes cum up within a mile of this bridg to a place caullid Morleham. And this place is but a 3 miles from Tavestoke. Tavestoke is countid to be but 10 miles from Asche to go the next way. Betwixt the 2 miles from Asche to the mayne arme of Tamar in sight I markid, descending in the haven, 3 crekes breking out into the land, wherof the first lyith by north-west creking up into the land. The second lyith west-north-west. The 3 plaine west, and this crekid to the land scant half a mile. Scant a mile lower lyith Liner creke, goyng up onto S. Germanes.

The toune of Asch stondith bytween these 2 crekes. Then brekith a litle creke out caullid John’s or Antony. And at the mouth, about S. Nicholas, brekith in a creek goyng up to Milbrok, 2 miles up in land from the mayn haven. This Milbrok is a riche fischar toun.

Penle, a fore land, lyith 3 miles lower from this creke into the ——. And the promontorie of Ramehed a mile lower.

Morwel, the Abbat of Tavestok house, about a mile from Morleham.

Tamar a litle from Morwelle.

From Tavestok to Greston bridge a 6 miles, and then a 3 miles to Launston.

Tamar a 2 miles and more from Tavestok.

Calstok bridge, or New Bridge, two miles from Milbrok, the first creeke. S. John the next. Liner the 3. The 4 a litle above Aische. The 5 without fail is the maine streame of Tamar.

From Reddon the land lying south-west on S. Nicholas Isle to Cair Grene, wher Tamar turnith west a 6 miles. Tamar, going a mile west, for the most part after goith north.

283 Creekes from the mouth of Plym and Tamar upon the est side of the haven.—The Mylle bay. The Stone-house creke. Kaine place creke, wher is a maner place of Mr. Wise’s. The creeke —— having a mille at the hed, it is in lenght a 2 miles. A 4 mile upper, a creke going up to Mr. Budokes side, wher is his manor place, and S. Budok chirch. Ther dwellith by this creke also Copston of Warley, a man of xx C. markes of lande as it is saide. Then is the uppermost, wher Tave water cummith onto Tamar. And on the est side of this creeke is Bukland. And on the west side is Bere, wher the Lord Brokes house and park was. Bere is a mile from the creke mouthe. Bukland is a two miles from the creke mouthe. The towne of Plymmouth is about a 3 miles from the passage of Asche. The trajectus self at Asch half a mile.

The ground betwixt the Passage and Plymmouth hath good corn but litle wood. Perse Eggecombe had a manor by Ramehed. Perse Eggecombe hath a goodly house in Cornwalle on Tamar at the mouth of Plimmouth haven.

THE MYDDEL PART OF CORNEWALE. (Vol. vii. fol. 117.)

By the ryver of Tamar from the hedde north-north-est yssuyng owt towarde the sowthe, the contery being hilly, ys fertile of corne and gresse, with sum tynne warkes wrougth by violens of water.

Hengiston, beyng a hy hylle and nere Tamar, yn the est part, baryn of his self, yet is fertile by yelding of tynne both be water and dry warkes.

The myddel of Cornewale to the est part hy montaynes, rochel ground, very baren, with sum tynne warkes yn them.

Cornewal thoroughowt from the east part to the west, nerer to the north part then to the sowth, ys hy montaynes baren ground. Fruteful from Launston to Bodman, yn a drye somer good for pasturage for catel, wyth sum tynne werkes.

Looke for Dosmery Poole almost by S. Annes hille.

From Bodman to Redruthe village, nerer to the north se then to the sowth, be by montaynes, baren also, yelding bare pasture and tynne.

From Redruth to Carne Godolghan the contery ys hylly, very baren of gresse, and plenteful of tynne.

From Lanant to S. Juste, alias Justinian, beyng the 284 very west poynt of al Cornewayle, the north part ys montaynes and baren growne, but plenteful of tynne. The very west poynt, as yt is cawled now in Cornysch, ys Penwolase, id est infimum caput.

THE NORTH PART OF CORNEWALE.

Fro Stratton, not very far from the hedde of Tamar, to Padstow, the contery by the north se ys rather hylle then montaynenius, and is very fertile of gras and corne. And the clives of the sayd northe se, betwne the places aforesayd, hath good fyne blew slates, apt for howse kyveryng, and also hath diverse vaynes of leade and other metalles not yet knowen.

Also abowt Camelford ar certen old mynes, wrought yn tymes past, but of what metalle yt ys now onknowen. Withyn a myle above that poore village sowth, runneth the ryver that goyth ynto the Severn Se at Paddistow, and it is the greatest ryver on the north side of Cornewale, and ys cawled yn the commune spech there Dunmere, and yn the Kyngges grawnt of privilege to the Chanons of Bodmynne, and the burgeses of the same towne, Alan, yt may fortune for Alaune. Sum historyes cawl it Cablan. By this ryver Arture fawght his last field, yn token whereof the people fynd there yn plowyng, bones and harneys.

Wythyn iiii. myles of the sayd Camylford, apon the north clif ys Tintagel, the which castel had be lykekod iii. wardes, wherof ii. be woren away with gulfyng yn of the se, insomuch that yt hath made ther almost an isle, and no way ys to enter ynto hyt now but by long elme trees layde for a bryge; so that now withoute the isle rennith alonly a gate howse a walle, and a fals braye dyged and wallid. In the isle remayne old walles, and in the est part of the same, the ground beyng lower, remayneth a walle embateled, and men alyve saw theryn a postern dore of yren. Ther is in the isle a prety chapel, with a tumbe on the left syde. Ther ys also yn the isle a welle, and ny by the same ys a place hewen owt of the stony grownd to the length and brede of a man. Also ther remayneth yn the isle a grownd quadrant-walled as yt were a garden plot. And by this walle appere the ruines of a vault. The ground of this isle now nuryshyth shepe and conys.

285 Paddistow, a haven towne of one paroch of fysscher men, wher shyppes cum not yn but at the flowyng water. The grownd by the se cost from Paddestow to Saynct Anne’s Hille, wheron ys no maner of buylding, the ground sumwhat hilly ys fruteful of corn and gresse, but with lytle tynne.

In the est part of Paddestow haven be ii —— [ro]kketes that —— yth se ——. The est —— ys cawled —— tyre, and so ys the land that lyeth agaynst yt.

Apon an viii myles from Paddestou ys a lytle howse of canons secular, cawled Crantoke.

Fro Sainct Anne’s Hil to Lanant, a village, the contery by the north se ys sumwhat hilly, sanday, and baren, and yn sundery places of the same, wel replenyshed with tynne.

By Conarton cummith a rywer, cawllid Dour Conor, and goith to the se, not far from Lanant ryver mouth.

From Lanant by the north se to S. Just, alias Justinian, wher ys no thyng but a paroch chirch and divers sparkeled [i. e. scattered] howses at the west poynt of the shore, cawlid ——.

In the mouth of the ryver that cummyth by Lanant ys the rokket Godryve, wheryn bredith se fowle.

The ground ys but baren, but yt hath yn divers places good tynne warkes.

By al the north se yn Cornewale be sundry crekes, wher as smawle fisshers’ bootes be drawne up to dry land, and yn fayr wether the inhabitans fysche with the same.

At Paddestow Haven, Lanant, and S. Ives, the balinggars and shyppes ar saved and kept for al weders with keyes or peres.

Dosmery Poole, stonding yn the east part of the same, sumwhat toward the sowth, is of lenght by estimation ii. arow shottes, and of bredth one, stonding on a hille, yn the est part of the which poole ys a vale of xiiii. or xv. fadome depe by estimation, and owt of this poole issueth a ryver, the which runnyng by the space of a myle and a dim. ys of ii. fadome deep, and is cawled Depe Hatche. Looke wher he issueth ynto the se.

Also yn the sayd hilly grownd and mooresch be redde deere, the wich when they be schafed take the sayde poole for soyle.

Ther be of the Isles of Scylley CXLVII, that bare gresse (besyde blynd rokkettes) and they be by estimation a xxx 286 myles from the west part of Cornewale. In the byggest isle of the Scylleys, cawled S. Nicholas Isle, ys a litle pyle or fortres, and a paroch chyrche, that a monke of Tavestoke yn peace doth serve as a membre to Tavestoke Abbay. Ther be yn that paroch abowt a lx. howseholdes. Ther is one isle of the Scylleys cawled Rat Isle, yn the which be so many rattes, that yf horse or any other lyving beast be browght thyther they devore hym. Ther is another cawled Bovy Isle. Ther is another cawled Inisschawe, that is to sey the Isle of Elder, by cause it berith stynkkyng elders. There be wild bores or swyne.

From S. Just to Newlin eastward the grownd ys sumwhat hilly and fertyle of gresse, with tynne werkes both weete and dry, without havyn or creeke, savyng yn dyvers places ther remayne capstaynes, lyke engins as shyppes doth way ther ancres by, wherwith they draw ther bootes up to dry land, and fisch but yn fayr wether.

Also yn the sowth-west poynt betwyxt S. Just and Newlyn ys a poynt or a promontory almost envyronid with the se, wheryn ys nothyng but as yt were a hil enclustered with rokkes as yt had bene yn tymes past a castel, (Castel Treuyne) and for the declaration therof there remayne yet toward the land ii. wardes clene fawllen downe, but the stones of them remayne ther very fayre and well quadrated. The ruine of the fortelet yn the poynt ys at thys day a hold irrecuperable for the fox.

Ther lyith betwixt the sowth west and Newlyn a myle or more off the se, S. Buryens, a sanctuary, wherby, as nere to the chyrch, be not above viii. dwellyng howses. Ther longeth to S. Buryens a deane and a few prebendarys, that almost be nether [never?] ther. And S. Buryens ys a iiii. myles fro the very sowth-west poynt.

Newlin ys a poore fischar towne, and hath alonly a key for shippes and bootes, with a lytle socur of land water. Within a arow shoot of the sayd key or pere, lyith directly a lytle low island, with a chapel yn yt. And this lytle islet bereth gresse.

Mowsehole ys a praty fyschar town yn the west part of Montes-bay, lying hard by the shoore, and hath no savegarde for shyppes, but a forced pere. Also yn the bay be est the same towne ys a good roode for shyppes, cawled Gnaves Lake.

Pensants, abowt a myle fro Mowsehole, stonding fast in the shore of Mont-bay, ys the westest market towne of 287 al Cornwayle, and no socur for botes or shyppes, but a forsed pere or key. Ther is but a chapel yn the sayd towne as ys yn Newlyn. For theyr paroche chyrches be more then a myle off.

Marhasdeythyou, [Marketjew,] alias forum Jovis, ys a fischar towne, with a market, and standeth fast apon the shore of the bay, directly agaynst the foote of S. Michael’s Mont northward.

In Marhasdeythyow ys but a poore chapel yn the mydde of the poore town, and a lytle chapel yn the sand nere by the towne toward the Mont. Be the west end of the towne ys a lake, or a rivulus, the hedde wherof risith withyn a myle of Lanant northwordde fro Marhesdeythyou. Betwyxt the hedd of this rivulus and the nerest part of the ryver of Heyle, that cummeth yn to the se at Lanant is not a myle. And the grownd of bred [breadth] betwene the ful se marke at forum Jovis, and the ful se marke of Lanant ryver, is not ii. myles.

The cumpace of the roote of the mont of S. Michael is not dim. myle abowt. The sowth-sowth-est part of the mont is pasturable and breedith conys. The resydue hy and rokky. In the north-north-est ys a garden with certen howses with shoppes for fischar men. The way to the chyrche enteryth at the north syd from half heb to half fludde to the foote of the mont, and so ascendeth by steppes and greces westward, and thens returneth estward to the utter ward of the chyrch. Withyn the sayd ward is a court strongly walled, wheryn on the sowth syde is the chapel of S. Michael, and yn the east syde a chapel of our Lady. The capytaynes and prestes lodginges be yn the sowth syde, and the west of S. Mich. chapel. The Mont is enclosid with the se fro dim. flud to dim. ebbe; otherwyse men may cum to the Mont afoote. Ther be found from the inward part of the —— yvers —— re stones —— wes and —— ois v miles —— the se. In the bay betwyxt the Mont and Pensants be fownd neere the lowe-water marke rootes of trees yn dyvers places, as a token of the grownde wasted. The cumpace of the bay ys from Lyzart poynt to Newlyn abowt a xx. myles.

Wythyn iii. myles of Lyzart Poynt ys a lytle isle withyn the bay, cawled Inispriuen, and conteyneth ii. acres of grownd, wheryn be byrddes and conies. The ground fro Newlin to Loo Poole by the sowth se ys not very fertile, but hath good tynne workes. Fro the poynt of Lyzart to 288 Hayleford haven the grownd is fertile of corn and gresse by the sowth se. Also wythyn iii. myles of the sowth se betwene Haylford and the est syde of Montes-bay is a wyld moore, cawled Gunhilly, i. e. hilly hethe, wher ys brood of catayle. Also yn the west syde of the poynt of Hayleford haven, and withyn the land of Meneke or Menegland, is a paroch chirch of S. Keveryn, otherwis Piranus; and ther is a sanctuary with x. or xii. dwelling howses, and therby was a sel [cell] of monkes, but now goon home to ther hed hows. The ruines of the monastery yet remenith.

Wythyn ii myles of the hedde of the ful se marke of Heyle ryver ys Heylston, a market town, withyn the which ther is a cowrt for the coynage of tynne kept twys yn the yeer. Yn the town is both a chapel and a paroch, and yet apperith in the town vestigia castelli yn the west part. And a ryver runnyng under the same vestigia of the castel yssueth toward the sowthe see, stopped ther with sowth-est wyndes casting up sandes maketh a poole cawled Loo, of an arow shot yn brede, and a ii. myle in cumpas yn the somer; in the wynter, by reason of fluddes, flowing to Heylston toun; wherby the mylles ner Heylston beyng stopped, men be constrayned to cut the sandy banke betwyxt the mowth of the poole and the se, wherby the water may have yssne, and the mylles grynd, by the which gut so opened, the se floweth and ebbeth yn to the poole, wherby se fysch enteryng with a sowth-est winde ys closed yn the poole, the gut beyng agayn choked and fylled with sand, and so after taken with trowtes and eles drawen yn the same poole.

The cowntery fro Newlyn to Heylston ys meetely fertyle of gresse and corn, and plentuus of tynne by the sowth se. Fro the mowthe of Heylford to Falemuth be water ys iiii. myles.

Falemuth ys a havyn very notable and famose, and yn a maner the most principale of al Britayne; for the chanel of the entre hath be space of ii. myles ynto the land xiiii. fadum of depes, which communely ys caullyd Caryk-rood, by cawse yt ys a sure herboro for the greatest shyppes that travayle be the ocean. At the entre of the haven lyith a blynd roke covered at ful see nerer the west side of the haven then the east, cawled Caregroyne, i. e. Insula vel rupes potius vitulorum marinorum, alias Seeles. Seles when they cast theyr calves, they cum to lond, and lay theyr fœtum in a dry banke, the which they may com to, 289 and ther they suffer theyr fœtum to tary a whyle or they bring hym to the se. In the est syde of the sayde haven entereth a creek flowing by the space of ii. myles ynto land, and ys fed at the hedde with fresche water. Apon the sowthe syde of this creke ys a selle longing to the howse of Plymton, cawled S. Antony’s, having but ii. chanous. On the very north shoore of the sayd creeke towardo the havyn’s mowth ys a poor fischar village, called S. Mausa, alias la Vausa; and nygh to this village toward the same haven ys a fortelet lately buylded by the contery for the defens of the haven. In the west syde of the haven is a creeke that flowith up fro the haven’s mowth ynto the land above iii. myles, at the very hedd of the which standeth a prety town of marchandyse and vytayle market. Withyn the towne ys a colleg wel walled and dyked defensabley cawled S. Thomas, wher be seculer chanons and a provost. Also yn the towne ys a chapel, and a quarter of a myle owt of the town ys the paroch chyrch; also viii. myles and more above the sayd haven’s mowth is a market towne est-north-est, cawled Trureu, wheryn is a mayre, and also coynag for tynne, with a paroch chyrch and a blake freers. Also on the sowth-est syde, at the hedde of the olde ful-se marke of Falemuth, is a market toune xii myles. and more up ynto land, cawled Tregoney, wheryn is an old castel and a paroch chyrch of S. James, standing in a more by the castel, also a ch[apel?] standing yn the myddes of the towne; and at the est end of the town a paroch chyrche.

S. Austol’s, a poore village with a paroche chyrch, is vi. myles east fro Tregoney.

Trewardreth Bay hath at the hedde on the est side a poore village with a paroche chyrch, and a priory yn the same town of Cluny monkes.

From Falemuth to Trewardreth by the sowth se the ground is metely fertyle of corn and gresse, and no tyn werkes from Falemuth to Dudman Foreland.

In the mydde way betwene Falemuth and Dudman is an islet or roke beryng gresse, cawled Grefe, a ii. acres about, but standyng yn the myddes torring upright. Ther bredeth yn the isle se fowle.

Fro Dudman Foreland to Trewardreth, the contre sumwhat baren of gresse and corne, and replenishid with tynne werkes, with vaynes yn the se clyves of coper. From Trewardreth to Fowey town ys ii. myles. Bytwene thes 290 townes by the sowth se ther is plenty of corn and gresse, but no tynne werkes.

The town of Fowey ys a market town, walled defensably to the se cost, and hath gates also. Yn the town is but one chyrche, but the howses of the towne be well buylded of stone and yl enhabited. Also at the entery of the haven on the west syd is a blokke howse and a chapel of S. Catarine, be the same. Also ther is on the same syd a towre with ordenans for defens of the haven.

On the west syde, a ii. myles up yn the haven, ys a fyssher towne cawled Gullant.

At the hedd of the ful se marke of this haven, and a quarter of a mile more, is the toune of Lostwhythyel, havyng a market, and ys the shyre towne of Cornewal. For ther the shyre is kept by the shryfe ons yn the moneth. Also at this town is quynag of tynne twys a yere. And by the shyre hawle appere ruines of auncyent buyldinges. It is evydently knowen that yt hath flowed to Lostwhythiel; but the spuing of the sandes of the tynne werkes hath stoppe yt now. The litle rownd castel of Restormel standith in the kinges parke ny to Lostwithiel. At the est syde of the haven’s mowth of Fowey stondith a towr for the defens therof, and a chapel of S. Savyor a lytle above the same. Ny by the sayd towr standith a fysshar village, cawled Polruan.

A myle beyond Polruen on the est syde of the same haven, stondith a poore fisshar village, caullid Bodennek, Ther is the passage or trajectus to Fowey.

ii. myles above Bodennek ynto the land northward is a creke apon the north syde, wheryn ys a sel of ii. blake monkes of Montegu, and is dedicat to S. Sirice and Julit.

By est the haven of Fowey apon a iiii. myles ys a smawle creke, cawled Poul Pier, and a symple and poore village apon the est syde of the same, of fisshar men, and the bootes ther fishing by, saved by a peere or key.

In the est syde also of this Poul Pyrre, ii. myles of, is another creke cawled Loow, being but a tyde creke. For at low water benethe the bridge a man may both wade and ryde over in the somer. Ther is on eyther side of this smaule creke a smaule fissher villag hard on the se shore, the one cawlled Est and the other West Loow, Est Loowe being a market towne, and yn eyther of them a chapel. Also yn the sayde creekes mouth, neere sumwhat to the sowthe-west, is a lowe isle cauled S. Nicholas Isle, not a 291 quarter of a myle far the mayn shore, and conteyneth a vi. or viii. acres in cumpace, and fedeth shepe and conies, nurishing also broode of se byrdes. Ther is a bridg sumwhat above thes ii. vyllages of x. or xii. stone arches, over the which men passe when the se ys yn.

Fro Fowey haven to Lowe creeke the grownd ny the see syde ys very fertile of corne and gresse, and no tynne werkes.

From Loowe Creke to Tamar ys a xii. myles toward the towne of Plymmuth. Yn the west syde of Tamar, withyn iii. myles of the haven muth of Tamar, is a symple fisshar towne called Mylbrooke. Also apon another creke west of the sayd ryver, and nerer up, is a towne cawled S. Germayns, wherin is now a priori of Blake Chanons, and a paroche chirche yn the body of the same. Beside the hye altare of the same priory on the right hand ys a tumbe in the walle with an image of a bishop; and over the tumbe a xi. bishops paynted with their names and verses as token of so many bishoppes biried there, or that ther had beene so many bishoppes of Cornwalle that had theyr seete theer. And at this day the bishop of Exceter hathe a place cauled Cudden Beke, joyning hard apon the sowth-est side of the same toun.

North-est of S. Germaynes, vi. myles apon the ryver of Tamar, is a market town cawled Asshe. And neere to the same, westward withyn ii. myles, ys a rownd castel of the kinges, cawled Trematon, as a man showld say the secund forteres on Tamar. At the towne of Asshe is a passage or fery of a quarter of a myle over.

Also ii. myles fro Asshe northward ynto the land is a smaul village cawled Caregrin. Est of this is Bere Parke and hous in Devonshire, dividid from Caregrin tantum Tamara.

From Low to Tamar by the sowth se the grownd is fertile of corn and gresse, but withowt tynne warkes.

Launston, otherwys cawlled Lostephan, yn old tyme cawlled Dunevet, stondith ii. myles beyownd Powlston Bridge on Tamar westward. The sayde town Dunevet, otherwise Lawnston, is a walled towne ny yn cumpas a myle, but now ruinus. On the north side of the towne a castel stonding on a hye hille withyn the sayd towne, hath iii. rownde wardes. Part of the castel stonding northwest, ys parcel of the walle of the town. Ther be withyn this town iii. gates and a postern; also a gate to go owt 292 of the castel ynto the old parke. Sum gentelmen of Cornewal hold ther landes by castel-gard, that ys to say for reparation of this castel and towne; and withyn this castel ys a chapel, and a hawle for syses and sessions, for a commune gayle for al Cornwayle is yn this castel. Withyn this towne is a market, a mayre and burgesses, with a chapel of Mary Magdalen to theyr uses.

In a vale at the foote of the hil of the sayde town, abowt an arow shot fro the castel northward, is a priory of chanons regular dedicate to St. Stephan.

North-est, almost half a myle of the sayde priory, is a lytle village apon a hille, and a paroche chirche of S. Stephen yn yt. The opinion is that the chanons first dwelled on this hille, and cam thens downe to a better and a warmer site. In the priory chirche yarde standeth also a paroche chyrche.

The wall of Dunevet ys hy, larg, and strong, and defensably set.

By the north side of the priory runneth a litle ryver.

In Dunevet be ii. conduites of derived water.

[44] Again noticed thus: “Ther lay buryed before the high altare in a high tumbe of a very darkesche gray marble, one Thomas Veviane, Prior of Bodmyn and Suffragane Megarerutis Episcopus. He dyed not long sins,” Vol. iii. fol. 1.

[45] In the margin are the following notes on the Arundells:

“Humfre Arundale, a man of mene landes, brother to old Arundale of Lanheron.

“Humfre Arundale, a man of mene landes, nephew to Arundale.

“Sir John Arundale, sun and heir to Arundale of Lanheron.

“Syr Thomas Arundale, brother to Sir John.

“—— Arundal, brother to Syr John and Thomas, hath land of his father’s ——e.

“Arundale, of —— in Falmuth haven, cum out of the house of Lanheron. Cariehayes, where Trevagnion now dwellith, was once the Arundalles.”

[46] In the margin are the following notes on the Vivians:

“Vivian’s grandfather was a man of mene land.

“Vivian’s father was a galant Courtier set forth by Somerset Lord Herbert.

“Vivian now being heir, hath sum more land then his father had, and yet he hath scant an hunderith markes by yere.

“This Vivian hath an uncle, a lawier, a man of mene landes.

“The heir of the eldest house of the Vivians is now lord of Tredine Castelle at the southe-west pointe of Cornewal.

“There was found, in hominum memoria, digging for the fox, a brase [pot] ful of Roman mony.”

[47] Market-jew or Marazion.

[48] In a side note “Cenor, and of sum caullid Kenor, ubi pauca vel nulla vestigia.”

[49] That is, fed or supplied: as a fire was fed with betars.

[50] Leland repeats this statement: “Thomas Treury now living made a blocke house on S. Catarine’s Hill bottome.” Hearne’s edit. vol. iii. p. 34, note.

APPENDIX.
VIII.

DRAYTON’S POLY-OLBION.—CORNWALL.

Michael Drayton was born of a gentleman’s family in Warwickshire in the year 1563. His ancestors are said to have migrated from Drayton in Lancashire.

Michael exhibited a strong genius for poetry at an early age. He studied at Oxford, but without taking a degree. In 1588 he appears to have served in a military capacity; as he describes the glorious victory over the Invincible Armada, as seen by himself, from the shore near Dover. He died in 1631, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Mr. Drayton was a very voluminous writer of Poetry. We have from him —

• Heroic Epistles after the model of Ovid.
• The Barons’ Wars in the Reign of Edward the Second.
• The Battle of Agincourt.
• The Shepherd’s Garland.
• Elegies.
• The Man in the Moon, the Owl, Odes, and various other small Poems.

But his greatest work is the Poly-Olbion, in twenty Cantos or Songs, of which the first is here given, with the Author’s Notes or Illustrations, as it contains a description of Cornwall, commencing with a Dialogue between St. Michael’s Mount and the Bar of Hayle, which 294 must have passed immediately over Tredrea the Editor’s House.

The singular title of his great work is derived from the Greek Πόλυς many and also very; and Ολβιὸς happy; some neuter substantive understood, perhaps the Latin Regnum; and founded on one of the idle fancies current in the middle ages, which derived Albion (a name of this island) in some way or another from Ολβιὸς.

Michael Drayton commences his national poem with the western point of the Country, and his First Song is as follows:

THE ARGUMENT.

309 NOTES.

From which he first was call’d the Hoar-rock in the wood.

That the ocean (as in many other places of other countries) hath eaten up much of what was here once shore, is a common report, approved in the Cornish name of St. Michael’s mount; which is Careg Cowz in Clowz, i. e. the Hoar-rock in the wood.[71]

And our Main-amber here, and Burien trophy——

Main-amber, i. e. Ambrose’s stone (not far from Pensans) so great, that many men’s united strength cannot remove it, yet with one finger you may wag it. The Burien trophy is 19 stones, circularly disposed, and, in the middle, one much exceeding the rest in greatness: by conjecture of most learned Camden, erected either under the Romans, or else by King Athelstan in his conquest of these parts.

Were worthy of his end, but where he had his birth.

Near Camel about Camblan, was[72] Arthur slain by Mordred, and on the same shore, east from the river’s mouth, born in Tintagel castle. Gorlois Prince of Cornwal, at Uther-Pendragon’s coronation, solemnized in London, upon divers too kind passages and lascivious regards twixt the King and his wife Igerne, grew very jealous, in a rage left the court, committed his wife’s chastity to this castle’s safeguard; and to prevent the wasting of his country, (which upon this discontent was threatned) betook himself in other forts to martial preparation. Uther (his blood boiling in lust) upon advice of Ulfin Rhicaradoch, one of his Knights, by Ambrose Merlin’s magic personated like Gorlois, and Ulfin like one Jordan, servant to Gorlois, made such successful use of their imposture, that (the Prince in the mean time slain) Arthur was the same night begotten, and verified that[73] Νόθοι τε πολλοὶ γνησίων ἀμείνονες. altho’ Merlin by the rule of Hermes, or astrological direction, justified that he was conceived three hours after Gorlois’ death; by this shift answering the dangerous imputation of bastardy to the heir of a crown. For Uther taking Igern to wife, left Arthur his successor in the Kingdom. Here have you a Jupiter, an Alcmena, an Amphitryo, a Sosias, and a Mercury; nor wants there scarce any thing, but that truth-passing reports of Poetical bards have made the birth an Hercules.

310 Known by one general name upon this point that dwell.

The name of Dumnonii, Damnonii, or Danmonii, in Solinus and Ptolemy, comprehended the people of Devonshire and Cornwal; whence the Lizard promontory is called Damnium in[74] Marcian Heracleotes; and William of Malmesbury, Florence of Worcester, Roger of Hoveden and others, stile Devonshire by name of Domnonia, perhaps all from Duff neint, i. e. low valleys in British; wherein are most habitations of the countrey, as judicious Camden teaches me.

Fuller report of the excellence in wrestling and nimbleness of body, wherewith this western people have been and are famous, you may find in Carew’s description of his country. But to give reason of the climate’s nature for this prerogative in them, I think as difficult as to shew why about the Magellanic streights they are so white, about the Cape de Buon Speranza so black,[75] yet both under the same tropic; why the Abyssins are but tawny moors, when as in the East-Indian isles, Zeilan and Malabar, they are very black, both in the same parallel; or why we that live in this Northern latitude, compared with the Southern, should not be like affected from like cause. I refer it no more to the Sun, than the special horsemanship in our Northern men, the nimble ability of the Irish, the fiery motions of the French, Italian jealousy, German liberty, Spanish puft-up vanity, or those different and perpetual carriages of state-government, Haste and Delay, which, as[76] inbred qualities, were remarkable in the two most martial people of Greece. The cause of Æthiopian blackness and curled hair was long since judiciously[77] fetcht from the disposition of soil, air, water, and singular operations of the heavens; with confutation of those which attribute it to the Sun’s distance. And I am resolved that every land hath its so singular self-nature, and individual habitude with celestial influence, that human knowledge, consisting most of all in universality, is not yet furnish’d with what is requisite to so particular discovery. But for the learning of this point in a special treatise Hippocrates, Ptolemy, Bodin, and others have copious disputes.

311 Of Corin Cornwal call’d, to his immortal fame.

So, if you believe the tale of Corin and Gogmagog: but rather imagine the name of Cornwall from this promontory of the Land’s End, extending itself like a[78] horn, which in most tongues is Corn, or very near. Thus was a[79] promontory in Cyprus called Cerastes, and in the now Candy or Crete, and Gazaria (the old Taurica Chersonesus) another titled[80] Κρίου μέτωπον: and Brundusium in Italy had name from Brendon or[81] Brention, i. e. a Hart’s-head, in the Messapian tongue, for similitude of horns. But[82] Malmesbury thus: “They are called Cornwalshmen, because being seated in the western part of Britain, they lie overagainst a horn (a promontory) of Gaul.” The whole name is as if you should say Corn-wales; for hither in the Saxon conquest the British called Welsh (signifying the people rather than strangers, as the vulgar opinion wills) made transmigration: whereof an old[83] rhimer:

Such was the language of your fathers between three and four hundred years since.

[51] The western or Spanish ocean.

[52] Bretagny coasts.

[53] The farthest isle in the British ocean.

[54] The sea upon the north of Scotland.

[55] The old British poets.

[56] Priests among the ancient Britons.

[57] The French seas.

[58] A small island upon the very point of Cornwall.

[59] A hill lying out as an elbow of land into the sea.

[60] A place almost surrounded by the sea.

[61] A place almost surrounded by the sea.

[62] The bravery of Falmouth haven.

[63] This is also called Alan.

[64] A worthy gentleman who wrote the Description of Cornwall.

[65] The praise of Plymouth.

[66] Terms of art in wrestling.

[67] Our first great wrestler, arriving here with Brute.

[68] Assaracus.

[69] One of the titles of Diana.

[70] Description of the wrestling betwixt Corineus and Gogmagog.

[71] Carew de Scrip. Corn. lib. 2.

[72] Dictus hinc in Merlini vaticinio, Aper Cornubiæ.

[73] Euripid. Andromach. Bastards are often times better than legitimates.

[74] Τὸ δάμνιον ἅκρον.

[75] Ortelius theatro.

[76] Thucydid. α et passim de Athen. et Lacedæm. et de Thæbis, et Chalcide. Vide Columell. i. de re rustic, cap. 4.

[77] Onesicrit. ap. Strabon. lib. ιε.

[78] Cornugallia dicta est H. Huntingdonio, aliis.

[79] Strabo lib. ζ. and ι. Stephan. Melan. Plin. Georg. passim.

[80] Ram’s-head.

[81] Seleucus apud Stephan. Βρεντησ. and Suidas in Βρενδ.

[82] De gest. reg. 2. c. 6.

[83] Robertus Glocestrens.

APPENDIX.
IX.

CORNISH NAMES.

(Communicated by T. Hingston, Esq. M.D.)

It is commonly understood, that those places in Cornwall, which have the word San or Saint as the antecedent component of their names, are so denominated after some martyr or confessor of early times. This is a very obvious and indisputable fact. But it is by no means certain, that in every instance of the kind, the saint conferred his name on the place: for in many cases, the converse seems to have been practised; and contrary to what is generally imagined, I believe that the place bestowed its name on the saint. Thus, for example, in St. Stephen, and St. Allan, two saints are equally commemorated; but Stephen, by his own name, which he possessed independently of accidental circumstances; and Allan, by a name, superseding that which he had received at his baptism, and subsequently derived from the place of his retirement.

The want of this distinction has occasioned unspeakable labour and perplexity in the investigation of Cornish antiquities. Books and documents have been examined, and enquiries made in vain, after names, of which no record exists; and which, even in their own day, were scarcely known beyond the narrow district, in which they were venerated. In some instances, indeed, the objects of such researches might have been illustrious before their retirement; but if, in that case, their acts and sufferings were chronicled, the history was in effect abolished, when their identity was lost in the assumption of a new name.

Thus many of our early saints took refuge here, from the persecutions, to which the Christian faith was exposed 313 in Ireland; and their history has been chiefly sought in the hagiographies of that country. But the greater number of them, on coming into Cornwall, complied with this custom, common, indeed, with all men at that time, of changing the name with the residence; and accordingly, instead of that, by which they had been formerly known, and might have been recorded, they adopted or received another, as choice or accident determined their settlement. Hence we have St. Hy, or St. Iä, the Island-saint; St. Uny, (or perhaps more correctly St. Unan) the Down-saint; St. Dennis, the Hill-saint; St. Allan, the Moor-saint.

But not only have these, and similar appellations, been erroneously regarded as the baptismal and proper names of the saints, whom they commemorate; but the accidental corruption of some of them has led to still greater mistakes; and from the mere coincidence of sound, the saint whose memory was to be preserved, has been identified with some other person, for whom that honour could not have been intended. Thus the town of St. I’s, or with the genitive at full length, as it was commonly written, St. Ies, has for many generations been called St. Ives, though the correct form was frequently used till the close of the seventeenth century. In consequence of this corruption, the place has been said to have derived its name from some bishop Ivo, either the Persian, who gave his name to St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire, or the celebrated Ivo, bishop of Chartres. But St. I was a female from Ireland.

The case of St. Dennis seems to be of the same kind; though in that instance the error is not owing to a corruption of the name, but to the similarity of the sound. St. Dennis signifies the Saint on the Hill, or more strictly, the Hill-saint; and the church stands at this day on the summit of a hill. But the good man, who lived there, has been considered the same person as St. Dionysius, or St. Dennis, the areopagite.

I cannot help suspecting, that some error of this sort has occurred in the case of Paul-parish near Penzance, which is reported to have taken its name from St. Paul de Leon. Now that portion of the Mount’s bay, by which this parish is bounded on the east, is called The Lake; and this lake, which might have been correctly so denominated in ancient times, is at the foot of the hill, on which the present church stands; and it is, therefore, 314 probable that some man of eminent piety once resided near it. In that case, he was called the Lake-saint, which rendered into Cornish, becomes St. Pol. For this reason, I believe that the common account is wholly untrue; and that, as in many other instances, the name of the saint, and through him, of the parish, originated entirely in a local accident.

I may state here, that some parishes have a popular name, arising not unfrequently from very trifling circumstances; and this name has, in some cases, entirely superseded the more legitimate denomination, under which the church was consecrated and registered. Thus, to give one example, the parish at the Lizard is called Landuwednac, which signifies the Black-and-white-church. This appellation was suggested by the peculiar appearance of the church and tower, which are built of black and white stones, arranged alternately, in the manner of a chessboard.

Amongst the names of our Cornish towns, there are three remarkable above the rest for having been very diligently examined, and very little understood. Upon these it may be proper to make a few observations.

Of Truro Tonkin says, that ‘it is so called from its three principal streets; for Tri, three, and Ru, a street, have been turned to Truro merely euphoniæ gratia.’ Tonkin ought to have suspected, that Tri, occurring as the first syllable in the name of a town, was not likely to mean three, because Tri or Tre signifies a dwelling place, or an assemblage of dwellings, and therefore, a town. He might have supposed too, that the place was called Truro, before its three principal streets were built, or designed; since it does not appear to have ever had any other name, and we cannot believe, that it was so denominated by anticipation. For in those rude times, towns were not commonly laid out upon a definite plan: but the houses were erected according to the taste or convenience of the builders; and the streets seem to have been formed, almost as accident might determine.

But Whitaker says, that Tonkin’s etymology, which was adopted from Camden, is altogether absurd; and he consequently undertakes to find a better. For this purpose he assumes, that Truro takes its name from its castle. Now he imagines, that the castle was denominated Trevereu, and that the name was subsequently familiarized to Treuro. In that way, he thinks, the etymon at once presents 315 itself; and we are accordingly informed, that Truro signifies the castle on the Uro. This, however, is to take a course the reverse of that pursued by etymologists in general: for they seek the meaning of a word in its primitive form, but Mr. Whitaker in its corruption. There is also another objection, which may be considered equally conclusive; for, as Mr. Polwhele says, we have no such river in Cornwall as the Uro.

Mr. Polwhele himself has proposed a third explanation, which, however ingenious, I think equally unsatisfactory. He suggests, that Truro may be a town of Roman origin; and that the name is a corruption of Trevorou, the town-on-the-ways. But if it were so, we should not be wholly without any evidence of the fact. Proof would be found in some obscure tradition, some historical record, or some local circumstance; and the name itself, upon which alone this opinion is grounded, would be more completely consistent with it. When the Romans founded a town, it was not their custom to give it a name exhibiting no trace of their own language; but Trúro is unquestionably Cornish; and besides that, as persons skilled in such matters would easily see, it is no very natural corruption of Trevórou. Polwh. Hist. of Cornwall, vol. I, p. 189; vol. II, p. 215.

Yet that it is a corruption, is certain. In the charter granted by Reginald Fitzroy, in the reign of Henry II. the name of the town is written Trivereu. It is of this word, therefore, that Truro is a corruption; and if we can determine its signification, we shall ascertain the etymon of Truro. Now nothing can be better known, than that Rivereu, or Riverô, in the ancient language of this county, had the same meaning as the kindred word rivers, in English: and with regard to the initial T, it can be scarcely necessary to say, that it stands for Tre, or its archaic form Te, a town. The word, therefore, in the primitive and proper mode of writing it, is Trerivero; and consequently, the name as it appears in Reginald’s charter, is itself an example of that liability to change, by which the same word was subsequently converted to Truro. But the alteration in that case was so slight, that the composition of the word was scarcely obscured; and so natural, that its corruption could not have been prevented. For it was hardly possible in common speech to avoid the elision, which turns Trerívero into Trívero; as 316 this again has been contracted to Trúro. The word Truro, then, signifies the Town-on-the-rivers, or as we should now say, Riverton. And this interpretation is illustrated and confirmed by the local peculiarities: for the town is intersected by two rivers, which originally were its boundaries —the Cenion on the south, and the Allan on the east.

With respect to Marazion or Marketjew, I need not examine what has been said about Sion, Jerusalem, and the Jews; for it is wholly unfounded and absurd. Marghas, or in its softer form Maras, signifies a market, and Iän, of or belonging to an island. Hence Marasían means the Island-market. This name is derived from St. Michael’s Mount, which is in fact an island; and to its monastery the market belonged. Marghasjew, as it is called in Elizabeth’s charter, or as we now speak, Marketjew, signifies Thursday-market: the charter, by which the privilege of a market was granted to the monks by Robert, earl of Cornwall, having appointed it to be kept on the fifth day of the week. In Domesday the town is called Tremarastol, which signifies the Market-town-of-the-monastery. These three names, therefore, mutually explain one another; and their signification is confirmed by the historical facts.

Penzance is said to signify “the Saint’s head, or rather the Head of the bay.” Polwh. Hist. of Cornwall, vol. ii. p. 39. I believe that Mr. Polwhele quotes this from Tonkin. But did Tonkin himself expect that his readers would be satisfied with an etymology so indeterminate and contradictory? Yet this is the usual mode of explaining Cornish words. Camden says, that Penzance, or as he more correctly spells it, Pensans, means the Head of the sands. But Whitaker declares this to be unworthy of Camden; and he therefore gives us an improved interpretation of his own. For this purpose he reads Tonkin backwards; and as that writer renders Pensans the Head of the bay, Whitaker asserts it to be the Bay of the Head! And this is unworthy of Whitaker. He says, the phrase is equivalent to Mount’s bay. But it was never imagined before, that the Cornish word Pen could signify such an object as St. Michael’s Mount; and still less can it be supposed that a town would be denominated a Bay. Yet the real signification of Pensans lay at his feet; for nothing can be more obvious and easy. The name is derived both from the little chapel of St. Anthony, which he himself 317 describes, and from the point of land, on which that chapel stood. For there the town took its beginning; and there, of course, it found a name —that of the place which it occupied. Now a point of land was in Cornish called Pen; and when it chanced to be distinguished by the erection of a chapel, it would naturally be denominated sacred or holy, which was expressed by the word san, or if it was a terminal syllable, sans. Hence Pensans signifies Holy-head; and in allusion to this, John the Baptist’s head is in the town-arms.

But Mr. Whitaker would not have committed this error, if he had been heedful of a principle, observed in the composition of Cornish words, which can never be safely overlooked, in any attempt to investigate their meaning. The ancient names of places in Cornwall mostly consist of two substantive nouns, one of which has the force of an adjective, and qualifies the other: as Penrose, Penpraze, Polwhele. The component parts of such words have always been treated as if they had been associated by caprice, or accident; and the same elements have been represented as adjectives or substantives indifferently, according to the fancy or convenience of the interpreter.

But in truth, the ingredients of all these compounds are combined and distinguished by a settled rule. It is generally supposed, that in all instances the word used substantively precedes that which is employed adjectively. In many cases, however, it does not: and as, therefore, the qualifying noun cannot with certainty be discovered by its position, they who suppose it to occupy uniformly the second place, can be right only by chance; and we are consequently to look for some other mark, by which it may be easily and invariably known. That mark is the accent. Thus we say Pensáns: and so, if we admit, what Mr. Whitaker supposes, that Pen may signify a hill, and sans a bay, the word in that case would mean the Bay-hill, and not as he says, the Hill-bay.

But as this accent lives only in common speech, and the peculiarities of the English manner have already considerably disturbed it, those who have occasion to write any Cornish words, and especially the cultivators of our history and antiquities, should always mark the accented syllable: for there is no other way of making this rule of interpretation available; and of preventing perplexities for the time to come, still greater than those, which have 318 already existed. But besides the natural and inevitable tendency of the predominant English to change the pronunciation of Cornish words, there is a kind of whim or fashion amongst some, who know nothing of these things, by which the corruption is wilfully hastened; and while they confidently say Pénrose, Pénprase, and Nánkivel, they presume to correct those, who with more knowledge or less affectation, are accustomed to speak otherwise.

APPENDIX.
X.

TANNER’S NOTITIA MONASTICA FOR CORNWALL, FROM NASMITH’S EDITION, FOLIO, 1787, WITH ADDITIONS.

(For these additions I am indebted to Sir Henry Ellis, F.R.S. Sec. S.A. one of the Editors of the New Edition of Dugdale’s Monasticon. Edit.)

I. St. ANTONY, or Antonine.

In this county were two priories of this name, which are often confounded by some of our writers.

1. Benedictine Cell. One was a cell of Black monks of Angiers, belonging to Trewardreth priory[84], and being mentioned in Gervase of Canterbury’s catalogue must be as early as K. Richard I.st’s time. The rectory here, as parcel of the possessions of Tywardreith, was granted, 6 Eliz. to William and John Killigrew.

2. Austin Cell. The other, St. Anthony’s near St. Mawes, was a small priory of two Austin canons subordinate to Plimpton[85], and as parcel of the same was granted, 38 Hen. 8. to Thomas Goodwin.

II. St. BENNETT’S, in the parish of Lanivet.

Nunnery. The tower whereof is yet standing.[86]

III. St. BLAISE near Fowey, in the deanry of Poudre.

Almshouse. An old almshouse.[87]

320 IV. BODMIN, olim Bosmanna.[88]

1. Austin Canons. The body of St. Petroc being removed[89] to this place, there was a church built to his memory, and the episcopal see for Cornwall was therein placed by K. Edward the elder and archbishop Plegmund, A.D. 905.[90] Here K. Æthelstan is reported to have met with old Saxon, or rather British, monks following the rule of St. Benedict, to whom he granted so great privileges and endowments, that he is accounted founder of the monastery here, about A.D. 926. That settlement was destroyed by the Danish pirates, A.D. 981, yet the Religious continued here under several shapes,[91] and much alienations of their lands, both before and after the Conquest, till about the year 1120, when one Algar, with the king’s licence and the consent of Will. Warlewast bishop of Exeter, re-established this religious house, and placed therein Regular canons of the order of St. Austin, who continued till the general suppression, when it was styled the priory of St. Mary and St. Petroc,[92] and was valued at 270l. 0s. 11d. per ann. Dugd. 289l. 11s. 11d. Speed. The site, with the demesnes, were granted, 36 Hen. 8. to Tho. Sternhold, one of the first translators of the Psalms into English metre.

2. Hospital. About a mile from Bodmin is St. Laurence,[93] a poor hospital or lazarhouse,[94] on the east; well endowed for nineteen leprous people, two whole men and women, and a priest to minister unto them.[95]

Vide Leland. Itin. vol. ii. p. 115. vol. iii. p. 12.

3. Almshouse. At the west end of the town was a chapel and an almshouse,[96] but not endowed with lands.[97]

Vide Leland. Itin. vol. ii. p. 115.

4. Grey Friers. A house of Grey friers on the south side of the market-place, begun by John of London a merchant, and augmented by Edmund earl of Cornwall.[98] After the dissolution this friery was granted to one William Abbot, 37 Hen. 8. and in Q. Elizabeth’s time it was made the house of correction for the county.[99]

Vide Leland. Itin. vol. ii. p. 115. vol. iii. p. 12.

Stevens’[100] Supplement, vol. i. p. 154.

In Itinerario Will. de Worcestre, p. 99. de fundatione et excerpta quædam ex kalendario.

[Harl. MS. 6964. p. 77.

Hoveden, Script. post Bedam, fol. 324.

Domesd. tom. i. fol. 120. b. 121.

MS. Cole, Brit. Mus. vol. xxvii. 184 b.  H.E.]

322 V. St. BURIEN, in the deanry of Trigge Minor.

College. King Ethelstan is said to have built and endowed a collegiate church almost at the Land’s End,[101] and to have granted the benefit of a sanctuary and other privileges to the same, in honor of St. Buriena or Beriana a holy woman from Ireland, who had an oratory and was buried here. At the Conquest here were Secular canons,[102] as there were a dean and three prebendaries at the time of making the Lincoln taxation 20 Ed. 1. and also down to 26 Hen. 8. though this deanery was seized into the king’s hands temp. Ed. 3. by reason that Mr. John de Maunte then incumbent, was a Frenchman; and as alien, was given, 24 Hen. 6. to King’s college in Cambridge, and afterward by K. Edward 4. (anno regni 7.) to Windsor college;[103] yet neither of those societies long enjoyed, or had any benefit from it; for it was all along, and still continues, an independent deanry, in the gift of the crown or of the duke of Cornwall, of exempt jurisdiction as a royal free chapel.[104] The deanry or rectory, 26 Hen. 8. was valued at 48l. 12s. 1d. per ann. Prebenda parva 2l. 8s. 4d. Prebenda de Respernel 7l. 6s. 8d. Prebenda de Tirthney 7l.