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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34778-8.txt b/34778-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8351f37 --- /dev/null +++ b/34778-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6328 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Nooks and Corners of Cornwall, by C. A. Dawson Scott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nooks and Corners of Cornwall + +Author: C. A. Dawson Scott + +Release Date: December 28, 2010 [EBook #34778] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOOKS AND CORNERS OF CORNWALL *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Internet +Archive. + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Book Cover] + + + + +NOOKS & CORNERS +OF CORNWALL + + + + +_IN THE SAME SERIES_ + + +NOOKS & CORNERS OF YORKSHIRE +BY J. S. FLETCHER + + +_IN PREPARATION_ + +NOOKS & CORNERS OF DEVON +BY C. A. DAWSON SCOTT + +NOOKS AND CORNERS OF HAMPSHIRE AND SUSSEX +BY DOUGLAS GOLDRING + +Price 2s. 6d. net each (with map) + + + + +NOOKS & CORNERS +OF CORNWALL + +By C. A. DAWSON SCOTT +WITH A MAP + + +[Illustration] + + +LONDON: EVELEIGH NASH + + + + +FOREWORD + + +At first sight it seems incongruous to speak of the Nooks and Corners to +be found in so rugged a land as Cornwall. The masses of rock at +Tintagel, Tol-Pedn, and the Lizard, the sheer drop of the High Cliff and +the Dodman, the moors, the cromlechs, and the granite tors, are so +impressive that we are apt to overlook the fertile valleys that +intersect the country, the coves, coombes, and "pills" in which the +hillside vegetation is often semi-tropical, and where the houses are +embowered in flowering shrubs till they look like Jacks-in-the-Green +that have taken root. + +Nor do these picturesque villages, sheltered and fruitful, this +magnificent coast scenery, these grey moors, comprise the whole of this +half-smiling, half-frowning land. Here in out-of-the-way places are +relics of forgotten creeds and peoples, earthworks, amphitheatres, +castles, the caves of smugglers, and the subterranean hiding-places of +neolithic man. There is so much to interest, so much to see--almost too +much it would seem, certainly too much for any one holiday; but Cornwall +is a place to go to again and again, to go to till it seems as your own +land, and its people have forgiven you for being a "foreigner." + +This Cornish folk, clannish but kindly, has of late years been +decreasing. Not only is there the competition of foreign tin, but the +lodes being now deep the cost of home production has proportionately +increased. "Cousin Jack" therefore has to go in search of more +remunerative metal, leaving "Cousin Jenny" at home to manage as best +she can on his remittances. + + +WARNINGS + +"You can only see Cornwall by walking through it," said George Borrow, +but the traveller must bear in mind that a name, large on the map, is +apt to materialise into a few cottages, a lonely farmhouse, or a rocky +gorge with never an inhabitant. Nor though the voice of the tourist has +now for several years been heard in the land has the response, in +hotels, been great; while there are not as many country inns as might be +expected. The cheerful, pleasure-loving Cornishman has another aspect to +his character. Generally a Nonconformist and a Sabbatarian he--perhaps +more particularly she--thinks the fewer inns the better. Hamlets the +size of which would lead one to expect a wayside tavern are often drawn +blank, and it is as well to make inquiry, when mapping out the day's +journey, as to the accommodation to be found at its latter end. + +It cannot be too firmly impressed upon the traveller that along the +northern and western shores both boating and bathing are unsafe. It is a +dangerous coast. Fortunately very few boats are kept, and these are +seldom let out to strangers; but in the matter of bathing the tourist +depends upon his own wisdom, and not only is there a bad undertow but +the big rollers from the Atlantic come in when least expected. + +Moreover he must, when following these cliff paths, be on the look-out +for blow-holes. These sinister cavities result from the action of the +sea at the cliff base and of the fresh water springs above. A depression +is gradually formed, the surface sinks to be washed out by the tides, +till at last a round hole has been formed. This is the blow-hole. In +course of time the whole of the side towards the sea breaks away, +leaving a tiny bay, which gradually enlarges. The Cornish who do not +imagine that any one could be so foolish as to walk along this dangerous +coast after dark do not safeguard the blow-holes, and it is as well to +be on the look-out. + + +THE CROSSES +AND CHURCHES + +A word with regard to the innumerable crosses and churches. + +At an early date in the history of Christianity, saints from the +neighbouring countries of Brittany, Ireland and Wales appear to have +poured into Cornwall. Some floated over on their altar-stones--a +poetical way of saying they brought the said stones with them--others on +a miraculous leaf, _i.e._, a coracle, while yet others appear to have +walked! On arrival they found a large number of upright slabs and +boulders, relics of an earlier creed and vanished race. With the +sensible early-Christian habit of turning everything to account they +soon invented a history and found a use for the stones. + +On a lonely moorland these big menhirs made excellent way-marks; by +some--possibly blocks that tradition accounted holy--the saints built +their oratories, others they carved into rude crosses, and others they +used as a centre about which to gather the countrypeople for service. As +the local preaching-place, these last stones, like the oratories +themselves, thus became the forerunners of the parish churches. + +One reason for the multiplicity of these crosses--and unless those at +any place should be exceptional, they will not be mentioned--may be +found in the will of a certain Dr. Mertherderwa who, dying in 1447, +directed that "new stone crosses are to be put up of the usual kind in +those parts of Cornwall from Kayar Beslasek to Camborne Church, where +dead bodies are rested on their way to burial, that prayers may be made +and the bearers take some rest." + +There are six different kinds of crosses. Upright slabs with a Latin +cross front and back; Round-headed crosses; Holed crosses, of which only +twenty-seven instances are known; Latin crosses, Gothic crosses and +ornamented crosses. + + +THE CHURCHES + +When Cornwall built her innumerable small but beautiful churches, that +is to say from the thirteenth (and earlier) to the sixteenth century, +she showed that an ornate and vivid ritual was to her taste. She +objected to and resisted the Reformation, and on its becoming an +established fact went peacefully to sleep, as far as religion was +concerned, until the arrival of John Wesley. As a consequence very few +of the churches are modern, and most of them have Norman remains--some +antiquarians even say Saxon--and a good deal of old carved oak in +benches, screens, and roofs. Some of this carving is of considerable +merit, and the same may be said, though more doubtfully, of the numerous +frescoes; but unless the mural paintings and bench ends are in some way +remarkable they will not be insisted on, nor will the Norman and other +survivals in the architecture be discussed. + + +THE PLAN OF +THE BOOK + +The roads from Launceston and from Saltash to the Land's End--and the +main roads of Cornwall are excellent, as good as any in England--go as +far as possible by way of the towns. The rivers, too, are no great +matter, in fact precisians have maintained that there are none. The +Tamar, which best deserves the name, was fixed as the eastern boundary +by Athelstane in 926, while the Fal and Helford Rivers are mainly sea +creeks, and the Camel and Fowey which until they become estuaries are +never wider than a man, provided with a pole, can leap, are really only +brooks of a fine and Tennysonian quality. + +Undoubtedly then the way to see Cornwall is to follow the country roads +that lead along the shore, beginning at the north where the coach +crosses the border on its way from Clovelly Dykes to Bude, and ending at +the Tamar. There would then remain only the reaches of that lovely +river, the moorland, and what nooks and corners are to be found off the +highways that run through the middle of the county. + + * * * * * + +My most sincere acknowledgments are due to Mr. Thurstan Peter, author of +"The History of Cornwall," for his generous help while these pages were +passing through the press. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH + + The Boundary between Devon and Cornwall on the north: + Kilkhampton and its Association with the Grenvilles: + Morwenstow and the Rev. R. Hawker: Tonacombe and Kingsley: + Stowe: the Battles of Stamford Hill and Lansdowne: Tennyson + and Bude: the Neighbouring Churches: a Female Dick + Whittington Pp. 21-29 + + +CHAPTER II + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM WIDEMOUTH BAY TO ST. TEATH + + The Great Cliffs: Boscastle and an Ancient Form of Tenure: + Otterham and Warbstow Barrows: Trevalga and Bossiney: the + Legend of St. Nechtan's Kieve: Tintagel: Arthur: The Castle: + The Beach and Barras Head: The Roman Occupation: Quarries: + Camelford and its Battle: Arthur's Hall: Lanteglos: + Henlistone and the Brewers: The Camel: The Delabole Slate: + St. Teath Pp. 33-44 + + +CHAPTER III + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM PORT ISAAC TO THE VALE OF LANHERNE + + Port Isaac and the Fishing: Pentire: St. Enodoc and the Sand: + Lovebond's Bridge: Wadebridge and Egloshayle: _Jan + Tergeagle_: Menhirs: Padstow and the Hobby Horse: Prehistoric + Inhabitants: Harlyn Bay: Trevose Head: Constantine: A Fogou: + Bedruthan: The Vale of Lanherne Pp. 47-64 + + +CHAPTER IV + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE VALE OF LANHERNE TO HAYLE TOWANS + + Hurling and St. Columb Major: Colan: The Gratitude of the + Stuarts: Trevalgue: A Good Centre for Crantock, St. Cubert, + and Trerice: St. Agnes and the Giant: Portreath: the Bassets: + Godrevy: Gwithian: The Pilchards Pp. 67-80 + + +CHAPTER V + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LELANT TO PENZANCE + + Gold in Cornwall: Knill's Monument: The Antiquities of the + Extreme West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs: Dolmens: + Oratories: Superstitions: St. Ives: Wesley: Irving: A Ripe + Old Age: The Mines: Sancreed and St. Buryan: Lighthouses: + Whitesand Bay: The Land's End: Mousehole and Dolly Pentreath: + Newlyn: Penzance Pp. 83-98 + + +CHAPTER VI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES TO ROSELAND + + The Land of Lyonesse: The Scillies: The Law of Wrecks: Mr. + Smith: The Admiral's Honour: Ding Dong Mine: St. Michael's + Mount: An Old Ceremony: China Clay: Wrecks: Germoe and + Breage: Pengersick: Flora Day: The Loe Pool: Serpentine: + Gunwalloe and Mullion: The Lizard: Bells: The Helford River: + Mawgan: Roseland Pp. 101-118 + + +CHAPTER VII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM FALMOUTH TO TRURO + + The Rise of Pendennis Castle: Sir John Arundel: The + Killigrews: Sir Walter Raleigh: The General Post Office and + Falmouth: Penryn: The Fal: The Stannary Courts: Old Truro: + Foote and Lowry Pp. 121-129 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM ST. MAWES TO LISKEARD + + St. Mawes and Gerrans: Tregony and Probus: Cornish Mutton: A + Story of Cornish Vengeance: Mevagissey: Antiquarian Finds: + The Capital of Clayland: Cock's and Hen's Barrow: Carglaze + Mine: Luxulyan: The Civil Wars: Lostwithiel: Lanhydrock + House and Restormel Castle: The Fight on St. Winnow's Downs: + The Gallants of Fowey: Place: Lanteglos: Polperro: Stories of + Talland, Killigarth, and Trelawne: The Giant's Hedge: + Boconnoc: Liskeard Pp. 133-153 + + +CHAPTER IX + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON + + King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A + Cage for Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: + Sheviock: The Eddystone: Mount Edgcumbe: The Tamar: Trematon + Castle: Markets: Saltash: Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: + Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: Launceston Pp. 157-172 + + +CHAPTER X + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LAUNCESTON TO DOZMARÉ + + The Upper Reaches of the Tamar: Launceston: The Old Highways: + St. Clether: Altarnon: Trebartha: The Trethevy Dolmen: The + Cheesewring: St. Cleer: St. Neot: Dozmaré: Tregeagle: Lake + Dwellings Pp. 175-186 + + +CHAPTER XI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM BROWN WILLY TO CAMBORNE + + Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: + St. Breward and Blisland: Holland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell; + Cornish Names: Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: + Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word in Farewell Pp. 189-198 + + + + +HOTELS ACCORDING TO THE ROUTE + + + Stratton. The Tree Inn. + Bude. The Falcon; Grenville. + Boscastle. Wellington. + Tintagel. Wharncliffe; King Arthur's Castle; Clifton House. + Camelford. King's Arms. + Wadebridge. Molesworth Arms. + Padstow. South-Western; St. Petrock's. + Newquay. Atlantic; Victoria; Headland; Great Western. + Perranporth. Perranporth; Tywarnhale. + Portreath. Portreath Hotel; by Gurnard's Head, the Treryn Hotel. + St. Ives. Tregenna Castle; Western; Queen's. + Lelant. Lelant Hotel. + Land's End. First and Last. + Penzance. Queen's; Riviera Palace; Mount's Bay; Western; Railway. + Scilly. Holgate's; Tregarthen's (both on St. Mary). + Helston. Angel. + Lizard. Housel Bay; Hill's; Caerthillian. + Coverack. The Coverack Headland Hotel; St. Keverne; St. Keverne Inn. + Falmouth. Falmouth; Green Bank; King's; Royal Albion. + Truro. Red Lion; Royal; Union. + St. Austell. Luke's White Hart; Queen's Head. + Fowey. Fowey. + Looe. Commonwood; Looe; Headland House. + Saltash. Bray's; Railway; Green Dragon. + Launceston. White Hart; King's Arms. + Moors. The Jamaica Inn. + Bodmin. Royal; Town Arms. + Redruth. Tabb's. + Camborne. Commercial; Tyack's. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH + +_The Boundary between Devon and Cornwall on the north: Kilkhampton and +its Association with the Grenvilles: Morwenstow and the Rev. R. Hawker: +Tonacombe and Kingsley: Stowe: the Battles of Stamford Hill and +Lansdowne: Tennyson and Bude: the Neighbouring Churches: a Female Dick +Whittington._ + + +KILKHAMPTON + +The coach-road from Clovelly Dykes to Bude crosses Woolley Downs, but +the border on the north is the little stream that runs into Marsland +Mouth. The cliff paths with their fine views and the wonderful colour of +sea and sky--such colour as elsewhere only the Mediterranean gives +us--are the more interesting of the offered ways. Inland lies +Kilkhampton, by the Tamar, with its church of St. James, the south +doorway of which is one of the richest specimens of late Norman work in +the duchy. But, more interesting than the finely carved choir stalls, +numerous good bench-ends and doorway, is its connection with the family +of Grenville, who, descendants of the Norman dukes, lived in the parish +for six hundred years, and built the church. "Never a Grenville lacked +loyalty" was the saying, and the sons of the old house at Stowe proved +it by confiscated property and lives laid down. From Stowe came old Sir +Richard who, with his little "Revenge," fought the fifty-three galleons +of Spain. + +"_God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?_" + +From there came his grandson, gentle, gallant Sir Beville, who after his +last stand against the Parliamentarians on Lansdowne, was brought back +to lie in the old church of Kilkhampton; and from there, ruined and +exiled for the sake of the last worthless Stuart, went out Sir Beville's +younger son. + +By Sir Beville lies his wife, the Lady Grace, for whom the epitaph to be +seen in Minster Church might have been written: + + "_He first departing, she a little tried + To live without him, could not and so died._" + +The Earls of Bath, descendants of the Grenvilles, are buried in a vault +below the south aisle, but two hundred and fifty years have passed and +the name--it is a Marquisate now--is Thynne (of the Inn), nor is the +head of the family a Beville. The servant who brought back his master's +body sleeps at Stratton. A huge man this Anthony Payne, seven foot two +in his stockings! When he lay dead in the Tree Inn so large a coffin was +required that it could not be got into the house. He and Sir Beville may +be dead and buried, but their lives have been woven into the talk of the +countryside, and the traveller has only to ask a discreet question or so +and he will hear of the great deeds of old. + + +MORWENSTOW + +The main interest of this part of the country--the extreme north--is +centred in the tiny hamlet of Morwenstow with its thatched inn and its +association with the Rev. Robert Hawker. He was no stranger when he +came, for his father had been vicar of Stratton and lay buried there. +For long the son, fearing the sadness of old associations, refused to +preach in the sister parish, and when at last his reluctance was +overcome and he stood in his father's pulpit it was only to hesitate and +break down. He explained with faltering voice, "I stand amid the dust of +those near and dear to me." + +Morwenstow is reached from Marsland Mouth by the Henna Cliff (The +Raven's Crag--and Welsh legend hath it that King Arthur was changed into +one of these birds, though the Cornish say, a chough), from which is +obtained a magnificent view of that wild coast, Dizzard, Cambeak, +Tintagel, and Pentire, rising one beyond the other in shades of blue +deepening to purple. The Norman doorway of the church, which like that +of Marhamchurch is dedicated to St. Morwenna, is crowned with zigzag +and chevron mouldings which are surmounted by a range of grotesque +sea-faces--mermaid, dolphin, whale, and so forth. Mr. Hawker tells how +the old piscina was found and reinstated. "The chancel wall one day +sounded hollow when struck; the mortar was removed, and underneath there +appeared an arched aperture which had been filled up with jumbled carved +work and a crushed drain. It was cleared out and so rebuilt as to occupy +the exact site of its former existence. It is of the earliest type of +Saxon architecture, and for all we know may be the oldest piscina in the +land." + +The church roof is of wood, and shingles of rended oak occupy the place +of the usual tiles. "Outside the screen and at the top of the nave is +the grave of a priest. It is identified by the reversed position of the +carved cross on the stone, which also indicates the self-same attitude +in the corpse. The head is laid down toward the east while, in all +secular interments, the head is turned towards the west." + +On the south side of the churchyard--as in so many along this ruthless +coast--are the graves of wrecked sailors; and Hawker, a great-hearted +man and to some extent a poet, was foremost in rendering the last kind +offices to the dead. Over forty men, the crews of three lost vessels, +lie here, while the figurehead by one lot of graves is that of the brig +_Caledonia_ from Arbroath in Scotland. No wonder ships give these +stupendous cliffs as wide a berth as possible. An occasional steamer is +sighted, some tramp in search of cargo goes hurrying by, but, as a rule, +the wide expanse is empty of surface life, a fact which is both +noticeable and suggestive. + +On a spot where he had seen the lambs sheltering from wind and weather, +Mr. Hawker built the vicarage. With one of his personality as architect, +it was impossible it should quite resemble any other manse; therefore it +is not surprising to find that in the chimney-stacks he has reproduced +the forms of certain church towers that he admired, while inset over the +doorway is the distich: + + "_A house, a glebe, a pound a day, + A pleasant place to watch and pray, + Be true to Church, be kind to poor, + O Minister for evermore!_" + + +TONACOMBE +AND STOWE + +Not far from Morwenstow lie--or rather did lie, for though Tonacombe +still preserves its original design, Stowe, near Coombe Valley, the home +of the Grenvilles, was unfortunately destroyed in 1715--two old +manor-houses. The former, which was built in the fifteenth century, has +a fine stone-floored hall with timbered roof, old open fireplace, and +minstrel's gallery. Some of the rooms, which have lattice windows, are +panelled, and Charles Kingsley stayed in this "in some respects the most +remarkable mediæval house in the west of England," while he was writing +"Westward Ho." + +Of far greater interest, however, is Stowe (Anglo-Saxon for a stockaded +place), at one time a magnificent building. Of it only the moat remains, +but when Sir Beville rose for Charles I., many a Cornishman, who in his +boyhood had stayed at Stowe, practising arms under the eye of Anthony +Payne, rose with him. + + +THE BATTLE OF +STAMFORD HILL + +To Stratton, a little south of Stowe, came in 1643 the Parliamentarian +General, Lord Stamford. The cavaliers, not then very prosperous, but +gallant gentlemen all, were lying at Launceston, and the Roundhead made +the mistake of underestimating their strength. Sir Ralph Hopton and Sir +Beville Grenville marched the twenty miles from the capital town without +more food than a few biscuits. Intent on intercepting and driving out +the intruder, they found when they reached Stratton late in the evening +that he had entrenched himself strongly on a neighbouring hill. As he +had the advantage in numbers, having about twice as many men and must +know that they were tired, hungry, and in poor condition, the Royalists +stood to their arms through the short May night in momentary expectation +of an attack. Their leaders were at one of the Poughill cottages--they +bear date 1620 and are still to be seen--and Sir Beville, while he +waited anxiously, must have wondered how it had gone with wife and +children, over above in the moated and stockaded house of Stowe. + +Lord Stamford, however, did not take advantage of his enemy's weariness. +No doubt he thought it would be more convenient, as the country was +unknown to him, to scatter the little force by daylight. At any rate he +sat still on the top of the hill and did nothing. In the grey dawn, +therefore, the Royalists, the fiercer for their hunger and +sleeplessness, decided not to wait any longer. Since he would not come +down they must go up. Dashingly they attacked his entrenchment, doggedly +they continued the fight. After nine hours of it, word was passed round +that their scanty store of ammunition had come to an end. But they were +nothing daunted. Grimly and in a strange silence they made the last +assault; and this time were successful, the leaders of the four narrow +columns meeting at the top of the hill. As they did so, Lord Stamford, +who had looked on from a safe distance, set spurs to his horse, and fled +headlong. Cornwall was won for King Charles, and from the battlefield +Francis Basset of Tehidy could write to his wife "Dearest soule, ring +out the bells, raise bonfires, publish these joyful tidings." + +A year or two later, however, Stratton told a different tale. Cornwall +might in the main be Royalist, but all England was for a change in the +government; and presently Lord Essex, driving Sir Richard Grenville--a +brother of Sir Beville--before him, crossed the Tamar and stormed the +house at Stowe. It was the beginning of evil days. In 1646 Hopton, the +Royalist General, retired to Stratton with a broken, dispirited and, +alas! disorderly army, and from thence Sir Thomas Fairfax drove him back +across the pass at Wadebridge which Cromwell--it is the only mention of +him in Cornish annals--was sent to secure. + + +THE BATTLE OF +LANSDOWNE HILL + +But by then Sir Beville was dead. After the--surely the name is +ironical--battle of Stamford Hill, he and his victorious troops had +marched to the King's aid. At the battle of Lansdowne, on the heights +above Bath, Sir Beville, sorely wounded, was struck out of his saddle by +a pole-axe. The pikemen he was leading fell into confusion, and in an +instant the Parliamentarians were among them, hewing them down. Then did +Anthony Payne, Sir Beville's giant retainer, come to the rescue. +Catching his master's riderless horse, he set on it young John, a +stripling of sixteen, Sir Beville's eldest son; and led him to the head +of the wavering pikemen. The appeal was irresistible. The Cornish +followed their beloved leader's son like men possessed; and so, while +Sir Beville lay dying on the hillside, his regiment, led by his faithful +servant and his young son, swept all before them. + +One is glad to remember that at the Restoration when the family's +confiscated estates were restored to them, young John, in memory of his +own deeds and those of his greater father, was created Earl of Bath. + + +TENNYSON +AT BUDE + +Bude with its wide sands and unsafe harbour is without historical +associations, but it can be used, having hotels, as a centre from which +to visit the more interesting towns (so-called, but they are no bigger +than an ordinary village) and hamlets of the neighbourhood. Tennyson, +when he had it in mind to write his Arthurian Idylls, came here--no +doubt for local colour, though being a Victorian what he said was, "That +he must go to Bude and be alone with God!" During his visit he rode out +to Morwenstow to call on Mr. Hawker, and the less-known bard has left an +interesting account of their interview. + +"I found my guest ... a tall, swarthy, Spanish-looking man with an eye +like a sword. He sate down, and we conversed. I at once found myself +with no common mind.... Before he left the room, he said: 'Do you know +my name?' + +"I said: 'No, I have not even a guess.' + +"'Do you wish to know it?' + +"'I don't much care--that which we call a rose, &c.' + +"'Well, then,' said he, 'my name is _Tennyson_.' + +"'What!' said I, '_the_ Tennyson?' + +"'What do you mean by _the_ Tennyson? I am Alfred Tennyson, who wrote +"Locksley Hall," which you seem to know by heart.' + +"So we grasped hands, and the Shepherd's heart was glad." + + +CHURCHES OF THE +NEIGHBOURHOOD + +With regard to certain old churches, St. Olaf's, at Poughill, has two +rather crudely restored mural paintings and, set heavily in the south +door, what is reputed to be one of the few genuine sanctuary rings still +in existence. The church at Marhamchurch also shows the remains of +frescoes, while Stratton has a fine stoup, and in the north wall of the +chancel an Easter sepulchre, probably the only one in the county. That +of Swithin--dear apple saint--at Launcells, has a circular font reputed +to date from Saxon times, and the fifteenth century bench-ends, though +rudely carved, show a play of symbolic fancy, unusual in Cornwall. On +one you see the visit of Mary when she mistook the gardener for Christ, +Mary being represented by a spice-box, the gardener by a spade! On +another the Harrowing of Hell is represented by the jaws of a dragon, +and so with the various subjects. An empty grave and cross triumphant +tells the story of the resurrection, while the supper at Emmaus, though +faithfully suggested, is given without the introduction of a single +human figure. It is all symbolism--riddles which are interesting to +guess, but not always easy. + + +WEEK ST. MARY + +Some five miles or so south of Marhamchurch lies Week St. Mary, about a +native of which village a sort of Dick Whittington story is told. In a +field adjoining the churchyard the remains of extensive buildings can be +traced, and these, once a chantry, were said to be due to the pious +energy of Dame Thomasin Perceval. As a girl she herded geese on the +common of Greenamore, until in the shape of a staid and, alas! already +married merchant, the Prince came riding by. He spoke to the girl and +found her as pleasant in discourse as to the eye. Without more ado, +therefore, he took her away with him--and here, though propriety is +preserved, the fairy-tale suddenly drops to unromantic fact--he took her +to wait upon his wife! In course of time, however, that good lady died +and the middle-aged Prince was free to marry his goose-girl. + +After many years she returned as a rich widow to her native parish, and +there spent the remnant of her days in a cheerful and rather bustling +philanthropy, repairing anything in the way of churches, bridges, and +roads that required attention, portioning the virtuous and hard working +of her own sex and generally playing Lady Bountiful--or so it is said! + +In the churchwardens' Accounts of Stratton under date 1513 we read: + +"paid for my lady parcyvale ijs Meneday [_i.e._ day of prayer for her +soul] to iiij preistes & for bred & ale 1s. 1d." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM WIDEMOUTH BAY TO ST. TEATH + + +THE HEADLANDS + +The cliffs from Marsland Mouth to Trevose Head are fine, much finer than +those on the better known south coast. The seas also are wilder, these +shores seeming to suffer from fiercer onslaughts of the Atlantic. On a +blustery day it is nothing to see the tortured waves break into a spray +that is flung full forty feet into the air, while except in sheltered +dips and coves--of which there are none too many in this part--neither +tree nor shrub can live. This gives the headlands a barren look, the +bold outlines are of grey boulders rather than vegetation, and behind +them on the windy downs crouch the grey hamlets and solitary farms. For +sheer beauty of crag and precipice, of mighty seas and broken slipped +sea-front, there is nothing in the duchy that can compare with this +piece of coast. Upon the great cliffs of Widemouth Bay, of which the +name is sufficiently descriptive, follow Dizzard Point (500 ft.) with +its landslip, Castle Point, so called from the circular earthwork on its +summit, Pencarrow Head (400 ft.), between which and Cambeak (500 ft.) at +the mouth of a wooded valley lies the lovely Crackington Cove and which +brings us to the High Cliff with its sheer drop of 735 ft. This last is +the highest in Cornwall, nearly double the height of the Dodman, that +glory of the southern coast, while it is far higher than the Land's End +and the Lizard. A little inland is yet higher ground, for Tresparret +Down, a barren and desolate heath, is some 850 ft. above sea level! + +Somewhat to the north of the High Cliff is St. Genys, the saint of which +is said to have been one of three brothers, all of whom were beheaded. +This particular brother is believed to have walked about afterwards, his +head held under his arm, a proceeding which reminds us that "King +Charles walked and talked, half an hour after his head was cut off!" + +There is here an interesting example of an Elizabethan communion cup and +paten cover, but it must be remembered that many cups of that date are +older in material than in shape. When the word cup was substituted for +chalice, we find by the churchwarden's accounts that the vessels were +frequently re-shaped. We have, for example, one of 1571, "to Iohn Ions, +goldsmith, for changing the chalice into a cup, £1 15_s_. 5_d_." + + +BOSCASTLE + +After the High Cliff the shore gradually assumes a less terrific aspect, +until Boscastle, with its tiny firth and its blow-holes, is reached. +This little straggling place took its name from Botreaux Castle (or +Castel-boterel), which was built here in the twelfth century. The last +Lord Botreaux died in 1462, and of the castle only a grassy mount, +called Jordans, from a neighbouring stream, remains. This mount is on +the hill, that steep and wooded hill which leads down into Boscastle, +and on the sides of which the houses are hung like birds' nests on a +cliff. + +At the end of the valley the hills unite into slaty cliffs which take a +sudden fjord-like turn before reaching the sea. This short and tiny +estuary cannot, of course, compare with the smallest of those winding +inlets which make the strange beauty of the Norwegian coast, inlets +whose walls would dwarf the High Cliff and whose majestic desolation +would make the barrenest headland in the west seem mild and fertile. + +If the tide is in, the islet at the mouth of Boscastle Harbour sends up +sudden showers of spray which suggest a geyser, but are in reality due +to a blow-hole, and there is another on the mainland. + +An ancient form of tenure survives here. The upper part of Forrabury +Common is divided into "stitches"--slips of land divided by boundary +marks only--and these stitches are held in severalty from Lady Day to +Michaelmas, the proprietors for the rest of the year stocking it in +common, according to the amount of their holdings. The hilly part of the +common being unfit for cultivation is stocked in common all the year +round. + +Boscastle has two churches, that of Forrabury, which has been too +zealously restored, deal having been substituted for the +sixteenth-century oak benches and for the old pulpit that was covered +with arabesques, and Minster. Near Minster, on Waterpit Downs, is a fine +specimen of Celtic interlaced work on a cross shaft. It is now rescued, +but for many years it served to bear the pivot of a threshing-machine. +The church itself stands on the chancel site of an old minster. A +doorway, now blocked, once led to the priory buildings, but of them +nothing remains. + + +OTTERHAM AND +WARBSTOW BARROWS + +Inland from Boscastle is Otterham, which possesses two bells dating from +before the Reformation and mentioned in the inventory of Edward VI. The +inscriptions on these mediæval bells are interesting, a frequent one +being, "With my living voice I drive away all evil things." A little to +the east of Otterham, on a hill 807 ft. above sea level, is Warbstow +Barrows, one of the largest and best preserved earthworks in the county. +Its two ramparts have each two entrances, the outer wall being 15 ft. +high with a ditch 15 ft. wide. In the middle is a barrow known as the +Giant's Grave, perhaps the resting-place of a chieftain who died in +defence of the place, and was buried where he fell. Cornwall is thickly +strewn with these memorials of the past. Earthworks of different race +encampments lie cheek by jowl, strings of forts reach from sea to sea, +and even the cliffs are fortified. These cliff castles, and there are +traces of fortification on almost every headland, must have been built +by people who were actually "between the devil and the deep sea." Foot +by foot they must have given way, till at length they stood with their +backs to the sea, defending from their enemies one ultimate rock. Only +too often is there a grave within these defences, the grave of the last +man, strong enough to hold back the enemy, but slain at last. + +To the south-west of Boscastle is Willapark Head, and beyond it are some +caves which until recently were haunted, as was all this north-western +coast, by mild-eyed seals. "A man with a gun" and the English instinct +to "go out and kill something," an instinct useful in the days of the +mammoth and the cave-tiger, but more than a little tiresome in our +present state of civilisation, is responsible for their disappearance. +There are still the caves to be seen. + + +ST. NECHTAN'S KIEVE; +BOSSINEY + +Inland the little towns are of slight interest, with the exception of +the old cross at Lambrenny, but the walk along the cliffs--and the +Cornish are amiably ignorant that trespassers ought to be +prosecuted--presents an ever-changing panorama of lichened rocks and +lacy surf and every shade of wonderful blue. In Trevalga Church is some +old woodwork that has been carefully placed against the east wall of the +church, and presently we are crossing the neck of the Rocky Valley on +our way to derelict Bossiney--Bossiney once having mayor and officers +and represented in Parliament by Sir Francis Drake, but now only a +sleepy lovely nook in a quiet corner of the land! At the head of the +Rocky Valley is St. Nechtan's Kieve, a fine but broken waterfall of some +40 ft. A legend is told of two unknown ladies who inhabited a cottage +near by and who died without ever having revealed their names, but the +legend sprang like so many others from the fertile brain of the Rev. +Robert Hawker. He thought the place looked as if it ought to have a +legend, and not finding one was both ready and able to supply the +deficiency. A cross which was formerly part of the garden gate and was +supposed to be of the ninth century has been taken to Tintagel, and is +now to be seen in the garden of that comfortable old-fashioned hostelry, +the Wharncliffe Arms. + + +TINTAGEL + +The far-famed "Dundagel" consists of a single grey street, lined in +irregular fashion with grey cottages and houses. In this land of stone +you sigh for the cheerful sight of a red-brick building or a glowing +tiled roof; but the stone used is grey, and where the roofs are not of a +cold blue slate, they are of a thatch held on by ropes that are heavily +weighted. The place is still primitive. Until recently the nearest baker +lived at Delabole, and to judge by the prizes (instead of cakes) on view +in his window, he must have been the king of pastry cooks. In Cornwall, +however, the housewife still bakes her own bread and is in other ways +more self-sufficing, and let us add more thrifty, than elsewhere. + + +ARTHUR + +"Who Arthur was," says Milton, "and whether any such person reigned in +Britain hath been doubted heretofore and may again with good reason." We +must remember that the traditions concerning him were not reduced to +writing until centuries after his death, while Gildas, who was born +according to his own account in what would be Arthur's lifetime, does +not mention him. + +The legends, however, assert that he was born at Tintagel Castle about +499 A.D., that he had three wives, but no children, and that his second +wife, Yenifer (Guinevere), was buried with him at Glastonbury. Against +the probability of this is the fact that Tintagel is not mentioned in +Domesday and that its ruins are of the thirteenth century with later +additions. It is quite likely, however, that the place, which is +strongly situated on a jutting headland--the so-called Island--was +fortified from time immemorial. It may originally have been one of those +pathetic cliff castles, may have been improved on and made habitable by +the conquering race of that epoch, and may eventually have fallen into +decay. + + +THE CASTLE + +The present ruins are said to represent a castle built some little time +after the Norman Conquest, a castle which speedily fell out of repair, +for it had to be restored by Richard, King of the Romans, brother of +Henry III., before he could entertain his nephew, David, Prince of +Wales, here in 1245. + +When Cornwall, till then an earldom, was made a duchy (1337) and +bestowed on the Black Prince, a boy seven years old, all the castles +were again fallen into decay. At Tintagel the timber had even been +removed from the great hall "because the walls were ruinous." The main +part of the building appears to have been on the Island, but it was +connected with outworks on the shore by a drawbridge. Sir Richard +Grenville, who made an official survey in 1583, tells us that this +drawbridge, which had been in existence within living memory, was gone, +its supports having been washed away by the waves. The sea having +continued its work of destruction, the space is now too wide for any +drawbridge to span, and in spite of a handrail the little climb to the +"Island" ruins is a dizzy one. Nor is there much to see. Some of the +masonry is recent, while the tiny chapel and altar are of about the same +date as the later parts of the castle, but the view is fine. It makes up +for the disappointment in Tintagel as a castle, for the disappointment +of finding that here is no certain tradition of Arthur, that the very +people feel about him much as Milton did. He may have been born here, +this may have been his very castle of Dindraithon, but if so they know +nothing of it. Arthur is a thing of books, of art, not life, of the +Morte, the Idylls, and--best of all perhaps--of Clemence Housman's +wonderful story "Sir Aglovaine de Galis," but he has no place in +present-day folklore. + +On the top of the mainland outworks is a doorway which in an eerie +manner opens upon space, and a sheer drop of many hundreds of feet. It +shows how much the sea is encroaching. Once upon a time this probably +led to the look-out tower. Now the very foundations of that tower are +gone and presently the masonry will go too, and the waters will roar +unhindered between the mainland and the island. + + +THE BEACH +AND BARRAS HEAD + +Far below is a tiny dark beach, the colour of which is explained when +having climbed down a wooden stairway clamped to the rock--the only +means of approach--it is found to consist entirely of rounded pieces of +slate. They are of all weights and sizes, but there is no sand, no +shells, nothing but slate. Opposite the Castle rock is Barras Head, and +there at last the big modern hotel can be ignored and the wanderer lie +out on the short, dry turf with the long line of hazy coast to either +hand and, before him, the islands white with sea-birds and pink with +thrift and the boundless stretch of sunlit waters. + + "_To be by the translucent green, the blue + Deepening to purple where the weed is dense! + To hear the homing call as the brave sweep + Of wings is folded on a sea-girt rock! + To lie in golden warmth while tow'ring waves + Break with a lazy roar along the cliffs-- + To lie and dream._" + +It is here that Swinburne, venturing on a swim, was nearly drowned. The +same story is told of him on the French coast, only there it was Guy de +Maupassant who brought him back in safety. The great French writer is +reported to have said that the little English poet, with his +bladder-like head and attenuated body, struck him as hardly sane. Yet it +was Maupassant who died mad, not Swinburne. + + +AN INSCRIBED STONE + +At Tintagel was discovered in 1888 a stone on which is inscribed IMP C G +Val Lic Licin, _i.e._, Imperatore Cæsare Galerio Valerio Liciniano +Licinio, who reigned 307-324 A.D. It is evident therefore that whether +Arthur was here or not the Romans were. What a pity that no one has been +able to discover any satisfactory evidence in enduring stone of the +British king's existence! + +The cruciform church on the cliff is largely Norman, but portions of it +belong to almost every succeeding age and period. Some have even held +that it contains Saxon work, but the authorities are not agreed. + + +A DANGEROUS OCCUPATION + +On the way to Trebarwith along the cliffs--and Trebarwith is a narrow +rocky opening up which the tide rushes with tremendous force--are +quarries. It is strange to see men, with the carelessness of long habit, +walk to the very edge of the cliff, lie down and, with their legs +hanging over, feel with their feet for the rough ladder that leads down +the rock-face to the quarry opening; or to see them stand on a plank +that juts out over the sea, and is maintained in its position by a chunk +of rock, casually adjusted. If the plank should give, or the rock roll +aside! But a man stands there from morning till night loading and +unloading slates. + + +THE BATTLE OF +GAFULFORD + +Inland from Tintagel is Camelford, with its local tradition of a battle. +At Slaughter Bridge, near Worthyvale, one and a half miles from +Camelford, fragments of armour, ornaments of bridles, weapons, have been +found, and in 823 a battle was certainly fought at some place then +called Gafulford between the Saxons of Devon and the Celts of Cornwall, +a battle in which the Cornish were defeated. May not this unknown +Gafulford be Camelford? Writers have suggested that this may have been +the scene of Arthur's last battle; but the weight of tradition is +against this theory, a more likely place having been pointed out in +Scotland. + + +ARTHUR'S HALL + +While on the subject of the legendary British king, it would be +interesting to see a supposed feasting-chamber, which from before the +time of Henry VIII. was known as Arthur's Hall. South-west of Brown +Willy, it is about five miles from Camelford, in the parish of St. +Breward. It appears at present as a pit hollowed out in a light sandy +soil. This excavation, which is 159 ft. long, is enclosed by an earthen +bank with slabs of granite about 7 ft. high, placed evenly on the inner +side. The absence of true walls makes it doubtful whether it was roofed +over, but it may have had a self-supporting skeleton roof, covered with +a web of branches or with sods. + + +LANTEGLOS + +As is so often the case in Cornwall, the Camelford church is at some +distance from the place to which it ministers, being, indeed, a mile and +a half away at Lanteglos. In the churchyard is a celebrated stone with +an inscription in eleventh-century Saxon capitals: "ÆLSELTH & GENERETH +WROHTE THYSNE SYBSTEL FOR ÆLWYNEYS SAUL & FOR HEYSEL." About a quarter +of a mile from the church is the well-known entrenchment called Castle +Goff, with a single rampart and ditch. + + +THE FORTY BREWERS +OF HELSTON + +Below Lanteglos is the manor of Helston, and Domesday records "that +there were forty brewers on the royal manor of Henliston." This is the +only mention in the great survey of brewers as an item of population, +and forty seems a good many for one place. Did they brew all the beer in +the county; and was it Henliston ale that so appalled Andrew Borde when +he thought to visit Cornwall, that he turned back saying: "it looked as +if pigges had wrasteled in it"? + + +THE RIVER + +Camelford is not far from either of the sources of the Camel, and the +upper moorland reaches of the twin streams abound in charming spots +where the water frets among boulders and swirls in sunshine and shadow +among ferns and wild flowering shrubs. The sisters do not join forces +till they reach Kea Bridge, over ten miles from their source, but as +soon as depth allows of their existence sweet small trout are plentiful. + + +THE DELABOLE SLATE + +Between Camelford and Tintagel are the now silent quarries of North +Delabole (or Dennyball). The road winds between great walls and under +archways of slate which look as if a touch would send the whole erection +sliding and rushing down upon the wayfarer. But the slates were set up +by cunning fingers and have withstood the gales of this coast for a +score of years. Very different is their mournful creeper-grown +desolation from the arid activity of Delabole. The approach to the high +grey windy street is marked by deep ferny lanes. Here are thirty acres +of quarry and rubble heap, a hideous excavation. In 1602 the quarry, +already old, was 900 ft. long, in 1882 it had grown to 1300 ft., and it +is growing still. The best slate is called bottom stone and lies at a +depth of from 25 to 40 fathoms, for the quarry is now over 400 ft. deep. +Beautiful crystals the so-called Cornish diamonds, are found in these +workings, truly the only beautiful things in a most dreary place. + + +ST. TEATH + +When the church at little sleepy St. Teath was restored in 1877, two +massive Norman responds at the east end of the north aisle were +discovered. There is also some good roof timber and a little ancient +glass. The pulpit bears the arms of the Carminows and their motto: "Cala +Rag Whetlow"--a straw for a tell-tale. It was John of Gaunt, +"time-honoured Lancaster," that Prince who, though never a king, was +the ancestor of so many, who upon true evidence found Carminow of +Cornwall "to be descended of a lineage armed 'Azure a bend Or' since the +time of King Arthur;" and indeed the Carminows were certainly here at +the Conquest. They are now extinct, the last of the family, a devoted +Royalist, dying in 1646. + +In the graveyard, on a slab fastened to the church, is the following +epitaph: + + "_Here lyeth the body of Robert Bake, son of Samuel Bake, who was + buried the xxx day of January, 16--. + But what cheere-up altho our sonne be gone + Altho his bodiy must be racke and toren + With filthy bitter bitinge wormes of dust + And be consumd as all our bodies must + Yet still cheere-up comforte yourselves: in this + Tho the bodiy died the soule emmortall is + And now in heaven most ioyfully shall singe + O: grave where is thy strength, death where is thy victory + With God above for all e-terny-tie: + For Robert Bake._" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM PORT ISAAC TO THE VALE OF LANHERNE + +_Port Isaac and the Fishing: Pentire: St. Enodoc and the Sand: +Lovebond's Bridge: Wadebridge and Egloshayle: "Jan Tergeagle": Menhirs: +Padstow and the Hobby Horse: Prehistoric Inhabitants: Harlyn Bay: +Trevose Head: Constantine: A Fogou: Bedruthan: The Vale of Lanherne._ + + +PORT ISAAC + +So long and so steep is the hill between Port Gavernoe and Port Isaac +that the Cornishman, though not noted for kindness to animals, does not +often ask his horse to negotiate it, and indeed these Cornish hills are +a sovereign specific for nerves. No one who has been up and down them, +behind one of the surefooted country-bred ponies, can fear any ordinary +descent. + +From the hill the view of the little grey town is hardly inviting. It +lies huddled together as if it had slipped down the sides of the cleft +in which it rests. Very crooked are its narrow roads; all sideways, +askew and anyhow the small houses; there are no gardens, hardly any +backyards; and at certain seasons of the year young and stalwart men +seem to be conspicuous by their absence. "They'm all away at work and +they do belong to go, for there edn't no money here, only the fishin'," +is the explanation. + +Fishing is indeed the reason for Port Isaac's existence and for that of +her smaller neighbours, Port Gaverne and Port Quin, each of which lies +at the head of a similar sandy inlet. Port Isaac, it is true, has a +harbour deep enough to admit steamers of 150 tons burden, and most of +the Delabole slates are shipped from here, but fishing is the main +interest. "Cousin Jack" is a strict Sabbatarian, but not so his rival +from the east coast. It is bad enough to see the fish caught in waters +he looks upon as his, but particularly so under the circumstances; and, +as a consequence, he has sometimes taken the law into his own hands. "If +à must fishey," says he, "leave en fishey fair," and one Monday morning +when the strangers endeavoured to land eight boatloads that had been +captured during Sunday night, his patience reached its limit. "All that +day gulls swarmed in the little harbour, and thereafter the place +reeked of decaying fish. So now the east countrymen deem it wiser to +land their Sunday's catch elsewhere." + +Is it possible that this nook of the coast also reeks somewhat of +decaying fish? What of it? Many a fishing town lies ahead, and they were +not called "Fishy-gissy" and "Polstink" for nothing. May be--as you are +told when you get a whiff of the gasworks--it is a healthy smell; any +way, healthy or no, like those same gasworks it is not to be denied. + + +PENTIRE + + "_From Padstow Point to Hartland Light, + Is a watery grave by day or night_" + +runs the country saying, voicing the fear that haunts every fisherman's +cottage along the coast; and if the children, in their carelessness, lay +a loaf cut-side down, so that it looks like a boat turned bottom +upwards, the elders shiver and bid them right it at once. Pentire, which +stands out at one side of the estuary above low-lying Padstow, has two +points, the Eastern and the Western Horns; and a view up the entire +coast of Cornwall and onward to blunt Trevose that should not be missed. +On the eastern point of the bay is a well-defined cliff castle. It is +evident that the triple mounds and ditches were for purposes of defence, +but neither local history nor tradition has a word about those by whom +they were built. This only is certain, that the folk must have been +desperate who came to make their last stand on this wild and lonely +spot. + +On the headland is a cave in some way connected with "Cruel Coppinger," +who, by his brutality for years, dominated the western coast (though he +was perhaps less seen at Padstow than elsewhere). His smuggling lugger, +the _Black Prince_, was known from Morwenstow to Newquay, and many are +the wild deeds--he did not even stop short of murder--recorded of this +desperado, from the day he was landed on these shores to that other day +when, the measure of his iniquities being full, he set sail never to +return. Not that all smuggling was undertaken in so lawless a fashion. +It was rather an agreeable diversion spiced with adventure, and +gentleman, parson, farmer, and peasant all lent a hand. "Cruel +Coppinger's" is not the only cave along this coast that is said to have +been haunted by "spirits"--as indeed they were, and by silks and lace as +well! Nor were the hiding-places only those provided by Nature. The +pulling down of old houses has revealed many a hollow in the thick walls +and under the flagged floors; there is even a story that one great +gentleman used to conceal a store of illicit goods--in his carriage! + +Relics of an older civilisation have been dug up on these headlands. It +is possible, before the sand swept in overwhelmingly, that the coast may +have supported a larger population. Roman coins and beads, strange blue +iridescent glass, and bits of red glaze, the glaze of Samian ware, have +been found; and among these things articles of a yet earlier date, as +for instance, a roughly made coral necklace thought to be British or +earlier. + + +ST. ENODOC AND THE SAND + +From this point westward the coast has been afflicted with sandstorms, +churches have been buried, towns obliterated by the drifting particles. +Blowing steadily for three days at a time, the frightened people have +left their houses to escape suffocation, and fled inland only on their +return to find the face of the country changed beyond recognition. St. +Enodoc Church, during one of these visitations, was covered with sand +above the level of the roof, only the thirteenth-century broach spire +remaining above the waste to indicate the whereabouts of the building. +In order to perform service, the parson, after some digging, managed to +enter by the roof; and it may be wondered why on that lonely waste a +service should be required. It was not, however, a matter of saving +souls, but of obtaining tithes. About forty years ago the church was +excavated, and it now lies in a deep trench. The path is lined with a +curious collection of stone mortars or measures, which however are not +ecclesiastical. Near by rises the desolate Bray Hill, under which, early +last century, storms having shifted the sands, the ruins of what is +thought to be an oratory came to light. + +The churches of St. Minver and St. Kew are both interesting. The former +contains three octagonal slate piers supporting pointed arches, the +remains of a fine oak rood screen, and--an article which seems nowadays +somewhat out of place, but no doubt is stored there against destruction +or oblivion--the stocks. St. Kew lies in a lovely wooded valley, and is +one of the finest churches in Cornwall, but is not often visited. Fine +woodwork is to be seen in the cradle roof, while the chancel screen was +carefully modelled on one of earlier date. The communion cup is +Elizabethan, but more interesting is a glass egg-shaped bowl with silver +mounts of 1598. When Bodmin Church was restored (1472) it seems to have +sold its fine old windows to any church that would buy, and St. Kew was +fortunate enough to secure one, that in the north chapel. Not far from +here is Polrode, where, serving as part of the bridge, is a good, though +mutilated, example of a roundheaded cross with beaded angles. At St. +Endellion, a little north of Kew, is a stoup carved with the arms of +Roscarrock, Chenduit, and Pentire--and heraldic stoups are rare. + + +LOVEBOND'S BRIDGE + +On the road to Wadebridge is an earthwork known as Castle Killibury or +Kelly Rounds, which was known to have been in existence--and out of +repair--as early as 1478. Commanding the road down to the ford it was +evidently once a place of considerable strength. This ford was not +bridged until the reign of Edward IV., when a fine bridge with a span of +seventeen arches was built by a man named Lovebond. At first it was so +narrow that only pack-horses could cross, and over every pier protecting +angles were placed for the need of pedestrians. The bridge was 320 ft. +long, and the finest of its kind in England. It has been widened, but +its character carefully preserved. For a long time it was believed that +on account of the shifting sands the piers rested on packs of wool. +Examination, however, has proved the story an invention, for they are on +a rock foundation. + +It was over this bridge that the broken Royalists hurried in 1646, a +long disorderly straggle of men and guns and baggage, with Cromwell, +grimly patient, at their heels. Had there been union and discipline in +the forces, they would have been no easy conquest; but there had long +been dissension among the leaders, and the condition of the common +soldiers was both wretched and demoralised. As Clarendon records, they +were "feared by their friends, scorned by their enemies, terrible only +in plunder and resolute in running away." With such troops as these +nothing could be done. Sir Richard Grenville, tyrannical and +quarrelsome, had been committed to Launceston gaol, Prince Charles +himself had left the country, and only the loyal Hopton was left. Once +across the Camel and the soldiers were penned into the western half of +the peninsula; but a spark of that old spirit which had won so many +victories for the king was shown in a skirmish at St. Columb Major. It +was the last flicker of life. In March the commissioners met at +Tresillian Bridge, terms were agreed on, and the Royalist army disbanded +on honourable conditions. + + +WADEBRIDGE AND +EGLOSHAYLE + +Wadebridge is a little market town, so little that it has not even a +resident dentist! It has, however, an air of life which is unusual in +Cornwall; but that may be partly due to the cheery little streams that +run through the open gutters of the main streets. Here you buy chickens +by the pound and new-laid eggs--sometimes--for a halfpenny each; but the +place is neither beautiful nor interesting. Very different is +Egloshayle, the "church by the river," a name which it deserves, for the +water washes against the fence of the haunted graveyard. Historians tell +us that the Loveybound who was vicar here in 1462 and who built the +south aisle and fine three-stage western tower must not be confounded +with the Lovebond of about the same date who built the bridge, that +indeed it is a case of "It wasn't Mr. William Shakespeare who wrote the +plays, but another gentleman of the same name." The church is about a +mile up the river from Wadebridge, and stands in a group of chestnuts. +The sculptured stone pulpit is of the fifteenth century, and in the roof +of the south aisle is some good oak of the same date. The hood-mouldings +of the tower doorway are ornamented with angels bearing shields, on one +of which is cut the name "I. Loveybound" and the device of three hearts +banded together with a fillet. + +On the other side of Wadebridge lies St. Breock, where "John Tregeagle +of Trevorder, Esqr., 1679," is buried. 'Tis said that at his death, +owing to some inaccuracy in his accounts--he was steward of the +Robartes' estates--a poor man was sued for money that he had already +paid. By the agency of the parson, who seems to have been some sort of a +wizard, Tregeagle was induced to return to earth and give evidence for +the defence, which evidence proved conclusive. Cornwall is full of +legends about Tregeagle, who seems to have been a hard man and an +oppressive steward; but no doubt, as often happens, the legends are of +earlier date than the individual to whom they are momentarily attached. +The wraith who gave them birth has faded out of living memory, is indeed +dead; but like disturbed but sleepy birds, they have quickly settled +again on some character still bulking largely in the public eye. + + +MENHIRS + +Beyond the little church the ground rises to St. Breock Downs, which are +700 ft. above sea level and strewn with prehistoric remains. Nine big +stones in a straight line are followed by a menhir, a disposition often +seen on Dartmoor; and at Pawton is a dolmen called the Giant's Quoit, an +exceptionally fine example. The menhir is known as the Old Man, probably +from houl mæn, a sun stone. The word "man" or "men" or "maiden" when met +with in the west invariably means a stone, but those responsible for our +latter-day legends were often unaware of this. + +By way of the broad sunshiny estuary, which is as beautiful when the +tide is out and the distant gulls stand like a string of pearls on the +edge of the yellow sand, as when the whole expanse is one stretch of +dimpling blue water, we come to Padstow. At Little Petherick, which is +halfway, there is a copy of the 1684 edition of Foxe's "Book of +Martyrs," and the south doorway of the church is believed to have been +stolen from the ruined edifice on Constantine Bay--at any rate there is +no mention in the churchwardens' accounts of any payment made. + + +PADSTOW AND THE HOBBY HORSE + +A short distance from the mouth of the estuary and looking up the blue +reaches to the open sea lies the little port of Padstow. In early days +it was so near the Atlantic that wandering Danes (901) came and +plundered its monastery of St. Petrock, and later the sand blocked up +the wide mouth of the harbour forming the Doom Bar, and leaving only a +narrow channel on the west. But the little place with its narrow streets +all running uphill, its unprotected sharp-cornered quay, and its +dominant manor-house, still contrives to exist. It is at its best +perhaps when stress of weather has driven in the fishing fleet, and +there is a forest of masts clustered by the wharves. On such occasions +milk and bread are hard to come by, for there will be five hundred extra +mouths to feed. + +A quaint survival of the ancient May Day celebrations exists in the +Hobby Horse, a wooden circle with a dress of blackened sail-cloth, a +horse's head, and a prominent tail. This is carried through the town, +the bearers meanwhile chanting a song which, in spite of an old tune and +refrain, is full of topical allusions. + +Halfway up one of the steep roads that lead out into the country is the +beautifully situated Prideaux Place. The family, though of respectable +antiquity, has not taken any leading part in the history of the county, +but in the house are some interesting pictures, a Vandyke, and some +early Opies. When the old home of the Grenvilles was finally dismantled, +the great staircase was brought from Stowe and set up here to be a link +with the immemorial past. + +Round Padstow the land is fertile, very fine wheat being grown; and it +is believed that a certain farmer pays his rent with the produce of a +single field of asparagus. It is astonishing that more of the succulent +edible is not grown, or that the sandhills of the coast are not utilised +as they were round Southampton for growing strawberries. A fortune may +lurk in the sand, the devastating sand, or, if that is too much to ask, +at least it may give back more than it has taken. But the farmers are +disinclined for change, and if you ask why there are so few milch kine +and why vegetables and other amenities of life are so difficult to get, +you are told: "Spoase they'm warm men, got a long stocking. They don't +trouble." + + +PREHISTORIC + +Along the estuary to the north is a way which, in windy weather, is +dangerous, but at other times gives a succession of lovely views and +which brings the walker past Rockferry (mentioned as early as 1337) to +Stepper Point, with its white day-mark. The cliffs for a little are high +and not too safe, but Tregudda Gorge with its amethyst and topaz +crystals, its flints and worked slates, is a lonely and a beautiful +spot. The Cornish tell strange stories of these places, stories of the +"little people" whom they believe to be fairies,[1] but who are probably +the neolithic dwarf race which is said to have inhabited parts of the +country. They are also firm believers in psychic faculty, though they +call it by other older names. A man interested in such matters met a +London friend at the Padstow terminus. Aware that his friend was +supposed to be clairvoyant, he without comment put a fragment of bone +that he had found on an old kitchen midden in the other's hand and +asked him what he saw. "Now, this is interesting," said the other, "for +I see walking away before me a little brown man dressed in skins. On his +feet are brogues of hide with the hair inside." + +The friends were walking by the estuary and the tide was in. "He has got +into a queer sort of basket boat covered with hides and is paddling +about among a lot of other little brown people in similar boats. Ah, +there is a forest over there." The antiquarian looked across the +discoloured line of the Doom Bar to the sandhills opposite, but not a +tree was to be seen. He remembered afterwards, however, that many +centuries ago a forest, now submerged, had occupied the eastern side of +the Camel estuary. + +So sparsely inhabited is this coast that the worked flints and +arrow-heads of that bygone people still lie on the undisturbed surface +of the rocky land. The flints are so sharp, so clean, that it seems +their owners can have only just laid them down. And we must remember +that this is not a flint country. Every sharp atom was brought from far +away in the days when the rivers had to be forded and there were only +paths over the waste. Yet, onward from Tregudda Gorge, there are any +number to be found. Moreover after Trevone--an uninteresting place where +some bathing fatalities have occurred--we come, in broad and beautiful +Harlyn Bay, to the necropolis of this vanished race. + + +HARLYN BAY + +In 1900, when digging for the foundations of a house, an oblong slate +kist, lying north and south, and containing a "crouched" burial, was +found. The drift sand lay some 8 to 10 ft. above the grave, within which +the skeleton lay on his side, his hands over his eyes, his knees bent +under him in what seems to us an attitude of devotion; as he lay the +first ray of the rising sun would strike athwart his face. Further +investigation showed that the discovered kist was only one of a group of +interments, and that the graves covered some 90 ft., giving signs of a +long continued series of burials, rather than of a great number within a +short period. The date of interment is considered to be that of the +later iron age, no great antiquity it is true, but some few thousand +years ago. The kind and courteous owner, Colonel Bellers, allows access +to this prehistoric graveyard--locally known as the Boneries--and near +by is a small museum for the preservation of interesting finds. Some of +the kists have been left _in situ_ and, to preserve them from wind and +weather, have been covered with a sort of cucumber frame, and the +stranger looks down through the glass on to the brown bones in their +enduring coffins of slate. Here lies a chieftain, for over his kist were +heaped rough lumps of quartz crystal; here a mother and child, little +bones and bigger; and here, in a heterogeneous mixture of all sorts and +sizes, is a hint of tragedy. Were they the result of a battle--of a +cannibal feast--or of justice done! + +A tooth from this strange and lonely graveyard was enclosed in a little +box and sent to a friend in London with instructions to place it +unopened in the hands of a clairvoyant. No information was vouchsafed +with the tooth, and the mystified go-between was only asked to take down +what was said, and this he did. At first the clairvoyant seemed rather +puzzled. "I can see a wide, sandy bay with rocks and cliffs, a rough +tumbling sea, and at the head of the bay a dense wood; but the people +are not like any I've ever seen before. They seem to be skin-clad +savages with black hair. There are quite a lot of them. One is running +across the sands and others are rushing after him; they have weapons in +their hands and he is fleeing in deadly terror. Ah, he has run into the +wood--now they've all disappeared!" + +Was the last scene in that prehistoric man's life being re-enacted +before the clairvoyant's gaze? Had he contravened his fellows' unknown +laws and so been hunted to his death? + +After a little the seer continued: "I see the bay again, but it's a +little different, more sand and fewer trees. Some men in present-day +dress are standing by a hole in the ground. They----" and a description +was given of the people who had been present at the opening of the kist. +"I think the hole is a grave, though it seems too short to be that" (the +kist being a "crouched" burial was, of course, much shorter than an +ordinary grave), "at any rate there are bones in it." + +Of the gold ornaments found in Cornwall the most remarkable are the two +torques found near Harlyn; bronze fibulæ have also been found here, but +a good many of these finds are now in the Truro Museum. Harlyn, in spite +of the grisly nature of its chief attraction, is an incomparable bay of +wide firm sand, rock pools, and low safe cliffs. As it is sheltered by +Trevose Head, the bathing is safe. A little way along the cliffs is a +disused fish-cellar, over the door of which is the motto: "Lucri dulcis +odor"--sweet is the smell of gold! But the fish have left these shores +and the big black boats--boats that are oddly reminiscent of the +Viking's ships at Christiania--lie rotting in the sun. + + +TREVOSE HEAD + +Trevose Head (lighthouse), blunt and rounded, with an ear on each side +of its broad head, is a somewhat eerie place. On its western slope is a +large and sinister blow-hole, and much of the land seems to have +slipped a little and to be slipping more. It is here, by the rabbit +burrows, that so many worked flint arrow-heads and fish spears have been +found; while on its eastern side are caves inaccessible to the ordinary +person, but if report says truly once of great use to the smuggler. The +cliffs are of catacleuse, a dark and durable stone, of which on the cave +side there are quarries. + +Beyond Trevose Head, with its view from Cape Cornwall to Lundy Isle, the +land curves inward past the rocky ridges and big rolling sand-dunes of +Constantine. A shepherd's family is said to have held for many +generations a cottage on Constantine under the lord of Harlyn Manor by +the annual payment of a Cornish pie made of limpets, raisins, and sweet +herbs. Food is cheap in Cornwall, but wages are correspondingly low. A +farm pays its labourers--it calls them the cowman, the bullockman, and +the horseman--from 13_s_. 6_d_. to 18_s_. a week, and with that, though +conditions differ a little on different farms, they generally give a +cottage, 100 ft. of potato ground, the run of a pig on the land, 100 +battens of tamarisk wood--almost the only wood on this part of the +coast--and, most prized of all, the right to let lodgings. On this the +labourers sometimes manage to save. In one absolutely authentic +instance, a couple, labourer and farm-servant, who married at twenty-one +and eighteen, contrived to rear a healthy family of three and before +they were forty to save enough to buy a piece of land, build a +lodging-house, and go into business on their own account. "Never refused +a day's work in my life," said the woman, "but we lived on what he +brought home, and saved what I made." And what he brought home had been +from thirteen to fifteen shillings a week. "Nor I never bought any +tinned stuff," she said. "There's a deal of money goes that way, if the +young women nowadays 'ud only believe it. Why, a tin of pears, where's +the nourishment in that, and think of the price. Nearly a shilling +gone." + +And that woman baked her own bread, did, not only her own "bit of +washin'," but that of the one or two houses in the neighbourhood, went +out charing and cleaning, and took lodgers! They were thrifty folk, +never dreamed of buying a newspaper, and as a consequence had to save +every scrap of letter-paper, grocery bags, and oddments in order to have +the wherewithal to light the fire in the slab range. The pig was their +great stand-by. His meat, frugally cut, distributed in pasties with a +careful hand, lasted them the greater part of the year, and then there +were the lodgers. The tourist is not over-welcome to the farmer on +account of his carelessness with regard to gates. He lets the young +stock in among the corn and passes on oblivious of the damage he has +caused, but he is a godsend to the labourer's capable wife. + + +CONSTANTINE + +Constantine is another lovely and lonely bay. The jagged ridges of stone +run out at either end of the wide arc, a deep blue in sunlight, black in +cloudy weather, and between them lies a rainbow beach of shells. The +owners of the property have set their faces against hotels, and on the +stretch of sand-dunes are only the ruins of a one-time wrecker's +cottage, and a small black hut. The man who gave his name to the place +was supposed to be a descendant of King Lear (here spelt Llyr), who was +converted in his old age by the Padstow saint, Petrock. The sand which +destroyed his oratory is also said to have destroyed a populous village, +but seeing the desolation on every hand, this is a little difficult to +believe. At any rate the neighbouring churches seem to have benefited by +the saint's misfortune, for St. Merryn as well as Little Petherick +gathered up any trifles she thought might come in useful, and the +beautiful font at the former church is said to have been taken from her. +One thing only was left to + + "_that ruined church + Whose threshold is the sacrificial stone + Of a forgotten people!_" + +Under the archway of the western door, a heavy-rounded lump, lies the +old stone. It was probably a source of pride to Constantine ap Llyr. He +had taken from the heathen their greatest treasure, their sacrificial +stone, which had been brought from a distance, for there is no stone of +that nature in the neighbourhood, and he had set it in his threshold +where it should be trodden underfoot of men. And now the old church and +the yet older stone lie alike forgotten, and there is peace. + +On Constantine Island--again only so-called--a little, very ancient +house was discovered some years ago. The walls were of slabs of stone +and the greatest height of the interior was 7 ft. From the discovery of +two hearth-stones, one inside and one on the outside of the building, it +was thought that the place was only used as a dwelling in bad or cold +weather, and that otherwise its prehistoric owner kept it as a +storehouse. Unfortunately the little ruin has been removed piecemeal by +the hungry visitor. + + +A FOGOU + +Not only are there many caverns along this coast, but several fogous or +artificial caves have been discovered. These fogous may have been used +for smuggling or as hiding-places in time of war, but the fact that some +are obviously connected with old cliff castles and strongholds, points +to a greater antiquity; in fact, they may have been prehistoric +storehouses. In a secluded valley, near Porthcothan, a little further +along this coast, is an interesting example. The cavern is 36 ft. long +and about 6 ft. high, the breadth being about 5 ft. The sides are lined +with rough stones, simply piled up, and the roof consists of stone +slabs. From this chamber a passage leads to another similarly +constructed. It is said to have been much longer, in fact over 1000 +yards, one gallery leading to Trevethan, whence another opened on to the +beach at Porthmear. + + +BEDRUTHAN + +To the south of Park Head, a fine cliff on which are several tumuli, is +the Church of St. Eval, the tower of which was so useful a landmark that +when it grew ruinous in 1727, some Bristol merchant subscribed towards +the rebuilding. It is near Bedruthan Steps, where a fine shore is strewn +with detached rocks and islands. One of the former is named "Queen +Bess," from a fancied resemblance, ruff, farthingale and all, to the +royal spinster; another "The Good Samaritan," because a vessel of that +name was wrecked there. This vessel had been an East Indiaman laden with +the silks and spices of a warmer clime, and a good deal of the cargo was +saved, so much indeed that nowadays when a lass finds her finery growing +the worse for wear, she says, "It is time for a Good Samaritan to come." + +On the cliff above Redruthan Sands is an ancient earthwork known as Red +Cliff Castle, which is supposed to have been British. It would be +interesting to learn whether it is in any way connected with the +numerous great caves which honeycomb its rock foundation. So far, +however, no fogou has been discovered here. + + +VALE OF LANHERNE + +From Mawgan Porth, the far-famed Vale of Lanherne lies inland some two +miles or so, a contrast to the rough wild coast and its splintered +rocks. Beyond the church and nunnery, in their peaceful setting of +small-leaved Cornish elms, among the branches of which the rooks build +above the little rippling stream, are the lovely woods of Carnanton. It +used to be said that amid all the religious communities represented in +Cornwall long ago, there was never a nunnery, but this is no longer the +case. In the reign of Henry VII. an Arundell of Lanherne purchased +Wardour Castle, in Wiltshire, and when his younger son Thomas, married a +sister of Queen Catherine Howard, the old man settled on him the Wardour +house and estate. In course of time the elder branch came to be +represented by a daughter only, and she marrying her cousin of Wardour +the estates were re-united. In 1794 Henry, eighth Lord Arundell of +Wardour, gave the old home of his race--it had been in the family since +1231--to some English Theresian nuns, who had fled from Paris in fear of +what was to come. The present house is not very old, though a part of it +dates from 1580, which part contains a secret chamber, wherein a priest +once lay concealed for some sixteen months. It is said that the silver +sanctuary lamp in the convent chapel has burnt continuously and that the +Roman Catholic services have been held without intermission since +pre-Reformation days. A picture supposed to be by Rubens, "The Scourging +of our Blessed Lord at the Pillar," is shown, also other reputed old +masters. Adjoining the house is a little garden, used as a cemetery, in +which three priests and several nuns have been buried, and which +contains a tenth-century four-holed cross of Pentewan stone, the shaft +of which is covered with interlaced work. + +Mawgan Church, which is close to the nunnery, is remarkably rich in +brasses, many of which are now attached to the old screen through the +shameful ignorance of a late rector. There were here formerly some +interesting palimpsest brasses of foreign workmanship, but large +portions of these have been removed by the Arundells--whom they +concerned--to Wardour Castle. On the south side of the churchyard is one +of those pathetic memorials only too common along this coast. The white +painted stern of a boat lies close to the convent wall, and on it is +inscribed: "Here lie the bodies of ... who were drifted on shore in a +boat, frozen to death, at Beacon Cove, in this parish, on Sunday, the +13th day of December, MDCCCXLVI." A beautiful Gothic cross of +fifteenth-century work stands at the west end of the church. It is the +most elaborate example of a lanthorn cross in Cornwall and contrasts +well with the restored granite cross, dating from the earliest period of +such monuments, which is to be seen in the additional churchyard. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The fairies seem to be identical with the Tuatha da Danaan of +Ireland. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE VALE OF LANHERNE TO HAYLE TOWANS + +_Hurling and St. Columb Major: Colan: The Gratitude of the Stuarts: +Trevalgue: A Good Centre for Crantoch, St. Cubert, and Trerice: St. +Agnes and the Giant: Portreath: the Bassets: Godrevy: Gwithian: The +Pilchards._ + + +HURLING AND +ST. COLUMB MAJOR + +At the head of the lovely Vale of Lanherne is a district which has long +been the centre for the old game of "hurling," and although football has +largely taken its place, it is still sometimes played on Shrove Tuesday. +The ball is smaller than that used for cricket, is light to handle, and +has a coating of silver. The one now in use is inscribed with this +couplet: + + "_St. Columb Major and Minor do your best, + In one of your parishes I must rest._" + +During the short reign of Edward VI. the ferment against the reformation +doctrines came to a head in Cornwall. The people rose under Humfrey +Arundel and marched to Exeter, only however to meet with a crushing +defeat. Four thousand were slain, and their leaders taken and hanged at +Tyburn. Martial law was then proclaimed, and Sir Anthony Kingston, +Provost Marshal, was sent down into Cornwall. Among other stories told +of him is that of his expeditious visit to St. Columb. Arrived at the +little market town he promptly seized "Master Mayow" and directed that +he should be hanged as a rebel. "Mistress Mayow, intending to plead for +her husband's life, spent so long a time in prinking herself that by the +time she reached the presence of the judge, her husband was dead." + +In the neighbourhood of St. Columb are nine menhirs in a line, called +the Nine Maidens, or in Cornish "Naw Voz"; also Castle-an-Dinas, a large +triple entrenchment on a high tableland enclosing six acres of ground +and two tumuli. Hither came the Royalist leaders in 1646 to discuss the +question of surrender, and here King Arthur is supposed to have stayed +when on pleasure bent. The waste land around is known as Goss Moors, +and there he hunted not only the red deer but the wolf. + +"The Green Book of St. Columb" is one of the historical treasures of the +county. It is so called from the colour of its leather binding, and is a +book of parish accounts dating from the reign of Elizabeth.[2] Curious +to relate, the rectory-house is surrounded by a moat. The church, which +is very large for Cornwall, contains some good brasses and bench-ends, +the brass of Sir John Arundell and his two wives (1545) being probably +the finest example in the county. This church has had hard usage. In +1676 a barrel of gunpowder which lay in the rood-loft was fired by some +mischievous boys. Three of them were killed, and a great deal of other +damage was done. Some few years later the tower was struck by lightning, +and the people, made wiser by misfortune, were careful to erect a less +lofty one, which, however, was itself struck a few years since. + + +COLAN + +Halfway between the two St. Columbs is the little church of Colan, which +contains the interesting brass of ffrancis Bluet, 1572, and Elizabeth, +his wife, with effigies of both and of their thirteen sons and nine +daughters. Below it is a smaller brass containing these words: + + "_Behold thyselfe + by us; Suche one + Were we as thow: + And thou in tyme + Shalt be: even doust + As we are nowe._" + + +THE GRATITUDE +OF THE STUARTS + +Lady Nance's Well was once the resort of pilgrims, who threw crosses of +wood into the water. If they swam all would go well during the ensuing +year, but, alas, if they should sink! Another well and the remains of +its covering building are to be seen at Rialton, a priory which once +possessed extensive rights, but of which only the ruined buildings +remain. They lie in a beautiful valley east of the village of St. Columb +Minor. At this latter the communion plate, which was presented by +Francis, second Earl of Godolphin, and bears his arms, is massive, the +flagon holding nearly a gallon! By the west door is a large painting of +the royal arms, presented by Charles II. to the parish, as marking his +sense of their loyalty to his father, and it might be as well to give +here the letter of thanks written by Charles I. to his loyal county of +Cornwall and still to be seen painted on wood in so many of the +churches. It was written immediately after the fall of Exeter. + + "C. R. To the inhabitants of the Co. of Cornwall. + + "We are so highly sensible of the merit of our county of + Cornwall, of their zeal for the defence of our person and + the just rights of our crown, in a time when we could + contribute so little to our own defence or to their + assistance, in a time when not only no reward appeared, but + great and probable dangers were threatened to obedience and + loyalty; of their great and eminent courage and patience in + their indefatigable prosecution of their great work against + so potent an enemy, backed with so strong, rich, and + populous cities, and so plentifully furnished and supplied + with men, arms, money, ammunition, and provision of all + kinds; and of the wonderful success with which it pleased + Almighty God, though with the loss of some most eminent + persons--who shall never be forgotten by us--to reward their + loyalty and patience by many strange victories over their + and our enemies in despite of all human probability and all + imaginable disadvantages; that as we cannot be forgetful of + so great desert so we cannot but desire to publish it to all + the world and perpetuate to all time the memory of their + merits and of our acceptance of the same; and to that end we + do hereby render our royal thanks to that our county in the + most public and lasting manner we can devise, commanding + copies hereof to be printed and published, and one of them + to be read in every church and chapel therein, and to be + kept for ever as a record in the same; that as long as the + history of these times and of this nation shall continue, + the memory of how much that county hath merited from us and + our crown may be derived with it to posterity. + + "Given at our camp at Sudeley Castle, 10th of Sep., 1643." + +Poor king! a pathetic letter, voicing only too plainly his expectation +of disaster and the surprise which the successes of his reckless gallant +Cornish subjects had caused him. + + +TREVALGUE + +Beyond St. Columb Porth lies the island known as Trevalgue. On the land +side this has six lines of entrenchment and about and upon it, as at +Trevose, lie a quantity of flint chips. These chips are mostly worked. +Here also are a large blow-hole and several interesting caverns. At +Glendorgal, further along the cliff, a barrow was opened some years ago +and found to contain a remarkable burial urn with two handles and on it +a rough chevron pattern. The two barrows on the summit of Trevalgue +were opened in 1842. They proved to contain a very ancient interment. +The country people declare them to be the graves of two kings who fought +all day long on the headland until at last each killed the other, and +was buried where he fell. + +"Burn me in my armour, all that is mine, and pile for me a cairn on the +shore of the grey sea, the memorial of a luckless man, that men unborn +may enquire concerning me."--BEOWULF. + + +A GOOD CENTRE FOR +CRANTOCK, ST. CUBERT, AND TRERICE + +Newquay, which is like the definition of a line--length without +breadth--is hardly either a nook or a corner. It is marvellously well +situated and consists mainly of large hotels. To stand on its beach, +looking outward along the hazy cliffs and over the sparkling water, +makes you feel as if you could forgive anything but the proximity of man +and his immediate works. However Newquay, like Bude and Tintagel, is an +excellent centre from which to go out and survey the land. + +Legend says--what doesn't legend say?--that Crantock was once a seaport +with seven churches, and "that the place was drowned in a deluge of +sand, brought upon the wings of the wind." That wind has certainly +blocked up the Gannel and put an end to any trade it may once have had. +This Gannel is a tidal river flowing through a gorge in the hills, and +it can be crossed at low tide by a plank bridge, while horse vehicles +splash through the ford. It is, however, a dangerous place, for the tide +flows swiftly and strongly, and lives have been lost through attempting +the crossing a little late. The place is said to be haunted by a +disembodied spirit, locally known as the "crake," the hoarse shriek of +which acts as a warning; and it is certain that no countryman who +fancied he had heard it would persist in an attempt to cross--although +it is five good miles round by Trevemper! + +Crantock was a college with a dean and canons at least as early as the +reign of Edward the Confessor, the buildings having stood in what is now +a walled garden, easily recognised by the old ship's figurehead which +serves as a lintel to its gateway. The collegiate church which stands on +a green slope looking towards the sea is one of the most interesting in +Cornwall. There are several remains of Norman work, as for instance the +inner doorway of the porch and part of the central tower arch and piers. +In the church are preserved several pieces of carved alabaster, the +intention of which is not known, and in the graveyard lies a large stone +coffin. The vicar brought himself into notice some time since by +objecting to the presence in his church of women who were not wearing +hats. Courage is a fine thing, but it is generally understood that the +difficulty nowadays is not to discourage people from attending service, +but to get them to come. + +It is not generally known that when the Black Death more--much +more--than decimated Bodmin, the bodies were carried to Crantock and +buried in a field on the north coast. Hundreds of years have passed, but +the surface of this piece of ground is still uneven, and the people +believe that if any one disturbs the earth the disease will break out +again. So antiquarians--in search of the lost city of Langarrow--beware! +The well of St. Carantocus is in the centre of the village, beneath a +rough covering of stone; but it cannot compare either for beauty or +renown with another well a mile or two distant. Under the high and +rugged cliffs of Holywell Bay is a spring of fresh water, approached by +a flight of fifteen worn steps that have been cut in the rock. Only +accessible at low tide, it is in a beautiful cave of many strange sea +tints, and the water drips from one lovely basin to another. In other +days mothers brought their deformed or sickly children to be dipped in +the wonder-working well--which, however, is now known to be of no +medicinal value. + +Between Kelsey Head and Penhale Point lies a wild region of blown sand. +Inland are many deserted mines, the ruins of these "knacked bals" giving +the strange countryside a deserted and desolate appearance, so that the +tapering spire of Cubert Church, which forms a useful landmark, is +welcome. Beyond this is more sand, the wide and dreary waste of +Perranzabuloe (St. Piran in the Sands). The early oratory of this saint +was buried by the blown sands, and so long lost that only the tradition +of it remained. Early in the last century, however, the winds uncovered +it again, and when the oratory was cleared from sand, the headless +skeleton of a big man was discovered beneath the altar. Now St. Piran +was the patron saint of tinners, and it was known that in 1281 the +church had possessed a box in which his head was kept and a hearse on +which his body was carried in procession; indeed, the commissary of the +Dean and Chapter of Exeter reported in 1331 that "the parishioners +continue as before to carry the relics of St. Piran in an unwarrantable +manner to various and even distant places," and as late as 1433 Sir John +Arundell bequeathed ten shillings "for enclosing the saint's head +honourably." If these matters are so, the skeleton discovered cannot +have been that of St. Piran, for the oratory was said to have been +buried in the sand about 900 A.D., and, as we have seen, the relics were +being carried about by the parishioners as late as 1281. + +The oratory, like that of St. Constantine, is concealed among the +sandhills, and by no means easy to find. At the edge of the dunes is a +heath upon which, north of St. Piran's Well, is the Round, a turfed +amphitheatre. This ancient open-air theatre has a rampart about 10 ft. +high, rising in seven steps, of which traces remain. The area will hold +about two thousand spectators, and in the middle ages miracle plays were +doubtless performed here. These plan-an-guare, or playing-places, were +probably constructed in very early times for games or contests after the +manner of the Romans, and seem to have been in use for the performance +of sacred dramas up to the fifteenth century or even later. At Perran a +ditch formerly ran across the floor, and it has been suggested that this +was for boats, &c., used in scenic effects, but it may have had other, +possibly grimmer, uses. + +Some three and a half miles south-east of Newquay is Trerice, another +home of the Arundells. They were truly a fighting race. John Arundell of +Trerice raised a body of troops during the wars of the Roses and fought +on the Lancastrian side, and a later John, nicknamed "John for the King" +and "Game to the Toes," fought with his four sons for Charles I., and in +his old age held Pendennis Castle after all the other forts in Cornwall +had surrendered. + +His ancient manor house came--as did most of the Arundell estates, for +they wedded cannily--by marriage. It was built in 1572 on the site of an +older house, the very solid masonry of which has been found under the +soil. Unfortunately the Arundells, ennobled after the Restoration as +Lord Arundell of Trerice, died out with the "Wicked Lord" in 1773. + +A minstrel's gallery extends the whole length of the hall, and a window +there has no less than 576 panes of glass. In another room is a table of +black oak, the top of which is made of a single plank, which table is +said to have been in the house three hundred years. But the glory of +Trerice has departed. Old Sir John lies buried at Cuby, and the +countrypeople talk of the last bearer of the name with bated breath. The +north wing of the house was pulled down after his death and all his +personal possessions burnt--but still the place remains untenanted. + + +ST. AGNES +AND THE GIANT + +At Perranporth the bewildering similarity of the dunes is broken for the +moment by cliff and cavern scenery. The little village lies high, and +some arched rocks are to be seen at low tide. Two miles to the west is +Cligga Head, a fine bluff rock, but though St. Agnes Beacon, a lofty +hill covered with blocks of granite, rises to 620 ft., these cliffs +cannot be compared for grandeur or majesty with those of the wilder +north. The Beacon, on the summit of which are tumuli, appears in the +stories of the Cornish giants, St. Agnes--or, as her proper name is, St. +Ann--proving one too many for a tiresome monster with the absurd name of +Bolster. She is said to have persuaded him to go in for a little spring +blood-letting and to fill one mine-shaft. But the shaft communicated +with the sea, so the accommodating giant bled to death. If this had +happened where the Red River runs out by Gwithian, the reason for the +legend would have been apparent, for that terrible little tin-stream +sullies the blue waters of the bay for miles around; but there is no +tin-stream by St. Agnes Beacon. Between Perranporth and the latter the +cliff-walk is spoilt by the extensive enclosures of a modern dynamite +factory. The house in which the painter Opie was born is on the way to +St. Agnes. He was the son of a carpenter, but going to London soon +attracted so much attention that he was known as the "Cornish Wonder." +Dying of overwork when forty-six--considering his age rather a curious +name to give the disease--he was buried in St. Paul's. + +After these few cliffs, the coast sinks again to meet the encroaching +sand. A hundred and twenty years ago the Upton farmhouse was suddenly +overwhelmed, the family, to escape suffocation, making their way out by +the bedroom windows. A few years later, the sands shifted, showing the +buried house, still standing as they had left it. These stretches of +sand are now planted with a rush, the _arundo arenaria_, which binds it +together, and in the course of time results in the growth of a short +sweet turf. + + +PORTREATH AND +THE BASSETS + +When the Spanish and French combined fleets threatened Plymouth in 1779, +Francis Basset of Tehidy placed two batteries of guns at Portreath, in +those days known as Basset's Cove. It has the reputation of being the +most unsafe harbour on the coast; and, as it lies at the bottom of a +valley, is reminiscent of Port Isaac; but its wooded hills are less +steep and more charming. + +A little inland is Tehidy House, the seat of the Bassets, a famous +Cornish family. The house once had parks and plantations of far greater +area than at present; they are said indeed to have reached to the foot +of Carn Brea. During the Civil Wars many a humdrum family flowered into +distinction. It was a chance to prove their mettle. After the battle of +Bradock Down the Francis Basset of that date was knighted, and a little +later we find him Sheriff of the county. His marriage was such another +as that of his friend, Sir Beville Grenville, and after Essex' troops +had surrendered to the King in 1644, he hurried to send his lady the +gracious news. "I write this on the saddle. Every friend will pardon the +illness of it, and you chiefly, my perfect joy. The King and army march +presently for Plymouth. Jesu give the King, it and all. The King, in the +hearing of thousands, as soon as he saw me in the morning, cried to me, +'Dear Mr. Sheriff, I leave Cornwall to you safe and sound.'" Before the +war Sir Francis had represented St. Ives in Parliament. In 1640 he +presented the town with a silver wishing cup, on which was inscribed: + + "_If any discord 'twixt my friends arise + Within the borough of beloved Saint Ies + It is desired that this my cup of love + To every one a peacemaker may prove, + Then am I blessed to have given a legacie + So like my heart unto posteritie._" + +No doubt he saw that his borough was mainly Parliamentarian and that +trouble was ahead, and took this sweet and pleasant manner of testifying +the unalterable nature of his personal sentiments. + +It is sad to think how many of the families that distinguished +themselves during those wars are now only a memory. + + "_The four wheels of Charles' wain, + Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning slain._" + +But though Trerice is empty, Lanherne a nunnery, and Stowe but a +farmhouse, there are Bassets still at Tehidy, and long may they +continue. + +The house contains some interesting pictures by the best of our English +artists, and a service of plate made from the silver found in Dolcoath +mine. + + +GODREVY + +After Portreath are several fine cliffs ending in Navax Point, the +further horn of which looks across the deep curve of St. Ives Bay. On an +island just off the shore is the white and black of Godrevy Lighthouse, +first built in 1857. On the day Charles I. was beheaded a vessel +containing his wardrobe and other furnishings was driven by a sudden +squall on the Godrevy Rocks. Fifty-eight persons were drowned, only a +man, a boy, and a dog reaching the little island. + + +GWITHIAN + +The shore here is strewn with the iridescent purple shells of a small +oyster, which lie gleaming like coloured pearls on the sand and weed. It +has a charming view, the broad bay with the narrow horn of St. Ives +running out on the south-west, and Carbis Bay--white houses and green +woods--nestling on the hillside. Among the sands to the left is another +half-buried, half-excavated oratory, and the little village of Gwithian. +In 1676 a woman named Cheston Marchant is said to have died here at the +age of 164. She is well known by tradition to the present inhabitants, +who relate that in her extreme old age--and she was for many years +bedridden--her teeth and hair were renewed; and that travellers who came +to see her out of curiosity frequently took back with them a lock of her +hair. + + +PILCHARD FISHERY + +The little ugly town of Hayle lies some miles away across the towans--as +the sandhills are called--and these same towans, with their soft sea +breezes, firm turf, and excellent bathing, must presently, one would +think, develop into the sort of watering-place agreeable to the mothers +of little children. Hidden among its trees in a dip of the land lies +Phillack with a badly restored church, and in the graveyard a good +two-holed cross; but as this bay is famous for pilchard fishing the main +interest lies towards the sea. + +The largest catch of pilchards recorded is that of a St. Ives seine. In +1868, at one "shot" this net took five thousand six hundred hogsheads, +or over sixteen million fish! + +The best account of the Hayle and St. Ives pilchard fishing is by Mr. H. +D. Lowry in "Chambers' Journal," but it is too long to quote and only a +resumé can be given. + +As soon as the fish are expected the "huers" (from hue and cry) take up +their position at the white house on Carrick-gladden. It is their +business, looking down on the water from above, to watch for the +characteristic reddish shadow that indicates the presence of fish. To +the men in the boats this shadow is invisible, and when the cry of +"Hëva" [found] re-echoes from the heights, they shoot the nets as +directed from above. Nor are the directions only shouted. The huers +hold, one in each hand, a big iron ring covered with a white cloth. This +is sharply distinct "against the background of heather and sad-coloured +grass." In olden days furze was used, and the white disks are therefore +still spoken of as "the bushes." Very simple is the code of movements. +To send the boats east, the disks are moved from west to east, and vice +versa, while an emphatic downward movement gives the exciting order to +"shoot the seine." And the size of those seines! It takes thirty-five +men, each three or four yards behind his nearest fellow, to carry the +whole length of the net. + +When the fish are in and the order has been given to close the seine, +the huers raise their speaking trumpets anew with a cry of "Bloucers!" +This brings a number of fresh people on the scene, whose business it is +to secure what the nets have captured. The warps, great ropes, fastened +to the ends of the seine, are brought back and attached to windlasses, +and by this means the net is slowly drawn in till, even at high tide, it +would still touch bottom and afford no way of escape to the imprisoned +fish. Great black pilchard boats are dragged by four horses from their +accustomed resting-place and towed out towards the seine. The fish are +then dipped out by the basketful and tipped over into the boat, which, +when filled, contains over thirty hogsheads--say one hundred thousand +fish! When the boats come slowly in, laden with their molten silver, +carts are backed down to the water and loaded. "Jousters," who retail +the fresh fish through the country, buy their stock, the carts carry the +fish to the cellars that they may be salted, and in an hour or two every +street in every town for miles round will be resounding with the cry of +"Fresh Pilcher, Pilcher, Pilcher!" + +While on the subject of fish, it may be mentioned that the biggest +edible crab caught off the coast of Cornwall weighed 13 lbs., and the +largest conger 120 lbs. Is it possible they caught and weighed the +sea-serpent by mistake? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Appendix A. See pp. 199-200. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LELANT TO PENZANCE + +_Gold in Cornwall: Knill's Monument: The Antiquities of the Extreme +West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs: Dolmens: Oratories: Superstitions: +St. Ives: Wesley: Irving: A Ripe Old Age: The Mines: Sancreed and St. +Buryan: Lighthouses: Whitesand Bay: The Land's End: Mousehole and Dolly +Pentreath: Newlyn: Penzance._ + + +From Hayle to Marazion on the south coast is four miles--the narrowest +part of the peninsula--and a railway runs from sea to sea. With a deep +curve, however, the road goes on to low-lying Lelant (the valley +church), which is traditionally said to have once been a large village +and port, but to have been reduced to its present inconspicuousness by +the drifting of sand into the haven. Parts of the church are Norman, and +over the south porch stands an eighteenth-century copper sundial, on the +pierced gnomon bracket of which is a quaint representation of Time and +Death, a skeleton bearing an hour glass and a dart. + +Among other antiquities discovered here was a large colt having in it +some small bars of gold the size of a straw. A farmer found it embedded +in ashes, and lying about 2 ft. below the surface. Gold has often been +found in Cornwall, but always in small quantities--usually in grains +from the size of sand to that of a pea! The largest piece ever found was +said to have weighed down eight guineas in the scale. + + +KNILL'S MONUMENT + +Not far from Lelant is Worwas Hill, on which a certain John Knill +erected a mausoleum. By some mischance the gentleman was buried in +London, but by his will he directed that every five years £5 was to be +equally divided among ten girls, natives of the borough and daughters of +seamen, fishermen, or tinners, each of them not exceeding ten years of +age, who should between ten and twelve o'clock of the forenoon of a +certain day, dance for a quarter of an hour at least on the ground +adjoining his mausoleum and, after the dance, sing the 100th Psalm. +Alas, for the vanity of human hopes! Every five years the little girls, +gaily be-ribboned, dance in the presence of the local notabilities, +while the one thing that was to have given the ceremony weight and +interest--the body of John Knill--is elsewhere. + + +THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE EXTREME WEST: +CLIFF CASTLES: FOGOUS: MENHIRS + +This narrow neck of land shuts off the small rounded end of the +peninsula, a part that is peculiarly rich in prehistoric remains. It is +as if the old forgotten peoples had been driven back and back, race +after race pushing the one before it into the sea, but each, before it +passed, leaving its footprint on the granite. On every headland are +cliff castles--Cape Cornwall, Ballowal, Chûn--the most remarkable being +that of Treryn Dinas, a stronghold with a triple vallum and fosse which +can only be approached by a narrow ridge and which consists of a huge +pile of rocks jutting from a turf-clad neck of land. In contrast with +these are the subterranean passages and chambers (fogous) at Bolleit, +Trewoofe, and Pendeen, the last-named said to be haunted on Christmas +morning by a white-robed lady with the stem of a red rose between her +lips. Above ground are a number of stone circles and solitary monoliths, +from which, or from the cairns, comes the phrase "to raise a stone to +his memory." The monoliths are known as the Pipers and the Blind +Fiddler, the circles, as at Dawns Maen and Boscawen Un, as the Merry +Maidens; and the legend with regard to them is always the same--that the +Pipers played on a Sunday, and that the Maidens danced, their punishment +approximating, in a more lasting form, to that of Lot's wife! Here, too, +are the remains of ancient villages and beehive huts, and at one +place--Chapel Euny--is a subterranean structure consisting of three long +passages and a beehive hut, while at Bosporthennis is a specimen of the +beehive hut so good that it is said to be the best in England. This +district of heath and lonely moorland is so sparsely inhabited that the +little old ruins have been left as they were until the antiquarian came +and dug, unearthing the poor treasures of a simple state of +civilisation, the spindle-whorls, the bone needles, the flint spear and +arrow heads, and the coarse black pottery. The coast scenery of this +part is the finest to be seen for miles, and that not so much on account +of the grandeur of the cliffs as of the tumbling seas, that roll in from +the Atlantic; and days might be spent wandering over these high lands +from castle to castle and from stone to stone, trying to discover the +reason, whether sepulchral or religious, that the monoliths were set +erect; to guess why those strange underground passages were dug and +walled, and what practical need they served; and what was the meaning of +the various earthworks and entrenchments. The people to whom they needed +no explanation have vanished, leaving only riddles behind, riddles that +not the wisest among us, not the most enlightened, not the youngest, is +able to solve. + + +DOLMEN: ORATORIES: +SUPERSTITION + +We do at least know that the dolmen was raised above a burial, in the +one instance of Zennor above two. In the dolmen proper, the supporters +of the great capstone are columns and not merely slabs enclosing the +space. Dolmens are found not only in Cornwall, but along the west coast +of Europe and the northern coast of Africa, also in Palestine, India, +and Japan, and appear to be the work of a seafaring people. Their date +is said to be 2000 B.C., the age when bronze was beginning to replace +stone and when the Swiss lake villages were being built. Three of the +early Christian Councils regarded them with suspicion and ordered their +destruction on the ground that they were objects of reverence to the +Celtic Christians. At Lanyon, on Boswavas Moor, not far from the Mulfra +Quoit, is a fine specimen. Unfortunately the great capstone, which was +18 ft. long and under which a man on horseback could ride, slipped from +its supports in 1815. Lieutenant Goldsmith presently dislodged the Logan +stone at Treryn, a mass of granite weighing sixty-five tons; and being +obliged to replace it, the tackle he used was further utilised to +replace the Lanyon capstone. To make this easier, however, the three +uprights were cut down, and the cromlech now to be seen is by no means +so imposing as in its prehistoric state. This seafaring folk, who left +their tiny mark on the surface of the earth and then faded into +obscurity, builded better than we with all our modern appliances! + +It was unusual for the early Christians to order the destruction of +monuments of this kind. As a rule they accepted and turned them to +account. We have examples of this in the chapel at Porthcurnow, one of +those very early buildings, formed of a double square, such as lie +hidden among the shifting sands of Perran and Gwithian, and which was +built on a spot already sacred as a place of burial; while on Chapel +Carn Brea, which rises to a height of 660 ft., with Bartine at its +shoulder still higher, is a cairn which held the bones of a Stone Age +chieftain. Above them was a dolmen, and above that relics of British and +Roman times, the whole being crowned by a Christian oratory! + +It is hardly a matter for surprise if the people who dwell among these +relics of the immemorial past still retain some of the superstitions of +their forefathers, if their wells still have miraculous qualities and +the crickstone a strange virtue. To them witches are as real as +wreckers, and they cannot believe that the "little people"--once perhaps +inhabiting those subterranean passages and huts--are gone for certain, +and for ever. Get on the right side of an old miner and he will tell you +of the "nuggies," of their silver anvils and their parlours, of how he +has heard their little picks at work, and of how he has hoped all his +life to one day catch sight of a nuggy slipping into its parlour, when +he will, of course, follow and "strike it rich." + +The housewife, on persuasion, may be got to tell how when she (or her +mother) went in the morning to fill the kibble at the well she saw the +pisky stealing away over the dewy fields by the first grey glimmer of +light. Possibly he had taken eggs from her hen-roost, or if she were a +wise woman and had baked him a hearth cake and left with it a sup of +milk, he had perhaps "redded up" the place for her. It would be a matter +of give-and-take, but the people in the low grey houses, with their +thick walls and stone-held thatch, would be able to more than guess +which mound it was into which the piskies vanished and which were the +fairy rings about which they danced at dusk or in the moonlight. So wild +was the country and so much does one piece of granite look like another +that there were hiding-places in plenty, nooks that at a later date +would be used by the smugglers and other law-breaking gentry, corners +behind which the small race could lurk when the larger, more dangerous +humans came striding by. Over against these tales of the "little people" +must be set the stories told by those little people themselves, the +stories of the giants, of the bigger folk whose terrors they magnified a +hundredfold that their babies might be thus persuaded to keep out of +danger. And because after all there must have been intermarriage, the +occasional courting of pisky and giant, both sets of stories have been +handed down from one generation to another. The Cornish are not a booky +folk, they have not produced a great literature, and even nowadays they +read little but their Bibles. Such a people would be likely to remember +and treasure up the stories handed down from mother to child. They are, +moreover, very social. In the loneliest parts there is seldom an evening +when the labourers do not drop in at each other's cottages for a +"crack," and every now and then the soft deep voices utter a word that +has dropped out of the common talk, but which for them still has its +right meaning, and the fathers tell over again the stories their fathers +told to them. Some of the stories have come to the surface and are known +to the "foreigner" (as every one born east of the Tamar is called). We +have, for instance, that of the Zennor mermaid, which has taken such +hold on local thought that it is even carved upon a bench-end in the +little grey church. It was the story of a squire's son who sang in the +choir and sang so beautifully that Sunday by Sunday a mermaid +(Cornish--merrymaid) crept up from the sea to hear him. Like Hans +Andersen's story she had found her prince, but unlike that story she in +the end persuaded him to go away with her; and as he never returned, the +wiseacres shook their heads and thought of him as lying drowned under +the blue waters. + +The antiquities of this, the extreme west, and the resulting strange +traditions and beliefs are not the only matter of interest in this part +of the world. Superimposed upon the survivals of a far-off time are +those of the last thousand and odd years when Cornwall was struggling +with the disabilities of its exposed position, when the Danes fell on +the coasts burning and harrying, and corsairs carried off the poor +fishermen and sold them as slaves. In 1635 a Turkish pirate ship was +brought _nolens volens_ into St. Ives Bay, and the peaceful folk, not +immediately recognising her build, were surprised to hear sounds as of +guns and firing. The firing was not at those on shore, it was in fact +entirely confined to those on board, and it was as if the ship were +divided against herself. In the end the truth appeared. The pirate had +captured three small vessels of Looe and Fowey and seized their crews. +These men, however, were not of a slavish kind. Rising in a body, they +knocked the captain overboard, drove the Turks below and set sail for +St. Ives. Having a fair wind they made it safely; though the pirates, +also a hearty folk, spent their time firing at them through the timbers +of the deck. + + +WESLEY + +We warrant those pirates had much the same reception at the hands of the +St. Ives men as was dealt out to John Wesley when, in course of time, +that small neat gentleman made his way into the district. The Cornish +seem to have been--let us use the past tense--own brother to the +Irishman in their love of a riot, any sort of a riot, for any reason or +none; and Wesley got more than a taste of mob violence. Yet in the end +he could say: "Here God has made all our enemies to be at peace with us, +so that I might have preached in any part of the town. But I rather +chose a meadow, that such as would might sit down, either on the grass +or on the hedges--so the Cornish term their broad stone walls. Well-nigh +all the town attended and with all possible seriousness. Surely forty +years' labour has not been in vain." + +So at last the little man was made welcome and could feel that he had +roused the fishing-town from its long religious lethargy. I wonder +whether in his strenuous life, and he came twenty-seven times to St. +Ives, he ever found time to wander into the old church, study the +wonderful carving of its bench-ends, and take pleasure in its ancient +communion plate "and its pair of collecting basins with handles," or +whether he was only occupied with things of the spirit? + + +IRVING + +Inland from St. Ives lies the ugly mining village of Halsetown, where +Sir Henry Irving spent the years of his childhood. His mother was a +Cornish woman of the Behenna family, and to Halsetown she brought him to +stay with an aunt. The uncle was captain of a local mine--"captain" +meaning any sort of an overseer from the manager to a man with only a +boy under him! Here the lad ran wild with his cousins. "At any rate," +said he in after years, "Halsetown gave me a good physical start in +life. I attribute much of my endurance of fatigue--which is a necessary +part of an actor's life--to the free and open and healthy years I spent +there." Nor are these many hours of sunshine and the salubrious air only +good for youth; life lengthens here unnoticeably until it has reached +three figures, and even then shows a strength that is amazing. Mrs. +Zenobia Stevens, who was buried at Zennor in 1763, aged 102, was tenant +for ninety-nine years of the Duke of Bolton. On the expiration of her +lease, being then in her hundredth year, she went on this matter of +business to the Duke's Court at St. Ives; and it is said that she +excused herself from accepting a second glass of wine on the plea that +it was growing late and she had not only some way to go, but had to ride +home on a young unbroken horse. + + +THE MINES + +Among these rough cliffs are sudden smiling valleys, but the moors are +disfigured by a number of mine workings that have ceased to pay, and the +ruins of which add to the desolation of the scene. A little above St. +Just are three celebrated mines: Wheal Owles, into which the sea broke +and which is now only the tomb of the eighteen men who were then working +in her; Botallack, visited by King Edward and Queen Alexandra in 1865, +while Prince and Princess of Wales, but no longer working; and Levant, +exploited for tin, copper, and arsenic, and still employing several +hundred men. The workings of this mine run for nearly a mile under the +sea, and the men say that on stormy days the noise over their heads is +terrific. These men live at St. Just, a mining town in the old church of +which are some frescoes--St. George about to slay the dragon before +Cleodolinda and her comrades, and Christ surrounded by the symbols of +various trades. Of greater interest perhaps is the Plan-an-Guare, 126 +ft. in diameter and with the remains of six tiers of seats. This rural +amphitheatre is still sometimes used as a place of assembly and was once +no doubt utilised for miracle plays, but who constructed it and for what +purpose is lost in the mists of antiquity. Not far from the +Plan-an-Guare is Kenidjack Cliff (the howling wind), a "hooting cairn" +regarded by the superstitious country side as haunted by more than +natural sounds. During the construction on it of butts for rifle +practice, some twenty to thirty pieces of pure copper were found under +stones which were probably the remains of an old building. The purity of +the copper points to this hoard having been the property of a founder of +tools or weapons belonging to the Bronze Age, and no doubt this founder +was a workman of some importance in the district. The story connected +with him has been forgotten, the fact that he ever existed has passed, +but about the place still clings that old fear of the weapon-maker, +whose every-day task it was to forge the mysterious givers of death. + + +SANCREED + +It is a far journey from a "hooting cairn" to the pettiness of the +social struggle, even though the struggle was for a precedence which has +passed out of fashion. In Bishop Sparrow's report of July 1671, on +Sancreed Church, a curious state of affairs came to light, for the +parish was quarrelling over precedence in church sittings! "One John +Adams of mean estate and fortune" had actually seated himself higher up +than "those who are of the Twelve of the parish and their wives," and +great had been the scandal. Also one Francis Lanyon, who had married +"into a very worthy family," his wife, if you please, being niece to +Colonel Godolphin, was without "a convenient seat." Sancreed has an old +rood screen (or rather part of one), of which Sedding says: "I know of +no finer specimen elsewhere in the county. Like so much old Cornish work +it is more than local; it is purely parochial." + +Its neighbour, St. Buryan, is also celebrated for its screen, which was, +however, seriously injured by the vicar in 1814. From what remains, it +would appear to have been exceptionally beautiful, carved, coloured, +gilt, and of opulent and bold workmanship. This church stands high, 400 +ft. above the sea; and about a mile distant are the remains of what is +believed to be the oratory of St. Buryan. The story goes that first +Egbert in 813 fought a battle here at Bolleit (place of blood) and later +Athelstane in 926. There is no historical evidence for either battle, +but tradition is a smoke under which a little flame may generally be +found. At any rate, a battle was fought and the conqueror, standing on +this high land, saw afar off the Scillies, and realised that there were +yet worlds to conquer. So pleased was he, that he vowed, if successful, +to found a college for priests on this high land, and so the church of +St. Buryan came into being. + + +LIGHTHOUSES AND +WHITESAND BAY + +A mile and a half off the Land's End is the Longships Lighthouse. Built +on a rock 70 ft. above low water and itself 55 ft. high, its top is yet +often buried in the spray and the lanthorn broken. Further out, on the +Wolf Rock, is another lighthouse; while off the Seven Stones, dangerous +rocks between the mainland and the Scillies, is a lightship moored in +forty fathoms of water, but in such an exposed position that it has +before now been driven from its moorings. + +But there were neither lighthouses nor lightships on these rocks when +Athelstane landed at Whitesand Bay on his return from the conquered +Scillies. Even now it is an ugly bit of water to traverse, and it must +have been worse then. He was probably glad enough to see the great +stretch of white sand with Sennen Cove lying in the midst thereof like +an emerald set in silver. Later the bay acquired a bad reputation. So +far from the madding crowd, so secret and so storm-beaten, it gave +evil-doers a sense of security. Who would dare to venture after them +among these rocks and clefts? Corsairs, pirates, smugglers, each in turn +made use of the white beach. Thither came Perkin Warbeck in 1497 with +his four little barques and six score men; thither John Lackland when +seeking to dispossess his trusting brother of the realm; thither +Stephen, the oath-breaker, who was, however, none so bad a king. Rough +are the winds and rougher still the seas that beat upon this lovely bay, +and it is a little puzzling why these and other personages should have +chosen it as a landing-place. + + +THE LAND'S END + +Alas for romance, this same Land's End is but a low and unimpressive +rock which, like the blunt head of some titanic animal, thrusts a grey +muzzle into the water. It is only 60 ft. high, yet this is the last +stone, the last bit of land, the ultimate west, this west that appeals +so strongly to the Cornishman abroad: + + "_There's never a wave upon western beaches + Falls and fades to a wreath of foam + But takes at the last a voice that reaches + Over the distance and calls me home._" + + LOWRY. + +The Land's End, strange low headland, has seen plenty of stirring days, +from the time when the Danish long-ships came creeping round to harry +Cornwall and Devon, to that later date when the great storm and the +descendants--probably--of those very Danes sent the great Armada fleeing +up the narrow seas. Turner came here for the colour and the wild blue +seas, and Tennyson to wonder whether his Arthur had ever been so far +south. The rock is of split and tumbled granite, one of the few +instances in the duchy where that stone comes into contact with the sea; +and if Penwith, as all that part is called, really means the "wooded +headland," that barren rock and rough water must once have been far +enough apart. A little south of the Land's End is the finer rock of +Pordenack, and all round this southern point the bays and coves are +charming, the cliffs fine and the caverns and rocks numerous and +fantastic. Tol-Pedn (the holed headland--so called from a huge +blow-hole) has its Witches' (or Maggy Figgy's) Chair and shelters the +pretty hamlet of Porthgwarra, the inhabitants of which are darker than +the majority of Cornishmen. Tradition is in favour of a wrecked Spanish +galleon. Not, we suppose, the spectre ship of Porthcurnow, a +neighbouring cove. There a black square-rigged vessel sails up the beach +and up the combe, making no difference between land and water, and +presently vanishes like mist--and that in the valley the Eastern +Telegraph Company has made its own! The hamlet is interesting on account +of its name. That distinguished scholar, Canon Isaac Taylor, says: +"Cornwall, or Cornwales, is the kingdom of the Welsh of the Horn," but +others think the name is from the Kernyw, the tribe who lived in these +parts, they being called the Kernyw Gaels, to distinguish them from the +Gaels of Wales and those of Brittany. Be it as it may, in Porthcurnow we +have an interesting survival of the old tribal name. + +The church of St. Levan is on the hillside in a deep valley and beyond +its admirable carving, its screen with a geometrical pattern of leaves, +its font of a stone not found in the neighbourhood, and its unusual holy +water stoup--at the north and east entrances to the church are the old +lych stones used as resting-places for funerals! There is also a cleft +boulder of granite about which it was prophesied that when a pack-horse +should ride through "St. Levan's stone" the world would come to an end, +and the fact that such handy material for building has been left unused +shows that for some reason it must have been held in veneration. + + +MOUSEHOLE AND +DOLLY PENTREATH + +Mousehole is said to have been the last place at which Cornish was +spoken, and this has resulted in the legend of Dolly Pentreath. She was +a fishwife who, in course of time, came on the parish; and it was +believed, not only that she lived to a great age, but that she was the +last person to speak the ancient language. Against this, the facts must +be set forth. Dorothy Pentreath is given in the parish register as born +1714 and died 1777; while Wm. Matthews, who also spoke Cornish--speaking +it with his cronies--and lived at Newlyn, did not die till 1800. In +spite of this, however, two credulous persons--Prince Lucien Buonaparte +and the Vicar of Paul--raised a stone to her memory in 1860, and +referred in particular to the old age which was not hers and the +language which she certainly spoke, but was not the last to speak. + +"Here lieth interred Dorothy Pentreath, who died 1778, said to have been +the last person who conversed in the ancient Cornish. + +"Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the +land." + +But if Mousehole has no right to its legend, its own age cannot be +called into question. In 1347 it was recognised as a Cornish port, while +in the time of Henry VII. a lay subsidy roll shows its inhabitants to +have been nearly equal in number to those of Penzance. + +Moreover, it has had its vicissitudes. An ancient prophecy had declared: + + "_They shall land on the rock of Merlin + Who shall burn Paul, Penzance, and Newlyn._" + +and, as a matter of fact, one July morning in 1595 four Spanish galleys +carrying two hundred men crept up under cover of a fog and, landing them +on a rock that bore the name of Merlin, proceeded to verify the +prediction. The Spaniards must have been surprised at the lack of +opposition with which they met, for though Sir Francis Godolphin--called +"the great housekeeper" from his hospitality--did his utmost to rouse +the people, the fact that the ancient prophecy was being fulfilled +before their eyes had a paralysing effect. So much so that the towns +mentioned in the prediction were duly and effectually burnt before a +sufficient posse could be raised to drive the Spaniards back to their +galleys. Yet we have it on Bacon's authority that the Cornish were no +cowards: "These Cornish are a race of men stout of stomach, mighty of +body and limb, and that live hardily in a barren country; and many of +them of a need could live underground, which were tinners." Nevertheless +the Spaniards did their work so thoroughly that the Keigwin Arms, at +that date a manor-house, was the only building left standing. This house +is interesting as a specimen of Tudor architecture, the walls being +several feet thick, while the timbers were said to have been grown in +the forest, now submerged, that gave St. Michael's Mount its old name of +"the hoar rock in the wood." This tradition suggests a greater antiquity +for the house than that of Elizabeth's reign, or that it was built on +the site of some older building. + + +NEWLYN + +Mousehole, like Newlyn, has a fine fishing-fleet, but even when these +picturesque boats are out of sight, there is a flavour in the air, a +_soupçon_, a _je ne sais quoi_! A blind man indeed might be expected to +know how the little ancient town contrives to pay its way! The artists +of Newlyn seem to have risen superior to such a trifle. To the painter, +of course, beauty is only of the eye and, after all, the smell of oil +paints---- + +It is wonderful how attractive Cornwall seems to artists of both pen and +brush. No village so poor, none so utterly desolate, but it can point to +its artist and its cross. Not, of course, that there is any connection +between artists and crosses. The broad outlook of the former may have +been something of a trial, but it has come to be looked on as of no +importance, just a bit of harmless eccentricity. + + +PENZANCE + +Not far from Newlyn is a place that was once a chapel-of-ease to Madron +and had no church of its own. It was represented to the authorities, +however, that if the people went daily to their parish church at +Madron--daily, mark you--the town would be in peril of burning "by the +French and other enemies in time of war." Naturally the church was +built. That good, that punctilious, that saintly town where all the +inhabitants went every day to church is none other than--Penzance. And +except that it is a good centre, there is very little else to say about +it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES TO ROSELAND + +_The Land of Lyonesse: The Scillies: The Law of Wrecks: Mr. Smith: The +Admiral's Honour: Ding Dong Mine: St. Michael's Mount: An Old Ceremony: +China Clay: Wrecks: Germoe and Breage: Pengersick: Flora Day: The Loe +Pool: Serpentine: Gunwalloe and Mullion: The Lizard: Bells: The Helford +River: Mawgan: Roseland._ + + +THE LAND OF +LYONESSE + +If you ask the people they will tell you that without doubt the piece of +water between the south of Cornwall and the Scillies was once dry land. +If you ask the educated stranger he will hum and haw, and say it is +probable, perhaps even likely, and will quote the Saxon Chronicle to the +effect that "the sea broke in upon the land and swallowed up many towns +and a countless multitude of people." As the old record gives no hint as +to where this catastrophe happened, more than one writer has taken it to +justify a belief in the Land of Lyonesse. Oh for a Passmore Edwards +embued with curiosity rather than philanthropy, who should by dredging +operations settle the vexed question for good and all! + +The fishermen, looking down through the clear waters on a still day, +declare they can make out the ruins of old churches and houses, and that +their nets have brought them time and again articles of household +economy, pieces of broken doors and roofs and windows. Moreover, when +the great wave broke hungrily over the low-lying land a Trevelyan saw +the curling breakers and setting spurs to his swift white horse was +carried at a mad gallop to Perranuthno. The people show you the cave in +which he and the trembling horse took refuge till the wild turmoil +should have died down. With what a horrified curiosity the man who lived +must have looked out of his cave, watching till the great wave should +subside, watching for the reappearance of all those farms and villages +that only that morning had been sunning themselves in the warm light. +The forest, too, those acres of beech trees stretching out from Marazion +and surrounding St. Michael's Mount, that "hoar rock in a wood," what +had become of them? The stormy autumn day must have closed down upon +him, still looking, wondering, and hoping; but when once more the sun +rose it was upon a wide stretch of waters, with the Scillies sparkling +in the distance. Between them and the land was only sea--and a people +overwhelmed and lost and soon to be forgotten, a people who but +yesterday had gone about their daily tasks as unsuspecting as the rest! +There was only Trevelyan left to say it was the "Judgment of Heaven," +and he, poor soul, appears to have been too shaken, or too little of a +priest, to do so. + + +THE SCILLIES + +It used to be said that when the Almighty made Ireland he had left a few +handfuls of mud. He threw them into the sea and the result was the +Scillies. The proof thereof is that, like Ireland, the Scillies have no +snakes! + +They may be only a few handfuls of stony mud, but they are lovely +islands, though for those whom salt water makes queasy, a little +difficult to reach. There is, in fact, a most depressing story told of a +lady who was so ill during the four hours' passage from Penzance that +when within sight of the islands but before she could be landed she +actually died of heart failure. + +The Scillies number about 145, twenty-four of which are cultivated, but +only five inhabited--St. Mary's, Tresco, St. Martin's, St. Agnes, and +Bryher; while Scilly, the islet which has given its name to the group, +is an unimportant rock near Bryher. + +On St. Agnes is the Well of St. Warna, a saint who protected her +protégés from being wrecked and drowned. She has fallen into disrepute, +however, owing to the whole population of her island having been wrecked +and drowned on their way home from the neighbouring island, whither +they had been to church! What a shock to believers in St. Warna. If only +it had been a case of bad boys bird's-nesting on the Sabbath or of merry +maidens dancing to the music of the blind fiddler, or east coast men +fishing on Sunday, but--respectable citizens on their way home from +church! + + +THE LAW OF WRECKS + +Ocean currents run strong here. It has long been mistakenly supposed +that the Gulf Stream affects the climate of Western Cornwall. Needless +to say, the true Gulf Stream does not come within many miles of the +duchy; instead, a surface current of warm water is carried +north-eastward from hot latitudes, and the ameliorating effects on +flowers and plants and vegetables are the same. This warm current does +not, however, ameliorate the storms, and in spite of four lighthouses +the wrecks are numerous. In 1707 four ships of the Navy were lost here +and 2000 men. The islands once had a reputation not only for smuggling, +but for wrecking, and for the kind of wrecking that gives no help "to +those in peril on the sea," but rather the other way about. Not that the +people were altogether to blame. The law of wrecks was largely +responsible for the brutalities undoubtedly indulged in towards +shipwrecked crews, for it stated definitely that wrecks should be the +property of the governor of the isles only "if none of the crew remained +alive." + +In our gentle days it is hardly believable that the whole populace +should have seen to it that a wreck had no survivors. Themselves at the +mercy of the waters, one might have thought such constant peril would +have bred a fellow-feeling, but the contrary seems to have been the +case. In the Tresco Gardens is a terrace devoted entirely to the +figure-heads of vessels that have been cast on these shores. Each sorry +relic represents its quota of human lives, and, remembering this, it is +as if you were in some sort of concentrated graveyard where the bones of +the poor dead are not even decently covered and concealed from sight. + + +MR. SMITH + +But laws were presently amended, and then both wrecking and smuggling +failed to yield a livelihood. When Mr. Augustus Smith leased the islands +from the Duke of Leeds, the present representative of the Godolphins +(Dolphin Town is named after them), the people were in a parlous +condition. With no industries beyond fishing and kelp-gathering, their +poverty had grown with their families. Mr. Smith, however, was a kindly +autocrat. He settled among his people at Tresco Abbey, insisted on +education, sent the girls to service on the mainland and the lads to +sea, built new roads, and improved the quay. One further step was +needed, and this was presently taken by Mr. Trevellick, of Rocky Hill, +St. Mary's. Collecting a few bundles of the narcissi that bloomed +abundantly about the cottages, he sent them to Covent Garden Market. +Amazing to the man who had spent his days amid a profusion of such +flowers was the return they brought. The news spread, and so did the +cultivation of the blooms. From January to May every steamer now carries +tons--as much sometimes as thirty--of flowers on their way to be sold, +and that although many of the islands are treeless sandhills! As Mr. +Salmon says, however: "The distance, the cost of carriage, and the +competition of the untaxed foreigner are the difficulty. The trade has +been hit very hard by foreign imports and by the crushing cost of +freights. Vegetable cargoes cost less from the shores of the +Mediterranean than they do from Scilly; the foreigner is given every +advantage in his efforts to undersell the Briton, and the Briton, +though fighting at home, fights with one hand tied behind!" + + +THE ADMIRAL'S HONOUR + +The history of the Scillies is much what its exposed position would lead +you to suppose. Olaf of Norway came marauding here, was converted, and +is said to have founded Tresco Abbey--the authentic history of which, +however, does not begin till later. Athelstane for the love of fighting +presently descended on them; and when the fortunes of royalty were at a +low ebb Charles, afterwards Charles II., sought refuge there, and lay in +great straits not only for the comforts but even for the necessities of +life. The Parliament, unable to let well alone, sent a fleet to surround +the island where he lay, but a storm--"Judgment of Heaven," cried the +Royalists with one voice--dispersed the ships. Thinking the islands an +insecure as well as an uncomfortable refuge, however, the Prince left +them at the first opportunity, setting sail for Jersey on his way to the +greater hospitality of France. After that they became the prey of every +strong man who fancied them; and so dangerous a nest of privateers did +they become, that Dutch commerce suffered, and Admiral Van Tromp offered +to help in their reduction. His offer, however, was not accepted, the +English having learnt the danger of calling in foreign assistance. +Admiral Blake was sent to teach the Scillies their duty towards +Parliament, and in May 1651, Sir John Grenville--whom we last saw as Sir +Beville's stripling son--obtaining freedom and retreat for himself and +garrison, surrendered the islands. At first Parliament refused to +recognise these favourable terms, but Blake was as fine a gentleman as +Grenville himself, which is saying a great deal, and he declared that if +not allowed to keep his word he would not keep his office. So Grenville +was free to depart, and went over seas to join his Prince and share in +his poverty and wanderings. + +The Scilly Isles are very lovely, perhaps the loveliest part of this +lovely county. The climate is mild and equable, the constant breeze +prevents too great a heat, while the rigours of winter, thanks to the +warm sea-water, are unknown. Seabirds breed on the great rocks, the +earth is of a marvellous fertility, and beyond, far below the horizon, +the next land is that of another island--Newfoundland! + + +MOUNT'S BAY + +The sea has encroached within late years on the eastern shores of +Mount's Bay, but the harbourage is good, and a fine fleet of +fishing-vessels sails from here. There are echoes of unpleasantness with +regard to Sunday fishing on the part of strangers. As the Newlyn man put +it: "Sunday fishing is wicked, and what's more it spoils our market." + + +DING DONG MINE + +At the head of the bay is Gulval, near which lies the Ding Dong Mine, +famous as the oldest in Cornwall, so old indeed that it has long since +(1880) retired into private life. About seventy years since, a number of +Roman and Alexandrian coins of the third and fourth centuries were found +near this mine. It is quite possible that the Romans themselves worked +Ding Dong and Ting Tang, and other of the old mines. A stone inscribed +with the names of Constantine and his son is still preserved at St. +Hilary: "Imperatore Cæsare Flavio Valerio Constantino Pio Cæsare +nobilissimo divi Constantii Pii Augusti Filio." As Constantine the Great +was Cæsar in 306 and became Augustus in 307, this inscription fixes the +date of the stone as belonging to the first of those years. When +draining a piece of land between Penzance and Marazion, the workmen came +upon about a thousand Roman coins of that date; indeed, under stones or +buried in urns various large hoards of brass, copper, and lead money +have been discovered by old tinworks, and every now and then fine gold +and silver coins of Trajan, Nero, and the later emperors. + + +ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT +(CORNISH DINSUL)[3] + +St. Michael's Mount, which is principally composed of granite, is 190 +ft. high and about a mile round. It is said that the members of the St. +Aubyn family, to whom it now belongs--having been sold to them by the +Bassets--are not considered able to look after themselves in the water +until they have swum completely round the Mount.[4] + +However imposing the great rock looked when the waves from which it +emerged wore the summer green of beech-leaves, it could not have had so +great a dignity as now. Fortified from an early date, it soon fell into +the hands of the Church, and was presently garrisoned by monks. But so +fine a stronghold could not be held sacred to spiritual warfare, and in +1191 a party of soldiers disguised themselves as pilgrims and, so +obtaining admission to the fortress, turned on their unarmed hosts and +expelled them. From that date the place took part in any little war that +might be convulsing the rest of the country, and even started--as in +1548--little wars and rebellions of its own. Henry VIII., who had a most +fatherly care for his coast defences, erected batteries here; and +during the Civil Wars it belonged in turn to whichever party had the +upper hand. Its history, indeed, is a continual change of owners, of +fierce sieges, stratagems, plunderings, and hairbreadth escapes. Now it +is an old grey rock, which after many vicissitudes has fallen asleep in +the sun. The only very ancient part still in existence is the piece of +Saxon walling pierced by the principal doorway, and the wonder is, not +that there is so little, but that one stone should have been left upon +another. + + +AN OLD CEREMONY + +In this part of the country the name Godolphin occurs over and over +again. Tresco Abbey was granted to them at the Dissolution, but they +lived principally at Godolphin House in Breage, and the old saying ran: +"A Trelawny was never known to want courage, a Grenville loyalty, or a +Godolphin wit." + +The Tudor house to the north of Godolphin Hill (500 ft.) is now a farm. +The panelled rooms, a hall, and some great windows are all that remain +of the former mansion, but a ceremony, which originated in 1330, is +still observed on Candlemas day. "Once a year for ever the reeve of the +manor of Lamburn shall come to Godolphin, and there boldly enter the +hall, jump upon the table, and stamp or bounce with his feet or club to +alarm and give notice to the people of his approach, and then and there +make proclamation aloud three times, 'Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! I am the reeve +of the manor of Lamburn, in Perransand, come here to demand the old rent +duties and customs, due to the lords from the said manor of Godolphin," +upon which notice there was forthwith to be brought him 2_s_. 8_d_. in +rent, a quart of beer, a loaf of wheaten bread, and a cheese worth +6_d_., "which the reeve having received he shall drink of the beer, +taste the bread and cheese in the place, and then depart, carrying with +him the said rent and the remainder of the viands." + +One of the two oldest crosses in Cornwall is in the churchyard at +Godolphin. In the opinion of stone-masons it has been "bruised out," +probably with wood, and not cut with a metal tool. It may indeed have +come into existence before metal was used. + + +CHINA CLAY + +Tregoning Hill, a little south of Godolphin, was the place where Wm. +Cookworthy, a druggist, discovered in 1745 a clay from which porcelain +could be made, and from which Plymouth china resulted. This first +discovery of china clay has led to that great development of the +industry, of which St. Austell is the centre. + + +WRECKS: +GERMOE AND BREAGE + +Before the lighthouse on the Wolf Rock was built (1871) this rocky coast +was the scene of many a wreck. In 1873 the Vicar of Mullion wrote: "In +six years and a quarter there have been nine wrecks, with a loss of +sixty-nine lives, under Mullion Cliffs, on a bit of coast line not more +than a mile and a half in length." It must be confessed that the +inhabitants of Germoe and Breage had an unenviable reputation as +wreckers: + + "_God keep us from rocks and shelving sands + And save us from Breage and Germoe men's hands._" + +But those days have passed away, though Germoe still has a reputation of +a kind. It is said that once the men had good singing voices, but were +so proud of them that the voices failed; while another distich shows the +estimation in which they held themselves: + + "_Camborne men are bulldogs, + Breage men are brags, + Three or four Germoe men + 'Ull scat'um all to rags._" + +Local jealousies between neighbouring towns are by no means rare in +Cornwall. For instance, there is the old enmity between Zennor and St. +Ives. It is said that the fishermen belonging to the latter were greatly +annoyed one season by the ravages of the hake among the mackerel. They +therefore caught the largest they could, whipped him soundly, and +restored him to the water--_pour encourager les autres_. + +When a Zennor man wishes to be disagreeable to a native of St. Ives, +therefore, he says: "Who whipped the hake?" + +But Zennor, one might think, would have hesitated to throw stones, for +it is locally known as the place where the cow ate the bellrope, the +neighbourhood being so barren and rocky that the straw bellrope was the +only provender the poor animal could find--which is suggestive of the +Cornish vet. who sent in his bill "to curing your old cow till she +died." + + +PENGERSICK + +One more local story before we go on to Helston, and that because the +retort is so neat and the lady, as usual, had the last word. Pengersick +Castle is a ruin which, when habitable, was occupied by a man and his +wife whose early regard had changed to hatred. Their children were grown +up and married, and they had nothing to do but brood upon their mutual +dislike, until one day it occurred to both that the world would be a +brighter and better place if the other were out of it. No sooner said +than done. That day at dinner the good man poured his wife a glass of a +rare vintage, and after she had drunken told her with satisfaction that +he would now see the last of her--as the wine had been poisoned. + +"The wine? Ah, yes, and the soup, too," quoth she, "and as you drank +first, my love, the pleasure of seeing the last of you will be mine." + + +FLORA DAY + +Helston, the little bright town built crossways on the side of a hill, +is near the spring of the Kelford River and at the head of the Loe Pool. +It had an exciting time in 1548, when the Cornish feeling against the +new doctrine of the sacrament found vent in the murder, which took place +inside the church, of Wm. Bray, the royal commissioner. In pursuance of +his duty he was pulling down images and possibly treating what was +sacred in the eyes of the people with only scant reverence. Be that as +it may, Wm. Kiltor, a priest of St. Keverne, attacked and slew him, to +the secret--not too secret either--joy of the people and the scandal of +authority. + +The eighth of May in Helston is Flora or Furry Day, and is possibly a +relic of the old May Day saturnalia. The young people go (_fadgy_) into +the country singing: + + "_Robin Hood and Little John, + They both are gone to the fair, O! + And we will away to the merry greenwood + And see what they do there, O!_" + +They return garlanded with flowers and dance through the houses and +gardens of the town, singing the Furry Song. The dance follows a set +formula, the procession going in at the front door and out at the back, +and being supposed to bestow some sort of benefit upon the houses thus +visited. The refrain of the song, to the numerous verses of which +topical allusions are often added, is as follows: + + "_God bless Aunt Mary Moses[5] + With all her power and might, O, + And send us peace in Merry England + Both by day and night, O._" + +Charles Kingsley was at the Helston Grammar School when the headmaster +was Derwent Coleridge, son of the poet, and the second master was the +Johns who wrote "A Week at the Lizard." It is unlikely the scholars were +allowed to take part in the Furry Dance, but he may have watched it time +and again, and given his schoolboy contribution. + + +THE LOE POOL + +This is a beautiful stretch of fresh water that winds like a river +through the forked and wooded valley and widens as it comes within sight +of the sea, from which, like the Swan Pool--a smaller lake on the other +side of the promontory--it is separated by a bar of sand and shingle. +Until recently the Mayor of Helston was wont to present two leathern +purses containing three half-pence each to the lord of Penrose and ask +leave to cut through the bar and release the surplus waters. The old +cutting of the Loe Bar used to tinge the sea with yellow as far as the +Scilly Isles. Now, however, the quantity of the water is regulated by +sluices and the ceremony has fallen into disuse. + + +SERPENTINE + +After the more exposed northern and western shores of Cornwall, the airs +of the south are balmy. There is no fear, as the farmer put it, that +"the bullocks will be blown off the cliff pasture into the sea, the +wheat off the land, and the turnips out of their sockets." In the Morrab +Gardens at Penzance palms grow in the open, while in Falmouth strange +spiky, spiney plants, whose home is in desert sands far south of +Britain, are to be seen. But the Meneage (stone), as the Lizard district +is called, though mild, is exhilarating, and on Goonhilly Downs the wind +can be sufficiently keen. This district is of a peculiar geological +structure, consisting of a moderately elevated tableland, deeply carved +at the edges by valleys and richly wooded except at the southern +extremity. The rocks are generally dark-coloured and of fine grain, and +everywhere they are worn by the action of the water into fantastic and +beautiful forms. They are well known all the world over as serpentine, +and it gives the traveller a strange feeling to see the valuable rock +being used as building material and even for the repair of roads. A +considerable trade is done in polishing this stone, especially at the +Lizard, and the very sands are dark with the detritus. It causes a +sensation of vast wealth to go on to the beaches and from the scattered +millions select your own pebbles for the polisher. The more red in your +chosen fragments, the more iron, and the harder they will be to polish; +while a handsome piece of entirely red ore may be altogether beyond +their powers, for serpentine is a rock not a pebble, and the local +appliances are crude. The Lizard is also the paradise of the botanist, +for the Cornish heath (_erica vagans_), the sea asparagus, the henbane, +and many other plants grow abundantly in this district. From Helston to +the Lizard is a pleasant scrambling walk along the fine black cliffs. At +Gunwalloe the church rises from the edge of the cliff, its belfry being +built into the solid rock about 14 ft. away. In Mullion Church is some +admirable wood-carving, and on the west face of the tower a well-cut +crucifixion, and at Kynance are some curious rocks known as "The +Bellows" and "The Post Office," which are as interesting to the +geologist as they are wonderful to the ordinary visitor. + + +GUNWALLOE AND +MULLION + +A curious story is told of a wreck at Gunwalloe, where the St. Andrew, a +treasure-ship belonging to the King of Portugal, was driven ashore. The +Portuguese had entered into an agreement with the local notabilities for +the disposal of their goods, when down rode three Cornish gentlemen at +the head of their retainers and carried off the spoil. Unfortunately for +them the Portuguese had an Englishman on board, and he promptly brought +the matter before the courts and caused an inquiry to be made. But the +treasure, as then enumerated, must have been enough to make the mouths +water not only of the local authorities, but of any starveling gentleman +to whom news of its arrival had come; for it consisted of 8000 cakes of +copper, eighteen blocks of silver, and a chest containing £6000, besides +pearls, precious stones, chains, brooches, jewels, tapestry, rich +hangings, satins, velvets, and four sets of armour. + +Just below Gunwalloe are the fine Halzaphron Cliffs. A ship was wrecked +here about a hundred years ago, and the bodies from it were said to have +been the last which were refused sepulchre in consecrated ground. It +makes one's blood boil to think of the barbarities that from the +beginning have been perpetrated in the name of religion. There was +actually a law on the Statute Book which refused such burial to +strangers, on the score that they might not have been Christians. +Christians forsooth--pretty Christians they who framed that law! + +Another lingering superstition is connected with the Rev. Thomas Flavel, +who was buried at Mullion 1682. The man was a noted ghost-layer, and was +said to charge five guineas every time he officiated in this way. He was +also an enthusiastic Royalist, and Walker thus describes him: "A +venerable old gentleman; and lookt the more so in those Times for that +he had vowed never to cut off his Beard till the Return of his Majesty +to his Kingdom, by which time he had gotten a very long one." His +epitaph is curious: + + "_Earth, take mine earth, my sin let Satan havet, + The World my goods; my Soul, my God who gavet; + For from these four--Earth, Satan, World, and God, + My flesh, my sin, my goods, my soul I had._" + +On the cliffs by Mullion and above Poldhu (black pool) is the earliest +of the permanent wireless stations in England. It forms a prominent, +strange but not altogether ugly feature of the landscape--the people +think it brings bad weather--and is at any rate in strong contrast to +the deep and glorious coves by which in switchback fashion, now cliff, +now coombe, the barren dusty headland of the Lizard (chief's high +dwelling) is reached. + + +THE LIZARD + +This is the southernmost point of England, a blunt rounded headland, +lying crouched over the deep water, eternally--by day and by night--on +the look-out. When the first lighthouse was built here, at the charges +of Sir John Killigrew in 1619--note that Godolphin land has given place +to the country of the Killigrews--it was disapproved of by the Trinity +House. They thought it would serve to light pirates and foreign enemies +to a safe landing-place! + +To the east of Penolver Point the coast curves sharply in towards the +north and is honeycombed with curious caves and blow-holes, Dolor Hugo +(from fogou--a subterranean passage), the Devil's Frying Pan by +Cadgwith, Raven's Hugo, and others. Here are bays, picturesque with +rocks and far from the madding crowd, far also from a railway station, +Helston being the nearest; but that is no matter, the ten-mile drive +over Goonhilly Downs being well worth the extra weariness and cost. + + +MEDIÆVAL BELLS + +Cornwall has about fifty bells, dating from before the Reformation. As +they had been used to summon the people to rebellion, orders came from +London that all bells except "the least of the ring" were to be removed +from the churches. This, however, was a command that the recipients +thought would be more honoured in the breach than the observance; which +is why there are so many good examples, as for instance, at +Landewednack, of mediæval bells. This the most southern parish in +England has a curious church tower, the admixture of light granite and +dark serpentine giving it a chequer-board appearance. It was visited by +the plague in 1645, and a hundred years later the burials were disturbed +in order to make room for some shipwrecked sailors--whose Christianity +one supposes to be vouched for--when to the horror of the inhabitants +the plague at once reappeared. Since then they have let sleeping dogs +lie. + +Landewednack claims to be the last place at which a sermon was preached +in Cornish (1678), the incumbent being the Rev. Thos. Cole, who lived to +the great age of 120. This fine old gentleman is said to have not long +before his death walked to Penryn and back, a distance of thirty miles! + +Past Cadgwith, Kennack, Coverack, Porthoustock, and Porthalla, +well-known fishing villages, and all romantically situated, but not +otherwise interesting, the wanderer comes by way of St. Keverne, a big +church with a fresco unique in Cornwall as giving the Greek form of the +St. Christopher legend, to Nare Point and the mouth of the Helford +River. It is a question which is the more beautiful, this ten-mile long +creek with its bold scenery or the softer, more feminine Fal. It rises a +little above Helston, at Buttris, flows down to Gweek, where it broadens +into an estuary and applies its waters to the nourishing of many +oysters--which oysters were unkindly described by Lord Byron, when he +stayed at Falmouth, as tasting of copper! + +About a mile from Gweek is the "Tolvan," a large irregular slab of +granite, near the centre of which is a hole. Weakly children were +formerly brought to the "crickstone" and passed at sunrise, nine times, +through this hole. The custom having fallen into disrepute, however, the +Tolvan now forms part of a cottage fence. + + +MAWGAN + +Mawgan Church, which lies between Gweek and Trelowarren, the seat of the +Vyvyans, has a brass to one of the Bassets inscribed: + + "_Shall we all die, + We shall die all, + All die shall we, + Die all we shall._" + +which quaint lines are also found on a tombstone at Gunwalloe and +elsewhere. Trelowarren itself has some interesting pictures, in +particular the Vandyke of Charles I. presented by Charles II. in +acknowledgment of Sir Rd. Vyvyan's services to his father. This family +also possesses the pearl necklace of Queen Henrietta Maria, in which +she sat for the painting now at Hampden Court. + +But of all the charming spots up these rocky and wooded creeks commend +me to Condora, for there in 1735 were found twenty-four gallons of Roman +brass coin. Think of it, dream of it, penniless man. Not a few coppers, +but twenty-four gallons! + +What a beautiful sound have some of these Cornish names! Rosemullion +Head juts out over the Helford River on the north, and above it we have +Rosemerrin and the Swan Pool, and not far off St. Anthony in Roseland. +It is true that Rhos only means a heath, and that we are on the borders +of the gorse-grown districts, known as Roseland; but the word has +different associations for the "foreigner," and whatever the true +meaning, the lovely name brings to memory the thought and the scent and +the colour of the lovelier flowers. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Dinsul. There is good reason to think Sul = the Sul of Bath "Aquæ +Sulis," and this again the "Sally, Sally Waters" of our nursery game. +Many of her attributes have been taken over by St. Keyne. + +[4] Appendix B. See pp. 201-2. + +[5] Mary Mowes, _i.e._ the Virgin. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM FALMOUTH TO TRURO + +_The Rise of Pendennis Castle: Sir John Arundel: The Killigrews: Sir +Walter Raleigh: The General Post Office and Falmouth: Penryn: The Fal: +The Stannary Courts: Old Truro: Foote and Lowry._ + + +THE RISE OF +PENDENNIS CASTLE + +When Henry VIII. took thought for the coast defences of his semi-island, +Falmouth was one of the places that benefited. At St. Mawes and +Pendennis batteries were erected and in Budock Church is the brass of +John Killigrew, with this pertinent inscription: "Heere lyeth John +Killigrew Esquier of Arwenack ... he was the first Captaine of Pendennis +Castle, made by King Henry the eight and so continued untill the nynth +of Queene Elizabeth, at which time God tooke him to his mercye, being +the yeare of our lord 1567. Sr. John Killigrew knight his sonne +succeeded him in the same place by the gift of Queene Elizabeth." Henry +VIII.'s batteries were not the first fortifications erected on this high +point of land, which is literally the "headland fortress." There were +formerly three lines of entrenchment, due to an older architect than the +Mr. Treffry, of Fowey, who was responsible for this and other of the +Cornish defences. Indeed from its position--it is almost surrounded by +water--it was marked out both as a refuge and a point of vantage, and +was probably fortified before history was more than stories handed down +from father to child, or sung by wandering bards who had been given an +honoured place by the hearth-fire. + + +SIR JOHN ARUNDEL + +When the war broke out between Charles I. and his Parliament, Henry +Killigrew was a member of the House. "I shall provide a good horse, a +good buff coat, a good brace of pistols, and I doubt not I shall find a +good cause," quoth he when Essex was appointed General and one and +another were saying what troops they could raise; and so went out and +rode post to Falmouth and plunged devotedly into the gallant struggle. +He would not take any command, though he was in every action and always +where there was the most danger. But it was an Arundell, not a +Killigrew, who held Pendennis for the King, old John Arundell of +Trerice, who as a young man had been at Tilbury when Queen Elizabeth +reviewed the troops; and who was known as "Game to the Toes," "John for +the King," and "Old Tilbury." To him came the unhappy Queen, Henrietta +Maria, rested at Pendennis for a moment, and then winged her way back to +France. A couple of years later her son, Charles, embarked here for the +Scilly Isles; and shortly after, the news reached Arundell that after +the conference on Tresillian Bridge the King's forces had been +disbanded, and that the long struggle was over. Across the water Sir +John grimly watched the surrender of St. Mawes, and when he found there +were malcontents among his men, gave them a safe conduct and let them +go. For himself, had he not fought at Edgehill, Lansdowne, and Bradock +Down? Summoned to surrender he said he had but a few more days to live +and he would not stain them with dishonour. To Fairfax he replied: + + "Col. John Arundell to Sir Thomas Fairfax. + + "Sir,--The castle was committed to my Government by his + Majesty, who by our laws hath command of the castles and + forts of this kingdom; and my age of seventy summons me + hence shortly. Yet I shall desire no other testimony to + follow my departure than my conscience to God and loyalty to + his Majesty, whereto I am bound by all the obligations of + nature, duty, and oath. I wonder you demand the castle + without authority from his Majesty; which if I should + render, I brand myself and my posterity with the indelible + character of treason. And having taken less than two + minutes resolution, I resolve that I will here bury myself + before I deliver up this castle to such as fight against his + Majesty, and that nothing you can threaten is formidable to + me in respect of the loss of loyalty and conscience. + + "Your servant, + "JOHN ARUNDELL, + "of Trerice. + + "_18th March, 1646._" + +Stout words from a stout heart; but though the castle, closely invested +by land and sea, held out for five lean months and only surrendered on +honourable terms, yet surrender it did; being the last place in England, +with the one exception of Raglan, so to do. And on August 17, 1646, the +garrison marched out "with their horses, complete arms, and other +equipages, according to their present or past commands or qualities, +with flying colours, trumpets sounding, drums beating, matches lighted +at both ends, and bullets in their mouths." So great a stir had Sir +John's defence made that not only did the House of Commons vote large +sums to the messengers who brought the news that he had yielded, but +September 22, 1646, was by their order set apart as a day of public +thanksgiving for the surrender "of the garrisons of Pendennis and four +other castles." + + +THE KILLIGREWS: +SIR WALTER RALEIGH + +Meanwhile Henry Killigrew, after the yielding of Pendennis, had been +accidentally wounded in the head by the bursting of a carbine, while his +kinsman's house in the neighbourhood had suffered from the exigencies of +war. They were a stirring and a striving family, the Killigrews. The +name Falmouth, in those days merely meant the land at the mouth of the +Fal; and on this land, when Sir Walter Raleigh, just home from an +expedition, stayed with the Killigrews at their house of Arwenack, there +was only one other building large enough to accommodate his men. The +Killigrews wished to develop their property. They said it was absurd +that vessels had not a nearer port than Penryn or Truro; and Sir Walter +having just put in to this fine natural harbour, saw the golden side of +their suggestion; and cared not a jot about the loss of trade to those +other towns. But Truro, Penryn, and Helston, alive to their own +interests, had long thrown their weight into the opposition scale; and +London was some seven days' journey to the east. Therefore the building +operations of the sturdy Killigrews had been brought to a standstill. + +It is easy to picture the scene. Sir Walter, after a good dinner, washed +down by wines that had paid no duty, sitting at his ease before the +windows of the great house, the panorama of hills and land-locked +harbour stretching to the horizon, and the Killigrews pointing out its +capabilities as a trading-centre and naval base! The great man listened, +was convinced, and, presently moving on to London, laid the matter +before his Sovereign. + +It was the days of interest and influence--those days which, of course, +are past and over, so that even kissing no longer goes by favour!--and +the Killigrews found Sir Walter's advocacy gave them all they wanted, +leave to build their big nest in their own way. From that date the +opposition that had been so industriously fostered by the loyal +burgesses of Truro, Penryn, and Helston ceased. Why Helston should have +taken part is somewhat puzzling, but she may have been willing to help a +pair of old friends against that "grove of eagles." At any rate the +three towns were unable to accomplish anything further, and could only +look on with glum faces while Falmouth went ahead. Greatly to their +indignation Charles II., who remembered what good friends the Killigrews +had been to him and his father, granted it a charter in 1661. As soon as +they thought it would be safe, the Mayor of Truro asserted his claim to +jurisdiction over the port and harbour of Falmouth, by sailing round the +harbour to the Black Rock. + +According to local rhyme, however, the settlers in their new town were +not lacking in sturdiness: + + "_Old Penrynners up in a tree + Looking as wisht as wisht can be, + Falmouth boys as strong as oak + Knocked 'em down at every poke._" + +So the burgesses of Falmouth took the matter before the courts and +succeeded in establishing the claim of their town to a free control over +the waters of its harbour. + + +THE GENERAL POST OFFICE +AND FALMOUTH + +In spite of the Killigrews, however, Falmouth remained small and +insignificant until the General Post Office chose the port in 1688 as a +station for its newly established mail boats. The next few years was the +time of its greatest prosperity, and Flushing--the other side of Penryn +Creek, and said to be so named from a colony of Dutch merchants--became +its fashionable suburb. Travellers came from all parts of England to +embark at this port, warships were stationed here, and the wives of +naval officers and others made it their home. The stir and bustle of +life has, however, departed with the service that created it; and the +fine harbour now only rocks on its broad bosom some little cargo +steamers and a fleet of fishing-boats. Arwenack House, said by some to +have been burnt by Sir Peter Killigrew in order that it should not +enable the Parliamentarians under cover of its walls to attack +Pendennis, was never rebuilt in its former splendour, and the ground +that once constituted its park is now laid out in town plots. Portions +of the old building are, however, still to be seen in Arwenack Street. + + +PENRYN + +At the head of the creek is Falmouth's ancient rival, the town of +Penryn. A Killigrew and his wife--strong men are sometimes gey ill to +live with--fell out and the dame, being divorced, sought refuge in +Penryn. The Mayor of this place still has in his possession a silver cup +and cover given to the borough by this lady. On it is the inscription: +"1633.--From Maior to Maior, to the Towne of Penmarin, when they +received mee that was in great misery.--Jane Killygrew." + +Penryn, still busy at its wharves with the exporting of granite, is the +site of Glasney College, where most of the old miracle plays performed +at the various plan-an-guares throughout the county were written. But +the main industry of the Roseland towns and villages is connected with +mines and quarries, the acme of arid desolation and dreariness being +reached at Gwennap. The mines there are of great depth, have been worked +for centuries, have produced in tin and copper during the last hundred +years at least ten million pounds sterling, and are now all abandoned. +Imagine the grey wilderness of stone and rubble, of old workings and +knacked bals. It rivals the sterility of the Black Country, but that is +teeming, while here in very truth is nothing but a littered and +abandoned waste. + + +THE FAL + +Between Falmouth, which, as Byron said, "contains many quakers and salt +fish," and Truro lies the lovely wooded estuary of the Fal. Once +navigable to Tregony, large boats can now only go as far as Ruan +Lanihorne. At the latter place the river meets the tide. After passing +Tregothnan (Lord Falmouth's seat) it joins the St. Clement and Truro +Creeks, and finally, after forming by its twists and turns a series of +land-locked lakes of surpassing beauty, it broadens into that fine sheet +of water which is known as Carrick Roads. The way to see it properly is +to hire a suitable row-boat, stock it with provisions, and go up the +silent reaches till you discover some flat brown rock. There boil a +kettle gipsy-fashion and linger or go on, as the fancy takes you, up +this creek or that--they are equally beautiful--and so winding in and +out come at last to the capital city. + +Queen Victoria, whose footsteps along the south of Cornwall can be +traced by various brass plates, was delighted with it. "We went up the +Truro, which is beautiful, winding between banks entirely wooded with +stunted oak, and full of numberless creeks. The prettiest are King +Harry's Ferry and a spot near Tregothnan (_i.e._, Feock), where there is +a beautiful little boat-house." + + +THE STANNARY COURTS + +When Richard, King of the Romans, was created Earl of Cornwall, he, to +encourage the working of the mines--which brought him revenue--granted +the tinners a charter. By this, except in cases that might affect lands, +life, or limb, they were exempt from all jurisdiction but that of the +Stannary Courts. No laws were to be enacted but by the twenty-four +stannators chosen from the four stannary districts; and there was no +appeal from the Stannary Court, generally held at Truro, except to the +Duke or Sovereign in Council. These laws were concerned with maintaining +the purity of the tin, which was tested by cutting off a coign (corner) +and stamping the freshly exposed surface. The towns privileged to +perform this and collect the dues payable to the earldom (later duchy) +were called "coinage towns." It is said that some of their laws were +sufficiently grim, as for instance that which compelled an adulterator +of tin to swallow three spoonfuls of the molten metal. The last Stannary +Parliament was held at Truro in 1752, the courts being finally abolished +in 1897. + + +OLD TRURO + +Truro was the town in which many of the local gentry spent the winter. +This custom of the counties, if it made for insularity rather than a +cosmopolitan culture, has given many of our old market-places, round the +square of which the commodious homes were built, an air of quiet +dignity. The gentry themselves, old people at their cards and +supper-parties, young people at their routs and balls, must have found +it more enjoyable--all friends and neighbours and very often +connections--than the present-day fashion of a dip into the whirlpool of +London. + +Truro is a cathedral city, with a brand new cathedral, which some have +been found able to admire, but about which the note struck is generally +apologetic. The old houses are empty, simplicity has become complexity, +and the local gentry, those that are left, go up to town "for the +season." Yet these changes have taken place within the memory of man, +and there are those who can talk of the old state of affairs. Life was +even more a matter of compromise then than now. People lived simply and +did not exact a high standard of comfort. Not even in Boscawen Street +was gas or water laid on, but in the midst thereof was a pump, and +thither came the pretty serving lasses to fill their red earthenware +pitchers. Monday then, as now, was washing day, and in one godly +household of which I wot the maids went early to bed on a Sunday night +that as soon as midnight struck they might go forth and bring in enough +of the precious fluid to fill tubs and coppers against the morn. It was +believed that otherwise what with the competition of all the other maids +in Boscawen Street, they would not be able to obtain a sufficiency. In +those days sanitary arrangements were of the simplest and healthiest +description, and as for baths--well, there was the wooden tub, big, +round, and two-handled, the wooden tub and Saturday night! + + +FOOTE AND LOWRY + +In households such as this were born Foote, the comedian, in 1721, and +Lowry, Cornwall's greatest poet, in 1867. Of the former we have the +story that when a wealthy man gave him a very small glass of wine, at +the same time boasting of its age and quality, he, glancing at it, +remarked, "My lord, surely it is very little for its age?" Of Lowry we +have no humorous stories. Cornwall has not produced many great men--some +gallant soldiers; in Sir Humphrey Davy a man of science; the painter +Opie; and in Lowry, as every one must acknowledge who has read "The +Hundred Windows," a poet! It will be a distinct loss to the nation if, +in the hurly-burly of modern life, the clear true note of this Cornish +singer should be lost. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM ST MAWES TO LISKEARD + +_St. Mawes and Gerrans: Tregony and Probus: Cornish Mutton: A Story of +Cornish Vengeance: Mevagissey: Antiquarian Finds: The Capital of +Clayland: Cock's and Hen's Barrow: Carglaze Mine: Luxulyan: The Civil +Wars: Lostwithiel: Lanhydrock House and Restormel Castle: The Fight on +St. Winnow's Downs: The Gallants of Fowey: Place: Lanteglos: Polperro: +Stories of Talland, Killigarth, and Trelawne: The Giant's Hedge: +Boconnoc: Liskeard._ + + +ST. MAWES +AND GERRANS + +The "free and sworn burgesses" of St. Mawes, numbering about twenty, +formerly returned two members to Parliament; now it is a tiny sleepy +fishing port with many quiet places of retreat up the winding creeks, +the sort of place for a honeymoon couple, "the world forgetting by the +world forgot." + +According to tradition Gerrans embodies the name of Gerennius, King of +Cornwall, of whom the Welsh Bards sang: + + "_In Llongborth Geraint was slain, + A brave man from the region of Dyvnaint--_" + +follows a grimly suggestive line: + + "_And before they were overpowered they committed slaughter._" + +Near Trewithian is an ancient earthwork called Dingerein, and believed +to be Geraint's dwelling-place, the "Dyvnaint" of the song. When he died +his body was carried in a golden boat with silver oars across the bay to +Pendower beach, and buried with the boat on the hill above, while over +it was raised the cairn known as Veryan Beacon. It was believed also +that some day he would rise up in his armour and sail away in that +glorious boat. This tradition has been found in several places. Men who +lived with a vital awe-inspiring king found it difficult to believe that +such a flame could be extinguished. He had vanished into the surrounding +darkness, but none the less, thought they, he must be somewhere, +somewhere whence he could, nay surely would, return. This belief would +probably be fostered by his successor. If he were a child or weakling, +the people would hesitate to be disloyal, for fear of what would befall +them when the mightier father returned. + +The great tumulus at Carne was opened in 1855, and within was found a +kist-vaen of unhewn stones, covered with limestone boulders; but in the +kist were only ashes, pieces of charcoal, and burnt dust. Objects of +gold are rarely found in barrows; but in the neighbourhood of the +Cheesewring was a persistent story that at some former time a golden cup +was actually dug out of a barrow near by. In course of time the +tradition was found to be true, and the cup is now in the king's +collection. + + +TREGONY AND PROBUS + +A little inland from these shores that reverberate with tales of long +ago is Tregony, once celebrated for its boys' school, to which the Truro +lads went daily in that great Cornish institution, a bus. It is a most +ancient place, supposed to have been a Roman station; and when Edward I. +gave Parliamentary representation to the country, Tregony was allowed to +send two members, and did so in 1294. Many years since, a large stone +coffin was dug up near the town, but the measurements given should be +received with caution. + +Probus, about four miles north-west of Tregony, has a church of +exceptional beauty. The tower is of St. Stephen's stone and the highest +in Cornwall, being 123 ft. to the top of the pinnacles; it is of +elaborate and beautiful workmanship, while there is good +sixteenth-century carving in the church and an ancient stone altar +_mensa_. Not far from Probus is Wolveden, generally called Golden. Here +Francis Tregian sheltered his chaplain, Cuthbert Mayne, in 1577, the +cell in which he was concealed being still in good case, as well as a +fine Tudor doorway and chimney piece; but the old chapel, though still +standing, is part of the stables. The punishment for sheltering a +wandering Catholic priest was heavy. Mayne was discovered and hanged at +Launceston, and Tregian was thrown into prison, where he languished for +eight and twenty years. And all this miserable waste of life because +Henry VIII. chose to think differently to his ancestors on "matters +appertaining to religion." + + +CORNISH MUTTON + +These Roseland parishes, with their undulating heaths and sweet short +turf, are famous for their mutton. The meat generally in Cornwall, after +the uncertainty over chilled beef and New Zealand lamb in other parts of +the country, is an agreeable change. Nor is it dear. For visitors the +prices of food have gradually risen, but not very long ago butter was a +shilling a pound, mackerel a penny each, milk twopence a quart, and +little fat pilchards six--seven--eight a penny! + + +A STORY OF +CORNISH VENGEANCE + +Not far from each other stand the remains of two great manor houses, +Caerhayes Castle, demolished in 1808 and rebuilt, and Bodrugan, now a +farm, but once, after Stowe the finest house in the county. The lords of +these manors took different sides during the disturbances consequent on +the Wars of the Roses and, in the end, Henry de Bodrugan was charged by +his neighbours--and among them John Arundell of Tolverne--with having +robbed their houses and also with various acts of piracy on the high +seas. He, however, was hand and glove with Richard Crookback, who, if an +awkward enemy, could be a good friend, and Bodrugan's conviction, +obtained in his absence, was subsequently quashed. For the time being he +escaped the consequence of his misdeeds, but in his triumph he did not +forget to whom he owed his tribulation, and before long saw good reason +to accuse Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele, on the Tamar, and his +neighbour, Sir Hugh Trevanion of Caerhayes, of plotting to bring about +the accession of Henry VII. A word to Richard, and that monarch, who +lost no time in such matters, sent soldiers post haste to arrest +Edgcumbe. So unexpectedly did they arrive at Cotehele that their prey +had to spring out of the nearest window and make for the woods. When he +reached the river they were hard on his heels. But he was a man of +resource. Snatching off his cap he tossed it into the water, and when +the soldiers arrived they saw it floating slowly down the current and +came to the conclusion that he was drowned. Trevanion and Edgcumbe +hurried off to Henry of Richmond, and no doubt were with him when he +landed at Rame Head, a little further east. They distinguished +themselves at Bosworth Field, and in the church of St. Michael, +Caerhayes, hangs the sword worn that day by Sir Hugh, the sword with +which he was made a knight-banneret by the new king. + +But Edgcumbe and Trevanion had a private account to settle and, asking +leave of absence, they rode west. Sir Henry de Bodrugan, however, was +before them. His cause was lost, his master dead, and he knew that there +was little mercy to be hoped for from either Edgcumbe or Trevanion. The +enemies met on Woful Moor. Bodrugan gave back and back, till at last +only the sea lay behind him. Then he turned and leapt--the rock is still +shown--and being a strong swimmer was presently picked up by a passing +vessel. His lands, with the goodwill of the King, were divided between +his vengeful enemies, and the manor itself has been handed down from +Edgcumbe to Edgcumbe in uninterrupted succession to this day. + + +CAERHAYES, GORAN +AND THE DODMAN + +It was at Caerhayes that Sir John Berkeley and Colonel Slingsby, who had +been sent into Cornwall, during the autumn of 1649, to encourage their +friends to rise for Charles II., were surprised by the watchful +Roundheads. Lord Byron's grandmother was a Trevanion of Caerhayes, but +the castle no longer shelters the descendants of the man who laid its +foundation-stone, and if you would see relics of the wild Trevanions you +must seek them in the arcade--where hang helmets, swords, and +gauntlets--of the little church of St. Michael. + +At Goran Church were once monuments to all three families, but those of +the Trevanions have disappeared, while the Bodrugans are now only +represented by the arms cut on the granite font. This church has a high +embattled tower, a good day-mark for ships, and in the chancel a curious +oak chair elaborately carved with the figure of a woman. + +South of Goran is the Dodman, the pride of the southern coast, a +headland which is 400 ft. high and about whose feet the water is so deep +that vessels of large draught may sail by within a few feet. It is of +dark weathered rocks with a ditch and rampart winch, crossing from one +side to the other, cuts it off from the land. The finest beaches on the +south stretch right and left from this headland, which gives a good view +of the cliffs and fishing coves all up and down the coast from the Rame +to the Lizard. + +It is curious how frequently two or more places in Cornwall bear the +same name. There are two St. Justs, two St. Anthonys, two Mawgans, +Constantines, Pentires, while as to Pennare there are several. A Black +Head (250 ft.) was the most important promontory between the Lizard and +Falmouth, and here, after Chapel Point with its prehistoric remains, +Mevagissey with its sardine factory--(All-British shoppers, please +note)--and Pentewan with its quarries, the next blue point breaking the +northward line is another--and a most bold and precipitous--Black Head! + + +MEVAGISSEY + +Near Mevagissey, locally and opprobriously termed Fishygissey, is +Pencarne, seat of the one-handed Carew, whose portrait is in Heligan +House. He lost his hand by a cannon-shot at the siege of Ostend (1601) +and, returning to his quarters after the fight, held out the lopped +member with a casual: "There is the hand that cut the pudding this +morning!" + + +ANTIQUARIAN FINDS + +In this neighbourhood several interesting finds have been made. At +Pentewan some curious oaken canoes buried in the soil were found by the +tinners. Unaware of the unique nature of what they had discovered, the +miners broke them up for firewood! Better luck, however, attended a +remarkable and interesting find at Trewhiddle. Some miners, when +searching for tin in a stream work, at 17 ft. below the surface, came on +a silver cup which proved to be a chalice containing coins and some +ornaments. These coins bore date from 757 to 874, and the names of such +well-known Kings as Egbert and Alfred, with a unique silver penny of +Eanred of Northumbria and a Louis le Debonnaire (King of the Franks +814). It is supposed that the hoard was buried when sea-robbers were +harrying the coast, and that he who hid it did not live to come back. It +is now in the British Museum. + + +THE CAPITAL OF +CLAYLAND + +Roseland has given place to Clayland, with St. Austell for the capital. +This town is not far from the sea. Its narrow crooked thoroughfares +radiate in all directions from the old church, over the porch of which +is a Cornish inscription, "Ry Du," the meaning of which is unknown. The +well-known tower is sculptured and of Pentewan stone. Within is good +woodwork, a weirdly carved font, and a series of shields which, if not +beautiful as art, are interesting for their symbolism. At St. Austell +was born Colenso, the fighting bishop, who having set Christendom by the +ears and been excommunicated for heresy was afterwards confirmed in the +possession of his see. + +The town is of modern origin, owing its existence to the various mines +and clayworks in the neighbourhood. The clayman drives his team in +single file, and an endless procession of heavy waggons rumbles through +the narrow streets, waggons laden with powdered clay in barrels or with +the white glistening lumps uncovered. This clay is found in large +quantities at Hensbarrow, Burngullow (where the first sod of the +Cornwall Railway was cut in 1847), St. Stephen's, and the Bodmin Moors, +and is exported from Par, Fowey, and Charlestown. About 1763 Wedgwood +leased a mine near St. Austell, using the clay for the manufacture of +his well-known porcelain. About 60,000 tons of this material are +exported annually to the Potteries and into Lancashire. + +The Menagew, a famous old stone said to have been a boundary at the +junction of three manors, has been removed from its ancient site--the +pity o't!--and fixed in the pavement at the corner of Menacuddle Street, +the spot being marked by a brass plate. Lake says: "On this stone all +declarations of war and proclamations of peace were read ... all cattle +for whom no owner could be found were brought here and exposed for a +certain number of market days, after which, if unclaimed, their sale +became legal," and there is a hint that in yet earlier days the criminal +was brought to this stone for execution and that by the shedding of +blood it became set apart and sacred. + + +COCK'S AND +HEN'S BARROW + +To the north of St. Austell, and on the highest land in the +neighbourhood is the "Hen's Barrow." The latter, which is 1034 ft. above +the sea level, is also known as the Archbeacon of Cornwall. From here +the whole county can be seen stretched out below, and here are the chief +china pits. On its northern slope is a vast mass of schorl, the +celebrated Roche Rock. On its summit are the fourteenth-century ruins of +a chapel to St. Michael, locally said to have been built by the last +male heir of Tregarrick manor, who, weary of the world, lived here in +solitude. A little north of Roche and beyond the old half-forgotten holy +well is a pool, the water of which may easily be made to flow in +different directions--either to Par, Falmouth, or Padstow! + + +CARGLAZE MINE + +West of Roche is St. Dennis, the church of which stands on a conical +hill of granite in the middle of a prehistoric entrenchment. In the +churchyard is a fine cross and round it earthworks and tumuli. A great +part of the surface in this neighbourhood has been opened for china clay +and china stone, but by far the most important mine is that of Carglaze, +once worked for tin. The pit of this mine presents a remarkable +appearance, for though nearly a mile in circumference it is only 150 +ft. deep. It resembles indeed nothing as much as a gigantic crater! + + +LUXULYAN + +South of St. Austell and near Porthpean is a granite longstone known as +Tregeagle's Stick, another instance of some older story being attached +to a recent hero, for the pillar must have been there many hundreds of +years before Tregeagle was born. On Gwallen Downs are several +earthworks, cairns, holy wells, &c., while Menacuddle boasts a very +pretty cascade. This cannot be compared with the one at Luxulyan, which +has a fall of 200 ft. That "valley of rocks," a beautiful, picturesque +spot, is crossed by the Treffry aqueduct, and lies in a parish of wild +land strewn with blocks of granite and porphyry. One of the latter was +worked into a sarcophagus for the celebrated Duke of Wellington, while +the Giant Block of Luxulyanite is said to be the largest in Europe. + + +ST. BLAZEY + +If St. Austell is the capital of clayland, St. Blazey is second to it as +a trading-centre for granite and china clay. Its saint was said to be +the patron of woolcombers, though this is probably a mere modern +confusion of names. Here was born Ralph Allen, who invented cross +country posts and, while obliging his fatherland, managed to enrich +himself. Pope, who stayed with him at Prior Park (Bath), describes him +somewhat contemptuously: + + "_Let humble Allen with an awkward shame + Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame._" + +'Tis true that Allen was the son of a St. Blazey innkeeper, that he had +made instead of inheriting his money, but to go down to posterity as +"humble" and "awkward!" The first edition is "low-born Allen," but this +was altered at the poor man's protest. + + +THE CIVIL WARS + +It is pleasant to leave the china clay with its milky fouling of clear +waters and its diseased outcrops, white with the white of leprosy. +Crossing Par sands, where Essex watched in vain for the ships laden with +his supplies and where, of the old lead smelting works even the chimney +known all over the countryside as Par Stack is now gone, the road turns +down the coast--past Menabilly with its geological grotto and museum, +past Gribben Head set with a day-mark tower some 80 ft. high--and so +round the little peninsula into which the Parliamentarian Army was +penned by the more active Royalists in 1644, and up to Fowey. + +When Charles I. in the August of that year pursued the foolish and +shortsighted Essex into Cornwall, the King began by calling together his +soldiers and enumerating the services rendered to his cause by the +people of the duchy, and he strictly and with divers threats forbade +plundering. That for once he meant what he said, was proved a fortnight +later by Prince Maurice, who hanged a soldier for plundering Lanhydrock; +and that there might be no misunderstanding about the matter, left him +with a ticket to that effect pinned on his breast. + +Essex, a stupid and inactive man, had come into Cornwall against his +better judgment, Lord Robartes having said that the country would rise +to join him. Before he got as far as Bodmin he discovered that the +contrary was like to be the case; and when the King came sweeping into +the duchy and Sir Richard Grenville marched out of Truro, Essex, who was +between them, saw the hopelessness of his position. In the midst of a +country so hostile that his soldiery had to forage far and wide for +grudged provisions, he had nothing upon which to fall back, for some +ships loaded with cheese and biscuit which he was daily expecting had +not arrived. Essex, who always did the wrong thing or else the right +thing too late, cast about at this eleventh hour to keep a passage open +for his supplies and, anxious to get nearer the sea, made for +Lostwithiel. The immediate result of this movement was that the forces +of Grenville and the King presently formed a semicircle about him from +shore to shore, and matters went from bad to worse. His soldiers, in +need of food and tempted by papers offering a free pardon which the +Royalists scattered among them, were daily slipping away to join the +King. Having left the eastern side of the harbour unguarded, the forts +there, as well as Polruan and Hall House, were soon taken; and this gave +Charles the command of the estuary, while on the other side Grenville +had secured the little haven of Par, where Essex was hoping his delayed +stores would be landed. At this juncture he made a belated effort to +help himself and those dependent on him. On the evening of August 31 +deserters reported that the Parliamentarian cavalry was drawn up on the +east bank of the river. It was evident that Essex was contemplating a +move, and orders were issued to the Royalists to stand at arms +throughout the night, break down all bridges, and throw baulks of timber +across the roads and lanes. Furthermore Goring was bidden collect his +cavalry and be in readiness to act on any point at which the enemy might +attempt to break through. + +Unfortunately, when the King's orders reached Goring he was in no +condition to obey them. The night came on dark and foggy. There was a +narrow space on St. Winnow's Downs between the two Royalist divisions; +but though not covered with troops it was guarded by some fifty +fusiliers. These men were--what shall we say? They could scarcely on +such a raw night have been asleep and why should they have been absent? +At any rate it was over this space that, moving with silent celerity, +Sir Wm. Balfour with the whole of the Parliamentarian horse passed +unchallenged out on to the open ground. Until a second message from the +King reached Goring, he could not be got from his wine. The enemy was +then actually passing over the hill, and had it not been for this +scandalous behaviour probably not a man would have escaped. + +Some days earlier poor old Restormel Castle had been stormed by +Grenville, and his forces under cover of a mist had then moved down +towards Lostwithiel, but it was reserved for the King to take that +ancient town; which he did just in time to prevent the destruction by +the retreating Essex of the beautiful bridge. + +Although the Parliamentarian General was forced to retire, he did so +doggedly, contesting every street and every field, and that night the +King slept in the rain under a hedge by the prehistoric earthwork of +Castle Dor. + + +LOSTWITHIEL + +On the following morning Essex proposed a parley. Before the King's +answer could reach him, however, he had, with a sudden change of front, +embarked on one of the ships in Fowey harbour and set sail for Plymouth. +Major-General Skippon, who had been left in command, immediately +capitulated with six thousand men; and then for once in its long and +sleepy existence was Lostwithiel aroused. The Parliamentarians had +desecrated the beautiful church; the slates of the roof were lying in +heaps where a barrel of gunpowder had been touched off under the +graceful octagonal lanthorn of its spire--"the Glory of Cornwall." They +had plundered the Exchequer Hall, burnt the stannary records, and +committed other enormities; but now the yoke of the oppressor was +broken. Tho King did his humane best to protect the soldiers, but the +long-suppressed hostility of the mob found vent in a sudden flame of +violence, while the women set upon the officers, stripped them of all +they had and rode off with their horses! + + +LANHYDROCK HOUSE AND +RESTORMEL CASTLE + +Lanhydrock House being now the property of the King, he, as a mark of +his gratitude, granted it to Sir Richard Grenville, whom he created +Baron of Lostwithiel; but no sooner did the Parliament get the upper +hand than the new-made baron was deprived of his property. The present +house is of granite and stands low, the hills springing from the end of +the gardens. On them is a little church, and in front an open and +undulating park. The headquarters of Essex were in this park, through +which a long avenue of sycamores leads to a barbican of fine +workmanship, behind which appears the simple façade of the two-storied +house. Within, a room is shown as that used by Tregeagle when steward of +the estates. + +A little south is Restormel Castle. Its long life has been that of a +ruin slowly sinking into the earth from which it rose. In 1245 Earl +Richard found it much decayed. He restored it; and the Black Prince, who +twice stayed there, did the same. When the Parliamentarians came it had +long been abandoned to the owls and the ivy, but as it commanded the +Fowey they repaired and garrisoned it. After the surrender of their army +it was once more abandoned, and now all that remains of the old +fortress is the round keep with a gate-house on the west and a +projecting turret on the north-east. It is on a mound surrounded by a +moat and lies deep in woods and remote from human habitation. Its very +name, Restormel (once Lestormel, a chief's dwelling), shows that its +builder was a man of note among the people who are gone. It has seen +them make merry in its halls, it has seen them pass. It has roused up +now and again to groan under the tyranny of new masters; but now, +deserted in its robe of ivy, a mound, and a few stones, it sleeps +through the sunshine and the rain, and with every year sinks a little +and a little into itself and the kind covering earth. + + "_The old sea here at my door, + The old hills there in the West-- + What can a man want more + Till he goes at last to his rest?_" + + LOWRY. + +Nor is Lostwithiel much more widely awake. Nowadays it consists of a few +rather picturesque streets, an old stone bridge, and a church with a +lanthorn spire--the finest piece of church architecture in Cornwall! But +it has not forgotten the days when a desperate king, gladdened by a +brief gleam of success, fought his way through those same picturesque +streets with an enemy that contested every stone and every house. It has +not forgotten that he fought from early morning, pushing the stubborn +foe before him, until by eventide he had the streets clear, and +Lostwithiel, happy loyal Lostwithiel was his. + + +THE FIGHT ON +ST. WINNOW'S DOWNS + +Before this came to pass, however, a curious conflict had taken place on +St. Winnow's Downs. One hundred Roundheads, youths from sixteen to +twenty years of age and led by Colonel Straughan, had challenged a like +number of the King's troops to heroic combat on Druid's Hill. On a set +day the two bodies of horse met in sight of both armies, Straughan +having "nothing on his head but a hat and on the trunk of his body +naught but a white shirt"--he was indeed fighting bare-sark--"while his +troop consisted of men so young that on their chins never a razor had +passed." Lord Digby, the Royalist leader, and his followers advanced +firing their pistols as they came, whereupon Straughan and his boys +charged furiously, withholding their fire until they were so close that +at the deadly discharge half the Royalists were slain on the spot and +there was scarce horse or man but received some hurt. + +The Church of St. Winnow is beautifully placed on the very margin of +this charming estuary, a little before the Lerryn creek opens to the +east. Below is the pass between St. Veep and Golant, a pass taken and +fortified by the Royalists. + + +THE GALLANTS +OF FOWEY + +The Gallants of Fowey probably means the men of Golant, near Fowey, +though various other derivations have been suggested, as for instance +the fight between the seafaring men of Rye and Winchelsea and those of +Fowey. It appears the latter had sailed somewhat near the aforesaid +towns, and when summoned to make civil apology for the intrusion +"stiffly refused to vaile their bonnets. This caused the Ripiers to make +out with might and main against them; howbeit with a more hardy onset +than happy issue, for the Fowey men gave them so rough entertainment as +their welcome that they were glad to depart without bidding +farewell--the merit of which exploit afterwards entitled them 'gallants +of Fowey.'" + +This little town, which consists of a single street along the western +bank of the estuary and many houses set down higgledy-piggledy wherever +room could be found, was once of some consequence. During the reign of +Edward III. it sent--assisted, no doubt, by the surrounding country--no +less than forty-seven ships manned by seven hundred and seventy men, to +the siege of Calais. No other town in England sent so many ships and no +town but Yarmouth so many men. The Black Prince, who it must be +remembered was the first Duke of Cornwall, granted the people of Golant +certain common rights in return for their services, and Fowey grew in +pride and consideration. In fact, as the saying is, it grew "too big for +its boots," and did more than a little privateering on its own account. +When Edward IV. made peace with France, Fowey, which had grown fat on +the plunder of foreign merchantmen, continued its hostilities; and in +time a pursuivant rode down from London to make inquiry. + +"I am at peace with my brother of France," ran the royal message. + +"But we are not," was the reply. Furthermore they took the pursuivant, +slit his ears and cut off his nose. + +It was hardly the way to treat a King of so royal a temper as Edward +IV., and Fowey--is it Fowey now or Troy?--suffered. His commissioners +did their work treacherously, but they did it well. The chief men were +seized, their goods confiscated, and their leader hanged. The great +chain which barred the narrow entrance to their harbour and protected +them from night attacks was taken away, while the men of Dartmouth were +sent by sea to remove their ships. Edward meant to smoke out this nest +of freebooters. There could be only one king in England and he would +have them recognise it. The savage punishment resulted in the gradual +decay of the little cheerful town. Those who had been so greatly daring +were dead, and until Henry VIII. built batteries here the place lay at +the mercy of any passing marauder. A story interesting for the light it +sheds on Queen Elizabeth's character is told of some Spanish ships in +1568. Bound for Alba, in the Netherlands, with a large sum of money, +they were chased by privateers and took refuge in Fowey and other ports. +The privateers waiting outside till they should reappear, the Spaniards +were helpless. After a little hesitation Elizabeth had the treasure +seized and the crews arrested. She said that, fearing the audacity of +the pirates, she would keep the money safe! + + +PLACE + +The old fortress mansion of the great family of Treffry is on the +opposite side of the harbour. Tradition says that a Treffry took King +John prisoner at Poictiers, and as a reward was given permission to +quarter on his shield the arms of France. More than once the Treffrys +helped to defend Fowey from foreign violence; and their wives were as +brave as they. In the grounds of Place House is a statue of Elizabeth +Treffry who, in the absence of her husband, July 1457, headed his men +and beat off the French. + +On the shore at Polruan is a ruinous blockhouse, from which the chain +that guarded Fowey Harbour was once stretched across the estuary to a +similar building on the other side. Here is Hall, the ancient seat of +the Mohuns, and while Charles I. was walking on the terrace he narrowly +escaped being struck by a ball from the guns of Lord Essex. The chapel +and guardhouse are still standing, but the former is used as a cowhouse. + + +LANTEGLOS: POLPERRO + +The church of Lanteglos, consisting as it does of the work of so many +periods, is exceptionally interesting to the student of architecture. +The tower opens into the church by three massive arches, the western +corner of the piers being Norman; the nave arcades are of the fourteenth +century, the northern slightly earlier than the southern. The four +deeply recessed windows in the north with their elaborate tracery are +recognised by architects as resembling those of Somerset, which is +probably accounted for by the fact that this church was appropriated in +1284 to St. John's Hospital at Bridgwater. Between Lansallos Church, +with its lofty tower (514 ft. above the sea), a well-known seamark, and +Talland Church, which is full of rich and beautiful work lies Polperro +(Pool of Peter) in a cove at the foot of two high hills. This little +place is the southern duplicate of Port Isaac, but its air is +milder--less bracing--than that of the grey northern town. The houses +cluster thickly at the mouth of a cleft between the hills and the storms +are so terrible that although three piers protect the little harbour, +heavy baulks of timber have often to be let down into grooves, to break +the force of the waves. The Couch family have lived at Polperro during +several generations, the father and grandfather of the novelist having +been doctors there. + +It is said that the first station of the Coastguard Preventive Service +was at Polperro, a statement which "gives furiously to think." The +welcome Cornwall gave to the Parliamentarian generals must have been +genial compared with that extended to the preventive officers. +Coastguards in Cornwall, the home of wreckers and smugglers! No doubt +they had an exhilarating time! + + +TALLAND, KILLIGARTH +AND TRELAWNE + +There are three houses in this neighbourhood about which stories are +told. The manor of Talland formerly belonged to the Morths, and one of +this family employed a French servant. Mr. Morth does not seem to have +given his servant satisfaction, for the man returned home, and when war +broke out "returneth back again with a French crew, surprizeth suddenly +his master and his guests at a Xmas supper, and forceth the gentleman to +redeem his enlargement with the sale of a great part of his revenues" +(Carew). It is not often that the tables can be so neatly turned. + +Killigarth belonged to the Bevilles, and in the sixteenth century, one +Sir William going forth from his own house on a winter's day, found +under a hedge a certain John Size nearly dead with cold. He took him +into his service and found that he had gotten a remarkable sort of +servant, for Size "would eat nettles and thistles, coals and candles, +birds with their feathers, and fish with their scales. He could handle, +unhurt, blazing wood and hot iron, and used to lie asleep with his head +curled under his body" (Carew). + +The Trelawnys of Trelawne originally came from another place of the same +name, further inland. Among the pictures at this house--parts of which +are old--is an early one of Elizabeth, interesting on account of the +queen's youth. + +John Trelawny, father of the celebrated Jonathan, Bishop of Bristol, was +committed to the Tower in 1627 by the House of Commons. As he was +popular in the county the Cornish were greatly exercised, and it is said +that the old ballad sung riotously by his compatriots: + + "_And shall Trelawny die? + Here's twenty thousand Cornishmen + Will know the reason why--_" + +was instrumental in procuring his release. Be that as it may, he was set +free by order of the King and shortly after made a baronet. The ballad +composed for the misfortunes of the father survived to be made of use +when his son, one of the seven bishops who presented the petition to +James II., was imprisoned and tried for seditious libel by that most +worthless of the Stuarts. The verses were subsequently lost, the Rev. +Robert Hawker, always ready to make good any little deficiency of the +kind having composed the present version. + + +THE GIANT'S HEDGE + +A model of Bishop Trelawny's pastoral staff, made of gilt wood with +ornaments of copper, is preserved in Pelynt Church, where he was buried; +but the most interesting thing in this neighbourhood, as well as the +most puzzling, is that great earthwork the Giant's Hedge, which, +stretching from Lerrin to Looe, a matter of seven miles, passes through +this parish. + + "_One day the devil having nothing to do + Built a great hedge from Lerrin to Looe._" + +There is no evidence to say by whom this earthwork, which in parts is 7 +ft. high and 20 ft. wide, was built. Once more let us pray for a +Passmore Edwards to supply us with this evidence--by judicious +excavation. + + +BOCONNOC + +By way of Lanreath Church with its painted mediæval rood screen we come +to the manor of Boconnoc. This house has seen a succession of noble +owners and some interesting visitors. Charles I. spent nearly the whole +of the cold and rainy August during which he was in Cornwall under its +hospitable roof, and Pitt, Governor of Madras, purchased the place with +part of the proceeds of the "Pitt" diamond. The wing in which the King +slept was pulled down by Pitt; and the house, which is built on rising +ground in a lawn of a hundred acres, remodelled. It was here that his +son, the famous statesman, was born. An obelisk has been set up in the +midst of the entrenchments made during the Civil Wars--a piece of +curious taste, as the man commemorated by it had nothing to do with +either king or parliament, living indeed long after both were dust! + +Between this obelisk and Bradock Church was fought the battle of Bradock +Downs. The Royalists who had marched from Bodmin slept all night under +the hedges in Boconnoc Park. Next morning, January 19, 1643, they found +the Parliamentarians awaiting them on the rising ground of the common. +After keeping up a fire of small arms for some two hours, the Royalists +were led forward by Sir Beville Grenville in one of his dashing charges. +Their opponents broke and ran, fleeing to Liskeard with great loss of +arms and men. Their stay there, however, was but brief, for the +Cavaliers pursued them--across the downs, by the main road, and by St. +Pinnoc--and so took the town without a blow. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON + +_King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A Cage for +Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: Sheviock: The +Eddystone: Mount Edgcumbe: The Tamar: Trematon Castle: Markets: Saltash: +Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: +Launceston._ + + +KING DUNGARTH AND +KING ALFRED + +It is pleasant, after following the footsteps of an English king so +foolish that his people out of sheer exasperation presently rose up and +slew him, to come upon traces of one whom the nation, from his day even +until now, has blessed and called great. To the north of Liskeard lies +the big parish of St. Neot, once called Gueryr, and St. Neot, 'tis said, +was a near relative of King Alfred, a relative noted for sanctity and of +whom many wonderful stories are told. He appears to have been on +friendly terms with Dungarth, King of Cornwall, who lived at Liskeard, +and at whose palace Alfred stayed in order to hunt the red deer on the +surrounding moors. Nor was it only for the hunting that Alfred came to +Liskeard. Gueryr, St. Neot's fellow saint, was supposed to have had some +medical knowledge, and the King, delicate from boyhood, was in bad +health. He went across the moors to pray, and possibly to bathe in the +spring of clear water, still known as the well of St. Neot; and as faith +in the doctor is half the battle we may hope his ills were alleviated. +Dungarth--a fine monarch we must believe or else no friend to +Alfred--was drowned in the River Fowey when hunting near Redgate, 875. +In the parish of St. Cleer is a fractured granite pillar about 8 ft. +high, and in digging near, a second fragment was found, inscribed in +Latin, "Doniert (possibly Dungarth) asks you to pray for his soul." + +To think that a thousand and odd years ago, Alfred was staying in this +little old market town with a friend; that they were planning hunting +expeditions; and that Dungarth was recommending his own doctor--"just +like any other man." How queer it all is and how little human nature +changes. + +The corporation at Liskeard has some interesting silver, and in the +church is a monument to Joseph Wadham said to have been "the last of +that family whose ancestors were the founders of Wadham College, +Oxford." This church is unique in Cornwall in having thirteen +fifteenth-century consecration crosses cut on the north and south +aisles. In the town is Stuart House, where Charles I. stayed for about a +week in 1644. + +A little south of Liskeard, on the way to Menheniot, is Clicker Tor, a +mass of serpentine rock resembling the rocks of the Lizard. That +beautiful heath (_Erica vagans_) that grows on the serpentine is found +here. + + +MENHENIOT + +Until the introduction--at the wish of the Cornish--of the English +liturgy during the reign of Henry VIII., the ancient tongue was the +language of the county. Dr. Mooreman, Vicar of Menheniot from 1530 to +1554, was the first parson in Cornwall to teach his parishioners the +Lord's Prayer, the Belief and the Commandments in English. Nowadays, +while it is not uncommon in Wales--which had only the Welsh liturgy--to +hear the "Dim Sassenach," which means that some old person is unable or +unwilling to speak English, the Cornish equivalent, "Mee a navidra cowza +Sawzneck," has been entirely forgotten. + +Menheniot (after St. Columb Major) is the most valuable benefice in the +county, and the church possesses two interesting flagons of +sixteenth-century Lambeth stoneware, with lid and collar of silver dated +1578 and 1581. + + +ST. KEYNE + +On the other side of the valley, not far from the famous old mine of +Herodsfoot, is the Well of St. Keyne. Over it, in an astonishingly small +space, are five trees, oak, elm, and ash, and although these were +planted in 1750, it was only in the place of older trees mentioned in +1602. Concerning the water of this celebrated well, it is fabled that if +after marriage the wife should drink of its waters before her husband +she shall have the mastery and vice-versa. Southey's ballad tells us of +a bride who took some to church with her in a bottle and drank it while +her husband was running to the well. + +At Duloe is a circle which probably encloses a burial place. The stones +are all of quartz, which is unusual, and they are large, the biggest +being 8 ft. high and 7 ft. wide. In this church lies gallant old Sir +John Arundell, the defender of Pendennis Castle. + + +LOOE + +East and West Looe are two quaint fishing-villages divided by the +estuary and joined by a bridge. They are, as usual, huddled together as +near the bottom of their hills as possible and consist of a few crooked +and narrow streets, with houses built anyhow and anywhere. Like Fowey, +they look as if presently they might slip a little, make a tiny splash, +and disappear into the water, to be talked of by succeeding generations +as a "great city of seven churches and thousands of inhabitants that for +some forgotten crime on the part of its people had been overwhelmed by a +sea wave," and to prove this thing they would quote from the _Chronicle_ +(not the Saxon this time but the _Daily_), "in this year came that great +sea flood, widely through this land, and it ran up so far as never at +any time before, and it drowned many towns and mankind too innumerable +to be computed." + + +A CAGE FOR SCOLDS + +Meanwhile East and West Looe still lie poised insecurely above the tide, +while donkeys laden with panniers scramble up the precipitous streets, +and in this way your groceries and so forth come to your door. It is +thoroughly in keeping with the place that the old ducking stool and they +say the cage for scolds should still exist. About the latter Mr. Bond +tells the following appropriate story: + +"At East Looe Hannah Whit and Bessy Niles, two women of fluent tongue, +having exerted their oratory on each other, at last thought it prudent +to leave the matter in dispute to be settled by the Mayor. Away they +posted to his worship. The first who arrived had scarce begun her tale +when the other bounced in, in full rage, and began hers likewise, and +abuse commenced with redoubled vigour. His worship, Mr. John Chubb, +ordered the constable to be called and each of the combatants thought +her antagonist was going to be punished, and each thought right. When +the constable arrived, his worship pronounced to him the following +command: 'Take these women to the cage, and there keep them till they +have settled their dispute.' They were immediately conveyed thither, and +after a few hours' confinement became as quiet and inoffensive beings as +ever breathed, and were then liberated to beg Mr. Mayor's pardon." + + +LOOE ISLAND +AND THE SMUGGLERS + +Except the Scillies, the only inhabited island of Cornwall is St. George +(or Looe Island). It measures fourteen acres and was once exceedingly +useful to smugglers. Not many years since, the floor of a respectable +looking building gave way, and the reason thereof became apparent when +it was found that it had been hollowed underneath to form a receptacle +for those good spirits which came from France by way of the Looe +galleys. The most wonderful hiding-place in this part of the country is +the now well-known duckpond, said to have been at Lansallos, near +Polperro. This swung on a pivot, and when moved disclosed a cavity. At +all other times it presented an innocently rural appearance, so much so +that the preventive officers often sat, all unsuspiciously, within a few +feet of it. + +East of East Looe is the little hamlet of Crafthole, with two crosses, +one known locally as "Stump Cross," a fine specimen of a plain Latin +cross with chamfered angles, and another of earlier date with a broken +top. This bay, which stretches from Looe to Penlee, was once a valley +filled with trees, but, as Florence of Worcester says, "The sea comes +out upon the shore and buries towns and men very many, oxen and sheep +innumerable." + + +THE ARMADA + +It is a quiet strip of coast, yet it was here between Rame Head and the +Dodman, that on a breezy Sunday morning the Spaniards of the Armada +first caught sight of the English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham, +and the volunteer flotilla that was led by Francis Drake. The Spanish +plan was to divide fleet from flotilla, but as the light English boats +could sail closer to the wind and were generally more easy to handle, it +met with little success. The Spanish admiral was soon to discover that +his little enemy's guns could carry further than his own, thus enabling +the English to remain out of reach and yet pour in their raking +broadsides. The light winds blew from the east, and the opposing navies +fired and drifted and fired again, passing the Rame, passing Plymouth, +and drifting up the coast. The engagement lasted till late on that +Sunday afternoon, and later still the _Capitana_, first fruits of the +demoralising tactics of the English, was towed into Dartmouth harbour. + + "_Keepe then the sea, about in special, + Which of England is the towne wall, + Keepe then the sea that is the wall of England, + And then is England kept by Goddes hand...._" + +In other words: "God helps those who help themselves." + + +SHEVIOCK + +Above Crafthole lies Sheviock, on one of the creeks of the Lynher, with +a good fourteenth-century church. The Dawneys were lords of Sheviock, +and we have it from Carew that while the husband was building the +church, his more practical wife was erecting a barn. When they came to +compare accounts it was found that the lady's expenditure had exceeded +her lord's by three half-pence, "and so it might well fall, for it is a +great barn and a very little church." + + +THE EDDYSTONE + +Henry VII., when Earl of Richmond, is said to have landed near Rame +Head, and seeing that he had in his train such energetic Cornishmen as +Sir Richard Edgcumbe and Sir Hugh Trevanion, men who could help him to a +good few of their relatives and retainers, no doubt he was well advised. +From the headland can be seen the Eddystone, which is nine miles south. +This ridge of rocks is a mile long, but has only one small rock +appearing above the water and has for ages been the terror of seamen. +The first lighthouse was built in 1699, and four years later was swept +away by a storm. A second, built in 1708, was burnt in 1755. The third, +built by Smeaton in 1759, resisted the wind and weather for over a +hundred years. The rocks on which it was built were then found to be +giving way, and it was removed to Plymouth Hoe, and a new and higher +lighthouse built on another part of the ridge. + + +MOUNT EDGCUMBE + +The Rame forms the outer boundary of Plymouth Harbour; Penlee Point the +western boundary of the sound; and a little to the north lies Mount +Edgcumbe, which, though few people seem to know it, is in Cornwall. This +interesting house was built in the time of Mary, but the park dates from +Henry VIII., when the property came to the Edgcumbes by marriage. The +grounds contain a great number of fortifications, from the battery and +blockhouse built to oppose the Spanish Armada to more modern defences. +The second Lord Edgcumbe, when a boy, was the friend of Sir Joshua +Reynolds, a friendship which has resulted in the family portraits of +three generations being painted by that artist. The house is as +beautifully situated as the grounds are worth seeing and is on the end +of a promontory several miles long and three wide. + + +THE TAMAR + +The Tamar and Torridge spring from a rushy knoll on the eastern wilds of +Morwenstow, three miles from the sea. From that, practically the most +northern spot in the county, the larger river with some windings flows +south, forming the eastern boundary of the county. It finally widens +into the Hamoaze and, by way of Plymouth Sound, finds its way into the +sea. Many are the bridges and ferries from the one county to the other, +and every army that has come to invade, to subjugate, or even to punish +the insurgent west, must have come by way of this peaceful stream. The +first ferry is at Tor Point, where the Tamar is about a mile wide. It +was the old coach route and thither came the people who would catch the +packet at Falmouth, thither also in yet earlier times came the Cornish +pack-horses, laden with tin at their going and merchandise on their +return. It was the highway when roads were only tracks and the boats in +which men voyaged were of wattle covered with hide. Now it is crossed by +a "steam bridge" which starts every quarter of an hour! + +Where another ferry crosses the estuary of the Lynher is the church and +village of Antony East. Carew, whose amusing Survey supplies us with so +many stories of old Cornwall, is buried here, the doggerel verses on his +monument having been found in his pocket, after his sudden death when at +prayer in his study. There is also a memorial to Margery Arundell, which +is of interest, as it is the only example in the county of a canopied +brass. + + +TREMATON CASTLE + +When Robert, Duke of Normandy, died, Arlette, the tanner's daughter, was +sought in wedlock by one Herlwin, and in due course she bore him two +sons, Odo, afterwards Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, whom she named after +the unforgotten lover of her youth. These twain, worthy half-brothers of +the stern and rigorous Bastard, rode one on each side of him at the +battle of Hastings--that fatal battle which delayed for so many years +the consummation of our English liberties! Over against the Normans were +the equally loyal brethren of Harold, the King. But William's star was +in the ascendant, and two at least of the sons of Godwin and Gytha were +among the slain. As soon as the Conqueror was firmly settled on the +throne that he had seized, he bethought him of his favourite brother and +added to Robert's earldom by the Breton march the more famous earldom +of the kindred land of Cornwall. Robert of Mortain, riding gaily down to +the west, found a wealth of manors awaiting him and two +castles--afterwards to be mentioned in Domesday--those of Launceston and +Trematon. + +Trematon is on the Lynher which, rising near Five Lanes towards the +centre of the county, flows steadily south until it is joined by the +Tidy near Ince Castle, (the only sixteenth-century brick house in the +county), and with a sharp easterly turn flows broadly and genially into +the Tamar below Saltash. Above its placid waters rises the old keep, the +keep that was built to keep the unruly Cornish in order. Tintagel, +Restormel, and Launceston are ruinous, but Trematon is still in fairly +good repair. The wall crossing the motte is of early date, probably +thirteenth century, while the archway of the square entrance tower +carries portcullis grooves, and the keep, once 70 ft. by 50 ft., is +still about 30 ft. in height. The castle with its park and manor and the +borough of Saltash was granted by Edward III. to the Dukes of Cornwall +for ever. It is not generally known that in some respects this dukedom +differs from all others. The eldest son of the reigning sovereign is the +duke, and he comes of age as soon as he is born and preserves all the +rights of the dukedom without patent of creation; the essential +difference between this and the princedom of Wales being that the latter +is specially conferred by the sovereign. + + +ST. GERMANS + +Not far from Trematon is St. Germans, birthplace of the famous Sir John +Eliot, after whom Port Eliot was called. This worthy, though +consistently loyal to Charles I., opposed that monarch's illegalities +and died in the prison to which he was consequently consigned. He was +one of the noblest of the fine band of Cornishmen who came to the front +at that period of the nation's history, an honest, just, and fearless +man. Port Eliot, though charmingly situated where the Tidy widens into a +lake, is otherwise only interesting on account of its pictures, of which +there are several by Sir Joshua Reynolds. + +St. Germans is thought to have been the seat of the ancient bishopric of +Cornwall, but there is no evidence in support of the theory. The "see," +or bishop-stool as it was called by our fathers, was nothing more than +the seat of the bishop, the church in which it rested being his +cathedral church. In early times the bishop was generally attached to +some monastery or else he moved from place to place, taking his "seat" +with him. In course of time, a suitable place being found, the see would +become fixed, but there is no evidence of any fixed see in this county +until 1877, when it was placed at Truro. + + +MARKETS + +The following entry in the exchequer book at the time of the Domesday +survey marks one of the contrasts between then and now: "In this manor +there is a market on Sunday, but it is reduced to nothing on account of +the Earl of Mortain's market, which is very near thereto." Robert, Earl +of Mortain and Cornwall, held his market by his Castle of Trematon, and +so we are confronted with two markets on a Sunday in Sabbatarian +Cornwall! The boldness of the folk, with all those petrified pipers and +fiddlers and merry maidens to point a moral! And to think that nothing +happened. + +A good deal of water has flowed under Tamar bridges since those days. In +the reign of Henry VIII. Andrew Furlong, priest and schoolmaster at +Saltash, was imprisoned for having a Bible in his possession--and this +is the tercentenary of that Bible's translation into the vulgar tongue. +Verily times have changed. + + +SALTASH + +From the Hoe to Saltash, low hills flank an estuary of great width which +narrows sharply where Brunel's triumph, the Royal Albert Bridge, spans +the flood. This great railway bridge, which was opened by the Prince +Consort in 1859, cost over three-quarters of a million and is still one +of the wonders of engineering. + +Saltash suffered considerably during the wars between King and +Parliament. It was taken and retaken any number of times, occupied by +first one party and then the other, fortified, attacked, and generally +treated with scant courtesy. It has several points of interest; an old +shop dated 1584, fine corporation regalia, a church containing a very +ancient font bowl (brought from Wadgworthy), and an exquisite silver +vessel of 1624 now used as a communion cup. + + +MODITONHAM + +This part of the county is noted for its strawberries, its gooseberries, +and for a sweet kind of small cherry called mazzards. + + "_Let Uter Pendragon do what he can + The Tamar water will run as it ran,_" + +says the Celtic proverb, embodying no doubt some forgotten story. It is +certainly a fine sheet of water above Saltash and he would be a bold man +who would seek to divert its flow. Not far from the town is the manor of +Moditonham, which was built not long after the Restoration by Colonel +Waddon, who, from long residence abroad, had gathered a love of foreign +architecture, and who chose for his model a French château. John +Grenville, Sir Beville's son (who attended Charles II. in all his +wanderings, was sent by him to negotiate with Monk, and was King's +messenger with his letter to the Parliament), had been made Earl of Bath +and Governor of both Pendennis and Plymouth. He was the most loyal of +Charles's subjects, but under James II. his long faith wavered, and it +was at Moditonham that, with Colonel Waddon, the Deputy Governor of +Pendennis, he treated with the commissioner of the Prince of Orange. His +brother, Denis Grenville, Dean of Durham, less wise, but more loyal, +followed James over seas and died in exile. + + +PALEOLOGUS + +The river winds in such deep curves above Botus-fleming that Landulph is +almost surrounded by its waters. In the quiet churchyard lies Theodore +Paleologus, the last descendant of the Christian emperors of the east. +Some years ago the vault in which he lies was accidentally opened and it +was seen that he had been a tall man with a long head and a beard of +unusual dimensions. During his lifetime this man, who might have been an +emperor, had been reduced to such straits of poverty, that he had +written to that soldier of fortune, the first Duke of Buckingham, +praying to be taken into his service. In the letter, which has been +preserved, he pathetically describes himself as a gentleman, born of a +good house, a soldier from his birth, accomplished and worthy of the +name he bears, but unfortunate in the reverse of fortune. + + +PENTILLIE + +Above Landulph the curving flood gradually narrows into the semblance of +an ordinary river and goes softly between woods and orchards and +farmlands till the finely placed grey towers of Pentillie, built by that +eccentric charlatan, Sir William Tillie, come into view. It is a mistake +to hurry through this scenery in the bustling steamer that ploughs up +from Plymouth, gives you barely time to swallow a fine strawberry at +Calstock and rushes back again. The Tamar, with its forest-clad +declivities, its rocks and crags and cliffs, its long reaches of shining +water fringed with deep green meadows and woodland, is essentially a +river for the man with leisure. In the opinion of those who have seen +both, the scenery far surpasses that of the belauded Dart. The +production of arsenic has discoloured the water in parts, as the mine +shafts have destroyed the sylvan charm of the shore, but this is only +for a short distance above New Bridge, the New Bridge over which Essex +so foolishly led his troops in 1644. + + +COTEHELE + +The Tamar is navigable for good sized vessels as far as the Weir Head, +but that is away beyond first Cotehele and then Calstock, past Harewood, +the most easterly part of the county, a peninsula which, like Landulph, +is nearly an island, and even past the craggy Morwell Rocks. + +Cotehele, a Tudor mansion, "antient, large, strong, and fayre," was once +the chief seat of the Edgcumbe family. On the cliff can be seen the +little chapel built by Richard Edgcumbe in gratitude for his escape from +the myrmidons of Richard III. (see page 136). The chestnut trees in +these woods are large and of great age, but suffered severely from the +blizzard of 1891. Within the house is an interesting chapel with, under +the pulpit, a small apartment, known as "the Leper's Room." In the +vault, the mother of the first baron was buried (1742) while in a +trance. "The knave of a sexton, the night after the funeral, broke open +the coffin with intent to steal the rings which adorned the body, when, +to his utter alarm, she who was thought to be dead opened her eyes and +began to move; thereat the thief fled amain as though chased by the +awakened spirit, leaving his lanthorn behind him, which served to light +the lady out of the vault." + +The simple brevity of the account is delightful. No nerves on the part +of the dame, whose motto must have been "noblesse oblige." We picture +her stepping gracefully out of her narrow bed, taking that lanthorn, so +conveniently left, and in her white shroud making her way to the +supper-room, where no doubt her sorrow-stricken descendants were +sustaining life with beef and beer and bread. Were they really and truly +glad to see her? She must have been a woman, not only of great presence +of mind, but of strong character, and we, at this distance, can look +back admiringly; but as to her dutiful and obedient children--well, one +wonders. + + +HINGSTON DOWN + +The New Bridge leads directly out to the high land of Hingston Down, +where before stannary laws were enacted and coinage towns assigned, the +tinners of Devon and Cornwall met on Kit Hill and held their parliament. +During the fourteenth century difficulties arose, and after that only +the Cornish came to the old earthwork for their debates. An interesting +light is shed, by a speech of Sir Walter Raleigh's in Parliament, when +Lord Warden of the Stannaries, on the men and their earnings. In those +days it would appear that the pay of a working tinner was 4_s_. a week, +finding himself. Of this Sir Walter boasts as a great change for the +better inasmuch as previously the tinner had received but half that +amount. + +These hills used to be famous for their tin, hence the saying: + + "_Hingston Down well wrought + Is worth London Town, dear bought._" + +In 835 the Cornish were defeated by the men of Devon on this open +ground, and some centuries later Charles I. crossed it on his way to try +conclusions with Lord Essex. A little beyond Callington is St. Ive, one +of the most lovely churches in the duchy. The east end and north side +are fourteenth-century work of great merit, and the remainder is +fifteenth century. The beautiful tower has clustered pinnacles, but the +chief interest lies in the chancel window with its fine tracery, and the +ogee-headed niches in the jambs of the scoinson arch, while some of the +glass in the east window is of the same date as the tracery. + +The river no longer curves in upon itself so frequently, but the +landscape, deeply wooded and with the fine Carthamartha Rocks above the +junction of the Inny with the Tamar, is softly beautiful. Greston Bridge +crosses the river between Lezant and Lawhitton, and at Trecarrel House +in the former, Charles I., with his army sleeping round him in the +fields, lay on the night of August 1, 1644. At Lewannick, west of +Lezant, a cresset stone has been preserved. This structure resembles a +font, but with the top hollowed out into a number of bowls to contain +oil and floating wicks. Before the days of matches, a light was kept +perpetually burning in the church in order that the parishioners might +resort to it, if by any chance their hearth-fires, always carefully +sodded up, should be extinguished. Cresset stones are now rare. The one +at Calder Abbey has sixteen bowls, but that at Furness resembles the one +at Lewannick in having only five. + + +POLYFANT + +In this parish, at a little distance from the church town, is the famous +stone quarry of Polyfant. The greater number of the Norman arches in +this part of the county are made from this stone, the quarry having been +worked for over a thousand years. There are three old crosses in this +neighbourhood, the one at Holloway being of unusual design, while the +"four-holed" cross at Trelaske has projections at the neck. Trelaske is +a well-wooded and picturesque country-place, and contains the remains of +an encampment, while the view from Trelaske Beacon is extensive. A +couple of miles above Greston Bridge the river takes a bend almost at +right angles to its former course, and runs east and west until it +reaches Poulston Bridge, across which Charles I. led his army that +never-to-be-forgotten August and marched on Launceston. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LAUNCESTON TO DOZMARÉ + +_The Upper Reaches of the Tamar: Launceston: The Old Highways: St. +Clether: Altarnun: Trebartha: The Trethevy Dolmen: The Cheesewring: St. +Cleer: St. Neot: Dozmaré: Tregeagle: Lake Dwellings._ + + +THE UPPER REACHES +OF THE TAMAR + +Above Launceston, the Tamar soon has a companion in the shape of the +Bude Canal, which was built at great cost, but is no longer worked. At +Werrington, the river of that name joins the mother stream, after +forming an artificial lake, and Werrington is also interesting as a +place to which several bequests were made for the benefit of the poor +and the support of a school. Many years ago the parish chest, which +contained the donation deeds of these charities, was stolen from the +church. After a long time and great hue and cry it was discovered built +up into the wall of one of the houses and, of course, empty. + +Boyton, a little north, is divided by the Tamar between Devon and +Cornwall. Here lived Agnes Brest, brought to the stake 1557, the only +one among the Cornish Protestants who was actually burnt. North +Tamarton, like Boyton, has a piece of land on the other side of the +river, but, unlike its neighbour, this portion was returned to Cornwall +by an Act of Parliament in 1832. The church of St. Denis is worth a +visit for the sake of the beautiful carving of the pulpit. + + +LAUNCESTON + +These upper reaches of the Tamar are well stocked with trout, and +Launceston which, though not on the river, has a stream of its own, not +to speak of a special and personal canal, is a good centre for anglers +as well as a most interesting old ruin of a place. Its ancient name was +Dunheved, and a castle of some sort was crowning this great hill when +William the Conqueror gave Cornwall to his half-brother, Robert of +Mortain. The most noticeable thing about these Cornish fortifications +is the frequency and ease with which they fell into a ruinous condition. +Seeing that the walls are at their thinnest 3 ft. thick and elsewhere +10, one would have thought them capable of withstanding a little wind +and weather. But the contrary was the case. The present ruins are mostly +late Norman and Transition Norman of Henry III.'s time, but already in +1312, not a hundred years after they had replaced the older building, we +find them calling urgently for repair; while, when the Black Prince came +down to Cornwall in 1353 to make acquaintance with his duchy, for he +took that as seriously and conscientiously as everything else, the +stronghold was in a parlous condition. Yet it occupies a commanding +position and was evidently a place of considerable strength. No doubt +the good young Prince restored this Castle Terrible with its great +wall--the base court--containing three gateways, one of which is still +standing, and its dungeon of Doomsdale; this castle to which "the vill +of Truro yearly rendered one laburnum bow and the manor of Scilly three +hundred puffins!" + +Imagine the arrival at the buttery hatch of those three hundred puffins! +We think them a leathery, fishy kind of food, and nowadays the servants +would leave in a body if required to eat them. But those were the good +old times, and in guardroom and kitchen no doubt they had puffin roasted +and puffin boiled and puffins in their pasties until the lady of the +castle said to her lord: "My love, in this weather, of course, you can't +expect those puffins to keep; really the Scillies are most +inconsiderate, one hundred at a time would have been sufficient!" and +then they had puffins potted and variously preserved until the garrison +groaned in chorus the old grace: + + "_Puffins young and puffins old, + Puffins hot and puffins cold, + Puffins tender and puffins tough, + I thank the Lord I've had enough._" + +At the time of the Civil Wars the Castle, nodding in age-long sleep and +slow decay, was restored and fortified. Charles I. and his troops passed +through the town in August 1644; and Richard Grenville, new-made Lord of +Lostwithiel, was imprisoned here, when his turbulence had exhausted the +royal patience. Now the county gaol is at Bodmin; but in those days of +dungeons and fetters the folk were incarcerated in the fortress--what is +now a playground being the place of execution. + +The ruins are certainly the most interesting part of Launceston, and it +has ruins not only of the ivy-grown castle, but of a priory founded in +1126. Its faint remains, with the exception of a doorway built into the +White Hart Hotel, lie in a valley between the town and St. Stephen's. +When the privilege of sanctuary was abolished except in churches and +churchyards, Launceston was one of the seven towns that were made +sanctuaries for life, except for heinous crimes. The result, however, +was not altogether pleasant for the aforesaid towns, which, much to +their dismay, presently found themselves harbouring all the criminals +and rapscallions of the country. Preferring the room of these would-be +citizens to their company, the towns petitioned James I. for +"desecration" and the right of sanctuary was finally abolished. + +The Church of St. Mary Magdalene was built by Sir Henry Trecarrel in +1524 on the death of his only child. It is of granite, and has the +peculiarity of being worked all over with picks instead of chisels. The +ornamentation is florid and excessive. A granite carving of the +Crucifixion, however, and other interesting monuments form part of the +churchyard wall. The vestry was once a shop that separated the tower +from the church, which though it seems strange to our modern notions was +by no means unusual in olden days. + + +THE OLD HIGHWAYS + +The oldest road in the county is no doubt the one that runs from Tor +Point by way of the principal towns to the Land's End, but a great part +of this ground has already been trodden. Another ancient road leaving +Launceston goes via Bodmin Moors to Bodmin, branching off right and left +at Altarnon. It then crosses Tregoss Moor, passes St. Enoder and +Mitchell, and joins the first near Redruth. This road, running as it +does like a backbone down the centre of the county, we propose to take. +Egloskerry, Treneglos, and Trewen have churches which are mildly +interesting. In the first are two good Norman tympana, one over the +north doorway, representing a dragon, and one, now placed over the +interior of the south doorway, carved with the Agnus Dei. Here also is a +mutilated stone figure supposed to represent one of the Blanchminster +(_anglice_, Blackmonster) family. At Treneglos is another fine Norman +tympanum, having cut on it the tree of life with a lion on each side; +and Trewen has a good mediæval bell inscribed, "St. Michael, pray for +us!" + +At Lancast J. C. Adams, the discoverer of the planet Neptune, was born. +He was also the Senior Wrangler of his year at Cambridge, and one of the +exceptions to the old rule that Senior Wranglers never distinguish +themselves after leaving college. Another Cornish Senior Wrangler was +Henry Martyn, the missionary, to whose memory the baptistery in Truro +Cathedral is dedicated. + + +ST. CLETHER + +Basil or Trebasil, in the parish of St. Clether, was for long the seat +of the Trevelyans. Among the ruins of the house is a large moorstone +oven, now used as a pigstye, while in the immediate neighbourhood are +four granite crosses in a good state of preservation. The Trevelyans, +like most of the Cornish gentry, were Cavaliers, and on one occasion a +party of Roundheads made shift to seize the squire in his own house. + +"If you come on," said he, "I will send out my spearmen against you." + +As there seemed nothing at the back of this threat, come on they did. +Whereupon he up with a teeming beehive and threw it among them. Not a +man-jack waited for the onslaught of those spearmen. + + +ALTARNON + +At the junction of this northerly road with those running south to +Liskeard and west to Bodmin, lies Altarnon, the largest parish in +Cornwall. The patron saint is Non, the mother of St. David, and her +church is full of interesting memorials of the past. It possesses not +only an exceptionally large collection of sixteenth-century bench-ends, +but an oak rood screen, which antiquarians declare to be "by far the +finest specimen of fifteenth-century woodwork in Cornwall and one of the +very best existing examples of perpendicular oak-work in England." There +are also two paintings on wood (date 1620), a fragment of ancient glass +in the east window, locally supposed to contain a portrait of St. Non, a +communion rail of 1684, and other objects of interest. On several of the +bench-ends may be seen carvings of the little corn man or "neck," that +is to say, the figure that is plaited out of the heads of wheat in the +last sheaf at a harvest, and which is sometimes to be seen preserved +over the winter in a cottage. + +Nor is the carefully restored church all that Altarnon has to show. St. +Non's Well was celebrated for the cure of lunacy, and Carew gives a +startling account of the proceedings. "In our forefather's days, when +devotion as much exceeded knowledge as knowledge now cometh short of +devotion, there were many bowsening places for curing madmen; and +amongst the rest one at Altarnunne, called St. Nunne's Pool, which +saint's altar it may be, _pars pro toto_, gave name to the church. And +because the manner of this bowsening is not so unpleasing to hear as it +was uneasy to feel, I will deliver you the practice as I received it +from the beholder. + +"The water running from St. Nunne's Well fell into a square and +close-walled plot which might be filled at what depth they listed. Upon +this wall was the frantic person set to stand, his back towards the +pool, where a strong fellow, provided for the nonce, took him and tossed +him, and tossed him up and down, along and athwart the water, until the +patient, by foregoing his strength, had somewhat forgotten his fury. +Then was he conveyed to the church and certain masses sung over him; +upon which handling, if his right wits returned, St. Nunne had the +thanks, but if there appeared small amendment, he was bowsened again and +again, while there remained in him any hope of life or recovery." + +The well is now dry, and the "square and close-walled plot" in ruins, +for which--lest it should occur to our medical men to try these old +remedies--thanks be to whom thanks are due. + + +TREBARTHA + +The Lynher which rises in Altarnon flows southward to Trebartha, where +it forms a fine cascade and is crossed by the road to Liskeard. Not far +from this bridge is the manor of Treveniel, whose lord claimed the +right, whenever the Mayor of Launceston mounted his horse on the +occasion of the duke coming into Cornwall, of holding the stirrup. It +seems strange that any gentleman should set store by this right, which +is, after all, a relic of some forgotten form of tenure. What elderly +children we remain, squabbling over our foolish plays, in spite of the +twentieth century, the new humanitarianism, and all the other +solemnities! + + +THE TRETHEVY +DOLMEN + +Before marching on Liskeard, Charles I. drew up his troops on the north +side of Caradon Hill. The copper mines on the south-west of this +moorland eminence have yielded ore to the value of several millions of +money, but are no longer worked. Near them is the Trethevy dolmen, the +largest in Cornwall, the cover stone being 14 ft. long and 9 ft. wide. +An old writer described it as "a little house raised of mighty stone, +standing on a little hill within a field." In comparison with some of +the foreign dolmens, however, it is but small. Several of the French +cromlechs are large enough to be converted into chapels, while one at +Copenhagen, called the "Chamber of Giants," will allow of twenty people +walking about in it. + + +THE CHEESEWRING + +To the north of Caradon Down are three stone circles known as the +Hurlers and not far from them the remarkable granite stone known as the +Cheesewring. This curious natural phenomenon stands on the side of a +hill, the summit of which is encircled by a large entrenchment of unhewn +stones, while over against it is Kilmar Tor (1297 ft.), third highest +peak in Cornwall. It looks like large blocks of tabular granite poised +on smaller ones till the base of the Cheesewring is only about half the +size of what it supports, this irregularity being due to weathering. A +part of the top is broken. In consequence of careless quarrying close +by, the pile has had to be artificially supported. + +Antiquaries once thought the Cheesewring a memorial to the dead, from +which in the course of centuries the covering earth had been washed +away. In this neighbourhood there are many such cairns and monuments. A +barrow near by was opened in 1818 and in it an extended skeleton and a +gold cup were found. This cup was of Scandinavian type, 3-1/2 in. high, +and weighed nearly three ounces, which suggests that some sea rover +found his last resting-place in these heathy solitudes. + + +ST. CLEER + +From near the Cheesewring a moorland road leads down to St. Cleer, which +is divided from St. Neot by the lovely valley of the River Fowey. This +parish contains a number of antiquities of varying ages, in fact, as has +been said, "dead faiths and dead beliefs lie about this countryside like +withered leaves in autumn." At Trewartha Marsh is a prehistoric +settlement which probably belongs to the early iron age. Some of the +oblong huts are small, but others are fully 50 ft. long, while in the +group is what was possibly a public hall with stone benches along its +sides, and at the end a chair with arms. A few hut circles and an +ancient circular pound are also to be seen. + +Doniert's stone, supposed to have been raised in memory of King Alfred's +friend, Dungarth of Cornwall, is near Redgate; and in the village of St. +Cleer is a Latin cross which stands beside a holy well reputed to have +been used like that at Altarnun for the "bowsening" or cure of maniacs. +This well has a beautiful little chapel built over the clear spring. + + "_Tell me the street to Heaven. + This? Or that? Oh, which? + What webs of streets!_" + + NOGUCHI. + +The fifteenth-century tower of St. Cleer is unusually fine, and the +church contains a Norman north doorway, and an early English font of +great beauty. + + +ST. NEOT + +To the north of both St. Cleer and St. Neot lie the wild and +uncultivated moors, and the saints must have been brave men who sought +the solitude of this granite strewn district. It is little wonder that +strange, and to our thinking, absurd legends, should have grown up about +them. St. Neot, as has been already said, was a cousin of King Alfred, +and it appears that in those days even minor royalties worked for their +living. The saint's oxen were stolen--he evidently farmed the land--so +the stags of the neighbouring forest performed all the necessary labour, +and for this good deed were endowed with a white mark wherever the yoke +of labour had touched their brown hides! This and similar stories are +depicted on one of the beautiful stained glass windows of the church. + +This parish, like so many others in Cornwall, is rich in ancient +crosses, there being no less than three, all having incised crosses on +them, in the vicarage garden. In the churchyard is one on which is quite +the finest interlaced work on granite in the county. It has been mounted +on the stone, on which legend says St. Neot, who was a small man, stood +in order to unlock the church door. From which story it appears that in +those days the churches were kept locked! + +Little St. Neot must have been glad to welcome his great kinsman, when +as the Book of Hyde (1200 A.D.) says: "Alfred went to Cornwall and +repaired to the Church of St. Gueryr, where St. Neot reposes, for the +purpose of alleviating his illness." Let us hope Neot was not too +saintly to feel a cousinly interest in the King's health and that the +two compared their widely differing lives and asked after old friends +and what had been the history of this one and that; and that they ate in +peace of the wheaten bread which St. Neot, after his farming operations, +would be able to offer, and the fish with which another legend daily +provided him, and so parted, the one to his burden of life, the other +staying on, content with uneventful peace. + +The glory of St. Neot's Church is its collection of stained glass. It +dates from 1528, and though not quite the oldest in the county, it is +said that none comparable with it for beauty and richness exist either +in Cornwall or Devon. + +The old road from Bodmin to Plymouth, that interesting prehistoric +highway by which the early Cornish probably sent their tin for shipment +abroad, runs through the village. Long before Alfred came to hob-nob +with his cousin, before the Romans so much as knew that Britain existed, +and while the mammoth in the valley of the Thames was still shaking his +great hairy sides over the littleness of man, the rough stuggy ponies, +whose descendants still feed on Goonhilly Downs, were carrying their +heavy packs along this track, over the old clapper bridges, past heath, +morass, forest, and settlement, at the call of need. + + +DOZMARÉ + +On the high land north of St. Neot and a little beyond Brown Gilly (1058 +ft.) lies Dozmaré, the only inland lake of Cornwall. This tarn, which by +old writers was called the Dead Sea from the lifeless appearance of its +waters, lies on an elevated plateau in a dreary sad-coloured region. It +is nearly square and in circumference about a mile. Tennyson told Mr. J. +J. Rogers that the Loe Pool was where he pictured the throwing away of +the sword Excalibur. His description suits that and does not suit +Dozmaré, while the moormen talk only of "Jan Tergeagle," that unjust +steward who does penance for his evil deeds in so many parts of +Cornwall. It is said that he has been set to bale Dozmaré--supposed to +be bottomless--dry, and has been given to aid him in his task a limpet +shell pierced with a hole through which the water drips as he lifts it. + +It is perhaps "flogging a dead horse" to mention that in the hot summer +of 1869 Dozmaré dried up, thus proving that it was far from bottomless. +By disclosing a number of unfortunate trout and eels, it also showed it +was by no means "dead." To a moorman the suggestion that Tregeagle has +evidently accomplished his task, however, has but little weight. His +imagination overleaps the trifling fact of the dry summer and its +consequences, and only looks before and after. The pool seems +mysterious, it has a healthy legend, and to that legend any one hearing +the wind howl over these wastes on a December night may well give +credence. + +What was the origin of the moated grange? In Dozmaré is a subaqueous +pile of stones on which once stood a crannog or lake dwelling, while +many arrow heads and worked flints have been found in the neighbourhood. +Did the folk who built their homes over a pool find the water so great a +protection that their children going east and west, and being unable to +discover any more convenient lakes, built a stockaded house, and for its +greater safety must by their personal labour surround it with the +element in which they had always trusted? Is the moated grange then only +the direct descendant of the lake dwelling? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM BROWN WILLY TO CAMBORNE + +_Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: St. +Breward and Blisland: Helland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell: Cornish Names: +Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word +in Farewell._ + + +BROWN WILLY +AND ROW TOR + +Dozmaré Pool is only a short distance from the main road on the further +side of which lie the chief heights of this moorland district, Row Tor +(1296 ft.) and Brown Willy (1375 ft.). From Tintagel these hills look +like gently rounded brown masses on the skyline, but on nearer approach +the scene changes from cultivation to a waste of rock and bog and heath. +Rowtor, which is the northernmost of the two peaks, is covered with +masses of granite which have been weathered into fantastic shapes. It +was looked upon by the ancients as a sacred hill, probably on this +account, and there are remains of a stone circle on the slope and of +other prehistoric monuments. In 1371 Sir Hugh Peverell had licence for a +chapel of St. Michael at "Rogh-torre," of which the foundations can be +traced, while the stone arch of the doorway is to be seen built into the +Britannia Inn, near Camelford. This chapel was probably built on the +site of an earlier edifice not necessarily Christian. + +Brown Willy (Cornish, bron welli, the highest hill) is a beautiful +conical hill rising from the Bodmin mass of granite. The beacon of loose +stones on the summit was raised by the ordnance surveyors, and it is +said that on a fine day the peak of Snowdon can be seen through field +glasses. The Fowey rises at the foot of this hill and flowing through +the moorlands between St. Cleer and St. Neot is, in spite of its beauty, +most unkindly called the Dranes. + +In the immediate neighbourhood of Brown Willy and Row Tor are several +other tors and heights; Brê Down, to the north, 1125 ft.; Garrah, south +of Brown Willy, 1086 ft., with hut-circles and other prehistoric +remains. Not far from it is King Arthur's Hall (see page 41). Catshole +Tor is 1133 ft. and Toborough 1143 ft., while the beacon above Tresilon +rises to 1174 ft. + + +MICHAELSTOW, ST. TUDY +AND ST. MABYN + +To westward of these hills, on a good road leading down to Bodmin, are +the parishes of Michaelstow, St. Tudy, and St. Mabyn, each of which +possesses some interesting church silver, the last mentioned having, in +particular, a standing vessel dated 1576, which is surmounted by a +statuette and now used as a communion cup. This little place is situated +amid romantic sylvan and river scenery, while its church on the top of a +hill serves as a waymark. At Michaelstow, on the north of the church, +are traces of a lean-to building with an opening into the chancel, and +it has been suggested that this was an anchor hold. Near by is Helsbury +Beacon, 700 ft. above sea-level, and crowned with a fine circular +earthwork which has a barbican on the east. + + +ST. BREWARD +AND BLISLAND + +Over St. Breward Church antiquarians are in dispute, for some of them +think it shows traces of an original cruciform Saxon church altered by a +Norman arcade. It is not otherwise interesting; while Blisland, to the +south, has a beautiful modern screen, some fine slate monuments, and +good woodwork. To reach it the traveller passes Pendrief, a logan-stone, +once so finely balanced that it was rocked by the wind. It is now +immovable. The royal arms and the arms of Cornwall were engraved on it +to commemorate the jubilee of George III. This neighbourhood is +particularly rich in that puzzling antiquity, the stone circle. At +Carwen there is not only one--and it might have been thought one would +have been enough for a place--but several, also others at Kerrowe Down, +Challowater, and on Hawks Tor, the last-named example being 152 ft. in +diameter. + + +HELLAND + +Of Helland, principally known for its two circular earthworks called +"The Castles," is told this story. The vicar being called away +unexpectedly, left his neighbour of Blisland to make arrangements for +the customary services. He did so with the Archdeacon, and in due course +the Vicar of Helland received the following telegram: + +"The Archdeacon of Cornwall is going to hell, and you need not return." + + +BODMIN + +These moorland parishes cover about ten square miles. They are not +entirely sterile, some parts being capable of cultivation and others +giving good pasture for cattle; but, on the whole, the impression left +is of a bracing and breezy waste, one of the happy spaces not yet +brought under the dominion of man. And with never a turn the broad white +road runs uphill and down dale and so to Bod Mynydd, the dwelling under +the hill, the only name that appears on the earliest maps. + +In Domesday Bodmin was the largest town in Cornwall, having actually +sixty-eight houses, not to speak of a market. Curfew is still rung in +Bodmin Church at 8 P.M., and being situated conveniently in the centre +of the county the hilly, straggling town has gradually increased in +importance. The Cornish were such an unruly folk, so fond of rebellion +and blood-letting, that no town of theirs but had its vicissitudes; nor +were the troubles of Bodmin only due to their restless energy. In 1348 +certain carriers brought a string of pack mules laden with rich +merchandise into the town. The bales contained embroidered robes of +velvet and satin, pearl-sewn gloves, plumed hats and silken hose, all at +a reasonable price. Bodmin folk were used to smuggled goods, had even +had the treasures of wrecked ships hawked through their streets. They +saw no reason therefore to be cautious; and the goods were purchased, +the carriers paid; and forthwith the men led their mules out of the +little town and took the road back to Plymouth. The silver pennies were +safe in their pouches, and it would be better not to wait. + +Before long a sickness broke out among the people of Bodmin, a sickness +unlike any that they had known before, which was not strange when we +consider that the fine clothes had belonged to Londoners who had +perished in the Black Death. News travelled slowly in those days and +Bodmin had not known. But whereas when the carriers came there had been +three thousand people in the town, when the sickness passed there were +but half that number. + +Bodmin suffered again after the religious rising of the people in Edward +VI.'s reign. According to fact, Sir Anthony Kingston, Provost-Marshal, +was sent down from London to punish the rebels. According to tradition +he is said to have carried out his instructions with a grim pleasantry +all his own. "Boyer, Mayor of Bodmin," runs the story, "had been amongst +the rebels against his will; to him the Provost sent word that he would +dine with him; therefore the Mayor made great preparations. A little +before dinner the Provost took the Mayor aside and whispered him in the +ear that an execution must be done in the town that day, and desired +that a gallows might be set by the time dinner was over. Presently, when +the meal was at an end, the Provost, taking the Mayor by the hand, asked +to be led to the place where the gallows was, and looking at it asked +the Mayor if he thought it strong enough. + +"'Doubtless,' said the Mayor. + +"'Come then, my friend,' said the Provost with a bitter grin, 'get thee +up speedily, for thou hast prepared it for thyself.' + +"Whereat the Mayor, quivering with fear, cried: 'Surely, good sir, thou +dost not mean what thou speakest?' + +"'In faith,' said the Provost, 'I speak what I mean, for thou hast been +a busy rebel.' + +"So he was hanged to death." + +Near Bodmin lived a miller who had been active in this same rebellion, +and he, getting wind of these proceedings, told a sturdy fellow, his +servant, that he had occasion to go from home; and therefore bid him to +take his place for a time, and if any did come to inquire for the miller +he should say that he was the miller and had been so for three years. In +course of time the Provost came and was met by the servant, who said +with consequence: "I am the master and have been so these three years." + +"Lay hold on him, my men," cried the Provost, "and hang him on this +tree." + +At this the fellow, sore amazed, cried out the truth. "Nay, nay, my good +friend," said the Provost, "I'll take thee at thy word, and if thou +be-est the miller thou knowest thou art a rebel and if thou be-est the +miller's man, thou art a lying knave; and howsoever thou canst never do +thy master better service than to hang for him." + +And so, without more ado, he was despatched. + +During the Civil War Bodmin suffered so greatly that Charles II., +passing through, said it was "the politest town he had ever seen, as one +half of the houses appeared to be bowing and the other half uncovered." +Hardly the sort of comment that might have been expected, when it was +owing to a kindness for him and his that the town was in so ruinous a +condition, but if Charles's wit was in the right place the same can +hardly have been said of his heart! + +When Perkin Warbeck entrenched himself at Castle Kynock, an ancient camp +on Bodmin Downs, his horse was said to have extended from Cardinham to +Lanhydrock; and it was to Glynn, a place between those two, that Charles +I. fled one night, when it had been borne in upon him that he and he +alone stood between his people and peace; and that even the loyal and +devoted were considering whether it would not be better to have him as a +prisoner than as a leader. "Character is Fate" should have been the +motto of the Stuarts, a family that acted foolishly because it was their +nature so to act and to whom not the most terrible lesson of all could +teach wisdom. + +To the south of Bodmin is St. Lawrence, a place with gruesome +associations. There were a fair number of leper hospitals in Cornwall, +but it brings the fell disease near to us when we reflect that the last +inmate of St. Lawrence only died (though not from leprosy) in 1800. + + +LANIVET + +At Lanivet Church the communion plate is kept in a rare antique pyx of +"cuir bouilli," said to be of the fourteenth century. In the churchyard +is a Saxon tomb and a yet older inscribed stone; also a remarkable wheel +cross, a four-holed cross with interlaced and scroll work, and a curious +stone slab. St. Benet's, once a seat of the Courtenays, is built on the +site of a reputed Benedictine monastery, the greater part of the front +having belonged to the original building. The walls are about 4 ft. +thick. Unfortunately the stones of the cloisters, as well as the upper +part of the tower, were used some years ago for building a farmhouse! + + +MITCHELL + +Near St. Enoder, not in itself interesting, is the old borough of +Mitchell (formerly written Modeshole), which in the time of Edward I. +was the property of Sir Walter de Raleigh. Though now an inconsiderable +village it was said in Saxon days to have been a fair-sized town, and as +a borough its reputation for corruption and quarrelling is black even +compared with the other rotten boroughs of the county. Sir Walter +Raleigh was member for Mitchell when he carried his motion for war +against Spain; and in 1807 it was represented by Sir Arthur Wellesley, +afterwards Duke of Wellington. + + +CORNISH NAMES + +Some of the Cornish saints have very curious names. On the Tamar is a +church sacred to St. Dilp, but more remarkable is that of St. Erme, +sacred to--Hermes. _Saint_ Hermes, too! The god of thieves, that little +old ancient run-about! 'Tis said the early Christians made good use of +all existing material, such as the Venus month for the Virgin Mary and +so forth, but--_Saint_ Hermes! In this church is an interesting brass, +with kneeling effigies and seven-quartered shield of arms, to Robert +Trencreeke, "counseler at lawe," 1594. + + +BLACKWATER AND +ILLOGAN + +The long western road is approaching the busiest, greyest, and most +populous part of the county--the mining district. Camborne and Redruth +are the principal towns and in a sense rivals. Each has a school of +mining, though Camborne's is now _the_ school of the county and the +great mine, the greatest and the oldest of all, Dolcoath--where, in +lively contrast with his work of the moment, Raspe wrote "The Adventures +of Baron Munchausen"--belongs to the former. Before the road reaches +either of these towns, however, it passes Blackwater, the birthplace of +Passmore Edwards (1823). Though he was a well-known journalist as well +as the owner of the Echo newspaper, he is most likely to be remembered +as the donor of a large number of philanthropic institutions, beginning +with the reading room which he built for his native village in 1889. + +Not far south-west of Blackwater is Illogan, where the engineer +Trevithick made the first steam carriage, known locally as "Cap'n Dick's +Puffer." + + +REDRUTH AND ST. DAY + +A little north of Redruth lies St. Day, of the growth of which Norden, +in the sixteenth century, left a charming description. "There was +sometime a chappell now decayde, called Trinitye, to which men and women +came in times past from far in pilgrimage: the resort was so great, as +it made the people of the Countrye bringe all kind of provision to that +place; and so long it continued with increase, that it grew to a kind of +market and by that means it grew and continued a kind of market to this +day, without further charter." + +Of Redruth itself there is little to be said. Like so many Cornish +towns, it consists of a chief street that is wearisomely long: it had +its famous man, Murdock, who first used gas as an illuminant; and the +first railway in Cornwall ran from Redruth to Hayle, being opened in +1835. To the east is Carnmarth, 750 ft. high, with a wide view, and on +one side the Gwennap Pit, a mine subsidence, in which John Wesley often +preached and in which the members of his denomination assemble in their +thousands every Whit Monday. + +"Why," asked a "foreigner" of a Redruth man, "are the Cornish, and +especially the miners, called Cousin Jacks?" + +"Spoase Adam gave it out when he named t'other animals." + +But Camborne asks the sister town a less civil question. "Who was it +crowned the donkey?" And this had its origin in a certain playful +disloyalty on the accession of George IV. Cornwall, as it might say of +itself, has "never taken much stock in kings." It cropped the ears of +Edward IV.'s pursuivant, killed Edward VI.'s commissioner, and crowned a +donkey as George IV. Inconsistent county! For the Stuarts it must needs +pour out blood like water and impoverish itself for generations! + + +CARN BREA + +Between Redruth and Camborne is the rocky hill of Carn Brea (740 ft.). +It consists of a rugged mass of granite crowned with huge piles of +weathered rocks. In neolithic times it was undoubtedly a military +station, large remains of the enclosing walls as well as many hut +circles having been found. This hill has three summits, with the remains +of an old castle on that towards the east, which castle is mentioned by +William of Worcester in 1478. On the central peak is an ugly granite +cross erected in 1836 by the county to the memory of their very good +friend, Francis, Lord de Dunstanville and Basset. In one of the hut +circles on the top of Carn Brea was found a cooking hearth now in the +Truro Museum, whither went many of the old British and Roman coins, +stone weapons, and tools, flint and quartzite spear heads, and socketed +bronze celts unearthed on the hill. St. Ewny's Well is a romantic spot +of repute for sanctity, while the "Giant's Well" halfway down the hill +was said to be bottomless. + + +CAMBORNE + +Camborne Church is interesting for its carvings, those of the animals +being comparable with the exquisite heads at Newlyn East. Near the porch +is an ancient cross and below the communion table an early altar slab, +formerly built into the exterior wall of the transept, but now restored. +It is inscribed "Leviut jusit hec altare pro anima sua." + +It is not easy to obtain permission to see more than the surface +workings of the venerable Dolcoath, and even for them, in spite of the +present-day harem skirt, the dress provided creates some disturbance in +the mind of the average woman. She had not thought to see herself +wearing the breeches--at least in public! + + +A WORD IN +FAREWELL + +Round this wonderfully indented coast, up the winding Tamar, and across +the moors! You who have gone with me on this delightful journey, can you +think of any county with a greater variety, historical, antiquarian, +natural, to offer you for the good and bracing time of a holiday? And if +in the years to come you find time to look back and in thought travel +over the self-same ground, will you be able to do it without the +longing--put into words by the poet who spent so much of his time at +Camborne: + + "_To sleep and to take my rest, + The old sea here at my door, + The grey hills there in the West-- + What can a man want more?_" + + LOWRY. + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +THE GREEN BOOK OF ST. COLUMB + +In olden days the parish as distinct from the church was an entity with +the power not only of appointing a sort of select vestry of twelve (was +this number chosen because of the Apostles?) with wardens for the +parish, for the poor, for the coffer, and for the pews, but of holding +property such as sheep, cattle, and land. It lent money, sometimes at +interest, sometimes gratis, it kept ladders, charging for their hire, +and, above all, it encouraged Morris dancing and Robin Hood +entertainments. + +For instance, in 1616, we find in the Green Book, "The young men of the +parish wh: played a stage-play, 3_s_. 4_d_." + +In the list of parish goods set down in 1585 we have: "Ladder. Five +coats for dancers. A Friar's Coat. Twenty-four dancing bells. A streamer +of red moccado and locram. Six yards of white woollen cloth." + +In most places the Morris dance was part of the pageant of Robin Hood, +and that this was the case at St. Columb is shown by the "Friar's Coat." +The bells were worn on a band at the knee, and the streamer or flag was +of two materials, no longer known under those names, the moccado +resembling coarse velvet, and the locram an equally coarse linen. + +In many parishes a special collection for the "Robin Hood" penny is +recorded, and in the Green Book we have: + +"Richard Beard oweth to be paid at Lady Day in Lent 10_s_. of Robin +Hood's money; Robert Calwye oweth for the same 2_s_. 8_d_." + +Hurling also received its due meed of parochial attention. In 1593 is an +entry; "John Menheere and wife for a silver ball delivered to Tobye at +his instance and upon his word 10_s_." But in those days the ball +differed from that now in use inasmuch as it was gilt, and a year later +we find that "Tobye" pays the 10_s_. for his "silver ball gilt." + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT + +It is a place of historic and prehistoric interest. Here is the well by +which + + "_Jack the valiant Cornishman + Did slay the giant Cormoran._" + +Jack being the Cornish variant of the better known Peredur of Wales and +Ian MacAnnheil of Ireland. + +Here, too, are the "Giants' Graves" which cover the victims of Jack's +valour; and on the beach at the foot of the hill is the Chapel Rock, +whereon once stood an oratory of which Leland speaks as "a little chapel +yn the sande nere by the towne toward the Mount," and where it is said +the pilgrims were wont to halt before making the ascent. But the Chapel +Rock has a legend older than those connected with the building which +once stood upon it. Cormoran having already carried off the top of the +neighbouring hill of Trencrom to make the Mount itself, was in want of +further stones wherewith to build his castle, and sent his wife to fetch +them. She thinking any stone would do as well, fetched this from the +nearer hill of Ludgvan-Lees. Angry at her conduct, the monster slew her +with his mighty foot, and the great rock, rolling from her apron, fell +where we now see it--a silent witness to the lady's strength and to the +truth of the narrative. + +St. Keyne is said to have conferred on St. Michael's Chair the power of +giving to that one of a married couple who first sits therein domestic +mastery; such as can also be obtained by drinking from her more +celebrated well near Liskeard. Curiously enough, legend and name have +been transferred from the real chair of St. Michael on the western side +of the hill to the ruined lanthorn of moorstone on the chapel tower, the +lanthorn which in olden days was probably used as a lighthouse, as the +grooves for the sheltering horn or glass can still be seen. + +The little old church has a beautiful rose window at the east, and a yet +more beautiful one let into the western wall; this latter was until +recently hidden by the organ pipes. Some interesting alabaster +bas-reliefs are also to be seen. The roof timbers of the refectory are +very old, but the carving on them is modern, and the frieze Elizabethan. +The place contains many interesting curios such as the clock from +Godolphin House, a Jacobean bed, the Glastonbury chair, and a pair of +silver candlesticks in which the prickets have given place to sockets, +and which Lord St. Levan believes to be unique. + + * * * * * + +These details have been taken from a paper on St. Michael's Mount by Mr. +Thurstan Peter. + + + + +INDEX + + + Adams, J. C., 178 + Agnes, St., Beacon, 75 + Agnes, St. (island), 102 + Alfred, King, 138, 157, 183 + Allen, Ralph, 141 + Altarnon, 179 + Antony East, 164 + Arthur, King, 22, 37, 41, 67 + Arundell, Humfrey, 67 + Arundell, John, 74, 122-3 + Margery, 164 + Arwenack, 121, 126 + Athelstane, 9, 92, 105 + Austell, St., 109, 139 + + Bacon, 97 + Balfour, Sir Wm., 144 + Ballowal, 84 + Barras Head, 39 + Bartine, 86 + Basil, 179 + Basset of Tehidy, Francis, 25, 76-7 + Basset's Cove, 76 + Bath, Earls of, 22 + Beacon Cove, 64 + Benet's, St., 194 + Berkeley, Sir John, 137 + Black Head, 137 + Black Prince, The, 38, 148, 176 + Blackwater, 196 + Blake, Admiral, 105 + Blazey, St., 141 + Blisland, 190 + Boconnoc, 153 + Bodmin, 50, 177, 191 + Bodrugan, 135 + Bolleit, 84, 92 + Bolster, 75 + Boscastle, 34-5 + Boscawen-Un, 84 + Bosporthennis, 84 + Bossiney, 36 + Boswavas Moor, 86 + Botallack Mine, 91 + Botreaux Castle, 34 + Boyton, 175 + Bradock Downs, 153 + Bray Hill, 50 + Breage, 108 + Brê Down, 189 + Breock, St., 52 + Breward, St., 41, 190 + Bridge, Royal Albert, 167 + Brown Gilly, 185 + Brown Willy, 41, 189 + Bryher, 102 + Brunel, 167 + Buckingham, first Duke of, 168 + Bude, 9, 21, 27 + Bude Canal, 175 + Budock, 121 + Burngullow, 139 + Buryan, St., 92 + Buttris, 117 + + Cadgwith, 116, 117 + Caerhayes Castle, 135 + Callington, 171 + Calstock, 169 + Cambeak, 22, 33 + Camborne, 8, 195, 198 + Camelford, 41 + Cape Cornwall, 84 + Carantocus, St., 72 + Carbis Bay, 78 + Carglaze Mine, 140 + Carminows, The, 43 + Carnanton, 63 + Carn Brea, 197 + Carne, 134 + Cammarth, 196 + Carthamartha Rocks, 171 + Carwen, 190 + Castle-an-Dinas, 67 + Castle Dor, 144 + Castle Goff, 42 + Castle Killibury, 51 + Castle Point, 33 + Catshole Tor, 190 + Challowater, 191 + Chapel Carn Brea, 86 + Charles I., 69, 78, 117, 142, 171, 177 + II., 69, 105, 117, 122, 125, 193 + Charlestown, 139 + Cheesewring, The, 134, 181 + Chûn, 84 + Clarendon, Lord, 51 + Cleer, St., 157, 182 + Clether, St., 179 + Clicker Tor, 158 + Cligga Head, 75 + Clovelly Dykes, 9, 21 + Colan, 68 + Colenso, the fighting Bishop, 139 + Columb Major, St., 51, 67 + Minor, St., 67, 69 + Porth, St., 70 + Condora, 118 + Constantine Bay, 54, 59-61 + Cookworthy, Wm., 109 + Coombe Valley, 24 + Cotehele, 136, 169 + Couch, 150 + Coverack, 117 + Crackington Cove, 33 + Crafthole, 161 + Crantock, 71-2 + Cromwell, Oliver, 26, 51 + Cruel Coppinger, 48 + Cubert, St., 71, 73 + Cuby, 75 + + Davy, Sir H., 129 + Dawney, 162 + Dawns Maen, 84 + Day, St., 196 + Delabole, 37, 43 + Dennis, St., 140 + Digby, Lord, 147 + Ding Dong Mine, 106 + Dingerein, 133 + Dizzard, 22, 33 + Dodman, The, 5, 137, 161 + Dolcoath, 196 + Dolphin Town, 104 + Doom Bar, 54 + Dozmaré, 185-6 + Drake, Sir F., 37, 161 + Dranes, The, 189 + Druid's Hill, 147 + Duloe, 159 + Dungarth, King of Cornwall, 157, 182 + + Eddystone, The, 162 + Edgcumbe, Mount, 163 + Edgcumbe, Sir Rd., 136, 169 + Edward the Confessor, 72 + Edward I., 134 + III., 148, 165 + IV., 51, 148 + VI., 67, 192 + VII., 91 + Edwards, Passmore, 101, 196 + Egbert, 92, 138 + Egloshayle, 52 + Egloskerry, 178 + Eliot, Port, 165 + Sir John, 165 + Elizabeth, Queen, 121, 149 + Endellion, St., 50 + Enoder, St., 195 + Enodoc, St., 49 + Epitaphs, 44, 68, 115, 117 + Essex, Lord, 26, 121, 142, 169 + Eval, St., 62 + + Fairfax, Sir T., 26, 122 + Fal, The, 9, 117, 127 + Falmouth, 121-6 + Feock, 127 + Flushing, 125 + Foote, Samuel, 129 + Forrabury, 35 + Fowey, 9, 121, 139, 142 + The, 189 + Furlong, Andrew, 166 + + Gafulford, 41 + Gannel, The, 71 + Garrah Tor, 189 + Genys, St., 33 + George, St., 160 + Germans, St., 165-6 + Germoe, 109 + Gerrans, 133 + Giant's Hedge, The, 152 + Glasney College, 126 + Glendorgal, 70 + Godolphin, 104, 108 + Francis, 69, 96 + Godrevy, 77 + Golant, 147-9 + Golden, 134 + Goonhilly Downs, 113, 116, 184 + Goring, 143 + Goran, 137 + Goss Moors, 68 + Greenamore, 28 + Grenville, Sir B., 21, 153 + Denis, 168 + Sir J., 26, 105, 168 + Sir R., 21, 38 + Sir R., Jr., 26, 51, 142-5, 177 + Greston Bridge, 172 + Gribben Head, 142 + Gueryr, St., 157 + Gulf Stream, 103 + Gunwalloe, 113-14, 117 + Gwallen Downs, 141 + Gweek, 117 + Gwennap Pit, 196 + Gwithian, 75, 86 + + Hall House, 143, 149 + Halsetown, 90 + Halzaphron Cliffs, 114 + Hamoaze, 163 + Harewood, 169 + Harlyn Bay, 56 + Hartland, 48 + Hawker, Rev. Robert, 22, 23, 27, 37, 152 + Hawks Tor, 191 + Hayle, 78, 83 + Helford River, The, 9, 117 + Heligan House, 138 + Helland, 191 + Helsbury Beacon, 190 + Helston (North Cornwall), 42 + (South Cornwall), 110-12, 124 + Henna Cliff, 22 + Henry VII., 136 + VIII., 107, 121, 135, 163, 166 + Hensbarrow, 139, 140 + Hermes, St., 195 + Herodsfoot, 158 + High Cliff, The, 5, 33 + Hingston Down, 170 + Hobby Horse, The, 54 + Hoe, The, 167 + Holloway, 172 + Holywell Bay, 72 + Hopton, Sir Ralph, 25, 26 + Housman, Clemence, 39 + Howard of Effingham, Lord, 161 + Hurlers, The, 181 + + Illogan, 196 + Ince Castle, 165 + Inscribed stones, 40, 106, 198 + Irving, Sir Henry, 90 + Ives, St., 77, 79, 88, 89, 90, 110 + Ive, St., 171 + + James I., 177 + II., 152, 168 + Jordans, 34 + Just, St., 91 + + Kayar Beslasek, 7 + Kea Bridge, 43 + Keigwin Arms, 97 + Kelly Rounds, 51 + Kelsey Head, 73 + Kenidjack Cliff, 91 + Kennack, 117 + Kerrowe Down, 191 + Keverne, St., 111, 117 + Kew, St., 50 + Keyne, St., Well of, 158-9 + Kieve, St. Nechtan's, 37 + Kilkhampton, 21-2 + Killigarth, 151 + Killigrews, The, 115, 121-26 + Kilmar Tor, 181-2 + Kingsley, Charles, 24, 112 + Kingston, Sir A., 67, 192-3 + Kit Hill, 170 + Knill's Monument, 83 + Kynance, 114 + + Lady Nance's Well, 69 + Lambrenny, 36 + Landewednack, 116 + Land's End, 8, 93, 94 + Landulph, 168 + Laneast, 178 + Langarrow, 72 + Lanherne, Vale of, 62, 67 + Lanhydrock, 142, 145 + Lanivet, 194 + Lanreath, 153 + Lansallos, 150, 161 + Lansdowne, 26 + Lanteglos, 42, 150 + Lanyon Quoit, 86 + Launcells, 28 + Launceston, 8, 175-8 + Lawhitton, 171 + Lawrence, St., 194 + Lelant, 83 + Lerrin (or Lerryn), 147, 152 + Levan, St., 95 + Levant Mine, 91 + Lewannick, 171 + Lezant, 171 + Liskeard, 157 + Little Petherick, 53 + Lizard, 5, 113 + Loe Pool, 111, 112 + Longships Lighthouse, 93 + Looe, 152, 159-60 + Looe Island, 160 + Lostwithiel, 144-5 + Lovebond, 51, 52 + Lowry, H. D., 79, 94, 129, 146, 198 + Luxulyan, 141 + Lynher, The, 164, 180 + Lyonesse, 101 + + Mabyn, St., 190 + Madron, 98 + Marazion, 83, 101 + Marhamchurch, 22, 28 + Marsland Mouth, 21, 22, 33 + Martin's, St., 102 + Martyn, Henry, 178 + Mary's, St., 102 + Maurice, Prince, 142 + Mawes, St., 121, 133 + Mawgan (Meneage), 117 + (Pydar), 63 + Porth, 62 + Mayne, Cuthbert, 134 + Menacuddle, 141 + Menagew, The, 139 + Meneage, 113 + Menheniot, 158 + Merlin, 96 + Merryn, St., 60-1 + Mertherderwa, Dr., 7 + Mevagissey, 138 + Michael's Mount, St., 97, 101, 107-8, 201-2 + Michaelstow, 190 + Minster, 21, 35 + Minver, St., 50 + Mitchell, 178, 195 + Moditonham, 167-8 + Morth, 151 + Morwell Rocks, 169 + Morwenstow, 22-24, 27 + Mount's Bay, 106 + Mousehole, 95-97 + Mulfra Quoit, 86 + Mullion, 109, 113-15 + Murdock, 196 + + Nare Point, 117 + Navax Point, 77 + Neot, St., 157, 183-4 + New Bridge, 169 + Newlyn, 97-8 + Newlyn East, 198 + Newquay, 71 + North Tamarton, 175 + + Olaf of Norway, 105 + Opie, John, 75, 129 + Otterham, 35 + + Padstow, 48, 53, 54-5 + Paleologus, Theodore, 168 + Par, 139, 142, 143 + Park Head, 62 + Pawton, 53 + Payne, Anthony, 22, 24, 26 + Pelynt, 152 + Pencarrow Head, 33 + Pencarne, 138 + Pendeen, 84 + Pendennis Castle, 121 + Pendower, 133 + Pendrief, 190 + Pengersick Castle, 110 + Penhale Point, 73 + Penlee, 161 + Penolver Point, 116 + Penrose, 112 + Penryn, 126 + Creek, 125 + Pentewan, 138 + Pentillie, 168-9 + Pentire, 22, 48-9 + Pentreath, Dolly, 95-7 + Penwith, 94 + Penzance, 98, 113 + Perran, 86 + Perranporth, 75 + Perranuthnow, 101 + Perranzabuloe, 73 + Phillack, 78 + Pinnoc, St., 153 + Piran, St., 73-4 + Pitt, 153 + Place House, 149 + Poldhu, 115 + Polperro, 150, 161 + Polruan, 143, 149 + Polyfant, 172 + Pope, Alexander, 141 + Pordenack Rock, 94 + Port Gaverne, 47 + Porthalla, 117 + Porthcothan, 62 + Porthcurnow, 86, 95 + Porthgwarra, 94 + Porthmear, 62 + Porthoustock, 117 + Porthpean, 141 + Port Isaac, 47 + Port Quin, 47 + Portreath, 76 + Poughill, 25, 28 + Poulston Bridge, 172 + Probus,134 + + Raleigh, Sir W., 124, 170, 195 + Rame, The, 161, 163 + Head, 136, 161-2 + Redgate, 157 + Redruth, 195-7 + Restormel Castle, 144, 145-6 + Reynolds, Sir J., 163, 166 + Rialton, 69 + Richard III., 135 + Robartes, Lord, 142 + Robert of Mortain, 164, 166, 175 + Roche Rock, 140 + Rockferry, 55 + Rocky Valley, 37 + Round, The, 74 + Row Tor, 189 + Rye, 147 + + Saltash, 8, 165, 167 + Sancreed, 92 + Scilly Isles, 92, 93, 101, 106 + Sennen Cove, 93 + Seven Stones Lightship, 93 + Sheviock, 162 + Skippon, Maj.-Gen., 144 + Smith, Mr., 104 + Stamford Hill, Battle of, 24-5 + Stannary Courts, 127-8 + Stephen's, St., 139, 177 + Stepper Point, 55 + Stowe, 21, 24-26, 54 + Stratton, 22, 24-26, 28, 29 + Straughan, Col., 147 + Swan Pool, 112 + + Talland, 150, 151 + Tamar, The, 8, 9, 21. 163 _et seq._ + Teath, St., 43 + Tehidy, 76 + Tennyson, Lord, 27, 94 + Tidy, The, 165 + Tillie, Sir Wm., 169 + Ting Tang Mine, 106 + Tintagel, 5, 22, 37-40 + Toborough, 190 + Tol-Pedn, 5, 94 + Tonacombe, 24 + Tor Point, 163 + Torridge, The, 163 + Trebartha, 180 + Trebarwith, 41 + Trecarrel, Sir Henry, 177 + House, 171 + Treffry, 121, 149 + Treffry, Elizabeth, 149 + Treffry's Aqueduct, 141 + Tregarrick, 140 + Tregeagle, John, 52, 185 + Tregian, Francis, 134-5 + Tregony, 134 + Tregoss Moor, 178 + Tregothnan, 127 + Trelaske Beacon, 172 + Trelawney, John, 151 + Jonathan, 151 + Trelowarren, 117 + Trematon Castle, 164 + Treneglos, 178 + Trerice, 71, 74-5 + Treryn Dinas, 84, 86 + Tresco, 102 + Tresco Abbey, 104-5 + Tresillian Bridge, 52 + Tresparret Down, 33 + Trethevy Dolmen, 181 + Trevalga, 36 + Trevalgue, 70 + Trevanion, Hugh, 136 + Trevellick, 104 + Trevelyan, 101, 179 + Trevemper, 72 + Treveniel, 181 + Trevethan, 62 + Trevose Head, 33, 48, 58-9 + Trewartha Marsh, 182 + Trewen, 178 + Trewhiddle, 138 + Trewithian, 133 + Trewoofe, 84 + Truro, 125, 127-9, 166 + Tudy, St., 190 + Turner, 94 + + Veep, St., 147 + Veryan Beacon, 133 + Victoria, Queen, 127 + + Waddon, Col., 167-8 + Wadebridge, 26, 51, 52 + Wadgworthy, 167 + Wadham College, 158 + Warbstow Barrows, 35 + Wardour Castle, 63 + Warna, St., Well of, 102-3 + Waterpit Downs, 35 + Wedgwood, 139 + Week St. Mary, 28 + Weir Head 169 + Wellington, Duke of, 141, 195 + Werrington, 175 + Wesley, John, 8, 89, 196 + Wheal Owles, 91 + Whitesand Bay, 93 + Widemouth Bay, 33 + Willapark Head, 36 + Winchelsea, 147 + Winnow's Down, St., 143, 147 + Wolf Rock Lighthouse, 93 + Wolveden, 134 + Woolley Downs, 21 + Worwas Hill, 83 + + Zennor, 85, 90, 110 + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nooks and Corners of Cornwall, by +C. 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A. Dawson Scott. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Nooks and Corners of Cornwall, by C. A. Dawson Scott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nooks and Corners of Cornwall + +Author: C. A. Dawson Scott + +Release Date: December 28, 2010 [EBook #34778] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOOKS AND CORNERS OF CORNWALL *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Internet +Archive. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 397px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" id="coverpage" width="364" height="550" alt="Book Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>NOOKS & CORNERS OF CORNWALL</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><i>IN THE SAME SERIES</i></h3> + +<h4>NOOKS & CORNERS OF YORKSHIRE</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By J. S. Fletcher</span></p> + +<h3><i>IN PREPARATION</i></h3> + +<h4>NOOKS & CORNERS OF DEVON</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By C. A. Dawson Scott</span></p> + +<h4>NOOKS AND CORNERS OF HAMPSHIRE AND SUSSEX</h4> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By Douglas Goldring</span></p> + +<p class="center">Price 2s. 6d. net each (with map)</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>NOOKS & CORNERS</h1> + +<h1>OF CORNWALL</h1> + +<h3>By C. A. DAWSON SCOTT</h3> + +<h4>WITH A MAP</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 33px;"> +<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="33" height="50" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>LONDON: EVELEIGH NASH</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>FOREWORD</h2> + +<p>At first sight it seems incongruous to speak of the Nooks and Corners to +be found in so rugged a land as Cornwall. The masses of rock at +Tintagel, Tol-Pedn, and the Lizard, the sheer drop of the High Cliff and +the Dodman, the moors, the cromlechs, and the granite tors, are so +impressive that we are apt to overlook the fertile valleys that +intersect the country, the coves, coombes, and "pills" in which the +hillside vegetation is often semi-tropical, and where the houses are +embowered in flowering shrubs till they look like Jacks-in-the-Green +that have taken root.</p> + +<p>Nor do these picturesque villages, sheltered and fruitful, this +magnificent coast scenery, these grey moors, comprise the whole of this +half-smiling, half-frowning land. Here in out-of-the-way places are +relics of forgotten creeds and peoples, earthworks, amphitheatres, +castles, the caves of smugglers, and the subterranean hiding-places of +neolithic man. There is so much to interest, so much to see—almost too +much it would seem, certainly too much for any one holiday; but Cornwall +is a place to go to again and again, to go to till it seems as your own +land, and its people have forgiven you for being a "foreigner."</p> + +<p>This Cornish folk, clannish but kindly, has of late years been +decreasing. Not only is there the competition of foreign tin, but the +lodes being now deep the cost of home production has proportionately +increased. "Cousin Jack" therefore has to go in search of more +remunerative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> metal, leaving "Cousin Jenny" at home to manage as best +she can on his remittances.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Warnings</span></h4> + +<p>"You can only see Cornwall by walking through it," said George Borrow, +but the traveller must bear in mind that a name, large on the map, is +apt to materialise into a few cottages, a lonely farmhouse, or a rocky +gorge with never an inhabitant. Nor though the voice of the tourist has +now for several years been heard in the land has the response, in +hotels, been great; while there are not as many country inns as might be +expected. The cheerful, pleasure-loving Cornishman has another aspect to +his character. Generally a Nonconformist and a Sabbatarian he—perhaps +more particularly she—thinks the fewer inns the better. Hamlets the +size of which would lead one to expect a wayside tavern are often drawn +blank, and it is as well to make inquiry, when mapping out the day's +journey, as to the accommodation to be found at its latter end.</p> + +<p>It cannot be too firmly impressed upon the traveller that along the +northern and western shores both boating and bathing are unsafe. It is a +dangerous coast. Fortunately very few boats are kept, and these are +seldom let out to strangers; but in the matter of bathing the tourist +depends upon his own wisdom, and not only is there a bad undertow but +the big rollers from the Atlantic come in when least expected.</p> + +<p>Moreover he must, when following these cliff paths, be on the look-out +for blow-holes. These sinister cavities result from the action of the +sea at the cliff base and of the fresh water springs above. A depression +is gradually formed, the surface sinks to be washed out by the tides, +till at last a round hole has been formed. This is the blow-hole. In +course of time the whole of the side towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> the sea breaks away, +leaving a tiny bay, which gradually enlarges. The Cornish who do not +imagine that any one could be so foolish as to walk along this dangerous +coast after dark do not safeguard the blow-holes, and it is as well to +be on the look-out.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Crosses and Churches</span></h4> + +<p>A word with regard to the innumerable crosses and churches.</p> + +<p>At an early date in the history of Christianity, saints from the +neighbouring countries of Brittany, Ireland and Wales appear to have +poured into Cornwall. Some floated over on their altar-stones—a +poetical way of saying they brought the said stones with them—others on +a miraculous leaf, <i>i.e.</i>, a coracle, while yet others appear to have +walked! On arrival they found a large number of upright slabs and +boulders, relics of an earlier creed and vanished race. With the +sensible early-Christian habit of turning everything to account they +soon invented a history and found a use for the stones.</p> + +<p>On a lonely moorland these big menhirs made excellent way-marks; by +some—possibly blocks that tradition accounted holy—the saints built +their oratories, others they carved into rude crosses, and others they +used as a centre about which to gather the countrypeople for service. As +the local preaching-place, these last stones, like the oratories +themselves, thus became the forerunners of the parish churches.</p> + +<p>One reason for the multiplicity of these crosses—and unless those at +any place should be exceptional, they will not be mentioned—may be +found in the will of a certain Dr. Mertherderwa who, dying in 1447, +directed that "new stone crosses are to be put up of the usual kind in +those parts of Cornwall from Kayar Beslasek<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> to Camborne Church, where +dead bodies are rested on their way to burial, that prayers may be made +and the bearers take some rest."</p> + +<p>There are six different kinds of crosses. Upright slabs with a Latin +cross front and back; Round-headed crosses; Holed crosses, of which only +twenty-seven instances are known; Latin crosses, Gothic crosses and +ornamented crosses.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Churches</span></h4> + +<p>When Cornwall built her innumerable small but beautiful churches, that +is to say from the thirteenth (and earlier) to the sixteenth century, +she showed that an ornate and vivid ritual was to her taste. She +objected to and resisted the Reformation, and on its becoming an +established fact went peacefully to sleep, as far as religion was +concerned, until the arrival of John Wesley. As a consequence very few +of the churches are modern, and most of them have Norman remains—some +antiquarians even say Saxon—and a good deal of old carved oak in +benches, screens, and roofs. Some of this carving is of considerable +merit, and the same may be said, though more doubtfully, of the numerous +frescoes; but unless the mural paintings and bench ends are in some way +remarkable they will not be insisted on, nor will the Norman and other +survivals in the architecture be discussed.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Plan of the Book</span></h4> + +<p>The roads from Launceston and from Saltash to the Land's End—and the +main roads of Cornwall are excellent, as good as any in England—go as +far as possible by way of the towns. The rivers, too, are no great +matter, in fact precisians have maintained that there are none. The +Tamar, which best deserves the name, was fixed as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> eastern boundary +by Athelstane in 926, while the Fal and Helford Rivers are mainly sea +creeks, and the Camel and Fowey which until they become estuaries are +never wider than a man, provided with a pole, can leap, are really only +brooks of a fine and Tennysonian quality.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly then the way to see Cornwall is to follow the country roads +that lead along the shore, beginning at the north where the coach +crosses the border on its way from Clovelly Dykes to Bude, and ending at +the Tamar. There would then remain only the reaches of that lovely +river, the moorland, and what nooks and corners are to be found off the +highways that run through the middle of the county.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>My most sincere acknowledgments are due to Mr. Thurstan Peter, author of +"The History of Cornwall," for his generous help while these pages were +passing through the press.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH</h3> + +<div class='blockquot'><p>The Boundary between Devon and Cornwall on the north: Kilkhampton and its Association with the Grenvilles: Morwenstow and the Rev. R. Hawker: Tonacombe and Kingsley: Stowe: the Battles of Stamford Hill and Lansdowne: Tennyson and Bude: the Neighbouring Churches: a Female Dick Whittington</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM WIDEMOUTH BAY TO ST. TEATH</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +The Great Cliffs: Boscastle and an Ancient Form of Tenure: Otterham and Warbstow Barrows: Trevalga and Bossiney: the Legend of St. Nechtan's Kieve: Tintagel: Arthur: The Castle: The Beach and Barras Head: The Roman Occupation: Quarries: Camelford and its Battle: Arthur's Hall: Lanteglos: Henlistone and the Brewers: The Camel: The Delabole Slate: St. Teath</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM PORT ISAAC TO THE VALE OF LANHERNE</h3> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +Port Isaac and the Fishing: Pentire: St. Enodoc and the Sand: Lovebond's Bridge: Wadebridge and Egloshayle: <i>Jan Tergeagle</i>: Menhirs: Padstow and the Hobby Horse: Prehistoric Inhabitants: Harlyn Bay: Trevose Head: Constantine: A Fogou: Bedruthan: The Vale of Lanherne</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE VALE OF LANHERNE TO HAYLE TOWANS</h3> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +Hurling and St. Columb Major: Colan: The Gratitude of the Stuarts: Trevalgue: A Good Centre for Crantock, St. Cubert, and Trerice: St. Agnes and the Giant: Portreath: the Bassets: Godrevy: Gwithian: The Pilchards</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LELANT TO PENZANCE</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></p> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +Gold in Cornwall: Knill's Monument: The Antiquities of the Extreme West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs: Dolmens: Oratories: Superstitions: St. Ives: Wesley: Irving: A Ripe Old Age: The Mines: Sancreed and St. Buryan: Lighthouses: Whitesand Bay: The Land's End: Mousehole and Dolly Pentreath: Newlyn: Penzance</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES TO ROSELAND</h3> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +The Land of Lyonesse: The Scillies: The Law of Wrecks: Mr. Smith: The Admiral's Honour: Ding Dong Mine: St. Michael's Mount: An Old Ceremony: China Clay: Wrecks: Germoe and Breage: Pengersick: Flora Day: The Loe Pool: Serpentine: Gunwalloe and Mullion: The Lizard: Bells: The Helford River: Mawgan: Roseland</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM FALMOUTH TO TRURO</h3> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +The Rise of Pendennis Castle: Sir John Arundel: The Killigrews: Sir Walter Raleigh: The General Post Office and Falmouth: Penryn: The Fal: The Stannary Courts: Old Truro: Foote and Lowry</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM ST. MAWES TO LISKEARD</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +St. Mawes and Gerrans: Tregony and Probus: Cornish Mutton: A Story of Cornish Vengeance: Mevagissey: Antiquarian Finds: The Capital of Clayland: Cock's and Hen's Barrow: Carglaze Mine: Luxulyan: The Civil Wars: Lostwithiel: Lanhydrock House and Restormel Castle: The Fight on St. Winnow's Downs: The Gallants of Fowey: Place: Lanteglos: Polperro: Stories of Talland, Killigarth, and Trelawne: The Giant's Hedge: Boconnoc: Liskeard</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON</h3> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A Cage for Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: Sheviock: The Eddystone: Mount Edgcumbe: The Tamar: Trematon Castle: Markets: Saltash: Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: Launceston</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LAUNCESTON TO DOZMARÉ</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></p> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +The Upper Reaches of the Tamar: Launceston: The Old Highways: St. Clether: Altarnon: Trebartha: The Trethevy Dolmen: The Cheesewring: St. Cleer: St. Neot: Dozmaré: Tregeagle: Lake Dwellings</p> +</div> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a></h3> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM BROWN WILLY TO CAMBORNE</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p> + +<div class='blockquot'><p> +Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: St. Breward and Blisland: Holland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell; Cornish Names: Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word in Farewell</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>HOTELS ACCORDING TO THE ROUTE</h2> + +<p>Stratton. The Tree Inn.</p> + +<p>Bude. The Falcon; Grenville.</p> + +<p>Boscastle. Wellington.</p> + +<p>Tintagel. Wharncliffe; King Arthur's Castle; Clifton House.</p> + +<p>Camelford. King's Arms.</p> + +<p>Wadebridge. Molesworth Arms.</p> + +<p>Padstow. South-Western; St. Petrock's.</p> + +<p>Newquay. Atlantic; Victoria; Headland; Great Western.</p> + +<p>Perranporth. Perranporth; Tywarnhale.</p> + +<p>Portreath. Portreath Hotel; by Gurnard's Head, the Treryn Hotel.</p> + +<p>St. Ives. Tregenna Castle; Western; Queen's.</p> + +<p>Lelant. Lelant Hotel.</p> + +<p>Land's End. First and Last.</p> + +<p>Penzance. Queen's; Riviera Palace; Mount's Bay; Western; Railway.</p> + +<p>Scilly. Holgate's; Tregarthen's (both on St. Mary).</p> + +<p>Helston. Angel.</p> + +<p>Lizard. Housel Bay; Hill's; Caerthillian.</p> + +<p>Coverack. The Coverack Headland Hotel; St. Keverne; St. Keverne Inn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span></p> + +<p>Falmouth. Falmouth; Green Bank; King's; Royal Albion.</p> + +<p>Truro. Red Lion; Royal; Union.</p> + +<p>St. Austell. Luke's White Hart; Queen's Head.</p> + +<p>Fowey. Fowey.</p> + +<p>Looe. Commonwood; Looe; Headland House.</p> + +<p>Saltash. Bray's; Railway; Green Dragon.</p> + +<p>Launceston. White Hart; King's Arms.</p> + +<p>Moors. The Jamaica Inn.</p> + +<p>Bodmin. Royal; Town Arms.</p> + +<p>Redruth. Tabb's.</p> + +<p>Camborne. Commercial; Tyack's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The Boundary between Devon and Cornwall on the north: Kilkhampton and +its Association with the Grenvilles: Morwenstow and the Rev. R. Hawker: +Tonacombe and Kingsley: Stowe: the Battles of Stamford Hill and +Lansdowne: Tennyson and Bude: the Neighbouring Churches: a Female Dick +Whittington.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Kilkhampton</span></h4> + +<p>The coach-road from Clovelly Dykes to Bude crosses Woolley Downs, but +the border on the north is the little stream that runs into Marsland +Mouth. The cliff paths with their fine views and the wonderful colour of +sea and sky—such colour as elsewhere only the Mediterranean gives +us—are the more interesting of the offered ways. Inland lies +Kilkhampton, by the Tamar, with its church of St. James, the south +doorway of which is one of the richest specimens of late Norman work in +the duchy. But, more interesting than the finely carved choir stalls, +numerous good bench-ends and doorway, is its connection with the family +of Grenville, who, descendants of the Norman dukes, lived in the parish +for six hundred years, and built the church. "Never a Grenville lacked +loyalty" was the saying, and the sons of the old house at Stowe proved +it by confiscated property and lives laid down. From Stowe came old Sir +Richard who, with his little "Revenge," fought the fifty-three galleons +of Spain.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 16em;">"<i>God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?</i>"</span></p> + +<p>From there came his grandson, gentle, gallant Sir Beville, who after his +last stand against the Parliamentarians on Lansdowne, was brought back +to lie in the old church of Kilkhampton; and from there, ruined and +exiled for the sake of the last worthless Stuart, went out Sir Beville's +younger son.</p> + +<p>By Sir Beville lies his wife, the Lady Grace, for whom the epitaph to be +seen in Minster Church might have been written:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>He first departing, she a little tried</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>To live without him, could not and so died.</i>"</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Earls of Bath, descendants of the Grenvilles, are buried in a vault +below the south aisle, but two hundred and fifty years have passed and +the name—it is a Marquisate now—is Thynne (of the Inn), nor is the +head of the family a Beville. The servant who brought back his master's +body sleeps at Stratton. A huge man this Anthony Payne, seven foot two +in his stockings! When he lay dead in the Tree Inn so large a coffin was +required that it could not be got into the house. He and Sir Beville may +be dead and buried, but their lives have been woven into the talk of the +countryside, and the traveller has only to ask a discreet question or so +and he will hear of the great deeds of old.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Morwenstow</span></h4> + +<p>The main interest of this part of the country—the extreme north—is +centred in the tiny hamlet of Morwenstow with its thatched inn and its +association with the Rev. Robert Hawker. He was no stranger when he +came, for his father had been vicar of Stratton and lay buried there. +For long the son, fearing the sadness of old associations, refused to +preach in the sister parish, and when at last his reluctance was +overcome and he stood in his father's pulpit it was only to hesitate and +break down. He explained with faltering voice, "I stand amid the dust of +those near and dear to me."</p> + +<p>Morwenstow is reached from Marsland Mouth by the Henna Cliff (The +Raven's Crag—and Welsh legend hath it that King Arthur was changed into +one of these birds, though the Cornish say, a chough), from which is +obtained a magnificent view of that wild coast, Dizzard, Cambeak, +Tintagel, and Pentire, rising one beyond the other in shades of blue +deepening to purple. The Norman doorway of the church, which like that +of Marhamchurch is dedicated to St. Morwenna, is crowned with zigzag +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> chevron mouldings which are surmounted by a range of grotesque +sea-faces—mermaid, dolphin, whale, and so forth. Mr. Hawker tells how +the old piscina was found and reinstated. "The chancel wall one day +sounded hollow when struck; the mortar was removed, and underneath there +appeared an arched aperture which had been filled up with jumbled carved +work and a crushed drain. It was cleared out and so rebuilt as to occupy +the exact site of its former existence. It is of the earliest type of +Saxon architecture, and for all we know may be the oldest piscina in the +land."</p> + +<p>The church roof is of wood, and shingles of rended oak occupy the place +of the usual tiles. "Outside the screen and at the top of the nave is +the grave of a priest. It is identified by the reversed position of the +carved cross on the stone, which also indicates the self-same attitude +in the corpse. The head is laid down toward the east while, in all +secular interments, the head is turned towards the west."</p> + +<p>On the south side of the churchyard—as in so many along this ruthless +coast—are the graves of wrecked sailors; and Hawker, a great-hearted +man and to some extent a poet, was foremost in rendering the last kind +offices to the dead. Over forty men, the crews of three lost vessels, +lie here, while the figurehead by one lot of graves is that of the brig +<i>Caledonia</i> from Arbroath in Scotland. No wonder ships give these +stupendous cliffs as wide a berth as possible. An occasional steamer is +sighted, some tramp in search of cargo goes hurrying by, but, as a rule, +the wide expanse is empty of surface life, a fact which is both +noticeable and suggestive.</p> + +<p>On a spot where he had seen the lambs sheltering from wind and weather, +Mr. Hawker built the vicarage. With one of his personality as architect, +it was impossible it should quite resemble any other manse; therefore it +is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> not surprising to find that in the chimney-stacks he has reproduced +the forms of certain church towers that he admired, while inset over the +doorway is the distich:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>A house, a glebe, a pound a day,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>A pleasant place to watch and pray,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Be true to Church, be kind to poor,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>O Minister for evermore!</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Tonacombe and Stowe</span></h4> + +<p>Not far from Morwenstow lie—or rather did lie, for though Tonacombe +still preserves its original design, Stowe, near Coombe Valley, the home +of the Grenvilles, was unfortunately destroyed in 1715—two old +manor-houses. The former, which was built in the fifteenth century, has +a fine stone-floored hall with timbered roof, old open fireplace, and +minstrel's gallery. Some of the rooms, which have lattice windows, are +panelled, and Charles Kingsley stayed in this "in some respects the most +remarkable mediæval house in the west of England," while he was writing +"Westward Ho."</p> + +<p>Of far greater interest, however, is Stowe (Anglo-Saxon for a stockaded +place), at one time a magnificent building. Of it only the moat remains, +but when Sir Beville rose for Charles I., many a Cornishman, who in his +boyhood had stayed at Stowe, practising arms under the eye of Anthony +Payne, rose with him.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Battle of Stamford Hill</span></h4> + +<p>To Stratton, a little south of Stowe, came in 1643 the Parliamentarian +General, Lord Stamford. The cavaliers, not then very prosperous, but +gallant gentlemen all, were lying at Launceston, and the Roundhead made +the mistake of underestimating their strength.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> Sir Ralph Hopton and Sir +Beville Grenville marched the twenty miles from the capital town without +more food than a few biscuits. Intent on intercepting and driving out +the intruder, they found when they reached Stratton late in the evening +that he had entrenched himself strongly on a neighbouring hill. As he +had the advantage in numbers, having about twice as many men and must +know that they were tired, hungry, and in poor condition, the Royalists +stood to their arms through the short May night in momentary expectation +of an attack. Their leaders were at one of the Poughill cottages—they +bear date 1620 and are still to be seen—and Sir Beville, while he +waited anxiously, must have wondered how it had gone with wife and +children, over above in the moated and stockaded house of Stowe.</p> + +<p>Lord Stamford, however, did not take advantage of his enemy's weariness. +No doubt he thought it would be more convenient, as the country was +unknown to him, to scatter the little force by daylight. At any rate he +sat still on the top of the hill and did nothing. In the grey dawn, +therefore, the Royalists, the fiercer for their hunger and +sleeplessness, decided not to wait any longer. Since he would not come +down they must go up. Dashingly they attacked his entrenchment, doggedly +they continued the fight. After nine hours of it, word was passed round +that their scanty store of ammunition had come to an end. But they were +nothing daunted. Grimly and in a strange silence they made the last +assault; and this time were successful, the leaders of the four narrow +columns meeting at the top of the hill. As they did so, Lord Stamford, +who had looked on from a safe distance, set spurs to his horse, and fled +headlong. Cornwall was won for King Charles, and from the battlefield +Francis Basset of Tehidy could write to his wife<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> "Dearest soule, ring +out the bells, raise bonfires, publish these joyful tidings."</p> + +<p>A year or two later, however, Stratton told a different tale. Cornwall +might in the main be Royalist, but all England was for a change in the +government; and presently Lord Essex, driving Sir Richard Grenville—a +brother of Sir Beville—before him, crossed the Tamar and stormed the +house at Stowe. It was the beginning of evil days. In 1646 Hopton, the +Royalist General, retired to Stratton with a broken, dispirited and, +alas! disorderly army, and from thence Sir Thomas Fairfax drove him back +across the pass at Wadebridge which Cromwell—it is the only mention of +him in Cornish annals—was sent to secure.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Battle of Lansdowne Hill</span></h4> + +<p>But by then Sir Beville was dead. After the—surely the name is +ironical—battle of Stamford Hill, he and his victorious troops had +marched to the King's aid. At the battle of Lansdowne, on the heights +above Bath, Sir Beville, sorely wounded, was struck out of his saddle by +a pole-axe. The pikemen he was leading fell into confusion, and in an +instant the Parliamentarians were among them, hewing them down. Then did +Anthony Payne, Sir Beville's giant retainer, come to the rescue. +Catching his master's riderless horse, he set on it young John, a +stripling of sixteen, Sir Beville's eldest son; and led him to the head +of the wavering pikemen. The appeal was irresistible. The Cornish +followed their beloved leader's son like men possessed; and so, while +Sir Beville lay dying on the hillside, his regiment, led by his faithful +servant and his young son, swept all before them.</p> + +<p>One is glad to remember that at the Restoration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> when the family's +confiscated estates were restored to them, young John, in memory of his +own deeds and those of his greater father, was created Earl of Bath.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Tennyson at Bude</span></h4> + +<p>Bude with its wide sands and unsafe harbour is without historical +associations, but it can be used, having hotels, as a centre from which +to visit the more interesting towns (so-called, but they are no bigger +than an ordinary village) and hamlets of the neighbourhood. Tennyson, +when he had it in mind to write his Arthurian Idylls, came here—no +doubt for local colour, though being a Victorian what he said was, "That +he must go to Bude and be alone with God!" During his visit he rode out +to Morwenstow to call on Mr. Hawker, and the less-known bard has left an +interesting account of their interview.</p> + +<p>"I found my guest ... a tall, swarthy, Spanish-looking man with an eye +like a sword. He sate down, and we conversed. I at once found myself +with no common mind.... Before he left the room, he said: 'Do you know +my name?'</p> + +<p>"I said: 'No, I have not even a guess.'</p> + +<p>"'Do you wish to know it?'</p> + +<p>"'I don't much care—that which we call a rose, &c.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, then,' said he, 'my name is <i>Tennyson</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'What!' said I, '<i>the</i> Tennyson?'</p> + +<p>"'What do you mean by <i>the</i> Tennyson? I am Alfred Tennyson, who wrote +"Locksley Hall," which you seem to know by heart.'</p> + +<p>"So we grasped hands, and the Shepherd's heart was glad."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Churches of the Neighbourhood</span></h4> + +<p>With regard to certain old churches, St. Olaf's, at Poughill, has two +rather crudely restored mural paintings and, set heavily in the south +door, what is reputed to be one of the few genuine sanctuary rings still +in existence. The church at Marhamchurch also shows the remains of +frescoes, while Stratton has a fine stoup, and in the north wall of the +chancel an Easter sepulchre, probably the only one in the county. That +of Swithin—dear apple saint—at Launcells, has a circular font reputed +to date from Saxon times, and the fifteenth century bench-ends, though +rudely carved, show a play of symbolic fancy, unusual in Cornwall. On +one you see the visit of Mary when she mistook the gardener for Christ, +Mary being represented by a spice-box, the gardener by a spade! On +another the Harrowing of Hell is represented by the jaws of a dragon, +and so with the various subjects. An empty grave and cross triumphant +tells the story of the resurrection, while the supper at Emmaus, though +faithfully suggested, is given without the introduction of a single +human figure. It is all symbolism—riddles which are interesting to +guess, but not always easy.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Week St. Mary</span></h4> + +<p>Some five miles or so south of Marhamchurch lies Week St. Mary, about a +native of which village a sort of Dick Whittington story is told. In a +field adjoining the churchyard the remains of extensive buildings can be +traced, and these, once a chantry, were said to be due to the pious +energy of Dame Thomasin Perceval. As a girl she herded geese on the +common of Greenamore, until in the shape of a staid and, alas! already +married merchant, the Prince came riding by. He spoke to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> girl and +found her as pleasant in discourse as to the eye. Without more ado, +therefore, he took her away with him—and here, though propriety is +preserved, the fairy-tale suddenly drops to unromantic fact—he took her +to wait upon his wife! In course of time, however, that good lady died +and the middle-aged Prince was free to marry his goose-girl.</p> + +<p>After many years she returned as a rich widow to her native parish, and +there spent the remnant of her days in a cheerful and rather bustling +philanthropy, repairing anything in the way of churches, bridges, and +roads that required attention, portioning the virtuous and hard working +of her own sex and generally playing Lady Bountiful—or so it is said!</p> + +<p>In the churchwardens' Accounts of Stratton under date 1513 we read:</p> + +<p>"paid for my lady parcyvale ijs Meneday [<i>i.e.</i> day of prayer for her +soul] to iiij preistes & for bred & ale 1s. 1d."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM WIDEMOUTH BAY TO ST. TEATH</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Headlands</span></h4> + +<p>The cliffs from Marsland Mouth to Trevose Head are fine, much finer than +those on the better known south coast. The seas also are wilder, these +shores seeming to suffer from fiercer onslaughts of the Atlantic. On a +blustery day it is nothing to see the tortured waves break into a spray +that is flung full forty feet into the air, while except in sheltered +dips and coves—of which there are none too many in this part—neither +tree nor shrub can live. This gives the headlands a barren look, the +bold outlines are of grey boulders rather than vegetation, and behind +them on the windy downs crouch the grey hamlets and solitary farms. For +sheer beauty of crag and precipice, of mighty seas and broken slipped +sea-front, there is nothing in the duchy that can compare with this +piece of coast. Upon the great cliffs of Widemouth Bay, of which the +name is sufficiently descriptive, follow Dizzard Point (500 ft.) with +its landslip, Castle Point, so called from the circular earthwork on its +summit, Pencarrow Head (400 ft.), between which and Cambeak (500 ft.) at +the mouth of a wooded valley lies the lovely Crackington Cove and which +brings us to the High Cliff with its sheer drop of 735 ft. This last is +the highest in Cornwall, nearly double the height of the Dodman, that +glory of the southern coast, while it is far higher than the Land's End +and the Lizard. A little inland is yet higher ground, for Tresparret +Down, a barren and desolate heath, is some 850 ft. above sea level!</p> + +<p>Somewhat to the north of the High Cliff is St. Genys, the saint of which +is said to have been one of three brothers, all of whom were beheaded. +This particular brother is believed to have walked about afterwards, his +head held under his arm, a proceeding which reminds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> us that "King +Charles walked and talked, half an hour after his head was cut off!"</p> + +<p>There is here an interesting example of an Elizabethan communion cup and +paten cover, but it must be remembered that many cups of that date are +older in material than in shape. When the word cup was substituted for +chalice, we find by the churchwarden's accounts that the vessels were +frequently re-shaped. We have, for example, one of 1571, "to Iohn Ions, +goldsmith, for changing the chalice into a cup, £1 15<i>s</i>. 5<i>d</i>."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Boscastle</span></h4> + +<p>After the High Cliff the shore gradually assumes a less terrific aspect, +until Boscastle, with its tiny firth and its blow-holes, is reached. +This little straggling place took its name from Botreaux Castle (or +Castel-boterel), which was built here in the twelfth century. The last +Lord Botreaux died in 1462, and of the castle only a grassy mount, +called Jordans, from a neighbouring stream, remains. This mount is on +the hill, that steep and wooded hill which leads down into Boscastle, +and on the sides of which the houses are hung like birds' nests on a +cliff.</p> + +<p>At the end of the valley the hills unite into slaty cliffs which take a +sudden fjord-like turn before reaching the sea. This short and tiny +estuary cannot, of course, compare with the smallest of those winding +inlets which make the strange beauty of the Norwegian coast, inlets +whose walls would dwarf the High Cliff and whose majestic desolation +would make the barrenest headland in the west seem mild and fertile.</p> + +<p>If the tide is in, the islet at the mouth of Boscastle Harbour sends up +sudden showers of spray which suggest a geyser, but are in reality due +to a blow-hole, and there is another on the mainland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<p>An ancient form of tenure survives here. The upper part of Forrabury +Common is divided into "stitches"—slips of land divided by boundary +marks only—and these stitches are held in severalty from Lady Day to +Michaelmas, the proprietors for the rest of the year stocking it in +common, according to the amount of their holdings. The hilly part of the +common being unfit for cultivation is stocked in common all the year +round.</p> + +<p>Boscastle has two churches, that of Forrabury, which has been too +zealously restored, deal having been substituted for the +sixteenth-century oak benches and for the old pulpit that was covered +with arabesques, and Minster. Near Minster, on Waterpit Downs, is a fine +specimen of Celtic interlaced work on a cross shaft. It is now rescued, +but for many years it served to bear the pivot of a threshing-machine. +The church itself stands on the chancel site of an old minster. A +doorway, now blocked, once led to the priory buildings, but of them +nothing remains.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Otterham and Warbstow Barrows</span></h4> + +<p>Inland from Boscastle is Otterham, which possesses two bells dating from +before the Reformation and mentioned in the inventory of Edward VI. The +inscriptions on these mediæval bells are interesting, a frequent one +being, "With my living voice I drive away all evil things." A little to +the east of Otterham, on a hill 807 ft. above sea level, is Warbstow +Barrows, one of the largest and best preserved earthworks in the county. +Its two ramparts have each two entrances, the outer wall being 15 ft. +high with a ditch 15 ft. wide. In the middle is a barrow known as the +Giant's Grave, perhaps the resting-place of a chieftain who died in +defence of the place, and was buried where he fell. Cornwall is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> thickly +strewn with these memorials of the past. Earthworks of different race +encampments lie cheek by jowl, strings of forts reach from sea to sea, +and even the cliffs are fortified. These cliff castles, and there are +traces of fortification on almost every headland, must have been built +by people who were actually "between the devil and the deep sea." Foot +by foot they must have given way, till at length they stood with their +backs to the sea, defending from their enemies one ultimate rock. Only +too often is there a grave within these defences, the grave of the last +man, strong enough to hold back the enemy, but slain at last.</p> + +<p>To the south-west of Boscastle is Willapark Head, and beyond it are some +caves which until recently were haunted, as was all this north-western +coast, by mild-eyed seals. "A man with a gun" and the English instinct +to "go out and kill something," an instinct useful in the days of the +mammoth and the cave-tiger, but more than a little tiresome in our +present state of civilisation, is responsible for their disappearance. +There are still the caves to be seen.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Nechtan's Kieve Bossiney</span></h4> + +<p>Inland the little towns are of slight interest, with the exception of +the old cross at Lambrenny, but the walk along the cliffs—and the +Cornish are amiably ignorant that trespassers ought to be +prosecuted—presents an ever-changing panorama of lichened rocks and +lacy surf and every shade of wonderful blue. In Trevalga Church is some +old woodwork that has been carefully placed against the east wall of the +church, and presently we are crossing the neck of the Rocky Valley on +our way to derelict Bossiney—Bossiney once having mayor and officers +and represented in Parliament by Sir Francis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> Drake, but now only a +sleepy lovely nook in a quiet corner of the land! At the head of the +Rocky Valley is St. Nechtan's Kieve, a fine but broken waterfall of some +40 ft. A legend is told of two unknown ladies who inhabited a cottage +near by and who died without ever having revealed their names, but the +legend sprang like so many others from the fertile brain of the Rev. +Robert Hawker. He thought the place looked as if it ought to have a +legend, and not finding one was both ready and able to supply the +deficiency. A cross which was formerly part of the garden gate and was +supposed to be of the ninth century has been taken to Tintagel, and is +now to be seen in the garden of that comfortable old-fashioned hostelry, +the Wharncliffe Arms.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Tintagel</span></h4> + +<p>The far-famed "Dundagel" consists of a single grey street, lined in +irregular fashion with grey cottages and houses. In this land of stone +you sigh for the cheerful sight of a red-brick building or a glowing +tiled roof; but the stone used is grey, and where the roofs are not of a +cold blue slate, they are of a thatch held on by ropes that are heavily +weighted. The place is still primitive. Until recently the nearest baker +lived at Delabole, and to judge by the prizes (instead of cakes) on view +in his window, he must have been the king of pastry cooks. In Cornwall, +however, the housewife still bakes her own bread and is in other ways +more self-sufficing, and let us add more thrifty, than elsewhere.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Arthur</span></h4> + +<p>"Who Arthur was," says Milton, "and whether any such person reigned in +Britain hath been doubted heretofore and may again with good reason." We +must remember that the traditions concerning him were not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> reduced to +writing until centuries after his death, while Gildas, who was born +according to his own account in what would be Arthur's lifetime, does +not mention him.</p> + +<p>The legends, however, assert that he was born at Tintagel Castle about +499 <span class="smcap">a.d</span>., that he had three wives, but no children, and that his second +wife, Yenifer (Guinevere), was buried with him at Glastonbury. Against +the probability of this is the fact that Tintagel is not mentioned in +Domesday and that its ruins are of the thirteenth century with later +additions. It is quite likely, however, that the place, which is +strongly situated on a jutting headland—the so-called Island—was +fortified from time immemorial. It may originally have been one of those +pathetic cliff castles, may have been improved on and made habitable by +the conquering race of that epoch, and may eventually have fallen into +decay.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Castle</span></h4> + +<p>The present ruins are said to represent a castle built some little time +after the Norman Conquest, a castle which speedily fell out of repair, +for it had to be restored by Richard, King of the Romans, brother of +Henry III., before he could entertain his nephew, David, Prince of +Wales, here in 1245.</p> + +<p>When Cornwall, till then an earldom, was made a duchy (1337) and +bestowed on the Black Prince, a boy seven years old, all the castles +were again fallen into decay. At Tintagel the timber had even been +removed from the great hall "because the walls were ruinous." The main +part of the building appears to have been on the Island, but it was +connected with outworks on the shore by a drawbridge. Sir Richard +Grenville, who made an official survey in 1583, tells us that this +drawbridge, which had been in existence within living memory, was gone, +its supports having been washed away by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> waves. The sea having +continued its work of destruction, the space is now too wide for any +drawbridge to span, and in spite of a handrail the little climb to the +"Island" ruins is a dizzy one. Nor is there much to see. Some of the +masonry is recent, while the tiny chapel and altar are of about the same +date as the later parts of the castle, but the view is fine. It makes up +for the disappointment in Tintagel as a castle, for the disappointment +of finding that here is no certain tradition of Arthur, that the very +people feel about him much as Milton did. He may have been born here, +this may have been his very castle of Dindraithon, but if so they know +nothing of it. Arthur is a thing of books, of art, not life, of the +Morte, the Idylls, and—best of all perhaps—of Clemence Housman's +wonderful story "Sir Aglovaine de Galis," but he has no place in +present-day folklore.</p> + +<p>On the top of the mainland outworks is a doorway which in an eerie +manner opens upon space, and a sheer drop of many hundreds of feet. It +shows how much the sea is encroaching. Once upon a time this probably +led to the look-out tower. Now the very foundations of that tower are +gone and presently the masonry will go too, and the waters will roar +unhindered between the mainland and the island.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Beach and Barras Head</span></h4> + +<p>Far below is a tiny dark beach, the colour of which is explained when +having climbed down a wooden stairway clamped to the rock—the only +means of approach—it is found to consist entirely of rounded pieces of +slate. They are of all weights and sizes, but there is no sand, no +shells, nothing but slate. Opposite the Castle rock is Barras Head, and +there at last the big modern hotel can be ignored and the wanderer lie +out on the short,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> dry turf with the long line of hazy coast to either +hand and, before him, the islands white with sea-birds and pink with +thrift and the boundless stretch of sunlit waters.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>To be by the translucent green, the blue</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Deepening to purple where the weed is dense!</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>To hear the homing call as the brave sweep</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Of wings is folded on a sea-girt rock!</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>To lie in golden warmth while tow'ring waves</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Break with a lazy roar along the cliffs—</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>To lie and dream.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>It is here that Swinburne, venturing on a swim, was nearly drowned. The +same story is told of him on the French coast, only there it was Guy de +Maupassant who brought him back in safety. The great French writer is +reported to have said that the little English poet, with his +bladder-like head and attenuated body, struck him as hardly sane. Yet it +was Maupassant who died mad, not Swinburne.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">An Inscribed Stone</span></h4> + +<p>At Tintagel was discovered in 1888 a stone on which is inscribed IMP C G +Val Lic Licin, <i>i.e.</i>, Imperatore Cæsare Galerio Valerio Liciniano +Licinio, who reigned 307-324 <span class="smcap">a.d</span>. It is evident therefore that whether +Arthur was here or not the Romans were. What a pity that no one has been +able to discover any satisfactory evidence in enduring stone of the +British king's existence!</p> + +<p>The cruciform church on the cliff is largely Norman, but portions of it +belong to almost every succeeding age and period. Some have even held +that it contains Saxon work, but the authorities are not agreed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Dangerous Occupation</span></h4> + +<p>On the way to Trebarwith along the cliffs—and Trebarwith is a narrow +rocky opening up which the tide rushes with tremendous force—are +quarries. It is strange to see men, with the carelessness of long habit, +walk to the very edge of the cliff, lie down and, with their legs +hanging over, feel with their feet for the rough ladder that leads down +the rock-face to the quarry opening; or to see them stand on a plank +that juts out over the sea, and is maintained in its position by a chunk +of rock, casually adjusted. If the plank should give, or the rock roll +aside! But a man stands there from morning till night loading and +unloading slates.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Battle of Gafulford</span></h4> + +<p>Inland from Tintagel is Camelford, with its local tradition of a battle. +At Slaughter Bridge, near Worthyvale, one and a half miles from +Camelford, fragments of armour, ornaments of bridles, weapons, have been +found, and in 823 a battle was certainly fought at some place then +called Gafulford between the Saxons of Devon and the Celts of Cornwall, +a battle in which the Cornish were defeated. May not this unknown +Gafulford be Camelford? Writers have suggested that this may have been +the scene of Arthur's last battle; but the weight of tradition is +against this theory, a more likely place having been pointed out in +Scotland.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Arthur's Hall</span></h4> + +<p>While on the subject of the legendary British king, it would be +interesting to see a supposed feasting-chamber, which from before the +time of Henry VIII. was known as Arthur's Hall. South-west of Brown +Willy, it is about five miles from Camelford, in the parish of St. +Breward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> It appears at present as a pit hollowed out in a light sandy +soil. This excavation, which is 159 ft. long, is enclosed by an earthen +bank with slabs of granite about 7 ft. high, placed evenly on the inner +side. The absence of true walls makes it doubtful whether it was roofed +over, but it may have had a self-supporting skeleton roof, covered with +a web of branches or with sods.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lanteglos</span></h4> + +<p>As is so often the case in Cornwall, the Camelford church is at some +distance from the place to which it ministers, being, indeed, a mile and +a half away at Lanteglos. In the churchyard is a celebrated stone with +an inscription in eleventh-century Saxon capitals: "ÆLSELTH & GENERETH +WROHTE THYSNE SYBSTEL FOR ÆLWYNEYS SAUL & FOR HEYSEL." About a quarter +of a mile from the church is the well-known entrenchment called Castle +Goff, with a single rampart and ditch.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Forty Brewers of Helston</span></h4> + +<p>Below Lanteglos is the manor of Helston, and Domesday records "that +there were forty brewers on the royal manor of Henliston." This is the +only mention in the great survey of brewers as an item of population, +and forty seems a good many for one place. Did they brew all the beer in +the county; and was it Henliston ale that so appalled Andrew Borde when +he thought to visit Cornwall, that he turned back saying: "it looked as +if pigges had wrasteled in it"?</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The River</span></h4> + +<p>Camelford is not far from either of the sources of the Camel, and the +upper moorland reaches of the twin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> streams abound in charming spots +where the water frets among boulders and swirls in sunshine and shadow +among ferns and wild flowering shrubs. The sisters do not join forces +till they reach Kea Bridge, over ten miles from their source, but as +soon as depth allows of their existence sweet small trout are plentiful.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Delabole Slate</span></h4> + +<p>Between Camelford and Tintagel are the now silent quarries of North +Delabole (or Dennyball). The road winds between great walls and under +archways of slate which look as if a touch would send the whole erection +sliding and rushing down upon the wayfarer. But the slates were set up +by cunning fingers and have withstood the gales of this coast for a +score of years. Very different is their mournful creeper-grown +desolation from the arid activity of Delabole. The approach to the high +grey windy street is marked by deep ferny lanes. Here are thirty acres +of quarry and rubble heap, a hideous excavation. In 1602 the quarry, +already old, was 900 ft. long, in 1882 it had grown to 1300 ft., and it +is growing still. The best slate is called bottom stone and lies at a +depth of from 25 to 40 fathoms, for the quarry is now over 400 ft. deep. +Beautiful crystals the so-called Cornish diamonds, are found in these +workings, truly the only beautiful things in a most dreary place.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Teath</span></h4> + +<p>When the church at little sleepy St. Teath was restored in 1877, two +massive Norman responds at the east end of the north aisle were +discovered. There is also some good roof timber and a little ancient +glass. The pulpit bears the arms of the Carminows and their motto: "Cala +Rag Whetlow"—a straw for a tell-tale. It was John of Gaunt, +"time-honoured Lancaster," that Prince who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> though never a king, was +the ancestor of so many, who upon true evidence found Carminow of +Cornwall "to be descended of a lineage armed 'Azure a bend Or' since the +time of King Arthur;" and indeed the Carminows were certainly here at +the Conquest. They are now extinct, the last of the family, a devoted +Royalist, dying in 1646.</p> + +<p>In the graveyard, on a slab fastened to the church, is the following +epitaph:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">"<i>Here lyeth the body of Robert Bake, son of Samuel Bake, who was buried the xxx day of January, 16—.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>But what cheere-up altho our sonne be gone</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>Altho his bodiy must be racke and toren</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>With filthy bitter bitinge wormes of dust</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>And be consumd as all our bodies must</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>Yet still cheere-up comforte yourselves: in this</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>Tho the bodiy died the soule emmortall is</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>And now in heaven most ioyfully shall singe</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>O: grave where is thy strength, death where is thy victory</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;"><i>With God above for all e-terny-tie:</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 27em;"><i>For Robert Bake.</i>"</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM PORT ISAAC TO THE VALE OF LANHERNE</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Port Isaac and the Fishing: Pentire: St. Enodoc and the Sand: +Lovebond's Bridge: Wadebridge and Egloshayle: "Jan Tergeagle": Menhirs: +Padstow and the Hobby Horse: Prehistoric Inhabitants: Harlyn Bay: +Trevose Head: Constantine: A Fogou: Bedruthan: The Vale of Lanherne.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Port Isaac</span></h4> + +<p>So long and so steep is the hill between Port Gavernoe and Port Isaac +that the Cornishman, though not noted for kindness to animals, does not +often ask his horse to negotiate it, and indeed these Cornish hills are +a sovereign specific for nerves. No one who has been up and down them, +behind one of the surefooted country-bred ponies, can fear any ordinary +descent.</p> + +<p>From the hill the view of the little grey town is hardly inviting. It +lies huddled together as if it had slipped down the sides of the cleft +in which it rests. Very crooked are its narrow roads; all sideways, +askew and anyhow the small houses; there are no gardens, hardly any +backyards; and at certain seasons of the year young and stalwart men +seem to be conspicuous by their absence. "They'm all away at work and +they do belong to go, for there edn't no money here, only the fishin'," +is the explanation.</p> + +<p>Fishing is indeed the reason for Port Isaac's existence and for that of +her smaller neighbours, Port Gaverne and Port Quin, each of which lies +at the head of a similar sandy inlet. Port Isaac, it is true, has a +harbour deep enough to admit steamers of 150 tons burden, and most of +the Delabole slates are shipped from here, but fishing is the main +interest. "Cousin Jack" is a strict Sabbatarian, but not so his rival +from the east coast. It is bad enough to see the fish caught in waters +he looks upon as his, but particularly so under the circumstances; and, +as a consequence, he has sometimes taken the law into his own hands. "If +à must fishey," says he, "leave en fishey fair," and one Monday morning +when the strangers endeavoured to land eight boatloads that had been +captured during Sunday night, his patience reached its limit. "All that +day gulls swarmed in the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> harbour, and thereafter the place +reeked of decaying fish. So now the east countrymen deem it wiser to +land their Sunday's catch elsewhere."</p> + +<p>Is it possible that this nook of the coast also reeks somewhat of +decaying fish? What of it? Many a fishing town lies ahead, and they were +not called "Fishy-gissy" and "Polstink" for nothing. May be—as you are +told when you get a whiff of the gasworks—it is a healthy smell; any +way, healthy or no, like those same gasworks it is not to be denied.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Pentire</span></h4> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>From Padstow Point to Hartland Light,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Is a watery grave by day or night</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>runs the country saying, voicing the fear that haunts every fisherman's +cottage along the coast; and if the children, in their carelessness, lay +a loaf cut-side down, so that it looks like a boat turned bottom +upwards, the elders shiver and bid them right it at once. Pentire, which +stands out at one side of the estuary above low-lying Padstow, has two +points, the Eastern and the Western Horns; and a view up the entire +coast of Cornwall and onward to blunt Trevose that should not be missed. +On the eastern point of the bay is a well-defined cliff castle. It is +evident that the triple mounds and ditches were for purposes of defence, +but neither local history nor tradition has a word about those by whom +they were built. This only is certain, that the folk must have been +desperate who came to make their last stand on this wild and lonely +spot.</p> + +<p>On the headland is a cave in some way connected with "Cruel Coppinger," +who, by his brutality for years, dominated the western coast (though he +was perhaps less seen at Padstow than elsewhere). His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> smuggling lugger, +the <i>Black Prince</i>, was known from Morwenstow to Newquay, and many are +the wild deeds—he did not even stop short of murder—recorded of this +desperado, from the day he was landed on these shores to that other day +when, the measure of his iniquities being full, he set sail never to +return. Not that all smuggling was undertaken in so lawless a fashion. +It was rather an agreeable diversion spiced with adventure, and +gentleman, parson, farmer, and peasant all lent a hand. "Cruel +Coppinger's" is not the only cave along this coast that is said to have +been haunted by "spirits"—as indeed they were, and by silks and lace as +well! Nor were the hiding-places only those provided by Nature. The +pulling down of old houses has revealed many a hollow in the thick walls +and under the flagged floors; there is even a story that one great +gentleman used to conceal a store of illicit goods—in his carriage!</p> + +<p>Relics of an older civilisation have been dug up on these headlands. It +is possible, before the sand swept in overwhelmingly, that the coast may +have supported a larger population. Roman coins and beads, strange blue +iridescent glass, and bits of red glaze, the glaze of Samian ware, have +been found; and among these things articles of a yet earlier date, as +for instance, a roughly made coral necklace thought to be British or +earlier.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Enodoc and the Sand</span></h4> + +<p>From this point westward the coast has been afflicted with sandstorms, +churches have been buried, towns obliterated by the drifting particles. +Blowing steadily for three days at a time, the frightened people have +left their houses to escape suffocation, and fled inland only on their +return to find the face of the country changed beyond recognition. St. +Enodoc Church, during one of these visitations, was covered with sand +above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> the level of the roof, only the thirteenth-century broach spire +remaining above the waste to indicate the whereabouts of the building. +In order to perform service, the parson, after some digging, managed to +enter by the roof; and it may be wondered why on that lonely waste a +service should be required. It was not, however, a matter of saving +souls, but of obtaining tithes. About forty years ago the church was +excavated, and it now lies in a deep trench. The path is lined with a +curious collection of stone mortars or measures, which however are not +ecclesiastical. Near by rises the desolate Bray Hill, under which, early +last century, storms having shifted the sands, the ruins of what is +thought to be an oratory came to light.</p> + +<p>The churches of St. Minver and St. Kew are both interesting. The former +contains three octagonal slate piers supporting pointed arches, the +remains of a fine oak rood screen, and—an article which seems nowadays +somewhat out of place, but no doubt is stored there against destruction +or oblivion—the stocks. St. Kew lies in a lovely wooded valley, and is +one of the finest churches in Cornwall, but is not often visited. Fine +woodwork is to be seen in the cradle roof, while the chancel screen was +carefully modelled on one of earlier date. The communion cup is +Elizabethan, but more interesting is a glass egg-shaped bowl with silver +mounts of 1598. When Bodmin Church was restored (1472) it seems to have +sold its fine old windows to any church that would buy, and St. Kew was +fortunate enough to secure one, that in the north chapel. Not far from +here is Polrode, where, serving as part of the bridge, is a good, though +mutilated, example of a roundheaded cross with beaded angles. At St. +Endellion, a little north of Kew, is a stoup carved with the arms of +Roscarrock, Chenduit, and Pentire—and heraldic stoups are rare.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lovebond's Bridge</span></h4> + +<p>On the road to Wadebridge is an earthwork known as Castle Killibury or +Kelly Rounds, which was known to have been in existence—and out of +repair—as early as 1478. Commanding the road down to the ford it was +evidently once a place of considerable strength. This ford was not +bridged until the reign of Edward IV., when a fine bridge with a span of +seventeen arches was built by a man named Lovebond. At first it was so +narrow that only pack-horses could cross, and over every pier protecting +angles were placed for the need of pedestrians. The bridge was 320 ft. +long, and the finest of its kind in England. It has been widened, but +its character carefully preserved. For a long time it was believed that +on account of the shifting sands the piers rested on packs of wool. +Examination, however, has proved the story an invention, for they are on +a rock foundation.</p> + +<p>It was over this bridge that the broken Royalists hurried in 1646, a +long disorderly straggle of men and guns and baggage, with Cromwell, +grimly patient, at their heels. Had there been union and discipline in +the forces, they would have been no easy conquest; but there had long +been dissension among the leaders, and the condition of the common +soldiers was both wretched and demoralised. As Clarendon records, they +were "feared by their friends, scorned by their enemies, terrible only +in plunder and resolute in running away." With such troops as these +nothing could be done. Sir Richard Grenville, tyrannical and +quarrelsome, had been committed to Launceston gaol, Prince Charles +himself had left the country, and only the loyal Hopton was left. Once +across the Camel and the soldiers were penned into the western half of +the peninsula; but a spark of that old spirit which had won so many +victories for the king was shown in a skirmish at St. Columb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> Major. It +was the last flicker of life. In March the commissioners met at +Tresillian Bridge, terms were agreed on, and the Royalist army disbanded +on honourable conditions.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Wadebridge and Egloshayle</span></h4> + +<p>Wadebridge is a little market town, so little that it has not even a +resident dentist! It has, however, an air of life which is unusual in +Cornwall; but that may be partly due to the cheery little streams that +run through the open gutters of the main streets. Here you buy chickens +by the pound and new-laid eggs—sometimes—for a halfpenny each; but the +place is neither beautiful nor interesting. Very different is +Egloshayle, the "church by the river," a name which it deserves, for the +water washes against the fence of the haunted graveyard. Historians tell +us that the Loveybound who was vicar here in 1462 and who built the +south aisle and fine three-stage western tower must not be confounded +with the Lovebond of about the same date who built the bridge, that +indeed it is a case of "It wasn't Mr. William Shakespeare who wrote the +plays, but another gentleman of the same name." The church is about a +mile up the river from Wadebridge, and stands in a group of chestnuts. +The sculptured stone pulpit is of the fifteenth century, and in the roof +of the south aisle is some good oak of the same date. The hood-mouldings +of the tower doorway are ornamented with angels bearing shields, on one +of which is cut the name "I. Loveybound" and the device of three hearts +banded together with a fillet.</p> + +<p>On the other side of Wadebridge lies St. Breock, where "John Tregeagle +of Trevorder, Esqr., 1679," is buried. 'Tis said that at his death, +owing to some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> inaccuracy in his accounts—he was steward of the +Robartes' estates—a poor man was sued for money that he had already +paid. By the agency of the parson, who seems to have been some sort of a +wizard, Tregeagle was induced to return to earth and give evidence for +the defence, which evidence proved conclusive. Cornwall is full of +legends about Tregeagle, who seems to have been a hard man and an +oppressive steward; but no doubt, as often happens, the legends are of +earlier date than the individual to whom they are momentarily attached. +The wraith who gave them birth has faded out of living memory, is indeed +dead; but like disturbed but sleepy birds, they have quickly settled +again on some character still bulking largely in the public eye.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Menhirs</span></h4> + +<p>Beyond the little church the ground rises to St. Breock Downs, which are +700 ft. above sea level and strewn with prehistoric remains. Nine big +stones in a straight line are followed by a menhir, a disposition often +seen on Dartmoor; and at Pawton is a dolmen called the Giant's Quoit, an +exceptionally fine example. The menhir is known as the Old Man, probably +from houl mæn, a sun stone. The word "man" or "men" or "maiden" when met +with in the west invariably means a stone, but those responsible for our +latter-day legends were often unaware of this.</p> + +<p>By way of the broad sunshiny estuary, which is as beautiful when the +tide is out and the distant gulls stand like a string of pearls on the +edge of the yellow sand, as when the whole expanse is one stretch of +dimpling blue water, we come to Padstow. At Little Petherick, which is +halfway, there is a copy of the 1684 edition of Foxe's "Book of +Martyrs," and the south doorway of the church is believed to have been +stolen from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> ruined edifice on Constantine Bay—at any rate there is +no mention in the churchwardens' accounts of any payment made.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Padstow and the Hobby Horse</span></h4> + +<p>A short distance from the mouth of the estuary and looking up the blue +reaches to the open sea lies the little port of Padstow. In early days +it was so near the Atlantic that wandering Danes (901) came and +plundered its monastery of St. Petrock, and later the sand blocked up +the wide mouth of the harbour forming the Doom Bar, and leaving only a +narrow channel on the west. But the little place with its narrow streets +all running uphill, its unprotected sharp-cornered quay, and its +dominant manor-house, still contrives to exist. It is at its best +perhaps when stress of weather has driven in the fishing fleet, and +there is a forest of masts clustered by the wharves. On such occasions +milk and bread are hard to come by, for there will be five hundred extra +mouths to feed.</p> + +<p>A quaint survival of the ancient May Day celebrations exists in the +Hobby Horse, a wooden circle with a dress of blackened sail-cloth, a +horse's head, and a prominent tail. This is carried through the town, +the bearers meanwhile chanting a song which, in spite of an old tune and +refrain, is full of topical allusions.</p> + +<p>Halfway up one of the steep roads that lead out into the country is the +beautifully situated Prideaux Place. The family, though of respectable +antiquity, has not taken any leading part in the history of the county, +but in the house are some interesting pictures, a Vandyke, and some +early Opies. When the old home of the Grenvilles was finally dismantled, +the great staircase was brought from Stowe and set up here to be a link +with the immemorial past.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>Round Padstow the land is fertile, very fine wheat being grown; and it +is believed that a certain farmer pays his rent with the produce of a +single field of asparagus. It is astonishing that more of the succulent +edible is not grown, or that the sandhills of the coast are not utilised +as they were round Southampton for growing strawberries. A fortune may +lurk in the sand, the devastating sand, or, if that is too much to ask, +at least it may give back more than it has taken. But the farmers are +disinclined for change, and if you ask why there are so few milch kine +and why vegetables and other amenities of life are so difficult to get, +you are told: "Spoase they'm warm men, got a long stocking. They don't +trouble."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Prehistoric</span></h4> + +<p>Along the estuary to the north is a way which, in windy weather, is +dangerous, but at other times gives a succession of lovely views and +which brings the walker past Rockferry (mentioned as early as 1337) to +Stepper Point, with its white day-mark. The cliffs for a little are high +and not too safe, but Tregudda Gorge with its amethyst and topaz +crystals, its flints and worked slates, is a lonely and a beautiful +spot. The Cornish tell strange stories of these places, stories of the +"little people" whom they believe to be fairies,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> but who are probably +the neolithic dwarf race which is said to have inhabited parts of the +country. They are also firm believers in psychic faculty, though they +call it by other older names. A man interested in such matters met a +London friend at the Padstow terminus. Aware that his friend was +supposed to be clairvoyant, he without comment put a fragment of bone +that he had found on an old kitchen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> midden in the other's hand and +asked him what he saw. "Now, this is interesting," said the other, "for +I see walking away before me a little brown man dressed in skins. On his +feet are brogues of hide with the hair inside."</p> + +<p>The friends were walking by the estuary and the tide was in. "He has got +into a queer sort of basket boat covered with hides and is paddling +about among a lot of other little brown people in similar boats. Ah, +there is a forest over there." The antiquarian looked across the +discoloured line of the Doom Bar to the sandhills opposite, but not a +tree was to be seen. He remembered afterwards, however, that many +centuries ago a forest, now submerged, had occupied the eastern side of +the Camel estuary.</p> + +<p>So sparsely inhabited is this coast that the worked flints and +arrow-heads of that bygone people still lie on the undisturbed surface +of the rocky land. The flints are so sharp, so clean, that it seems +their owners can have only just laid them down. And we must remember +that this is not a flint country. Every sharp atom was brought from far +away in the days when the rivers had to be forded and there were only +paths over the waste. Yet, onward from Tregudda Gorge, there are any +number to be found. Moreover after Trevone—an uninteresting place where +some bathing fatalities have occurred—we come, in broad and beautiful +Harlyn Bay, to the necropolis of this vanished race.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Harlyn Bay</span></h4> + +<p>In 1900, when digging for the foundations of a house, an oblong slate +kist, lying north and south, and containing a "crouched" burial, was +found. The drift sand lay some 8 to 10 ft. above the grave, within which +the skeleton lay on his side, his hands over his eyes, his knees bent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +under him in what seems to us an attitude of devotion; as he lay the +first ray of the rising sun would strike athwart his face. Further +investigation showed that the discovered kist was only one of a group of +interments, and that the graves covered some 90 ft., giving signs of a +long continued series of burials, rather than of a great number within a +short period. The date of interment is considered to be that of the +later iron age, no great antiquity it is true, but some few thousand +years ago. The kind and courteous owner, Colonel Bellers, allows access +to this prehistoric graveyard—locally known as the Boneries—and near +by is a small museum for the preservation of interesting finds. Some of +the kists have been left <i>in situ</i> and, to preserve them from wind and +weather, have been covered with a sort of cucumber frame, and the +stranger looks down through the glass on to the brown bones in their +enduring coffins of slate. Here lies a chieftain, for over his kist were +heaped rough lumps of quartz crystal; here a mother and child, little +bones and bigger; and here, in a heterogeneous mixture of all sorts and +sizes, is a hint of tragedy. Were they the result of a battle—of a +cannibal feast—or of justice done!</p> + +<p>A tooth from this strange and lonely graveyard was enclosed in a little +box and sent to a friend in London with instructions to place it +unopened in the hands of a clairvoyant. No information was vouchsafed +with the tooth, and the mystified go-between was only asked to take down +what was said, and this he did. At first the clairvoyant seemed rather +puzzled. "I can see a wide, sandy bay with rocks and cliffs, a rough +tumbling sea, and at the head of the bay a dense wood; but the people +are not like any I've ever seen before. They seem to be skin-clad +savages with black hair. There are quite a lot of them. One is running +across the sands and others are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> rushing after him; they have weapons in +their hands and he is fleeing in deadly terror. Ah, he has run into the +wood—now they've all disappeared!"</p> + +<p>Was the last scene in that prehistoric man's life being re-enacted +before the clairvoyant's gaze? Had he contravened his fellows' unknown +laws and so been hunted to his death?</p> + +<p>After a little the seer continued: "I see the bay again, but it's a +little different, more sand and fewer trees. Some men in present-day +dress are standing by a hole in the ground. They——" and a description +was given of the people who had been present at the opening of the kist. +"I think the hole is a grave, though it seems too short to be that" (the +kist being a "crouched" burial was, of course, much shorter than an +ordinary grave), "at any rate there are bones in it."</p> + +<p>Of the gold ornaments found in Cornwall the most remarkable are the two +torques found near Harlyn; bronze fibulæ have also been found here, but +a good many of these finds are now in the Truro Museum. Harlyn, in spite +of the grisly nature of its chief attraction, is an incomparable bay of +wide firm sand, rock pools, and low safe cliffs. As it is sheltered by +Trevose Head, the bathing is safe. A little way along the cliffs is a +disused fish-cellar, over the door of which is the motto: "Lucri dulcis +odor"—sweet is the smell of gold! But the fish have left these shores +and the big black boats—boats that are oddly reminiscent of the +Viking's ships at Christiania—lie rotting in the sun.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Trevose Head</span></h4> + +<p>Trevose Head (lighthouse), blunt and rounded, with an ear on each side +of its broad head, is a somewhat eerie place. On its western slope is a +large and sinister blow-hole, and much of the land seems to have +slipped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> a little and to be slipping more. It is here, by the rabbit +burrows, that so many worked flint arrow-heads and fish spears have been +found; while on its eastern side are caves inaccessible to the ordinary +person, but if report says truly once of great use to the smuggler. The +cliffs are of catacleuse, a dark and durable stone, of which on the cave +side there are quarries.</p> + +<p>Beyond Trevose Head, with its view from Cape Cornwall to Lundy Isle, the +land curves inward past the rocky ridges and big rolling sand-dunes of +Constantine. A shepherd's family is said to have held for many +generations a cottage on Constantine under the lord of Harlyn Manor by +the annual payment of a Cornish pie made of limpets, raisins, and sweet +herbs. Food is cheap in Cornwall, but wages are correspondingly low. A +farm pays its labourers—it calls them the cowman, the bullockman, and +the horseman—from 13<i>s</i>. 6<i>d</i>. to 18<i>s</i>. a week, and with that, though +conditions differ a little on different farms, they generally give a +cottage, 100 ft. of potato ground, the run of a pig on the land, 100 +battens of tamarisk wood—almost the only wood on this part of the +coast—and, most prized of all, the right to let lodgings. On this the +labourers sometimes manage to save. In one absolutely authentic +instance, a couple, labourer and farm-servant, who married at twenty-one +and eighteen, contrived to rear a healthy family of three and before +they were forty to save enough to buy a piece of land, build a +lodging-house, and go into business on their own account. "Never refused +a day's work in my life," said the woman, "but we lived on what he +brought home, and saved what I made." And what he brought home had been +from thirteen to fifteen shillings a week. "Nor I never bought any +tinned stuff," she said. "There's a deal of money goes that way, if the +young women nowadays 'ud only believe it. Why,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> a tin of pears, where's +the nourishment in that, and think of the price. Nearly a shilling +gone."</p> + +<p>And that woman baked her own bread, did, not only her own "bit of +washin'," but that of the one or two houses in the neighbourhood, went +out charing and cleaning, and took lodgers! They were thrifty folk, +never dreamed of buying a newspaper, and as a consequence had to save +every scrap of letter-paper, grocery bags, and oddments in order to have +the wherewithal to light the fire in the slab range. The pig was their +great stand-by. His meat, frugally cut, distributed in pasties with a +careful hand, lasted them the greater part of the year, and then there +were the lodgers. The tourist is not over-welcome to the farmer on +account of his carelessness with regard to gates. He lets the young +stock in among the corn and passes on oblivious of the damage he has +caused, but he is a godsend to the labourer's capable wife.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Constantine</span></h4> + +<p>Constantine is another lovely and lonely bay. The jagged ridges of stone +run out at either end of the wide arc, a deep blue in sunlight, black in +cloudy weather, and between them lies a rainbow beach of shells. The +owners of the property have set their faces against hotels, and on the +stretch of sand-dunes are only the ruins of a one-time wrecker's +cottage, and a small black hut. The man who gave his name to the place +was supposed to be a descendant of King Lear (here spelt Llyr), who was +converted in his old age by the Padstow saint, Petrock. The sand which +destroyed his oratory is also said to have destroyed a populous village, +but seeing the desolation on every hand, this is a little difficult to +believe. At any rate the neighbouring churches seem to have benefited by +the saint's misfortune, for St. Merryn as well as Little Petherick +gathered up any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> trifles she thought might come in useful, and the +beautiful font at the former church is said to have been taken from her. +One thing only was left to</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 31em;">"<i>that ruined church</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Whose threshold is the sacrificial stone</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Of a forgotten people!</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Under the archway of the western door, a heavy-rounded lump, lies the +old stone. It was probably a source of pride to Constantine ap Llyr. He +had taken from the heathen their greatest treasure, their sacrificial +stone, which had been brought from a distance, for there is no stone of +that nature in the neighbourhood, and he had set it in his threshold +where it should be trodden underfoot of men. And now the old church and +the yet older stone lie alike forgotten, and there is peace.</p> + +<p>On Constantine Island—again only so-called—a little, very ancient +house was discovered some years ago. The walls were of slabs of stone +and the greatest height of the interior was 7 ft. From the discovery of +two hearth-stones, one inside and one on the outside of the building, it +was thought that the place was only used as a dwelling in bad or cold +weather, and that otherwise its prehistoric owner kept it as a +storehouse. Unfortunately the little ruin has been removed piecemeal by +the hungry visitor.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Fogou</span></h4> + +<p>Not only are there many caverns along this coast, but several fogous or +artificial caves have been discovered. These fogous may have been used +for smuggling or as hiding-places in time of war, but the fact that some +are obviously connected with old cliff castles and strongholds, points +to a greater antiquity; in fact, they may have been prehistoric +storehouses. In a secluded valley,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> near Porthcothan, a little further +along this coast, is an interesting example. The cavern is 36 ft. long +and about 6 ft. high, the breadth being about 5 ft. The sides are lined +with rough stones, simply piled up, and the roof consists of stone +slabs. From this chamber a passage leads to another similarly +constructed. It is said to have been much longer, in fact over 1000 +yards, one gallery leading to Trevethan, whence another opened on to the +beach at Porthmear.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bedruthan</span></h4> + +<p>To the south of Park Head, a fine cliff on which are several tumuli, is +the Church of St. Eval, the tower of which was so useful a landmark that +when it grew ruinous in 1727, some Bristol merchant subscribed towards +the rebuilding. It is near Bedruthan Steps, where a fine shore is strewn +with detached rocks and islands. One of the former is named "Queen +Bess," from a fancied resemblance, ruff, farthingale and all, to the +royal spinster; another "The Good Samaritan," because a vessel of that +name was wrecked there. This vessel had been an East Indiaman laden with +the silks and spices of a warmer clime, and a good deal of the cargo was +saved, so much indeed that nowadays when a lass finds her finery growing +the worse for wear, she says, "It is time for a Good Samaritan to come."</p> + +<p>On the cliff above Redruthan Sands is an ancient earthwork known as Red +Cliff Castle, which is supposed to have been British. It would be +interesting to learn whether it is in any way connected with the +numerous great caves which honeycomb its rock foundation. So far, +however, no fogou has been discovered here.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Vale of Lanherne</span></h4> + +<p>From Mawgan Porth, the far-famed Vale of Lanherne lies inland some two +miles or so, a contrast to the rough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> wild coast and its splintered +rocks. Beyond the church and nunnery, in their peaceful setting of +small-leaved Cornish elms, among the branches of which the rooks build +above the little rippling stream, are the lovely woods of Carnanton. It +used to be said that amid all the religious communities represented in +Cornwall long ago, there was never a nunnery, but this is no longer the +case. In the reign of Henry VII. an Arundell of Lanherne purchased +Wardour Castle, in Wiltshire, and when his younger son Thomas, married a +sister of Queen Catherine Howard, the old man settled on him the Wardour +house and estate. In course of time the elder branch came to be +represented by a daughter only, and she marrying her cousin of Wardour +the estates were re-united. In 1794 Henry, eighth Lord Arundell of +Wardour, gave the old home of his race—it had been in the family since +1231—to some English Theresian nuns, who had fled from Paris in fear of +what was to come. The present house is not very old, though a part of it +dates from 1580, which part contains a secret chamber, wherein a priest +once lay concealed for some sixteen months. It is said that the silver +sanctuary lamp in the convent chapel has burnt continuously and that the +Roman Catholic services have been held without intermission since +pre-Reformation days. A picture supposed to be by Rubens, "The Scourging +of our Blessed Lord at the Pillar," is shown, also other reputed old +masters. Adjoining the house is a little garden, used as a cemetery, in +which three priests and several nuns have been buried, and which +contains a tenth-century four-holed cross of Pentewan stone, the shaft +of which is covered with interlaced work.</p> + +<p>Mawgan Church, which is close to the nunnery, is remarkably rich in +brasses, many of which are now attached to the old screen through the +shameful ignorance of a late rector. There were here formerly some +interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> palimpsest brasses of foreign workmanship, but large +portions of these have been removed by the Arundells—whom they +concerned—to Wardour Castle. On the south side of the churchyard is one +of those pathetic memorials only too common along this coast. The white +painted stern of a boat lies close to the convent wall, and on it is +inscribed: "Here lie the bodies of ... who were drifted on shore in a +boat, frozen to death, at Beacon Cove, in this parish, on Sunday, the +13th day of December, MDCCCXLVI." A beautiful Gothic cross of +fifteenth-century work stands at the west end of the church. It is the +most elaborate example of a lanthorn cross in Cornwall and contrasts +well with the restored granite cross, dating from the earliest period of +such monuments, which is to be seen in the additional churchyard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE VALE OF LANHERNE TO HAYLE TOWANS</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Hurling and St. Columb Major: Colan: The Gratitude of the Stuarts: +Trevalgue: A Good Centre for Crantoch, St. Cubert, and Trerice: St. +Agnes and the Giant: Portreath: the Bassets: Godrevy: Gwithian: The +Pilchards.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Hurling and St. Columb Major</span></h4> + +<p>At the head of the lovely Vale of Lanherne is a district which has long +been the centre for the old game of "hurling," and although football has +largely taken its place, it is still sometimes played on Shrove Tuesday. +The ball is smaller than that used for cricket, is light to handle, and +has a coating of silver. The one now in use is inscribed with this +couplet:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>St. Columb Major and Minor do your best,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>In one of your parishes I must rest.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>During the short reign of Edward VI. the ferment against the reformation +doctrines came to a head in Cornwall. The people rose under Humfrey +Arundel and marched to Exeter, only however to meet with a crushing +defeat. Four thousand were slain, and their leaders taken and hanged at +Tyburn. Martial law was then proclaimed, and Sir Anthony Kingston, +Provost Marshal, was sent down into Cornwall. Among other stories told +of him is that of his expeditious visit to St. Columb. Arrived at the +little market town he promptly seized "Master Mayow" and directed that +he should be hanged as a rebel. "Mistress Mayow, intending to plead for +her husband's life, spent so long a time in prinking herself that by the +time she reached the presence of the judge, her husband was dead."</p> + +<p>In the neighbourhood of St. Columb are nine menhirs in a line, called +the Nine Maidens, or in Cornish "Naw Voz"; also Castle-an-Dinas, a large +triple entrenchment on a high tableland enclosing six acres of ground +and two tumuli. Hither came the Royalist leaders in 1646 to discuss the +question of surrender, and here King Arthur is supposed to have stayed +when on pleasure bent. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> waste land around is known as Goss Moors, +and there he hunted not only the red deer but the wolf.</p> + +<p>"The Green Book of St. Columb" is one of the historical treasures of the +county. It is so called from the colour of its leather binding, and is a +book of parish accounts dating from the reign of Elizabeth.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Curious +to relate, the rectory-house is surrounded by a moat. The church, which +is very large for Cornwall, contains some good brasses and bench-ends, +the brass of Sir John Arundell and his two wives (1545) being probably +the finest example in the county. This church has had hard usage. In +1676 a barrel of gunpowder which lay in the rood-loft was fired by some +mischievous boys. Three of them were killed, and a great deal of other +damage was done. Some few years later the tower was struck by lightning, +and the people, made wiser by misfortune, were careful to erect a less +lofty one, which, however, was itself struck a few years since.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Colan</span></h4> + +<p>Halfway between the two St. Columbs is the little church of Colan, which +contains the interesting brass of ffrancis Bluet, 1572, and Elizabeth, +his wife, with effigies of both and of their thirteen sons and nine +daughters. Below it is a smaller brass containing these words:</p> + +<p class="center">"<i>Behold thyselfe</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>by us; Suche one</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Were we as thow:</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>And thou in tyme</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Shalt be: even doust</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>As we are nowe.</i>"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Gratitude of the Stuarts</span></h4> + +<p>Lady Nance's Well was once the resort of pilgrims, who threw crosses of +wood into the water. If they swam all would go well during the ensuing +year, but, alas, if they should sink! Another well and the remains of +its covering building are to be seen at Rialton, a priory which once +possessed extensive rights, but of which only the ruined buildings +remain. They lie in a beautiful valley east of the village of St. Columb +Minor. At this latter the communion plate, which was presented by +Francis, second Earl of Godolphin, and bears his arms, is massive, the +flagon holding nearly a gallon! By the west door is a large painting of +the royal arms, presented by Charles II. to the parish, as marking his +sense of their loyalty to his father, and it might be as well to give +here the letter of thanks written by Charles I. to his loyal county of +Cornwall and still to be seen painted on wood in so many of the +churches. It was written immediately after the fall of Exeter.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"C. R. To the inhabitants of the Co. of Cornwall.</p> + +<p>"We are so highly sensible of the merit of our county of +Cornwall, of their zeal for the defence of our person and +the just rights of our crown, in a time when we could +contribute so little to our own defence or to their +assistance, in a time when not only no reward appeared, but +great and probable dangers were threatened to obedience and +loyalty; of their great and eminent courage and patience in +their indefatigable prosecution of their great work against +so potent an enemy, backed with so strong, rich, and +populous cities, and so plentifully furnished and supplied +with men, arms, money, ammunition, and provision of all +kinds; and of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> wonderful success with which it pleased +Almighty God, though with the loss of some most eminent +persons—who shall never be forgotten by us—to reward their +loyalty and patience by many strange victories over their +and our enemies in despite of all human probability and all +imaginable disadvantages; that as we cannot be forgetful of +so great desert so we cannot but desire to publish it to all +the world and perpetuate to all time the memory of their +merits and of our acceptance of the same; and to that end we +do hereby render our royal thanks to that our county in the +most public and lasting manner we can devise, commanding +copies hereof to be printed and published, and one of them +to be read in every church and chapel therein, and to be +kept for ever as a record in the same; that as long as the +history of these times and of this nation shall continue, +the memory of how much that county hath merited from us and +our crown may be derived with it to posterity.</p> + +<p>"Given at our camp at Sudeley Castle, 10th of Sep., 1643."</p></div> + +<p>Poor king! a pathetic letter, voicing only too plainly his expectation +of disaster and the surprise which the successes of his reckless gallant +Cornish subjects had caused him.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Trevalgue</span></h4> + +<p>Beyond St. Columb Porth lies the island known as Trevalgue. On the land +side this has six lines of entrenchment and about and upon it, as at +Trevose, lie a quantity of flint chips. These chips are mostly worked. +Here also are a large blow-hole and several interesting caverns. At +Glendorgal, further along the cliff, a barrow was opened some years ago +and found to contain a remarkable burial urn with two handles and on it +a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> rough chevron pattern. The two barrows on the summit of Trevalgue +were opened in 1842. They proved to contain a very ancient interment. +The country people declare them to be the graves of two kings who fought +all day long on the headland until at last each killed the other, and +was buried where he fell.</p> + +<p>"Burn me in my armour, all that is mine, and pile for me a cairn on the +shore of the grey sea, the memorial of a luckless man, that men unborn +may enquire concerning me."—<span class="smcap">Beowulf</span>.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Good Centre for Crantock, St. Cubert, and Trerice</span></h4> + +<p>Newquay, which is like the definition of a line—length without +breadth—is hardly either a nook or a corner. It is marvellously well +situated and consists mainly of large hotels. To stand on its beach, +looking outward along the hazy cliffs and over the sparkling water, +makes you feel as if you could forgive anything but the proximity of man +and his immediate works. However Newquay, like Bude and Tintagel, is an +excellent centre from which to go out and survey the land.</p> + +<p>Legend says—what doesn't legend say?—that Crantock was once a seaport +with seven churches, and "that the place was drowned in a deluge of +sand, brought upon the wings of the wind." That wind has certainly +blocked up the Gannel and put an end to any trade it may once have had. +This Gannel is a tidal river flowing through a gorge in the hills, and +it can be crossed at low tide by a plank bridge, while horse vehicles +splash through the ford. It is, however, a dangerous place, for the tide +flows swiftly and strongly, and lives have been lost through attempting +the crossing a little late. The place is said to be haunted by a +disembodied spirit, locally known as the "crake," the hoarse shriek of +which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> acts as a warning; and it is certain that no countryman who +fancied he had heard it would persist in an attempt to cross—although +it is five good miles round by Trevemper!</p> + +<p>Crantock was a college with a dean and canons at least as early as the +reign of Edward the Confessor, the buildings having stood in what is now +a walled garden, easily recognised by the old ship's figurehead which +serves as a lintel to its gateway. The collegiate church which stands on +a green slope looking towards the sea is one of the most interesting in +Cornwall. There are several remains of Norman work, as for instance the +inner doorway of the porch and part of the central tower arch and piers. +In the church are preserved several pieces of carved alabaster, the +intention of which is not known, and in the graveyard lies a large stone +coffin. The vicar brought himself into notice some time since by +objecting to the presence in his church of women who were not wearing +hats. Courage is a fine thing, but it is generally understood that the +difficulty nowadays is not to discourage people from attending service, +but to get them to come.</p> + +<p>It is not generally known that when the Black Death more—much +more—than decimated Bodmin, the bodies were carried to Crantock and +buried in a field on the north coast. Hundreds of years have passed, but +the surface of this piece of ground is still uneven, and the people +believe that if any one disturbs the earth the disease will break out +again. So antiquarians—in search of the lost city of Langarrow—beware! +The well of St. Carantocus is in the centre of the village, beneath a +rough covering of stone; but it cannot compare either for beauty or +renown with another well a mile or two distant. Under the high and +rugged cliffs of Holywell Bay is a spring of fresh water, approached by +a flight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> of fifteen worn steps that have been cut in the rock. Only +accessible at low tide, it is in a beautiful cave of many strange sea +tints, and the water drips from one lovely basin to another. In other +days mothers brought their deformed or sickly children to be dipped in +the wonder-working well—which, however, is now known to be of no +medicinal value.</p> + +<p>Between Kelsey Head and Penhale Point lies a wild region of blown sand. +Inland are many deserted mines, the ruins of these "knacked bals" giving +the strange countryside a deserted and desolate appearance, so that the +tapering spire of Cubert Church, which forms a useful landmark, is +welcome. Beyond this is more sand, the wide and dreary waste of +Perranzabuloe (St. Piran in the Sands). The early oratory of this saint +was buried by the blown sands, and so long lost that only the tradition +of it remained. Early in the last century, however, the winds uncovered +it again, and when the oratory was cleared from sand, the headless +skeleton of a big man was discovered beneath the altar. Now St. Piran +was the patron saint of tinners, and it was known that in 1281 the +church had possessed a box in which his head was kept and a hearse on +which his body was carried in procession; indeed, the commissary of the +Dean and Chapter of Exeter reported in 1331 that "the parishioners +continue as before to carry the relics of St. Piran in an unwarrantable +manner to various and even distant places," and as late as 1433 Sir John +Arundell bequeathed ten shillings "for enclosing the saint's head +honourably." If these matters are so, the skeleton discovered cannot +have been that of St. Piran, for the oratory was said to have been +buried in the sand about 900 <span class="smcap">a.d</span>., and, as we have seen, the relics were +being carried about by the parishioners as late as 1281.</p> + +<p>The oratory, like that of St. Constantine, is concealed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> among the +sandhills, and by no means easy to find. At the edge of the dunes is a +heath upon which, north of St. Piran's Well, is the Round, a turfed +amphitheatre. This ancient open-air theatre has a rampart about 10 ft. +high, rising in seven steps, of which traces remain. The area will hold +about two thousand spectators, and in the middle ages miracle plays were +doubtless performed here. These plan-an-guare, or playing-places, were +probably constructed in very early times for games or contests after the +manner of the Romans, and seem to have been in use for the performance +of sacred dramas up to the fifteenth century or even later. At Perran a +ditch formerly ran across the floor, and it has been suggested that this +was for boats, &c., used in scenic effects, but it may have had other, +possibly grimmer, uses.</p> + +<p>Some three and a half miles south-east of Newquay is Trerice, another +home of the Arundells. They were truly a fighting race. John Arundell of +Trerice raised a body of troops during the wars of the Roses and fought +on the Lancastrian side, and a later John, nicknamed "John for the King" +and "Game to the Toes," fought with his four sons for Charles I., and in +his old age held Pendennis Castle after all the other forts in Cornwall +had surrendered.</p> + +<p>His ancient manor house came—as did most of the Arundell estates, for +they wedded cannily—by marriage. It was built in 1572 on the site of an +older house, the very solid masonry of which has been found under the +soil. Unfortunately the Arundells, ennobled after the Restoration as +Lord Arundell of Trerice, died out with the "Wicked Lord" in 1773.</p> + +<p>A minstrel's gallery extends the whole length of the hall, and a window +there has no less than 576 panes of glass. In another room is a table of +black oak, the top<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> of which is made of a single plank, which table is +said to have been in the house three hundred years. But the glory of +Trerice has departed. Old Sir John lies buried at Cuby, and the +countrypeople talk of the last bearer of the name with bated breath. The +north wing of the house was pulled down after his death and all his +personal possessions burnt—but still the place remains untenanted.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Agnes and the Giant</span></h4> + +<p>At Perranporth the bewildering similarity of the dunes is broken for the +moment by cliff and cavern scenery. The little village lies high, and +some arched rocks are to be seen at low tide. Two miles to the west is +Cligga Head, a fine bluff rock, but though St. Agnes Beacon, a lofty +hill covered with blocks of granite, rises to 620 ft., these cliffs +cannot be compared for grandeur or majesty with those of the wilder +north. The Beacon, on the summit of which are tumuli, appears in the +stories of the Cornish giants, St. Agnes—or, as her proper name is, St. +Ann—proving one too many for a tiresome monster with the absurd name of +Bolster. She is said to have persuaded him to go in for a little spring +blood-letting and to fill one mine-shaft. But the shaft communicated +with the sea, so the accommodating giant bled to death. If this had +happened where the Red River runs out by Gwithian, the reason for the +legend would have been apparent, for that terrible little tin-stream +sullies the blue waters of the bay for miles around; but there is no +tin-stream by St. Agnes Beacon. Between Perranporth and the latter the +cliff-walk is spoilt by the extensive enclosures of a modern dynamite +factory. The house in which the painter Opie was born is on the way to +St. Agnes. He was the son of a carpenter, but going to London soon +attracted so much attention that he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> known as the "Cornish Wonder." +Dying of overwork when forty-six—considering his age rather a curious +name to give the disease—he was buried in St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>After these few cliffs, the coast sinks again to meet the encroaching +sand. A hundred and twenty years ago the Upton farmhouse was suddenly +overwhelmed, the family, to escape suffocation, making their way out by +the bedroom windows. A few years later, the sands shifted, showing the +buried house, still standing as they had left it. These stretches of +sand are now planted with a rush, the <i>arundo arenaria</i>, which binds it +together, and in the course of time results in the growth of a short +sweet turf.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Portreath and the Bassets</span></h4> + +<p>When the Spanish and French combined fleets threatened Plymouth in 1779, +Francis Basset of Tehidy placed two batteries of guns at Portreath, in +those days known as Basset's Cove. It has the reputation of being the +most unsafe harbour on the coast; and, as it lies at the bottom of a +valley, is reminiscent of Port Isaac; but its wooded hills are less +steep and more charming.</p> + +<p>A little inland is Tehidy House, the seat of the Bassets, a famous +Cornish family. The house once had parks and plantations of far greater +area than at present; they are said indeed to have reached to the foot +of Carn Brea. During the Civil Wars many a humdrum family flowered into +distinction. It was a chance to prove their mettle. After the battle of +Bradock Down the Francis Basset of that date was knighted, and a little +later we find him Sheriff of the county. His marriage was such another +as that of his friend, Sir Beville Grenville, and after Essex' troops +had surrendered to the King in 1644, he hurried to send his lady the +gracious news. "I write this on the saddle. Every friend will pardon the +illness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> of it, and you chiefly, my perfect joy. The King and army march +presently for Plymouth. Jesu give the King, it and all. The King, in the +hearing of thousands, as soon as he saw me in the morning, cried to me, +'Dear Mr. Sheriff, I leave Cornwall to you safe and sound.'" Before the +war Sir Francis had represented St. Ives in Parliament. In 1640 he +presented the town with a silver wishing cup, on which was inscribed:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>If any discord 'twixt my friends arise</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Within the borough of beloved Saint Ies</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>It is desired that this my cup of love</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>To every one a peacemaker may prove,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Then am I blessed to have given a legacie</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>So like my heart unto posteritie.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>No doubt he saw that his borough was mainly Parliamentarian and that +trouble was ahead, and took this sweet and pleasant manner of testifying +the unalterable nature of his personal sentiments.</p> + +<p>It is sad to think how many of the families that distinguished +themselves during those wars are now only a memory.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>The four wheels of Charles' wain,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning slain.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But though Trerice is empty, Lanherne a nunnery, and Stowe but a +farmhouse, there are Bassets still at Tehidy, and long may they +continue.</p> + +<p>The house contains some interesting pictures by the best of our English +artists, and a service of plate made from the silver found in Dolcoath +mine.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Godrevy</span></h4> + +<p>After Portreath are several fine cliffs ending in Navax Point, the +further horn of which looks across the deep curve of St. Ives Bay. On an +island just off the shore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> is the white and black of Godrevy Lighthouse, +first built in 1857. On the day Charles I. was beheaded a vessel +containing his wardrobe and other furnishings was driven by a sudden +squall on the Godrevy Rocks. Fifty-eight persons were drowned, only a +man, a boy, and a dog reaching the little island.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gwithian</span></h4> + +<p>The shore here is strewn with the iridescent purple shells of a small +oyster, which lie gleaming like coloured pearls on the sand and weed. It +has a charming view, the broad bay with the narrow horn of St. Ives +running out on the south-west, and Carbis Bay—white houses and green +woods—nestling on the hillside. Among the sands to the left is another +half-buried, half-excavated oratory, and the little village of Gwithian. +In 1676 a woman named Cheston Marchant is said to have died here at the +age of 164. She is well known by tradition to the present inhabitants, +who relate that in her extreme old age—and she was for many years +bedridden—her teeth and hair were renewed; and that travellers who came +to see her out of curiosity frequently took back with them a lock of her +hair.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Pilchard Fishery</span></h4> + +<p>The little ugly town of Hayle lies some miles away across the towans—as +the sandhills are called—and these same towans, with their soft sea +breezes, firm turf, and excellent bathing, must presently, one would +think, develop into the sort of watering-place agreeable to the mothers +of little children. Hidden among its trees in a dip of the land lies +Phillack with a badly restored church, and in the graveyard a good +two-holed cross; but as this bay is famous for pilchard fishing the main +interest lies towards the sea.</p> + +<p>The largest catch of pilchards recorded is that of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> St. Ives seine. In +1868, at one "shot" this net took five thousand six hundred hogsheads, +or over sixteen million fish!</p> + +<p>The best account of the Hayle and St. Ives pilchard fishing is by Mr. H. D. +Lowry in "Chambers' Journal," but it is too long to quote and only a +resumé can be given.</p> + +<p>As soon as the fish are expected the "huers" (from hue and cry) take up +their position at the white house on Carrick-gladden. It is their +business, looking down on the water from above, to watch for the +characteristic reddish shadow that indicates the presence of fish. To +the men in the boats this shadow is invisible, and when the cry of +"Hëva" [found] re-echoes from the heights, they shoot the nets as +directed from above. Nor are the directions only shouted. The huers +hold, one in each hand, a big iron ring covered with a white cloth. This +is sharply distinct "against the background of heather and sad-coloured +grass." In olden days furze was used, and the white disks are therefore +still spoken of as "the bushes." Very simple is the code of movements. +To send the boats east, the disks are moved from west to east, and vice +versa, while an emphatic downward movement gives the exciting order to +"shoot the seine." And the size of those seines! It takes thirty-five +men, each three or four yards behind his nearest fellow, to carry the +whole length of the net.</p> + +<p>When the fish are in and the order has been given to close the seine, +the huers raise their speaking trumpets anew with a cry of "Bloucers!" +This brings a number of fresh people on the scene, whose business it is +to secure what the nets have captured. The warps, great ropes, fastened +to the ends of the seine, are brought back and attached to windlasses, +and by this means the net is slowly drawn in till, even at high tide, it +would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> still touch bottom and afford no way of escape to the imprisoned +fish. Great black pilchard boats are dragged by four horses from their +accustomed resting-place and towed out towards the seine. The fish are +then dipped out by the basketful and tipped over into the boat, which, +when filled, contains over thirty hogsheads—say one hundred thousand +fish! When the boats come slowly in, laden with their molten silver, +carts are backed down to the water and loaded. "Jousters," who retail +the fresh fish through the country, buy their stock, the carts carry the +fish to the cellars that they may be salted, and in an hour or two every +street in every town for miles round will be resounding with the cry of +"Fresh Pilcher, Pilcher, Pilcher!"</p> + +<p>While on the subject of fish, it may be mentioned that the biggest +edible crab caught off the coast of Cornwall weighed 13 lbs., and the +largest conger 120 lbs. Is it possible they caught and weighed the +sea-serpent by mistake?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LELANT TO PENZANCE</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Gold in Cornwall: Knill's Monument: The Antiquities of the Extreme +West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs: Dolmens: Oratories: Superstitions: +St. Ives: Wesley: Irving: A Ripe Old Age: The Mines: Sancreed and St. +Buryan: Lighthouses: Whitesand Bay: The Land's End: Mousehole and Dolly +Pentreath: Newlyn: Penzance.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<p>From Hayle to Marazion on the south coast is four miles—the narrowest +part of the peninsula—and a railway runs from sea to sea. With a deep +curve, however, the road goes on to low-lying Lelant (the valley +church), which is traditionally said to have once been a large village +and port, but to have been reduced to its present inconspicuousness by +the drifting of sand into the haven. Parts of the church are Norman, and +over the south porch stands an eighteenth-century copper sundial, on the +pierced gnomon bracket of which is a quaint representation of Time and +Death, a skeleton bearing an hour glass and a dart.</p> + +<p>Among other antiquities discovered here was a large colt having in it +some small bars of gold the size of a straw. A farmer found it embedded +in ashes, and lying about 2 ft. below the surface. Gold has often been +found in Cornwall, but always in small quantities—usually in grains +from the size of sand to that of a pea! The largest piece ever found was +said to have weighed down eight guineas in the scale.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Knill's Monument</span></h4> + +<p>Not far from Lelant is Worwas Hill, on which a certain John Knill +erected a mausoleum. By some mischance the gentleman was buried in +London, but by his will he directed that every five years £5 was to be +equally divided among ten girls, natives of the borough and daughters of +seamen, fishermen, or tinners, each of them not exceeding ten years of +age, who should between ten and twelve o'clock of the forenoon of a +certain day, dance for a quarter of an hour at least on the ground +adjoining his mausoleum and, after the dance, sing the 100th Psalm. +Alas, for the vanity of human hopes! Every five years the little girls, +gaily be-ribboned, dance in the presence of the local notabilities, +while the one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> thing that was to have given the ceremony weight and +interest—the body of John Knill—is elsewhere.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Antiquities of the Extreme West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs</span></h4> + +<p>This narrow neck of land shuts off the small rounded end of the +peninsula, a part that is peculiarly rich in prehistoric remains. It is +as if the old forgotten peoples had been driven back and back, race +after race pushing the one before it into the sea, but each, before it +passed, leaving its footprint on the granite. On every headland are +cliff castles—Cape Cornwall, Ballowal, Chûn—the most remarkable being +that of Treryn Dinas, a stronghold with a triple vallum and fosse which +can only be approached by a narrow ridge and which consists of a huge +pile of rocks jutting from a turf-clad neck of land. In contrast with +these are the subterranean passages and chambers (fogous) at Bolleit, +Trewoofe, and Pendeen, the last-named said to be haunted on Christmas +morning by a white-robed lady with the stem of a red rose between her +lips. Above ground are a number of stone circles and solitary monoliths, +from which, or from the cairns, comes the phrase "to raise a stone to +his memory." The monoliths are known as the Pipers and the Blind +Fiddler, the circles, as at Dawns Maen and Boscawen Un, as the Merry +Maidens; and the legend with regard to them is always the same—that the +Pipers played on a Sunday, and that the Maidens danced, their punishment +approximating, in a more lasting form, to that of Lot's wife! Here, too, +are the remains of ancient villages and beehive huts, and at one +place—Chapel Euny—is a subterranean structure consisting of three long +passages and a beehive hut, while at Bosporthennis is a specimen of the +beehive hut so good that it is said to be the best in England. This +district of heath and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> lonely moorland is so sparsely inhabited that the +little old ruins have been left as they were until the antiquarian came +and dug, unearthing the poor treasures of a simple state of +civilisation, the spindle-whorls, the bone needles, the flint spear and +arrow heads, and the coarse black pottery. The coast scenery of this +part is the finest to be seen for miles, and that not so much on account +of the grandeur of the cliffs as of the tumbling seas, that roll in from +the Atlantic; and days might be spent wandering over these high lands +from castle to castle and from stone to stone, trying to discover the +reason, whether sepulchral or religious, that the monoliths were set +erect; to guess why those strange underground passages were dug and +walled, and what practical need they served; and what was the meaning of +the various earthworks and entrenchments. The people to whom they needed +no explanation have vanished, leaving only riddles behind, riddles that +not the wisest among us, not the most enlightened, not the youngest, is +able to solve.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dolmen: Oratories: Superstition</span></h4> + +<p>We do at least know that the dolmen was raised above a burial, in the +one instance of Zennor above two. In the dolmen proper, the supporters +of the great capstone are columns and not merely slabs enclosing the +space. Dolmens are found not only in Cornwall, but along the west coast +of Europe and the northern coast of Africa, also in Palestine, India, +and Japan, and appear to be the work of a seafaring people. Their date +is said to be 2000 <span class="smcap">b.c</span>., the age when bronze was beginning to replace +stone and when the Swiss lake villages were being built. Three of the +early Christian Councils regarded them with suspicion and ordered their +destruction on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> ground that they were objects of reverence to the +Celtic Christians. At Lanyon, on Boswavas Moor, not far from the Mulfra +Quoit, is a fine specimen. Unfortunately the great capstone, which was +18 ft. long and under which a man on horseback could ride, slipped from +its supports in 1815. Lieutenant Goldsmith presently dislodged the Logan +stone at Treryn, a mass of granite weighing sixty-five tons; and being +obliged to replace it, the tackle he used was further utilised to +replace the Lanyon capstone. To make this easier, however, the three +uprights were cut down, and the cromlech now to be seen is by no means +so imposing as in its prehistoric state. This seafaring folk, who left +their tiny mark on the surface of the earth and then faded into +obscurity, builded better than we with all our modern appliances!</p> + +<p>It was unusual for the early Christians to order the destruction of +monuments of this kind. As a rule they accepted and turned them to +account. We have examples of this in the chapel at Porthcurnow, one of +those very early buildings, formed of a double square, such as lie +hidden among the shifting sands of Perran and Gwithian, and which was +built on a spot already sacred as a place of burial; while on Chapel +Carn Brea, which rises to a height of 660 ft., with Bartine at its +shoulder still higher, is a cairn which held the bones of a Stone Age +chieftain. Above them was a dolmen, and above that relics of British and +Roman times, the whole being crowned by a Christian oratory!</p> + +<p>It is hardly a matter for surprise if the people who dwell among these +relics of the immemorial past still retain some of the superstitions of +their forefathers, if their wells still have miraculous qualities and +the crickstone a strange virtue. To them witches are as real as +wreckers, and they cannot believe that the "little people"—once perhaps +inhabiting those subterranean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> passages and huts—are gone for certain, +and for ever. Get on the right side of an old miner and he will tell you +of the "nuggies," of their silver anvils and their parlours, of how he +has heard their little picks at work, and of how he has hoped all his +life to one day catch sight of a nuggy slipping into its parlour, when +he will, of course, follow and "strike it rich."</p> + +<p>The housewife, on persuasion, may be got to tell how when she (or her +mother) went in the morning to fill the kibble at the well she saw the +pisky stealing away over the dewy fields by the first grey glimmer of +light. Possibly he had taken eggs from her hen-roost, or if she were a +wise woman and had baked him a hearth cake and left with it a sup of +milk, he had perhaps "redded up" the place for her. It would be a matter +of give-and-take, but the people in the low grey houses, with their +thick walls and stone-held thatch, would be able to more than guess +which mound it was into which the piskies vanished and which were the +fairy rings about which they danced at dusk or in the moonlight. So wild +was the country and so much does one piece of granite look like another +that there were hiding-places in plenty, nooks that at a later date +would be used by the smugglers and other law-breaking gentry, corners +behind which the small race could lurk when the larger, more dangerous +humans came striding by. Over against these tales of the "little people" +must be set the stories told by those little people themselves, the +stories of the giants, of the bigger folk whose terrors they magnified a +hundredfold that their babies might be thus persuaded to keep out of +danger. And because after all there must have been intermarriage, the +occasional courting of pisky and giant, both sets of stories have been +handed down from one generation to another. The Cornish are not a booky +folk, they have not produced a great literature,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> and even nowadays they +read little but their Bibles. Such a people would be likely to remember +and treasure up the stories handed down from mother to child. They are, +moreover, very social. In the loneliest parts there is seldom an evening +when the labourers do not drop in at each other's cottages for a +"crack," and every now and then the soft deep voices utter a word that +has dropped out of the common talk, but which for them still has its +right meaning, and the fathers tell over again the stories their fathers +told to them. Some of the stories have come to the surface and are known +to the "foreigner" (as every one born east of the Tamar is called). We +have, for instance, that of the Zennor mermaid, which has taken such +hold on local thought that it is even carved upon a bench-end in the +little grey church. It was the story of a squire's son who sang in the +choir and sang so beautifully that Sunday by Sunday a mermaid +(Cornish—merrymaid) crept up from the sea to hear him. Like Hans +Andersen's story she had found her prince, but unlike that story she in +the end persuaded him to go away with her; and as he never returned, the +wiseacres shook their heads and thought of him as lying drowned under +the blue waters.</p> + +<p>The antiquities of this, the extreme west, and the resulting strange +traditions and beliefs are not the only matter of interest in this part +of the world. Superimposed upon the survivals of a far-off time are +those of the last thousand and odd years when Cornwall was struggling +with the disabilities of its exposed position, when the Danes fell on +the coasts burning and harrying, and corsairs carried off the poor +fishermen and sold them as slaves. In 1635 a Turkish pirate ship was +brought <i>nolens volens</i> into St. Ives Bay, and the peaceful folk, not +immediately recognising her build, were surprised to hear sounds as of +guns and firing. The firing was not at those on shore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> it was in fact +entirely confined to those on board, and it was as if the ship were +divided against herself. In the end the truth appeared. The pirate had +captured three small vessels of Looe and Fowey and seized their crews. +These men, however, were not of a slavish kind. Rising in a body, they +knocked the captain overboard, drove the Turks below and set sail for +St. Ives. Having a fair wind they made it safely; though the pirates, +also a hearty folk, spent their time firing at them through the timbers +of the deck.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Wesley</span></h4> + +<p>We warrant those pirates had much the same reception at the hands of the +St. Ives men as was dealt out to John Wesley when, in course of time, +that small neat gentleman made his way into the district. The Cornish +seem to have been—let us use the past tense—own brother to the +Irishman in their love of a riot, any sort of a riot, for any reason or +none; and Wesley got more than a taste of mob violence. Yet in the end +he could say: "Here God has made all our enemies to be at peace with us, +so that I might have preached in any part of the town. But I rather +chose a meadow, that such as would might sit down, either on the grass +or on the hedges—so the Cornish term their broad stone walls. Well-nigh +all the town attended and with all possible seriousness. Surely forty +years' labour has not been in vain."</p> + +<p>So at last the little man was made welcome and could feel that he had +roused the fishing-town from its long religious lethargy. I wonder +whether in his strenuous life, and he came twenty-seven times to St. +Ives, he ever found time to wander into the old church, study the +wonderful carving of its bench-ends, and take pleasure in its ancient +communion plate "and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> its pair of collecting basins with handles," or +whether he was only occupied with things of the spirit?</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Irving</span></h4> + +<p>Inland from St. Ives lies the ugly mining village of Halsetown, where +Sir Henry Irving spent the years of his childhood. His mother was a +Cornish woman of the Behenna family, and to Halsetown she brought him to +stay with an aunt. The uncle was captain of a local mine—"captain" +meaning any sort of an overseer from the manager to a man with only a +boy under him! Here the lad ran wild with his cousins. "At any rate," +said he in after years, "Halsetown gave me a good physical start in +life. I attribute much of my endurance of fatigue—which is a necessary +part of an actor's life—to the free and open and healthy years I spent +there." Nor are these many hours of sunshine and the salubrious air only +good for youth; life lengthens here unnoticeably until it has reached +three figures, and even then shows a strength that is amazing. Mrs. +Zenobia Stevens, who was buried at Zennor in 1763, aged 102, was tenant +for ninety-nine years of the Duke of Bolton. On the expiration of her +lease, being then in her hundredth year, she went on this matter of +business to the Duke's Court at St. Ives; and it is said that she +excused herself from accepting a second glass of wine on the plea that +it was growing late and she had not only some way to go, but had to ride +home on a young unbroken horse.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Mines</span></h4> + +<p>Among these rough cliffs are sudden smiling valleys, but the moors are +disfigured by a number of mine workings that have ceased to pay, and the +ruins of which add to the desolation of the scene. A little above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> St. +Just are three celebrated mines: Wheal Owles, into which the sea broke +and which is now only the tomb of the eighteen men who were then working +in her; Botallack, visited by King Edward and Queen Alexandra in 1865, +while Prince and Princess of Wales, but no longer working; and Levant, +exploited for tin, copper, and arsenic, and still employing several +hundred men. The workings of this mine run for nearly a mile under the +sea, and the men say that on stormy days the noise over their heads is +terrific. These men live at St. Just, a mining town in the old church of +which are some frescoes—St. George about to slay the dragon before +Cleodolinda and her comrades, and Christ surrounded by the symbols of +various trades. Of greater interest perhaps is the Plan-an-Guare, 126 +ft. in diameter and with the remains of six tiers of seats. This rural +amphitheatre is still sometimes used as a place of assembly and was once +no doubt utilised for miracle plays, but who constructed it and for what +purpose is lost in the mists of antiquity. Not far from the +Plan-an-Guare is Kenidjack Cliff (the howling wind), a "hooting cairn" +regarded by the superstitious country side as haunted by more than +natural sounds. During the construction on it of butts for rifle +practice, some twenty to thirty pieces of pure copper were found under +stones which were probably the remains of an old building. The purity of +the copper points to this hoard having been the property of a founder of +tools or weapons belonging to the Bronze Age, and no doubt this founder +was a workman of some importance in the district. The story connected +with him has been forgotten, the fact that he ever existed has passed, +but about the place still clings that old fear of the weapon-maker, +whose every-day task it was to forge the mysterious givers of death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sancreed</span></h4> + +<p>It is a far journey from a "hooting cairn" to the pettiness of the +social struggle, even though the struggle was for a precedence which has +passed out of fashion. In Bishop Sparrow's report of July 1671, on +Sancreed Church, a curious state of affairs came to light, for the +parish was quarrelling over precedence in church sittings! "One John +Adams of mean estate and fortune" had actually seated himself higher up +than "those who are of the Twelve of the parish and their wives," and +great had been the scandal. Also one Francis Lanyon, who had married +"into a very worthy family," his wife, if you please, being niece to +Colonel Godolphin, was without "a convenient seat." Sancreed has an old +rood screen (or rather part of one), of which Sedding says: "I know of +no finer specimen elsewhere in the county. Like so much old Cornish work +it is more than local; it is purely parochial."</p> + +<p>Its neighbour, St. Buryan, is also celebrated for its screen, which was, +however, seriously injured by the vicar in 1814. From what remains, it +would appear to have been exceptionally beautiful, carved, coloured, +gilt, and of opulent and bold workmanship. This church stands high, 400 +ft. above the sea; and about a mile distant are the remains of what is +believed to be the oratory of St. Buryan. The story goes that first +Egbert in 813 fought a battle here at Bolleit (place of blood) and later +Athelstane in 926. There is no historical evidence for either battle, +but tradition is a smoke under which a little flame may generally be +found. At any rate, a battle was fought and the conqueror, standing on +this high land, saw afar off the Scillies, and realised that there were +yet worlds to conquer. So pleased was he, that he vowed, if successful, +to found a college for priests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> on this high land, and so the church of +St. Buryan came into being.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lighthouses and Whitesand Bay</span></h4> + +<p>A mile and a half off the Land's End is the Longships Lighthouse. Built +on a rock 70 ft. above low water and itself 55 ft. high, its top is yet +often buried in the spray and the lanthorn broken. Further out, on the +Wolf Rock, is another lighthouse; while off the Seven Stones, dangerous +rocks between the mainland and the Scillies, is a lightship moored in +forty fathoms of water, but in such an exposed position that it has +before now been driven from its moorings.</p> + +<p>But there were neither lighthouses nor lightships on these rocks when +Athelstane landed at Whitesand Bay on his return from the conquered +Scillies. Even now it is an ugly bit of water to traverse, and it must +have been worse then. He was probably glad enough to see the great +stretch of white sand with Sennen Cove lying in the midst thereof like +an emerald set in silver. Later the bay acquired a bad reputation. So +far from the madding crowd, so secret and so storm-beaten, it gave +evil-doers a sense of security. Who would dare to venture after them +among these rocks and clefts? Corsairs, pirates, smugglers, each in turn +made use of the white beach. Thither came Perkin Warbeck in 1497 with +his four little barques and six score men; thither John Lackland when +seeking to dispossess his trusting brother of the realm; thither +Stephen, the oath-breaker, who was, however, none so bad a king. Rough +are the winds and rougher still the seas that beat upon this lovely bay, +and it is a little puzzling why these and other personages should have +chosen it as a landing-place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Land's End</span></h4> + +<p>Alas for romance, this same Land's End is but a low and unimpressive +rock which, like the blunt head of some titanic animal, thrusts a grey +muzzle into the water. It is only 60 ft. high, yet this is the last +stone, the last bit of land, the ultimate west, this west that appeals +so strongly to the Cornishman abroad:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>There's never a wave upon western beaches</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>Falls and fades to a wreath of foam</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>But takes at the last a voice that reaches</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>Over the distance and calls me home.</i>"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Lowry</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The Land's End, strange low headland, has seen plenty of stirring days, +from the time when the Danish long-ships came creeping round to harry +Cornwall and Devon, to that later date when the great storm and the +descendants—probably—of those very Danes sent the great Armada fleeing +up the narrow seas. Turner came here for the colour and the wild blue +seas, and Tennyson to wonder whether his Arthur had ever been so far +south. The rock is of split and tumbled granite, one of the few +instances in the duchy where that stone comes into contact with the sea; +and if Penwith, as all that part is called, really means the "wooded +headland," that barren rock and rough water must once have been far +enough apart. A little south of the Land's End is the finer rock of +Pordenack, and all round this southern point the bays and coves are +charming, the cliffs fine and the caverns and rocks numerous and +fantastic. Tol-Pedn (the holed headland—so called from a huge +blow-hole) has its Witches' (or Maggy Figgy's) Chair and shelters the +pretty hamlet of Porthgwarra, the inhabitants of which are darker than +the majority of Cornishmen. Tradition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> is in favour of a wrecked Spanish +galleon. Not, we suppose, the spectre ship of Porthcurnow, a +neighbouring cove. There a black square-rigged vessel sails up the beach +and up the combe, making no difference between land and water, and +presently vanishes like mist—and that in the valley the Eastern +Telegraph Company has made its own! The hamlet is interesting on account +of its name. That distinguished scholar, Canon Isaac Taylor, says: +"Cornwall, or Cornwales, is the kingdom of the Welsh of the Horn," but +others think the name is from the Kernyw, the tribe who lived in these +parts, they being called the Kernyw Gaels, to distinguish them from the +Gaels of Wales and those of Brittany. Be it as it may, in Porthcurnow we +have an interesting survival of the old tribal name.</p> + +<p>The church of St. Levan is on the hillside in a deep valley and beyond +its admirable carving, its screen with a geometrical pattern of leaves, +its font of a stone not found in the neighbourhood, and its unusual holy +water stoup—at the north and east entrances to the church are the old +lych stones used as resting-places for funerals! There is also a cleft +boulder of granite about which it was prophesied that when a pack-horse +should ride through "St. Levan's stone" the world would come to an end, +and the fact that such handy material for building has been left unused +shows that for some reason it must have been held in veneration.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mousehole and Dolly Pentreath</span></h4> + +<p>Mousehole is said to have been the last place at which Cornish was +spoken, and this has resulted in the legend of Dolly Pentreath. She was +a fishwife who, in course of time, came on the parish; and it was +believed, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> only that she lived to a great age, but that she was the +last person to speak the ancient language. Against this, the facts must +be set forth. Dorothy Pentreath is given in the parish register as born +1714 and died 1777; while Wm. Matthews, who also spoke Cornish—speaking +it with his cronies—and lived at Newlyn, did not die till 1800. In +spite of this, however, two credulous persons—Prince Lucien Buonaparte +and the Vicar of Paul—raised a stone to her memory in 1860, and +referred in particular to the old age which was not hers and the +language which she certainly spoke, but was not the last to speak.</p> + +<p>"Here lieth interred Dorothy Pentreath, who died 1778, said to have been +the last person who conversed in the ancient Cornish.</p> + +<p>"Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the +land."</p> + +<p>But if Mousehole has no right to its legend, its own age cannot be +called into question. In 1347 it was recognised as a Cornish port, while +in the time of Henry VII. a lay subsidy roll shows its inhabitants to +have been nearly equal in number to those of Penzance.</p> + +<p>Moreover, it has had its vicissitudes. An ancient prophecy had declared:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>They shall land on the rock of Merlin</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Who shall burn Paul, Penzance, and Newlyn.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>and, as a matter of fact, one July morning in 1595 four Spanish galleys +carrying two hundred men crept up under cover of a fog and, landing them +on a rock that bore the name of Merlin, proceeded to verify the +prediction. The Spaniards must have been surprised at the lack of +opposition with which they met, for though Sir Francis Godolphin—called +"the great housekeeper" from his hospitality—did his utmost to rouse +the people,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> the fact that the ancient prophecy was being fulfilled +before their eyes had a paralysing effect. So much so that the towns +mentioned in the prediction were duly and effectually burnt before a +sufficient posse could be raised to drive the Spaniards back to their +galleys. Yet we have it on Bacon's authority that the Cornish were no +cowards: "These Cornish are a race of men stout of stomach, mighty of +body and limb, and that live hardily in a barren country; and many of +them of a need could live underground, which were tinners." Nevertheless +the Spaniards did their work so thoroughly that the Keigwin Arms, at +that date a manor-house, was the only building left standing. This house +is interesting as a specimen of Tudor architecture, the walls being +several feet thick, while the timbers were said to have been grown in +the forest, now submerged, that gave St. Michael's Mount its old name of +"the hoar rock in the wood." This tradition suggests a greater antiquity +for the house than that of Elizabeth's reign, or that it was built on +the site of some older building.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Newlyn</span></h4> + +<p>Mousehole, like Newlyn, has a fine fishing-fleet, but even when these +picturesque boats are out of sight, there is a flavour in the air, a +<i>soupçon</i>, a <i>je ne sais quoi</i>! A blind man indeed might be expected to +know how the little ancient town contrives to pay its way! The artists +of Newlyn seem to have risen superior to such a trifle. To the painter, +of course, beauty is only of the eye and, after all, the smell of oil +paints——</p> + +<p>It is wonderful how attractive Cornwall seems to artists of both pen and +brush. No village so poor, none so utterly desolate, but it can point to +its artist and its cross. Not, of course, that there is any connection +between artists and crosses. The broad outlook of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> former may have +been something of a trial, but it has come to be looked on as of no +importance, just a bit of harmless eccentricity.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Penzance</span></h4> + +<p>Not far from Newlyn is a place that was once a chapel-of-ease to Madron +and had no church of its own. It was represented to the authorities, +however, that if the people went daily to their parish church at +Madron—daily, mark you—the town would be in peril of burning "by the +French and other enemies in time of war." Naturally the church was +built. That good, that punctilious, that saintly town where all the +inhabitants went every day to church is none other than—Penzance. And +except that it is a good centre, there is very little else to say about +it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES TO ROSELAND</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The Land of Lyonesse: The Scillies: The Law of Wrecks: Mr. Smith: The +Admiral's Honour: Ding Dong Mine: St. Michael's Mount: An Old Ceremony: +China Clay: Wrecks: Germoe and Breage: Pengersick: Flora Day: The Loe +Pool: Serpentine: Gunwalloe and Mullion: The Lizard: Bells: The Helford +River: Mawgan: Roseland.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Land of Lyonesse</span></h4> + +<p>If you ask the people they will tell you that without doubt the piece of +water between the south of Cornwall and the Scillies was once dry land. +If you ask the educated stranger he will hum and haw, and say it is +probable, perhaps even likely, and will quote the Saxon Chronicle to the +effect that "the sea broke in upon the land and swallowed up many towns +and a countless multitude of people." As the old record gives no hint as +to where this catastrophe happened, more than one writer has taken it to +justify a belief in the Land of Lyonesse. Oh for a Passmore Edwards +embued with curiosity rather than philanthropy, who should by dredging +operations settle the vexed question for good and all!</p> + +<p>The fishermen, looking down through the clear waters on a still day, +declare they can make out the ruins of old churches and houses, and that +their nets have brought them time and again articles of household +economy, pieces of broken doors and roofs and windows. Moreover, when +the great wave broke hungrily over the low-lying land a Trevelyan saw +the curling breakers and setting spurs to his swift white horse was +carried at a mad gallop to Perranuthno. The people show you the cave in +which he and the trembling horse took refuge till the wild turmoil +should have died down. With what a horrified curiosity the man who lived +must have looked out of his cave, watching till the great wave should +subside, watching for the reappearance of all those farms and villages +that only that morning had been sunning themselves in the warm light. +The forest, too, those acres of beech trees stretching out from Marazion +and surrounding St. Michael's Mount, that "hoar rock in a wood," what +had become of them? The stormy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> autumn day must have closed down upon +him, still looking, wondering, and hoping; but when once more the sun +rose it was upon a wide stretch of waters, with the Scillies sparkling +in the distance. Between them and the land was only sea—and a people +overwhelmed and lost and soon to be forgotten, a people who but +yesterday had gone about their daily tasks as unsuspecting as the rest! +There was only Trevelyan left to say it was the "Judgment of Heaven," +and he, poor soul, appears to have been too shaken, or too little of a +priest, to do so.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Scillies</span></h4> + +<p>It used to be said that when the Almighty made Ireland he had left a few +handfuls of mud. He threw them into the sea and the result was the +Scillies. The proof thereof is that, like Ireland, the Scillies have no +snakes!</p> + +<p>They may be only a few handfuls of stony mud, but they are lovely +islands, though for those whom salt water makes queasy, a little +difficult to reach. There is, in fact, a most depressing story told of a +lady who was so ill during the four hours' passage from Penzance that +when within sight of the islands but before she could be landed she +actually died of heart failure.</p> + +<p>The Scillies number about 145, twenty-four of which are cultivated, but +only five inhabited—St. Mary's, Tresco, St. Martin's, St. Agnes, and +Bryher; while Scilly, the islet which has given its name to the group, +is an unimportant rock near Bryher.</p> + +<p>On St. Agnes is the Well of St. Warna, a saint who protected her +protégés from being wrecked and drowned. She has fallen into disrepute, +however, owing to the whole population of her island having been wrecked +and drowned on their way home from the neighbouring island, whither<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +they had been to church! What a shock to believers in St. Warna. If only +it had been a case of bad boys bird's-nesting on the Sabbath or of merry +maidens dancing to the music of the blind fiddler, or east coast men +fishing on Sunday, but—respectable citizens on their way home from +church!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Law of Wrecks</span></h4> + +<p>Ocean currents run strong here. It has long been mistakenly supposed +that the Gulf Stream affects the climate of Western Cornwall. Needless +to say, the true Gulf Stream does not come within many miles of the +duchy; instead, a surface current of warm water is carried +north-eastward from hot latitudes, and the ameliorating effects on +flowers and plants and vegetables are the same. This warm current does +not, however, ameliorate the storms, and in spite of four lighthouses +the wrecks are numerous. In 1707 four ships of the Navy were lost here +and 2000 men. The islands once had a reputation not only for smuggling, +but for wrecking, and for the kind of wrecking that gives no help "to +those in peril on the sea," but rather the other way about. Not that the +people were altogether to blame. The law of wrecks was largely +responsible for the brutalities undoubtedly indulged in towards +shipwrecked crews, for it stated definitely that wrecks should be the +property of the governor of the isles only "if none of the crew remained +alive."</p> + +<p>In our gentle days it is hardly believable that the whole populace +should have seen to it that a wreck had no survivors. Themselves at the +mercy of the waters, one might have thought such constant peril would +have bred a fellow-feeling, but the contrary seems to have been the +case. In the Tresco Gardens is a terrace devoted entirely to the +figure-heads of vessels that have been cast on these shores. Each sorry +relic represents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> its quota of human lives, and, remembering this, it is +as if you were in some sort of concentrated graveyard where the bones of +the poor dead are not even decently covered and concealed from sight.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mr. Smith</span></h4> + +<p>But laws were presently amended, and then both wrecking and smuggling +failed to yield a livelihood. When Mr. Augustus Smith leased the islands +from the Duke of Leeds, the present representative of the Godolphins +(Dolphin Town is named after them), the people were in a parlous +condition. With no industries beyond fishing and kelp-gathering, their +poverty had grown with their families. Mr. Smith, however, was a kindly +autocrat. He settled among his people at Tresco Abbey, insisted on +education, sent the girls to service on the mainland and the lads to +sea, built new roads, and improved the quay. One further step was +needed, and this was presently taken by Mr. Trevellick, of Rocky Hill, +St. Mary's. Collecting a few bundles of the narcissi that bloomed +abundantly about the cottages, he sent them to Covent Garden Market. +Amazing to the man who had spent his days amid a profusion of such +flowers was the return they brought. The news spread, and so did the +cultivation of the blooms. From January to May every steamer now carries +tons—as much sometimes as thirty—of flowers on their way to be sold, +and that although many of the islands are treeless sandhills! As Mr. +Salmon says, however: "The distance, the cost of carriage, and the +competition of the untaxed foreigner are the difficulty. The trade has +been hit very hard by foreign imports and by the crushing cost of +freights. Vegetable cargoes cost less from the shores of the +Mediterranean than they do from Scilly; the foreigner is given every +advantage in his efforts to undersell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> the Briton, and the Briton, +though fighting at home, fights with one hand tied behind!"</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Admiral's Honour</span></h4> + +<p>The history of the Scillies is much what its exposed position would lead +you to suppose. Olaf of Norway came marauding here, was converted, and +is said to have founded Tresco Abbey—the authentic history of which, +however, does not begin till later. Athelstane for the love of fighting +presently descended on them; and when the fortunes of royalty were at a +low ebb Charles, afterwards Charles II., sought refuge there, and lay in +great straits not only for the comforts but even for the necessities of +life. The Parliament, unable to let well alone, sent a fleet to surround +the island where he lay, but a storm—"Judgment of Heaven," cried the +Royalists with one voice—dispersed the ships. Thinking the islands an +insecure as well as an uncomfortable refuge, however, the Prince left +them at the first opportunity, setting sail for Jersey on his way to the +greater hospitality of France. After that they became the prey of every +strong man who fancied them; and so dangerous a nest of privateers did +they become, that Dutch commerce suffered, and Admiral Van Tromp offered +to help in their reduction. His offer, however, was not accepted, the +English having learnt the danger of calling in foreign assistance. +Admiral Blake was sent to teach the Scillies their duty towards +Parliament, and in May 1651, Sir John Grenville—whom we last saw as Sir +Beville's stripling son—obtaining freedom and retreat for himself and +garrison, surrendered the islands. At first Parliament refused to +recognise these favourable terms, but Blake was as fine a gentleman as +Grenville himself, which is saying a great deal, and he declared that if +not allowed to keep his word he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> would not keep his office. So Grenville +was free to depart, and went over seas to join his Prince and share in +his poverty and wanderings.</p> + +<p>The Scilly Isles are very lovely, perhaps the loveliest part of this +lovely county. The climate is mild and equable, the constant breeze +prevents too great a heat, while the rigours of winter, thanks to the +warm sea-water, are unknown. Seabirds breed on the great rocks, the +earth is of a marvellous fertility, and beyond, far below the horizon, +the next land is that of another island—Newfoundland!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mount's Bay</span></h4> + +<p>The sea has encroached within late years on the eastern shores of +Mount's Bay, but the harbourage is good, and a fine fleet of +fishing-vessels sails from here. There are echoes of unpleasantness with +regard to Sunday fishing on the part of strangers. As the Newlyn man put +it: "Sunday fishing is wicked, and what's more it spoils our market."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Ding Dong Mine</span></h4> + +<p>At the head of the bay is Gulval, near which lies the Ding Dong Mine, +famous as the oldest in Cornwall, so old indeed that it has long since +(1880) retired into private life. About seventy years since, a number of +Roman and Alexandrian coins of the third and fourth centuries were found +near this mine. It is quite possible that the Romans themselves worked +Ding Dong and Ting Tang, and other of the old mines. A stone inscribed +with the names of Constantine and his son is still preserved at St. +Hilary: "Imperatore Cæsare Flavio Valerio Constantino Pio Cæsare +nobilissimo divi Constantii Pii Augusti Filio." As Constantine the Great +was Cæsar in 306 and became Augustus in 307, this inscription fixes the +date of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> stone as belonging to the first of those years. When +draining a piece of land between Penzance and Marazion, the workmen came +upon about a thousand Roman coins of that date; indeed, under stones or +buried in urns various large hoards of brass, copper, and lead money +have been discovered by old tinworks, and every now and then fine gold +and silver coins of Trajan, Nero, and the later emperors.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Michael's Mount</span> (Cornish Dinsul)<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></h4> + +<p>St. Michael's Mount, which is principally composed of granite, is 190 +ft. high and about a mile round. It is said that the members of the St. +Aubyn family, to whom it now belongs—having been sold to them by the +Bassets—are not considered able to look after themselves in the water +until they have swum completely round the Mount.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>However imposing the great rock looked when the waves from which it +emerged wore the summer green of beech-leaves, it could not have had so +great a dignity as now. Fortified from an early date, it soon fell into +the hands of the Church, and was presently garrisoned by monks. But so +fine a stronghold could not be held sacred to spiritual warfare, and in +1191 a party of soldiers disguised themselves as pilgrims and, so +obtaining admission to the fortress, turned on their unarmed hosts and +expelled them. From that date the place took part in any little war that +might be convulsing the rest of the country, and even started—as in +1548—little wars and rebellions of its own. Henry VIII., who had a most +fatherly care for his coast defences, erected batteries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> here; and +during the Civil Wars it belonged in turn to whichever party had the +upper hand. Its history, indeed, is a continual change of owners, of +fierce sieges, stratagems, plunderings, and hairbreadth escapes. Now it +is an old grey rock, which after many vicissitudes has fallen asleep in +the sun. The only very ancient part still in existence is the piece of +Saxon walling pierced by the principal doorway, and the wonder is, not +that there is so little, but that one stone should have been left upon +another.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">An Old Ceremony</span></h4> + +<p>In this part of the country the name Godolphin occurs over and over +again. Tresco Abbey was granted to them at the Dissolution, but they +lived principally at Godolphin House in Breage, and the old saying ran: +"A Trelawny was never known to want courage, a Grenville loyalty, or a +Godolphin wit."</p> + +<p>The Tudor house to the north of Godolphin Hill (500 ft.) is now a farm. +The panelled rooms, a hall, and some great windows are all that remain +of the former mansion, but a ceremony, which originated in 1330, is +still observed on Candlemas day. "Once a year for ever the reeve of the +manor of Lamburn shall come to Godolphin, and there boldly enter the +hall, jump upon the table, and stamp or bounce with his feet or club to +alarm and give notice to the people of his approach, and then and there +make proclamation aloud three times, 'Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! I am the reeve +of the manor of Lamburn, in Perransand, come here to demand the old rent +duties and customs, due to the lords from the said manor of Godolphin," +upon which notice there was forthwith to be brought him 2<i>s</i>. 8<i>d</i>. in +rent, a quart of beer, a loaf of wheaten bread, and a cheese worth +6<i>d</i>., "which the reeve having received he shall drink of the beer, +taste<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the bread and cheese in the place, and then depart, carrying with +him the said rent and the remainder of the viands."</p> + +<p>One of the two oldest crosses in Cornwall is in the churchyard at +Godolphin. In the opinion of stone-masons it has been "bruised out," +probably with wood, and not cut with a metal tool. It may indeed have +come into existence before metal was used.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">China Clay</span></h4> + +<p>Tregoning Hill, a little south of Godolphin, was the place where Wm. +Cookworthy, a druggist, discovered in 1745 a clay from which porcelain +could be made, and from which Plymouth china resulted. This first +discovery of china clay has led to that great development of the +industry, of which St. Austell is the centre.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Wrecks: Germoe and Breage</span></h4> + +<p>Before the lighthouse on the Wolf Rock was built (1871) this rocky coast +was the scene of many a wreck. In 1873 the Vicar of Mullion wrote: "In +six years and a quarter there have been nine wrecks, with a loss of +sixty-nine lives, under Mullion Cliffs, on a bit of coast line not more +than a mile and a half in length." It must be confessed that the +inhabitants of Germoe and Breage had an unenviable reputation as +wreckers:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>God keep us from rocks and shelving sands</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>And save us from Breage and Germoe men's hands.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>But those days have passed away, though Germoe still has a reputation of +a kind. It is said that once the men had good singing voices, but were +so proud of them that the voices failed; while another distich shows the +estimation in which they held themselves:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;">"<i>Camborne men are bulldogs,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;"><i>Breage men are brags,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 24em;"><i>Three or four Germoe men</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;"><i>'Ull scat'um all to rags.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Local jealousies between neighbouring towns are by no means rare in +Cornwall. For instance, there is the old enmity between Zennor and St. +Ives. It is said that the fishermen belonging to the latter were greatly +annoyed one season by the ravages of the hake among the mackerel. They +therefore caught the largest they could, whipped him soundly, and +restored him to the water—<i>pour encourager les autres</i>.</p> + +<p>When a Zennor man wishes to be disagreeable to a native of St. Ives, +therefore, he says: "Who whipped the hake?"</p> + +<p>But Zennor, one might think, would have hesitated to throw stones, for +it is locally known as the place where the cow ate the bellrope, the +neighbourhood being so barren and rocky that the straw bellrope was the +only provender the poor animal could find—which is suggestive of the +Cornish vet. who sent in his bill "to curing your old cow till she +died."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Pengersick</span></h4> + +<p>One more local story before we go on to Helston, and that because the +retort is so neat and the lady, as usual, had the last word. Pengersick +Castle is a ruin which, when habitable, was occupied by a man and his +wife whose early regard had changed to hatred. Their children were grown +up and married, and they had nothing to do but brood upon their mutual +dislike, until one day it occurred to both that the world would be a +brighter and better place if the other were out of it. No sooner said +than done. That day at dinner the good man poured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> his wife a glass of a +rare vintage, and after she had drunken told her with satisfaction that +he would now see the last of her—as the wine had been poisoned.</p> + +<p>"The wine? Ah, yes, and the soup, too," quoth she, "and as you drank +first, my love, the pleasure of seeing the last of you will be mine."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Flora Day</span></h4> + +<p>Helston, the little bright town built crossways on the side of a hill, +is near the spring of the Kelford River and at the head of the Loe Pool. +It had an exciting time in 1548, when the Cornish feeling against the +new doctrine of the sacrament found vent in the murder, which took place +inside the church, of Wm. Bray, the royal commissioner. In pursuance of +his duty he was pulling down images and possibly treating what was +sacred in the eyes of the people with only scant reverence. Be that as +it may, Wm. Kiltor, a priest of St. Keverne, attacked and slew him, to +the secret—not too secret either—joy of the people and the scandal of +authority.</p> + +<p>The eighth of May in Helston is Flora or Furry Day, and is possibly a +relic of the old May Day saturnalia. The young people go (<i>fadgy</i>) into +the country singing:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Robin Hood and Little John,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>They both are gone to the fair, O!</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>And we will away to the merry greenwood</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>And see what they do there, O!</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>They return garlanded with flowers and dance through the houses and +gardens of the town, singing the Furry Song. The dance follows a set +formula, the procession going in at the front door and out at the back, +and being supposed to bestow some sort of benefit upon the houses thus +visited. The refrain of the song, to the numerous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> verses of which +topical allusions are often added, is as follows:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>God bless Aunt Mary Moses</i><a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>With all her power and might, O,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>And send us peace in Merry England</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Both by day and night, O.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Charles Kingsley was at the Helston Grammar School when the headmaster +was Derwent Coleridge, son of the poet, and the second master was the +Johns who wrote "A Week at the Lizard." It is unlikely the scholars were +allowed to take part in the Furry Dance, but he may have watched it time +and again, and given his schoolboy contribution.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Loe Pool</span></h4> + +<p>This is a beautiful stretch of fresh water that winds like a river +through the forked and wooded valley and widens as it comes within sight +of the sea, from which, like the Swan Pool—a smaller lake on the other +side of the promontory—it is separated by a bar of sand and shingle. +Until recently the Mayor of Helston was wont to present two leathern +purses containing three half-pence each to the lord of Penrose and ask +leave to cut through the bar and release the surplus waters. The old +cutting of the Loe Bar used to tinge the sea with yellow as far as the +Scilly Isles. Now, however, the quantity of the water is regulated by +sluices and the ceremony has fallen into disuse.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Serpentine</span></h4> + +<p>After the more exposed northern and western shores of Cornwall, the airs +of the south are balmy. There is no fear, as the farmer put it, that +"the bullocks will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> be blown off the cliff pasture into the sea, the +wheat off the land, and the turnips out of their sockets." In the Morrab +Gardens at Penzance palms grow in the open, while in Falmouth strange +spiky, spiney plants, whose home is in desert sands far south of +Britain, are to be seen. But the Meneage (stone), as the Lizard district +is called, though mild, is exhilarating, and on Goonhilly Downs the wind +can be sufficiently keen. This district is of a peculiar geological +structure, consisting of a moderately elevated tableland, deeply carved +at the edges by valleys and richly wooded except at the southern +extremity. The rocks are generally dark-coloured and of fine grain, and +everywhere they are worn by the action of the water into fantastic and +beautiful forms. They are well known all the world over as serpentine, +and it gives the traveller a strange feeling to see the valuable rock +being used as building material and even for the repair of roads. A +considerable trade is done in polishing this stone, especially at the +Lizard, and the very sands are dark with the detritus. It causes a +sensation of vast wealth to go on to the beaches and from the scattered +millions select your own pebbles for the polisher. The more red in your +chosen fragments, the more iron, and the harder they will be to polish; +while a handsome piece of entirely red ore may be altogether beyond +their powers, for serpentine is a rock not a pebble, and the local +appliances are crude. The Lizard is also the paradise of the botanist, +for the Cornish heath (<i>erica vagans</i>), the sea asparagus, the henbane, +and many other plants grow abundantly in this district. From Helston to +the Lizard is a pleasant scrambling walk along the fine black cliffs. At +Gunwalloe the church rises from the edge of the cliff, its belfry being +built into the solid rock about 14 ft. away. In Mullion Church is some +admirable wood-carving, and on the west face of the tower a well-cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +crucifixion, and at Kynance are some curious rocks known as "The +Bellows" and "The Post Office," which are as interesting to the +geologist as they are wonderful to the ordinary visitor.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">GUNWALLOE AND MULLION</span></h4> + +<p>A curious story is told of a wreck at Gunwalloe, where the St. Andrew, a +treasure-ship belonging to the King of Portugal, was driven ashore. The +Portuguese had entered into an agreement with the local notabilities for +the disposal of their goods, when down rode three Cornish gentlemen at +the head of their retainers and carried off the spoil. Unfortunately for +them the Portuguese had an Englishman on board, and he promptly brought +the matter before the courts and caused an inquiry to be made. But the +treasure, as then enumerated, must have been enough to make the mouths +water not only of the local authorities, but of any starveling gentleman +to whom news of its arrival had come; for it consisted of 8000 cakes of +copper, eighteen blocks of silver, and a chest containing £6000, besides +pearls, precious stones, chains, brooches, jewels, tapestry, rich +hangings, satins, velvets, and four sets of armour.</p> + +<p>Just below Gunwalloe are the fine Halzaphron Cliffs. A ship was wrecked +here about a hundred years ago, and the bodies from it were said to have +been the last which were refused sepulchre in consecrated ground. It +makes one's blood boil to think of the barbarities that from the +beginning have been perpetrated in the name of religion. There was +actually a law on the Statute Book which refused such burial to +strangers, on the score that they might not have been Christians. +Christians forsooth—pretty Christians they who framed that law!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another lingering superstition is connected with the Rev. Thomas Flavel, +who was buried at Mullion 1682. The man was a noted ghost-layer, and was +said to charge five guineas every time he officiated in this way. He was +also an enthusiastic Royalist, and Walker thus describes him: "A +venerable old gentleman; and lookt the more so in those Times for that +he had vowed never to cut off his Beard till the Return of his Majesty +to his Kingdom, by which time he had gotten a very long one." His +epitaph is curious:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Earth, take mine earth, my sin let Satan havet,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>The World my goods; my Soul, my God who gavet;</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>For from these four—Earth, Satan, World, and God,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>My flesh, my sin, my goods, my soul I had.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>On the cliffs by Mullion and above Poldhu (black pool) is the earliest +of the permanent wireless stations in England. It forms a prominent, +strange but not altogether ugly feature of the landscape—the people +think it brings bad weather—and is at any rate in strong contrast to +the deep and glorious coves by which in switchback fashion, now cliff, +now coombe, the barren dusty headland of the Lizard (chief's high +dwelling) is reached.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Lizard</span></h4> + +<p>This is the southernmost point of England, a blunt rounded headland, +lying crouched over the deep water, eternally—by day and by night—on +the look-out. When the first lighthouse was built here, at the charges +of Sir John Killigrew in 1619—note that Godolphin land has given place +to the country of the Killigrews—it was disapproved of by the Trinity +House. They thought it would serve to light pirates and foreign enemies +to a safe landing-place!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>To the east of Penolver Point the coast curves sharply in towards the +north and is honeycombed with curious caves and blow-holes, Dolor Hugo +(from fogou—a subterranean passage), the Devil's Frying Pan by +Cadgwith, Raven's Hugo, and others. Here are bays, picturesque with +rocks and far from the madding crowd, far also from a railway station, +Helston being the nearest; but that is no matter, the ten-mile drive +over Goonhilly Downs being well worth the extra weariness and cost.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mediæval Bells</span></h4> + +<p>Cornwall has about fifty bells, dating from before the Reformation. As +they had been used to summon the people to rebellion, orders came from +London that all bells except "the least of the ring" were to be removed +from the churches. This, however, was a command that the recipients +thought would be more honoured in the breach than the observance; which +is why there are so many good examples, as for instance, at +Landewednack, of mediæval bells. This the most southern parish in +England has a curious church tower, the admixture of light granite and +dark serpentine giving it a chequer-board appearance. It was visited by +the plague in 1645, and a hundred years later the burials were disturbed +in order to make room for some shipwrecked sailors—whose Christianity +one supposes to be vouched for—when to the horror of the inhabitants +the plague at once reappeared. Since then they have let sleeping dogs +lie.</p> + +<p>Landewednack claims to be the last place at which a sermon was preached +in Cornish (1678), the incumbent being the Rev. Thos. Cole, who lived to +the great age of 120. This fine old gentleman is said to have not long +before his death walked to Penryn and back, a distance of thirty miles!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>Past Cadgwith, Kennack, Coverack, Porthoustock, and Porthalla, +well-known fishing villages, and all romantically situated, but not +otherwise interesting, the wanderer comes by way of St. Keverne, a big +church with a fresco unique in Cornwall as giving the Greek form of the +St. Christopher legend, to Nare Point and the mouth of the Helford +River. It is a question which is the more beautiful, this ten-mile long +creek with its bold scenery or the softer, more feminine Fal. It rises a +little above Helston, at Buttris, flows down to Gweek, where it broadens +into an estuary and applies its waters to the nourishing of many +oysters—which oysters were unkindly described by Lord Byron, when he +stayed at Falmouth, as tasting of copper!</p> + +<p>About a mile from Gweek is the "Tolvan," a large irregular slab of +granite, near the centre of which is a hole. Weakly children were +formerly brought to the "crickstone" and passed at sunrise, nine times, +through this hole. The custom having fallen into disrepute, however, the +Tolvan now forms part of a cottage fence.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mawgan</span></h4> + +<p>Mawgan Church, which lies between Gweek and Trelowarren, the seat of the +Vyvyans, has a brass to one of the Bassets inscribed:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 31em;">"<i>Shall we all die,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 31em;"><i>We shall die all,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 31em;"><i>All die shall we,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 31em;"><i>Die all we shall.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>which quaint lines are also found on a tombstone at Gunwalloe and +elsewhere. Trelowarren itself has some interesting pictures, in +particular the Vandyke of Charles I. presented by Charles II. in +acknowledgment of Sir Rd. Vyvyan's services to his father. This family +also possesses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> the pearl necklace of Queen Henrietta Maria, in which +she sat for the painting now at Hampden Court.</p> + +<p>But of all the charming spots up these rocky and wooded creeks commend +me to Condora, for there in 1735 were found twenty-four gallons of Roman +brass coin. Think of it, dream of it, penniless man. Not a few coppers, +but twenty-four gallons!</p> + +<p>What a beautiful sound have some of these Cornish names! Rosemullion +Head juts out over the Helford River on the north, and above it we have +Rosemerrin and the Swan Pool, and not far off St. Anthony in Roseland. +It is true that Rhos only means a heath, and that we are on the borders +of the gorse-grown districts, known as Roseland; but the word has +different associations for the "foreigner," and whatever the true +meaning, the lovely name brings to memory the thought and the scent and +the colour of the lovelier flowers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM FALMOUTH TO TRURO</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The Rise of Pendennis Castle: Sir John Arundel: The Killigrews: Sir +Walter Raleigh: The General Post Office and Falmouth: Penryn: The Fal: +The Stannary Courts: Old Truro: Foote and Lowry.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Rise of Pendennis Castle</span></h4> + +<p>When Henry VIII. took thought for the coast defences of his semi-island, +Falmouth was one of the places that benefited. At St. Mawes and +Pendennis batteries were erected and in Budock Church is the brass of +John Killigrew, with this pertinent inscription: "Heere lyeth John +Killigrew Esquier of Arwenack ... he was the first Captaine of Pendennis +Castle, made by King Henry the eight and so continued untill the nynth +of Queene Elizabeth, at which time God tooke him to his mercye, being +the yeare of our lord 1567. Sr. John Killigrew knight his sonne +succeeded him in the same place by the gift of Queene Elizabeth." Henry +VIII.'s batteries were not the first fortifications erected on this high +point of land, which is literally the "headland fortress." There were +formerly three lines of entrenchment, due to an older architect than the +Mr. Treffry, of Fowey, who was responsible for this and other of the +Cornish defences. Indeed from its position—it is almost surrounded by +water—it was marked out both as a refuge and a point of vantage, and +was probably fortified before history was more than stories handed down +from father to child, or sung by wandering bards who had been given an +honoured place by the hearth-fire.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sir John Arundel</span></h4> + +<p>When the war broke out between Charles I. and his Parliament, Henry +Killigrew was a member of the House. "I shall provide a good horse, a +good buff coat, a good brace of pistols, and I doubt not I shall find a +good cause," quoth he when Essex was appointed General and one and +another were saying what troops they could raise; and so went out and +rode post to Falmouth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> and plunged devotedly into the gallant struggle. +He would not take any command, though he was in every action and always +where there was the most danger. But it was an Arundell, not a +Killigrew, who held Pendennis for the King, old John Arundell of +Trerice, who as a young man had been at Tilbury when Queen Elizabeth +reviewed the troops; and who was known as "Game to the Toes," "John for +the King," and "Old Tilbury." To him came the unhappy Queen, Henrietta +Maria, rested at Pendennis for a moment, and then winged her way back to +France. A couple of years later her son, Charles, embarked here for the +Scilly Isles; and shortly after, the news reached Arundell that after +the conference on Tresillian Bridge the King's forces had been +disbanded, and that the long struggle was over. Across the water Sir +John grimly watched the surrender of St. Mawes, and when he found there +were malcontents among his men, gave them a safe conduct and let them +go. For himself, had he not fought at Edgehill, Lansdowne, and Bradock +Down? Summoned to surrender he said he had but a few more days to live +and he would not stain them with dishonour. To Fairfax he replied:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Col. John Arundell to Sir Thomas Fairfax.</p> + +<p>"Sir,—The castle was committed to my Government by his +Majesty, who by our laws hath command of the castles and +forts of this kingdom; and my age of seventy summons me +hence shortly. Yet I shall desire no other testimony to +follow my departure than my conscience to God and loyalty to +his Majesty, whereto I am bound by all the obligations of +nature, duty, and oath. I wonder you demand the castle +without authority from his Majesty; which if I should +render, I brand myself and my posterity with the indelible +character of treason.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> And having taken less than two +minutes resolution, I resolve that I will here bury myself +before I deliver up this castle to such as fight against his +Majesty, and that nothing you can threaten is formidable to +me in respect of the loss of loyalty and conscience.</p></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 32em;">"Your servant,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;">"<span class="smcap">John Arundell</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 36em;">"of Trerice.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"<i>18th March, 1646.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Stout words from a stout heart; but though the castle, closely invested +by land and sea, held out for five lean months and only surrendered on +honourable terms, yet surrender it did; being the last place in England, +with the one exception of Raglan, so to do. And on August 17, 1646, the +garrison marched out "with their horses, complete arms, and other +equipages, according to their present or past commands or qualities, +with flying colours, trumpets sounding, drums beating, matches lighted +at both ends, and bullets in their mouths." So great a stir had Sir +John's defence made that not only did the House of Commons vote large +sums to the messengers who brought the news that he had yielded, but +September 22, 1646, was by their order set apart as a day of public +thanksgiving for the surrender "of the garrisons of Pendennis and four +other castles."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Killigrews: Sir Walter Raleigh</span></h4> + +<p>Meanwhile Henry Killigrew, after the yielding of Pendennis, had been +accidentally wounded in the head by the bursting of a carbine, while his +kinsman's house in the neighbourhood had suffered from the exigencies of +war. They were a stirring and a striving family, the Killigrews. The +name Falmouth, in those days merely meant the land at the mouth of the +Fal; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> on this land, when Sir Walter Raleigh, just home from an +expedition, stayed with the Killigrews at their house of Arwenack, there +was only one other building large enough to accommodate his men. The +Killigrews wished to develop their property. They said it was absurd +that vessels had not a nearer port than Penryn or Truro; and Sir Walter +having just put in to this fine natural harbour, saw the golden side of +their suggestion; and cared not a jot about the loss of trade to those +other towns. But Truro, Penryn, and Helston, alive to their own +interests, had long thrown their weight into the opposition scale; and +London was some seven days' journey to the east. Therefore the building +operations of the sturdy Killigrews had been brought to a standstill.</p> + +<p>It is easy to picture the scene. Sir Walter, after a good dinner, washed +down by wines that had paid no duty, sitting at his ease before the +windows of the great house, the panorama of hills and land-locked +harbour stretching to the horizon, and the Killigrews pointing out its +capabilities as a trading-centre and naval base! The great man listened, +was convinced, and, presently moving on to London, laid the matter +before his Sovereign.</p> + +<p>It was the days of interest and influence—those days which, of course, +are past and over, so that even kissing no longer goes by favour!—and +the Killigrews found Sir Walter's advocacy gave them all they wanted, +leave to build their big nest in their own way. From that date the +opposition that had been so industriously fostered by the loyal +burgesses of Truro, Penryn, and Helston ceased. Why Helston should have +taken part is somewhat puzzling, but she may have been willing to help a +pair of old friends against that "grove of eagles." At any rate the +three towns were unable to accomplish anything further, and could only +look on with glum<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> faces while Falmouth went ahead. Greatly to their +indignation Charles II., who remembered what good friends the Killigrews +had been to him and his father, granted it a charter in 1661. As soon as +they thought it would be safe, the Mayor of Truro asserted his claim to +jurisdiction over the port and harbour of Falmouth, by sailing round the +harbour to the Black Rock.</p> + +<p>According to local rhyme, however, the settlers in their new town were +not lacking in sturdiness:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Old Penrynners up in a tree</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Looking as wisht as wisht can be,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Falmouth boys as strong as oak</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Knocked 'em down at every poke.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>So the burgesses of Falmouth took the matter before the courts and +succeeded in establishing the claim of their town to a free control over +the waters of its harbour.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The General Post Office and Falmouth</span></h4> + +<p>In spite of the Killigrews, however, Falmouth remained small and +insignificant until the General Post Office chose the port in 1688 as a +station for its newly established mail boats. The next few years was the +time of its greatest prosperity, and Flushing—the other side of Penryn +Creek, and said to be so named from a colony of Dutch merchants—became +its fashionable suburb. Travellers came from all parts of England to +embark at this port, warships were stationed here, and the wives of +naval officers and others made it their home. The stir and bustle of +life has, however, departed with the service that created it; and the +fine harbour now only rocks on its broad bosom some little cargo +steamers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> and a fleet of fishing-boats. Arwenack House, said by some to +have been burnt by Sir Peter Killigrew in order that it should not +enable the Parliamentarians under cover of its walls to attack +Pendennis, was never rebuilt in its former splendour, and the ground +that once constituted its park is now laid out in town plots. Portions +of the old building are, however, still to be seen in Arwenack Street.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Penryn</span></h4> + +<p>At the head of the creek is Falmouth's ancient rival, the town of +Penryn. A Killigrew and his wife—strong men are sometimes gey ill to +live with—fell out and the dame, being divorced, sought refuge in +Penryn. The Mayor of this place still has in his possession a silver cup +and cover given to the borough by this lady. On it is the inscription: +"1633.—From Maior to Maior, to the Towne of Penmarin, when they +received mee that was in great misery.—Jane Killygrew."</p> + +<p>Penryn, still busy at its wharves with the exporting of granite, is the +site of Glasney College, where most of the old miracle plays performed +at the various plan-an-guares throughout the county were written. But +the main industry of the Roseland towns and villages is connected with +mines and quarries, the acme of arid desolation and dreariness being +reached at Gwennap. The mines there are of great depth, have been worked +for centuries, have produced in tin and copper during the last hundred +years at least ten million pounds sterling, and are now all abandoned. +Imagine the grey wilderness of stone and rubble, of old workings and +knacked bals. It rivals the sterility of the Black Country, but that is +teeming, while here in very truth is nothing but a littered and +abandoned waste.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Fal</span></h4> + +<p>Between Falmouth, which, as Byron said, "contains many quakers and salt +fish," and Truro lies the lovely wooded estuary of the Fal. Once +navigable to Tregony, large boats can now only go as far as Ruan +Lanihorne. At the latter place the river meets the tide. After passing +Tregothnan (Lord Falmouth's seat) it joins the St. Clement and Truro +Creeks, and finally, after forming by its twists and turns a series of +land-locked lakes of surpassing beauty, it broadens into that fine sheet +of water which is known as Carrick Roads. The way to see it properly is +to hire a suitable row-boat, stock it with provisions, and go up the +silent reaches till you discover some flat brown rock. There boil a +kettle gipsy-fashion and linger or go on, as the fancy takes you, up +this creek or that—they are equally beautiful—and so winding in and +out come at last to the capital city.</p> + +<p>Queen Victoria, whose footsteps along the south of Cornwall can be +traced by various brass plates, was delighted with it. "We went up the +Truro, which is beautiful, winding between banks entirely wooded with +stunted oak, and full of numberless creeks. The prettiest are King +Harry's Ferry and a spot near Tregothnan (<i>i.e.</i>, Feock), where there is +a beautiful little boat-house."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Stannary Courts</span></h4> + +<p>When Richard, King of the Romans, was created Earl of Cornwall, he, to +encourage the working of the mines—which brought him revenue—granted +the tinners a charter. By this, except in cases that might affect lands, +life, or limb, they were exempt from all jurisdiction but that of the +Stannary Courts. No laws were to be enacted but by the twenty-four +stannators chosen from the four stannary districts; and there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> no +appeal from the Stannary Court, generally held at Truro, except to the +Duke or Sovereign in Council. These laws were concerned with maintaining +the purity of the tin, which was tested by cutting off a coign (corner) +and stamping the freshly exposed surface. The towns privileged to +perform this and collect the dues payable to the earldom (later duchy) +were called "coinage towns." It is said that some of their laws were +sufficiently grim, as for instance that which compelled an adulterator +of tin to swallow three spoonfuls of the molten metal. The last Stannary +Parliament was held at Truro in 1752, the courts being finally abolished +in 1897.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Old Truro</span></h4> + +<p>Truro was the town in which many of the local gentry spent the winter. +This custom of the counties, if it made for insularity rather than a +cosmopolitan culture, has given many of our old market-places, round the +square of which the commodious homes were built, an air of quiet +dignity. The gentry themselves, old people at their cards and +supper-parties, young people at their routs and balls, must have found +it more enjoyable—all friends and neighbours and very often +connections—than the present-day fashion of a dip into the whirlpool of +London.</p> + +<p>Truro is a cathedral city, with a brand new cathedral, which some have +been found able to admire, but about which the note struck is generally +apologetic. The old houses are empty, simplicity has become complexity, +and the local gentry, those that are left, go up to town "for the +season." Yet these changes have taken place within the memory of man, +and there are those who can talk of the old state of affairs. Life was +even more a matter of compromise then than now. People lived simply and +did not exact a high standard of comfort. Not even in Boscawen Street +was gas or water laid on, but in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> midst thereof was a pump, and +thither came the pretty serving lasses to fill their red earthenware +pitchers. Monday then, as now, was washing day, and in one godly +household of which I wot the maids went early to bed on a Sunday night +that as soon as midnight struck they might go forth and bring in enough +of the precious fluid to fill tubs and coppers against the morn. It was +believed that otherwise what with the competition of all the other maids +in Boscawen Street, they would not be able to obtain a sufficiency. In +those days sanitary arrangements were of the simplest and healthiest +description, and as for baths—well, there was the wooden tub, big, +round, and two-handled, the wooden tub and Saturday night!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Foote and Lowry</span></h4> + +<p>In households such as this were born Foote, the comedian, in 1721, and +Lowry, Cornwall's greatest poet, in 1867. Of the former we have the +story that when a wealthy man gave him a very small glass of wine, at +the same time boasting of its age and quality, he, glancing at it, +remarked, "My lord, surely it is very little for its age?" Of Lowry we +have no humorous stories. Cornwall has not produced many great men—some +gallant soldiers; in Sir Humphrey Davy a man of science; the painter +Opie; and in Lowry, as every one must acknowledge who has read "The +Hundred Windows," a poet! It will be a distinct loss to the nation if, +in the hurly-burly of modern life, the clear true note of this Cornish +singer should be lost.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM ST MAWES TO LISKEARD</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>St. Mawes and Gerrans: Tregony and Probus: Cornish Mutton: A Story of +Cornish Vengeance: Mevagissey: Antiquarian Finds: The Capital of +Clayland: Cock's and Hen's Barrow: Carglaze Mine: Luxulyan: The Civil +Wars: Lostwithiel: Lanhydrock House and Restormel Castle: The Fight on +St. Winnow's Downs: The Gallants of Fowey: Place: Lanteglos: Polperro: +Stories of Talland, Killigarth, and Trelawne: The Giant's Hedge: +Boconnoc: Liskeard.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Mawes and Gerrans</span></h4> + +<p>The "free and sworn burgesses" of St. Mawes, numbering about twenty, +formerly returned two members to Parliament; now it is a tiny sleepy +fishing port with many quiet places of retreat up the winding creeks, +the sort of place for a honeymoon couple, "the world forgetting by the +world forgot."</p> + +<p>According to tradition Gerrans embodies the name of Gerennius, King of +Cornwall, of whom the Welsh Bards sang:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>In Llongborth Geraint was slain,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>A brave man from the region of Dyvnaint—</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>follows a grimly suggestive line:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>And before they were overpowered they committed slaughter.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Near Trewithian is an ancient earthwork called Dingerein, and believed +to be Geraint's dwelling-place, the "Dyvnaint" of the song. When he died +his body was carried in a golden boat with silver oars across the bay to +Pendower beach, and buried with the boat on the hill above, while over +it was raised the cairn known as Veryan Beacon. It was believed also +that some day he would rise up in his armour and sail away in that +glorious boat. This tradition has been found in several places. Men who +lived with a vital awe-inspiring king found it difficult to believe that +such a flame could be extinguished. He had vanished into the surrounding +darkness, but none the less, thought they, he must be somewhere, +somewhere whence he could, nay surely would, return. This belief would +probably be fostered by his successor. If he were a child or weakling, +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> people would hesitate to be disloyal, for fear of what would befall +them when the mightier father returned.</p> + +<p>The great tumulus at Carne was opened in 1855, and within was found a +kist-vaen of unhewn stones, covered with limestone boulders; but in the +kist were only ashes, pieces of charcoal, and burnt dust. Objects of +gold are rarely found in barrows; but in the neighbourhood of the +Cheesewring was a persistent story that at some former time a golden cup +was actually dug out of a barrow near by. In course of time the +tradition was found to be true, and the cup is now in the king's +collection.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Tregony and Probus</span></h4> + +<p>A little inland from these shores that reverberate with tales of long +ago is Tregony, once celebrated for its boys' school, to which the Truro +lads went daily in that great Cornish institution, a bus. It is a most +ancient place, supposed to have been a Roman station; and when Edward I. +gave Parliamentary representation to the country, Tregony was allowed to +send two members, and did so in 1294. Many years since, a large stone +coffin was dug up near the town, but the measurements given should be +received with caution.</p> + +<p>Probus, about four miles north-west of Tregony, has a church of +exceptional beauty. The tower is of St. Stephen's stone and the highest +in Cornwall, being 123 ft. to the top of the pinnacles; it is of +elaborate and beautiful workmanship, while there is good +sixteenth-century carving in the church and an ancient stone altar +<i>mensa</i>. Not far from Probus is Wolveden, generally called Golden. Here +Francis Tregian sheltered his chaplain, Cuthbert Mayne, in 1577, the +cell in which he was concealed being still in good case, as well as a +fine Tudor doorway and chimney piece; but the old chapel, though still +standing, is part of the stables. The punishment for sheltering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> a +wandering Catholic priest was heavy. Mayne was discovered and hanged at +Launceston, and Tregian was thrown into prison, where he languished for +eight and twenty years. And all this miserable waste of life because +Henry VIII. chose to think differently to his ancestors on "matters +appertaining to religion."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Cornish Mutton</span></h4> + +<p>These Roseland parishes, with their undulating heaths and sweet short +turf, are famous for their mutton. The meat generally in Cornwall, after +the uncertainty over chilled beef and New Zealand lamb in other parts of +the country, is an agreeable change. Nor is it dear. For visitors the +prices of food have gradually risen, but not very long ago butter was a +shilling a pound, mackerel a penny each, milk twopence a quart, and +little fat pilchards six—seven—eight a penny!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Story of Cornish Vengeance</span></h4> + +<p>Not far from each other stand the remains of two great manor houses, +Caerhayes Castle, demolished in 1808 and rebuilt, and Bodrugan, now a +farm, but once, after Stowe the finest house in the county. The lords of +these manors took different sides during the disturbances consequent on +the Wars of the Roses and, in the end, Henry de Bodrugan was charged by +his neighbours—and among them John Arundell of Tolverne—with having +robbed their houses and also with various acts of piracy on the high +seas. He, however, was hand and glove with Richard Crookback, who, if an +awkward enemy, could be a good friend, and Bodrugan's conviction, +obtained in his absence, was subsequently quashed. For the time being he +escaped the consequence of his misdeeds, but in his triumph he did not +forget to whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> he owed his tribulation, and before long saw good reason +to accuse Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele, on the Tamar, and his +neighbour, Sir Hugh Trevanion of Caerhayes, of plotting to bring about +the accession of Henry VII. A word to Richard, and that monarch, who +lost no time in such matters, sent soldiers post haste to arrest +Edgcumbe. So unexpectedly did they arrive at Cotehele that their prey +had to spring out of the nearest window and make for the woods. When he +reached the river they were hard on his heels. But he was a man of +resource. Snatching off his cap he tossed it into the water, and when +the soldiers arrived they saw it floating slowly down the current and +came to the conclusion that he was drowned. Trevanion and Edgcumbe +hurried off to Henry of Richmond, and no doubt were with him when he +landed at Rame Head, a little further east. They distinguished +themselves at Bosworth Field, and in the church of St. Michael, +Caerhayes, hangs the sword worn that day by Sir Hugh, the sword with +which he was made a knight-banneret by the new king.</p> + +<p>But Edgcumbe and Trevanion had a private account to settle and, asking +leave of absence, they rode west. Sir Henry de Bodrugan, however, was +before them. His cause was lost, his master dead, and he knew that there +was little mercy to be hoped for from either Edgcumbe or Trevanion. The +enemies met on Woful Moor. Bodrugan gave back and back, till at last +only the sea lay behind him. Then he turned and leapt—the rock is still +shown—and being a strong swimmer was presently picked up by a passing +vessel. His lands, with the goodwill of the King, were divided between +his vengeful enemies, and the manor itself has been handed down from +Edgcumbe to Edgcumbe in uninterrupted succession to this day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Caerhayes, Goran and the Dodman</span></h4> + +<p>It was at Caerhayes that Sir John Berkeley and Colonel Slingsby, who had +been sent into Cornwall, during the autumn of 1649, to encourage their +friends to rise for Charles II., were surprised by the watchful +Roundheads. Lord Byron's grandmother was a Trevanion of Caerhayes, but +the castle no longer shelters the descendants of the man who laid its +foundation-stone, and if you would see relics of the wild Trevanions you +must seek them in the arcade—where hang helmets, swords, and +gauntlets—of the little church of St. Michael.</p> + +<p>At Goran Church were once monuments to all three families, but those of +the Trevanions have disappeared, while the Bodrugans are now only +represented by the arms cut on the granite font. This church has a high +embattled tower, a good day-mark for ships, and in the chancel a curious +oak chair elaborately carved with the figure of a woman.</p> + +<p>South of Goran is the Dodman, the pride of the southern coast, a +headland which is 400 ft. high and about whose feet the water is so deep +that vessels of large draught may sail by within a few feet. It is of +dark weathered rocks with a ditch and rampart winch, crossing from one +side to the other, cuts it off from the land. The finest beaches on the +south stretch right and left from this headland, which gives a good view +of the cliffs and fishing coves all up and down the coast from the Rame +to the Lizard.</p> + +<p>It is curious how frequently two or more places in Cornwall bear the +same name. There are two St. Justs, two St. Anthonys, two Mawgans, +Constantines, Pentires, while as to Pennare there are several. A Black +Head (250 ft.) was the most important promontory between the Lizard and +Falmouth, and here, after Chapel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> Point with its prehistoric remains, +Mevagissey with its sardine factory—(All-British shoppers, please +note)—and Pentewan with its quarries, the next blue point breaking the +northward line is another—and a most bold and precipitous—Black Head!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mevagissey</span></h4> + +<p>Near Mevagissey, locally and opprobriously termed Fishygissey, is +Pencarne, seat of the one-handed Carew, whose portrait is in Heligan +House. He lost his hand by a cannon-shot at the siege of Ostend (1601) +and, returning to his quarters after the fight, held out the lopped +member with a casual: "There is the hand that cut the pudding this +morning!"</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Antiquarian Finds</span></h4> + +<p>In this neighbourhood several interesting finds have been made. At +Pentewan some curious oaken canoes buried in the soil were found by the +tinners. Unaware of the unique nature of what they had discovered, the +miners broke them up for firewood! Better luck, however, attended a +remarkable and interesting find at Trewhiddle. Some miners, when +searching for tin in a stream work, at 17 ft. below the surface, came on +a silver cup which proved to be a chalice containing coins and some +ornaments. These coins bore date from 757 to 874, and the names of such +well-known Kings as Egbert and Alfred, with a unique silver penny of +Eanred of Northumbria and a Louis le Debonnaire (King of the Franks +814). It is supposed that the hoard was buried when sea-robbers were +harrying the coast, and that he who hid it did not live to come back. It +is now in the British Museum.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Capital of Clayland</span></h4> + +<p>Roseland has given place to Clayland, with St. Austell for the capital. +This town is not far from the sea. Its narrow crooked thoroughfares +radiate in all directions from the old church, over the porch of which +is a Cornish inscription, "Ry Du," the meaning of which is unknown. The +well-known tower is sculptured and of Pentewan stone. Within is good +woodwork, a weirdly carved font, and a series of shields which, if not +beautiful as art, are interesting for their symbolism. At St. Austell +was born Colenso, the fighting bishop, who having set Christendom by the +ears and been excommunicated for heresy was afterwards confirmed in the +possession of his see.</p> + +<p>The town is of modern origin, owing its existence to the various mines +and clayworks in the neighbourhood. The clayman drives his team in +single file, and an endless procession of heavy waggons rumbles through +the narrow streets, waggons laden with powdered clay in barrels or with +the white glistening lumps uncovered. This clay is found in large +quantities at Hensbarrow, Burngullow (where the first sod of the +Cornwall Railway was cut in 1847), St. Stephen's, and the Bodmin Moors, +and is exported from Par, Fowey, and Charlestown. About 1763 Wedgwood +leased a mine near St. Austell, using the clay for the manufacture of +his well-known porcelain. About 60,000 tons of this material are +exported annually to the Potteries and into Lancashire.</p> + +<p>The Menagew, a famous old stone said to have been a boundary at the +junction of three manors, has been removed from its ancient site—the +pity o't!—and fixed in the pavement at the corner of Menacuddle Street, +the spot being marked by a brass plate. Lake says: "On this stone all +declarations of war and proclamations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> of peace were read ... all cattle +for whom no owner could be found were brought here and exposed for a +certain number of market days, after which, if unclaimed, their sale +became legal," and there is a hint that in yet earlier days the criminal +was brought to this stone for execution and that by the shedding of +blood it became set apart and sacred.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Cock's and Hen's Barrow</span></h4> + +<p>To the north of St. Austell, and on the highest land in the +neighbourhood is the "Hen's Barrow." The latter, which is 1034 ft. above +the sea level, is also known as the Archbeacon of Cornwall. From here +the whole county can be seen stretched out below, and here are the chief +china pits. On its northern slope is a vast mass of schorl, the +celebrated Roche Rock. On its summit are the fourteenth-century ruins of +a chapel to St. Michael, locally said to have been built by the last +male heir of Tregarrick manor, who, weary of the world, lived here in +solitude. A little north of Roche and beyond the old half-forgotten holy +well is a pool, the water of which may easily be made to flow in +different directions—either to Par, Falmouth, or Padstow!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Carglaze Mine</span></h4> + +<p>West of Roche is St. Dennis, the church of which stands on a conical +hill of granite in the middle of a prehistoric entrenchment. In the +churchyard is a fine cross and round it earthworks and tumuli. A great +part of the surface in this neighbourhood has been opened for china clay +and china stone, but by far the most important mine is that of Carglaze, +once worked for tin. The pit of this mine presents a remarkable +appearance, for though nearly a mile in circumference it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> only 150 +ft. deep. It resembles indeed nothing as much as a gigantic crater!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Luxulyan</span></h4> + +<p>South of St. Austell and near Porthpean is a granite longstone known as +Tregeagle's Stick, another instance of some older story being attached +to a recent hero, for the pillar must have been there many hundreds of +years before Tregeagle was born. On Gwallen Downs are several +earthworks, cairns, holy wells, &c., while Menacuddle boasts a very +pretty cascade. This cannot be compared with the one at Luxulyan, which +has a fall of 200 ft. That "valley of rocks," a beautiful, picturesque +spot, is crossed by the Treffry aqueduct, and lies in a parish of wild +land strewn with blocks of granite and porphyry. One of the latter was +worked into a sarcophagus for the celebrated Duke of Wellington, while +the Giant Block of Luxulyanite is said to be the largest in Europe.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Blazey</span></h4> + +<p>If St. Austell is the capital of clayland, St. Blazey is second to it as +a trading-centre for granite and china clay. Its saint was said to be +the patron of woolcombers, though this is probably a mere modern +confusion of names. Here was born Ralph Allen, who invented cross +country posts and, while obliging his fatherland, managed to enrich +himself. Pope, who stayed with him at Prior Park (Bath), describes him +somewhat contemptuously:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Let humble Allen with an awkward shame</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>'Tis true that Allen was the son of a St. Blazey innkeeper, that he had +made instead of inheriting his money, but to go down to posterity as +"humble" and "awkward!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> The first edition is "low-born Allen," but this +was altered at the poor man's protest.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Civil Wars</span></h4> + +<p>It is pleasant to leave the china clay with its milky fouling of clear +waters and its diseased outcrops, white with the white of leprosy. +Crossing Par sands, where Essex watched in vain for the ships laden with +his supplies and where, of the old lead smelting works even the chimney +known all over the countryside as Par Stack is now gone, the road turns +down the coast—past Menabilly with its geological grotto and museum, +past Gribben Head set with a day-mark tower some 80 ft. high—and so +round the little peninsula into which the Parliamentarian Army was +penned by the more active Royalists in 1644, and up to Fowey.</p> + +<p>When Charles I. in the August of that year pursued the foolish and +shortsighted Essex into Cornwall, the King began by calling together his +soldiers and enumerating the services rendered to his cause by the +people of the duchy, and he strictly and with divers threats forbade +plundering. That for once he meant what he said, was proved a fortnight +later by Prince Maurice, who hanged a soldier for plundering Lanhydrock; +and that there might be no misunderstanding about the matter, left him +with a ticket to that effect pinned on his breast.</p> + +<p>Essex, a stupid and inactive man, had come into Cornwall against his +better judgment, Lord Robartes having said that the country would rise +to join him. Before he got as far as Bodmin he discovered that the +contrary was like to be the case; and when the King came sweeping into +the duchy and Sir Richard Grenville marched out of Truro, Essex, who was +between them, saw the hopelessness of his position. In the midst of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +country so hostile that his soldiery had to forage far and wide for +grudged provisions, he had nothing upon which to fall back, for some +ships loaded with cheese and biscuit which he was daily expecting had +not arrived. Essex, who always did the wrong thing or else the right +thing too late, cast about at this eleventh hour to keep a passage open +for his supplies and, anxious to get nearer the sea, made for +Lostwithiel. The immediate result of this movement was that the forces +of Grenville and the King presently formed a semicircle about him from +shore to shore, and matters went from bad to worse. His soldiers, in +need of food and tempted by papers offering a free pardon which the +Royalists scattered among them, were daily slipping away to join the +King. Having left the eastern side of the harbour unguarded, the forts +there, as well as Polruan and Hall House, were soon taken; and this gave +Charles the command of the estuary, while on the other side Grenville +had secured the little haven of Par, where Essex was hoping his delayed +stores would be landed. At this juncture he made a belated effort to +help himself and those dependent on him. On the evening of August 31 +deserters reported that the Parliamentarian cavalry was drawn up on the +east bank of the river. It was evident that Essex was contemplating a +move, and orders were issued to the Royalists to stand at arms +throughout the night, break down all bridges, and throw baulks of timber +across the roads and lanes. Furthermore Goring was bidden collect his +cavalry and be in readiness to act on any point at which the enemy might +attempt to break through.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, when the King's orders reached Goring he was in no +condition to obey them. The night came on dark and foggy. There was a +narrow space on St. Winnow's Downs between the two Royalist divisions;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +but though not covered with troops it was guarded by some fifty +fusiliers. These men were—what shall we say? They could scarcely on +such a raw night have been asleep and why should they have been absent? +At any rate it was over this space that, moving with silent celerity, +Sir Wm. Balfour with the whole of the Parliamentarian horse passed +unchallenged out on to the open ground. Until a second message from the +King reached Goring, he could not be got from his wine. The enemy was +then actually passing over the hill, and had it not been for this +scandalous behaviour probably not a man would have escaped.</p> + +<p>Some days earlier poor old Restormel Castle had been stormed by +Grenville, and his forces under cover of a mist had then moved down +towards Lostwithiel, but it was reserved for the King to take that +ancient town; which he did just in time to prevent the destruction by +the retreating Essex of the beautiful bridge.</p> + +<p>Although the Parliamentarian General was forced to retire, he did so +doggedly, contesting every street and every field, and that night the +King slept in the rain under a hedge by the prehistoric earthwork of +Castle Dor.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lostwithiel</span></h4> + +<p>On the following morning Essex proposed a parley. Before the King's +answer could reach him, however, he had, with a sudden change of front, +embarked on one of the ships in Fowey harbour and set sail for Plymouth. +Major-General Skippon, who had been left in command, immediately +capitulated with six thousand men; and then for once in its long and +sleepy existence was Lostwithiel aroused. The Parliamentarians had +desecrated the beautiful church; the slates of the roof were lying in +heaps where a barrel of gunpowder had been touched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> off under the +graceful octagonal lanthorn of its spire—"the Glory of Cornwall." They +had plundered the Exchequer Hall, burnt the stannary records, and +committed other enormities; but now the yoke of the oppressor was +broken. Tho King did his humane best to protect the soldiers, but the +long-suppressed hostility of the mob found vent in a sudden flame of +violence, while the women set upon the officers, stripped them of all +they had and rode off with their horses!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lanhydrock House and Restormel Castle</span></h4> + +<p>Lanhydrock House being now the property of the King, he, as a mark of +his gratitude, granted it to Sir Richard Grenville, whom he created +Baron of Lostwithiel; but no sooner did the Parliament get the upper +hand than the new-made baron was deprived of his property. The present +house is of granite and stands low, the hills springing from the end of +the gardens. On them is a little church, and in front an open and +undulating park. The headquarters of Essex were in this park, through +which a long avenue of sycamores leads to a barbican of fine +workmanship, behind which appears the simple façade of the two-storied +house. Within, a room is shown as that used by Tregeagle when steward of +the estates.</p> + +<p>A little south is Restormel Castle. Its long life has been that of a +ruin slowly sinking into the earth from which it rose. In 1245 Earl +Richard found it much decayed. He restored it; and the Black Prince, who +twice stayed there, did the same. When the Parliamentarians came it had +long been abandoned to the owls and the ivy, but as it commanded the +Fowey they repaired and garrisoned it. After the surrender of their army +it was once more abandoned, and now all that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> remains of the old +fortress is the round keep with a gate-house on the west and a +projecting turret on the north-east. It is on a mound surrounded by a +moat and lies deep in woods and remote from human habitation. Its very +name, Restormel (once Lestormel, a chief's dwelling), shows that its +builder was a man of note among the people who are gone. It has seen +them make merry in its halls, it has seen them pass. It has roused up +now and again to groan under the tyranny of new masters; but now, +deserted in its robe of ivy, a mound, and a few stones, it sleeps +through the sunshine and the rain, and with every year sinks a little +and a little into itself and the kind covering earth.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>The old sea here at my door,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>The old hills there in the West—</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>What can a man want more</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>Till he goes at last to his rest?</i>"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Lowry</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Nor is Lostwithiel much more widely awake. Nowadays it consists of a few +rather picturesque streets, an old stone bridge, and a church with a +lanthorn spire—the finest piece of church architecture in Cornwall! But +it has not forgotten the days when a desperate king, gladdened by a +brief gleam of success, fought his way through those same picturesque +streets with an enemy that contested every stone and every house. It has +not forgotten that he fought from early morning, pushing the stubborn +foe before him, until by eventide he had the streets clear, and +Lostwithiel, happy loyal Lostwithiel was his.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Fight on St. Winnow's Downs</span></h4> + +<p>Before this came to pass, however, a curious conflict had taken place on +St. Winnow's Downs. One hundred Roundheads, youths from sixteen to +twenty years of age and led by Colonel Straughan, had challenged a like +number of the King's troops to heroic combat on Druid's Hill. On a set +day the two bodies of horse met in sight of both armies, Straughan +having "nothing on his head but a hat and on the trunk of his body +naught but a white shirt"—he was indeed fighting bare-sark—"while his +troop consisted of men so young that on their chins never a razor had +passed." Lord Digby, the Royalist leader, and his followers advanced +firing their pistols as they came, whereupon Straughan and his boys +charged furiously, withholding their fire until they were so close that +at the deadly discharge half the Royalists were slain on the spot and +there was scarce horse or man but received some hurt.</p> + +<p>The Church of St. Winnow is beautifully placed on the very margin of +this charming estuary, a little before the Lerryn creek opens to the +east. Below is the pass between St. Veep and Golant, a pass taken and +fortified by the Royalists.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Gallants of Fowey</span></h4> + +<p>The Gallants of Fowey probably means the men of Golant, near Fowey, +though various other derivations have been suggested, as for instance +the fight between the seafaring men of Rye and Winchelsea and those of +Fowey. It appears the latter had sailed somewhat near the aforesaid +towns, and when summoned to make civil apology for the intrusion +"stiffly refused to vaile their bonnets. This caused the Ripiers to make +out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> with might and main against them; howbeit with a more hardy onset +than happy issue, for the Fowey men gave them so rough entertainment as +their welcome that they were glad to depart without bidding +farewell—the merit of which exploit afterwards entitled them 'gallants +of Fowey.'"</p> + +<p>This little town, which consists of a single street along the western +bank of the estuary and many houses set down higgledy-piggledy wherever +room could be found, was once of some consequence. During the reign of +Edward III. it sent—assisted, no doubt, by the surrounding country—no +less than forty-seven ships manned by seven hundred and seventy men, to +the siege of Calais. No other town in England sent so many ships and no +town but Yarmouth so many men. The Black Prince, who it must be +remembered was the first Duke of Cornwall, granted the people of Golant +certain common rights in return for their services, and Fowey grew in +pride and consideration. In fact, as the saying is, it grew "too big for +its boots," and did more than a little privateering on its own account. +When Edward IV. made peace with France, Fowey, which had grown fat on +the plunder of foreign merchantmen, continued its hostilities; and in +time a pursuivant rode down from London to make inquiry.</p> + +<p>"I am at peace with my brother of France," ran the royal message.</p> + +<p>"But we are not," was the reply. Furthermore they took the pursuivant, +slit his ears and cut off his nose.</p> + +<p>It was hardly the way to treat a King of so royal a temper as Edward +IV., and Fowey—is it Fowey now or Troy?—suffered. His commissioners +did their work treacherously, but they did it well. The chief men were +seized, their goods confiscated, and their leader hanged. The great +chain which barred the narrow entrance to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> their harbour and protected +them from night attacks was taken away, while the men of Dartmouth were +sent by sea to remove their ships. Edward meant to smoke out this nest +of freebooters. There could be only one king in England and he would +have them recognise it. The savage punishment resulted in the gradual +decay of the little cheerful town. Those who had been so greatly daring +were dead, and until Henry VIII. built batteries here the place lay at +the mercy of any passing marauder. A story interesting for the light it +sheds on Queen Elizabeth's character is told of some Spanish ships in +1568. Bound for Alba, in the Netherlands, with a large sum of money, +they were chased by privateers and took refuge in Fowey and other ports. +The privateers waiting outside till they should reappear, the Spaniards +were helpless. After a little hesitation Elizabeth had the treasure +seized and the crews arrested. She said that, fearing the audacity of +the pirates, she would keep the money safe!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Place</span></h4> + +<p>The old fortress mansion of the great family of Treffry is on the +opposite side of the harbour. Tradition says that a Treffry took King +John prisoner at Poictiers, and as a reward was given permission to +quarter on his shield the arms of France. More than once the Treffrys +helped to defend Fowey from foreign violence; and their wives were as +brave as they. In the grounds of Place House is a statue of Elizabeth +Treffry who, in the absence of her husband, July 1457, headed his men +and beat off the French.</p> + +<p>On the shore at Polruan is a ruinous blockhouse, from which the chain +that guarded Fowey Harbour was once stretched across the estuary to a +similar building on the other side. Here is Hall, the ancient seat of +the Mohuns,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> and while Charles I. was walking on the terrace he narrowly +escaped being struck by a ball from the guns of Lord Essex. The chapel +and guardhouse are still standing, but the former is used as a cowhouse.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lanteglos: Polperro</span></h4> + +<p>The church of Lanteglos, consisting as it does of the work of so many +periods, is exceptionally interesting to the student of architecture. +The tower opens into the church by three massive arches, the western +corner of the piers being Norman; the nave arcades are of the fourteenth +century, the northern slightly earlier than the southern. The four +deeply recessed windows in the north with their elaborate tracery are +recognised by architects as resembling those of Somerset, which is +probably accounted for by the fact that this church was appropriated in +1284 to St. John's Hospital at Bridgwater. Between Lansallos Church, +with its lofty tower (514 ft. above the sea), a well-known seamark, and +Talland Church, which is full of rich and beautiful work lies Polperro +(Pool of Peter) in a cove at the foot of two high hills. This little +place is the southern duplicate of Port Isaac, but its air is +milder—less bracing—than that of the grey northern town. The houses +cluster thickly at the mouth of a cleft between the hills and the storms +are so terrible that although three piers protect the little harbour, +heavy baulks of timber have often to be let down into grooves, to break +the force of the waves. The Couch family have lived at Polperro during +several generations, the father and grandfather of the novelist having +been doctors there.</p> + +<p>It is said that the first station of the Coastguard Preventive Service +was at Polperro, a statement which "gives furiously to think." The +welcome Cornwall gave to the Parliamentarian generals must have been +genial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> compared with that extended to the preventive officers. +Coastguards in Cornwall, the home of wreckers and smugglers! No doubt +they had an exhilarating time!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Talland, Killigarth and Trelawne</span></h4> + +<p>There are three houses in this neighbourhood about which stories are +told. The manor of Talland formerly belonged to the Morths, and one of +this family employed a French servant. Mr. Morth does not seem to have +given his servant satisfaction, for the man returned home, and when war +broke out "returneth back again with a French crew, surprizeth suddenly +his master and his guests at a Xmas supper, and forceth the gentleman to +redeem his enlargement with the sale of a great part of his revenues" +(Carew). It is not often that the tables can be so neatly turned.</p> + +<p>Killigarth belonged to the Bevilles, and in the sixteenth century, one +Sir William going forth from his own house on a winter's day, found +under a hedge a certain John Size nearly dead with cold. He took him +into his service and found that he had gotten a remarkable sort of +servant, for Size "would eat nettles and thistles, coals and candles, +birds with their feathers, and fish with their scales. He could handle, +unhurt, blazing wood and hot iron, and used to lie asleep with his head +curled under his body" (Carew).</p> + +<p>The Trelawnys of Trelawne originally came from another place of the same +name, further inland. Among the pictures at this house—parts of which +are old—is an early one of Elizabeth, interesting on account of the +queen's youth.</p> + +<p>John Trelawny, father of the celebrated Jonathan, Bishop of Bristol, was +committed to the Tower in 1627<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> by the House of Commons. As he was +popular in the county the Cornish were greatly exercised, and it is said +that the old ballad sung riotously by his compatriots:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>And shall Trelawny die?</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Here's twenty thousand Cornishmen</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Will know the reason why—</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>was instrumental in procuring his release. Be that as it may, he was set +free by order of the King and shortly after made a baronet. The ballad +composed for the misfortunes of the father survived to be made of use +when his son, one of the seven bishops who presented the petition to +James II., was imprisoned and tried for seditious libel by that most +worthless of the Stuarts. The verses were subsequently lost, the Rev. +Robert Hawker, always ready to make good any little deficiency of the +kind having composed the present version.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Giant's Hedge</span></h4> + +<p>A model of Bishop Trelawny's pastoral staff, made of gilt wood with +ornaments of copper, is preserved in Pelynt Church, where he was buried; +but the most interesting thing in this neighbourhood, as well as the +most puzzling, is that great earthwork the Giant's Hedge, which, +stretching from Lerrin to Looe, a matter of seven miles, passes through +this parish.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>One day the devil having nothing to do</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Built a great hedge from Lerrin to Looe.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There is no evidence to say by whom this earthwork, which in parts is 7 +ft. high and 20 ft. wide, was built. Once more let us pray for a +Passmore Edwards to supply us with this evidence—by judicious +excavation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Boconnoc</span></h4> + +<p>By way of Lanreath Church with its painted mediæval rood screen we come +to the manor of Boconnoc. This house has seen a succession of noble +owners and some interesting visitors. Charles I. spent nearly the whole +of the cold and rainy August during which he was in Cornwall under its +hospitable roof, and Pitt, Governor of Madras, purchased the place with +part of the proceeds of the "Pitt" diamond. The wing in which the King +slept was pulled down by Pitt; and the house, which is built on rising +ground in a lawn of a hundred acres, remodelled. It was here that his +son, the famous statesman, was born. An obelisk has been set up in the +midst of the entrenchments made during the Civil Wars—a piece of +curious taste, as the man commemorated by it had nothing to do with +either king or parliament, living indeed long after both were dust!</p> + +<p>Between this obelisk and Bradock Church was fought the battle of Bradock +Downs. The Royalists who had marched from Bodmin slept all night under +the hedges in Boconnoc Park. Next morning, January 19, 1643, they found +the Parliamentarians awaiting them on the rising ground of the common. +After keeping up a fire of small arms for some two hours, the Royalists +were led forward by Sir Beville Grenville in one of his dashing charges. +Their opponents broke and ran, fleeing to Liskeard with great loss of +arms and men. Their stay there, however, was but brief, for the +Cavaliers pursued them—across the downs, by the main road, and by St. +Pinnoc—and so took the town without a blow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A Cage for +Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: Sheviock: The +Eddystone: Mount Edgcumbe: The Tamar: Trematon Castle: Markets: Saltash: +Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: +Launceston.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">King Dungarth and King Alfred</span></h4> + +<p>It is pleasant, after following the footsteps of an English king so +foolish that his people out of sheer exasperation presently rose up and +slew him, to come upon traces of one whom the nation, from his day even +until now, has blessed and called great. To the north of Liskeard lies +the big parish of St. Neot, once called Gueryr, and St. Neot, 'tis said, +was a near relative of King Alfred, a relative noted for sanctity and of +whom many wonderful stories are told. He appears to have been on +friendly terms with Dungarth, King of Cornwall, who lived at Liskeard, +and at whose palace Alfred stayed in order to hunt the red deer on the +surrounding moors. Nor was it only for the hunting that Alfred came to +Liskeard. Gueryr, St. Neot's fellow saint, was supposed to have had some +medical knowledge, and the King, delicate from boyhood, was in bad +health. He went across the moors to pray, and possibly to bathe in the +spring of clear water, still known as the well of St. Neot; and as faith +in the doctor is half the battle we may hope his ills were alleviated. +Dungarth—a fine monarch we must believe or else no friend to +Alfred—was drowned in the River Fowey when hunting near Redgate, 875. +In the parish of St. Cleer is a fractured granite pillar about 8 ft. +high, and in digging near, a second fragment was found, inscribed in +Latin, "Doniert (possibly Dungarth) asks you to pray for his soul."</p> + +<p>To think that a thousand and odd years ago, Alfred was staying in this +little old market town with a friend; that they were planning hunting +expeditions; and that Dungarth was recommending his own doctor—"just +like any other man." How queer it all is and how little human nature +changes.</p> + +<p>The corporation at Liskeard has some interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> silver, and in the +church is a monument to Joseph Wadham said to have been "the last of +that family whose ancestors were the founders of Wadham College, +Oxford." This church is unique in Cornwall in having thirteen +fifteenth-century consecration crosses cut on the north and south +aisles. In the town is Stuart House, where Charles I. stayed for about a +week in 1644.</p> + +<p>A little south of Liskeard, on the way to Menheniot, is Clicker Tor, a +mass of serpentine rock resembling the rocks of the Lizard. That +beautiful heath (<i>Erica vagans</i>) that grows on the serpentine is found +here.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Menheniot</span></h4> + +<p>Until the introduction—at the wish of the Cornish—of the English +liturgy during the reign of Henry VIII., the ancient tongue was the +language of the county. Dr. Mooreman, Vicar of Menheniot from 1530 to +1554, was the first parson in Cornwall to teach his parishioners the +Lord's Prayer, the Belief and the Commandments in English. Nowadays, +while it is not uncommon in Wales—which had only the Welsh liturgy—to +hear the "Dim Sassenach," which means that some old person is unable or +unwilling to speak English, the Cornish equivalent, "Mee a navidra cowza +Sawzneck," has been entirely forgotten.</p> + +<p>Menheniot (after St. Columb Major) is the most valuable benefice in the +county, and the church possesses two interesting flagons of +sixteenth-century Lambeth stoneware, with lid and collar of silver dated +1578 and 1581.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Keyne</span></h4> + +<p>On the other side of the valley, not far from the famous old mine of +Herodsfoot, is the Well of St. Keyne. Over it, in an astonishingly small +space, are five trees, oak, elm, and ash, and although these were +planted in 1750,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> it was only in the place of older trees mentioned in +1602. Concerning the water of this celebrated well, it is fabled that if +after marriage the wife should drink of its waters before her husband +she shall have the mastery and vice-versa. Southey's ballad tells us of +a bride who took some to church with her in a bottle and drank it while +her husband was running to the well.</p> + +<p>At Duloe is a circle which probably encloses a burial place. The stones +are all of quartz, which is unusual, and they are large, the biggest +being 8 ft. high and 7 ft. wide. In this church lies gallant old Sir +John Arundell, the defender of Pendennis Castle.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Looe</span></h4> + +<p>East and West Looe are two quaint fishing-villages divided by the +estuary and joined by a bridge. They are, as usual, huddled together as +near the bottom of their hills as possible and consist of a few crooked +and narrow streets, with houses built anyhow and anywhere. Like Fowey, +they look as if presently they might slip a little, make a tiny splash, +and disappear into the water, to be talked of by succeeding generations +as a "great city of seven churches and thousands of inhabitants that for +some forgotten crime on the part of its people had been overwhelmed by a +sea wave," and to prove this thing they would quote from the <i>Chronicle</i> +(not the Saxon this time but the <i>Daily</i>), "in this year came that great +sea flood, widely through this land, and it ran up so far as never at +any time before, and it drowned many towns and mankind too innumerable +to be computed."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Cage for Scolds</span></h4> + +<p>Meanwhile East and West Looe still lie poised insecurely above the tide, +while donkeys laden with panniers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> scramble up the precipitous streets, +and in this way your groceries and so forth come to your door. It is +thoroughly in keeping with the place that the old ducking stool and they +say the cage for scolds should still exist. About the latter Mr. Bond +tells the following appropriate story:</p> + +<p>"At East Looe Hannah Whit and Bessy Niles, two women of fluent tongue, +having exerted their oratory on each other, at last thought it prudent +to leave the matter in dispute to be settled by the Mayor. Away they +posted to his worship. The first who arrived had scarce begun her tale +when the other bounced in, in full rage, and began hers likewise, and +abuse commenced with redoubled vigour. His worship, Mr. John Chubb, +ordered the constable to be called and each of the combatants thought +her antagonist was going to be punished, and each thought right. When +the constable arrived, his worship pronounced to him the following +command: 'Take these women to the cage, and there keep them till they +have settled their dispute.' They were immediately conveyed thither, and +after a few hours' confinement became as quiet and inoffensive beings as +ever breathed, and were then liberated to beg Mr. Mayor's pardon."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Looe Island and the Smugglers</span></h4> + +<p>Except the Scillies, the only inhabited island of Cornwall is St. George +(or Looe Island). It measures fourteen acres and was once exceedingly +useful to smugglers. Not many years since, the floor of a respectable +looking building gave way, and the reason thereof became apparent when +it was found that it had been hollowed underneath to form a receptacle +for those good spirits which came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> from France by way of the Looe +galleys. The most wonderful hiding-place in this part of the country is +the now well-known duckpond, said to have been at Lansallos, near +Polperro. This swung on a pivot, and when moved disclosed a cavity. At +all other times it presented an innocently rural appearance, so much so +that the preventive officers often sat, all unsuspiciously, within a few +feet of it.</p> + +<p>East of East Looe is the little hamlet of Crafthole, with two crosses, +one known locally as "Stump Cross," a fine specimen of a plain Latin +cross with chamfered angles, and another of earlier date with a broken +top. This bay, which stretches from Looe to Penlee, was once a valley +filled with trees, but, as Florence of Worcester says, "The sea comes +out upon the shore and buries towns and men very many, oxen and sheep +innumerable."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Armada</span></h4> + +<p>It is a quiet strip of coast, yet it was here between Rame Head and the +Dodman, that on a breezy Sunday morning the Spaniards of the Armada +first caught sight of the English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham, +and the volunteer flotilla that was led by Francis Drake. The Spanish +plan was to divide fleet from flotilla, but as the light English boats +could sail closer to the wind and were generally more easy to handle, it +met with little success. The Spanish admiral was soon to discover that +his little enemy's guns could carry further than his own, thus enabling +the English to remain out of reach and yet pour in their raking +broadsides. The light winds blew from the east, and the opposing navies +fired and drifted and fired again, passing the Rame, passing Plymouth, +and drifting up the coast. The engagement lasted till late on that +Sunday afternoon, and later still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> the <i>Capitana</i>, first fruits of the +demoralising tactics of the English, was towed into Dartmouth harbour.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Keepe then the sea, about in special,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Which of England is the towne wall,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Keepe then the sea that is the wall of England,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>And then is England kept by Goddes hand....</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In other words: "God helps those who help themselves."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Sheviock</span></h4> + +<p>Above Crafthole lies Sheviock, on one of the creeks of the Lynher, with +a good fourteenth-century church. The Dawneys were lords of Sheviock, +and we have it from Carew that while the husband was building the +church, his more practical wife was erecting a barn. When they came to +compare accounts it was found that the lady's expenditure had exceeded +her lord's by three half-pence, "and so it might well fall, for it is a +great barn and a very little church."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Eddystone</span></h4> + +<p>Henry VII., when Earl of Richmond, is said to have landed near Rame +Head, and seeing that he had in his train such energetic Cornishmen as +Sir Richard Edgcumbe and Sir Hugh Trevanion, men who could help him to a +good few of their relatives and retainers, no doubt he was well advised. +From the headland can be seen the Eddystone, which is nine miles south. +This ridge of rocks is a mile long, but has only one small rock +appearing above the water and has for ages been the terror of seamen. +The first lighthouse was built in 1699, and four years later was swept +away by a storm. A second, built in 1708, was burnt in 1755. The third, +built by Smeaton in 1759, resisted the wind and weather for over a +hundred years. The rocks on which it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> built were then found to be +giving way, and it was removed to Plymouth Hoe, and a new and higher +lighthouse built on another part of the ridge.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mount Edgcumbe</span></h4> + +<p>The Rame forms the outer boundary of Plymouth Harbour; Penlee Point the +western boundary of the sound; and a little to the north lies Mount +Edgcumbe, which, though few people seem to know it, is in Cornwall. This +interesting house was built in the time of Mary, but the park dates from +Henry VIII., when the property came to the Edgcumbes by marriage. The +grounds contain a great number of fortifications, from the battery and +blockhouse built to oppose the Spanish Armada to more modern defences. +The second Lord Edgcumbe, when a boy, was the friend of Sir Joshua +Reynolds, a friendship which has resulted in the family portraits of +three generations being painted by that artist. The house is as +beautifully situated as the grounds are worth seeing and is on the end +of a promontory several miles long and three wide.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Tamar</span></h4> + +<p>The Tamar and Torridge spring from a rushy knoll on the eastern wilds of +Morwenstow, three miles from the sea. From that, practically the most +northern spot in the county, the larger river with some windings flows +south, forming the eastern boundary of the county. It finally widens +into the Hamoaze and, by way of Plymouth Sound, finds its way into the +sea. Many are the bridges and ferries from the one county to the other, +and every army that has come to invade, to subjugate, or even to punish +the insurgent west, must have come by way of this peaceful stream. The +first ferry is at Tor Point, where the Tamar is about a mile wide. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +was the old coach route and thither came the people who would catch the +packet at Falmouth, thither also in yet earlier times came the Cornish +pack-horses, laden with tin at their going and merchandise on their +return. It was the highway when roads were only tracks and the boats in +which men voyaged were of wattle covered with hide. Now it is crossed by +a "steam bridge" which starts every quarter of an hour!</p> + +<p>Where another ferry crosses the estuary of the Lynher is the church and +village of Antony East. Carew, whose amusing Survey supplies us with so +many stories of old Cornwall, is buried here, the doggerel verses on his +monument having been found in his pocket, after his sudden death when at +prayer in his study. There is also a memorial to Margery Arundell, which +is of interest, as it is the only example in the county of a canopied +brass.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Trematon Castle</span></h4> + +<p>When Robert, Duke of Normandy, died, Arlette, the tanner's daughter, was +sought in wedlock by one Herlwin, and in due course she bore him two +sons, Odo, afterwards Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, whom she named after +the unforgotten lover of her youth. These twain, worthy half-brothers of +the stern and rigorous Bastard, rode one on each side of him at the +battle of Hastings—that fatal battle which delayed for so many years +the consummation of our English liberties! Over against the Normans were +the equally loyal brethren of Harold, the King. But William's star was +in the ascendant, and two at least of the sons of Godwin and Gytha were +among the slain. As soon as the Conqueror was firmly settled on the +throne that he had seized, he bethought him of his favourite brother and +added to Robert's earldom by the Breton march the more famous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> earldom +of the kindred land of Cornwall. Robert of Mortain, riding gaily down to +the west, found a wealth of manors awaiting him and two +castles—afterwards to be mentioned in Domesday—those of Launceston and +Trematon.</p> + +<p>Trematon is on the Lynher which, rising near Five Lanes towards the +centre of the county, flows steadily south until it is joined by the +Tidy near Ince Castle, (the only sixteenth-century brick house in the +county), and with a sharp easterly turn flows broadly and genially into +the Tamar below Saltash. Above its placid waters rises the old keep, the +keep that was built to keep the unruly Cornish in order. Tintagel, +Restormel, and Launceston are ruinous, but Trematon is still in fairly +good repair. The wall crossing the motte is of early date, probably +thirteenth century, while the archway of the square entrance tower +carries portcullis grooves, and the keep, once 70 ft. by 50 ft., is +still about 30 ft. in height. The castle with its park and manor and the +borough of Saltash was granted by Edward III. to the Dukes of Cornwall +for ever. It is not generally known that in some respects this dukedom +differs from all others. The eldest son of the reigning sovereign is the +duke, and he comes of age as soon as he is born and preserves all the +rights of the dukedom without patent of creation; the essential +difference between this and the princedom of Wales being that the latter +is specially conferred by the sovereign.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Germans</span></h4> + +<p>Not far from Trematon is St. Germans, birthplace of the famous Sir John +Eliot, after whom Port Eliot was called. This worthy, though +consistently loyal to Charles I., opposed that monarch's illegalities +and died in the prison to which he was consequently consigned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> He was +one of the noblest of the fine band of Cornishmen who came to the front +at that period of the nation's history, an honest, just, and fearless +man. Port Eliot, though charmingly situated where the Tidy widens into a +lake, is otherwise only interesting on account of its pictures, of which +there are several by Sir Joshua Reynolds.</p> + +<p>St. Germans is thought to have been the seat of the ancient bishopric of +Cornwall, but there is no evidence in support of the theory. The "see," +or bishop-stool as it was called by our fathers, was nothing more than +the seat of the bishop, the church in which it rested being his +cathedral church. In early times the bishop was generally attached to +some monastery or else he moved from place to place, taking his "seat" +with him. In course of time, a suitable place being found, the see would +become fixed, but there is no evidence of any fixed see in this county +until 1877, when it was placed at Truro.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Markets</span></h4> + +<p>The following entry in the exchequer book at the time of the Domesday +survey marks one of the contrasts between then and now: "In this manor +there is a market on Sunday, but it is reduced to nothing on account of +the Earl of Mortain's market, which is very near thereto." Robert, Earl +of Mortain and Cornwall, held his market by his Castle of Trematon, and +so we are confronted with two markets on a Sunday in Sabbatarian +Cornwall! The boldness of the folk, with all those petrified pipers and +fiddlers and merry maidens to point a moral! And to think that nothing +happened.</p> + +<p>A good deal of water has flowed under Tamar bridges since those days. In +the reign of Henry VIII. Andrew Furlong, priest and schoolmaster at +Saltash, was imprisoned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> for having a Bible in his possession—and this +is the tercentenary of that Bible's translation into the vulgar tongue. +Verily times have changed.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Saltash</span></h4> + +<p>From the Hoe to Saltash, low hills flank an estuary of great width which +narrows sharply where Brunel's triumph, the Royal Albert Bridge, spans +the flood. This great railway bridge, which was opened by the Prince +Consort in 1859, cost over three-quarters of a million and is still one +of the wonders of engineering.</p> + +<p>Saltash suffered considerably during the wars between King and +Parliament. It was taken and retaken any number of times, occupied by +first one party and then the other, fortified, attacked, and generally +treated with scant courtesy. It has several points of interest; an old +shop dated 1584, fine corporation regalia, a church containing a very +ancient font bowl (brought from Wadgworthy), and an exquisite silver +vessel of 1624 now used as a communion cup.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Moditonham</span></h4> + +<p>This part of the county is noted for its strawberries, its gooseberries, +and for a sweet kind of small cherry called mazzards.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Let Uter Pendragon do what he can</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>The Tamar water will run as it ran,</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>says the Celtic proverb, embodying no doubt some forgotten story. It is +certainly a fine sheet of water above Saltash and he would be a bold man +who would seek to divert its flow. Not far from the town is the manor of +Moditonham, which was built not long after the Restoration by Colonel +Waddon, who, from long residence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> abroad, had gathered a love of foreign +architecture, and who chose for his model a French château. John +Grenville, Sir Beville's son (who attended Charles II. in all his +wanderings, was sent by him to negotiate with Monk, and was King's +messenger with his letter to the Parliament), had been made Earl of Bath +and Governor of both Pendennis and Plymouth. He was the most loyal of +Charles's subjects, but under James II. his long faith wavered, and it +was at Moditonham that, with Colonel Waddon, the Deputy Governor of +Pendennis, he treated with the commissioner of the Prince of Orange. His +brother, Denis Grenville, Dean of Durham, less wise, but more loyal, +followed James over seas and died in exile.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Paleologus</span></h4> + +<p>The river winds in such deep curves above Botus-fleming that Landulph is +almost surrounded by its waters. In the quiet churchyard lies Theodore +Paleologus, the last descendant of the Christian emperors of the east. +Some years ago the vault in which he lies was accidentally opened and it +was seen that he had been a tall man with a long head and a beard of +unusual dimensions. During his lifetime this man, who might have been an +emperor, had been reduced to such straits of poverty, that he had +written to that soldier of fortune, the first Duke of Buckingham, +praying to be taken into his service. In the letter, which has been +preserved, he pathetically describes himself as a gentleman, born of a +good house, a soldier from his birth, accomplished and worthy of the +name he bears, but unfortunate in the reverse of fortune.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Pentillie</span></h4> + +<p>Above Landulph the curving flood gradually narrows into the semblance of +an ordinary river and goes softly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> between woods and orchards and +farmlands till the finely placed grey towers of Pentillie, built by that +eccentric charlatan, Sir William Tillie, come into view. It is a mistake +to hurry through this scenery in the bustling steamer that ploughs up +from Plymouth, gives you barely time to swallow a fine strawberry at +Calstock and rushes back again. The Tamar, with its forest-clad +declivities, its rocks and crags and cliffs, its long reaches of shining +water fringed with deep green meadows and woodland, is essentially a +river for the man with leisure. In the opinion of those who have seen +both, the scenery far surpasses that of the belauded Dart. The +production of arsenic has discoloured the water in parts, as the mine +shafts have destroyed the sylvan charm of the shore, but this is only +for a short distance above New Bridge, the New Bridge over which Essex +so foolishly led his troops in 1644.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Cotehele</span></h4> + +<p>The Tamar is navigable for good sized vessels as far as the Weir Head, +but that is away beyond first Cotehele and then Calstock, past Harewood, +the most easterly part of the county, a peninsula which, like Landulph, +is nearly an island, and even past the craggy Morwell Rocks.</p> + +<p>Cotehele, a Tudor mansion, "antient, large, strong, and fayre," was once +the chief seat of the Edgcumbe family. On the cliff can be seen the +little chapel built by Richard Edgcumbe in gratitude for his escape from +the myrmidons of Richard III. (see page 136). The chestnut trees in +these woods are large and of great age, but suffered severely from the +blizzard of 1891. Within the house is an interesting chapel with, under +the pulpit, a small apartment, known as "the Leper's Room." In the +vault, the mother of the first baron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> was buried (1742) while in a +trance. "The knave of a sexton, the night after the funeral, broke open +the coffin with intent to steal the rings which adorned the body, when, +to his utter alarm, she who was thought to be dead opened her eyes and +began to move; thereat the thief fled amain as though chased by the +awakened spirit, leaving his lanthorn behind him, which served to light +the lady out of the vault."</p> + +<p>The simple brevity of the account is delightful. No nerves on the part +of the dame, whose motto must have been "noblesse oblige." We picture +her stepping gracefully out of her narrow bed, taking that lanthorn, so +conveniently left, and in her white shroud making her way to the +supper-room, where no doubt her sorrow-stricken descendants were +sustaining life with beef and beer and bread. Were they really and truly +glad to see her? She must have been a woman, not only of great presence +of mind, but of strong character, and we, at this distance, can look +back admiringly; but as to her dutiful and obedient children—well, one +wonders.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Hingston Down</span></h4> + +<p>The New Bridge leads directly out to the high land of Hingston Down, +where before stannary laws were enacted and coinage towns assigned, the +tinners of Devon and Cornwall met on Kit Hill and held their parliament. +During the fourteenth century difficulties arose, and after that only +the Cornish came to the old earthwork for their debates. An interesting +light is shed, by a speech of Sir Walter Raleigh's in Parliament, when +Lord Warden of the Stannaries, on the men and their earnings. In those +days it would appear that the pay of a working tinner was 4<i>s</i>. a week, +finding himself. Of this Sir Walter boasts as a great change for the +better inasmuch as previously the tinner had received but half that +amount.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> + +<p>These hills used to be famous for their tin, hence the saying:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Hingston Down well wrought</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Is worth London Town, dear bought.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>In 835 the Cornish were defeated by the men of Devon on this open +ground, and some centuries later Charles I. crossed it on his way to try +conclusions with Lord Essex. A little beyond Callington is St. Ive, one +of the most lovely churches in the duchy. The east end and north side +are fourteenth-century work of great merit, and the remainder is +fifteenth century. The beautiful tower has clustered pinnacles, but the +chief interest lies in the chancel window with its fine tracery, and the +ogee-headed niches in the jambs of the scoinson arch, while some of the +glass in the east window is of the same date as the tracery.</p> + +<p>The river no longer curves in upon itself so frequently, but the +landscape, deeply wooded and with the fine Carthamartha Rocks above the +junction of the Inny with the Tamar, is softly beautiful. Greston Bridge +crosses the river between Lezant and Lawhitton, and at Trecarrel House +in the former, Charles I., with his army sleeping round him in the +fields, lay on the night of August 1, 1644. At Lewannick, west of +Lezant, a cresset stone has been preserved. This structure resembles a +font, but with the top hollowed out into a number of bowls to contain +oil and floating wicks. Before the days of matches, a light was kept +perpetually burning in the church in order that the parishioners might +resort to it, if by any chance their hearth-fires, always carefully +sodded up, should be extinguished. Cresset stones are now rare. The one +at Calder Abbey has sixteen bowls, but that at Furness resembles the one +at Lewannick in having only five.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Polyfant</span></h4> + +<p>In this parish, at a little distance from the church town, is the famous +stone quarry of Polyfant. The greater number of the Norman arches in +this part of the county are made from this stone, the quarry having been +worked for over a thousand years. There are three old crosses in this +neighbourhood, the one at Holloway being of unusual design, while the +"four-holed" cross at Trelaske has projections at the neck. Trelaske is +a well-wooded and picturesque country-place, and contains the remains of +an encampment, while the view from Trelaske Beacon is extensive. A +couple of miles above Greston Bridge the river takes a bend almost at +right angles to its former course, and runs east and west until it +reaches Poulston Bridge, across which Charles I. led his army that +never-to-be-forgotten August and marched on Launceston.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LAUNCESTON TO DOZMARÉ</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The Upper Reaches of the Tamar: Launceston: The Old Highways: St. +Clether: Altarnun: Trebartha: The Trethevy Dolmen: The Cheesewring: St. +Cleer: St. Neot: Dozmaré: Tregeagle: Lake Dwellings.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Upper Reaches of the Tamar</span></h4> + +<p>Above Launceston, the Tamar soon has a companion in the shape of the +Bude Canal, which was built at great cost, but is no longer worked. At +Werrington, the river of that name joins the mother stream, after +forming an artificial lake, and Werrington is also interesting as a +place to which several bequests were made for the benefit of the poor +and the support of a school. Many years ago the parish chest, which +contained the donation deeds of these charities, was stolen from the +church. After a long time and great hue and cry it was discovered built +up into the wall of one of the houses and, of course, empty.</p> + +<p>Boyton, a little north, is divided by the Tamar between Devon and +Cornwall. Here lived Agnes Brest, brought to the stake 1557, the only +one among the Cornish Protestants who was actually burnt. North +Tamarton, like Boyton, has a piece of land on the other side of the +river, but, unlike its neighbour, this portion was returned to Cornwall +by an Act of Parliament in 1832. The church of St. Denis is worth a +visit for the sake of the beautiful carving of the pulpit.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Launceston</span></h4> + +<p>These upper reaches of the Tamar are well stocked with trout, and +Launceston which, though not on the river, has a stream of its own, not +to speak of a special and personal canal, is a good centre for anglers +as well as a most interesting old ruin of a place. Its ancient name was +Dunheved, and a castle of some sort was crowning this great hill when +William the Conqueror gave Cornwall to his half-brother, Robert of +Mortain. The most noticeable thing about these Cornish fortifications<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +is the frequency and ease with which they fell into a ruinous condition. +Seeing that the walls are at their thinnest 3 ft. thick and elsewhere +10, one would have thought them capable of withstanding a little wind +and weather. But the contrary was the case. The present ruins are mostly +late Norman and Transition Norman of Henry III.'s time, but already in +1312, not a hundred years after they had replaced the older building, we +find them calling urgently for repair; while, when the Black Prince came +down to Cornwall in 1353 to make acquaintance with his duchy, for he +took that as seriously and conscientiously as everything else, the +stronghold was in a parlous condition. Yet it occupies a commanding +position and was evidently a place of considerable strength. No doubt +the good young Prince restored this Castle Terrible with its great +wall—the base court—containing three gateways, one of which is still +standing, and its dungeon of Doomsdale; this castle to which "the vill +of Truro yearly rendered one laburnum bow and the manor of Scilly three +hundred puffins!"</p> + +<p>Imagine the arrival at the buttery hatch of those three hundred puffins! +We think them a leathery, fishy kind of food, and nowadays the servants +would leave in a body if required to eat them. But those were the good +old times, and in guardroom and kitchen no doubt they had puffin roasted +and puffin boiled and puffins in their pasties until the lady of the +castle said to her lord: "My love, in this weather, of course, you can't +expect those puffins to keep; really the Scillies are most +inconsiderate, one hundred at a time would have been sufficient!" and +then they had puffins potted and variously preserved until the garrison +groaned in chorus the old grace:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Puffins young and puffins old,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>Puffins hot and puffins cold,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Puffins tender and puffins tough,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>I thank the Lord I've had enough.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>At the time of the Civil Wars the Castle, nodding in age-long sleep and +slow decay, was restored and fortified. Charles I. and his troops passed +through the town in August 1644; and Richard Grenville, new-made Lord of +Lostwithiel, was imprisoned here, when his turbulence had exhausted the +royal patience. Now the county gaol is at Bodmin; but in those days of +dungeons and fetters the folk were incarcerated in the fortress—what is +now a playground being the place of execution.</p> + +<p>The ruins are certainly the most interesting part of Launceston, and it +has ruins not only of the ivy-grown castle, but of a priory founded in +1126. Its faint remains, with the exception of a doorway built into the +White Hart Hotel, lie in a valley between the town and St. Stephen's. +When the privilege of sanctuary was abolished except in churches and +churchyards, Launceston was one of the seven towns that were made +sanctuaries for life, except for heinous crimes. The result, however, +was not altogether pleasant for the aforesaid towns, which, much to +their dismay, presently found themselves harbouring all the criminals +and rapscallions of the country. Preferring the room of these would-be +citizens to their company, the towns petitioned James I. for +"desecration" and the right of sanctuary was finally abolished.</p> + +<p>The Church of St. Mary Magdalene was built by Sir Henry Trecarrel in +1524 on the death of his only child. It is of granite, and has the +peculiarity of being worked all over with picks instead of chisels. The +ornamentation is florid and excessive. A granite carving of the +Crucifixion, however, and other interesting monuments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> form part of the +churchyard wall. The vestry was once a shop that separated the tower +from the church, which though it seems strange to our modern notions was +by no means unusual in olden days.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Old Highways</span></h4> + +<p>The oldest road in the county is no doubt the one that runs from Tor +Point by way of the principal towns to the Land's End, but a great part +of this ground has already been trodden. Another ancient road leaving +Launceston goes via Bodmin Moors to Bodmin, branching off right and left +at Altarnon. It then crosses Tregoss Moor, passes St. Enoder and +Mitchell, and joins the first near Redruth. This road, running as it +does like a backbone down the centre of the county, we propose to take. +Egloskerry, Treneglos, and Trewen have churches which are mildly +interesting. In the first are two good Norman tympana, one over the +north doorway, representing a dragon, and one, now placed over the +interior of the south doorway, carved with the Agnus Dei. Here also is a +mutilated stone figure supposed to represent one of the Blanchminster +(<i>anglice</i>, Blackmonster) family. At Treneglos is another fine Norman +tympanum, having cut on it the tree of life with a lion on each side; +and Trewen has a good mediæval bell inscribed, "St. Michael, pray for +us!"</p> + +<p>At Lancast J. C. Adams, the discoverer of the planet Neptune, was born. +He was also the Senior Wrangler of his year at Cambridge, and one of the +exceptions to the old rule that Senior Wranglers never distinguish +themselves after leaving college. Another Cornish Senior Wrangler was +Henry Martyn, the missionary, to whose memory the baptistery in Truro +Cathedral is dedicated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Clether</span></h4> + +<p>Basil or Trebasil, in the parish of St. Clether, was for long the seat +of the Trevelyans. Among the ruins of the house is a large moorstone +oven, now used as a pigstye, while in the immediate neighbourhood are +four granite crosses in a good state of preservation. The Trevelyans, +like most of the Cornish gentry, were Cavaliers, and on one occasion a +party of Roundheads made shift to seize the squire in his own house.</p> + +<p>"If you come on," said he, "I will send out my spearmen against you."</p> + +<p>As there seemed nothing at the back of this threat, come on they did. +Whereupon he up with a teeming beehive and threw it among them. Not a +man-jack waited for the onslaught of those spearmen.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Altarnon</span></h4> + +<p>At the junction of this northerly road with those running south to +Liskeard and west to Bodmin, lies Altarnon, the largest parish in +Cornwall. The patron saint is Non, the mother of St. David, and her +church is full of interesting memorials of the past. It possesses not +only an exceptionally large collection of sixteenth-century bench-ends, +but an oak rood screen, which antiquarians declare to be "by far the +finest specimen of fifteenth-century woodwork in Cornwall and one of the +very best existing examples of perpendicular oak-work in England." There +are also two paintings on wood (date 1620), a fragment of ancient glass +in the east window, locally supposed to contain a portrait of St. Non, a +communion rail of 1684, and other objects of interest. On several of the +bench-ends may be seen carvings of the little corn man or "neck," that +is to say, the figure that is plaited out of the heads of wheat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> in the +last sheaf at a harvest, and which is sometimes to be seen preserved +over the winter in a cottage.</p> + +<p>Nor is the carefully restored church all that Altarnon has to show. St. +Non's Well was celebrated for the cure of lunacy, and Carew gives a +startling account of the proceedings. "In our forefather's days, when +devotion as much exceeded knowledge as knowledge now cometh short of +devotion, there were many bowsening places for curing madmen; and +amongst the rest one at Altarnunne, called St. Nunne's Pool, which +saint's altar it may be, <i>pars pro toto</i>, gave name to the church. And +because the manner of this bowsening is not so unpleasing to hear as it +was uneasy to feel, I will deliver you the practice as I received it +from the beholder.</p> + +<p>"The water running from St. Nunne's Well fell into a square and +close-walled plot which might be filled at what depth they listed. Upon +this wall was the frantic person set to stand, his back towards the +pool, where a strong fellow, provided for the nonce, took him and tossed +him, and tossed him up and down, along and athwart the water, until the +patient, by foregoing his strength, had somewhat forgotten his fury. +Then was he conveyed to the church and certain masses sung over him; +upon which handling, if his right wits returned, St. Nunne had the +thanks, but if there appeared small amendment, he was bowsened again and +again, while there remained in him any hope of life or recovery."</p> + +<p>The well is now dry, and the "square and close-walled plot" in ruins, +for which—lest it should occur to our medical men to try these old +remedies—thanks be to whom thanks are due.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Trebartha</span></h4> + +<p>The Lynher which rises in Altarnon flows southward to Trebartha, where +it forms a fine cascade and is crossed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> by the road to Liskeard. Not far +from this bridge is the manor of Treveniel, whose lord claimed the +right, whenever the Mayor of Launceston mounted his horse on the +occasion of the duke coming into Cornwall, of holding the stirrup. It +seems strange that any gentleman should set store by this right, which +is, after all, a relic of some forgotten form of tenure. What elderly +children we remain, squabbling over our foolish plays, in spite of the +twentieth century, the new humanitarianism, and all the other +solemnities!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Trethevy Dolmen</span></h4> + +<p>Before marching on Liskeard, Charles I. drew up his troops on the north +side of Caradon Hill. The copper mines on the south-west of this +moorland eminence have yielded ore to the value of several millions of +money, but are no longer worked. Near them is the Trethevy dolmen, the +largest in Cornwall, the cover stone being 14 ft. long and 9 ft. wide. +An old writer described it as "a little house raised of mighty stone, +standing on a little hill within a field." In comparison with some of +the foreign dolmens, however, it is but small. Several of the French +cromlechs are large enough to be converted into chapels, while one at +Copenhagen, called the "Chamber of Giants," will allow of twenty people +walking about in it.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Cheesewring</span></h4> + +<p>To the north of Caradon Down are three stone circles known as the +Hurlers and not far from them the remarkable granite stone known as the +Cheesewring. This curious natural phenomenon stands on the side of a +hill, the summit of which is encircled by a large entrenchment of unhewn +stones, while over against it is Kilmar Tor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> (1297 ft.), third highest +peak in Cornwall. It looks like large blocks of tabular granite poised +on smaller ones till the base of the Cheesewring is only about half the +size of what it supports, this irregularity being due to weathering. A +part of the top is broken. In consequence of careless quarrying close +by, the pile has had to be artificially supported.</p> + +<p>Antiquaries once thought the Cheesewring a memorial to the dead, from +which in the course of centuries the covering earth had been washed +away. In this neighbourhood there are many such cairns and monuments. A +barrow near by was opened in 1818 and in it an extended skeleton and a +gold cup were found. This cup was of Scandinavian type, 3½ in. high, +and weighed nearly three ounces, which suggests that some sea rover +found his last resting-place in these heathy solitudes.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Cleer</span></h4> + +<p>From near the Cheesewring a moorland road leads down to St. Cleer, which +is divided from St. Neot by the lovely valley of the River Fowey. This +parish contains a number of antiquities of varying ages, in fact, as has +been said, "dead faiths and dead beliefs lie about this countryside like +withered leaves in autumn." At Trewartha Marsh is a prehistoric +settlement which probably belongs to the early iron age. Some of the +oblong huts are small, but others are fully 50 ft. long, while in the +group is what was possibly a public hall with stone benches along its +sides, and at the end a chair with arms. A few hut circles and an +ancient circular pound are also to be seen.</p> + +<p>Doniert's stone, supposed to have been raised in memory of King Alfred's +friend, Dungarth of Cornwall, is near Redgate; and in the village of St. +Cleer is a Latin cross which stands beside a holy well reputed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> to have +been used like that at Altarnun for the "bowsening" or cure of maniacs. +This well has a beautiful little chapel built over the clear spring.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Tell me the street to Heaven.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>This? Or that? Oh, which?</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>What webs of streets!</i>"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Noguchi</span>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The fifteenth-century tower of St. Cleer is unusually fine, and the +church contains a Norman north doorway, and an early English font of +great beauty.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Neot</span></h4> + +<p>To the north of both St. Cleer and St. Neot lie the wild and +uncultivated moors, and the saints must have been brave men who sought +the solitude of this granite strewn district. It is little wonder that +strange, and to our thinking, absurd legends, should have grown up about +them. St. Neot, as has been already said, was a cousin of King Alfred, +and it appears that in those days even minor royalties worked for their +living. The saint's oxen were stolen—he evidently farmed the land—so +the stags of the neighbouring forest performed all the necessary labour, +and for this good deed were endowed with a white mark wherever the yoke +of labour had touched their brown hides! This and similar stories are +depicted on one of the beautiful stained glass windows of the church.</p> + +<p>This parish, like so many others in Cornwall, is rich in ancient +crosses, there being no less than three, all having incised crosses on +them, in the vicarage garden. In the churchyard is one on which is quite +the finest interlaced work on granite in the county. It has been mounted +on the stone, on which legend says St. Neot, who was a small man, stood +in order to unlock the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> church door. From which story it appears that in +those days the churches were kept locked!</p> + +<p>Little St. Neot must have been glad to welcome his great kinsman, when +as the Book of Hyde (1200 <span class="smcap">a.d</span>.) says: "Alfred went to Cornwall and +repaired to the Church of St. Gueryr, where St. Neot reposes, for the +purpose of alleviating his illness." Let us hope Neot was not too +saintly to feel a cousinly interest in the King's health and that the +two compared their widely differing lives and asked after old friends +and what had been the history of this one and that; and that they ate in +peace of the wheaten bread which St. Neot, after his farming operations, +would be able to offer, and the fish with which another legend daily +provided him, and so parted, the one to his burden of life, the other +staying on, content with uneventful peace.</p> + +<p>The glory of St. Neot's Church is its collection of stained glass. It +dates from 1528, and though not quite the oldest in the county, it is +said that none comparable with it for beauty and richness exist either +in Cornwall or Devon.</p> + +<p>The old road from Bodmin to Plymouth, that interesting prehistoric +highway by which the early Cornish probably sent their tin for shipment +abroad, runs through the village. Long before Alfred came to hob-nob +with his cousin, before the Romans so much as knew that Britain existed, +and while the mammoth in the valley of the Thames was still shaking his +great hairy sides over the littleness of man, the rough stuggy ponies, +whose descendants still feed on Goonhilly Downs, were carrying their +heavy packs along this track, over the old clapper bridges, past heath, +morass, forest, and settlement, at the call of need.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Dozmaré</span></h4> + +<p>On the high land north of St. Neot and a little beyond Brown Gilly (1058 +ft.) lies Dozmaré, the only inland lake of Cornwall. This tarn, which by +old writers was called the Dead Sea from the lifeless appearance of its +waters, lies on an elevated plateau in a dreary sad-coloured region. It +is nearly square and in circumference about a mile. Tennyson told Mr. J. J. +Rogers that the Loe Pool was where he pictured the throwing away of +the sword Excalibur. His description suits that and does not suit +Dozmaré, while the moormen talk only of "Jan Tergeagle," that unjust +steward who does penance for his evil deeds in so many parts of +Cornwall. It is said that he has been set to bale Dozmaré—supposed to +be bottomless—dry, and has been given to aid him in his task a limpet +shell pierced with a hole through which the water drips as he lifts it.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps "flogging a dead horse" to mention that in the hot summer +of 1869 Dozmaré dried up, thus proving that it was far from bottomless. +By disclosing a number of unfortunate trout and eels, it also showed it +was by no means "dead." To a moorman the suggestion that Tregeagle has +evidently accomplished his task, however, has but little weight. His +imagination overleaps the trifling fact of the dry summer and its +consequences, and only looks before and after. The pool seems +mysterious, it has a healthy legend, and to that legend any one hearing +the wind howl over these wastes on a December night may well give +credence.</p> + +<p>What was the origin of the moated grange? In Dozmaré is a subaqueous +pile of stones on which once stood a crannog or lake dwelling, while +many arrow heads and worked flints have been found in the neighbourhood. +Did the folk who built their homes over a pool find the water so great a +protection that their children going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> east and west, and being unable to +discover any more convenient lakes, built a stockaded house, and for its +greater safety must by their personal labour surround it with the +element in which they had always trusted? Is the moated grange then only +the direct descendant of the lake dwelling?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM BROWN WILLY TO CAMBORNE</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: St. +Breward and Blisland: Helland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell: Cornish Names: +Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word +in Farewell.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Brown Willy and Row Tor</span></h4> + +<p>Dozmaré Pool is only a short distance from the main road on the further +side of which lie the chief heights of this moorland district, Row Tor +(1296 ft.) and Brown Willy (1375 ft.). From Tintagel these hills look +like gently rounded brown masses on the skyline, but on nearer approach +the scene changes from cultivation to a waste of rock and bog and heath. +Rowtor, which is the northernmost of the two peaks, is covered with +masses of granite which have been weathered into fantastic shapes. It +was looked upon by the ancients as a sacred hill, probably on this +account, and there are remains of a stone circle on the slope and of +other prehistoric monuments. In 1371 Sir Hugh Peverell had licence for a +chapel of St. Michael at "Rogh-torre," of which the foundations can be +traced, while the stone arch of the doorway is to be seen built into the +Britannia Inn, near Camelford. This chapel was probably built on the +site of an earlier edifice not necessarily Christian.</p> + +<p>Brown Willy (Cornish, bron welli, the highest hill) is a beautiful +conical hill rising from the Bodmin mass of granite. The beacon of loose +stones on the summit was raised by the ordnance surveyors, and it is +said that on a fine day the peak of Snowdon can be seen through field +glasses. The Fowey rises at the foot of this hill and flowing through +the moorlands between St. Cleer and St. Neot is, in spite of its beauty, +most unkindly called the Dranes.</p> + +<p>In the immediate neighbourhood of Brown Willy and Row Tor are several +other tors and heights; Brê Down, to the north, 1125 ft.; Garrah, south +of Brown Willy, 1086 ft., with hut-circles and other prehistoric +remains. Not far from it is King Arthur's Hall (see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> page 41). Catshole +Tor is 1133 ft. and Toborough 1143 ft., while the beacon above Tresilon +rises to 1174 ft.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn</span></h4> + +<p>To westward of these hills, on a good road leading down to Bodmin, are +the parishes of Michaelstow, St. Tudy, and St. Mabyn, each of which +possesses some interesting church silver, the last mentioned having, in +particular, a standing vessel dated 1576, which is surmounted by a +statuette and now used as a communion cup. This little place is situated +amid romantic sylvan and river scenery, while its church on the top of a +hill serves as a waymark. At Michaelstow, on the north of the church, +are traces of a lean-to building with an opening into the chancel, and +it has been suggested that this was an anchor hold. Near by is Helsbury +Beacon, 700 ft. above sea-level, and crowned with a fine circular +earthwork which has a barbican on the east.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Breward and Blisland</span></h4> + +<p>Over St. Breward Church antiquarians are in dispute, for some of them +think it shows traces of an original cruciform Saxon church altered by a +Norman arcade. It is not otherwise interesting; while Blisland, to the +south, has a beautiful modern screen, some fine slate monuments, and +good woodwork. To reach it the traveller passes Pendrief, a logan-stone, +once so finely balanced that it was rocked by the wind. It is now +immovable. The royal arms and the arms of Cornwall were engraved on it +to commemorate the jubilee of George III. This neighbourhood is +particularly rich in that puzzling antiquity, the stone circle. At +Carwen there is not only one—and it might have been thought one would +have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> been enough for a place—but several, also others at Kerrowe Down, +Challowater, and on Hawks Tor, the last-named example being 152 ft. in +diameter.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Helland</span></h4> + +<p>Of Helland, principally known for its two circular earthworks called +"The Castles," is told this story. The vicar being called away +unexpectedly, left his neighbour of Blisland to make arrangements for +the customary services. He did so with the Archdeacon, and in due course +the Vicar of Helland received the following telegram:</p> + +<p>"The Archdeacon of Cornwall is going to hell, and you need not return."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Bodmin</span></h4> + +<p>These moorland parishes cover about ten square miles. They are not +entirely sterile, some parts being capable of cultivation and others +giving good pasture for cattle; but, on the whole, the impression left +is of a bracing and breezy waste, one of the happy spaces not yet +brought under the dominion of man. And with never a turn the broad white +road runs uphill and down dale and so to Bod Mynydd, the dwelling under +the hill, the only name that appears on the earliest maps.</p> + +<p>In Domesday Bodmin was the largest town in Cornwall, having actually +sixty-eight houses, not to speak of a market. Curfew is still rung in +Bodmin Church at 8 <span class="smcap">p.m</span>., and being situated conveniently in the centre +of the county the hilly, straggling town has gradually increased in +importance. The Cornish were such an unruly folk, so fond of rebellion +and blood-letting, that no town of theirs but had its vicissitudes; nor +were the troubles of Bodmin only due to their restless energy. In 1348 +certain carriers brought a string of pack mules laden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> with rich +merchandise into the town. The bales contained embroidered robes of +velvet and satin, pearl-sewn gloves, plumed hats and silken hose, all at +a reasonable price. Bodmin folk were used to smuggled goods, had even +had the treasures of wrecked ships hawked through their streets. They +saw no reason therefore to be cautious; and the goods were purchased, +the carriers paid; and forthwith the men led their mules out of the +little town and took the road back to Plymouth. The silver pennies were +safe in their pouches, and it would be better not to wait.</p> + +<p>Before long a sickness broke out among the people of Bodmin, a sickness +unlike any that they had known before, which was not strange when we +consider that the fine clothes had belonged to Londoners who had +perished in the Black Death. News travelled slowly in those days and +Bodmin had not known. But whereas when the carriers came there had been +three thousand people in the town, when the sickness passed there were +but half that number.</p> + +<p>Bodmin suffered again after the religious rising of the people in Edward +VI.'s reign. According to fact, Sir Anthony Kingston, Provost-Marshal, +was sent down from London to punish the rebels. According to tradition +he is said to have carried out his instructions with a grim pleasantry +all his own. "Boyer, Mayor of Bodmin," runs the story, "had been amongst +the rebels against his will; to him the Provost sent word that he would +dine with him; therefore the Mayor made great preparations. A little +before dinner the Provost took the Mayor aside and whispered him in the +ear that an execution must be done in the town that day, and desired +that a gallows might be set by the time dinner was over. Presently, when +the meal was at an end, the Provost, taking the Mayor by the hand, asked +to be led to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> place where the gallows was, and looking at it asked +the Mayor if he thought it strong enough.</p> + +<p>"'Doubtless,' said the Mayor.</p> + +<p>"'Come then, my friend,' said the Provost with a bitter grin, 'get thee +up speedily, for thou hast prepared it for thyself.'</p> + +<p>"Whereat the Mayor, quivering with fear, cried: 'Surely, good sir, thou +dost not mean what thou speakest?'</p> + +<p>"'In faith,' said the Provost, 'I speak what I mean, for thou hast been +a busy rebel.'</p> + +<p>"So he was hanged to death."</p> + +<p>Near Bodmin lived a miller who had been active in this same rebellion, +and he, getting wind of these proceedings, told a sturdy fellow, his +servant, that he had occasion to go from home; and therefore bid him to +take his place for a time, and if any did come to inquire for the miller +he should say that he was the miller and had been so for three years. In +course of time the Provost came and was met by the servant, who said +with consequence: "I am the master and have been so these three years."</p> + +<p>"Lay hold on him, my men," cried the Provost, "and hang him on this +tree."</p> + +<p>At this the fellow, sore amazed, cried out the truth. "Nay, nay, my good +friend," said the Provost, "I'll take thee at thy word, and if thou +be-est the miller thou knowest thou art a rebel and if thou be-est the +miller's man, thou art a lying knave; and howsoever thou canst never do +thy master better service than to hang for him."</p> + +<p>And so, without more ado, he was despatched.</p> + +<p>During the Civil War Bodmin suffered so greatly that Charles II., +passing through, said it was "the politest town he had ever seen, as one +half of the houses appeared to be bowing and the other half uncovered." +Hardly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> the sort of comment that might have been expected, when it was +owing to a kindness for him and his that the town was in so ruinous a +condition, but if Charles's wit was in the right place the same can +hardly have been said of his heart!</p> + +<p>When Perkin Warbeck entrenched himself at Castle Kynock, an ancient camp +on Bodmin Downs, his horse was said to have extended from Cardinham to +Lanhydrock; and it was to Glynn, a place between those two, that Charles +I. fled one night, when it had been borne in upon him that he and he +alone stood between his people and peace; and that even the loyal and +devoted were considering whether it would not be better to have him as a +prisoner than as a leader. "Character is Fate" should have been the +motto of the Stuarts, a family that acted foolishly because it was their +nature so to act and to whom not the most terrible lesson of all could +teach wisdom.</p> + +<p>To the south of Bodmin is St. Lawrence, a place with gruesome +associations. There were a fair number of leper hospitals in Cornwall, +but it brings the fell disease near to us when we reflect that the last +inmate of St. Lawrence only died (though not from leprosy) in 1800.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Lanivet</span></h4> + +<p>At Lanivet Church the communion plate is kept in a rare antique pyx of +"cuir bouilli," said to be of the fourteenth century. In the churchyard +is a Saxon tomb and a yet older inscribed stone; also a remarkable wheel +cross, a four-holed cross with interlaced and scroll work, and a curious +stone slab. St. Benet's, once a seat of the Courtenays, is built on the +site of a reputed Benedictine monastery, the greater part of the front +having belonged to the original building. The walls are about 4 ft. +thick. Unfortunately the stones of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> cloisters, as well as the upper +part of the tower, were used some years ago for building a farmhouse!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Mitchell</span></h4> + +<p>Near St. Enoder, not in itself interesting, is the old borough of +Mitchell (formerly written Modeshole), which in the time of Edward I. +was the property of Sir Walter de Raleigh. Though now an inconsiderable +village it was said in Saxon days to have been a fair-sized town, and as +a borough its reputation for corruption and quarrelling is black even +compared with the other rotten boroughs of the county. Sir Walter +Raleigh was member for Mitchell when he carried his motion for war +against Spain; and in 1807 it was represented by Sir Arthur Wellesley, +afterwards Duke of Wellington.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Cornish Names</span></h4> + +<p>Some of the Cornish saints have very curious names. On the Tamar is a +church sacred to St. Dilp, but more remarkable is that of St. Erme, +sacred to—Hermes. <i>Saint</i> Hermes, too! The god of thieves, that little +old ancient run-about! 'Tis said the early Christians made good use of +all existing material, such as the Venus month for the Virgin Mary and +so forth, but—<i>Saint</i> Hermes! In this church is an interesting brass, +with kneeling effigies and seven-quartered shield of arms, to Robert +Trencreeke, "counseler at lawe," 1594.</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Blackwater and Illogan</span></h4> + +<p>The long western road is approaching the busiest, greyest, and most +populous part of the county—the mining district. Camborne and Redruth +are the principal towns and in a sense rivals. Each has a school of +mining, though Camborne's is now <i>the</i> school of the county and the +great mine, the greatest and the oldest of all,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> Dolcoath—where, in +lively contrast with his work of the moment, Raspe wrote "The Adventures +of Baron Munchausen"—belongs to the former. Before the road reaches +either of these towns, however, it passes Blackwater, the birthplace of +Passmore Edwards (1823). Though he was a well-known journalist as well +as the owner of the Echo newspaper, he is most likely to be remembered +as the donor of a large number of philanthropic institutions, beginning +with the reading room which he built for his native village in 1889.</p> + +<p>Not far south-west of Blackwater is Illogan, where the engineer +Trevithick made the first steam carriage, known locally as "Cap'n Dick's +Puffer."</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Redruth and St. Day</span></h4> + +<p>A little north of Redruth lies St. Day, of the growth of which Norden, +in the sixteenth century, left a charming description. "There was +sometime a chappell now decayde, called Trinitye, to which men and women +came in times past from far in pilgrimage: the resort was so great, as +it made the people of the Countrye bringe all kind of provision to that +place; and so long it continued with increase, that it grew to a kind of +market and by that means it grew and continued a kind of market to this +day, without further charter."</p> + +<p>Of Redruth itself there is little to be said. Like so many Cornish +towns, it consists of a chief street that is wearisomely long: it had +its famous man, Murdock, who first used gas as an illuminant; and the +first railway in Cornwall ran from Redruth to Hayle, being opened in +1835. To the east is Carnmarth, 750 ft. high, with a wide view, and on +one side the Gwennap Pit, a mine subsidence, in which John Wesley often +preached and in which the members of his denomination assemble in their +thousands every Whit Monday.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why," asked a "foreigner" of a Redruth man, "are the Cornish, and +especially the miners, called Cousin Jacks?"</p> + +<p>"Spoase Adam gave it out when he named t'other animals."</p> + +<p>But Camborne asks the sister town a less civil question. "Who was it +crowned the donkey?" And this had its origin in a certain playful +disloyalty on the accession of George IV. Cornwall, as it might say of +itself, has "never taken much stock in kings." It cropped the ears of +Edward IV.'s pursuivant, killed Edward VI.'s commissioner, and crowned a +donkey as George IV. Inconsistent county! For the Stuarts it must needs +pour out blood like water and impoverish itself for generations!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Carn Brea</span></h4> + +<p>Between Redruth and Camborne is the rocky hill of Carn Brea (740 ft.). +It consists of a rugged mass of granite crowned with huge piles of +weathered rocks. In neolithic times it was undoubtedly a military +station, large remains of the enclosing walls as well as many hut +circles having been found. This hill has three summits, with the remains +of an old castle on that towards the east, which castle is mentioned by +William of Worcester in 1478. On the central peak is an ugly granite +cross erected in 1836 by the county to the memory of their very good +friend, Francis, Lord de Dunstanville and Basset. In one of the hut +circles on the top of Carn Brea was found a cooking hearth now in the +Truro Museum, whither went many of the old British and Roman coins, +stone weapons, and tools, flint and quartzite spear heads, and socketed +bronze celts unearthed on the hill. St. Ewny's Well is a romantic spot +of repute for sanctity, while the "Giant's Well" halfway down the hill +was said to be bottomless.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Camborne</span></h4> + +<p>Camborne Church is interesting for its carvings, those of the animals +being comparable with the exquisite heads at Newlyn East. Near the porch +is an ancient cross and below the communion table an early altar slab, +formerly built into the exterior wall of the transept, but now restored. +It is inscribed "Leviut jusit hec altare pro anima sua."</p> + +<p>It is not easy to obtain permission to see more than the surface +workings of the venerable Dolcoath, and even for them, in spite of the +present-day harem skirt, the dress provided creates some disturbance in +the mind of the average woman. She had not thought to see herself +wearing the breeches—at least in public!</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A Word in Farewell</span></h4> + +<p>Round this wonderfully indented coast, up the winding Tamar, and across +the moors! You who have gone with me on this delightful journey, can you +think of any county with a greater variety, historical, antiquarian, +natural, to offer you for the good and bracing time of a holiday? And if +in the years to come you find time to look back and in thought travel +over the self-same ground, will you be able to do it without the +longing—put into words by the poet who spent so much of his time at +Camborne:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>To sleep and to take my rest,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>The old sea here at my door,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>The grey hills there in the West—</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 22em;"><i>What can a man want more?</i>"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 34em;"><span class="smcap">Lowry</span>.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>APPENDIX A</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">The Green Book of St. Columb</span></h4> + +<p>In olden days the parish as distinct from the church was an entity with +the power not only of appointing a sort of select vestry of twelve (was +this number chosen because of the Apostles?) with wardens for the +parish, for the poor, for the coffer, and for the pews, but of holding +property such as sheep, cattle, and land. It lent money, sometimes at +interest, sometimes gratis, it kept ladders, charging for their hire, +and, above all, it encouraged Morris dancing and Robin Hood +entertainments.</p> + +<p>For instance, in 1616, we find in the Green Book, "The young men of the +parish wh: played a stage-play, 3<i>s</i>. 4<i>d</i>."</p> + +<p>In the list of parish goods set down in 1585 we have: "Ladder. Five +coats for dancers. A Friar's Coat. Twenty-four dancing bells. A streamer +of red moccado and locram. Six yards of white woollen cloth."</p> + +<p>In most places the Morris dance was part of the pageant of Robin Hood, +and that this was the case at St. Columb is shown by the "Friar's Coat." +The bells were worn on a band at the knee, and the streamer or flag was +of two materials, no longer known under those names, the moccado +resembling coarse velvet, and the locram an equally coarse linen.</p> + +<p>In many parishes a special collection for the "Robin Hood" penny is +recorded, and in the Green Book we have:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Richard Beard oweth to be paid at Lady Day in Lent 10<i>s</i>. of Robin +Hood's money; Robert Calwye oweth for the same 2<i>s</i>. 8<i>d</i>."</p> + +<p>Hurling also received its due meed of parochial attention. In 1593 is an +entry; "John Menheere and wife for a silver ball delivered to Tobye at +his instance and upon his word 10<i>s</i>." But in those days the ball +differed from that now in use inasmuch as it was gilt, and a year later +we find that "Tobye" pays the 10<i>s</i>. for his "silver ball gilt."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>APPENDIX B</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">St. Michael's Mount</span></h4> + +<p>It is a place of historic and prehistoric interest. Here is the well by +which</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">"<i>Jack the valiant Cornishman</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;"><i>Did slay the giant Cormoran.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Jack being the Cornish variant of the better known Peredur of Wales and +Ian MacAnnheil of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Here, too, are the "Giants' Graves" which cover the victims of Jack's +valour; and on the beach at the foot of the hill is the Chapel Rock, +whereon once stood an oratory of which Leland speaks as "a little chapel +yn the sande nere by the towne toward the Mount," and where it is said +the pilgrims were wont to halt before making the ascent. But the Chapel +Rock has a legend older than those connected with the building which +once stood upon it. Cormoran having already carried off the top of the +neighbouring hill of Trencrom to make the Mount itself, was in want of +further stones wherewith to build his castle, and sent his wife to fetch +them. She thinking any stone would do as well, fetched this from the +nearer hill of Ludgvan-Lees. Angry at her conduct, the monster slew her +with his mighty foot, and the great rock, rolling from her apron, fell +where we now see it—a silent witness to the lady's strength and to the +truth of the narrative.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>St. Keyne is said to have conferred on St. Michael's Chair the power of +giving to that one of a married couple who first sits therein domestic +mastery; such as can also be obtained by drinking from her more +celebrated well near Liskeard. Curiously enough, legend and name have +been transferred from the real chair of St. Michael on the western side +of the hill to the ruined lanthorn of moorstone on the chapel tower, the +lanthorn which in olden days was probably used as a lighthouse, as the +grooves for the sheltering horn or glass can still be seen.</p> + +<p>The little old church has a beautiful rose window at the east, and a yet +more beautiful one let into the western wall; this latter was until +recently hidden by the organ pipes. Some interesting alabaster +bas-reliefs are also to be seen. The roof timbers of the refectory are +very old, but the carving on them is modern, and the frieze Elizabethan. +The place contains many interesting curios such as the clock from +Godolphin House, a Jacobean bed, the Glastonbury chair, and a pair of +silver candlesticks in which the prickets have given place to sockets, +and which Lord St. Levan believes to be unique.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>These details have been taken from a paper on St. Michael's Mount by Mr. +Thurstan Peter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>>INDEX</h2> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Adams, J. C., <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Agnes, St., Beacon, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Agnes, St. (island), <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alfred, King, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a>, <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a>, <a href='#Page_183'><b>183</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Allen, Ralph, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Altarnon, <a href='#Page_179'><b>179</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Antony East, <a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arthur, King, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a>, <a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a>, <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arundell, Humfrey, <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arundell, John, <a href='#Page_74'><b>74</b></a>, <a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a>-<a href='#Page_123'><b>123</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Margery, <a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Arwenack, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>, <a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Athelstane, <a href='#Page_92'><b>92</b></a>, <a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Austell, St., <a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a>, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bacon, <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Balfour, Sir Wm., <a href='#Page_144'><b>144</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ballowal, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Barras Head, <a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bartine, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Basil, <a href='#Page_179'><b>179</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Basset of Tehidy, Francis, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>, <a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a>-<a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Basset's Cove, <a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bath, Earls of, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beacon Cove, <a href='#Page_64'><b>64</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Benet's, St., <a href='#Page_194'><b>194</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Berkeley, Sir John, <a href='#Page_137'><b>137</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Black Head, <a href='#Page_137'><b>137</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Black Prince, The, <a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a>, <a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a>, <a href='#Page_176'><b>176</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blackwater, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blake, Admiral, <a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blazey, St., <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blisland, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boconnoc, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bodmin, <a href='#Page_50'><b>50</b></a>, <a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a>, <a href='#Page_191'><b>191</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bodrugan, <a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bolleit, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a>, <a href='#Page_92'><b>92</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bolster, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boscastle, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a>-<a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boscawen-Un, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bosporthennis, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bossiney, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boswavas Moor, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Botallack Mine, <a href='#Page_91'><b>91</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Botreaux Castle, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boyton, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bradock Downs, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bray Hill, <a href='#Page_50'><b>50</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Breage, <a href='#Page_108'><b>108</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brê Down, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Breock, St., <a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Breward, St., <a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a>, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bridge, Royal Albert, <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brown Gilly, <a href='#Page_185'><b>185</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brown Willy, <a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a>, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bryher, <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brunel, <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buckingham, first Duke of, <a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bude, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>, <a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bude Canal, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Budock, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Burngullow, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buryan, St., <a href='#Page_92'><b>92</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buttris, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cadgwith, <a href='#Page_116'><b>116</b></a>, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Caerhayes Castle, <a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Callington, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Calstock, <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cambeak, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Camborne, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>, <a href='#Page_198'><b>198</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Camelford, <a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cape Cornwall, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carantocus, St., <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carbis Bay, <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carglaze Mine, <a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carminows, The, <a href='#Page_43'><b>43</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carnanton, <a href='#Page_63'><b>63</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carn Brea, <a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carne, <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cammarth, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carthamartha Rocks, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carwen, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle-an-Dinas, <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle Dor, <a href='#Page_144'><b>144</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle Goff, <a href='#Page_42'><b>42</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle Killibury, <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Castle Point, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Catshole Tor, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Challowater, <a href='#Page_191'><b>191</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chapel Carn Brea, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Charles I., <a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a>, <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a>, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a>, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a>, <a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">II., <a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a>, <a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a>, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a>, <a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a>, <a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a>, <a href='#Page_193'><b>193</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Charlestown, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cheesewring, The, <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a>, <a href='#Page_181'><b>181</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chûn, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clarendon, Lord, <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cleer, St., <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a>, <a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clether, St., <a href='#Page_179'><b>179</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clicker Tor, <a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cligga Head, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clovelly Dykes, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Colan, <a href='#Page_68'><b>68</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Colenso, the fighting Bishop, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Columb Major, St., <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a>, <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Minor, St., <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a>, <a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Porth, St., <a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Condora, <a href='#Page_118'><b>118</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Constantine Bay, <a href='#Page_54'><b>54</b></a>, <a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a>-<a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cookworthy, Wm., <a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Coombe Valley, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cotehele, <a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a>, <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Couch, <a href='#Page_150'><b>150</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Coverack, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crackington Cove, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crafthole, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Crantock, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a>-<a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cromwell, Oliver, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cruel Coppinger, <a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cubert, St., <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a>, <a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cuby, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Davy, Sir H., <a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dawney, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dawns Maen, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Day, St., <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Delabole, <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a>, <a href='#Page_43'><b>43</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dennis, St., <a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Digby, Lord, <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ding Dong Mine, <a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dingerein, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dizzard, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dodman, The, <a href='#Page_137'><b>137</b></a>, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dolcoath, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dolphin Town, <a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Doom Bar, <a href='#Page_54'><b>54</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dozmaré, <a href='#Page_185'><b>185</b></a>-<a href='#Page_186'><b>186</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drake, Sir F., <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a>, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dranes, The, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Druid's Hill, <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Duloe, <a href='#Page_159'><b>159</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dungarth, King of Cornwall, <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a>, <a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eddystone, The, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edgcumbe, Mount, <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edgcumbe, Sir Rd., <a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a>, <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edward the Confessor, <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edward I., <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">III., <a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a>, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">IV., <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a>, <a href='#Page_148'><b>148</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">VI., <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a>, <a href='#Page_192'><b>192</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">VII., <a href='#Page_91'><b>91</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edwards, Passmore, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a>, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Egbert, <a href='#Page_92'><b>92</b></a>, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Egloshayle, <a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Egloskerry, <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eliot, Port, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sir John, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Elizabeth, Queen, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Endellion, St., <a href='#Page_50'><b>50</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Enoder, St., <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Enodoc, St., <a href='#Page_49'><b>49</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Epitaphs, <a href='#Page_44'><b>44</b></a>, <a href='#Page_68'><b>68</b></a>, <a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a>, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Essex, Lord, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>, <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eval, St., <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fairfax, Sir T., <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fal, The, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a>, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Falmouth, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>-<a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Feock, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flushing, <a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Foote, Samuel, <a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forrabury, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fowey, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a>, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Furlong, Andrew, <a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gafulford, <a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gannel, The, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Garrah Tor, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Genys, St., <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">George, St., <a href='#Page_160'><b>160</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Germans, St., <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a>-<a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Germoe, <a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gerrans, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Giant's Hedge, The, <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Glasney College, <a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Glendorgal, <a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Godolphin, <a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a>, <a href='#Page_108'><b>108</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Francis, <a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a>, <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Godrevy, <a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Golant, <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a>-<a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Golden, <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Goonhilly Downs, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a>, <a href='#Page_116'><b>116</b></a>, <a href='#Page_184'><b>184</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Goring, <a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Goran, <a href='#Page_137'><b>137</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Goss Moors, <a href='#Page_68'><b>68</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greenamore, <a href='#Page_28'><b>28</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grenville, Sir B., <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Denis, <a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sir J., <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a>, <a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sir R., <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>, <a href='#Page_38'><b>38</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sir R., Jr., <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a>, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>-<a href='#Page_145'><b>145</b></a>, <a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greston Bridge, <a href='#Page_172'><b>172</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gribben Head, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gueryr, St., <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gulf Stream, <a href='#Page_103'><b>103</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gunwalloe, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a>-<a href='#Page_114'><b>114</b></a>, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gwallen Downs, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gweek, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gwennap Pit, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gwithian, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a>, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hall House, <a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a>, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Halsetown, <a href='#Page_90'><b>90</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Halzaphron Cliffs, <a href='#Page_114'><b>114</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hamoaze, <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harewood, <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Harlyn Bay, <a href='#Page_56'><b>56</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hartland, <a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawker, Rev. Robert, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_23'><b>23</b></a>, <a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a>, <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a>, <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hawks Tor, <a href='#Page_191'><b>191</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hayle, <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a>, <a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Helford River, The, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heligan House, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Helland, <a href='#Page_191'><b>191</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Helsbury Beacon, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Helston (North Cornwall), <a href='#Page_42'><b>42</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(South Cornwall), <a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a>-<a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a>, <a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henna Cliff, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henry VII., <a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">VIII., <a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a>, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>, <a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a>, <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a>, <a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hensbarrow, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a>, <a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hermes, St., <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Herodsfoot, <a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">High Cliff, The, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hingston Down, <a href='#Page_170'><b>170</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hobby Horse, The, <a href='#Page_54'><b>54</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hoe, The, <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Holloway, <a href='#Page_172'><b>172</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Holywell Bay, <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hopton, Sir Ralph, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Housman, Clemence, <a href='#Page_39'><b>39</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Howard of Effingham, Lord, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hurlers, The, <a href='#Page_181'><b>181</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Illogan, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ince Castle, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Inscribed stones, <a href='#Page_40'><b>40</b></a>, <a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a>, <a href='#Page_198'><b>198</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Irving, Sir Henry, <a href='#Page_90'><b>90</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ives, St., <a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a>, <a href='#Page_79'><b>79</b></a>, <a href='#Page_88'><b>88</b></a>, <a href='#Page_89'><b>89</b></a>, <a href='#Page_90'><b>90</b></a>, <a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ive, St., <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">James I., <a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">II., <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a>, <a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jordans, <a href='#Page_34'><b>34</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Just, St., <a href='#Page_91'><b>91</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kea Bridge, <a href='#Page_43'><b>43</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keigwin Arms, <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kelly Rounds, <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kelsey Head, <a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kenidjack Cliff, <a href='#Page_91'><b>91</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kennack, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kerrowe Down, <a href='#Page_191'><b>191</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keverne, St., <a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a>, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kew, St., <a href='#Page_50'><b>50</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keyne, St., Well of, <a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a>-<a href='#Page_159'><b>159</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kieve, St. Nechtan's, <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kilkhampton, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>-<a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Killigarth, <a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Killigrews, The, <a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a>, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>-<a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kilmar Tor, <a href='#Page_181'><b>181</b></a>-<a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kingsley, Charles, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>, <a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kingston, Sir A., <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a>, <a href='#Page_192'><b>192</b></a>-<a href='#Page_193'><b>193</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kit Hill, <a href='#Page_170'><b>170</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Knill's Monument, <a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kynance, <a href='#Page_114'><b>114</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lady Nance's Well, <a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lambrenny, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Landewednack, <a href='#Page_116'><b>116</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Land's End, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a>, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Landulph, <a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Laneast, <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Langarrow, <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lanherne, Vale of, <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a>, <a href='#Page_67'><b>67</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lanhydrock, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>, <a href='#Page_145'><b>145</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lanivet, <a href='#Page_194'><b>194</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lanreath, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lansallos, <a href='#Page_150'><b>150</b></a>, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lansdowne, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lanteglos, <a href='#Page_42'><b>42</b></a>, <a href='#Page_150'><b>150</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lanyon Quoit, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Launcells, <a href='#Page_28'><b>28</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Launceston, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a>-<a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lawhitton, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lawrence, St., <a href='#Page_194'><b>194</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lelant, <a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lerrin (or Lerryn), <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a>, <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Levan, St., <a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Levant Mine, <a href='#Page_91'><b>91</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lewannick, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lezant, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Liskeard, <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Little Petherick, <a href='#Page_53'><b>53</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lizard, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Loe Pool, <a href='#Page_111'><b>111</b></a>, <a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Longships Lighthouse, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Looe, <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a>, <a href='#Page_159'><b>159</b></a>-<a href='#Page_60'><b>60</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Looe Island, <a href='#Page_160'><b>160</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lostwithiel, <a href='#Page_144'><b>144</b></a>-<a href='#Page_145'><b>145</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lovebond, <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a>, <a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lowry, H. D., <a href='#Page_79'><b>79</b></a>, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a>, <a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a>, <a href='#Page_146'><b>146</b></a>, <a href='#Page_198'><b>198</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Luxulyan, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lynher, The, <a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a>, <a href='#Page_180'><b>180</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lyonesse, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mabyn, St., <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Madron, <a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Marazion, <a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a>, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Marhamchurch, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_28'><b>28</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Marsland Mouth, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martin's, St., <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Martyn, Henry, <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mary's, St., <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Maurice, Prince, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mawes, St., <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mawgan (Meneage), <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Pydar), <a href='#Page_63'><b>63</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Porth, <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mayne, Cuthbert, <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Menacuddle, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Menagew, The, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Meneage, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Menheniot, <a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Merlin, <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Merryn, St., <a href='#Page_60'><b>60</b></a>-<a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mevagissey, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Michael's Mount, St., <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a>, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a>, <a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a>-<a href='#Page_108'><b>108</b></a>, <a href='#Page_201'><b>201</b></a>-<a href='#Page_202'><b>202</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Michaelstow, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Minster, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Minver, St., <a href='#Page_50'><b>50</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mitchell, <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a>, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Moditonham, <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a>-<a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morth, <a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morwell Rocks, <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morwenstow, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>-<a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>, <a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mount's Bay, <a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mousehole, <a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a>-<a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mulfra Quoit, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mullion, <a href='#Page_109'><b>109</b></a>, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a>-<a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Murdock, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nare Point, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Navax Point, <a href='#Page_77'><b>77</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Neot, St., <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a>, <a href='#Page_183'><b>183</b></a>-<a href='#Page_184'><b>184</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">New Bridge, <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Newlyn, <a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a>-<a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Newlyn East, <a href='#Page_198'><b>198</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Newquay, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">North Tamarton, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Olaf of Norway, <a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Opie, John, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a>, <a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Otterham, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Padstow, <a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a>, <a href='#Page_53'><b>53</b></a>, <a href='#Page_54'><b>54</b></a>-<a href='#Page_55'><b>55</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Paleologus, Theodore, <a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Par, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a>, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a>, <a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Park Head, <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pawton, <a href='#Page_53'><b>53</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Payne, Anthony, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pelynt, <a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pencarrow Head, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pencarne, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pendeen, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pendennis Castle, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pendower, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pendrief, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pengersick Castle, <a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penhale Point, <a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penlee, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penolver Point, <a href='#Page_116'><b>116</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penrose, <a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penryn, <a href='#Page_126'><b>126</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Creek, <a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pentewan, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pentillie, <a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a>-<a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pentire, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a>-<a href='#Page_49'><b>49</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pentreath, Dolly, <a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a>-<a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penwith, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Penzance, <a href='#Page_98'><b>98</b></a>, <a href='#Page_113'><b>113</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perran, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perranporth, <a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perranuthnow, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perranzabuloe, <a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Phillack, <a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pinnoc, St., <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Piran, St., <a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a>-<a href='#Page_74'><b>74</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pitt, <a href='#Page_153'><b>153</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Place House, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poldhu, <a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Polperro, <a href='#Page_150'><b>150</b></a>, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Polruan, <a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a>, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Polyfant, <a href='#Page_172'><b>172</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pope, Alexander, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pordenack Rock, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Port Gaverne, <a href='#Page_47'><b>47</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porthalla, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porthcothan, <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porthcurnow, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a>, <a href='#Page_95'><b>95</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porthgwarra, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porthmear, <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porthoustock, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Porthpean, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Port Isaac, <a href='#Page_47'><b>47</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Port Quin, <a href='#Page_47'><b>47</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Portreath, <a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poughill, <a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a>, <a href='#Page_28'><b>28</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poulston Bridge, <a href='#Page_172'><b>172</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Probus,<a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Raleigh, Sir W., <a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a>, <a href='#Page_170'><b>170</b></a>, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rame, The, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a>, <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Head, <a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a>, <a href='#Page_161'><b>161</b></a>-<a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Redgate, <a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Redruth, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a>-<a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Restormel Castle, <a href='#Page_144'><b>144</b></a>, <a href='#Page_145'><b>145</b></a>-<a href='#Page_146'><b>146</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Reynolds, Sir J., <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a>, <a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rialton, <a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Richard III., <a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Robartes, Lord, <a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Robert of Mortain, <a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a>, <a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a>, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Roche Rock, <a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rockferry, <a href='#Page_55'><b>55</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rocky Valley, <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Round, The, <a href='#Page_74'><b>74</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Row Tor, <a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rye, <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Saltash, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a>, <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sancreed, <a href='#Page_92'><b>92</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Scilly Isles, <a href='#Page_92'><b>92</b></a>, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a>, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a>, <a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sennen Cove, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seven Stones Lightship, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sheviock, <a href='#Page_162'><b>162</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Skippon, Maj.-Gen., <a href='#Page_144'><b>144</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Smith, Mr., <a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stamford Hill, Battle of, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>-<a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stannary Courts, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a>-<a href='#Page_128'><b>128</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stephen's, St., <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a>, <a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stepper Point, <a href='#Page_55'><b>55</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stowe, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>-<a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_54'><b>54</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stratton, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a>-<a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_28'><b>28</b></a>, <a href='#Page_29'><b>29</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Straughan, Col., <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Swan Pool, <a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Talland, <a href='#Page_150'><b>150</b></a>, <a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tamar, The, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a>. <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a> <i>et seq.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Teath, St., <a href='#Page_43'><b>43</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tehidy, <a href='#Page_76'><b>76</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tennyson, Lord, <a href='#Page_27'><b>27</b></a>, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tidy, The, <a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tillie, Sir Wm., <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ting Tang Mine, <a href='#Page_106'><b>106</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tintagel, <a href='#Page_22'><b>22</b></a>, <a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a>-<a href='#Page_40'><b>40</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Toborough, <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tol-Pedn, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tonacombe, <a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tor Point, <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Torridge, The, <a href='#Page_163'><b>163</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trebartha, <a href='#Page_180'><b>180</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trebarwith, <a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trecarrel, Sir Henry, <a href='#Page_177'><b>177</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">House, <a href='#Page_171'><b>171</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Treffry, <a href='#Page_121'><b>121</b></a>, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Treffry, Elizabeth, <a href='#Page_149'><b>149</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Treffry's Aqueduct, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tregarrick, <a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tregeagle, John, <a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a>, <a href='#Page_185'><b>185</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tregian, Francis, <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a>-<a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tregony, <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tregoss Moor, <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tregothnan, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trelaske Beacon, <a href='#Page_172'><b>172</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trelawney, John, <a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Jonathan, <a href='#Page_151'><b>151</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trelowarren, <a href='#Page_117'><b>117</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trematon Castle, <a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Treneglos, <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trerice, <a href='#Page_71'><b>71</b></a>, <a href='#Page_74'><b>74</b></a>-<a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Treryn Dinas, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a>, <a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tresco, <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tresco Abbey, <a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a>-<a href='#Page_105'><b>105</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tresillian Bridge, <a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tresparret Down, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trethevy Dolmen, <a href='#Page_181'><b>181</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevalga, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevalgue, <a href='#Page_70'><b>70</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevanion, Hugh, <a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevellick, <a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevelyan, <a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a>, <a href='#Page_179'><b>179</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevemper, <a href='#Page_72'><b>72</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Treveniel, <a href='#Page_181'><b>181</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevethan, <a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trevose Head, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a>, <a href='#Page_48'><b>48</b></a>, <a href='#Page_58'><b>58</b></a>-<a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trewartha Marsh, <a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trewen, <a href='#Page_178'><b>178</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trewhiddle, <a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trewithian, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Trewoofe, <a href='#Page_84'><b>84</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Truro, <a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a>, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a>-<a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a>, <a href='#Page_166'><b>166</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tudy, St., <a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Turner, <a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Veep, St., <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Veryan Beacon, <a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Victoria, Queen, <a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Waddon, Col., <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a>-<a href='#Page_168'><b>168</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wadebridge, <a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a>, <a href='#Page_51'><b>51</b></a>, <a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wadgworthy, <a href='#Page_167'><b>167</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wadham College, <a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Warbstow Barrows, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wardour Castle, <a href='#Page_63'><b>63</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Warna, St., Well of, <a href='#Page_102'><b>102</b></a>-<a href='#Page_103'><b>103</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Waterpit Downs, <a href='#Page_35'><b>35</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wedgwood, <a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Week St. Mary, <a href='#Page_28'><b>28</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weir Head <a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wellington, Duke of, <a href='#Page_141'><b>141</b></a>, <a href='#Page_195'><b>195</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Werrington, <a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wesley, John, <a href='#Page_89'><b>89</b></a>, <a href='#Page_196'><b>196</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wheal Owles, <a href='#Page_91'><b>91</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whitesand Bay, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Widemouth Bay, <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Willapark Head, <a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Winchelsea, <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Winnow's Down, St., <a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a>, <a href='#Page_147'><b>147</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wolf Rock Lighthouse, <a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wolveden, <a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Woolley Downs, <a href='#Page_21'><b>21</b></a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Worwas Hill, <a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Zennor, <a href='#Page_85'><b>85</b></a>, <a href='#Page_90'><b>90</b></a>, <a href='#Page_110'><b>110</b></a></span><br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The fairies seem to be identical with the Tuatha da Danaan +of Ireland.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Appendix A. See pp. 199-200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Dinsul. There is good reason to think Sul = the Sul of Bath +"Aquæ Sulis," and this again the "Sally, Sally Waters" of our nursery +game. Many of her attributes have been taken over by St. Keyne.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Appendix B. See pp. 201-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Mary Mowes, <i>i.e.</i> the Virgin.</p></div> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nooks and Corners of Cornwall, by +C. A. 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A. Dawson Scott + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Nooks and Corners of Cornwall + +Author: C. A. Dawson Scott + +Release Date: December 28, 2010 [EBook #34778] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOOKS AND CORNERS OF CORNWALL *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Internet +Archive. + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Book Cover] + + + + +NOOKS & CORNERS +OF CORNWALL + + + + +_IN THE SAME SERIES_ + + +NOOKS & CORNERS OF YORKSHIRE +BY J. S. FLETCHER + + +_IN PREPARATION_ + +NOOKS & CORNERS OF DEVON +BY C. A. DAWSON SCOTT + +NOOKS AND CORNERS OF HAMPSHIRE AND SUSSEX +BY DOUGLAS GOLDRING + +Price 2s. 6d. net each (with map) + + + + +NOOKS & CORNERS +OF CORNWALL + +By C. A. DAWSON SCOTT +WITH A MAP + + +[Illustration] + + +LONDON: EVELEIGH NASH + + + + +FOREWORD + + +At first sight it seems incongruous to speak of the Nooks and Corners to +be found in so rugged a land as Cornwall. The masses of rock at +Tintagel, Tol-Pedn, and the Lizard, the sheer drop of the High Cliff and +the Dodman, the moors, the cromlechs, and the granite tors, are so +impressive that we are apt to overlook the fertile valleys that +intersect the country, the coves, coombes, and "pills" in which the +hillside vegetation is often semi-tropical, and where the houses are +embowered in flowering shrubs till they look like Jacks-in-the-Green +that have taken root. + +Nor do these picturesque villages, sheltered and fruitful, this +magnificent coast scenery, these grey moors, comprise the whole of this +half-smiling, half-frowning land. Here in out-of-the-way places are +relics of forgotten creeds and peoples, earthworks, amphitheatres, +castles, the caves of smugglers, and the subterranean hiding-places of +neolithic man. There is so much to interest, so much to see--almost too +much it would seem, certainly too much for any one holiday; but Cornwall +is a place to go to again and again, to go to till it seems as your own +land, and its people have forgiven you for being a "foreigner." + +This Cornish folk, clannish but kindly, has of late years been +decreasing. Not only is there the competition of foreign tin, but the +lodes being now deep the cost of home production has proportionately +increased. "Cousin Jack" therefore has to go in search of more +remunerative metal, leaving "Cousin Jenny" at home to manage as best +she can on his remittances. + + +WARNINGS + +"You can only see Cornwall by walking through it," said George Borrow, +but the traveller must bear in mind that a name, large on the map, is +apt to materialise into a few cottages, a lonely farmhouse, or a rocky +gorge with never an inhabitant. Nor though the voice of the tourist has +now for several years been heard in the land has the response, in +hotels, been great; while there are not as many country inns as might be +expected. The cheerful, pleasure-loving Cornishman has another aspect to +his character. Generally a Nonconformist and a Sabbatarian he--perhaps +more particularly she--thinks the fewer inns the better. Hamlets the +size of which would lead one to expect a wayside tavern are often drawn +blank, and it is as well to make inquiry, when mapping out the day's +journey, as to the accommodation to be found at its latter end. + +It cannot be too firmly impressed upon the traveller that along the +northern and western shores both boating and bathing are unsafe. It is a +dangerous coast. Fortunately very few boats are kept, and these are +seldom let out to strangers; but in the matter of bathing the tourist +depends upon his own wisdom, and not only is there a bad undertow but +the big rollers from the Atlantic come in when least expected. + +Moreover he must, when following these cliff paths, be on the look-out +for blow-holes. These sinister cavities result from the action of the +sea at the cliff base and of the fresh water springs above. A depression +is gradually formed, the surface sinks to be washed out by the tides, +till at last a round hole has been formed. This is the blow-hole. In +course of time the whole of the side towards the sea breaks away, +leaving a tiny bay, which gradually enlarges. The Cornish who do not +imagine that any one could be so foolish as to walk along this dangerous +coast after dark do not safeguard the blow-holes, and it is as well to +be on the look-out. + + +THE CROSSES +AND CHURCHES + +A word with regard to the innumerable crosses and churches. + +At an early date in the history of Christianity, saints from the +neighbouring countries of Brittany, Ireland and Wales appear to have +poured into Cornwall. Some floated over on their altar-stones--a +poetical way of saying they brought the said stones with them--others on +a miraculous leaf, _i.e._, a coracle, while yet others appear to have +walked! On arrival they found a large number of upright slabs and +boulders, relics of an earlier creed and vanished race. With the +sensible early-Christian habit of turning everything to account they +soon invented a history and found a use for the stones. + +On a lonely moorland these big menhirs made excellent way-marks; by +some--possibly blocks that tradition accounted holy--the saints built +their oratories, others they carved into rude crosses, and others they +used as a centre about which to gather the countrypeople for service. As +the local preaching-place, these last stones, like the oratories +themselves, thus became the forerunners of the parish churches. + +One reason for the multiplicity of these crosses--and unless those at +any place should be exceptional, they will not be mentioned--may be +found in the will of a certain Dr. Mertherderwa who, dying in 1447, +directed that "new stone crosses are to be put up of the usual kind in +those parts of Cornwall from Kayar Beslasek to Camborne Church, where +dead bodies are rested on their way to burial, that prayers may be made +and the bearers take some rest." + +There are six different kinds of crosses. Upright slabs with a Latin +cross front and back; Round-headed crosses; Holed crosses, of which only +twenty-seven instances are known; Latin crosses, Gothic crosses and +ornamented crosses. + + +THE CHURCHES + +When Cornwall built her innumerable small but beautiful churches, that +is to say from the thirteenth (and earlier) to the sixteenth century, +she showed that an ornate and vivid ritual was to her taste. She +objected to and resisted the Reformation, and on its becoming an +established fact went peacefully to sleep, as far as religion was +concerned, until the arrival of John Wesley. As a consequence very few +of the churches are modern, and most of them have Norman remains--some +antiquarians even say Saxon--and a good deal of old carved oak in +benches, screens, and roofs. Some of this carving is of considerable +merit, and the same may be said, though more doubtfully, of the numerous +frescoes; but unless the mural paintings and bench ends are in some way +remarkable they will not be insisted on, nor will the Norman and other +survivals in the architecture be discussed. + + +THE PLAN OF +THE BOOK + +The roads from Launceston and from Saltash to the Land's End--and the +main roads of Cornwall are excellent, as good as any in England--go as +far as possible by way of the towns. The rivers, too, are no great +matter, in fact precisians have maintained that there are none. The +Tamar, which best deserves the name, was fixed as the eastern boundary +by Athelstane in 926, while the Fal and Helford Rivers are mainly sea +creeks, and the Camel and Fowey which until they become estuaries are +never wider than a man, provided with a pole, can leap, are really only +brooks of a fine and Tennysonian quality. + +Undoubtedly then the way to see Cornwall is to follow the country roads +that lead along the shore, beginning at the north where the coach +crosses the border on its way from Clovelly Dykes to Bude, and ending at +the Tamar. There would then remain only the reaches of that lovely +river, the moorland, and what nooks and corners are to be found off the +highways that run through the middle of the county. + + * * * * * + +My most sincere acknowledgments are due to Mr. Thurstan Peter, author of +"The History of Cornwall," for his generous help while these pages were +passing through the press. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + +NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH + + The Boundary between Devon and Cornwall on the north: + Kilkhampton and its Association with the Grenvilles: + Morwenstow and the Rev. R. Hawker: Tonacombe and Kingsley: + Stowe: the Battles of Stamford Hill and Lansdowne: Tennyson + and Bude: the Neighbouring Churches: a Female Dick + Whittington Pp. 21-29 + + +CHAPTER II + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM WIDEMOUTH BAY TO ST. TEATH + + The Great Cliffs: Boscastle and an Ancient Form of Tenure: + Otterham and Warbstow Barrows: Trevalga and Bossiney: the + Legend of St. Nechtan's Kieve: Tintagel: Arthur: The Castle: + The Beach and Barras Head: The Roman Occupation: Quarries: + Camelford and its Battle: Arthur's Hall: Lanteglos: + Henlistone and the Brewers: The Camel: The Delabole Slate: + St. Teath Pp. 33-44 + + +CHAPTER III + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM PORT ISAAC TO THE VALE OF LANHERNE + + Port Isaac and the Fishing: Pentire: St. Enodoc and the Sand: + Lovebond's Bridge: Wadebridge and Egloshayle: _Jan + Tergeagle_: Menhirs: Padstow and the Hobby Horse: Prehistoric + Inhabitants: Harlyn Bay: Trevose Head: Constantine: A Fogou: + Bedruthan: The Vale of Lanherne Pp. 47-64 + + +CHAPTER IV + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE VALE OF LANHERNE TO HAYLE TOWANS + + Hurling and St. Columb Major: Colan: The Gratitude of the + Stuarts: Trevalgue: A Good Centre for Crantock, St. Cubert, + and Trerice: St. Agnes and the Giant: Portreath: the Bassets: + Godrevy: Gwithian: The Pilchards Pp. 67-80 + + +CHAPTER V + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LELANT TO PENZANCE + + Gold in Cornwall: Knill's Monument: The Antiquities of the + Extreme West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs: Dolmens: + Oratories: Superstitions: St. Ives: Wesley: Irving: A Ripe + Old Age: The Mines: Sancreed and St. Buryan: Lighthouses: + Whitesand Bay: The Land's End: Mousehole and Dolly Pentreath: + Newlyn: Penzance Pp. 83-98 + + +CHAPTER VI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES TO ROSELAND + + The Land of Lyonesse: The Scillies: The Law of Wrecks: Mr. + Smith: The Admiral's Honour: Ding Dong Mine: St. Michael's + Mount: An Old Ceremony: China Clay: Wrecks: Germoe and + Breage: Pengersick: Flora Day: The Loe Pool: Serpentine: + Gunwalloe and Mullion: The Lizard: Bells: The Helford River: + Mawgan: Roseland Pp. 101-118 + + +CHAPTER VII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM FALMOUTH TO TRURO + + The Rise of Pendennis Castle: Sir John Arundel: The + Killigrews: Sir Walter Raleigh: The General Post Office and + Falmouth: Penryn: The Fal: The Stannary Courts: Old Truro: + Foote and Lowry Pp. 121-129 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM ST. MAWES TO LISKEARD + + St. Mawes and Gerrans: Tregony and Probus: Cornish Mutton: A + Story of Cornish Vengeance: Mevagissey: Antiquarian Finds: + The Capital of Clayland: Cock's and Hen's Barrow: Carglaze + Mine: Luxulyan: The Civil Wars: Lostwithiel: Lanhydrock + House and Restormel Castle: The Fight on St. Winnow's Downs: + The Gallants of Fowey: Place: Lanteglos: Polperro: Stories of + Talland, Killigarth, and Trelawne: The Giant's Hedge: + Boconnoc: Liskeard Pp. 133-153 + + +CHAPTER IX + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON + + King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A + Cage for Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: + Sheviock: The Eddystone: Mount Edgcumbe: The Tamar: Trematon + Castle: Markets: Saltash: Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: + Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: Launceston Pp. 157-172 + + +CHAPTER X + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LAUNCESTON TO DOZMARE + + The Upper Reaches of the Tamar: Launceston: The Old Highways: + St. Clether: Altarnon: Trebartha: The Trethevy Dolmen: The + Cheesewring: St. Cleer: St. Neot: Dozmare: Tregeagle: Lake + Dwellings Pp. 175-186 + + +CHAPTER XI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM BROWN WILLY TO CAMBORNE + + Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: + St. Breward and Blisland: Holland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell; + Cornish Names: Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: + Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word in Farewell Pp. 189-198 + + + + +HOTELS ACCORDING TO THE ROUTE + + + Stratton. The Tree Inn. + Bude. The Falcon; Grenville. + Boscastle. Wellington. + Tintagel. Wharncliffe; King Arthur's Castle; Clifton House. + Camelford. King's Arms. + Wadebridge. Molesworth Arms. + Padstow. South-Western; St. Petrock's. + Newquay. Atlantic; Victoria; Headland; Great Western. + Perranporth. Perranporth; Tywarnhale. + Portreath. Portreath Hotel; by Gurnard's Head, the Treryn Hotel. + St. Ives. Tregenna Castle; Western; Queen's. + Lelant. Lelant Hotel. + Land's End. First and Last. + Penzance. Queen's; Riviera Palace; Mount's Bay; Western; Railway. + Scilly. Holgate's; Tregarthen's (both on St. Mary). + Helston. Angel. + Lizard. Housel Bay; Hill's; Caerthillian. + Coverack. The Coverack Headland Hotel; St. Keverne; St. Keverne Inn. + Falmouth. Falmouth; Green Bank; King's; Royal Albion. + Truro. Red Lion; Royal; Union. + St. Austell. Luke's White Hart; Queen's Head. + Fowey. Fowey. + Looe. Commonwood; Looe; Headland House. + Saltash. Bray's; Railway; Green Dragon. + Launceston. White Hart; King's Arms. + Moors. The Jamaica Inn. + Bodmin. Royal; Town Arms. + Redruth. Tabb's. + Camborne. Commercial; Tyack's. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH + +_The Boundary between Devon and Cornwall on the north: Kilkhampton and +its Association with the Grenvilles: Morwenstow and the Rev. R. Hawker: +Tonacombe and Kingsley: Stowe: the Battles of Stamford Hill and +Lansdowne: Tennyson and Bude: the Neighbouring Churches: a Female Dick +Whittington._ + + +KILKHAMPTON + +The coach-road from Clovelly Dykes to Bude crosses Woolley Downs, but +the border on the north is the little stream that runs into Marsland +Mouth. The cliff paths with their fine views and the wonderful colour of +sea and sky--such colour as elsewhere only the Mediterranean gives +us--are the more interesting of the offered ways. Inland lies +Kilkhampton, by the Tamar, with its church of St. James, the south +doorway of which is one of the richest specimens of late Norman work in +the duchy. But, more interesting than the finely carved choir stalls, +numerous good bench-ends and doorway, is its connection with the family +of Grenville, who, descendants of the Norman dukes, lived in the parish +for six hundred years, and built the church. "Never a Grenville lacked +loyalty" was the saying, and the sons of the old house at Stowe proved +it by confiscated property and lives laid down. From Stowe came old Sir +Richard who, with his little "Revenge," fought the fifty-three galleons +of Spain. + +"_God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?_" + +From there came his grandson, gentle, gallant Sir Beville, who after his +last stand against the Parliamentarians on Lansdowne, was brought back +to lie in the old church of Kilkhampton; and from there, ruined and +exiled for the sake of the last worthless Stuart, went out Sir Beville's +younger son. + +By Sir Beville lies his wife, the Lady Grace, for whom the epitaph to be +seen in Minster Church might have been written: + + "_He first departing, she a little tried + To live without him, could not and so died._" + +The Earls of Bath, descendants of the Grenvilles, are buried in a vault +below the south aisle, but two hundred and fifty years have passed and +the name--it is a Marquisate now--is Thynne (of the Inn), nor is the +head of the family a Beville. The servant who brought back his master's +body sleeps at Stratton. A huge man this Anthony Payne, seven foot two +in his stockings! When he lay dead in the Tree Inn so large a coffin was +required that it could not be got into the house. He and Sir Beville may +be dead and buried, but their lives have been woven into the talk of the +countryside, and the traveller has only to ask a discreet question or so +and he will hear of the great deeds of old. + + +MORWENSTOW + +The main interest of this part of the country--the extreme north--is +centred in the tiny hamlet of Morwenstow with its thatched inn and its +association with the Rev. Robert Hawker. He was no stranger when he +came, for his father had been vicar of Stratton and lay buried there. +For long the son, fearing the sadness of old associations, refused to +preach in the sister parish, and when at last his reluctance was +overcome and he stood in his father's pulpit it was only to hesitate and +break down. He explained with faltering voice, "I stand amid the dust of +those near and dear to me." + +Morwenstow is reached from Marsland Mouth by the Henna Cliff (The +Raven's Crag--and Welsh legend hath it that King Arthur was changed into +one of these birds, though the Cornish say, a chough), from which is +obtained a magnificent view of that wild coast, Dizzard, Cambeak, +Tintagel, and Pentire, rising one beyond the other in shades of blue +deepening to purple. The Norman doorway of the church, which like that +of Marhamchurch is dedicated to St. Morwenna, is crowned with zigzag +and chevron mouldings which are surmounted by a range of grotesque +sea-faces--mermaid, dolphin, whale, and so forth. Mr. Hawker tells how +the old piscina was found and reinstated. "The chancel wall one day +sounded hollow when struck; the mortar was removed, and underneath there +appeared an arched aperture which had been filled up with jumbled carved +work and a crushed drain. It was cleared out and so rebuilt as to occupy +the exact site of its former existence. It is of the earliest type of +Saxon architecture, and for all we know may be the oldest piscina in the +land." + +The church roof is of wood, and shingles of rended oak occupy the place +of the usual tiles. "Outside the screen and at the top of the nave is +the grave of a priest. It is identified by the reversed position of the +carved cross on the stone, which also indicates the self-same attitude +in the corpse. The head is laid down toward the east while, in all +secular interments, the head is turned towards the west." + +On the south side of the churchyard--as in so many along this ruthless +coast--are the graves of wrecked sailors; and Hawker, a great-hearted +man and to some extent a poet, was foremost in rendering the last kind +offices to the dead. Over forty men, the crews of three lost vessels, +lie here, while the figurehead by one lot of graves is that of the brig +_Caledonia_ from Arbroath in Scotland. No wonder ships give these +stupendous cliffs as wide a berth as possible. An occasional steamer is +sighted, some tramp in search of cargo goes hurrying by, but, as a rule, +the wide expanse is empty of surface life, a fact which is both +noticeable and suggestive. + +On a spot where he had seen the lambs sheltering from wind and weather, +Mr. Hawker built the vicarage. With one of his personality as architect, +it was impossible it should quite resemble any other manse; therefore it +is not surprising to find that in the chimney-stacks he has reproduced +the forms of certain church towers that he admired, while inset over the +doorway is the distich: + + "_A house, a glebe, a pound a day, + A pleasant place to watch and pray, + Be true to Church, be kind to poor, + O Minister for evermore!_" + + +TONACOMBE +AND STOWE + +Not far from Morwenstow lie--or rather did lie, for though Tonacombe +still preserves its original design, Stowe, near Coombe Valley, the home +of the Grenvilles, was unfortunately destroyed in 1715--two old +manor-houses. The former, which was built in the fifteenth century, has +a fine stone-floored hall with timbered roof, old open fireplace, and +minstrel's gallery. Some of the rooms, which have lattice windows, are +panelled, and Charles Kingsley stayed in this "in some respects the most +remarkable mediaeval house in the west of England," while he was writing +"Westward Ho." + +Of far greater interest, however, is Stowe (Anglo-Saxon for a stockaded +place), at one time a magnificent building. Of it only the moat remains, +but when Sir Beville rose for Charles I., many a Cornishman, who in his +boyhood had stayed at Stowe, practising arms under the eye of Anthony +Payne, rose with him. + + +THE BATTLE OF +STAMFORD HILL + +To Stratton, a little south of Stowe, came in 1643 the Parliamentarian +General, Lord Stamford. The cavaliers, not then very prosperous, but +gallant gentlemen all, were lying at Launceston, and the Roundhead made +the mistake of underestimating their strength. Sir Ralph Hopton and Sir +Beville Grenville marched the twenty miles from the capital town without +more food than a few biscuits. Intent on intercepting and driving out +the intruder, they found when they reached Stratton late in the evening +that he had entrenched himself strongly on a neighbouring hill. As he +had the advantage in numbers, having about twice as many men and must +know that they were tired, hungry, and in poor condition, the Royalists +stood to their arms through the short May night in momentary expectation +of an attack. Their leaders were at one of the Poughill cottages--they +bear date 1620 and are still to be seen--and Sir Beville, while he +waited anxiously, must have wondered how it had gone with wife and +children, over above in the moated and stockaded house of Stowe. + +Lord Stamford, however, did not take advantage of his enemy's weariness. +No doubt he thought it would be more convenient, as the country was +unknown to him, to scatter the little force by daylight. At any rate he +sat still on the top of the hill and did nothing. In the grey dawn, +therefore, the Royalists, the fiercer for their hunger and +sleeplessness, decided not to wait any longer. Since he would not come +down they must go up. Dashingly they attacked his entrenchment, doggedly +they continued the fight. After nine hours of it, word was passed round +that their scanty store of ammunition had come to an end. But they were +nothing daunted. Grimly and in a strange silence they made the last +assault; and this time were successful, the leaders of the four narrow +columns meeting at the top of the hill. As they did so, Lord Stamford, +who had looked on from a safe distance, set spurs to his horse, and fled +headlong. Cornwall was won for King Charles, and from the battlefield +Francis Basset of Tehidy could write to his wife "Dearest soule, ring +out the bells, raise bonfires, publish these joyful tidings." + +A year or two later, however, Stratton told a different tale. Cornwall +might in the main be Royalist, but all England was for a change in the +government; and presently Lord Essex, driving Sir Richard Grenville--a +brother of Sir Beville--before him, crossed the Tamar and stormed the +house at Stowe. It was the beginning of evil days. In 1646 Hopton, the +Royalist General, retired to Stratton with a broken, dispirited and, +alas! disorderly army, and from thence Sir Thomas Fairfax drove him back +across the pass at Wadebridge which Cromwell--it is the only mention of +him in Cornish annals--was sent to secure. + + +THE BATTLE OF +LANSDOWNE HILL + +But by then Sir Beville was dead. After the--surely the name is +ironical--battle of Stamford Hill, he and his victorious troops had +marched to the King's aid. At the battle of Lansdowne, on the heights +above Bath, Sir Beville, sorely wounded, was struck out of his saddle by +a pole-axe. The pikemen he was leading fell into confusion, and in an +instant the Parliamentarians were among them, hewing them down. Then did +Anthony Payne, Sir Beville's giant retainer, come to the rescue. +Catching his master's riderless horse, he set on it young John, a +stripling of sixteen, Sir Beville's eldest son; and led him to the head +of the wavering pikemen. The appeal was irresistible. The Cornish +followed their beloved leader's son like men possessed; and so, while +Sir Beville lay dying on the hillside, his regiment, led by his faithful +servant and his young son, swept all before them. + +One is glad to remember that at the Restoration when the family's +confiscated estates were restored to them, young John, in memory of his +own deeds and those of his greater father, was created Earl of Bath. + + +TENNYSON +AT BUDE + +Bude with its wide sands and unsafe harbour is without historical +associations, but it can be used, having hotels, as a centre from which +to visit the more interesting towns (so-called, but they are no bigger +than an ordinary village) and hamlets of the neighbourhood. Tennyson, +when he had it in mind to write his Arthurian Idylls, came here--no +doubt for local colour, though being a Victorian what he said was, "That +he must go to Bude and be alone with God!" During his visit he rode out +to Morwenstow to call on Mr. Hawker, and the less-known bard has left an +interesting account of their interview. + +"I found my guest ... a tall, swarthy, Spanish-looking man with an eye +like a sword. He sate down, and we conversed. I at once found myself +with no common mind.... Before he left the room, he said: 'Do you know +my name?' + +"I said: 'No, I have not even a guess.' + +"'Do you wish to know it?' + +"'I don't much care--that which we call a rose, &c.' + +"'Well, then,' said he, 'my name is _Tennyson_.' + +"'What!' said I, '_the_ Tennyson?' + +"'What do you mean by _the_ Tennyson? I am Alfred Tennyson, who wrote +"Locksley Hall," which you seem to know by heart.' + +"So we grasped hands, and the Shepherd's heart was glad." + + +CHURCHES OF THE +NEIGHBOURHOOD + +With regard to certain old churches, St. Olaf's, at Poughill, has two +rather crudely restored mural paintings and, set heavily in the south +door, what is reputed to be one of the few genuine sanctuary rings still +in existence. The church at Marhamchurch also shows the remains of +frescoes, while Stratton has a fine stoup, and in the north wall of the +chancel an Easter sepulchre, probably the only one in the county. That +of Swithin--dear apple saint--at Launcells, has a circular font reputed +to date from Saxon times, and the fifteenth century bench-ends, though +rudely carved, show a play of symbolic fancy, unusual in Cornwall. On +one you see the visit of Mary when she mistook the gardener for Christ, +Mary being represented by a spice-box, the gardener by a spade! On +another the Harrowing of Hell is represented by the jaws of a dragon, +and so with the various subjects. An empty grave and cross triumphant +tells the story of the resurrection, while the supper at Emmaus, though +faithfully suggested, is given without the introduction of a single +human figure. It is all symbolism--riddles which are interesting to +guess, but not always easy. + + +WEEK ST. MARY + +Some five miles or so south of Marhamchurch lies Week St. Mary, about a +native of which village a sort of Dick Whittington story is told. In a +field adjoining the churchyard the remains of extensive buildings can be +traced, and these, once a chantry, were said to be due to the pious +energy of Dame Thomasin Perceval. As a girl she herded geese on the +common of Greenamore, until in the shape of a staid and, alas! already +married merchant, the Prince came riding by. He spoke to the girl and +found her as pleasant in discourse as to the eye. Without more ado, +therefore, he took her away with him--and here, though propriety is +preserved, the fairy-tale suddenly drops to unromantic fact--he took her +to wait upon his wife! In course of time, however, that good lady died +and the middle-aged Prince was free to marry his goose-girl. + +After many years she returned as a rich widow to her native parish, and +there spent the remnant of her days in a cheerful and rather bustling +philanthropy, repairing anything in the way of churches, bridges, and +roads that required attention, portioning the virtuous and hard working +of her own sex and generally playing Lady Bountiful--or so it is said! + +In the churchwardens' Accounts of Stratton under date 1513 we read: + +"paid for my lady parcyvale ijs Meneday [_i.e._ day of prayer for her +soul] to iiij preistes & for bred & ale 1s. 1d." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM WIDEMOUTH BAY TO ST. TEATH + + +THE HEADLANDS + +The cliffs from Marsland Mouth to Trevose Head are fine, much finer than +those on the better known south coast. The seas also are wilder, these +shores seeming to suffer from fiercer onslaughts of the Atlantic. On a +blustery day it is nothing to see the tortured waves break into a spray +that is flung full forty feet into the air, while except in sheltered +dips and coves--of which there are none too many in this part--neither +tree nor shrub can live. This gives the headlands a barren look, the +bold outlines are of grey boulders rather than vegetation, and behind +them on the windy downs crouch the grey hamlets and solitary farms. For +sheer beauty of crag and precipice, of mighty seas and broken slipped +sea-front, there is nothing in the duchy that can compare with this +piece of coast. Upon the great cliffs of Widemouth Bay, of which the +name is sufficiently descriptive, follow Dizzard Point (500 ft.) with +its landslip, Castle Point, so called from the circular earthwork on its +summit, Pencarrow Head (400 ft.), between which and Cambeak (500 ft.) at +the mouth of a wooded valley lies the lovely Crackington Cove and which +brings us to the High Cliff with its sheer drop of 735 ft. This last is +the highest in Cornwall, nearly double the height of the Dodman, that +glory of the southern coast, while it is far higher than the Land's End +and the Lizard. A little inland is yet higher ground, for Tresparret +Down, a barren and desolate heath, is some 850 ft. above sea level! + +Somewhat to the north of the High Cliff is St. Genys, the saint of which +is said to have been one of three brothers, all of whom were beheaded. +This particular brother is believed to have walked about afterwards, his +head held under his arm, a proceeding which reminds us that "King +Charles walked and talked, half an hour after his head was cut off!" + +There is here an interesting example of an Elizabethan communion cup and +paten cover, but it must be remembered that many cups of that date are +older in material than in shape. When the word cup was substituted for +chalice, we find by the churchwarden's accounts that the vessels were +frequently re-shaped. We have, for example, one of 1571, "to Iohn Ions, +goldsmith, for changing the chalice into a cup, L1 15_s_. 5_d_." + + +BOSCASTLE + +After the High Cliff the shore gradually assumes a less terrific aspect, +until Boscastle, with its tiny firth and its blow-holes, is reached. +This little straggling place took its name from Botreaux Castle (or +Castel-boterel), which was built here in the twelfth century. The last +Lord Botreaux died in 1462, and of the castle only a grassy mount, +called Jordans, from a neighbouring stream, remains. This mount is on +the hill, that steep and wooded hill which leads down into Boscastle, +and on the sides of which the houses are hung like birds' nests on a +cliff. + +At the end of the valley the hills unite into slaty cliffs which take a +sudden fjord-like turn before reaching the sea. This short and tiny +estuary cannot, of course, compare with the smallest of those winding +inlets which make the strange beauty of the Norwegian coast, inlets +whose walls would dwarf the High Cliff and whose majestic desolation +would make the barrenest headland in the west seem mild and fertile. + +If the tide is in, the islet at the mouth of Boscastle Harbour sends up +sudden showers of spray which suggest a geyser, but are in reality due +to a blow-hole, and there is another on the mainland. + +An ancient form of tenure survives here. The upper part of Forrabury +Common is divided into "stitches"--slips of land divided by boundary +marks only--and these stitches are held in severalty from Lady Day to +Michaelmas, the proprietors for the rest of the year stocking it in +common, according to the amount of their holdings. The hilly part of the +common being unfit for cultivation is stocked in common all the year +round. + +Boscastle has two churches, that of Forrabury, which has been too +zealously restored, deal having been substituted for the +sixteenth-century oak benches and for the old pulpit that was covered +with arabesques, and Minster. Near Minster, on Waterpit Downs, is a fine +specimen of Celtic interlaced work on a cross shaft. It is now rescued, +but for many years it served to bear the pivot of a threshing-machine. +The church itself stands on the chancel site of an old minster. A +doorway, now blocked, once led to the priory buildings, but of them +nothing remains. + + +OTTERHAM AND +WARBSTOW BARROWS + +Inland from Boscastle is Otterham, which possesses two bells dating from +before the Reformation and mentioned in the inventory of Edward VI. The +inscriptions on these mediaeval bells are interesting, a frequent one +being, "With my living voice I drive away all evil things." A little to +the east of Otterham, on a hill 807 ft. above sea level, is Warbstow +Barrows, one of the largest and best preserved earthworks in the county. +Its two ramparts have each two entrances, the outer wall being 15 ft. +high with a ditch 15 ft. wide. In the middle is a barrow known as the +Giant's Grave, perhaps the resting-place of a chieftain who died in +defence of the place, and was buried where he fell. Cornwall is thickly +strewn with these memorials of the past. Earthworks of different race +encampments lie cheek by jowl, strings of forts reach from sea to sea, +and even the cliffs are fortified. These cliff castles, and there are +traces of fortification on almost every headland, must have been built +by people who were actually "between the devil and the deep sea." Foot +by foot they must have given way, till at length they stood with their +backs to the sea, defending from their enemies one ultimate rock. Only +too often is there a grave within these defences, the grave of the last +man, strong enough to hold back the enemy, but slain at last. + +To the south-west of Boscastle is Willapark Head, and beyond it are some +caves which until recently were haunted, as was all this north-western +coast, by mild-eyed seals. "A man with a gun" and the English instinct +to "go out and kill something," an instinct useful in the days of the +mammoth and the cave-tiger, but more than a little tiresome in our +present state of civilisation, is responsible for their disappearance. +There are still the caves to be seen. + + +ST. NECHTAN'S KIEVE; +BOSSINEY + +Inland the little towns are of slight interest, with the exception of +the old cross at Lambrenny, but the walk along the cliffs--and the +Cornish are amiably ignorant that trespassers ought to be +prosecuted--presents an ever-changing panorama of lichened rocks and +lacy surf and every shade of wonderful blue. In Trevalga Church is some +old woodwork that has been carefully placed against the east wall of the +church, and presently we are crossing the neck of the Rocky Valley on +our way to derelict Bossiney--Bossiney once having mayor and officers +and represented in Parliament by Sir Francis Drake, but now only a +sleepy lovely nook in a quiet corner of the land! At the head of the +Rocky Valley is St. Nechtan's Kieve, a fine but broken waterfall of some +40 ft. A legend is told of two unknown ladies who inhabited a cottage +near by and who died without ever having revealed their names, but the +legend sprang like so many others from the fertile brain of the Rev. +Robert Hawker. He thought the place looked as if it ought to have a +legend, and not finding one was both ready and able to supply the +deficiency. A cross which was formerly part of the garden gate and was +supposed to be of the ninth century has been taken to Tintagel, and is +now to be seen in the garden of that comfortable old-fashioned hostelry, +the Wharncliffe Arms. + + +TINTAGEL + +The far-famed "Dundagel" consists of a single grey street, lined in +irregular fashion with grey cottages and houses. In this land of stone +you sigh for the cheerful sight of a red-brick building or a glowing +tiled roof; but the stone used is grey, and where the roofs are not of a +cold blue slate, they are of a thatch held on by ropes that are heavily +weighted. The place is still primitive. Until recently the nearest baker +lived at Delabole, and to judge by the prizes (instead of cakes) on view +in his window, he must have been the king of pastry cooks. In Cornwall, +however, the housewife still bakes her own bread and is in other ways +more self-sufficing, and let us add more thrifty, than elsewhere. + + +ARTHUR + +"Who Arthur was," says Milton, "and whether any such person reigned in +Britain hath been doubted heretofore and may again with good reason." We +must remember that the traditions concerning him were not reduced to +writing until centuries after his death, while Gildas, who was born +according to his own account in what would be Arthur's lifetime, does +not mention him. + +The legends, however, assert that he was born at Tintagel Castle about +499 A.D., that he had three wives, but no children, and that his second +wife, Yenifer (Guinevere), was buried with him at Glastonbury. Against +the probability of this is the fact that Tintagel is not mentioned in +Domesday and that its ruins are of the thirteenth century with later +additions. It is quite likely, however, that the place, which is +strongly situated on a jutting headland--the so-called Island--was +fortified from time immemorial. It may originally have been one of those +pathetic cliff castles, may have been improved on and made habitable by +the conquering race of that epoch, and may eventually have fallen into +decay. + + +THE CASTLE + +The present ruins are said to represent a castle built some little time +after the Norman Conquest, a castle which speedily fell out of repair, +for it had to be restored by Richard, King of the Romans, brother of +Henry III., before he could entertain his nephew, David, Prince of +Wales, here in 1245. + +When Cornwall, till then an earldom, was made a duchy (1337) and +bestowed on the Black Prince, a boy seven years old, all the castles +were again fallen into decay. At Tintagel the timber had even been +removed from the great hall "because the walls were ruinous." The main +part of the building appears to have been on the Island, but it was +connected with outworks on the shore by a drawbridge. Sir Richard +Grenville, who made an official survey in 1583, tells us that this +drawbridge, which had been in existence within living memory, was gone, +its supports having been washed away by the waves. The sea having +continued its work of destruction, the space is now too wide for any +drawbridge to span, and in spite of a handrail the little climb to the +"Island" ruins is a dizzy one. Nor is there much to see. Some of the +masonry is recent, while the tiny chapel and altar are of about the same +date as the later parts of the castle, but the view is fine. It makes up +for the disappointment in Tintagel as a castle, for the disappointment +of finding that here is no certain tradition of Arthur, that the very +people feel about him much as Milton did. He may have been born here, +this may have been his very castle of Dindraithon, but if so they know +nothing of it. Arthur is a thing of books, of art, not life, of the +Morte, the Idylls, and--best of all perhaps--of Clemence Housman's +wonderful story "Sir Aglovaine de Galis," but he has no place in +present-day folklore. + +On the top of the mainland outworks is a doorway which in an eerie +manner opens upon space, and a sheer drop of many hundreds of feet. It +shows how much the sea is encroaching. Once upon a time this probably +led to the look-out tower. Now the very foundations of that tower are +gone and presently the masonry will go too, and the waters will roar +unhindered between the mainland and the island. + + +THE BEACH +AND BARRAS HEAD + +Far below is a tiny dark beach, the colour of which is explained when +having climbed down a wooden stairway clamped to the rock--the only +means of approach--it is found to consist entirely of rounded pieces of +slate. They are of all weights and sizes, but there is no sand, no +shells, nothing but slate. Opposite the Castle rock is Barras Head, and +there at last the big modern hotel can be ignored and the wanderer lie +out on the short, dry turf with the long line of hazy coast to either +hand and, before him, the islands white with sea-birds and pink with +thrift and the boundless stretch of sunlit waters. + + "_To be by the translucent green, the blue + Deepening to purple where the weed is dense! + To hear the homing call as the brave sweep + Of wings is folded on a sea-girt rock! + To lie in golden warmth while tow'ring waves + Break with a lazy roar along the cliffs-- + To lie and dream._" + +It is here that Swinburne, venturing on a swim, was nearly drowned. The +same story is told of him on the French coast, only there it was Guy de +Maupassant who brought him back in safety. The great French writer is +reported to have said that the little English poet, with his +bladder-like head and attenuated body, struck him as hardly sane. Yet it +was Maupassant who died mad, not Swinburne. + + +AN INSCRIBED STONE + +At Tintagel was discovered in 1888 a stone on which is inscribed IMP C G +Val Lic Licin, _i.e._, Imperatore Caesare Galerio Valerio Liciniano +Licinio, who reigned 307-324 A.D. It is evident therefore that whether +Arthur was here or not the Romans were. What a pity that no one has been +able to discover any satisfactory evidence in enduring stone of the +British king's existence! + +The cruciform church on the cliff is largely Norman, but portions of it +belong to almost every succeeding age and period. Some have even held +that it contains Saxon work, but the authorities are not agreed. + + +A DANGEROUS OCCUPATION + +On the way to Trebarwith along the cliffs--and Trebarwith is a narrow +rocky opening up which the tide rushes with tremendous force--are +quarries. It is strange to see men, with the carelessness of long habit, +walk to the very edge of the cliff, lie down and, with their legs +hanging over, feel with their feet for the rough ladder that leads down +the rock-face to the quarry opening; or to see them stand on a plank +that juts out over the sea, and is maintained in its position by a chunk +of rock, casually adjusted. If the plank should give, or the rock roll +aside! But a man stands there from morning till night loading and +unloading slates. + + +THE BATTLE OF +GAFULFORD + +Inland from Tintagel is Camelford, with its local tradition of a battle. +At Slaughter Bridge, near Worthyvale, one and a half miles from +Camelford, fragments of armour, ornaments of bridles, weapons, have been +found, and in 823 a battle was certainly fought at some place then +called Gafulford between the Saxons of Devon and the Celts of Cornwall, +a battle in which the Cornish were defeated. May not this unknown +Gafulford be Camelford? Writers have suggested that this may have been +the scene of Arthur's last battle; but the weight of tradition is +against this theory, a more likely place having been pointed out in +Scotland. + + +ARTHUR'S HALL + +While on the subject of the legendary British king, it would be +interesting to see a supposed feasting-chamber, which from before the +time of Henry VIII. was known as Arthur's Hall. South-west of Brown +Willy, it is about five miles from Camelford, in the parish of St. +Breward. It appears at present as a pit hollowed out in a light sandy +soil. This excavation, which is 159 ft. long, is enclosed by an earthen +bank with slabs of granite about 7 ft. high, placed evenly on the inner +side. The absence of true walls makes it doubtful whether it was roofed +over, but it may have had a self-supporting skeleton roof, covered with +a web of branches or with sods. + + +LANTEGLOS + +As is so often the case in Cornwall, the Camelford church is at some +distance from the place to which it ministers, being, indeed, a mile and +a half away at Lanteglos. In the churchyard is a celebrated stone with +an inscription in eleventh-century Saxon capitals: "AELSELTH & GENERETH +WROHTE THYSNE SYBSTEL FOR AELWYNEYS SAUL & FOR HEYSEL." About a quarter +of a mile from the church is the well-known entrenchment called Castle +Goff, with a single rampart and ditch. + + +THE FORTY BREWERS +OF HELSTON + +Below Lanteglos is the manor of Helston, and Domesday records "that +there were forty brewers on the royal manor of Henliston." This is the +only mention in the great survey of brewers as an item of population, +and forty seems a good many for one place. Did they brew all the beer in +the county; and was it Henliston ale that so appalled Andrew Borde when +he thought to visit Cornwall, that he turned back saying: "it looked as +if pigges had wrasteled in it"? + + +THE RIVER + +Camelford is not far from either of the sources of the Camel, and the +upper moorland reaches of the twin streams abound in charming spots +where the water frets among boulders and swirls in sunshine and shadow +among ferns and wild flowering shrubs. The sisters do not join forces +till they reach Kea Bridge, over ten miles from their source, but as +soon as depth allows of their existence sweet small trout are plentiful. + + +THE DELABOLE SLATE + +Between Camelford and Tintagel are the now silent quarries of North +Delabole (or Dennyball). The road winds between great walls and under +archways of slate which look as if a touch would send the whole erection +sliding and rushing down upon the wayfarer. But the slates were set up +by cunning fingers and have withstood the gales of this coast for a +score of years. Very different is their mournful creeper-grown +desolation from the arid activity of Delabole. The approach to the high +grey windy street is marked by deep ferny lanes. Here are thirty acres +of quarry and rubble heap, a hideous excavation. In 1602 the quarry, +already old, was 900 ft. long, in 1882 it had grown to 1300 ft., and it +is growing still. The best slate is called bottom stone and lies at a +depth of from 25 to 40 fathoms, for the quarry is now over 400 ft. deep. +Beautiful crystals the so-called Cornish diamonds, are found in these +workings, truly the only beautiful things in a most dreary place. + + +ST. TEATH + +When the church at little sleepy St. Teath was restored in 1877, two +massive Norman responds at the east end of the north aisle were +discovered. There is also some good roof timber and a little ancient +glass. The pulpit bears the arms of the Carminows and their motto: "Cala +Rag Whetlow"--a straw for a tell-tale. It was John of Gaunt, +"time-honoured Lancaster," that Prince who, though never a king, was +the ancestor of so many, who upon true evidence found Carminow of +Cornwall "to be descended of a lineage armed 'Azure a bend Or' since the +time of King Arthur;" and indeed the Carminows were certainly here at +the Conquest. They are now extinct, the last of the family, a devoted +Royalist, dying in 1646. + +In the graveyard, on a slab fastened to the church, is the following +epitaph: + + "_Here lyeth the body of Robert Bake, son of Samuel Bake, who was + buried the xxx day of January, 16--. + But what cheere-up altho our sonne be gone + Altho his bodiy must be racke and toren + With filthy bitter bitinge wormes of dust + And be consumd as all our bodies must + Yet still cheere-up comforte yourselves: in this + Tho the bodiy died the soule emmortall is + And now in heaven most ioyfully shall singe + O: grave where is thy strength, death where is thy victory + With God above for all e-terny-tie: + For Robert Bake._" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM PORT ISAAC TO THE VALE OF LANHERNE + +_Port Isaac and the Fishing: Pentire: St. Enodoc and the Sand: +Lovebond's Bridge: Wadebridge and Egloshayle: "Jan Tergeagle": Menhirs: +Padstow and the Hobby Horse: Prehistoric Inhabitants: Harlyn Bay: +Trevose Head: Constantine: A Fogou: Bedruthan: The Vale of Lanherne._ + + +PORT ISAAC + +So long and so steep is the hill between Port Gavernoe and Port Isaac +that the Cornishman, though not noted for kindness to animals, does not +often ask his horse to negotiate it, and indeed these Cornish hills are +a sovereign specific for nerves. No one who has been up and down them, +behind one of the surefooted country-bred ponies, can fear any ordinary +descent. + +From the hill the view of the little grey town is hardly inviting. It +lies huddled together as if it had slipped down the sides of the cleft +in which it rests. Very crooked are its narrow roads; all sideways, +askew and anyhow the small houses; there are no gardens, hardly any +backyards; and at certain seasons of the year young and stalwart men +seem to be conspicuous by their absence. "They'm all away at work and +they do belong to go, for there edn't no money here, only the fishin'," +is the explanation. + +Fishing is indeed the reason for Port Isaac's existence and for that of +her smaller neighbours, Port Gaverne and Port Quin, each of which lies +at the head of a similar sandy inlet. Port Isaac, it is true, has a +harbour deep enough to admit steamers of 150 tons burden, and most of +the Delabole slates are shipped from here, but fishing is the main +interest. "Cousin Jack" is a strict Sabbatarian, but not so his rival +from the east coast. It is bad enough to see the fish caught in waters +he looks upon as his, but particularly so under the circumstances; and, +as a consequence, he has sometimes taken the law into his own hands. "If +a must fishey," says he, "leave en fishey fair," and one Monday morning +when the strangers endeavoured to land eight boatloads that had been +captured during Sunday night, his patience reached its limit. "All that +day gulls swarmed in the little harbour, and thereafter the place +reeked of decaying fish. So now the east countrymen deem it wiser to +land their Sunday's catch elsewhere." + +Is it possible that this nook of the coast also reeks somewhat of +decaying fish? What of it? Many a fishing town lies ahead, and they were +not called "Fishy-gissy" and "Polstink" for nothing. May be--as you are +told when you get a whiff of the gasworks--it is a healthy smell; any +way, healthy or no, like those same gasworks it is not to be denied. + + +PENTIRE + + "_From Padstow Point to Hartland Light, + Is a watery grave by day or night_" + +runs the country saying, voicing the fear that haunts every fisherman's +cottage along the coast; and if the children, in their carelessness, lay +a loaf cut-side down, so that it looks like a boat turned bottom +upwards, the elders shiver and bid them right it at once. Pentire, which +stands out at one side of the estuary above low-lying Padstow, has two +points, the Eastern and the Western Horns; and a view up the entire +coast of Cornwall and onward to blunt Trevose that should not be missed. +On the eastern point of the bay is a well-defined cliff castle. It is +evident that the triple mounds and ditches were for purposes of defence, +but neither local history nor tradition has a word about those by whom +they were built. This only is certain, that the folk must have been +desperate who came to make their last stand on this wild and lonely +spot. + +On the headland is a cave in some way connected with "Cruel Coppinger," +who, by his brutality for years, dominated the western coast (though he +was perhaps less seen at Padstow than elsewhere). His smuggling lugger, +the _Black Prince_, was known from Morwenstow to Newquay, and many are +the wild deeds--he did not even stop short of murder--recorded of this +desperado, from the day he was landed on these shores to that other day +when, the measure of his iniquities being full, he set sail never to +return. Not that all smuggling was undertaken in so lawless a fashion. +It was rather an agreeable diversion spiced with adventure, and +gentleman, parson, farmer, and peasant all lent a hand. "Cruel +Coppinger's" is not the only cave along this coast that is said to have +been haunted by "spirits"--as indeed they were, and by silks and lace as +well! Nor were the hiding-places only those provided by Nature. The +pulling down of old houses has revealed many a hollow in the thick walls +and under the flagged floors; there is even a story that one great +gentleman used to conceal a store of illicit goods--in his carriage! + +Relics of an older civilisation have been dug up on these headlands. It +is possible, before the sand swept in overwhelmingly, that the coast may +have supported a larger population. Roman coins and beads, strange blue +iridescent glass, and bits of red glaze, the glaze of Samian ware, have +been found; and among these things articles of a yet earlier date, as +for instance, a roughly made coral necklace thought to be British or +earlier. + + +ST. ENODOC AND THE SAND + +From this point westward the coast has been afflicted with sandstorms, +churches have been buried, towns obliterated by the drifting particles. +Blowing steadily for three days at a time, the frightened people have +left their houses to escape suffocation, and fled inland only on their +return to find the face of the country changed beyond recognition. St. +Enodoc Church, during one of these visitations, was covered with sand +above the level of the roof, only the thirteenth-century broach spire +remaining above the waste to indicate the whereabouts of the building. +In order to perform service, the parson, after some digging, managed to +enter by the roof; and it may be wondered why on that lonely waste a +service should be required. It was not, however, a matter of saving +souls, but of obtaining tithes. About forty years ago the church was +excavated, and it now lies in a deep trench. The path is lined with a +curious collection of stone mortars or measures, which however are not +ecclesiastical. Near by rises the desolate Bray Hill, under which, early +last century, storms having shifted the sands, the ruins of what is +thought to be an oratory came to light. + +The churches of St. Minver and St. Kew are both interesting. The former +contains three octagonal slate piers supporting pointed arches, the +remains of a fine oak rood screen, and--an article which seems nowadays +somewhat out of place, but no doubt is stored there against destruction +or oblivion--the stocks. St. Kew lies in a lovely wooded valley, and is +one of the finest churches in Cornwall, but is not often visited. Fine +woodwork is to be seen in the cradle roof, while the chancel screen was +carefully modelled on one of earlier date. The communion cup is +Elizabethan, but more interesting is a glass egg-shaped bowl with silver +mounts of 1598. When Bodmin Church was restored (1472) it seems to have +sold its fine old windows to any church that would buy, and St. Kew was +fortunate enough to secure one, that in the north chapel. Not far from +here is Polrode, where, serving as part of the bridge, is a good, though +mutilated, example of a roundheaded cross with beaded angles. At St. +Endellion, a little north of Kew, is a stoup carved with the arms of +Roscarrock, Chenduit, and Pentire--and heraldic stoups are rare. + + +LOVEBOND'S BRIDGE + +On the road to Wadebridge is an earthwork known as Castle Killibury or +Kelly Rounds, which was known to have been in existence--and out of +repair--as early as 1478. Commanding the road down to the ford it was +evidently once a place of considerable strength. This ford was not +bridged until the reign of Edward IV., when a fine bridge with a span of +seventeen arches was built by a man named Lovebond. At first it was so +narrow that only pack-horses could cross, and over every pier protecting +angles were placed for the need of pedestrians. The bridge was 320 ft. +long, and the finest of its kind in England. It has been widened, but +its character carefully preserved. For a long time it was believed that +on account of the shifting sands the piers rested on packs of wool. +Examination, however, has proved the story an invention, for they are on +a rock foundation. + +It was over this bridge that the broken Royalists hurried in 1646, a +long disorderly straggle of men and guns and baggage, with Cromwell, +grimly patient, at their heels. Had there been union and discipline in +the forces, they would have been no easy conquest; but there had long +been dissension among the leaders, and the condition of the common +soldiers was both wretched and demoralised. As Clarendon records, they +were "feared by their friends, scorned by their enemies, terrible only +in plunder and resolute in running away." With such troops as these +nothing could be done. Sir Richard Grenville, tyrannical and +quarrelsome, had been committed to Launceston gaol, Prince Charles +himself had left the country, and only the loyal Hopton was left. Once +across the Camel and the soldiers were penned into the western half of +the peninsula; but a spark of that old spirit which had won so many +victories for the king was shown in a skirmish at St. Columb Major. It +was the last flicker of life. In March the commissioners met at +Tresillian Bridge, terms were agreed on, and the Royalist army disbanded +on honourable conditions. + + +WADEBRIDGE AND +EGLOSHAYLE + +Wadebridge is a little market town, so little that it has not even a +resident dentist! It has, however, an air of life which is unusual in +Cornwall; but that may be partly due to the cheery little streams that +run through the open gutters of the main streets. Here you buy chickens +by the pound and new-laid eggs--sometimes--for a halfpenny each; but the +place is neither beautiful nor interesting. Very different is +Egloshayle, the "church by the river," a name which it deserves, for the +water washes against the fence of the haunted graveyard. Historians tell +us that the Loveybound who was vicar here in 1462 and who built the +south aisle and fine three-stage western tower must not be confounded +with the Lovebond of about the same date who built the bridge, that +indeed it is a case of "It wasn't Mr. William Shakespeare who wrote the +plays, but another gentleman of the same name." The church is about a +mile up the river from Wadebridge, and stands in a group of chestnuts. +The sculptured stone pulpit is of the fifteenth century, and in the roof +of the south aisle is some good oak of the same date. The hood-mouldings +of the tower doorway are ornamented with angels bearing shields, on one +of which is cut the name "I. Loveybound" and the device of three hearts +banded together with a fillet. + +On the other side of Wadebridge lies St. Breock, where "John Tregeagle +of Trevorder, Esqr., 1679," is buried. 'Tis said that at his death, +owing to some inaccuracy in his accounts--he was steward of the +Robartes' estates--a poor man was sued for money that he had already +paid. By the agency of the parson, who seems to have been some sort of a +wizard, Tregeagle was induced to return to earth and give evidence for +the defence, which evidence proved conclusive. Cornwall is full of +legends about Tregeagle, who seems to have been a hard man and an +oppressive steward; but no doubt, as often happens, the legends are of +earlier date than the individual to whom they are momentarily attached. +The wraith who gave them birth has faded out of living memory, is indeed +dead; but like disturbed but sleepy birds, they have quickly settled +again on some character still bulking largely in the public eye. + + +MENHIRS + +Beyond the little church the ground rises to St. Breock Downs, which are +700 ft. above sea level and strewn with prehistoric remains. Nine big +stones in a straight line are followed by a menhir, a disposition often +seen on Dartmoor; and at Pawton is a dolmen called the Giant's Quoit, an +exceptionally fine example. The menhir is known as the Old Man, probably +from houl maen, a sun stone. The word "man" or "men" or "maiden" when met +with in the west invariably means a stone, but those responsible for our +latter-day legends were often unaware of this. + +By way of the broad sunshiny estuary, which is as beautiful when the +tide is out and the distant gulls stand like a string of pearls on the +edge of the yellow sand, as when the whole expanse is one stretch of +dimpling blue water, we come to Padstow. At Little Petherick, which is +halfway, there is a copy of the 1684 edition of Foxe's "Book of +Martyrs," and the south doorway of the church is believed to have been +stolen from the ruined edifice on Constantine Bay--at any rate there is +no mention in the churchwardens' accounts of any payment made. + + +PADSTOW AND THE HOBBY HORSE + +A short distance from the mouth of the estuary and looking up the blue +reaches to the open sea lies the little port of Padstow. In early days +it was so near the Atlantic that wandering Danes (901) came and +plundered its monastery of St. Petrock, and later the sand blocked up +the wide mouth of the harbour forming the Doom Bar, and leaving only a +narrow channel on the west. But the little place with its narrow streets +all running uphill, its unprotected sharp-cornered quay, and its +dominant manor-house, still contrives to exist. It is at its best +perhaps when stress of weather has driven in the fishing fleet, and +there is a forest of masts clustered by the wharves. On such occasions +milk and bread are hard to come by, for there will be five hundred extra +mouths to feed. + +A quaint survival of the ancient May Day celebrations exists in the +Hobby Horse, a wooden circle with a dress of blackened sail-cloth, a +horse's head, and a prominent tail. This is carried through the town, +the bearers meanwhile chanting a song which, in spite of an old tune and +refrain, is full of topical allusions. + +Halfway up one of the steep roads that lead out into the country is the +beautifully situated Prideaux Place. The family, though of respectable +antiquity, has not taken any leading part in the history of the county, +but in the house are some interesting pictures, a Vandyke, and some +early Opies. When the old home of the Grenvilles was finally dismantled, +the great staircase was brought from Stowe and set up here to be a link +with the immemorial past. + +Round Padstow the land is fertile, very fine wheat being grown; and it +is believed that a certain farmer pays his rent with the produce of a +single field of asparagus. It is astonishing that more of the succulent +edible is not grown, or that the sandhills of the coast are not utilised +as they were round Southampton for growing strawberries. A fortune may +lurk in the sand, the devastating sand, or, if that is too much to ask, +at least it may give back more than it has taken. But the farmers are +disinclined for change, and if you ask why there are so few milch kine +and why vegetables and other amenities of life are so difficult to get, +you are told: "Spoase they'm warm men, got a long stocking. They don't +trouble." + + +PREHISTORIC + +Along the estuary to the north is a way which, in windy weather, is +dangerous, but at other times gives a succession of lovely views and +which brings the walker past Rockferry (mentioned as early as 1337) to +Stepper Point, with its white day-mark. The cliffs for a little are high +and not too safe, but Tregudda Gorge with its amethyst and topaz +crystals, its flints and worked slates, is a lonely and a beautiful +spot. The Cornish tell strange stories of these places, stories of the +"little people" whom they believe to be fairies,[1] but who are probably +the neolithic dwarf race which is said to have inhabited parts of the +country. They are also firm believers in psychic faculty, though they +call it by other older names. A man interested in such matters met a +London friend at the Padstow terminus. Aware that his friend was +supposed to be clairvoyant, he without comment put a fragment of bone +that he had found on an old kitchen midden in the other's hand and +asked him what he saw. "Now, this is interesting," said the other, "for +I see walking away before me a little brown man dressed in skins. On his +feet are brogues of hide with the hair inside." + +The friends were walking by the estuary and the tide was in. "He has got +into a queer sort of basket boat covered with hides and is paddling +about among a lot of other little brown people in similar boats. Ah, +there is a forest over there." The antiquarian looked across the +discoloured line of the Doom Bar to the sandhills opposite, but not a +tree was to be seen. He remembered afterwards, however, that many +centuries ago a forest, now submerged, had occupied the eastern side of +the Camel estuary. + +So sparsely inhabited is this coast that the worked flints and +arrow-heads of that bygone people still lie on the undisturbed surface +of the rocky land. The flints are so sharp, so clean, that it seems +their owners can have only just laid them down. And we must remember +that this is not a flint country. Every sharp atom was brought from far +away in the days when the rivers had to be forded and there were only +paths over the waste. Yet, onward from Tregudda Gorge, there are any +number to be found. Moreover after Trevone--an uninteresting place where +some bathing fatalities have occurred--we come, in broad and beautiful +Harlyn Bay, to the necropolis of this vanished race. + + +HARLYN BAY + +In 1900, when digging for the foundations of a house, an oblong slate +kist, lying north and south, and containing a "crouched" burial, was +found. The drift sand lay some 8 to 10 ft. above the grave, within which +the skeleton lay on his side, his hands over his eyes, his knees bent +under him in what seems to us an attitude of devotion; as he lay the +first ray of the rising sun would strike athwart his face. Further +investigation showed that the discovered kist was only one of a group of +interments, and that the graves covered some 90 ft., giving signs of a +long continued series of burials, rather than of a great number within a +short period. The date of interment is considered to be that of the +later iron age, no great antiquity it is true, but some few thousand +years ago. The kind and courteous owner, Colonel Bellers, allows access +to this prehistoric graveyard--locally known as the Boneries--and near +by is a small museum for the preservation of interesting finds. Some of +the kists have been left _in situ_ and, to preserve them from wind and +weather, have been covered with a sort of cucumber frame, and the +stranger looks down through the glass on to the brown bones in their +enduring coffins of slate. Here lies a chieftain, for over his kist were +heaped rough lumps of quartz crystal; here a mother and child, little +bones and bigger; and here, in a heterogeneous mixture of all sorts and +sizes, is a hint of tragedy. Were they the result of a battle--of a +cannibal feast--or of justice done! + +A tooth from this strange and lonely graveyard was enclosed in a little +box and sent to a friend in London with instructions to place it +unopened in the hands of a clairvoyant. No information was vouchsafed +with the tooth, and the mystified go-between was only asked to take down +what was said, and this he did. At first the clairvoyant seemed rather +puzzled. "I can see a wide, sandy bay with rocks and cliffs, a rough +tumbling sea, and at the head of the bay a dense wood; but the people +are not like any I've ever seen before. They seem to be skin-clad +savages with black hair. There are quite a lot of them. One is running +across the sands and others are rushing after him; they have weapons in +their hands and he is fleeing in deadly terror. Ah, he has run into the +wood--now they've all disappeared!" + +Was the last scene in that prehistoric man's life being re-enacted +before the clairvoyant's gaze? Had he contravened his fellows' unknown +laws and so been hunted to his death? + +After a little the seer continued: "I see the bay again, but it's a +little different, more sand and fewer trees. Some men in present-day +dress are standing by a hole in the ground. They----" and a description +was given of the people who had been present at the opening of the kist. +"I think the hole is a grave, though it seems too short to be that" (the +kist being a "crouched" burial was, of course, much shorter than an +ordinary grave), "at any rate there are bones in it." + +Of the gold ornaments found in Cornwall the most remarkable are the two +torques found near Harlyn; bronze fibulae have also been found here, but +a good many of these finds are now in the Truro Museum. Harlyn, in spite +of the grisly nature of its chief attraction, is an incomparable bay of +wide firm sand, rock pools, and low safe cliffs. As it is sheltered by +Trevose Head, the bathing is safe. A little way along the cliffs is a +disused fish-cellar, over the door of which is the motto: "Lucri dulcis +odor"--sweet is the smell of gold! But the fish have left these shores +and the big black boats--boats that are oddly reminiscent of the +Viking's ships at Christiania--lie rotting in the sun. + + +TREVOSE HEAD + +Trevose Head (lighthouse), blunt and rounded, with an ear on each side +of its broad head, is a somewhat eerie place. On its western slope is a +large and sinister blow-hole, and much of the land seems to have +slipped a little and to be slipping more. It is here, by the rabbit +burrows, that so many worked flint arrow-heads and fish spears have been +found; while on its eastern side are caves inaccessible to the ordinary +person, but if report says truly once of great use to the smuggler. The +cliffs are of catacleuse, a dark and durable stone, of which on the cave +side there are quarries. + +Beyond Trevose Head, with its view from Cape Cornwall to Lundy Isle, the +land curves inward past the rocky ridges and big rolling sand-dunes of +Constantine. A shepherd's family is said to have held for many +generations a cottage on Constantine under the lord of Harlyn Manor by +the annual payment of a Cornish pie made of limpets, raisins, and sweet +herbs. Food is cheap in Cornwall, but wages are correspondingly low. A +farm pays its labourers--it calls them the cowman, the bullockman, and +the horseman--from 13_s_. 6_d_. to 18_s_. a week, and with that, though +conditions differ a little on different farms, they generally give a +cottage, 100 ft. of potato ground, the run of a pig on the land, 100 +battens of tamarisk wood--almost the only wood on this part of the +coast--and, most prized of all, the right to let lodgings. On this the +labourers sometimes manage to save. In one absolutely authentic +instance, a couple, labourer and farm-servant, who married at twenty-one +and eighteen, contrived to rear a healthy family of three and before +they were forty to save enough to buy a piece of land, build a +lodging-house, and go into business on their own account. "Never refused +a day's work in my life," said the woman, "but we lived on what he +brought home, and saved what I made." And what he brought home had been +from thirteen to fifteen shillings a week. "Nor I never bought any +tinned stuff," she said. "There's a deal of money goes that way, if the +young women nowadays 'ud only believe it. Why, a tin of pears, where's +the nourishment in that, and think of the price. Nearly a shilling +gone." + +And that woman baked her own bread, did, not only her own "bit of +washin'," but that of the one or two houses in the neighbourhood, went +out charing and cleaning, and took lodgers! They were thrifty folk, +never dreamed of buying a newspaper, and as a consequence had to save +every scrap of letter-paper, grocery bags, and oddments in order to have +the wherewithal to light the fire in the slab range. The pig was their +great stand-by. His meat, frugally cut, distributed in pasties with a +careful hand, lasted them the greater part of the year, and then there +were the lodgers. The tourist is not over-welcome to the farmer on +account of his carelessness with regard to gates. He lets the young +stock in among the corn and passes on oblivious of the damage he has +caused, but he is a godsend to the labourer's capable wife. + + +CONSTANTINE + +Constantine is another lovely and lonely bay. The jagged ridges of stone +run out at either end of the wide arc, a deep blue in sunlight, black in +cloudy weather, and between them lies a rainbow beach of shells. The +owners of the property have set their faces against hotels, and on the +stretch of sand-dunes are only the ruins of a one-time wrecker's +cottage, and a small black hut. The man who gave his name to the place +was supposed to be a descendant of King Lear (here spelt Llyr), who was +converted in his old age by the Padstow saint, Petrock. The sand which +destroyed his oratory is also said to have destroyed a populous village, +but seeing the desolation on every hand, this is a little difficult to +believe. At any rate the neighbouring churches seem to have benefited by +the saint's misfortune, for St. Merryn as well as Little Petherick +gathered up any trifles she thought might come in useful, and the +beautiful font at the former church is said to have been taken from her. +One thing only was left to + + "_that ruined church + Whose threshold is the sacrificial stone + Of a forgotten people!_" + +Under the archway of the western door, a heavy-rounded lump, lies the +old stone. It was probably a source of pride to Constantine ap Llyr. He +had taken from the heathen their greatest treasure, their sacrificial +stone, which had been brought from a distance, for there is no stone of +that nature in the neighbourhood, and he had set it in his threshold +where it should be trodden underfoot of men. And now the old church and +the yet older stone lie alike forgotten, and there is peace. + +On Constantine Island--again only so-called--a little, very ancient +house was discovered some years ago. The walls were of slabs of stone +and the greatest height of the interior was 7 ft. From the discovery of +two hearth-stones, one inside and one on the outside of the building, it +was thought that the place was only used as a dwelling in bad or cold +weather, and that otherwise its prehistoric owner kept it as a +storehouse. Unfortunately the little ruin has been removed piecemeal by +the hungry visitor. + + +A FOGOU + +Not only are there many caverns along this coast, but several fogous or +artificial caves have been discovered. These fogous may have been used +for smuggling or as hiding-places in time of war, but the fact that some +are obviously connected with old cliff castles and strongholds, points +to a greater antiquity; in fact, they may have been prehistoric +storehouses. In a secluded valley, near Porthcothan, a little further +along this coast, is an interesting example. The cavern is 36 ft. long +and about 6 ft. high, the breadth being about 5 ft. The sides are lined +with rough stones, simply piled up, and the roof consists of stone +slabs. From this chamber a passage leads to another similarly +constructed. It is said to have been much longer, in fact over 1000 +yards, one gallery leading to Trevethan, whence another opened on to the +beach at Porthmear. + + +BEDRUTHAN + +To the south of Park Head, a fine cliff on which are several tumuli, is +the Church of St. Eval, the tower of which was so useful a landmark that +when it grew ruinous in 1727, some Bristol merchant subscribed towards +the rebuilding. It is near Bedruthan Steps, where a fine shore is strewn +with detached rocks and islands. One of the former is named "Queen +Bess," from a fancied resemblance, ruff, farthingale and all, to the +royal spinster; another "The Good Samaritan," because a vessel of that +name was wrecked there. This vessel had been an East Indiaman laden with +the silks and spices of a warmer clime, and a good deal of the cargo was +saved, so much indeed that nowadays when a lass finds her finery growing +the worse for wear, she says, "It is time for a Good Samaritan to come." + +On the cliff above Redruthan Sands is an ancient earthwork known as Red +Cliff Castle, which is supposed to have been British. It would be +interesting to learn whether it is in any way connected with the +numerous great caves which honeycomb its rock foundation. So far, +however, no fogou has been discovered here. + + +VALE OF LANHERNE + +From Mawgan Porth, the far-famed Vale of Lanherne lies inland some two +miles or so, a contrast to the rough wild coast and its splintered +rocks. Beyond the church and nunnery, in their peaceful setting of +small-leaved Cornish elms, among the branches of which the rooks build +above the little rippling stream, are the lovely woods of Carnanton. It +used to be said that amid all the religious communities represented in +Cornwall long ago, there was never a nunnery, but this is no longer the +case. In the reign of Henry VII. an Arundell of Lanherne purchased +Wardour Castle, in Wiltshire, and when his younger son Thomas, married a +sister of Queen Catherine Howard, the old man settled on him the Wardour +house and estate. In course of time the elder branch came to be +represented by a daughter only, and she marrying her cousin of Wardour +the estates were re-united. In 1794 Henry, eighth Lord Arundell of +Wardour, gave the old home of his race--it had been in the family since +1231--to some English Theresian nuns, who had fled from Paris in fear of +what was to come. The present house is not very old, though a part of it +dates from 1580, which part contains a secret chamber, wherein a priest +once lay concealed for some sixteen months. It is said that the silver +sanctuary lamp in the convent chapel has burnt continuously and that the +Roman Catholic services have been held without intermission since +pre-Reformation days. A picture supposed to be by Rubens, "The Scourging +of our Blessed Lord at the Pillar," is shown, also other reputed old +masters. Adjoining the house is a little garden, used as a cemetery, in +which three priests and several nuns have been buried, and which +contains a tenth-century four-holed cross of Pentewan stone, the shaft +of which is covered with interlaced work. + +Mawgan Church, which is close to the nunnery, is remarkably rich in +brasses, many of which are now attached to the old screen through the +shameful ignorance of a late rector. There were here formerly some +interesting palimpsest brasses of foreign workmanship, but large +portions of these have been removed by the Arundells--whom they +concerned--to Wardour Castle. On the south side of the churchyard is one +of those pathetic memorials only too common along this coast. The white +painted stern of a boat lies close to the convent wall, and on it is +inscribed: "Here lie the bodies of ... who were drifted on shore in a +boat, frozen to death, at Beacon Cove, in this parish, on Sunday, the +13th day of December, MDCCCXLVI." A beautiful Gothic cross of +fifteenth-century work stands at the west end of the church. It is the +most elaborate example of a lanthorn cross in Cornwall and contrasts +well with the restored granite cross, dating from the earliest period of +such monuments, which is to be seen in the additional churchyard. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The fairies seem to be identical with the Tuatha da Danaan of +Ireland. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE VALE OF LANHERNE TO HAYLE TOWANS + +_Hurling and St. Columb Major: Colan: The Gratitude of the Stuarts: +Trevalgue: A Good Centre for Crantoch, St. Cubert, and Trerice: St. +Agnes and the Giant: Portreath: the Bassets: Godrevy: Gwithian: The +Pilchards._ + + +HURLING AND +ST. COLUMB MAJOR + +At the head of the lovely Vale of Lanherne is a district which has long +been the centre for the old game of "hurling," and although football has +largely taken its place, it is still sometimes played on Shrove Tuesday. +The ball is smaller than that used for cricket, is light to handle, and +has a coating of silver. The one now in use is inscribed with this +couplet: + + "_St. Columb Major and Minor do your best, + In one of your parishes I must rest._" + +During the short reign of Edward VI. the ferment against the reformation +doctrines came to a head in Cornwall. The people rose under Humfrey +Arundel and marched to Exeter, only however to meet with a crushing +defeat. Four thousand were slain, and their leaders taken and hanged at +Tyburn. Martial law was then proclaimed, and Sir Anthony Kingston, +Provost Marshal, was sent down into Cornwall. Among other stories told +of him is that of his expeditious visit to St. Columb. Arrived at the +little market town he promptly seized "Master Mayow" and directed that +he should be hanged as a rebel. "Mistress Mayow, intending to plead for +her husband's life, spent so long a time in prinking herself that by the +time she reached the presence of the judge, her husband was dead." + +In the neighbourhood of St. Columb are nine menhirs in a line, called +the Nine Maidens, or in Cornish "Naw Voz"; also Castle-an-Dinas, a large +triple entrenchment on a high tableland enclosing six acres of ground +and two tumuli. Hither came the Royalist leaders in 1646 to discuss the +question of surrender, and here King Arthur is supposed to have stayed +when on pleasure bent. The waste land around is known as Goss Moors, +and there he hunted not only the red deer but the wolf. + +"The Green Book of St. Columb" is one of the historical treasures of the +county. It is so called from the colour of its leather binding, and is a +book of parish accounts dating from the reign of Elizabeth.[2] Curious +to relate, the rectory-house is surrounded by a moat. The church, which +is very large for Cornwall, contains some good brasses and bench-ends, +the brass of Sir John Arundell and his two wives (1545) being probably +the finest example in the county. This church has had hard usage. In +1676 a barrel of gunpowder which lay in the rood-loft was fired by some +mischievous boys. Three of them were killed, and a great deal of other +damage was done. Some few years later the tower was struck by lightning, +and the people, made wiser by misfortune, were careful to erect a less +lofty one, which, however, was itself struck a few years since. + + +COLAN + +Halfway between the two St. Columbs is the little church of Colan, which +contains the interesting brass of ffrancis Bluet, 1572, and Elizabeth, +his wife, with effigies of both and of their thirteen sons and nine +daughters. Below it is a smaller brass containing these words: + + "_Behold thyselfe + by us; Suche one + Were we as thow: + And thou in tyme + Shalt be: even doust + As we are nowe._" + + +THE GRATITUDE +OF THE STUARTS + +Lady Nance's Well was once the resort of pilgrims, who threw crosses of +wood into the water. If they swam all would go well during the ensuing +year, but, alas, if they should sink! Another well and the remains of +its covering building are to be seen at Rialton, a priory which once +possessed extensive rights, but of which only the ruined buildings +remain. They lie in a beautiful valley east of the village of St. Columb +Minor. At this latter the communion plate, which was presented by +Francis, second Earl of Godolphin, and bears his arms, is massive, the +flagon holding nearly a gallon! By the west door is a large painting of +the royal arms, presented by Charles II. to the parish, as marking his +sense of their loyalty to his father, and it might be as well to give +here the letter of thanks written by Charles I. to his loyal county of +Cornwall and still to be seen painted on wood in so many of the +churches. It was written immediately after the fall of Exeter. + + "C. R. To the inhabitants of the Co. of Cornwall. + + "We are so highly sensible of the merit of our county of + Cornwall, of their zeal for the defence of our person and + the just rights of our crown, in a time when we could + contribute so little to our own defence or to their + assistance, in a time when not only no reward appeared, but + great and probable dangers were threatened to obedience and + loyalty; of their great and eminent courage and patience in + their indefatigable prosecution of their great work against + so potent an enemy, backed with so strong, rich, and + populous cities, and so plentifully furnished and supplied + with men, arms, money, ammunition, and provision of all + kinds; and of the wonderful success with which it pleased + Almighty God, though with the loss of some most eminent + persons--who shall never be forgotten by us--to reward their + loyalty and patience by many strange victories over their + and our enemies in despite of all human probability and all + imaginable disadvantages; that as we cannot be forgetful of + so great desert so we cannot but desire to publish it to all + the world and perpetuate to all time the memory of their + merits and of our acceptance of the same; and to that end we + do hereby render our royal thanks to that our county in the + most public and lasting manner we can devise, commanding + copies hereof to be printed and published, and one of them + to be read in every church and chapel therein, and to be + kept for ever as a record in the same; that as long as the + history of these times and of this nation shall continue, + the memory of how much that county hath merited from us and + our crown may be derived with it to posterity. + + "Given at our camp at Sudeley Castle, 10th of Sep., 1643." + +Poor king! a pathetic letter, voicing only too plainly his expectation +of disaster and the surprise which the successes of his reckless gallant +Cornish subjects had caused him. + + +TREVALGUE + +Beyond St. Columb Porth lies the island known as Trevalgue. On the land +side this has six lines of entrenchment and about and upon it, as at +Trevose, lie a quantity of flint chips. These chips are mostly worked. +Here also are a large blow-hole and several interesting caverns. At +Glendorgal, further along the cliff, a barrow was opened some years ago +and found to contain a remarkable burial urn with two handles and on it +a rough chevron pattern. The two barrows on the summit of Trevalgue +were opened in 1842. They proved to contain a very ancient interment. +The country people declare them to be the graves of two kings who fought +all day long on the headland until at last each killed the other, and +was buried where he fell. + +"Burn me in my armour, all that is mine, and pile for me a cairn on the +shore of the grey sea, the memorial of a luckless man, that men unborn +may enquire concerning me."--BEOWULF. + + +A GOOD CENTRE FOR +CRANTOCK, ST. CUBERT, AND TRERICE + +Newquay, which is like the definition of a line--length without +breadth--is hardly either a nook or a corner. It is marvellously well +situated and consists mainly of large hotels. To stand on its beach, +looking outward along the hazy cliffs and over the sparkling water, +makes you feel as if you could forgive anything but the proximity of man +and his immediate works. However Newquay, like Bude and Tintagel, is an +excellent centre from which to go out and survey the land. + +Legend says--what doesn't legend say?--that Crantock was once a seaport +with seven churches, and "that the place was drowned in a deluge of +sand, brought upon the wings of the wind." That wind has certainly +blocked up the Gannel and put an end to any trade it may once have had. +This Gannel is a tidal river flowing through a gorge in the hills, and +it can be crossed at low tide by a plank bridge, while horse vehicles +splash through the ford. It is, however, a dangerous place, for the tide +flows swiftly and strongly, and lives have been lost through attempting +the crossing a little late. The place is said to be haunted by a +disembodied spirit, locally known as the "crake," the hoarse shriek of +which acts as a warning; and it is certain that no countryman who +fancied he had heard it would persist in an attempt to cross--although +it is five good miles round by Trevemper! + +Crantock was a college with a dean and canons at least as early as the +reign of Edward the Confessor, the buildings having stood in what is now +a walled garden, easily recognised by the old ship's figurehead which +serves as a lintel to its gateway. The collegiate church which stands on +a green slope looking towards the sea is one of the most interesting in +Cornwall. There are several remains of Norman work, as for instance the +inner doorway of the porch and part of the central tower arch and piers. +In the church are preserved several pieces of carved alabaster, the +intention of which is not known, and in the graveyard lies a large stone +coffin. The vicar brought himself into notice some time since by +objecting to the presence in his church of women who were not wearing +hats. Courage is a fine thing, but it is generally understood that the +difficulty nowadays is not to discourage people from attending service, +but to get them to come. + +It is not generally known that when the Black Death more--much +more--than decimated Bodmin, the bodies were carried to Crantock and +buried in a field on the north coast. Hundreds of years have passed, but +the surface of this piece of ground is still uneven, and the people +believe that if any one disturbs the earth the disease will break out +again. So antiquarians--in search of the lost city of Langarrow--beware! +The well of St. Carantocus is in the centre of the village, beneath a +rough covering of stone; but it cannot compare either for beauty or +renown with another well a mile or two distant. Under the high and +rugged cliffs of Holywell Bay is a spring of fresh water, approached by +a flight of fifteen worn steps that have been cut in the rock. Only +accessible at low tide, it is in a beautiful cave of many strange sea +tints, and the water drips from one lovely basin to another. In other +days mothers brought their deformed or sickly children to be dipped in +the wonder-working well--which, however, is now known to be of no +medicinal value. + +Between Kelsey Head and Penhale Point lies a wild region of blown sand. +Inland are many deserted mines, the ruins of these "knacked bals" giving +the strange countryside a deserted and desolate appearance, so that the +tapering spire of Cubert Church, which forms a useful landmark, is +welcome. Beyond this is more sand, the wide and dreary waste of +Perranzabuloe (St. Piran in the Sands). The early oratory of this saint +was buried by the blown sands, and so long lost that only the tradition +of it remained. Early in the last century, however, the winds uncovered +it again, and when the oratory was cleared from sand, the headless +skeleton of a big man was discovered beneath the altar. Now St. Piran +was the patron saint of tinners, and it was known that in 1281 the +church had possessed a box in which his head was kept and a hearse on +which his body was carried in procession; indeed, the commissary of the +Dean and Chapter of Exeter reported in 1331 that "the parishioners +continue as before to carry the relics of St. Piran in an unwarrantable +manner to various and even distant places," and as late as 1433 Sir John +Arundell bequeathed ten shillings "for enclosing the saint's head +honourably." If these matters are so, the skeleton discovered cannot +have been that of St. Piran, for the oratory was said to have been +buried in the sand about 900 A.D., and, as we have seen, the relics were +being carried about by the parishioners as late as 1281. + +The oratory, like that of St. Constantine, is concealed among the +sandhills, and by no means easy to find. At the edge of the dunes is a +heath upon which, north of St. Piran's Well, is the Round, a turfed +amphitheatre. This ancient open-air theatre has a rampart about 10 ft. +high, rising in seven steps, of which traces remain. The area will hold +about two thousand spectators, and in the middle ages miracle plays were +doubtless performed here. These plan-an-guare, or playing-places, were +probably constructed in very early times for games or contests after the +manner of the Romans, and seem to have been in use for the performance +of sacred dramas up to the fifteenth century or even later. At Perran a +ditch formerly ran across the floor, and it has been suggested that this +was for boats, &c., used in scenic effects, but it may have had other, +possibly grimmer, uses. + +Some three and a half miles south-east of Newquay is Trerice, another +home of the Arundells. They were truly a fighting race. John Arundell of +Trerice raised a body of troops during the wars of the Roses and fought +on the Lancastrian side, and a later John, nicknamed "John for the King" +and "Game to the Toes," fought with his four sons for Charles I., and in +his old age held Pendennis Castle after all the other forts in Cornwall +had surrendered. + +His ancient manor house came--as did most of the Arundell estates, for +they wedded cannily--by marriage. It was built in 1572 on the site of an +older house, the very solid masonry of which has been found under the +soil. Unfortunately the Arundells, ennobled after the Restoration as +Lord Arundell of Trerice, died out with the "Wicked Lord" in 1773. + +A minstrel's gallery extends the whole length of the hall, and a window +there has no less than 576 panes of glass. In another room is a table of +black oak, the top of which is made of a single plank, which table is +said to have been in the house three hundred years. But the glory of +Trerice has departed. Old Sir John lies buried at Cuby, and the +countrypeople talk of the last bearer of the name with bated breath. The +north wing of the house was pulled down after his death and all his +personal possessions burnt--but still the place remains untenanted. + + +ST. AGNES +AND THE GIANT + +At Perranporth the bewildering similarity of the dunes is broken for the +moment by cliff and cavern scenery. The little village lies high, and +some arched rocks are to be seen at low tide. Two miles to the west is +Cligga Head, a fine bluff rock, but though St. Agnes Beacon, a lofty +hill covered with blocks of granite, rises to 620 ft., these cliffs +cannot be compared for grandeur or majesty with those of the wilder +north. The Beacon, on the summit of which are tumuli, appears in the +stories of the Cornish giants, St. Agnes--or, as her proper name is, St. +Ann--proving one too many for a tiresome monster with the absurd name of +Bolster. She is said to have persuaded him to go in for a little spring +blood-letting and to fill one mine-shaft. But the shaft communicated +with the sea, so the accommodating giant bled to death. If this had +happened where the Red River runs out by Gwithian, the reason for the +legend would have been apparent, for that terrible little tin-stream +sullies the blue waters of the bay for miles around; but there is no +tin-stream by St. Agnes Beacon. Between Perranporth and the latter the +cliff-walk is spoilt by the extensive enclosures of a modern dynamite +factory. The house in which the painter Opie was born is on the way to +St. Agnes. He was the son of a carpenter, but going to London soon +attracted so much attention that he was known as the "Cornish Wonder." +Dying of overwork when forty-six--considering his age rather a curious +name to give the disease--he was buried in St. Paul's. + +After these few cliffs, the coast sinks again to meet the encroaching +sand. A hundred and twenty years ago the Upton farmhouse was suddenly +overwhelmed, the family, to escape suffocation, making their way out by +the bedroom windows. A few years later, the sands shifted, showing the +buried house, still standing as they had left it. These stretches of +sand are now planted with a rush, the _arundo arenaria_, which binds it +together, and in the course of time results in the growth of a short +sweet turf. + + +PORTREATH AND +THE BASSETS + +When the Spanish and French combined fleets threatened Plymouth in 1779, +Francis Basset of Tehidy placed two batteries of guns at Portreath, in +those days known as Basset's Cove. It has the reputation of being the +most unsafe harbour on the coast; and, as it lies at the bottom of a +valley, is reminiscent of Port Isaac; but its wooded hills are less +steep and more charming. + +A little inland is Tehidy House, the seat of the Bassets, a famous +Cornish family. The house once had parks and plantations of far greater +area than at present; they are said indeed to have reached to the foot +of Carn Brea. During the Civil Wars many a humdrum family flowered into +distinction. It was a chance to prove their mettle. After the battle of +Bradock Down the Francis Basset of that date was knighted, and a little +later we find him Sheriff of the county. His marriage was such another +as that of his friend, Sir Beville Grenville, and after Essex' troops +had surrendered to the King in 1644, he hurried to send his lady the +gracious news. "I write this on the saddle. Every friend will pardon the +illness of it, and you chiefly, my perfect joy. The King and army march +presently for Plymouth. Jesu give the King, it and all. The King, in the +hearing of thousands, as soon as he saw me in the morning, cried to me, +'Dear Mr. Sheriff, I leave Cornwall to you safe and sound.'" Before the +war Sir Francis had represented St. Ives in Parliament. In 1640 he +presented the town with a silver wishing cup, on which was inscribed: + + "_If any discord 'twixt my friends arise + Within the borough of beloved Saint Ies + It is desired that this my cup of love + To every one a peacemaker may prove, + Then am I blessed to have given a legacie + So like my heart unto posteritie._" + +No doubt he saw that his borough was mainly Parliamentarian and that +trouble was ahead, and took this sweet and pleasant manner of testifying +the unalterable nature of his personal sentiments. + +It is sad to think how many of the families that distinguished +themselves during those wars are now only a memory. + + "_The four wheels of Charles' wain, + Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning slain._" + +But though Trerice is empty, Lanherne a nunnery, and Stowe but a +farmhouse, there are Bassets still at Tehidy, and long may they +continue. + +The house contains some interesting pictures by the best of our English +artists, and a service of plate made from the silver found in Dolcoath +mine. + + +GODREVY + +After Portreath are several fine cliffs ending in Navax Point, the +further horn of which looks across the deep curve of St. Ives Bay. On an +island just off the shore is the white and black of Godrevy Lighthouse, +first built in 1857. On the day Charles I. was beheaded a vessel +containing his wardrobe and other furnishings was driven by a sudden +squall on the Godrevy Rocks. Fifty-eight persons were drowned, only a +man, a boy, and a dog reaching the little island. + + +GWITHIAN + +The shore here is strewn with the iridescent purple shells of a small +oyster, which lie gleaming like coloured pearls on the sand and weed. It +has a charming view, the broad bay with the narrow horn of St. Ives +running out on the south-west, and Carbis Bay--white houses and green +woods--nestling on the hillside. Among the sands to the left is another +half-buried, half-excavated oratory, and the little village of Gwithian. +In 1676 a woman named Cheston Marchant is said to have died here at the +age of 164. She is well known by tradition to the present inhabitants, +who relate that in her extreme old age--and she was for many years +bedridden--her teeth and hair were renewed; and that travellers who came +to see her out of curiosity frequently took back with them a lock of her +hair. + + +PILCHARD FISHERY + +The little ugly town of Hayle lies some miles away across the towans--as +the sandhills are called--and these same towans, with their soft sea +breezes, firm turf, and excellent bathing, must presently, one would +think, develop into the sort of watering-place agreeable to the mothers +of little children. Hidden among its trees in a dip of the land lies +Phillack with a badly restored church, and in the graveyard a good +two-holed cross; but as this bay is famous for pilchard fishing the main +interest lies towards the sea. + +The largest catch of pilchards recorded is that of a St. Ives seine. In +1868, at one "shot" this net took five thousand six hundred hogsheads, +or over sixteen million fish! + +The best account of the Hayle and St. Ives pilchard fishing is by Mr. H. +D. Lowry in "Chambers' Journal," but it is too long to quote and only a +resume can be given. + +As soon as the fish are expected the "huers" (from hue and cry) take up +their position at the white house on Carrick-gladden. It is their +business, looking down on the water from above, to watch for the +characteristic reddish shadow that indicates the presence of fish. To +the men in the boats this shadow is invisible, and when the cry of +"Heva" [found] re-echoes from the heights, they shoot the nets as +directed from above. Nor are the directions only shouted. The huers +hold, one in each hand, a big iron ring covered with a white cloth. This +is sharply distinct "against the background of heather and sad-coloured +grass." In olden days furze was used, and the white disks are therefore +still spoken of as "the bushes." Very simple is the code of movements. +To send the boats east, the disks are moved from west to east, and vice +versa, while an emphatic downward movement gives the exciting order to +"shoot the seine." And the size of those seines! It takes thirty-five +men, each three or four yards behind his nearest fellow, to carry the +whole length of the net. + +When the fish are in and the order has been given to close the seine, +the huers raise their speaking trumpets anew with a cry of "Bloucers!" +This brings a number of fresh people on the scene, whose business it is +to secure what the nets have captured. The warps, great ropes, fastened +to the ends of the seine, are brought back and attached to windlasses, +and by this means the net is slowly drawn in till, even at high tide, it +would still touch bottom and afford no way of escape to the imprisoned +fish. Great black pilchard boats are dragged by four horses from their +accustomed resting-place and towed out towards the seine. The fish are +then dipped out by the basketful and tipped over into the boat, which, +when filled, contains over thirty hogsheads--say one hundred thousand +fish! When the boats come slowly in, laden with their molten silver, +carts are backed down to the water and loaded. "Jousters," who retail +the fresh fish through the country, buy their stock, the carts carry the +fish to the cellars that they may be salted, and in an hour or two every +street in every town for miles round will be resounding with the cry of +"Fresh Pilcher, Pilcher, Pilcher!" + +While on the subject of fish, it may be mentioned that the biggest +edible crab caught off the coast of Cornwall weighed 13 lbs., and the +largest conger 120 lbs. Is it possible they caught and weighed the +sea-serpent by mistake? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Appendix A. See pp. 199-200. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LELANT TO PENZANCE + +_Gold in Cornwall: Knill's Monument: The Antiquities of the Extreme +West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs: Dolmens: Oratories: Superstitions: +St. Ives: Wesley: Irving: A Ripe Old Age: The Mines: Sancreed and St. +Buryan: Lighthouses: Whitesand Bay: The Land's End: Mousehole and Dolly +Pentreath: Newlyn: Penzance._ + + +From Hayle to Marazion on the south coast is four miles--the narrowest +part of the peninsula--and a railway runs from sea to sea. With a deep +curve, however, the road goes on to low-lying Lelant (the valley +church), which is traditionally said to have once been a large village +and port, but to have been reduced to its present inconspicuousness by +the drifting of sand into the haven. Parts of the church are Norman, and +over the south porch stands an eighteenth-century copper sundial, on the +pierced gnomon bracket of which is a quaint representation of Time and +Death, a skeleton bearing an hour glass and a dart. + +Among other antiquities discovered here was a large colt having in it +some small bars of gold the size of a straw. A farmer found it embedded +in ashes, and lying about 2 ft. below the surface. Gold has often been +found in Cornwall, but always in small quantities--usually in grains +from the size of sand to that of a pea! The largest piece ever found was +said to have weighed down eight guineas in the scale. + + +KNILL'S MONUMENT + +Not far from Lelant is Worwas Hill, on which a certain John Knill +erected a mausoleum. By some mischance the gentleman was buried in +London, but by his will he directed that every five years L5 was to be +equally divided among ten girls, natives of the borough and daughters of +seamen, fishermen, or tinners, each of them not exceeding ten years of +age, who should between ten and twelve o'clock of the forenoon of a +certain day, dance for a quarter of an hour at least on the ground +adjoining his mausoleum and, after the dance, sing the 100th Psalm. +Alas, for the vanity of human hopes! Every five years the little girls, +gaily be-ribboned, dance in the presence of the local notabilities, +while the one thing that was to have given the ceremony weight and +interest--the body of John Knill--is elsewhere. + + +THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE EXTREME WEST: +CLIFF CASTLES: FOGOUS: MENHIRS + +This narrow neck of land shuts off the small rounded end of the +peninsula, a part that is peculiarly rich in prehistoric remains. It is +as if the old forgotten peoples had been driven back and back, race +after race pushing the one before it into the sea, but each, before it +passed, leaving its footprint on the granite. On every headland are +cliff castles--Cape Cornwall, Ballowal, Chun--the most remarkable being +that of Treryn Dinas, a stronghold with a triple vallum and fosse which +can only be approached by a narrow ridge and which consists of a huge +pile of rocks jutting from a turf-clad neck of land. In contrast with +these are the subterranean passages and chambers (fogous) at Bolleit, +Trewoofe, and Pendeen, the last-named said to be haunted on Christmas +morning by a white-robed lady with the stem of a red rose between her +lips. Above ground are a number of stone circles and solitary monoliths, +from which, or from the cairns, comes the phrase "to raise a stone to +his memory." The monoliths are known as the Pipers and the Blind +Fiddler, the circles, as at Dawns Maen and Boscawen Un, as the Merry +Maidens; and the legend with regard to them is always the same--that the +Pipers played on a Sunday, and that the Maidens danced, their punishment +approximating, in a more lasting form, to that of Lot's wife! Here, too, +are the remains of ancient villages and beehive huts, and at one +place--Chapel Euny--is a subterranean structure consisting of three long +passages and a beehive hut, while at Bosporthennis is a specimen of the +beehive hut so good that it is said to be the best in England. This +district of heath and lonely moorland is so sparsely inhabited that the +little old ruins have been left as they were until the antiquarian came +and dug, unearthing the poor treasures of a simple state of +civilisation, the spindle-whorls, the bone needles, the flint spear and +arrow heads, and the coarse black pottery. The coast scenery of this +part is the finest to be seen for miles, and that not so much on account +of the grandeur of the cliffs as of the tumbling seas, that roll in from +the Atlantic; and days might be spent wandering over these high lands +from castle to castle and from stone to stone, trying to discover the +reason, whether sepulchral or religious, that the monoliths were set +erect; to guess why those strange underground passages were dug and +walled, and what practical need they served; and what was the meaning of +the various earthworks and entrenchments. The people to whom they needed +no explanation have vanished, leaving only riddles behind, riddles that +not the wisest among us, not the most enlightened, not the youngest, is +able to solve. + + +DOLMEN: ORATORIES: +SUPERSTITION + +We do at least know that the dolmen was raised above a burial, in the +one instance of Zennor above two. In the dolmen proper, the supporters +of the great capstone are columns and not merely slabs enclosing the +space. Dolmens are found not only in Cornwall, but along the west coast +of Europe and the northern coast of Africa, also in Palestine, India, +and Japan, and appear to be the work of a seafaring people. Their date +is said to be 2000 B.C., the age when bronze was beginning to replace +stone and when the Swiss lake villages were being built. Three of the +early Christian Councils regarded them with suspicion and ordered their +destruction on the ground that they were objects of reverence to the +Celtic Christians. At Lanyon, on Boswavas Moor, not far from the Mulfra +Quoit, is a fine specimen. Unfortunately the great capstone, which was +18 ft. long and under which a man on horseback could ride, slipped from +its supports in 1815. Lieutenant Goldsmith presently dislodged the Logan +stone at Treryn, a mass of granite weighing sixty-five tons; and being +obliged to replace it, the tackle he used was further utilised to +replace the Lanyon capstone. To make this easier, however, the three +uprights were cut down, and the cromlech now to be seen is by no means +so imposing as in its prehistoric state. This seafaring folk, who left +their tiny mark on the surface of the earth and then faded into +obscurity, builded better than we with all our modern appliances! + +It was unusual for the early Christians to order the destruction of +monuments of this kind. As a rule they accepted and turned them to +account. We have examples of this in the chapel at Porthcurnow, one of +those very early buildings, formed of a double square, such as lie +hidden among the shifting sands of Perran and Gwithian, and which was +built on a spot already sacred as a place of burial; while on Chapel +Carn Brea, which rises to a height of 660 ft., with Bartine at its +shoulder still higher, is a cairn which held the bones of a Stone Age +chieftain. Above them was a dolmen, and above that relics of British and +Roman times, the whole being crowned by a Christian oratory! + +It is hardly a matter for surprise if the people who dwell among these +relics of the immemorial past still retain some of the superstitions of +their forefathers, if their wells still have miraculous qualities and +the crickstone a strange virtue. To them witches are as real as +wreckers, and they cannot believe that the "little people"--once perhaps +inhabiting those subterranean passages and huts--are gone for certain, +and for ever. Get on the right side of an old miner and he will tell you +of the "nuggies," of their silver anvils and their parlours, of how he +has heard their little picks at work, and of how he has hoped all his +life to one day catch sight of a nuggy slipping into its parlour, when +he will, of course, follow and "strike it rich." + +The housewife, on persuasion, may be got to tell how when she (or her +mother) went in the morning to fill the kibble at the well she saw the +pisky stealing away over the dewy fields by the first grey glimmer of +light. Possibly he had taken eggs from her hen-roost, or if she were a +wise woman and had baked him a hearth cake and left with it a sup of +milk, he had perhaps "redded up" the place for her. It would be a matter +of give-and-take, but the people in the low grey houses, with their +thick walls and stone-held thatch, would be able to more than guess +which mound it was into which the piskies vanished and which were the +fairy rings about which they danced at dusk or in the moonlight. So wild +was the country and so much does one piece of granite look like another +that there were hiding-places in plenty, nooks that at a later date +would be used by the smugglers and other law-breaking gentry, corners +behind which the small race could lurk when the larger, more dangerous +humans came striding by. Over against these tales of the "little people" +must be set the stories told by those little people themselves, the +stories of the giants, of the bigger folk whose terrors they magnified a +hundredfold that their babies might be thus persuaded to keep out of +danger. And because after all there must have been intermarriage, the +occasional courting of pisky and giant, both sets of stories have been +handed down from one generation to another. The Cornish are not a booky +folk, they have not produced a great literature, and even nowadays they +read little but their Bibles. Such a people would be likely to remember +and treasure up the stories handed down from mother to child. They are, +moreover, very social. In the loneliest parts there is seldom an evening +when the labourers do not drop in at each other's cottages for a +"crack," and every now and then the soft deep voices utter a word that +has dropped out of the common talk, but which for them still has its +right meaning, and the fathers tell over again the stories their fathers +told to them. Some of the stories have come to the surface and are known +to the "foreigner" (as every one born east of the Tamar is called). We +have, for instance, that of the Zennor mermaid, which has taken such +hold on local thought that it is even carved upon a bench-end in the +little grey church. It was the story of a squire's son who sang in the +choir and sang so beautifully that Sunday by Sunday a mermaid +(Cornish--merrymaid) crept up from the sea to hear him. Like Hans +Andersen's story she had found her prince, but unlike that story she in +the end persuaded him to go away with her; and as he never returned, the +wiseacres shook their heads and thought of him as lying drowned under +the blue waters. + +The antiquities of this, the extreme west, and the resulting strange +traditions and beliefs are not the only matter of interest in this part +of the world. Superimposed upon the survivals of a far-off time are +those of the last thousand and odd years when Cornwall was struggling +with the disabilities of its exposed position, when the Danes fell on +the coasts burning and harrying, and corsairs carried off the poor +fishermen and sold them as slaves. In 1635 a Turkish pirate ship was +brought _nolens volens_ into St. Ives Bay, and the peaceful folk, not +immediately recognising her build, were surprised to hear sounds as of +guns and firing. The firing was not at those on shore, it was in fact +entirely confined to those on board, and it was as if the ship were +divided against herself. In the end the truth appeared. The pirate had +captured three small vessels of Looe and Fowey and seized their crews. +These men, however, were not of a slavish kind. Rising in a body, they +knocked the captain overboard, drove the Turks below and set sail for +St. Ives. Having a fair wind they made it safely; though the pirates, +also a hearty folk, spent their time firing at them through the timbers +of the deck. + + +WESLEY + +We warrant those pirates had much the same reception at the hands of the +St. Ives men as was dealt out to John Wesley when, in course of time, +that small neat gentleman made his way into the district. The Cornish +seem to have been--let us use the past tense--own brother to the +Irishman in their love of a riot, any sort of a riot, for any reason or +none; and Wesley got more than a taste of mob violence. Yet in the end +he could say: "Here God has made all our enemies to be at peace with us, +so that I might have preached in any part of the town. But I rather +chose a meadow, that such as would might sit down, either on the grass +or on the hedges--so the Cornish term their broad stone walls. Well-nigh +all the town attended and with all possible seriousness. Surely forty +years' labour has not been in vain." + +So at last the little man was made welcome and could feel that he had +roused the fishing-town from its long religious lethargy. I wonder +whether in his strenuous life, and he came twenty-seven times to St. +Ives, he ever found time to wander into the old church, study the +wonderful carving of its bench-ends, and take pleasure in its ancient +communion plate "and its pair of collecting basins with handles," or +whether he was only occupied with things of the spirit? + + +IRVING + +Inland from St. Ives lies the ugly mining village of Halsetown, where +Sir Henry Irving spent the years of his childhood. His mother was a +Cornish woman of the Behenna family, and to Halsetown she brought him to +stay with an aunt. The uncle was captain of a local mine--"captain" +meaning any sort of an overseer from the manager to a man with only a +boy under him! Here the lad ran wild with his cousins. "At any rate," +said he in after years, "Halsetown gave me a good physical start in +life. I attribute much of my endurance of fatigue--which is a necessary +part of an actor's life--to the free and open and healthy years I spent +there." Nor are these many hours of sunshine and the salubrious air only +good for youth; life lengthens here unnoticeably until it has reached +three figures, and even then shows a strength that is amazing. Mrs. +Zenobia Stevens, who was buried at Zennor in 1763, aged 102, was tenant +for ninety-nine years of the Duke of Bolton. On the expiration of her +lease, being then in her hundredth year, she went on this matter of +business to the Duke's Court at St. Ives; and it is said that she +excused herself from accepting a second glass of wine on the plea that +it was growing late and she had not only some way to go, but had to ride +home on a young unbroken horse. + + +THE MINES + +Among these rough cliffs are sudden smiling valleys, but the moors are +disfigured by a number of mine workings that have ceased to pay, and the +ruins of which add to the desolation of the scene. A little above St. +Just are three celebrated mines: Wheal Owles, into which the sea broke +and which is now only the tomb of the eighteen men who were then working +in her; Botallack, visited by King Edward and Queen Alexandra in 1865, +while Prince and Princess of Wales, but no longer working; and Levant, +exploited for tin, copper, and arsenic, and still employing several +hundred men. The workings of this mine run for nearly a mile under the +sea, and the men say that on stormy days the noise over their heads is +terrific. These men live at St. Just, a mining town in the old church of +which are some frescoes--St. George about to slay the dragon before +Cleodolinda and her comrades, and Christ surrounded by the symbols of +various trades. Of greater interest perhaps is the Plan-an-Guare, 126 +ft. in diameter and with the remains of six tiers of seats. This rural +amphitheatre is still sometimes used as a place of assembly and was once +no doubt utilised for miracle plays, but who constructed it and for what +purpose is lost in the mists of antiquity. Not far from the +Plan-an-Guare is Kenidjack Cliff (the howling wind), a "hooting cairn" +regarded by the superstitious country side as haunted by more than +natural sounds. During the construction on it of butts for rifle +practice, some twenty to thirty pieces of pure copper were found under +stones which were probably the remains of an old building. The purity of +the copper points to this hoard having been the property of a founder of +tools or weapons belonging to the Bronze Age, and no doubt this founder +was a workman of some importance in the district. The story connected +with him has been forgotten, the fact that he ever existed has passed, +but about the place still clings that old fear of the weapon-maker, +whose every-day task it was to forge the mysterious givers of death. + + +SANCREED + +It is a far journey from a "hooting cairn" to the pettiness of the +social struggle, even though the struggle was for a precedence which has +passed out of fashion. In Bishop Sparrow's report of July 1671, on +Sancreed Church, a curious state of affairs came to light, for the +parish was quarrelling over precedence in church sittings! "One John +Adams of mean estate and fortune" had actually seated himself higher up +than "those who are of the Twelve of the parish and their wives," and +great had been the scandal. Also one Francis Lanyon, who had married +"into a very worthy family," his wife, if you please, being niece to +Colonel Godolphin, was without "a convenient seat." Sancreed has an old +rood screen (or rather part of one), of which Sedding says: "I know of +no finer specimen elsewhere in the county. Like so much old Cornish work +it is more than local; it is purely parochial." + +Its neighbour, St. Buryan, is also celebrated for its screen, which was, +however, seriously injured by the vicar in 1814. From what remains, it +would appear to have been exceptionally beautiful, carved, coloured, +gilt, and of opulent and bold workmanship. This church stands high, 400 +ft. above the sea; and about a mile distant are the remains of what is +believed to be the oratory of St. Buryan. The story goes that first +Egbert in 813 fought a battle here at Bolleit (place of blood) and later +Athelstane in 926. There is no historical evidence for either battle, +but tradition is a smoke under which a little flame may generally be +found. At any rate, a battle was fought and the conqueror, standing on +this high land, saw afar off the Scillies, and realised that there were +yet worlds to conquer. So pleased was he, that he vowed, if successful, +to found a college for priests on this high land, and so the church of +St. Buryan came into being. + + +LIGHTHOUSES AND +WHITESAND BAY + +A mile and a half off the Land's End is the Longships Lighthouse. Built +on a rock 70 ft. above low water and itself 55 ft. high, its top is yet +often buried in the spray and the lanthorn broken. Further out, on the +Wolf Rock, is another lighthouse; while off the Seven Stones, dangerous +rocks between the mainland and the Scillies, is a lightship moored in +forty fathoms of water, but in such an exposed position that it has +before now been driven from its moorings. + +But there were neither lighthouses nor lightships on these rocks when +Athelstane landed at Whitesand Bay on his return from the conquered +Scillies. Even now it is an ugly bit of water to traverse, and it must +have been worse then. He was probably glad enough to see the great +stretch of white sand with Sennen Cove lying in the midst thereof like +an emerald set in silver. Later the bay acquired a bad reputation. So +far from the madding crowd, so secret and so storm-beaten, it gave +evil-doers a sense of security. Who would dare to venture after them +among these rocks and clefts? Corsairs, pirates, smugglers, each in turn +made use of the white beach. Thither came Perkin Warbeck in 1497 with +his four little barques and six score men; thither John Lackland when +seeking to dispossess his trusting brother of the realm; thither +Stephen, the oath-breaker, who was, however, none so bad a king. Rough +are the winds and rougher still the seas that beat upon this lovely bay, +and it is a little puzzling why these and other personages should have +chosen it as a landing-place. + + +THE LAND'S END + +Alas for romance, this same Land's End is but a low and unimpressive +rock which, like the blunt head of some titanic animal, thrusts a grey +muzzle into the water. It is only 60 ft. high, yet this is the last +stone, the last bit of land, the ultimate west, this west that appeals +so strongly to the Cornishman abroad: + + "_There's never a wave upon western beaches + Falls and fades to a wreath of foam + But takes at the last a voice that reaches + Over the distance and calls me home._" + + LOWRY. + +The Land's End, strange low headland, has seen plenty of stirring days, +from the time when the Danish long-ships came creeping round to harry +Cornwall and Devon, to that later date when the great storm and the +descendants--probably--of those very Danes sent the great Armada fleeing +up the narrow seas. Turner came here for the colour and the wild blue +seas, and Tennyson to wonder whether his Arthur had ever been so far +south. The rock is of split and tumbled granite, one of the few +instances in the duchy where that stone comes into contact with the sea; +and if Penwith, as all that part is called, really means the "wooded +headland," that barren rock and rough water must once have been far +enough apart. A little south of the Land's End is the finer rock of +Pordenack, and all round this southern point the bays and coves are +charming, the cliffs fine and the caverns and rocks numerous and +fantastic. Tol-Pedn (the holed headland--so called from a huge +blow-hole) has its Witches' (or Maggy Figgy's) Chair and shelters the +pretty hamlet of Porthgwarra, the inhabitants of which are darker than +the majority of Cornishmen. Tradition is in favour of a wrecked Spanish +galleon. Not, we suppose, the spectre ship of Porthcurnow, a +neighbouring cove. There a black square-rigged vessel sails up the beach +and up the combe, making no difference between land and water, and +presently vanishes like mist--and that in the valley the Eastern +Telegraph Company has made its own! The hamlet is interesting on account +of its name. That distinguished scholar, Canon Isaac Taylor, says: +"Cornwall, or Cornwales, is the kingdom of the Welsh of the Horn," but +others think the name is from the Kernyw, the tribe who lived in these +parts, they being called the Kernyw Gaels, to distinguish them from the +Gaels of Wales and those of Brittany. Be it as it may, in Porthcurnow we +have an interesting survival of the old tribal name. + +The church of St. Levan is on the hillside in a deep valley and beyond +its admirable carving, its screen with a geometrical pattern of leaves, +its font of a stone not found in the neighbourhood, and its unusual holy +water stoup--at the north and east entrances to the church are the old +lych stones used as resting-places for funerals! There is also a cleft +boulder of granite about which it was prophesied that when a pack-horse +should ride through "St. Levan's stone" the world would come to an end, +and the fact that such handy material for building has been left unused +shows that for some reason it must have been held in veneration. + + +MOUSEHOLE AND +DOLLY PENTREATH + +Mousehole is said to have been the last place at which Cornish was +spoken, and this has resulted in the legend of Dolly Pentreath. She was +a fishwife who, in course of time, came on the parish; and it was +believed, not only that she lived to a great age, but that she was the +last person to speak the ancient language. Against this, the facts must +be set forth. Dorothy Pentreath is given in the parish register as born +1714 and died 1777; while Wm. Matthews, who also spoke Cornish--speaking +it with his cronies--and lived at Newlyn, did not die till 1800. In +spite of this, however, two credulous persons--Prince Lucien Buonaparte +and the Vicar of Paul--raised a stone to her memory in 1860, and +referred in particular to the old age which was not hers and the +language which she certainly spoke, but was not the last to speak. + +"Here lieth interred Dorothy Pentreath, who died 1778, said to have been +the last person who conversed in the ancient Cornish. + +"Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the +land." + +But if Mousehole has no right to its legend, its own age cannot be +called into question. In 1347 it was recognised as a Cornish port, while +in the time of Henry VII. a lay subsidy roll shows its inhabitants to +have been nearly equal in number to those of Penzance. + +Moreover, it has had its vicissitudes. An ancient prophecy had declared: + + "_They shall land on the rock of Merlin + Who shall burn Paul, Penzance, and Newlyn._" + +and, as a matter of fact, one July morning in 1595 four Spanish galleys +carrying two hundred men crept up under cover of a fog and, landing them +on a rock that bore the name of Merlin, proceeded to verify the +prediction. The Spaniards must have been surprised at the lack of +opposition with which they met, for though Sir Francis Godolphin--called +"the great housekeeper" from his hospitality--did his utmost to rouse +the people, the fact that the ancient prophecy was being fulfilled +before their eyes had a paralysing effect. So much so that the towns +mentioned in the prediction were duly and effectually burnt before a +sufficient posse could be raised to drive the Spaniards back to their +galleys. Yet we have it on Bacon's authority that the Cornish were no +cowards: "These Cornish are a race of men stout of stomach, mighty of +body and limb, and that live hardily in a barren country; and many of +them of a need could live underground, which were tinners." Nevertheless +the Spaniards did their work so thoroughly that the Keigwin Arms, at +that date a manor-house, was the only building left standing. This house +is interesting as a specimen of Tudor architecture, the walls being +several feet thick, while the timbers were said to have been grown in +the forest, now submerged, that gave St. Michael's Mount its old name of +"the hoar rock in the wood." This tradition suggests a greater antiquity +for the house than that of Elizabeth's reign, or that it was built on +the site of some older building. + + +NEWLYN + +Mousehole, like Newlyn, has a fine fishing-fleet, but even when these +picturesque boats are out of sight, there is a flavour in the air, a +_soupcon_, a _je ne sais quoi_! A blind man indeed might be expected to +know how the little ancient town contrives to pay its way! The artists +of Newlyn seem to have risen superior to such a trifle. To the painter, +of course, beauty is only of the eye and, after all, the smell of oil +paints---- + +It is wonderful how attractive Cornwall seems to artists of both pen and +brush. No village so poor, none so utterly desolate, but it can point to +its artist and its cross. Not, of course, that there is any connection +between artists and crosses. The broad outlook of the former may have +been something of a trial, but it has come to be looked on as of no +importance, just a bit of harmless eccentricity. + + +PENZANCE + +Not far from Newlyn is a place that was once a chapel-of-ease to Madron +and had no church of its own. It was represented to the authorities, +however, that if the people went daily to their parish church at +Madron--daily, mark you--the town would be in peril of burning "by the +French and other enemies in time of war." Naturally the church was +built. That good, that punctilious, that saintly town where all the +inhabitants went every day to church is none other than--Penzance. And +except that it is a good centre, there is very little else to say about +it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES TO ROSELAND + +_The Land of Lyonesse: The Scillies: The Law of Wrecks: Mr. Smith: The +Admiral's Honour: Ding Dong Mine: St. Michael's Mount: An Old Ceremony: +China Clay: Wrecks: Germoe and Breage: Pengersick: Flora Day: The Loe +Pool: Serpentine: Gunwalloe and Mullion: The Lizard: Bells: The Helford +River: Mawgan: Roseland._ + + +THE LAND OF +LYONESSE + +If you ask the people they will tell you that without doubt the piece of +water between the south of Cornwall and the Scillies was once dry land. +If you ask the educated stranger he will hum and haw, and say it is +probable, perhaps even likely, and will quote the Saxon Chronicle to the +effect that "the sea broke in upon the land and swallowed up many towns +and a countless multitude of people." As the old record gives no hint as +to where this catastrophe happened, more than one writer has taken it to +justify a belief in the Land of Lyonesse. Oh for a Passmore Edwards +embued with curiosity rather than philanthropy, who should by dredging +operations settle the vexed question for good and all! + +The fishermen, looking down through the clear waters on a still day, +declare they can make out the ruins of old churches and houses, and that +their nets have brought them time and again articles of household +economy, pieces of broken doors and roofs and windows. Moreover, when +the great wave broke hungrily over the low-lying land a Trevelyan saw +the curling breakers and setting spurs to his swift white horse was +carried at a mad gallop to Perranuthno. The people show you the cave in +which he and the trembling horse took refuge till the wild turmoil +should have died down. With what a horrified curiosity the man who lived +must have looked out of his cave, watching till the great wave should +subside, watching for the reappearance of all those farms and villages +that only that morning had been sunning themselves in the warm light. +The forest, too, those acres of beech trees stretching out from Marazion +and surrounding St. Michael's Mount, that "hoar rock in a wood," what +had become of them? The stormy autumn day must have closed down upon +him, still looking, wondering, and hoping; but when once more the sun +rose it was upon a wide stretch of waters, with the Scillies sparkling +in the distance. Between them and the land was only sea--and a people +overwhelmed and lost and soon to be forgotten, a people who but +yesterday had gone about their daily tasks as unsuspecting as the rest! +There was only Trevelyan left to say it was the "Judgment of Heaven," +and he, poor soul, appears to have been too shaken, or too little of a +priest, to do so. + + +THE SCILLIES + +It used to be said that when the Almighty made Ireland he had left a few +handfuls of mud. He threw them into the sea and the result was the +Scillies. The proof thereof is that, like Ireland, the Scillies have no +snakes! + +They may be only a few handfuls of stony mud, but they are lovely +islands, though for those whom salt water makes queasy, a little +difficult to reach. There is, in fact, a most depressing story told of a +lady who was so ill during the four hours' passage from Penzance that +when within sight of the islands but before she could be landed she +actually died of heart failure. + +The Scillies number about 145, twenty-four of which are cultivated, but +only five inhabited--St. Mary's, Tresco, St. Martin's, St. Agnes, and +Bryher; while Scilly, the islet which has given its name to the group, +is an unimportant rock near Bryher. + +On St. Agnes is the Well of St. Warna, a saint who protected her +proteges from being wrecked and drowned. She has fallen into disrepute, +however, owing to the whole population of her island having been wrecked +and drowned on their way home from the neighbouring island, whither +they had been to church! What a shock to believers in St. Warna. If only +it had been a case of bad boys bird's-nesting on the Sabbath or of merry +maidens dancing to the music of the blind fiddler, or east coast men +fishing on Sunday, but--respectable citizens on their way home from +church! + + +THE LAW OF WRECKS + +Ocean currents run strong here. It has long been mistakenly supposed +that the Gulf Stream affects the climate of Western Cornwall. Needless +to say, the true Gulf Stream does not come within many miles of the +duchy; instead, a surface current of warm water is carried +north-eastward from hot latitudes, and the ameliorating effects on +flowers and plants and vegetables are the same. This warm current does +not, however, ameliorate the storms, and in spite of four lighthouses +the wrecks are numerous. In 1707 four ships of the Navy were lost here +and 2000 men. The islands once had a reputation not only for smuggling, +but for wrecking, and for the kind of wrecking that gives no help "to +those in peril on the sea," but rather the other way about. Not that the +people were altogether to blame. The law of wrecks was largely +responsible for the brutalities undoubtedly indulged in towards +shipwrecked crews, for it stated definitely that wrecks should be the +property of the governor of the isles only "if none of the crew remained +alive." + +In our gentle days it is hardly believable that the whole populace +should have seen to it that a wreck had no survivors. Themselves at the +mercy of the waters, one might have thought such constant peril would +have bred a fellow-feeling, but the contrary seems to have been the +case. In the Tresco Gardens is a terrace devoted entirely to the +figure-heads of vessels that have been cast on these shores. Each sorry +relic represents its quota of human lives, and, remembering this, it is +as if you were in some sort of concentrated graveyard where the bones of +the poor dead are not even decently covered and concealed from sight. + + +MR. SMITH + +But laws were presently amended, and then both wrecking and smuggling +failed to yield a livelihood. When Mr. Augustus Smith leased the islands +from the Duke of Leeds, the present representative of the Godolphins +(Dolphin Town is named after them), the people were in a parlous +condition. With no industries beyond fishing and kelp-gathering, their +poverty had grown with their families. Mr. Smith, however, was a kindly +autocrat. He settled among his people at Tresco Abbey, insisted on +education, sent the girls to service on the mainland and the lads to +sea, built new roads, and improved the quay. One further step was +needed, and this was presently taken by Mr. Trevellick, of Rocky Hill, +St. Mary's. Collecting a few bundles of the narcissi that bloomed +abundantly about the cottages, he sent them to Covent Garden Market. +Amazing to the man who had spent his days amid a profusion of such +flowers was the return they brought. The news spread, and so did the +cultivation of the blooms. From January to May every steamer now carries +tons--as much sometimes as thirty--of flowers on their way to be sold, +and that although many of the islands are treeless sandhills! As Mr. +Salmon says, however: "The distance, the cost of carriage, and the +competition of the untaxed foreigner are the difficulty. The trade has +been hit very hard by foreign imports and by the crushing cost of +freights. Vegetable cargoes cost less from the shores of the +Mediterranean than they do from Scilly; the foreigner is given every +advantage in his efforts to undersell the Briton, and the Briton, +though fighting at home, fights with one hand tied behind!" + + +THE ADMIRAL'S HONOUR + +The history of the Scillies is much what its exposed position would lead +you to suppose. Olaf of Norway came marauding here, was converted, and +is said to have founded Tresco Abbey--the authentic history of which, +however, does not begin till later. Athelstane for the love of fighting +presently descended on them; and when the fortunes of royalty were at a +low ebb Charles, afterwards Charles II., sought refuge there, and lay in +great straits not only for the comforts but even for the necessities of +life. The Parliament, unable to let well alone, sent a fleet to surround +the island where he lay, but a storm--"Judgment of Heaven," cried the +Royalists with one voice--dispersed the ships. Thinking the islands an +insecure as well as an uncomfortable refuge, however, the Prince left +them at the first opportunity, setting sail for Jersey on his way to the +greater hospitality of France. After that they became the prey of every +strong man who fancied them; and so dangerous a nest of privateers did +they become, that Dutch commerce suffered, and Admiral Van Tromp offered +to help in their reduction. His offer, however, was not accepted, the +English having learnt the danger of calling in foreign assistance. +Admiral Blake was sent to teach the Scillies their duty towards +Parliament, and in May 1651, Sir John Grenville--whom we last saw as Sir +Beville's stripling son--obtaining freedom and retreat for himself and +garrison, surrendered the islands. At first Parliament refused to +recognise these favourable terms, but Blake was as fine a gentleman as +Grenville himself, which is saying a great deal, and he declared that if +not allowed to keep his word he would not keep his office. So Grenville +was free to depart, and went over seas to join his Prince and share in +his poverty and wanderings. + +The Scilly Isles are very lovely, perhaps the loveliest part of this +lovely county. The climate is mild and equable, the constant breeze +prevents too great a heat, while the rigours of winter, thanks to the +warm sea-water, are unknown. Seabirds breed on the great rocks, the +earth is of a marvellous fertility, and beyond, far below the horizon, +the next land is that of another island--Newfoundland! + + +MOUNT'S BAY + +The sea has encroached within late years on the eastern shores of +Mount's Bay, but the harbourage is good, and a fine fleet of +fishing-vessels sails from here. There are echoes of unpleasantness with +regard to Sunday fishing on the part of strangers. As the Newlyn man put +it: "Sunday fishing is wicked, and what's more it spoils our market." + + +DING DONG MINE + +At the head of the bay is Gulval, near which lies the Ding Dong Mine, +famous as the oldest in Cornwall, so old indeed that it has long since +(1880) retired into private life. About seventy years since, a number of +Roman and Alexandrian coins of the third and fourth centuries were found +near this mine. It is quite possible that the Romans themselves worked +Ding Dong and Ting Tang, and other of the old mines. A stone inscribed +with the names of Constantine and his son is still preserved at St. +Hilary: "Imperatore Caesare Flavio Valerio Constantino Pio Caesare +nobilissimo divi Constantii Pii Augusti Filio." As Constantine the Great +was Caesar in 306 and became Augustus in 307, this inscription fixes the +date of the stone as belonging to the first of those years. When +draining a piece of land between Penzance and Marazion, the workmen came +upon about a thousand Roman coins of that date; indeed, under stones or +buried in urns various large hoards of brass, copper, and lead money +have been discovered by old tinworks, and every now and then fine gold +and silver coins of Trajan, Nero, and the later emperors. + + +ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT +(CORNISH DINSUL)[3] + +St. Michael's Mount, which is principally composed of granite, is 190 +ft. high and about a mile round. It is said that the members of the St. +Aubyn family, to whom it now belongs--having been sold to them by the +Bassets--are not considered able to look after themselves in the water +until they have swum completely round the Mount.[4] + +However imposing the great rock looked when the waves from which it +emerged wore the summer green of beech-leaves, it could not have had so +great a dignity as now. Fortified from an early date, it soon fell into +the hands of the Church, and was presently garrisoned by monks. But so +fine a stronghold could not be held sacred to spiritual warfare, and in +1191 a party of soldiers disguised themselves as pilgrims and, so +obtaining admission to the fortress, turned on their unarmed hosts and +expelled them. From that date the place took part in any little war that +might be convulsing the rest of the country, and even started--as in +1548--little wars and rebellions of its own. Henry VIII., who had a most +fatherly care for his coast defences, erected batteries here; and +during the Civil Wars it belonged in turn to whichever party had the +upper hand. Its history, indeed, is a continual change of owners, of +fierce sieges, stratagems, plunderings, and hairbreadth escapes. Now it +is an old grey rock, which after many vicissitudes has fallen asleep in +the sun. The only very ancient part still in existence is the piece of +Saxon walling pierced by the principal doorway, and the wonder is, not +that there is so little, but that one stone should have been left upon +another. + + +AN OLD CEREMONY + +In this part of the country the name Godolphin occurs over and over +again. Tresco Abbey was granted to them at the Dissolution, but they +lived principally at Godolphin House in Breage, and the old saying ran: +"A Trelawny was never known to want courage, a Grenville loyalty, or a +Godolphin wit." + +The Tudor house to the north of Godolphin Hill (500 ft.) is now a farm. +The panelled rooms, a hall, and some great windows are all that remain +of the former mansion, but a ceremony, which originated in 1330, is +still observed on Candlemas day. "Once a year for ever the reeve of the +manor of Lamburn shall come to Godolphin, and there boldly enter the +hall, jump upon the table, and stamp or bounce with his feet or club to +alarm and give notice to the people of his approach, and then and there +make proclamation aloud three times, 'Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! I am the reeve +of the manor of Lamburn, in Perransand, come here to demand the old rent +duties and customs, due to the lords from the said manor of Godolphin," +upon which notice there was forthwith to be brought him 2_s_. 8_d_. in +rent, a quart of beer, a loaf of wheaten bread, and a cheese worth +6_d_., "which the reeve having received he shall drink of the beer, +taste the bread and cheese in the place, and then depart, carrying with +him the said rent and the remainder of the viands." + +One of the two oldest crosses in Cornwall is in the churchyard at +Godolphin. In the opinion of stone-masons it has been "bruised out," +probably with wood, and not cut with a metal tool. It may indeed have +come into existence before metal was used. + + +CHINA CLAY + +Tregoning Hill, a little south of Godolphin, was the place where Wm. +Cookworthy, a druggist, discovered in 1745 a clay from which porcelain +could be made, and from which Plymouth china resulted. This first +discovery of china clay has led to that great development of the +industry, of which St. Austell is the centre. + + +WRECKS: +GERMOE AND BREAGE + +Before the lighthouse on the Wolf Rock was built (1871) this rocky coast +was the scene of many a wreck. In 1873 the Vicar of Mullion wrote: "In +six years and a quarter there have been nine wrecks, with a loss of +sixty-nine lives, under Mullion Cliffs, on a bit of coast line not more +than a mile and a half in length." It must be confessed that the +inhabitants of Germoe and Breage had an unenviable reputation as +wreckers: + + "_God keep us from rocks and shelving sands + And save us from Breage and Germoe men's hands._" + +But those days have passed away, though Germoe still has a reputation of +a kind. It is said that once the men had good singing voices, but were +so proud of them that the voices failed; while another distich shows the +estimation in which they held themselves: + + "_Camborne men are bulldogs, + Breage men are brags, + Three or four Germoe men + 'Ull scat'um all to rags._" + +Local jealousies between neighbouring towns are by no means rare in +Cornwall. For instance, there is the old enmity between Zennor and St. +Ives. It is said that the fishermen belonging to the latter were greatly +annoyed one season by the ravages of the hake among the mackerel. They +therefore caught the largest they could, whipped him soundly, and +restored him to the water--_pour encourager les autres_. + +When a Zennor man wishes to be disagreeable to a native of St. Ives, +therefore, he says: "Who whipped the hake?" + +But Zennor, one might think, would have hesitated to throw stones, for +it is locally known as the place where the cow ate the bellrope, the +neighbourhood being so barren and rocky that the straw bellrope was the +only provender the poor animal could find--which is suggestive of the +Cornish vet. who sent in his bill "to curing your old cow till she +died." + + +PENGERSICK + +One more local story before we go on to Helston, and that because the +retort is so neat and the lady, as usual, had the last word. Pengersick +Castle is a ruin which, when habitable, was occupied by a man and his +wife whose early regard had changed to hatred. Their children were grown +up and married, and they had nothing to do but brood upon their mutual +dislike, until one day it occurred to both that the world would be a +brighter and better place if the other were out of it. No sooner said +than done. That day at dinner the good man poured his wife a glass of a +rare vintage, and after she had drunken told her with satisfaction that +he would now see the last of her--as the wine had been poisoned. + +"The wine? Ah, yes, and the soup, too," quoth she, "and as you drank +first, my love, the pleasure of seeing the last of you will be mine." + + +FLORA DAY + +Helston, the little bright town built crossways on the side of a hill, +is near the spring of the Kelford River and at the head of the Loe Pool. +It had an exciting time in 1548, when the Cornish feeling against the +new doctrine of the sacrament found vent in the murder, which took place +inside the church, of Wm. Bray, the royal commissioner. In pursuance of +his duty he was pulling down images and possibly treating what was +sacred in the eyes of the people with only scant reverence. Be that as +it may, Wm. Kiltor, a priest of St. Keverne, attacked and slew him, to +the secret--not too secret either--joy of the people and the scandal of +authority. + +The eighth of May in Helston is Flora or Furry Day, and is possibly a +relic of the old May Day saturnalia. The young people go (_fadgy_) into +the country singing: + + "_Robin Hood and Little John, + They both are gone to the fair, O! + And we will away to the merry greenwood + And see what they do there, O!_" + +They return garlanded with flowers and dance through the houses and +gardens of the town, singing the Furry Song. The dance follows a set +formula, the procession going in at the front door and out at the back, +and being supposed to bestow some sort of benefit upon the houses thus +visited. The refrain of the song, to the numerous verses of which +topical allusions are often added, is as follows: + + "_God bless Aunt Mary Moses[5] + With all her power and might, O, + And send us peace in Merry England + Both by day and night, O._" + +Charles Kingsley was at the Helston Grammar School when the headmaster +was Derwent Coleridge, son of the poet, and the second master was the +Johns who wrote "A Week at the Lizard." It is unlikely the scholars were +allowed to take part in the Furry Dance, but he may have watched it time +and again, and given his schoolboy contribution. + + +THE LOE POOL + +This is a beautiful stretch of fresh water that winds like a river +through the forked and wooded valley and widens as it comes within sight +of the sea, from which, like the Swan Pool--a smaller lake on the other +side of the promontory--it is separated by a bar of sand and shingle. +Until recently the Mayor of Helston was wont to present two leathern +purses containing three half-pence each to the lord of Penrose and ask +leave to cut through the bar and release the surplus waters. The old +cutting of the Loe Bar used to tinge the sea with yellow as far as the +Scilly Isles. Now, however, the quantity of the water is regulated by +sluices and the ceremony has fallen into disuse. + + +SERPENTINE + +After the more exposed northern and western shores of Cornwall, the airs +of the south are balmy. There is no fear, as the farmer put it, that +"the bullocks will be blown off the cliff pasture into the sea, the +wheat off the land, and the turnips out of their sockets." In the Morrab +Gardens at Penzance palms grow in the open, while in Falmouth strange +spiky, spiney plants, whose home is in desert sands far south of +Britain, are to be seen. But the Meneage (stone), as the Lizard district +is called, though mild, is exhilarating, and on Goonhilly Downs the wind +can be sufficiently keen. This district is of a peculiar geological +structure, consisting of a moderately elevated tableland, deeply carved +at the edges by valleys and richly wooded except at the southern +extremity. The rocks are generally dark-coloured and of fine grain, and +everywhere they are worn by the action of the water into fantastic and +beautiful forms. They are well known all the world over as serpentine, +and it gives the traveller a strange feeling to see the valuable rock +being used as building material and even for the repair of roads. A +considerable trade is done in polishing this stone, especially at the +Lizard, and the very sands are dark with the detritus. It causes a +sensation of vast wealth to go on to the beaches and from the scattered +millions select your own pebbles for the polisher. The more red in your +chosen fragments, the more iron, and the harder they will be to polish; +while a handsome piece of entirely red ore may be altogether beyond +their powers, for serpentine is a rock not a pebble, and the local +appliances are crude. The Lizard is also the paradise of the botanist, +for the Cornish heath (_erica vagans_), the sea asparagus, the henbane, +and many other plants grow abundantly in this district. From Helston to +the Lizard is a pleasant scrambling walk along the fine black cliffs. At +Gunwalloe the church rises from the edge of the cliff, its belfry being +built into the solid rock about 14 ft. away. In Mullion Church is some +admirable wood-carving, and on the west face of the tower a well-cut +crucifixion, and at Kynance are some curious rocks known as "The +Bellows" and "The Post Office," which are as interesting to the +geologist as they are wonderful to the ordinary visitor. + + +GUNWALLOE AND +MULLION + +A curious story is told of a wreck at Gunwalloe, where the St. Andrew, a +treasure-ship belonging to the King of Portugal, was driven ashore. The +Portuguese had entered into an agreement with the local notabilities for +the disposal of their goods, when down rode three Cornish gentlemen at +the head of their retainers and carried off the spoil. Unfortunately for +them the Portuguese had an Englishman on board, and he promptly brought +the matter before the courts and caused an inquiry to be made. But the +treasure, as then enumerated, must have been enough to make the mouths +water not only of the local authorities, but of any starveling gentleman +to whom news of its arrival had come; for it consisted of 8000 cakes of +copper, eighteen blocks of silver, and a chest containing L6000, besides +pearls, precious stones, chains, brooches, jewels, tapestry, rich +hangings, satins, velvets, and four sets of armour. + +Just below Gunwalloe are the fine Halzaphron Cliffs. A ship was wrecked +here about a hundred years ago, and the bodies from it were said to have +been the last which were refused sepulchre in consecrated ground. It +makes one's blood boil to think of the barbarities that from the +beginning have been perpetrated in the name of religion. There was +actually a law on the Statute Book which refused such burial to +strangers, on the score that they might not have been Christians. +Christians forsooth--pretty Christians they who framed that law! + +Another lingering superstition is connected with the Rev. Thomas Flavel, +who was buried at Mullion 1682. The man was a noted ghost-layer, and was +said to charge five guineas every time he officiated in this way. He was +also an enthusiastic Royalist, and Walker thus describes him: "A +venerable old gentleman; and lookt the more so in those Times for that +he had vowed never to cut off his Beard till the Return of his Majesty +to his Kingdom, by which time he had gotten a very long one." His +epitaph is curious: + + "_Earth, take mine earth, my sin let Satan havet, + The World my goods; my Soul, my God who gavet; + For from these four--Earth, Satan, World, and God, + My flesh, my sin, my goods, my soul I had._" + +On the cliffs by Mullion and above Poldhu (black pool) is the earliest +of the permanent wireless stations in England. It forms a prominent, +strange but not altogether ugly feature of the landscape--the people +think it brings bad weather--and is at any rate in strong contrast to +the deep and glorious coves by which in switchback fashion, now cliff, +now coombe, the barren dusty headland of the Lizard (chief's high +dwelling) is reached. + + +THE LIZARD + +This is the southernmost point of England, a blunt rounded headland, +lying crouched over the deep water, eternally--by day and by night--on +the look-out. When the first lighthouse was built here, at the charges +of Sir John Killigrew in 1619--note that Godolphin land has given place +to the country of the Killigrews--it was disapproved of by the Trinity +House. They thought it would serve to light pirates and foreign enemies +to a safe landing-place! + +To the east of Penolver Point the coast curves sharply in towards the +north and is honeycombed with curious caves and blow-holes, Dolor Hugo +(from fogou--a subterranean passage), the Devil's Frying Pan by +Cadgwith, Raven's Hugo, and others. Here are bays, picturesque with +rocks and far from the madding crowd, far also from a railway station, +Helston being the nearest; but that is no matter, the ten-mile drive +over Goonhilly Downs being well worth the extra weariness and cost. + + +MEDIAEVAL BELLS + +Cornwall has about fifty bells, dating from before the Reformation. As +they had been used to summon the people to rebellion, orders came from +London that all bells except "the least of the ring" were to be removed +from the churches. This, however, was a command that the recipients +thought would be more honoured in the breach than the observance; which +is why there are so many good examples, as for instance, at +Landewednack, of mediaeval bells. This the most southern parish in +England has a curious church tower, the admixture of light granite and +dark serpentine giving it a chequer-board appearance. It was visited by +the plague in 1645, and a hundred years later the burials were disturbed +in order to make room for some shipwrecked sailors--whose Christianity +one supposes to be vouched for--when to the horror of the inhabitants +the plague at once reappeared. Since then they have let sleeping dogs +lie. + +Landewednack claims to be the last place at which a sermon was preached +in Cornish (1678), the incumbent being the Rev. Thos. Cole, who lived to +the great age of 120. This fine old gentleman is said to have not long +before his death walked to Penryn and back, a distance of thirty miles! + +Past Cadgwith, Kennack, Coverack, Porthoustock, and Porthalla, +well-known fishing villages, and all romantically situated, but not +otherwise interesting, the wanderer comes by way of St. Keverne, a big +church with a fresco unique in Cornwall as giving the Greek form of the +St. Christopher legend, to Nare Point and the mouth of the Helford +River. It is a question which is the more beautiful, this ten-mile long +creek with its bold scenery or the softer, more feminine Fal. It rises a +little above Helston, at Buttris, flows down to Gweek, where it broadens +into an estuary and applies its waters to the nourishing of many +oysters--which oysters were unkindly described by Lord Byron, when he +stayed at Falmouth, as tasting of copper! + +About a mile from Gweek is the "Tolvan," a large irregular slab of +granite, near the centre of which is a hole. Weakly children were +formerly brought to the "crickstone" and passed at sunrise, nine times, +through this hole. The custom having fallen into disrepute, however, the +Tolvan now forms part of a cottage fence. + + +MAWGAN + +Mawgan Church, which lies between Gweek and Trelowarren, the seat of the +Vyvyans, has a brass to one of the Bassets inscribed: + + "_Shall we all die, + We shall die all, + All die shall we, + Die all we shall._" + +which quaint lines are also found on a tombstone at Gunwalloe and +elsewhere. Trelowarren itself has some interesting pictures, in +particular the Vandyke of Charles I. presented by Charles II. in +acknowledgment of Sir Rd. Vyvyan's services to his father. This family +also possesses the pearl necklace of Queen Henrietta Maria, in which +she sat for the painting now at Hampden Court. + +But of all the charming spots up these rocky and wooded creeks commend +me to Condora, for there in 1735 were found twenty-four gallons of Roman +brass coin. Think of it, dream of it, penniless man. Not a few coppers, +but twenty-four gallons! + +What a beautiful sound have some of these Cornish names! Rosemullion +Head juts out over the Helford River on the north, and above it we have +Rosemerrin and the Swan Pool, and not far off St. Anthony in Roseland. +It is true that Rhos only means a heath, and that we are on the borders +of the gorse-grown districts, known as Roseland; but the word has +different associations for the "foreigner," and whatever the true +meaning, the lovely name brings to memory the thought and the scent and +the colour of the lovelier flowers. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Dinsul. There is good reason to think Sul = the Sul of Bath "Aquae +Sulis," and this again the "Sally, Sally Waters" of our nursery game. +Many of her attributes have been taken over by St. Keyne. + +[4] Appendix B. See pp. 201-2. + +[5] Mary Mowes, _i.e._ the Virgin. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM FALMOUTH TO TRURO + +_The Rise of Pendennis Castle: Sir John Arundel: The Killigrews: Sir +Walter Raleigh: The General Post Office and Falmouth: Penryn: The Fal: +The Stannary Courts: Old Truro: Foote and Lowry._ + + +THE RISE OF +PENDENNIS CASTLE + +When Henry VIII. took thought for the coast defences of his semi-island, +Falmouth was one of the places that benefited. At St. Mawes and +Pendennis batteries were erected and in Budock Church is the brass of +John Killigrew, with this pertinent inscription: "Heere lyeth John +Killigrew Esquier of Arwenack ... he was the first Captaine of Pendennis +Castle, made by King Henry the eight and so continued untill the nynth +of Queene Elizabeth, at which time God tooke him to his mercye, being +the yeare of our lord 1567. Sr. John Killigrew knight his sonne +succeeded him in the same place by the gift of Queene Elizabeth." Henry +VIII.'s batteries were not the first fortifications erected on this high +point of land, which is literally the "headland fortress." There were +formerly three lines of entrenchment, due to an older architect than the +Mr. Treffry, of Fowey, who was responsible for this and other of the +Cornish defences. Indeed from its position--it is almost surrounded by +water--it was marked out both as a refuge and a point of vantage, and +was probably fortified before history was more than stories handed down +from father to child, or sung by wandering bards who had been given an +honoured place by the hearth-fire. + + +SIR JOHN ARUNDEL + +When the war broke out between Charles I. and his Parliament, Henry +Killigrew was a member of the House. "I shall provide a good horse, a +good buff coat, a good brace of pistols, and I doubt not I shall find a +good cause," quoth he when Essex was appointed General and one and +another were saying what troops they could raise; and so went out and +rode post to Falmouth and plunged devotedly into the gallant struggle. +He would not take any command, though he was in every action and always +where there was the most danger. But it was an Arundell, not a +Killigrew, who held Pendennis for the King, old John Arundell of +Trerice, who as a young man had been at Tilbury when Queen Elizabeth +reviewed the troops; and who was known as "Game to the Toes," "John for +the King," and "Old Tilbury." To him came the unhappy Queen, Henrietta +Maria, rested at Pendennis for a moment, and then winged her way back to +France. A couple of years later her son, Charles, embarked here for the +Scilly Isles; and shortly after, the news reached Arundell that after +the conference on Tresillian Bridge the King's forces had been +disbanded, and that the long struggle was over. Across the water Sir +John grimly watched the surrender of St. Mawes, and when he found there +were malcontents among his men, gave them a safe conduct and let them +go. For himself, had he not fought at Edgehill, Lansdowne, and Bradock +Down? Summoned to surrender he said he had but a few more days to live +and he would not stain them with dishonour. To Fairfax he replied: + + "Col. John Arundell to Sir Thomas Fairfax. + + "Sir,--The castle was committed to my Government by his + Majesty, who by our laws hath command of the castles and + forts of this kingdom; and my age of seventy summons me + hence shortly. Yet I shall desire no other testimony to + follow my departure than my conscience to God and loyalty to + his Majesty, whereto I am bound by all the obligations of + nature, duty, and oath. I wonder you demand the castle + without authority from his Majesty; which if I should + render, I brand myself and my posterity with the indelible + character of treason. And having taken less than two + minutes resolution, I resolve that I will here bury myself + before I deliver up this castle to such as fight against his + Majesty, and that nothing you can threaten is formidable to + me in respect of the loss of loyalty and conscience. + + "Your servant, + "JOHN ARUNDELL, + "of Trerice. + + "_18th March, 1646._" + +Stout words from a stout heart; but though the castle, closely invested +by land and sea, held out for five lean months and only surrendered on +honourable terms, yet surrender it did; being the last place in England, +with the one exception of Raglan, so to do. And on August 17, 1646, the +garrison marched out "with their horses, complete arms, and other +equipages, according to their present or past commands or qualities, +with flying colours, trumpets sounding, drums beating, matches lighted +at both ends, and bullets in their mouths." So great a stir had Sir +John's defence made that not only did the House of Commons vote large +sums to the messengers who brought the news that he had yielded, but +September 22, 1646, was by their order set apart as a day of public +thanksgiving for the surrender "of the garrisons of Pendennis and four +other castles." + + +THE KILLIGREWS: +SIR WALTER RALEIGH + +Meanwhile Henry Killigrew, after the yielding of Pendennis, had been +accidentally wounded in the head by the bursting of a carbine, while his +kinsman's house in the neighbourhood had suffered from the exigencies of +war. They were a stirring and a striving family, the Killigrews. The +name Falmouth, in those days merely meant the land at the mouth of the +Fal; and on this land, when Sir Walter Raleigh, just home from an +expedition, stayed with the Killigrews at their house of Arwenack, there +was only one other building large enough to accommodate his men. The +Killigrews wished to develop their property. They said it was absurd +that vessels had not a nearer port than Penryn or Truro; and Sir Walter +having just put in to this fine natural harbour, saw the golden side of +their suggestion; and cared not a jot about the loss of trade to those +other towns. But Truro, Penryn, and Helston, alive to their own +interests, had long thrown their weight into the opposition scale; and +London was some seven days' journey to the east. Therefore the building +operations of the sturdy Killigrews had been brought to a standstill. + +It is easy to picture the scene. Sir Walter, after a good dinner, washed +down by wines that had paid no duty, sitting at his ease before the +windows of the great house, the panorama of hills and land-locked +harbour stretching to the horizon, and the Killigrews pointing out its +capabilities as a trading-centre and naval base! The great man listened, +was convinced, and, presently moving on to London, laid the matter +before his Sovereign. + +It was the days of interest and influence--those days which, of course, +are past and over, so that even kissing no longer goes by favour!--and +the Killigrews found Sir Walter's advocacy gave them all they wanted, +leave to build their big nest in their own way. From that date the +opposition that had been so industriously fostered by the loyal +burgesses of Truro, Penryn, and Helston ceased. Why Helston should have +taken part is somewhat puzzling, but she may have been willing to help a +pair of old friends against that "grove of eagles." At any rate the +three towns were unable to accomplish anything further, and could only +look on with glum faces while Falmouth went ahead. Greatly to their +indignation Charles II., who remembered what good friends the Killigrews +had been to him and his father, granted it a charter in 1661. As soon as +they thought it would be safe, the Mayor of Truro asserted his claim to +jurisdiction over the port and harbour of Falmouth, by sailing round the +harbour to the Black Rock. + +According to local rhyme, however, the settlers in their new town were +not lacking in sturdiness: + + "_Old Penrynners up in a tree + Looking as wisht as wisht can be, + Falmouth boys as strong as oak + Knocked 'em down at every poke._" + +So the burgesses of Falmouth took the matter before the courts and +succeeded in establishing the claim of their town to a free control over +the waters of its harbour. + + +THE GENERAL POST OFFICE +AND FALMOUTH + +In spite of the Killigrews, however, Falmouth remained small and +insignificant until the General Post Office chose the port in 1688 as a +station for its newly established mail boats. The next few years was the +time of its greatest prosperity, and Flushing--the other side of Penryn +Creek, and said to be so named from a colony of Dutch merchants--became +its fashionable suburb. Travellers came from all parts of England to +embark at this port, warships were stationed here, and the wives of +naval officers and others made it their home. The stir and bustle of +life has, however, departed with the service that created it; and the +fine harbour now only rocks on its broad bosom some little cargo +steamers and a fleet of fishing-boats. Arwenack House, said by some to +have been burnt by Sir Peter Killigrew in order that it should not +enable the Parliamentarians under cover of its walls to attack +Pendennis, was never rebuilt in its former splendour, and the ground +that once constituted its park is now laid out in town plots. Portions +of the old building are, however, still to be seen in Arwenack Street. + + +PENRYN + +At the head of the creek is Falmouth's ancient rival, the town of +Penryn. A Killigrew and his wife--strong men are sometimes gey ill to +live with--fell out and the dame, being divorced, sought refuge in +Penryn. The Mayor of this place still has in his possession a silver cup +and cover given to the borough by this lady. On it is the inscription: +"1633.--From Maior to Maior, to the Towne of Penmarin, when they +received mee that was in great misery.--Jane Killygrew." + +Penryn, still busy at its wharves with the exporting of granite, is the +site of Glasney College, where most of the old miracle plays performed +at the various plan-an-guares throughout the county were written. But +the main industry of the Roseland towns and villages is connected with +mines and quarries, the acme of arid desolation and dreariness being +reached at Gwennap. The mines there are of great depth, have been worked +for centuries, have produced in tin and copper during the last hundred +years at least ten million pounds sterling, and are now all abandoned. +Imagine the grey wilderness of stone and rubble, of old workings and +knacked bals. It rivals the sterility of the Black Country, but that is +teeming, while here in very truth is nothing but a littered and +abandoned waste. + + +THE FAL + +Between Falmouth, which, as Byron said, "contains many quakers and salt +fish," and Truro lies the lovely wooded estuary of the Fal. Once +navigable to Tregony, large boats can now only go as far as Ruan +Lanihorne. At the latter place the river meets the tide. After passing +Tregothnan (Lord Falmouth's seat) it joins the St. Clement and Truro +Creeks, and finally, after forming by its twists and turns a series of +land-locked lakes of surpassing beauty, it broadens into that fine sheet +of water which is known as Carrick Roads. The way to see it properly is +to hire a suitable row-boat, stock it with provisions, and go up the +silent reaches till you discover some flat brown rock. There boil a +kettle gipsy-fashion and linger or go on, as the fancy takes you, up +this creek or that--they are equally beautiful--and so winding in and +out come at last to the capital city. + +Queen Victoria, whose footsteps along the south of Cornwall can be +traced by various brass plates, was delighted with it. "We went up the +Truro, which is beautiful, winding between banks entirely wooded with +stunted oak, and full of numberless creeks. The prettiest are King +Harry's Ferry and a spot near Tregothnan (_i.e._, Feock), where there is +a beautiful little boat-house." + + +THE STANNARY COURTS + +When Richard, King of the Romans, was created Earl of Cornwall, he, to +encourage the working of the mines--which brought him revenue--granted +the tinners a charter. By this, except in cases that might affect lands, +life, or limb, they were exempt from all jurisdiction but that of the +Stannary Courts. No laws were to be enacted but by the twenty-four +stannators chosen from the four stannary districts; and there was no +appeal from the Stannary Court, generally held at Truro, except to the +Duke or Sovereign in Council. These laws were concerned with maintaining +the purity of the tin, which was tested by cutting off a coign (corner) +and stamping the freshly exposed surface. The towns privileged to +perform this and collect the dues payable to the earldom (later duchy) +were called "coinage towns." It is said that some of their laws were +sufficiently grim, as for instance that which compelled an adulterator +of tin to swallow three spoonfuls of the molten metal. The last Stannary +Parliament was held at Truro in 1752, the courts being finally abolished +in 1897. + + +OLD TRURO + +Truro was the town in which many of the local gentry spent the winter. +This custom of the counties, if it made for insularity rather than a +cosmopolitan culture, has given many of our old market-places, round the +square of which the commodious homes were built, an air of quiet +dignity. The gentry themselves, old people at their cards and +supper-parties, young people at their routs and balls, must have found +it more enjoyable--all friends and neighbours and very often +connections--than the present-day fashion of a dip into the whirlpool of +London. + +Truro is a cathedral city, with a brand new cathedral, which some have +been found able to admire, but about which the note struck is generally +apologetic. The old houses are empty, simplicity has become complexity, +and the local gentry, those that are left, go up to town "for the +season." Yet these changes have taken place within the memory of man, +and there are those who can talk of the old state of affairs. Life was +even more a matter of compromise then than now. People lived simply and +did not exact a high standard of comfort. Not even in Boscawen Street +was gas or water laid on, but in the midst thereof was a pump, and +thither came the pretty serving lasses to fill their red earthenware +pitchers. Monday then, as now, was washing day, and in one godly +household of which I wot the maids went early to bed on a Sunday night +that as soon as midnight struck they might go forth and bring in enough +of the precious fluid to fill tubs and coppers against the morn. It was +believed that otherwise what with the competition of all the other maids +in Boscawen Street, they would not be able to obtain a sufficiency. In +those days sanitary arrangements were of the simplest and healthiest +description, and as for baths--well, there was the wooden tub, big, +round, and two-handled, the wooden tub and Saturday night! + + +FOOTE AND LOWRY + +In households such as this were born Foote, the comedian, in 1721, and +Lowry, Cornwall's greatest poet, in 1867. Of the former we have the +story that when a wealthy man gave him a very small glass of wine, at +the same time boasting of its age and quality, he, glancing at it, +remarked, "My lord, surely it is very little for its age?" Of Lowry we +have no humorous stories. Cornwall has not produced many great men--some +gallant soldiers; in Sir Humphrey Davy a man of science; the painter +Opie; and in Lowry, as every one must acknowledge who has read "The +Hundred Windows," a poet! It will be a distinct loss to the nation if, +in the hurly-burly of modern life, the clear true note of this Cornish +singer should be lost. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM ST MAWES TO LISKEARD + +_St. Mawes and Gerrans: Tregony and Probus: Cornish Mutton: A Story of +Cornish Vengeance: Mevagissey: Antiquarian Finds: The Capital of +Clayland: Cock's and Hen's Barrow: Carglaze Mine: Luxulyan: The Civil +Wars: Lostwithiel: Lanhydrock House and Restormel Castle: The Fight on +St. Winnow's Downs: The Gallants of Fowey: Place: Lanteglos: Polperro: +Stories of Talland, Killigarth, and Trelawne: The Giant's Hedge: +Boconnoc: Liskeard._ + + +ST. MAWES +AND GERRANS + +The "free and sworn burgesses" of St. Mawes, numbering about twenty, +formerly returned two members to Parliament; now it is a tiny sleepy +fishing port with many quiet places of retreat up the winding creeks, +the sort of place for a honeymoon couple, "the world forgetting by the +world forgot." + +According to tradition Gerrans embodies the name of Gerennius, King of +Cornwall, of whom the Welsh Bards sang: + + "_In Llongborth Geraint was slain, + A brave man from the region of Dyvnaint--_" + +follows a grimly suggestive line: + + "_And before they were overpowered they committed slaughter._" + +Near Trewithian is an ancient earthwork called Dingerein, and believed +to be Geraint's dwelling-place, the "Dyvnaint" of the song. When he died +his body was carried in a golden boat with silver oars across the bay to +Pendower beach, and buried with the boat on the hill above, while over +it was raised the cairn known as Veryan Beacon. It was believed also +that some day he would rise up in his armour and sail away in that +glorious boat. This tradition has been found in several places. Men who +lived with a vital awe-inspiring king found it difficult to believe that +such a flame could be extinguished. He had vanished into the surrounding +darkness, but none the less, thought they, he must be somewhere, +somewhere whence he could, nay surely would, return. This belief would +probably be fostered by his successor. If he were a child or weakling, +the people would hesitate to be disloyal, for fear of what would befall +them when the mightier father returned. + +The great tumulus at Carne was opened in 1855, and within was found a +kist-vaen of unhewn stones, covered with limestone boulders; but in the +kist were only ashes, pieces of charcoal, and burnt dust. Objects of +gold are rarely found in barrows; but in the neighbourhood of the +Cheesewring was a persistent story that at some former time a golden cup +was actually dug out of a barrow near by. In course of time the +tradition was found to be true, and the cup is now in the king's +collection. + + +TREGONY AND PROBUS + +A little inland from these shores that reverberate with tales of long +ago is Tregony, once celebrated for its boys' school, to which the Truro +lads went daily in that great Cornish institution, a bus. It is a most +ancient place, supposed to have been a Roman station; and when Edward I. +gave Parliamentary representation to the country, Tregony was allowed to +send two members, and did so in 1294. Many years since, a large stone +coffin was dug up near the town, but the measurements given should be +received with caution. + +Probus, about four miles north-west of Tregony, has a church of +exceptional beauty. The tower is of St. Stephen's stone and the highest +in Cornwall, being 123 ft. to the top of the pinnacles; it is of +elaborate and beautiful workmanship, while there is good +sixteenth-century carving in the church and an ancient stone altar +_mensa_. Not far from Probus is Wolveden, generally called Golden. Here +Francis Tregian sheltered his chaplain, Cuthbert Mayne, in 1577, the +cell in which he was concealed being still in good case, as well as a +fine Tudor doorway and chimney piece; but the old chapel, though still +standing, is part of the stables. The punishment for sheltering a +wandering Catholic priest was heavy. Mayne was discovered and hanged at +Launceston, and Tregian was thrown into prison, where he languished for +eight and twenty years. And all this miserable waste of life because +Henry VIII. chose to think differently to his ancestors on "matters +appertaining to religion." + + +CORNISH MUTTON + +These Roseland parishes, with their undulating heaths and sweet short +turf, are famous for their mutton. The meat generally in Cornwall, after +the uncertainty over chilled beef and New Zealand lamb in other parts of +the country, is an agreeable change. Nor is it dear. For visitors the +prices of food have gradually risen, but not very long ago butter was a +shilling a pound, mackerel a penny each, milk twopence a quart, and +little fat pilchards six--seven--eight a penny! + + +A STORY OF +CORNISH VENGEANCE + +Not far from each other stand the remains of two great manor houses, +Caerhayes Castle, demolished in 1808 and rebuilt, and Bodrugan, now a +farm, but once, after Stowe the finest house in the county. The lords of +these manors took different sides during the disturbances consequent on +the Wars of the Roses and, in the end, Henry de Bodrugan was charged by +his neighbours--and among them John Arundell of Tolverne--with having +robbed their houses and also with various acts of piracy on the high +seas. He, however, was hand and glove with Richard Crookback, who, if an +awkward enemy, could be a good friend, and Bodrugan's conviction, +obtained in his absence, was subsequently quashed. For the time being he +escaped the consequence of his misdeeds, but in his triumph he did not +forget to whom he owed his tribulation, and before long saw good reason +to accuse Sir Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele, on the Tamar, and his +neighbour, Sir Hugh Trevanion of Caerhayes, of plotting to bring about +the accession of Henry VII. A word to Richard, and that monarch, who +lost no time in such matters, sent soldiers post haste to arrest +Edgcumbe. So unexpectedly did they arrive at Cotehele that their prey +had to spring out of the nearest window and make for the woods. When he +reached the river they were hard on his heels. But he was a man of +resource. Snatching off his cap he tossed it into the water, and when +the soldiers arrived they saw it floating slowly down the current and +came to the conclusion that he was drowned. Trevanion and Edgcumbe +hurried off to Henry of Richmond, and no doubt were with him when he +landed at Rame Head, a little further east. They distinguished +themselves at Bosworth Field, and in the church of St. Michael, +Caerhayes, hangs the sword worn that day by Sir Hugh, the sword with +which he was made a knight-banneret by the new king. + +But Edgcumbe and Trevanion had a private account to settle and, asking +leave of absence, they rode west. Sir Henry de Bodrugan, however, was +before them. His cause was lost, his master dead, and he knew that there +was little mercy to be hoped for from either Edgcumbe or Trevanion. The +enemies met on Woful Moor. Bodrugan gave back and back, till at last +only the sea lay behind him. Then he turned and leapt--the rock is still +shown--and being a strong swimmer was presently picked up by a passing +vessel. His lands, with the goodwill of the King, were divided between +his vengeful enemies, and the manor itself has been handed down from +Edgcumbe to Edgcumbe in uninterrupted succession to this day. + + +CAERHAYES, GORAN +AND THE DODMAN + +It was at Caerhayes that Sir John Berkeley and Colonel Slingsby, who had +been sent into Cornwall, during the autumn of 1649, to encourage their +friends to rise for Charles II., were surprised by the watchful +Roundheads. Lord Byron's grandmother was a Trevanion of Caerhayes, but +the castle no longer shelters the descendants of the man who laid its +foundation-stone, and if you would see relics of the wild Trevanions you +must seek them in the arcade--where hang helmets, swords, and +gauntlets--of the little church of St. Michael. + +At Goran Church were once monuments to all three families, but those of +the Trevanions have disappeared, while the Bodrugans are now only +represented by the arms cut on the granite font. This church has a high +embattled tower, a good day-mark for ships, and in the chancel a curious +oak chair elaborately carved with the figure of a woman. + +South of Goran is the Dodman, the pride of the southern coast, a +headland which is 400 ft. high and about whose feet the water is so deep +that vessels of large draught may sail by within a few feet. It is of +dark weathered rocks with a ditch and rampart winch, crossing from one +side to the other, cuts it off from the land. The finest beaches on the +south stretch right and left from this headland, which gives a good view +of the cliffs and fishing coves all up and down the coast from the Rame +to the Lizard. + +It is curious how frequently two or more places in Cornwall bear the +same name. There are two St. Justs, two St. Anthonys, two Mawgans, +Constantines, Pentires, while as to Pennare there are several. A Black +Head (250 ft.) was the most important promontory between the Lizard and +Falmouth, and here, after Chapel Point with its prehistoric remains, +Mevagissey with its sardine factory--(All-British shoppers, please +note)--and Pentewan with its quarries, the next blue point breaking the +northward line is another--and a most bold and precipitous--Black Head! + + +MEVAGISSEY + +Near Mevagissey, locally and opprobriously termed Fishygissey, is +Pencarne, seat of the one-handed Carew, whose portrait is in Heligan +House. He lost his hand by a cannon-shot at the siege of Ostend (1601) +and, returning to his quarters after the fight, held out the lopped +member with a casual: "There is the hand that cut the pudding this +morning!" + + +ANTIQUARIAN FINDS + +In this neighbourhood several interesting finds have been made. At +Pentewan some curious oaken canoes buried in the soil were found by the +tinners. Unaware of the unique nature of what they had discovered, the +miners broke them up for firewood! Better luck, however, attended a +remarkable and interesting find at Trewhiddle. Some miners, when +searching for tin in a stream work, at 17 ft. below the surface, came on +a silver cup which proved to be a chalice containing coins and some +ornaments. These coins bore date from 757 to 874, and the names of such +well-known Kings as Egbert and Alfred, with a unique silver penny of +Eanred of Northumbria and a Louis le Debonnaire (King of the Franks +814). It is supposed that the hoard was buried when sea-robbers were +harrying the coast, and that he who hid it did not live to come back. It +is now in the British Museum. + + +THE CAPITAL OF +CLAYLAND + +Roseland has given place to Clayland, with St. Austell for the capital. +This town is not far from the sea. Its narrow crooked thoroughfares +radiate in all directions from the old church, over the porch of which +is a Cornish inscription, "Ry Du," the meaning of which is unknown. The +well-known tower is sculptured and of Pentewan stone. Within is good +woodwork, a weirdly carved font, and a series of shields which, if not +beautiful as art, are interesting for their symbolism. At St. Austell +was born Colenso, the fighting bishop, who having set Christendom by the +ears and been excommunicated for heresy was afterwards confirmed in the +possession of his see. + +The town is of modern origin, owing its existence to the various mines +and clayworks in the neighbourhood. The clayman drives his team in +single file, and an endless procession of heavy waggons rumbles through +the narrow streets, waggons laden with powdered clay in barrels or with +the white glistening lumps uncovered. This clay is found in large +quantities at Hensbarrow, Burngullow (where the first sod of the +Cornwall Railway was cut in 1847), St. Stephen's, and the Bodmin Moors, +and is exported from Par, Fowey, and Charlestown. About 1763 Wedgwood +leased a mine near St. Austell, using the clay for the manufacture of +his well-known porcelain. About 60,000 tons of this material are +exported annually to the Potteries and into Lancashire. + +The Menagew, a famous old stone said to have been a boundary at the +junction of three manors, has been removed from its ancient site--the +pity o't!--and fixed in the pavement at the corner of Menacuddle Street, +the spot being marked by a brass plate. Lake says: "On this stone all +declarations of war and proclamations of peace were read ... all cattle +for whom no owner could be found were brought here and exposed for a +certain number of market days, after which, if unclaimed, their sale +became legal," and there is a hint that in yet earlier days the criminal +was brought to this stone for execution and that by the shedding of +blood it became set apart and sacred. + + +COCK'S AND +HEN'S BARROW + +To the north of St. Austell, and on the highest land in the +neighbourhood is the "Hen's Barrow." The latter, which is 1034 ft. above +the sea level, is also known as the Archbeacon of Cornwall. From here +the whole county can be seen stretched out below, and here are the chief +china pits. On its northern slope is a vast mass of schorl, the +celebrated Roche Rock. On its summit are the fourteenth-century ruins of +a chapel to St. Michael, locally said to have been built by the last +male heir of Tregarrick manor, who, weary of the world, lived here in +solitude. A little north of Roche and beyond the old half-forgotten holy +well is a pool, the water of which may easily be made to flow in +different directions--either to Par, Falmouth, or Padstow! + + +CARGLAZE MINE + +West of Roche is St. Dennis, the church of which stands on a conical +hill of granite in the middle of a prehistoric entrenchment. In the +churchyard is a fine cross and round it earthworks and tumuli. A great +part of the surface in this neighbourhood has been opened for china clay +and china stone, but by far the most important mine is that of Carglaze, +once worked for tin. The pit of this mine presents a remarkable +appearance, for though nearly a mile in circumference it is only 150 +ft. deep. It resembles indeed nothing as much as a gigantic crater! + + +LUXULYAN + +South of St. Austell and near Porthpean is a granite longstone known as +Tregeagle's Stick, another instance of some older story being attached +to a recent hero, for the pillar must have been there many hundreds of +years before Tregeagle was born. On Gwallen Downs are several +earthworks, cairns, holy wells, &c., while Menacuddle boasts a very +pretty cascade. This cannot be compared with the one at Luxulyan, which +has a fall of 200 ft. That "valley of rocks," a beautiful, picturesque +spot, is crossed by the Treffry aqueduct, and lies in a parish of wild +land strewn with blocks of granite and porphyry. One of the latter was +worked into a sarcophagus for the celebrated Duke of Wellington, while +the Giant Block of Luxulyanite is said to be the largest in Europe. + + +ST. BLAZEY + +If St. Austell is the capital of clayland, St. Blazey is second to it as +a trading-centre for granite and china clay. Its saint was said to be +the patron of woolcombers, though this is probably a mere modern +confusion of names. Here was born Ralph Allen, who invented cross +country posts and, while obliging his fatherland, managed to enrich +himself. Pope, who stayed with him at Prior Park (Bath), describes him +somewhat contemptuously: + + "_Let humble Allen with an awkward shame + Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame._" + +'Tis true that Allen was the son of a St. Blazey innkeeper, that he had +made instead of inheriting his money, but to go down to posterity as +"humble" and "awkward!" The first edition is "low-born Allen," but this +was altered at the poor man's protest. + + +THE CIVIL WARS + +It is pleasant to leave the china clay with its milky fouling of clear +waters and its diseased outcrops, white with the white of leprosy. +Crossing Par sands, where Essex watched in vain for the ships laden with +his supplies and where, of the old lead smelting works even the chimney +known all over the countryside as Par Stack is now gone, the road turns +down the coast--past Menabilly with its geological grotto and museum, +past Gribben Head set with a day-mark tower some 80 ft. high--and so +round the little peninsula into which the Parliamentarian Army was +penned by the more active Royalists in 1644, and up to Fowey. + +When Charles I. in the August of that year pursued the foolish and +shortsighted Essex into Cornwall, the King began by calling together his +soldiers and enumerating the services rendered to his cause by the +people of the duchy, and he strictly and with divers threats forbade +plundering. That for once he meant what he said, was proved a fortnight +later by Prince Maurice, who hanged a soldier for plundering Lanhydrock; +and that there might be no misunderstanding about the matter, left him +with a ticket to that effect pinned on his breast. + +Essex, a stupid and inactive man, had come into Cornwall against his +better judgment, Lord Robartes having said that the country would rise +to join him. Before he got as far as Bodmin he discovered that the +contrary was like to be the case; and when the King came sweeping into +the duchy and Sir Richard Grenville marched out of Truro, Essex, who was +between them, saw the hopelessness of his position. In the midst of a +country so hostile that his soldiery had to forage far and wide for +grudged provisions, he had nothing upon which to fall back, for some +ships loaded with cheese and biscuit which he was daily expecting had +not arrived. Essex, who always did the wrong thing or else the right +thing too late, cast about at this eleventh hour to keep a passage open +for his supplies and, anxious to get nearer the sea, made for +Lostwithiel. The immediate result of this movement was that the forces +of Grenville and the King presently formed a semicircle about him from +shore to shore, and matters went from bad to worse. His soldiers, in +need of food and tempted by papers offering a free pardon which the +Royalists scattered among them, were daily slipping away to join the +King. Having left the eastern side of the harbour unguarded, the forts +there, as well as Polruan and Hall House, were soon taken; and this gave +Charles the command of the estuary, while on the other side Grenville +had secured the little haven of Par, where Essex was hoping his delayed +stores would be landed. At this juncture he made a belated effort to +help himself and those dependent on him. On the evening of August 31 +deserters reported that the Parliamentarian cavalry was drawn up on the +east bank of the river. It was evident that Essex was contemplating a +move, and orders were issued to the Royalists to stand at arms +throughout the night, break down all bridges, and throw baulks of timber +across the roads and lanes. Furthermore Goring was bidden collect his +cavalry and be in readiness to act on any point at which the enemy might +attempt to break through. + +Unfortunately, when the King's orders reached Goring he was in no +condition to obey them. The night came on dark and foggy. There was a +narrow space on St. Winnow's Downs between the two Royalist divisions; +but though not covered with troops it was guarded by some fifty +fusiliers. These men were--what shall we say? They could scarcely on +such a raw night have been asleep and why should they have been absent? +At any rate it was over this space that, moving with silent celerity, +Sir Wm. Balfour with the whole of the Parliamentarian horse passed +unchallenged out on to the open ground. Until a second message from the +King reached Goring, he could not be got from his wine. The enemy was +then actually passing over the hill, and had it not been for this +scandalous behaviour probably not a man would have escaped. + +Some days earlier poor old Restormel Castle had been stormed by +Grenville, and his forces under cover of a mist had then moved down +towards Lostwithiel, but it was reserved for the King to take that +ancient town; which he did just in time to prevent the destruction by +the retreating Essex of the beautiful bridge. + +Although the Parliamentarian General was forced to retire, he did so +doggedly, contesting every street and every field, and that night the +King slept in the rain under a hedge by the prehistoric earthwork of +Castle Dor. + + +LOSTWITHIEL + +On the following morning Essex proposed a parley. Before the King's +answer could reach him, however, he had, with a sudden change of front, +embarked on one of the ships in Fowey harbour and set sail for Plymouth. +Major-General Skippon, who had been left in command, immediately +capitulated with six thousand men; and then for once in its long and +sleepy existence was Lostwithiel aroused. The Parliamentarians had +desecrated the beautiful church; the slates of the roof were lying in +heaps where a barrel of gunpowder had been touched off under the +graceful octagonal lanthorn of its spire--"the Glory of Cornwall." They +had plundered the Exchequer Hall, burnt the stannary records, and +committed other enormities; but now the yoke of the oppressor was +broken. Tho King did his humane best to protect the soldiers, but the +long-suppressed hostility of the mob found vent in a sudden flame of +violence, while the women set upon the officers, stripped them of all +they had and rode off with their horses! + + +LANHYDROCK HOUSE AND +RESTORMEL CASTLE + +Lanhydrock House being now the property of the King, he, as a mark of +his gratitude, granted it to Sir Richard Grenville, whom he created +Baron of Lostwithiel; but no sooner did the Parliament get the upper +hand than the new-made baron was deprived of his property. The present +house is of granite and stands low, the hills springing from the end of +the gardens. On them is a little church, and in front an open and +undulating park. The headquarters of Essex were in this park, through +which a long avenue of sycamores leads to a barbican of fine +workmanship, behind which appears the simple facade of the two-storied +house. Within, a room is shown as that used by Tregeagle when steward of +the estates. + +A little south is Restormel Castle. Its long life has been that of a +ruin slowly sinking into the earth from which it rose. In 1245 Earl +Richard found it much decayed. He restored it; and the Black Prince, who +twice stayed there, did the same. When the Parliamentarians came it had +long been abandoned to the owls and the ivy, but as it commanded the +Fowey they repaired and garrisoned it. After the surrender of their army +it was once more abandoned, and now all that remains of the old +fortress is the round keep with a gate-house on the west and a +projecting turret on the north-east. It is on a mound surrounded by a +moat and lies deep in woods and remote from human habitation. Its very +name, Restormel (once Lestormel, a chief's dwelling), shows that its +builder was a man of note among the people who are gone. It has seen +them make merry in its halls, it has seen them pass. It has roused up +now and again to groan under the tyranny of new masters; but now, +deserted in its robe of ivy, a mound, and a few stones, it sleeps +through the sunshine and the rain, and with every year sinks a little +and a little into itself and the kind covering earth. + + "_The old sea here at my door, + The old hills there in the West-- + What can a man want more + Till he goes at last to his rest?_" + + LOWRY. + +Nor is Lostwithiel much more widely awake. Nowadays it consists of a few +rather picturesque streets, an old stone bridge, and a church with a +lanthorn spire--the finest piece of church architecture in Cornwall! But +it has not forgotten the days when a desperate king, gladdened by a +brief gleam of success, fought his way through those same picturesque +streets with an enemy that contested every stone and every house. It has +not forgotten that he fought from early morning, pushing the stubborn +foe before him, until by eventide he had the streets clear, and +Lostwithiel, happy loyal Lostwithiel was his. + + +THE FIGHT ON +ST. WINNOW'S DOWNS + +Before this came to pass, however, a curious conflict had taken place on +St. Winnow's Downs. One hundred Roundheads, youths from sixteen to +twenty years of age and led by Colonel Straughan, had challenged a like +number of the King's troops to heroic combat on Druid's Hill. On a set +day the two bodies of horse met in sight of both armies, Straughan +having "nothing on his head but a hat and on the trunk of his body +naught but a white shirt"--he was indeed fighting bare-sark--"while his +troop consisted of men so young that on their chins never a razor had +passed." Lord Digby, the Royalist leader, and his followers advanced +firing their pistols as they came, whereupon Straughan and his boys +charged furiously, withholding their fire until they were so close that +at the deadly discharge half the Royalists were slain on the spot and +there was scarce horse or man but received some hurt. + +The Church of St. Winnow is beautifully placed on the very margin of +this charming estuary, a little before the Lerryn creek opens to the +east. Below is the pass between St. Veep and Golant, a pass taken and +fortified by the Royalists. + + +THE GALLANTS +OF FOWEY + +The Gallants of Fowey probably means the men of Golant, near Fowey, +though various other derivations have been suggested, as for instance +the fight between the seafaring men of Rye and Winchelsea and those of +Fowey. It appears the latter had sailed somewhat near the aforesaid +towns, and when summoned to make civil apology for the intrusion +"stiffly refused to vaile their bonnets. This caused the Ripiers to make +out with might and main against them; howbeit with a more hardy onset +than happy issue, for the Fowey men gave them so rough entertainment as +their welcome that they were glad to depart without bidding +farewell--the merit of which exploit afterwards entitled them 'gallants +of Fowey.'" + +This little town, which consists of a single street along the western +bank of the estuary and many houses set down higgledy-piggledy wherever +room could be found, was once of some consequence. During the reign of +Edward III. it sent--assisted, no doubt, by the surrounding country--no +less than forty-seven ships manned by seven hundred and seventy men, to +the siege of Calais. No other town in England sent so many ships and no +town but Yarmouth so many men. The Black Prince, who it must be +remembered was the first Duke of Cornwall, granted the people of Golant +certain common rights in return for their services, and Fowey grew in +pride and consideration. In fact, as the saying is, it grew "too big for +its boots," and did more than a little privateering on its own account. +When Edward IV. made peace with France, Fowey, which had grown fat on +the plunder of foreign merchantmen, continued its hostilities; and in +time a pursuivant rode down from London to make inquiry. + +"I am at peace with my brother of France," ran the royal message. + +"But we are not," was the reply. Furthermore they took the pursuivant, +slit his ears and cut off his nose. + +It was hardly the way to treat a King of so royal a temper as Edward +IV., and Fowey--is it Fowey now or Troy?--suffered. His commissioners +did their work treacherously, but they did it well. The chief men were +seized, their goods confiscated, and their leader hanged. The great +chain which barred the narrow entrance to their harbour and protected +them from night attacks was taken away, while the men of Dartmouth were +sent by sea to remove their ships. Edward meant to smoke out this nest +of freebooters. There could be only one king in England and he would +have them recognise it. The savage punishment resulted in the gradual +decay of the little cheerful town. Those who had been so greatly daring +were dead, and until Henry VIII. built batteries here the place lay at +the mercy of any passing marauder. A story interesting for the light it +sheds on Queen Elizabeth's character is told of some Spanish ships in +1568. Bound for Alba, in the Netherlands, with a large sum of money, +they were chased by privateers and took refuge in Fowey and other ports. +The privateers waiting outside till they should reappear, the Spaniards +were helpless. After a little hesitation Elizabeth had the treasure +seized and the crews arrested. She said that, fearing the audacity of +the pirates, she would keep the money safe! + + +PLACE + +The old fortress mansion of the great family of Treffry is on the +opposite side of the harbour. Tradition says that a Treffry took King +John prisoner at Poictiers, and as a reward was given permission to +quarter on his shield the arms of France. More than once the Treffrys +helped to defend Fowey from foreign violence; and their wives were as +brave as they. In the grounds of Place House is a statue of Elizabeth +Treffry who, in the absence of her husband, July 1457, headed his men +and beat off the French. + +On the shore at Polruan is a ruinous blockhouse, from which the chain +that guarded Fowey Harbour was once stretched across the estuary to a +similar building on the other side. Here is Hall, the ancient seat of +the Mohuns, and while Charles I. was walking on the terrace he narrowly +escaped being struck by a ball from the guns of Lord Essex. The chapel +and guardhouse are still standing, but the former is used as a cowhouse. + + +LANTEGLOS: POLPERRO + +The church of Lanteglos, consisting as it does of the work of so many +periods, is exceptionally interesting to the student of architecture. +The tower opens into the church by three massive arches, the western +corner of the piers being Norman; the nave arcades are of the fourteenth +century, the northern slightly earlier than the southern. The four +deeply recessed windows in the north with their elaborate tracery are +recognised by architects as resembling those of Somerset, which is +probably accounted for by the fact that this church was appropriated in +1284 to St. John's Hospital at Bridgwater. Between Lansallos Church, +with its lofty tower (514 ft. above the sea), a well-known seamark, and +Talland Church, which is full of rich and beautiful work lies Polperro +(Pool of Peter) in a cove at the foot of two high hills. This little +place is the southern duplicate of Port Isaac, but its air is +milder--less bracing--than that of the grey northern town. The houses +cluster thickly at the mouth of a cleft between the hills and the storms +are so terrible that although three piers protect the little harbour, +heavy baulks of timber have often to be let down into grooves, to break +the force of the waves. The Couch family have lived at Polperro during +several generations, the father and grandfather of the novelist having +been doctors there. + +It is said that the first station of the Coastguard Preventive Service +was at Polperro, a statement which "gives furiously to think." The +welcome Cornwall gave to the Parliamentarian generals must have been +genial compared with that extended to the preventive officers. +Coastguards in Cornwall, the home of wreckers and smugglers! No doubt +they had an exhilarating time! + + +TALLAND, KILLIGARTH +AND TRELAWNE + +There are three houses in this neighbourhood about which stories are +told. The manor of Talland formerly belonged to the Morths, and one of +this family employed a French servant. Mr. Morth does not seem to have +given his servant satisfaction, for the man returned home, and when war +broke out "returneth back again with a French crew, surprizeth suddenly +his master and his guests at a Xmas supper, and forceth the gentleman to +redeem his enlargement with the sale of a great part of his revenues" +(Carew). It is not often that the tables can be so neatly turned. + +Killigarth belonged to the Bevilles, and in the sixteenth century, one +Sir William going forth from his own house on a winter's day, found +under a hedge a certain John Size nearly dead with cold. He took him +into his service and found that he had gotten a remarkable sort of +servant, for Size "would eat nettles and thistles, coals and candles, +birds with their feathers, and fish with their scales. He could handle, +unhurt, blazing wood and hot iron, and used to lie asleep with his head +curled under his body" (Carew). + +The Trelawnys of Trelawne originally came from another place of the same +name, further inland. Among the pictures at this house--parts of which +are old--is an early one of Elizabeth, interesting on account of the +queen's youth. + +John Trelawny, father of the celebrated Jonathan, Bishop of Bristol, was +committed to the Tower in 1627 by the House of Commons. As he was +popular in the county the Cornish were greatly exercised, and it is said +that the old ballad sung riotously by his compatriots: + + "_And shall Trelawny die? + Here's twenty thousand Cornishmen + Will know the reason why--_" + +was instrumental in procuring his release. Be that as it may, he was set +free by order of the King and shortly after made a baronet. The ballad +composed for the misfortunes of the father survived to be made of use +when his son, one of the seven bishops who presented the petition to +James II., was imprisoned and tried for seditious libel by that most +worthless of the Stuarts. The verses were subsequently lost, the Rev. +Robert Hawker, always ready to make good any little deficiency of the +kind having composed the present version. + + +THE GIANT'S HEDGE + +A model of Bishop Trelawny's pastoral staff, made of gilt wood with +ornaments of copper, is preserved in Pelynt Church, where he was buried; +but the most interesting thing in this neighbourhood, as well as the +most puzzling, is that great earthwork the Giant's Hedge, which, +stretching from Lerrin to Looe, a matter of seven miles, passes through +this parish. + + "_One day the devil having nothing to do + Built a great hedge from Lerrin to Looe._" + +There is no evidence to say by whom this earthwork, which in parts is 7 +ft. high and 20 ft. wide, was built. Once more let us pray for a +Passmore Edwards to supply us with this evidence--by judicious +excavation. + + +BOCONNOC + +By way of Lanreath Church with its painted mediaeval rood screen we come +to the manor of Boconnoc. This house has seen a succession of noble +owners and some interesting visitors. Charles I. spent nearly the whole +of the cold and rainy August during which he was in Cornwall under its +hospitable roof, and Pitt, Governor of Madras, purchased the place with +part of the proceeds of the "Pitt" diamond. The wing in which the King +slept was pulled down by Pitt; and the house, which is built on rising +ground in a lawn of a hundred acres, remodelled. It was here that his +son, the famous statesman, was born. An obelisk has been set up in the +midst of the entrenchments made during the Civil Wars--a piece of +curious taste, as the man commemorated by it had nothing to do with +either king or parliament, living indeed long after both were dust! + +Between this obelisk and Bradock Church was fought the battle of Bradock +Downs. The Royalists who had marched from Bodmin slept all night under +the hedges in Boconnoc Park. Next morning, January 19, 1643, they found +the Parliamentarians awaiting them on the rising ground of the common. +After keeping up a fire of small arms for some two hours, the Royalists +were led forward by Sir Beville Grenville in one of his dashing charges. +Their opponents broke and ran, fleeing to Liskeard with great loss of +arms and men. Their stay there, however, was but brief, for the +Cavaliers pursued them--across the downs, by the main road, and by St. +Pinnoc--and so took the town without a blow. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON + +_King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A Cage for +Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: Sheviock: The +Eddystone: Mount Edgcumbe: The Tamar: Trematon Castle: Markets: Saltash: +Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: +Launceston._ + + +KING DUNGARTH AND +KING ALFRED + +It is pleasant, after following the footsteps of an English king so +foolish that his people out of sheer exasperation presently rose up and +slew him, to come upon traces of one whom the nation, from his day even +until now, has blessed and called great. To the north of Liskeard lies +the big parish of St. Neot, once called Gueryr, and St. Neot, 'tis said, +was a near relative of King Alfred, a relative noted for sanctity and of +whom many wonderful stories are told. He appears to have been on +friendly terms with Dungarth, King of Cornwall, who lived at Liskeard, +and at whose palace Alfred stayed in order to hunt the red deer on the +surrounding moors. Nor was it only for the hunting that Alfred came to +Liskeard. Gueryr, St. Neot's fellow saint, was supposed to have had some +medical knowledge, and the King, delicate from boyhood, was in bad +health. He went across the moors to pray, and possibly to bathe in the +spring of clear water, still known as the well of St. Neot; and as faith +in the doctor is half the battle we may hope his ills were alleviated. +Dungarth--a fine monarch we must believe or else no friend to +Alfred--was drowned in the River Fowey when hunting near Redgate, 875. +In the parish of St. Cleer is a fractured granite pillar about 8 ft. +high, and in digging near, a second fragment was found, inscribed in +Latin, "Doniert (possibly Dungarth) asks you to pray for his soul." + +To think that a thousand and odd years ago, Alfred was staying in this +little old market town with a friend; that they were planning hunting +expeditions; and that Dungarth was recommending his own doctor--"just +like any other man." How queer it all is and how little human nature +changes. + +The corporation at Liskeard has some interesting silver, and in the +church is a monument to Joseph Wadham said to have been "the last of +that family whose ancestors were the founders of Wadham College, +Oxford." This church is unique in Cornwall in having thirteen +fifteenth-century consecration crosses cut on the north and south +aisles. In the town is Stuart House, where Charles I. stayed for about a +week in 1644. + +A little south of Liskeard, on the way to Menheniot, is Clicker Tor, a +mass of serpentine rock resembling the rocks of the Lizard. That +beautiful heath (_Erica vagans_) that grows on the serpentine is found +here. + + +MENHENIOT + +Until the introduction--at the wish of the Cornish--of the English +liturgy during the reign of Henry VIII., the ancient tongue was the +language of the county. Dr. Mooreman, Vicar of Menheniot from 1530 to +1554, was the first parson in Cornwall to teach his parishioners the +Lord's Prayer, the Belief and the Commandments in English. Nowadays, +while it is not uncommon in Wales--which had only the Welsh liturgy--to +hear the "Dim Sassenach," which means that some old person is unable or +unwilling to speak English, the Cornish equivalent, "Mee a navidra cowza +Sawzneck," has been entirely forgotten. + +Menheniot (after St. Columb Major) is the most valuable benefice in the +county, and the church possesses two interesting flagons of +sixteenth-century Lambeth stoneware, with lid and collar of silver dated +1578 and 1581. + + +ST. KEYNE + +On the other side of the valley, not far from the famous old mine of +Herodsfoot, is the Well of St. Keyne. Over it, in an astonishingly small +space, are five trees, oak, elm, and ash, and although these were +planted in 1750, it was only in the place of older trees mentioned in +1602. Concerning the water of this celebrated well, it is fabled that if +after marriage the wife should drink of its waters before her husband +she shall have the mastery and vice-versa. Southey's ballad tells us of +a bride who took some to church with her in a bottle and drank it while +her husband was running to the well. + +At Duloe is a circle which probably encloses a burial place. The stones +are all of quartz, which is unusual, and they are large, the biggest +being 8 ft. high and 7 ft. wide. In this church lies gallant old Sir +John Arundell, the defender of Pendennis Castle. + + +LOOE + +East and West Looe are two quaint fishing-villages divided by the +estuary and joined by a bridge. They are, as usual, huddled together as +near the bottom of their hills as possible and consist of a few crooked +and narrow streets, with houses built anyhow and anywhere. Like Fowey, +they look as if presently they might slip a little, make a tiny splash, +and disappear into the water, to be talked of by succeeding generations +as a "great city of seven churches and thousands of inhabitants that for +some forgotten crime on the part of its people had been overwhelmed by a +sea wave," and to prove this thing they would quote from the _Chronicle_ +(not the Saxon this time but the _Daily_), "in this year came that great +sea flood, widely through this land, and it ran up so far as never at +any time before, and it drowned many towns and mankind too innumerable +to be computed." + + +A CAGE FOR SCOLDS + +Meanwhile East and West Looe still lie poised insecurely above the tide, +while donkeys laden with panniers scramble up the precipitous streets, +and in this way your groceries and so forth come to your door. It is +thoroughly in keeping with the place that the old ducking stool and they +say the cage for scolds should still exist. About the latter Mr. Bond +tells the following appropriate story: + +"At East Looe Hannah Whit and Bessy Niles, two women of fluent tongue, +having exerted their oratory on each other, at last thought it prudent +to leave the matter in dispute to be settled by the Mayor. Away they +posted to his worship. The first who arrived had scarce begun her tale +when the other bounced in, in full rage, and began hers likewise, and +abuse commenced with redoubled vigour. His worship, Mr. John Chubb, +ordered the constable to be called and each of the combatants thought +her antagonist was going to be punished, and each thought right. When +the constable arrived, his worship pronounced to him the following +command: 'Take these women to the cage, and there keep them till they +have settled their dispute.' They were immediately conveyed thither, and +after a few hours' confinement became as quiet and inoffensive beings as +ever breathed, and were then liberated to beg Mr. Mayor's pardon." + + +LOOE ISLAND +AND THE SMUGGLERS + +Except the Scillies, the only inhabited island of Cornwall is St. George +(or Looe Island). It measures fourteen acres and was once exceedingly +useful to smugglers. Not many years since, the floor of a respectable +looking building gave way, and the reason thereof became apparent when +it was found that it had been hollowed underneath to form a receptacle +for those good spirits which came from France by way of the Looe +galleys. The most wonderful hiding-place in this part of the country is +the now well-known duckpond, said to have been at Lansallos, near +Polperro. This swung on a pivot, and when moved disclosed a cavity. At +all other times it presented an innocently rural appearance, so much so +that the preventive officers often sat, all unsuspiciously, within a few +feet of it. + +East of East Looe is the little hamlet of Crafthole, with two crosses, +one known locally as "Stump Cross," a fine specimen of a plain Latin +cross with chamfered angles, and another of earlier date with a broken +top. This bay, which stretches from Looe to Penlee, was once a valley +filled with trees, but, as Florence of Worcester says, "The sea comes +out upon the shore and buries towns and men very many, oxen and sheep +innumerable." + + +THE ARMADA + +It is a quiet strip of coast, yet it was here between Rame Head and the +Dodman, that on a breezy Sunday morning the Spaniards of the Armada +first caught sight of the English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham, +and the volunteer flotilla that was led by Francis Drake. The Spanish +plan was to divide fleet from flotilla, but as the light English boats +could sail closer to the wind and were generally more easy to handle, it +met with little success. The Spanish admiral was soon to discover that +his little enemy's guns could carry further than his own, thus enabling +the English to remain out of reach and yet pour in their raking +broadsides. The light winds blew from the east, and the opposing navies +fired and drifted and fired again, passing the Rame, passing Plymouth, +and drifting up the coast. The engagement lasted till late on that +Sunday afternoon, and later still the _Capitana_, first fruits of the +demoralising tactics of the English, was towed into Dartmouth harbour. + + "_Keepe then the sea, about in special, + Which of England is the towne wall, + Keepe then the sea that is the wall of England, + And then is England kept by Goddes hand...._" + +In other words: "God helps those who help themselves." + + +SHEVIOCK + +Above Crafthole lies Sheviock, on one of the creeks of the Lynher, with +a good fourteenth-century church. The Dawneys were lords of Sheviock, +and we have it from Carew that while the husband was building the +church, his more practical wife was erecting a barn. When they came to +compare accounts it was found that the lady's expenditure had exceeded +her lord's by three half-pence, "and so it might well fall, for it is a +great barn and a very little church." + + +THE EDDYSTONE + +Henry VII., when Earl of Richmond, is said to have landed near Rame +Head, and seeing that he had in his train such energetic Cornishmen as +Sir Richard Edgcumbe and Sir Hugh Trevanion, men who could help him to a +good few of their relatives and retainers, no doubt he was well advised. +From the headland can be seen the Eddystone, which is nine miles south. +This ridge of rocks is a mile long, but has only one small rock +appearing above the water and has for ages been the terror of seamen. +The first lighthouse was built in 1699, and four years later was swept +away by a storm. A second, built in 1708, was burnt in 1755. The third, +built by Smeaton in 1759, resisted the wind and weather for over a +hundred years. The rocks on which it was built were then found to be +giving way, and it was removed to Plymouth Hoe, and a new and higher +lighthouse built on another part of the ridge. + + +MOUNT EDGCUMBE + +The Rame forms the outer boundary of Plymouth Harbour; Penlee Point the +western boundary of the sound; and a little to the north lies Mount +Edgcumbe, which, though few people seem to know it, is in Cornwall. This +interesting house was built in the time of Mary, but the park dates from +Henry VIII., when the property came to the Edgcumbes by marriage. The +grounds contain a great number of fortifications, from the battery and +blockhouse built to oppose the Spanish Armada to more modern defences. +The second Lord Edgcumbe, when a boy, was the friend of Sir Joshua +Reynolds, a friendship which has resulted in the family portraits of +three generations being painted by that artist. The house is as +beautifully situated as the grounds are worth seeing and is on the end +of a promontory several miles long and three wide. + + +THE TAMAR + +The Tamar and Torridge spring from a rushy knoll on the eastern wilds of +Morwenstow, three miles from the sea. From that, practically the most +northern spot in the county, the larger river with some windings flows +south, forming the eastern boundary of the county. It finally widens +into the Hamoaze and, by way of Plymouth Sound, finds its way into the +sea. Many are the bridges and ferries from the one county to the other, +and every army that has come to invade, to subjugate, or even to punish +the insurgent west, must have come by way of this peaceful stream. The +first ferry is at Tor Point, where the Tamar is about a mile wide. It +was the old coach route and thither came the people who would catch the +packet at Falmouth, thither also in yet earlier times came the Cornish +pack-horses, laden with tin at their going and merchandise on their +return. It was the highway when roads were only tracks and the boats in +which men voyaged were of wattle covered with hide. Now it is crossed by +a "steam bridge" which starts every quarter of an hour! + +Where another ferry crosses the estuary of the Lynher is the church and +village of Antony East. Carew, whose amusing Survey supplies us with so +many stories of old Cornwall, is buried here, the doggerel verses on his +monument having been found in his pocket, after his sudden death when at +prayer in his study. There is also a memorial to Margery Arundell, which +is of interest, as it is the only example in the county of a canopied +brass. + + +TREMATON CASTLE + +When Robert, Duke of Normandy, died, Arlette, the tanner's daughter, was +sought in wedlock by one Herlwin, and in due course she bore him two +sons, Odo, afterwards Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, whom she named after +the unforgotten lover of her youth. These twain, worthy half-brothers of +the stern and rigorous Bastard, rode one on each side of him at the +battle of Hastings--that fatal battle which delayed for so many years +the consummation of our English liberties! Over against the Normans were +the equally loyal brethren of Harold, the King. But William's star was +in the ascendant, and two at least of the sons of Godwin and Gytha were +among the slain. As soon as the Conqueror was firmly settled on the +throne that he had seized, he bethought him of his favourite brother and +added to Robert's earldom by the Breton march the more famous earldom +of the kindred land of Cornwall. Robert of Mortain, riding gaily down to +the west, found a wealth of manors awaiting him and two +castles--afterwards to be mentioned in Domesday--those of Launceston and +Trematon. + +Trematon is on the Lynher which, rising near Five Lanes towards the +centre of the county, flows steadily south until it is joined by the +Tidy near Ince Castle, (the only sixteenth-century brick house in the +county), and with a sharp easterly turn flows broadly and genially into +the Tamar below Saltash. Above its placid waters rises the old keep, the +keep that was built to keep the unruly Cornish in order. Tintagel, +Restormel, and Launceston are ruinous, but Trematon is still in fairly +good repair. The wall crossing the motte is of early date, probably +thirteenth century, while the archway of the square entrance tower +carries portcullis grooves, and the keep, once 70 ft. by 50 ft., is +still about 30 ft. in height. The castle with its park and manor and the +borough of Saltash was granted by Edward III. to the Dukes of Cornwall +for ever. It is not generally known that in some respects this dukedom +differs from all others. The eldest son of the reigning sovereign is the +duke, and he comes of age as soon as he is born and preserves all the +rights of the dukedom without patent of creation; the essential +difference between this and the princedom of Wales being that the latter +is specially conferred by the sovereign. + + +ST. GERMANS + +Not far from Trematon is St. Germans, birthplace of the famous Sir John +Eliot, after whom Port Eliot was called. This worthy, though +consistently loyal to Charles I., opposed that monarch's illegalities +and died in the prison to which he was consequently consigned. He was +one of the noblest of the fine band of Cornishmen who came to the front +at that period of the nation's history, an honest, just, and fearless +man. Port Eliot, though charmingly situated where the Tidy widens into a +lake, is otherwise only interesting on account of its pictures, of which +there are several by Sir Joshua Reynolds. + +St. Germans is thought to have been the seat of the ancient bishopric of +Cornwall, but there is no evidence in support of the theory. The "see," +or bishop-stool as it was called by our fathers, was nothing more than +the seat of the bishop, the church in which it rested being his +cathedral church. In early times the bishop was generally attached to +some monastery or else he moved from place to place, taking his "seat" +with him. In course of time, a suitable place being found, the see would +become fixed, but there is no evidence of any fixed see in this county +until 1877, when it was placed at Truro. + + +MARKETS + +The following entry in the exchequer book at the time of the Domesday +survey marks one of the contrasts between then and now: "In this manor +there is a market on Sunday, but it is reduced to nothing on account of +the Earl of Mortain's market, which is very near thereto." Robert, Earl +of Mortain and Cornwall, held his market by his Castle of Trematon, and +so we are confronted with two markets on a Sunday in Sabbatarian +Cornwall! The boldness of the folk, with all those petrified pipers and +fiddlers and merry maidens to point a moral! And to think that nothing +happened. + +A good deal of water has flowed under Tamar bridges since those days. In +the reign of Henry VIII. Andrew Furlong, priest and schoolmaster at +Saltash, was imprisoned for having a Bible in his possession--and this +is the tercentenary of that Bible's translation into the vulgar tongue. +Verily times have changed. + + +SALTASH + +From the Hoe to Saltash, low hills flank an estuary of great width which +narrows sharply where Brunel's triumph, the Royal Albert Bridge, spans +the flood. This great railway bridge, which was opened by the Prince +Consort in 1859, cost over three-quarters of a million and is still one +of the wonders of engineering. + +Saltash suffered considerably during the wars between King and +Parliament. It was taken and retaken any number of times, occupied by +first one party and then the other, fortified, attacked, and generally +treated with scant courtesy. It has several points of interest; an old +shop dated 1584, fine corporation regalia, a church containing a very +ancient font bowl (brought from Wadgworthy), and an exquisite silver +vessel of 1624 now used as a communion cup. + + +MODITONHAM + +This part of the county is noted for its strawberries, its gooseberries, +and for a sweet kind of small cherry called mazzards. + + "_Let Uter Pendragon do what he can + The Tamar water will run as it ran,_" + +says the Celtic proverb, embodying no doubt some forgotten story. It is +certainly a fine sheet of water above Saltash and he would be a bold man +who would seek to divert its flow. Not far from the town is the manor of +Moditonham, which was built not long after the Restoration by Colonel +Waddon, who, from long residence abroad, had gathered a love of foreign +architecture, and who chose for his model a French chateau. John +Grenville, Sir Beville's son (who attended Charles II. in all his +wanderings, was sent by him to negotiate with Monk, and was King's +messenger with his letter to the Parliament), had been made Earl of Bath +and Governor of both Pendennis and Plymouth. He was the most loyal of +Charles's subjects, but under James II. his long faith wavered, and it +was at Moditonham that, with Colonel Waddon, the Deputy Governor of +Pendennis, he treated with the commissioner of the Prince of Orange. His +brother, Denis Grenville, Dean of Durham, less wise, but more loyal, +followed James over seas and died in exile. + + +PALEOLOGUS + +The river winds in such deep curves above Botus-fleming that Landulph is +almost surrounded by its waters. In the quiet churchyard lies Theodore +Paleologus, the last descendant of the Christian emperors of the east. +Some years ago the vault in which he lies was accidentally opened and it +was seen that he had been a tall man with a long head and a beard of +unusual dimensions. During his lifetime this man, who might have been an +emperor, had been reduced to such straits of poverty, that he had +written to that soldier of fortune, the first Duke of Buckingham, +praying to be taken into his service. In the letter, which has been +preserved, he pathetically describes himself as a gentleman, born of a +good house, a soldier from his birth, accomplished and worthy of the +name he bears, but unfortunate in the reverse of fortune. + + +PENTILLIE + +Above Landulph the curving flood gradually narrows into the semblance of +an ordinary river and goes softly between woods and orchards and +farmlands till the finely placed grey towers of Pentillie, built by that +eccentric charlatan, Sir William Tillie, come into view. It is a mistake +to hurry through this scenery in the bustling steamer that ploughs up +from Plymouth, gives you barely time to swallow a fine strawberry at +Calstock and rushes back again. The Tamar, with its forest-clad +declivities, its rocks and crags and cliffs, its long reaches of shining +water fringed with deep green meadows and woodland, is essentially a +river for the man with leisure. In the opinion of those who have seen +both, the scenery far surpasses that of the belauded Dart. The +production of arsenic has discoloured the water in parts, as the mine +shafts have destroyed the sylvan charm of the shore, but this is only +for a short distance above New Bridge, the New Bridge over which Essex +so foolishly led his troops in 1644. + + +COTEHELE + +The Tamar is navigable for good sized vessels as far as the Weir Head, +but that is away beyond first Cotehele and then Calstock, past Harewood, +the most easterly part of the county, a peninsula which, like Landulph, +is nearly an island, and even past the craggy Morwell Rocks. + +Cotehele, a Tudor mansion, "antient, large, strong, and fayre," was once +the chief seat of the Edgcumbe family. On the cliff can be seen the +little chapel built by Richard Edgcumbe in gratitude for his escape from +the myrmidons of Richard III. (see page 136). The chestnut trees in +these woods are large and of great age, but suffered severely from the +blizzard of 1891. Within the house is an interesting chapel with, under +the pulpit, a small apartment, known as "the Leper's Room." In the +vault, the mother of the first baron was buried (1742) while in a +trance. "The knave of a sexton, the night after the funeral, broke open +the coffin with intent to steal the rings which adorned the body, when, +to his utter alarm, she who was thought to be dead opened her eyes and +began to move; thereat the thief fled amain as though chased by the +awakened spirit, leaving his lanthorn behind him, which served to light +the lady out of the vault." + +The simple brevity of the account is delightful. No nerves on the part +of the dame, whose motto must have been "noblesse oblige." We picture +her stepping gracefully out of her narrow bed, taking that lanthorn, so +conveniently left, and in her white shroud making her way to the +supper-room, where no doubt her sorrow-stricken descendants were +sustaining life with beef and beer and bread. Were they really and truly +glad to see her? She must have been a woman, not only of great presence +of mind, but of strong character, and we, at this distance, can look +back admiringly; but as to her dutiful and obedient children--well, one +wonders. + + +HINGSTON DOWN + +The New Bridge leads directly out to the high land of Hingston Down, +where before stannary laws were enacted and coinage towns assigned, the +tinners of Devon and Cornwall met on Kit Hill and held their parliament. +During the fourteenth century difficulties arose, and after that only +the Cornish came to the old earthwork for their debates. An interesting +light is shed, by a speech of Sir Walter Raleigh's in Parliament, when +Lord Warden of the Stannaries, on the men and their earnings. In those +days it would appear that the pay of a working tinner was 4_s_. a week, +finding himself. Of this Sir Walter boasts as a great change for the +better inasmuch as previously the tinner had received but half that +amount. + +These hills used to be famous for their tin, hence the saying: + + "_Hingston Down well wrought + Is worth London Town, dear bought._" + +In 835 the Cornish were defeated by the men of Devon on this open +ground, and some centuries later Charles I. crossed it on his way to try +conclusions with Lord Essex. A little beyond Callington is St. Ive, one +of the most lovely churches in the duchy. The east end and north side +are fourteenth-century work of great merit, and the remainder is +fifteenth century. The beautiful tower has clustered pinnacles, but the +chief interest lies in the chancel window with its fine tracery, and the +ogee-headed niches in the jambs of the scoinson arch, while some of the +glass in the east window is of the same date as the tracery. + +The river no longer curves in upon itself so frequently, but the +landscape, deeply wooded and with the fine Carthamartha Rocks above the +junction of the Inny with the Tamar, is softly beautiful. Greston Bridge +crosses the river between Lezant and Lawhitton, and at Trecarrel House +in the former, Charles I., with his army sleeping round him in the +fields, lay on the night of August 1, 1644. At Lewannick, west of +Lezant, a cresset stone has been preserved. This structure resembles a +font, but with the top hollowed out into a number of bowls to contain +oil and floating wicks. Before the days of matches, a light was kept +perpetually burning in the church in order that the parishioners might +resort to it, if by any chance their hearth-fires, always carefully +sodded up, should be extinguished. Cresset stones are now rare. The one +at Calder Abbey has sixteen bowls, but that at Furness resembles the one +at Lewannick in having only five. + + +POLYFANT + +In this parish, at a little distance from the church town, is the famous +stone quarry of Polyfant. The greater number of the Norman arches in +this part of the county are made from this stone, the quarry having been +worked for over a thousand years. There are three old crosses in this +neighbourhood, the one at Holloway being of unusual design, while the +"four-holed" cross at Trelaske has projections at the neck. Trelaske is +a well-wooded and picturesque country-place, and contains the remains of +an encampment, while the view from Trelaske Beacon is extensive. A +couple of miles above Greston Bridge the river takes a bend almost at +right angles to its former course, and runs east and west until it +reaches Poulston Bridge, across which Charles I. led his army that +never-to-be-forgotten August and marched on Launceston. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LAUNCESTON TO DOZMARE + +_The Upper Reaches of the Tamar: Launceston: The Old Highways: St. +Clether: Altarnun: Trebartha: The Trethevy Dolmen: The Cheesewring: St. +Cleer: St. Neot: Dozmare: Tregeagle: Lake Dwellings._ + + +THE UPPER REACHES +OF THE TAMAR + +Above Launceston, the Tamar soon has a companion in the shape of the +Bude Canal, which was built at great cost, but is no longer worked. At +Werrington, the river of that name joins the mother stream, after +forming an artificial lake, and Werrington is also interesting as a +place to which several bequests were made for the benefit of the poor +and the support of a school. Many years ago the parish chest, which +contained the donation deeds of these charities, was stolen from the +church. After a long time and great hue and cry it was discovered built +up into the wall of one of the houses and, of course, empty. + +Boyton, a little north, is divided by the Tamar between Devon and +Cornwall. Here lived Agnes Brest, brought to the stake 1557, the only +one among the Cornish Protestants who was actually burnt. North +Tamarton, like Boyton, has a piece of land on the other side of the +river, but, unlike its neighbour, this portion was returned to Cornwall +by an Act of Parliament in 1832. The church of St. Denis is worth a +visit for the sake of the beautiful carving of the pulpit. + + +LAUNCESTON + +These upper reaches of the Tamar are well stocked with trout, and +Launceston which, though not on the river, has a stream of its own, not +to speak of a special and personal canal, is a good centre for anglers +as well as a most interesting old ruin of a place. Its ancient name was +Dunheved, and a castle of some sort was crowning this great hill when +William the Conqueror gave Cornwall to his half-brother, Robert of +Mortain. The most noticeable thing about these Cornish fortifications +is the frequency and ease with which they fell into a ruinous condition. +Seeing that the walls are at their thinnest 3 ft. thick and elsewhere +10, one would have thought them capable of withstanding a little wind +and weather. But the contrary was the case. The present ruins are mostly +late Norman and Transition Norman of Henry III.'s time, but already in +1312, not a hundred years after they had replaced the older building, we +find them calling urgently for repair; while, when the Black Prince came +down to Cornwall in 1353 to make acquaintance with his duchy, for he +took that as seriously and conscientiously as everything else, the +stronghold was in a parlous condition. Yet it occupies a commanding +position and was evidently a place of considerable strength. No doubt +the good young Prince restored this Castle Terrible with its great +wall--the base court--containing three gateways, one of which is still +standing, and its dungeon of Doomsdale; this castle to which "the vill +of Truro yearly rendered one laburnum bow and the manor of Scilly three +hundred puffins!" + +Imagine the arrival at the buttery hatch of those three hundred puffins! +We think them a leathery, fishy kind of food, and nowadays the servants +would leave in a body if required to eat them. But those were the good +old times, and in guardroom and kitchen no doubt they had puffin roasted +and puffin boiled and puffins in their pasties until the lady of the +castle said to her lord: "My love, in this weather, of course, you can't +expect those puffins to keep; really the Scillies are most +inconsiderate, one hundred at a time would have been sufficient!" and +then they had puffins potted and variously preserved until the garrison +groaned in chorus the old grace: + + "_Puffins young and puffins old, + Puffins hot and puffins cold, + Puffins tender and puffins tough, + I thank the Lord I've had enough._" + +At the time of the Civil Wars the Castle, nodding in age-long sleep and +slow decay, was restored and fortified. Charles I. and his troops passed +through the town in August 1644; and Richard Grenville, new-made Lord of +Lostwithiel, was imprisoned here, when his turbulence had exhausted the +royal patience. Now the county gaol is at Bodmin; but in those days of +dungeons and fetters the folk were incarcerated in the fortress--what is +now a playground being the place of execution. + +The ruins are certainly the most interesting part of Launceston, and it +has ruins not only of the ivy-grown castle, but of a priory founded in +1126. Its faint remains, with the exception of a doorway built into the +White Hart Hotel, lie in a valley between the town and St. Stephen's. +When the privilege of sanctuary was abolished except in churches and +churchyards, Launceston was one of the seven towns that were made +sanctuaries for life, except for heinous crimes. The result, however, +was not altogether pleasant for the aforesaid towns, which, much to +their dismay, presently found themselves harbouring all the criminals +and rapscallions of the country. Preferring the room of these would-be +citizens to their company, the towns petitioned James I. for +"desecration" and the right of sanctuary was finally abolished. + +The Church of St. Mary Magdalene was built by Sir Henry Trecarrel in +1524 on the death of his only child. It is of granite, and has the +peculiarity of being worked all over with picks instead of chisels. The +ornamentation is florid and excessive. A granite carving of the +Crucifixion, however, and other interesting monuments form part of the +churchyard wall. The vestry was once a shop that separated the tower +from the church, which though it seems strange to our modern notions was +by no means unusual in olden days. + + +THE OLD HIGHWAYS + +The oldest road in the county is no doubt the one that runs from Tor +Point by way of the principal towns to the Land's End, but a great part +of this ground has already been trodden. Another ancient road leaving +Launceston goes via Bodmin Moors to Bodmin, branching off right and left +at Altarnon. It then crosses Tregoss Moor, passes St. Enoder and +Mitchell, and joins the first near Redruth. This road, running as it +does like a backbone down the centre of the county, we propose to take. +Egloskerry, Treneglos, and Trewen have churches which are mildly +interesting. In the first are two good Norman tympana, one over the +north doorway, representing a dragon, and one, now placed over the +interior of the south doorway, carved with the Agnus Dei. Here also is a +mutilated stone figure supposed to represent one of the Blanchminster +(_anglice_, Blackmonster) family. At Treneglos is another fine Norman +tympanum, having cut on it the tree of life with a lion on each side; +and Trewen has a good mediaeval bell inscribed, "St. Michael, pray for +us!" + +At Lancast J. C. Adams, the discoverer of the planet Neptune, was born. +He was also the Senior Wrangler of his year at Cambridge, and one of the +exceptions to the old rule that Senior Wranglers never distinguish +themselves after leaving college. Another Cornish Senior Wrangler was +Henry Martyn, the missionary, to whose memory the baptistery in Truro +Cathedral is dedicated. + + +ST. CLETHER + +Basil or Trebasil, in the parish of St. Clether, was for long the seat +of the Trevelyans. Among the ruins of the house is a large moorstone +oven, now used as a pigstye, while in the immediate neighbourhood are +four granite crosses in a good state of preservation. The Trevelyans, +like most of the Cornish gentry, were Cavaliers, and on one occasion a +party of Roundheads made shift to seize the squire in his own house. + +"If you come on," said he, "I will send out my spearmen against you." + +As there seemed nothing at the back of this threat, come on they did. +Whereupon he up with a teeming beehive and threw it among them. Not a +man-jack waited for the onslaught of those spearmen. + + +ALTARNON + +At the junction of this northerly road with those running south to +Liskeard and west to Bodmin, lies Altarnon, the largest parish in +Cornwall. The patron saint is Non, the mother of St. David, and her +church is full of interesting memorials of the past. It possesses not +only an exceptionally large collection of sixteenth-century bench-ends, +but an oak rood screen, which antiquarians declare to be "by far the +finest specimen of fifteenth-century woodwork in Cornwall and one of the +very best existing examples of perpendicular oak-work in England." There +are also two paintings on wood (date 1620), a fragment of ancient glass +in the east window, locally supposed to contain a portrait of St. Non, a +communion rail of 1684, and other objects of interest. On several of the +bench-ends may be seen carvings of the little corn man or "neck," that +is to say, the figure that is plaited out of the heads of wheat in the +last sheaf at a harvest, and which is sometimes to be seen preserved +over the winter in a cottage. + +Nor is the carefully restored church all that Altarnon has to show. St. +Non's Well was celebrated for the cure of lunacy, and Carew gives a +startling account of the proceedings. "In our forefather's days, when +devotion as much exceeded knowledge as knowledge now cometh short of +devotion, there were many bowsening places for curing madmen; and +amongst the rest one at Altarnunne, called St. Nunne's Pool, which +saint's altar it may be, _pars pro toto_, gave name to the church. And +because the manner of this bowsening is not so unpleasing to hear as it +was uneasy to feel, I will deliver you the practice as I received it +from the beholder. + +"The water running from St. Nunne's Well fell into a square and +close-walled plot which might be filled at what depth they listed. Upon +this wall was the frantic person set to stand, his back towards the +pool, where a strong fellow, provided for the nonce, took him and tossed +him, and tossed him up and down, along and athwart the water, until the +patient, by foregoing his strength, had somewhat forgotten his fury. +Then was he conveyed to the church and certain masses sung over him; +upon which handling, if his right wits returned, St. Nunne had the +thanks, but if there appeared small amendment, he was bowsened again and +again, while there remained in him any hope of life or recovery." + +The well is now dry, and the "square and close-walled plot" in ruins, +for which--lest it should occur to our medical men to try these old +remedies--thanks be to whom thanks are due. + + +TREBARTHA + +The Lynher which rises in Altarnon flows southward to Trebartha, where +it forms a fine cascade and is crossed by the road to Liskeard. Not far +from this bridge is the manor of Treveniel, whose lord claimed the +right, whenever the Mayor of Launceston mounted his horse on the +occasion of the duke coming into Cornwall, of holding the stirrup. It +seems strange that any gentleman should set store by this right, which +is, after all, a relic of some forgotten form of tenure. What elderly +children we remain, squabbling over our foolish plays, in spite of the +twentieth century, the new humanitarianism, and all the other +solemnities! + + +THE TRETHEVY +DOLMEN + +Before marching on Liskeard, Charles I. drew up his troops on the north +side of Caradon Hill. The copper mines on the south-west of this +moorland eminence have yielded ore to the value of several millions of +money, but are no longer worked. Near them is the Trethevy dolmen, the +largest in Cornwall, the cover stone being 14 ft. long and 9 ft. wide. +An old writer described it as "a little house raised of mighty stone, +standing on a little hill within a field." In comparison with some of +the foreign dolmens, however, it is but small. Several of the French +cromlechs are large enough to be converted into chapels, while one at +Copenhagen, called the "Chamber of Giants," will allow of twenty people +walking about in it. + + +THE CHEESEWRING + +To the north of Caradon Down are three stone circles known as the +Hurlers and not far from them the remarkable granite stone known as the +Cheesewring. This curious natural phenomenon stands on the side of a +hill, the summit of which is encircled by a large entrenchment of unhewn +stones, while over against it is Kilmar Tor (1297 ft.), third highest +peak in Cornwall. It looks like large blocks of tabular granite poised +on smaller ones till the base of the Cheesewring is only about half the +size of what it supports, this irregularity being due to weathering. A +part of the top is broken. In consequence of careless quarrying close +by, the pile has had to be artificially supported. + +Antiquaries once thought the Cheesewring a memorial to the dead, from +which in the course of centuries the covering earth had been washed +away. In this neighbourhood there are many such cairns and monuments. A +barrow near by was opened in 1818 and in it an extended skeleton and a +gold cup were found. This cup was of Scandinavian type, 3-1/2 in. high, +and weighed nearly three ounces, which suggests that some sea rover +found his last resting-place in these heathy solitudes. + + +ST. CLEER + +From near the Cheesewring a moorland road leads down to St. Cleer, which +is divided from St. Neot by the lovely valley of the River Fowey. This +parish contains a number of antiquities of varying ages, in fact, as has +been said, "dead faiths and dead beliefs lie about this countryside like +withered leaves in autumn." At Trewartha Marsh is a prehistoric +settlement which probably belongs to the early iron age. Some of the +oblong huts are small, but others are fully 50 ft. long, while in the +group is what was possibly a public hall with stone benches along its +sides, and at the end a chair with arms. A few hut circles and an +ancient circular pound are also to be seen. + +Doniert's stone, supposed to have been raised in memory of King Alfred's +friend, Dungarth of Cornwall, is near Redgate; and in the village of St. +Cleer is a Latin cross which stands beside a holy well reputed to have +been used like that at Altarnun for the "bowsening" or cure of maniacs. +This well has a beautiful little chapel built over the clear spring. + + "_Tell me the street to Heaven. + This? Or that? Oh, which? + What webs of streets!_" + + NOGUCHI. + +The fifteenth-century tower of St. Cleer is unusually fine, and the +church contains a Norman north doorway, and an early English font of +great beauty. + + +ST. NEOT + +To the north of both St. Cleer and St. Neot lie the wild and +uncultivated moors, and the saints must have been brave men who sought +the solitude of this granite strewn district. It is little wonder that +strange, and to our thinking, absurd legends, should have grown up about +them. St. Neot, as has been already said, was a cousin of King Alfred, +and it appears that in those days even minor royalties worked for their +living. The saint's oxen were stolen--he evidently farmed the land--so +the stags of the neighbouring forest performed all the necessary labour, +and for this good deed were endowed with a white mark wherever the yoke +of labour had touched their brown hides! This and similar stories are +depicted on one of the beautiful stained glass windows of the church. + +This parish, like so many others in Cornwall, is rich in ancient +crosses, there being no less than three, all having incised crosses on +them, in the vicarage garden. In the churchyard is one on which is quite +the finest interlaced work on granite in the county. It has been mounted +on the stone, on which legend says St. Neot, who was a small man, stood +in order to unlock the church door. From which story it appears that in +those days the churches were kept locked! + +Little St. Neot must have been glad to welcome his great kinsman, when +as the Book of Hyde (1200 A.D.) says: "Alfred went to Cornwall and +repaired to the Church of St. Gueryr, where St. Neot reposes, for the +purpose of alleviating his illness." Let us hope Neot was not too +saintly to feel a cousinly interest in the King's health and that the +two compared their widely differing lives and asked after old friends +and what had been the history of this one and that; and that they ate in +peace of the wheaten bread which St. Neot, after his farming operations, +would be able to offer, and the fish with which another legend daily +provided him, and so parted, the one to his burden of life, the other +staying on, content with uneventful peace. + +The glory of St. Neot's Church is its collection of stained glass. It +dates from 1528, and though not quite the oldest in the county, it is +said that none comparable with it for beauty and richness exist either +in Cornwall or Devon. + +The old road from Bodmin to Plymouth, that interesting prehistoric +highway by which the early Cornish probably sent their tin for shipment +abroad, runs through the village. Long before Alfred came to hob-nob +with his cousin, before the Romans so much as knew that Britain existed, +and while the mammoth in the valley of the Thames was still shaking his +great hairy sides over the littleness of man, the rough stuggy ponies, +whose descendants still feed on Goonhilly Downs, were carrying their +heavy packs along this track, over the old clapper bridges, past heath, +morass, forest, and settlement, at the call of need. + + +DOZMARE + +On the high land north of St. Neot and a little beyond Brown Gilly (1058 +ft.) lies Dozmare, the only inland lake of Cornwall. This tarn, which by +old writers was called the Dead Sea from the lifeless appearance of its +waters, lies on an elevated plateau in a dreary sad-coloured region. It +is nearly square and in circumference about a mile. Tennyson told Mr. J. +J. Rogers that the Loe Pool was where he pictured the throwing away of +the sword Excalibur. His description suits that and does not suit +Dozmare, while the moormen talk only of "Jan Tergeagle," that unjust +steward who does penance for his evil deeds in so many parts of +Cornwall. It is said that he has been set to bale Dozmare--supposed to +be bottomless--dry, and has been given to aid him in his task a limpet +shell pierced with a hole through which the water drips as he lifts it. + +It is perhaps "flogging a dead horse" to mention that in the hot summer +of 1869 Dozmare dried up, thus proving that it was far from bottomless. +By disclosing a number of unfortunate trout and eels, it also showed it +was by no means "dead." To a moorman the suggestion that Tregeagle has +evidently accomplished his task, however, has but little weight. His +imagination overleaps the trifling fact of the dry summer and its +consequences, and only looks before and after. The pool seems +mysterious, it has a healthy legend, and to that legend any one hearing +the wind howl over these wastes on a December night may well give +credence. + +What was the origin of the moated grange? In Dozmare is a subaqueous +pile of stones on which once stood a crannog or lake dwelling, while +many arrow heads and worked flints have been found in the neighbourhood. +Did the folk who built their homes over a pool find the water so great a +protection that their children going east and west, and being unable to +discover any more convenient lakes, built a stockaded house, and for its +greater safety must by their personal labour surround it with the +element in which they had always trusted? Is the moated grange then only +the direct descendant of the lake dwelling? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM BROWN WILLY TO CAMBORNE + +_Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: St. +Breward and Blisland: Helland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell: Cornish Names: +Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word +in Farewell._ + + +BROWN WILLY +AND ROW TOR + +Dozmare Pool is only a short distance from the main road on the further +side of which lie the chief heights of this moorland district, Row Tor +(1296 ft.) and Brown Willy (1375 ft.). From Tintagel these hills look +like gently rounded brown masses on the skyline, but on nearer approach +the scene changes from cultivation to a waste of rock and bog and heath. +Rowtor, which is the northernmost of the two peaks, is covered with +masses of granite which have been weathered into fantastic shapes. It +was looked upon by the ancients as a sacred hill, probably on this +account, and there are remains of a stone circle on the slope and of +other prehistoric monuments. In 1371 Sir Hugh Peverell had licence for a +chapel of St. Michael at "Rogh-torre," of which the foundations can be +traced, while the stone arch of the doorway is to be seen built into the +Britannia Inn, near Camelford. This chapel was probably built on the +site of an earlier edifice not necessarily Christian. + +Brown Willy (Cornish, bron welli, the highest hill) is a beautiful +conical hill rising from the Bodmin mass of granite. The beacon of loose +stones on the summit was raised by the ordnance surveyors, and it is +said that on a fine day the peak of Snowdon can be seen through field +glasses. The Fowey rises at the foot of this hill and flowing through +the moorlands between St. Cleer and St. Neot is, in spite of its beauty, +most unkindly called the Dranes. + +In the immediate neighbourhood of Brown Willy and Row Tor are several +other tors and heights; Bre Down, to the north, 1125 ft.; Garrah, south +of Brown Willy, 1086 ft., with hut-circles and other prehistoric +remains. Not far from it is King Arthur's Hall (see page 41). Catshole +Tor is 1133 ft. and Toborough 1143 ft., while the beacon above Tresilon +rises to 1174 ft. + + +MICHAELSTOW, ST. TUDY +AND ST. MABYN + +To westward of these hills, on a good road leading down to Bodmin, are +the parishes of Michaelstow, St. Tudy, and St. Mabyn, each of which +possesses some interesting church silver, the last mentioned having, in +particular, a standing vessel dated 1576, which is surmounted by a +statuette and now used as a communion cup. This little place is situated +amid romantic sylvan and river scenery, while its church on the top of a +hill serves as a waymark. At Michaelstow, on the north of the church, +are traces of a lean-to building with an opening into the chancel, and +it has been suggested that this was an anchor hold. Near by is Helsbury +Beacon, 700 ft. above sea-level, and crowned with a fine circular +earthwork which has a barbican on the east. + + +ST. BREWARD +AND BLISLAND + +Over St. Breward Church antiquarians are in dispute, for some of them +think it shows traces of an original cruciform Saxon church altered by a +Norman arcade. It is not otherwise interesting; while Blisland, to the +south, has a beautiful modern screen, some fine slate monuments, and +good woodwork. To reach it the traveller passes Pendrief, a logan-stone, +once so finely balanced that it was rocked by the wind. It is now +immovable. The royal arms and the arms of Cornwall were engraved on it +to commemorate the jubilee of George III. This neighbourhood is +particularly rich in that puzzling antiquity, the stone circle. At +Carwen there is not only one--and it might have been thought one would +have been enough for a place--but several, also others at Kerrowe Down, +Challowater, and on Hawks Tor, the last-named example being 152 ft. in +diameter. + + +HELLAND + +Of Helland, principally known for its two circular earthworks called +"The Castles," is told this story. The vicar being called away +unexpectedly, left his neighbour of Blisland to make arrangements for +the customary services. He did so with the Archdeacon, and in due course +the Vicar of Helland received the following telegram: + +"The Archdeacon of Cornwall is going to hell, and you need not return." + + +BODMIN + +These moorland parishes cover about ten square miles. They are not +entirely sterile, some parts being capable of cultivation and others +giving good pasture for cattle; but, on the whole, the impression left +is of a bracing and breezy waste, one of the happy spaces not yet +brought under the dominion of man. And with never a turn the broad white +road runs uphill and down dale and so to Bod Mynydd, the dwelling under +the hill, the only name that appears on the earliest maps. + +In Domesday Bodmin was the largest town in Cornwall, having actually +sixty-eight houses, not to speak of a market. Curfew is still rung in +Bodmin Church at 8 P.M., and being situated conveniently in the centre +of the county the hilly, straggling town has gradually increased in +importance. The Cornish were such an unruly folk, so fond of rebellion +and blood-letting, that no town of theirs but had its vicissitudes; nor +were the troubles of Bodmin only due to their restless energy. In 1348 +certain carriers brought a string of pack mules laden with rich +merchandise into the town. The bales contained embroidered robes of +velvet and satin, pearl-sewn gloves, plumed hats and silken hose, all at +a reasonable price. Bodmin folk were used to smuggled goods, had even +had the treasures of wrecked ships hawked through their streets. They +saw no reason therefore to be cautious; and the goods were purchased, +the carriers paid; and forthwith the men led their mules out of the +little town and took the road back to Plymouth. The silver pennies were +safe in their pouches, and it would be better not to wait. + +Before long a sickness broke out among the people of Bodmin, a sickness +unlike any that they had known before, which was not strange when we +consider that the fine clothes had belonged to Londoners who had +perished in the Black Death. News travelled slowly in those days and +Bodmin had not known. But whereas when the carriers came there had been +three thousand people in the town, when the sickness passed there were +but half that number. + +Bodmin suffered again after the religious rising of the people in Edward +VI.'s reign. According to fact, Sir Anthony Kingston, Provost-Marshal, +was sent down from London to punish the rebels. According to tradition +he is said to have carried out his instructions with a grim pleasantry +all his own. "Boyer, Mayor of Bodmin," runs the story, "had been amongst +the rebels against his will; to him the Provost sent word that he would +dine with him; therefore the Mayor made great preparations. A little +before dinner the Provost took the Mayor aside and whispered him in the +ear that an execution must be done in the town that day, and desired +that a gallows might be set by the time dinner was over. Presently, when +the meal was at an end, the Provost, taking the Mayor by the hand, asked +to be led to the place where the gallows was, and looking at it asked +the Mayor if he thought it strong enough. + +"'Doubtless,' said the Mayor. + +"'Come then, my friend,' said the Provost with a bitter grin, 'get thee +up speedily, for thou hast prepared it for thyself.' + +"Whereat the Mayor, quivering with fear, cried: 'Surely, good sir, thou +dost not mean what thou speakest?' + +"'In faith,' said the Provost, 'I speak what I mean, for thou hast been +a busy rebel.' + +"So he was hanged to death." + +Near Bodmin lived a miller who had been active in this same rebellion, +and he, getting wind of these proceedings, told a sturdy fellow, his +servant, that he had occasion to go from home; and therefore bid him to +take his place for a time, and if any did come to inquire for the miller +he should say that he was the miller and had been so for three years. In +course of time the Provost came and was met by the servant, who said +with consequence: "I am the master and have been so these three years." + +"Lay hold on him, my men," cried the Provost, "and hang him on this +tree." + +At this the fellow, sore amazed, cried out the truth. "Nay, nay, my good +friend," said the Provost, "I'll take thee at thy word, and if thou +be-est the miller thou knowest thou art a rebel and if thou be-est the +miller's man, thou art a lying knave; and howsoever thou canst never do +thy master better service than to hang for him." + +And so, without more ado, he was despatched. + +During the Civil War Bodmin suffered so greatly that Charles II., +passing through, said it was "the politest town he had ever seen, as one +half of the houses appeared to be bowing and the other half uncovered." +Hardly the sort of comment that might have been expected, when it was +owing to a kindness for him and his that the town was in so ruinous a +condition, but if Charles's wit was in the right place the same can +hardly have been said of his heart! + +When Perkin Warbeck entrenched himself at Castle Kynock, an ancient camp +on Bodmin Downs, his horse was said to have extended from Cardinham to +Lanhydrock; and it was to Glynn, a place between those two, that Charles +I. fled one night, when it had been borne in upon him that he and he +alone stood between his people and peace; and that even the loyal and +devoted were considering whether it would not be better to have him as a +prisoner than as a leader. "Character is Fate" should have been the +motto of the Stuarts, a family that acted foolishly because it was their +nature so to act and to whom not the most terrible lesson of all could +teach wisdom. + +To the south of Bodmin is St. Lawrence, a place with gruesome +associations. There were a fair number of leper hospitals in Cornwall, +but it brings the fell disease near to us when we reflect that the last +inmate of St. Lawrence only died (though not from leprosy) in 1800. + + +LANIVET + +At Lanivet Church the communion plate is kept in a rare antique pyx of +"cuir bouilli," said to be of the fourteenth century. In the churchyard +is a Saxon tomb and a yet older inscribed stone; also a remarkable wheel +cross, a four-holed cross with interlaced and scroll work, and a curious +stone slab. St. Benet's, once a seat of the Courtenays, is built on the +site of a reputed Benedictine monastery, the greater part of the front +having belonged to the original building. The walls are about 4 ft. +thick. Unfortunately the stones of the cloisters, as well as the upper +part of the tower, were used some years ago for building a farmhouse! + + +MITCHELL + +Near St. Enoder, not in itself interesting, is the old borough of +Mitchell (formerly written Modeshole), which in the time of Edward I. +was the property of Sir Walter de Raleigh. Though now an inconsiderable +village it was said in Saxon days to have been a fair-sized town, and as +a borough its reputation for corruption and quarrelling is black even +compared with the other rotten boroughs of the county. Sir Walter +Raleigh was member for Mitchell when he carried his motion for war +against Spain; and in 1807 it was represented by Sir Arthur Wellesley, +afterwards Duke of Wellington. + + +CORNISH NAMES + +Some of the Cornish saints have very curious names. On the Tamar is a +church sacred to St. Dilp, but more remarkable is that of St. Erme, +sacred to--Hermes. _Saint_ Hermes, too! The god of thieves, that little +old ancient run-about! 'Tis said the early Christians made good use of +all existing material, such as the Venus month for the Virgin Mary and +so forth, but--_Saint_ Hermes! In this church is an interesting brass, +with kneeling effigies and seven-quartered shield of arms, to Robert +Trencreeke, "counseler at lawe," 1594. + + +BLACKWATER AND +ILLOGAN + +The long western road is approaching the busiest, greyest, and most +populous part of the county--the mining district. Camborne and Redruth +are the principal towns and in a sense rivals. Each has a school of +mining, though Camborne's is now _the_ school of the county and the +great mine, the greatest and the oldest of all, Dolcoath--where, in +lively contrast with his work of the moment, Raspe wrote "The Adventures +of Baron Munchausen"--belongs to the former. Before the road reaches +either of these towns, however, it passes Blackwater, the birthplace of +Passmore Edwards (1823). Though he was a well-known journalist as well +as the owner of the Echo newspaper, he is most likely to be remembered +as the donor of a large number of philanthropic institutions, beginning +with the reading room which he built for his native village in 1889. + +Not far south-west of Blackwater is Illogan, where the engineer +Trevithick made the first steam carriage, known locally as "Cap'n Dick's +Puffer." + + +REDRUTH AND ST. DAY + +A little north of Redruth lies St. Day, of the growth of which Norden, +in the sixteenth century, left a charming description. "There was +sometime a chappell now decayde, called Trinitye, to which men and women +came in times past from far in pilgrimage: the resort was so great, as +it made the people of the Countrye bringe all kind of provision to that +place; and so long it continued with increase, that it grew to a kind of +market and by that means it grew and continued a kind of market to this +day, without further charter." + +Of Redruth itself there is little to be said. Like so many Cornish +towns, it consists of a chief street that is wearisomely long: it had +its famous man, Murdock, who first used gas as an illuminant; and the +first railway in Cornwall ran from Redruth to Hayle, being opened in +1835. To the east is Carnmarth, 750 ft. high, with a wide view, and on +one side the Gwennap Pit, a mine subsidence, in which John Wesley often +preached and in which the members of his denomination assemble in their +thousands every Whit Monday. + +"Why," asked a "foreigner" of a Redruth man, "are the Cornish, and +especially the miners, called Cousin Jacks?" + +"Spoase Adam gave it out when he named t'other animals." + +But Camborne asks the sister town a less civil question. "Who was it +crowned the donkey?" And this had its origin in a certain playful +disloyalty on the accession of George IV. Cornwall, as it might say of +itself, has "never taken much stock in kings." It cropped the ears of +Edward IV.'s pursuivant, killed Edward VI.'s commissioner, and crowned a +donkey as George IV. Inconsistent county! For the Stuarts it must needs +pour out blood like water and impoverish itself for generations! + + +CARN BREA + +Between Redruth and Camborne is the rocky hill of Carn Brea (740 ft.). +It consists of a rugged mass of granite crowned with huge piles of +weathered rocks. In neolithic times it was undoubtedly a military +station, large remains of the enclosing walls as well as many hut +circles having been found. This hill has three summits, with the remains +of an old castle on that towards the east, which castle is mentioned by +William of Worcester in 1478. On the central peak is an ugly granite +cross erected in 1836 by the county to the memory of their very good +friend, Francis, Lord de Dunstanville and Basset. In one of the hut +circles on the top of Carn Brea was found a cooking hearth now in the +Truro Museum, whither went many of the old British and Roman coins, +stone weapons, and tools, flint and quartzite spear heads, and socketed +bronze celts unearthed on the hill. St. Ewny's Well is a romantic spot +of repute for sanctity, while the "Giant's Well" halfway down the hill +was said to be bottomless. + + +CAMBORNE + +Camborne Church is interesting for its carvings, those of the animals +being comparable with the exquisite heads at Newlyn East. Near the porch +is an ancient cross and below the communion table an early altar slab, +formerly built into the exterior wall of the transept, but now restored. +It is inscribed "Leviut jusit hec altare pro anima sua." + +It is not easy to obtain permission to see more than the surface +workings of the venerable Dolcoath, and even for them, in spite of the +present-day harem skirt, the dress provided creates some disturbance in +the mind of the average woman. She had not thought to see herself +wearing the breeches--at least in public! + + +A WORD IN +FAREWELL + +Round this wonderfully indented coast, up the winding Tamar, and across +the moors! You who have gone with me on this delightful journey, can you +think of any county with a greater variety, historical, antiquarian, +natural, to offer you for the good and bracing time of a holiday? And if +in the years to come you find time to look back and in thought travel +over the self-same ground, will you be able to do it without the +longing--put into words by the poet who spent so much of his time at +Camborne: + + "_To sleep and to take my rest, + The old sea here at my door, + The grey hills there in the West-- + What can a man want more?_" + + LOWRY. + + + + +APPENDIX A + + +THE GREEN BOOK OF ST. COLUMB + +In olden days the parish as distinct from the church was an entity with +the power not only of appointing a sort of select vestry of twelve (was +this number chosen because of the Apostles?) with wardens for the +parish, for the poor, for the coffer, and for the pews, but of holding +property such as sheep, cattle, and land. It lent money, sometimes at +interest, sometimes gratis, it kept ladders, charging for their hire, +and, above all, it encouraged Morris dancing and Robin Hood +entertainments. + +For instance, in 1616, we find in the Green Book, "The young men of the +parish wh: played a stage-play, 3_s_. 4_d_." + +In the list of parish goods set down in 1585 we have: "Ladder. Five +coats for dancers. A Friar's Coat. Twenty-four dancing bells. A streamer +of red moccado and locram. Six yards of white woollen cloth." + +In most places the Morris dance was part of the pageant of Robin Hood, +and that this was the case at St. Columb is shown by the "Friar's Coat." +The bells were worn on a band at the knee, and the streamer or flag was +of two materials, no longer known under those names, the moccado +resembling coarse velvet, and the locram an equally coarse linen. + +In many parishes a special collection for the "Robin Hood" penny is +recorded, and in the Green Book we have: + +"Richard Beard oweth to be paid at Lady Day in Lent 10_s_. of Robin +Hood's money; Robert Calwye oweth for the same 2_s_. 8_d_." + +Hurling also received its due meed of parochial attention. In 1593 is an +entry; "John Menheere and wife for a silver ball delivered to Tobye at +his instance and upon his word 10_s_." But in those days the ball +differed from that now in use inasmuch as it was gilt, and a year later +we find that "Tobye" pays the 10_s_. for his "silver ball gilt." + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT + +It is a place of historic and prehistoric interest. Here is the well by +which + + "_Jack the valiant Cornishman + Did slay the giant Cormoran._" + +Jack being the Cornish variant of the better known Peredur of Wales and +Ian MacAnnheil of Ireland. + +Here, too, are the "Giants' Graves" which cover the victims of Jack's +valour; and on the beach at the foot of the hill is the Chapel Rock, +whereon once stood an oratory of which Leland speaks as "a little chapel +yn the sande nere by the towne toward the Mount," and where it is said +the pilgrims were wont to halt before making the ascent. But the Chapel +Rock has a legend older than those connected with the building which +once stood upon it. Cormoran having already carried off the top of the +neighbouring hill of Trencrom to make the Mount itself, was in want of +further stones wherewith to build his castle, and sent his wife to fetch +them. She thinking any stone would do as well, fetched this from the +nearer hill of Ludgvan-Lees. Angry at her conduct, the monster slew her +with his mighty foot, and the great rock, rolling from her apron, fell +where we now see it--a silent witness to the lady's strength and to the +truth of the narrative. + +St. Keyne is said to have conferred on St. Michael's Chair the power of +giving to that one of a married couple who first sits therein domestic +mastery; such as can also be obtained by drinking from her more +celebrated well near Liskeard. Curiously enough, legend and name have +been transferred from the real chair of St. Michael on the western side +of the hill to the ruined lanthorn of moorstone on the chapel tower, the +lanthorn which in olden days was probably used as a lighthouse, as the +grooves for the sheltering horn or glass can still be seen. + +The little old church has a beautiful rose window at the east, and a yet +more beautiful one let into the western wall; this latter was until +recently hidden by the organ pipes. Some interesting alabaster +bas-reliefs are also to be seen. The roof timbers of the refectory are +very old, but the carving on them is modern, and the frieze Elizabethan. +The place contains many interesting curios such as the clock from +Godolphin House, a Jacobean bed, the Glastonbury chair, and a pair of +silver candlesticks in which the prickets have given place to sockets, +and which Lord St. Levan believes to be unique. + + * * * * * + +These details have been taken from a paper on St. Michael's Mount by Mr. +Thurstan Peter. + + + + +INDEX + + + Adams, J. C., 178 + Agnes, St., Beacon, 75 + Agnes, St. (island), 102 + Alfred, King, 138, 157, 183 + Allen, Ralph, 141 + Altarnon, 179 + Antony East, 164 + Arthur, King, 22, 37, 41, 67 + Arundell, Humfrey, 67 + Arundell, John, 74, 122-3 + Margery, 164 + Arwenack, 121, 126 + Athelstane, 9, 92, 105 + Austell, St., 109, 139 + + Bacon, 97 + Balfour, Sir Wm., 144 + Ballowal, 84 + Barras Head, 39 + Bartine, 86 + Basil, 179 + Basset of Tehidy, Francis, 25, 76-7 + Basset's Cove, 76 + Bath, Earls of, 22 + Beacon Cove, 64 + Benet's, St., 194 + Berkeley, Sir John, 137 + Black Head, 137 + Black Prince, The, 38, 148, 176 + Blackwater, 196 + Blake, Admiral, 105 + Blazey, St., 141 + Blisland, 190 + Boconnoc, 153 + Bodmin, 50, 177, 191 + Bodrugan, 135 + Bolleit, 84, 92 + Bolster, 75 + Boscastle, 34-5 + Boscawen-Un, 84 + Bosporthennis, 84 + Bossiney, 36 + Boswavas Moor, 86 + Botallack Mine, 91 + Botreaux Castle, 34 + Boyton, 175 + Bradock Downs, 153 + Bray Hill, 50 + Breage, 108 + Bre Down, 189 + Breock, St., 52 + Breward, St., 41, 190 + Bridge, Royal Albert, 167 + Brown Gilly, 185 + Brown Willy, 41, 189 + Bryher, 102 + Brunel, 167 + Buckingham, first Duke of, 168 + Bude, 9, 21, 27 + Bude Canal, 175 + Budock, 121 + Burngullow, 139 + Buryan, St., 92 + Buttris, 117 + + Cadgwith, 116, 117 + Caerhayes Castle, 135 + Callington, 171 + Calstock, 169 + Cambeak, 22, 33 + Camborne, 8, 195, 198 + Camelford, 41 + Cape Cornwall, 84 + Carantocus, St., 72 + Carbis Bay, 78 + Carglaze Mine, 140 + Carminows, The, 43 + Carnanton, 63 + Carn Brea, 197 + Carne, 134 + Cammarth, 196 + Carthamartha Rocks, 171 + Carwen, 190 + Castle-an-Dinas, 67 + Castle Dor, 144 + Castle Goff, 42 + Castle Killibury, 51 + Castle Point, 33 + Catshole Tor, 190 + Challowater, 191 + Chapel Carn Brea, 86 + Charles I., 69, 78, 117, 142, 171, 177 + II., 69, 105, 117, 122, 125, 193 + Charlestown, 139 + Cheesewring, The, 134, 181 + Chun, 84 + Clarendon, Lord, 51 + Cleer, St., 157, 182 + Clether, St., 179 + Clicker Tor, 158 + Cligga Head, 75 + Clovelly Dykes, 9, 21 + Colan, 68 + Colenso, the fighting Bishop, 139 + Columb Major, St., 51, 67 + Minor, St., 67, 69 + Porth, St., 70 + Condora, 118 + Constantine Bay, 54, 59-61 + Cookworthy, Wm., 109 + Coombe Valley, 24 + Cotehele, 136, 169 + Couch, 150 + Coverack, 117 + Crackington Cove, 33 + Crafthole, 161 + Crantock, 71-2 + Cromwell, Oliver, 26, 51 + Cruel Coppinger, 48 + Cubert, St., 71, 73 + Cuby, 75 + + Davy, Sir H., 129 + Dawney, 162 + Dawns Maen, 84 + Day, St., 196 + Delabole, 37, 43 + Dennis, St., 140 + Digby, Lord, 147 + Ding Dong Mine, 106 + Dingerein, 133 + Dizzard, 22, 33 + Dodman, The, 5, 137, 161 + Dolcoath, 196 + Dolphin Town, 104 + Doom Bar, 54 + Dozmare, 185-6 + Drake, Sir F., 37, 161 + Dranes, The, 189 + Druid's Hill, 147 + Duloe, 159 + Dungarth, King of Cornwall, 157, 182 + + Eddystone, The, 162 + Edgcumbe, Mount, 163 + Edgcumbe, Sir Rd., 136, 169 + Edward the Confessor, 72 + Edward I., 134 + III., 148, 165 + IV., 51, 148 + VI., 67, 192 + VII., 91 + Edwards, Passmore, 101, 196 + Egbert, 92, 138 + Egloshayle, 52 + Egloskerry, 178 + Eliot, Port, 165 + Sir John, 165 + Elizabeth, Queen, 121, 149 + Endellion, St., 50 + Enoder, St., 195 + Enodoc, St., 49 + Epitaphs, 44, 68, 115, 117 + Essex, Lord, 26, 121, 142, 169 + Eval, St., 62 + + Fairfax, Sir T., 26, 122 + Fal, The, 9, 117, 127 + Falmouth, 121-6 + Feock, 127 + Flushing, 125 + Foote, Samuel, 129 + Forrabury, 35 + Fowey, 9, 121, 139, 142 + The, 189 + Furlong, Andrew, 166 + + Gafulford, 41 + Gannel, The, 71 + Garrah Tor, 189 + Genys, St., 33 + George, St., 160 + Germans, St., 165-6 + Germoe, 109 + Gerrans, 133 + Giant's Hedge, The, 152 + Glasney College, 126 + Glendorgal, 70 + Godolphin, 104, 108 + Francis, 69, 96 + Godrevy, 77 + Golant, 147-9 + Golden, 134 + Goonhilly Downs, 113, 116, 184 + Goring, 143 + Goran, 137 + Goss Moors, 68 + Greenamore, 28 + Grenville, Sir B., 21, 153 + Denis, 168 + Sir J., 26, 105, 168 + Sir R., 21, 38 + Sir R., Jr., 26, 51, 142-5, 177 + Greston Bridge, 172 + Gribben Head, 142 + Gueryr, St., 157 + Gulf Stream, 103 + Gunwalloe, 113-14, 117 + Gwallen Downs, 141 + Gweek, 117 + Gwennap Pit, 196 + Gwithian, 75, 86 + + Hall House, 143, 149 + Halsetown, 90 + Halzaphron Cliffs, 114 + Hamoaze, 163 + Harewood, 169 + Harlyn Bay, 56 + Hartland, 48 + Hawker, Rev. Robert, 22, 23, 27, 37, 152 + Hawks Tor, 191 + Hayle, 78, 83 + Helford River, The, 9, 117 + Heligan House, 138 + Helland, 191 + Helsbury Beacon, 190 + Helston (North Cornwall), 42 + (South Cornwall), 110-12, 124 + Henna Cliff, 22 + Henry VII., 136 + VIII., 107, 121, 135, 163, 166 + Hensbarrow, 139, 140 + Hermes, St., 195 + Herodsfoot, 158 + High Cliff, The, 5, 33 + Hingston Down, 170 + Hobby Horse, The, 54 + Hoe, The, 167 + Holloway, 172 + Holywell Bay, 72 + Hopton, Sir Ralph, 25, 26 + Housman, Clemence, 39 + Howard of Effingham, Lord, 161 + Hurlers, The, 181 + + Illogan, 196 + Ince Castle, 165 + Inscribed stones, 40, 106, 198 + Irving, Sir Henry, 90 + Ives, St., 77, 79, 88, 89, 90, 110 + Ive, St., 171 + + James I., 177 + II., 152, 168 + Jordans, 34 + Just, St., 91 + + Kayar Beslasek, 7 + Kea Bridge, 43 + Keigwin Arms, 97 + Kelly Rounds, 51 + Kelsey Head, 73 + Kenidjack Cliff, 91 + Kennack, 117 + Kerrowe Down, 191 + Keverne, St., 111, 117 + Kew, St., 50 + Keyne, St., Well of, 158-9 + Kieve, St. Nechtan's, 37 + Kilkhampton, 21-2 + Killigarth, 151 + Killigrews, The, 115, 121-26 + Kilmar Tor, 181-2 + Kingsley, Charles, 24, 112 + Kingston, Sir A., 67, 192-3 + Kit Hill, 170 + Knill's Monument, 83 + Kynance, 114 + + Lady Nance's Well, 69 + Lambrenny, 36 + Landewednack, 116 + Land's End, 8, 93, 94 + Landulph, 168 + Laneast, 178 + Langarrow, 72 + Lanherne, Vale of, 62, 67 + Lanhydrock, 142, 145 + Lanivet, 194 + Lanreath, 153 + Lansallos, 150, 161 + Lansdowne, 26 + Lanteglos, 42, 150 + Lanyon Quoit, 86 + Launcells, 28 + Launceston, 8, 175-8 + Lawhitton, 171 + Lawrence, St., 194 + Lelant, 83 + Lerrin (or Lerryn), 147, 152 + Levan, St., 95 + Levant Mine, 91 + Lewannick, 171 + Lezant, 171 + Liskeard, 157 + Little Petherick, 53 + Lizard, 5, 113 + Loe Pool, 111, 112 + Longships Lighthouse, 93 + Looe, 152, 159-60 + Looe Island, 160 + Lostwithiel, 144-5 + Lovebond, 51, 52 + Lowry, H. D., 79, 94, 129, 146, 198 + Luxulyan, 141 + Lynher, The, 164, 180 + Lyonesse, 101 + + Mabyn, St., 190 + Madron, 98 + Marazion, 83, 101 + Marhamchurch, 22, 28 + Marsland Mouth, 21, 22, 33 + Martin's, St., 102 + Martyn, Henry, 178 + Mary's, St., 102 + Maurice, Prince, 142 + Mawes, St., 121, 133 + Mawgan (Meneage), 117 + (Pydar), 63 + Porth, 62 + Mayne, Cuthbert, 134 + Menacuddle, 141 + Menagew, The, 139 + Meneage, 113 + Menheniot, 158 + Merlin, 96 + Merryn, St., 60-1 + Mertherderwa, Dr., 7 + Mevagissey, 138 + Michael's Mount, St., 97, 101, 107-8, 201-2 + Michaelstow, 190 + Minster, 21, 35 + Minver, St., 50 + Mitchell, 178, 195 + Moditonham, 167-8 + Morth, 151 + Morwell Rocks, 169 + Morwenstow, 22-24, 27 + Mount's Bay, 106 + Mousehole, 95-97 + Mulfra Quoit, 86 + Mullion, 109, 113-15 + Murdock, 196 + + Nare Point, 117 + Navax Point, 77 + Neot, St., 157, 183-4 + New Bridge, 169 + Newlyn, 97-8 + Newlyn East, 198 + Newquay, 71 + North Tamarton, 175 + + Olaf of Norway, 105 + Opie, John, 75, 129 + Otterham, 35 + + Padstow, 48, 53, 54-5 + Paleologus, Theodore, 168 + Par, 139, 142, 143 + Park Head, 62 + Pawton, 53 + Payne, Anthony, 22, 24, 26 + Pelynt, 152 + Pencarrow Head, 33 + Pencarne, 138 + Pendeen, 84 + Pendennis Castle, 121 + Pendower, 133 + Pendrief, 190 + Pengersick Castle, 110 + Penhale Point, 73 + Penlee, 161 + Penolver Point, 116 + Penrose, 112 + Penryn, 126 + Creek, 125 + Pentewan, 138 + Pentillie, 168-9 + Pentire, 22, 48-9 + Pentreath, Dolly, 95-7 + Penwith, 94 + Penzance, 98, 113 + Perran, 86 + Perranporth, 75 + Perranuthnow, 101 + Perranzabuloe, 73 + Phillack, 78 + Pinnoc, St., 153 + Piran, St., 73-4 + Pitt, 153 + Place House, 149 + Poldhu, 115 + Polperro, 150, 161 + Polruan, 143, 149 + Polyfant, 172 + Pope, Alexander, 141 + Pordenack Rock, 94 + Port Gaverne, 47 + Porthalla, 117 + Porthcothan, 62 + Porthcurnow, 86, 95 + Porthgwarra, 94 + Porthmear, 62 + Porthoustock, 117 + Porthpean, 141 + Port Isaac, 47 + Port Quin, 47 + Portreath, 76 + Poughill, 25, 28 + Poulston Bridge, 172 + Probus,134 + + Raleigh, Sir W., 124, 170, 195 + Rame, The, 161, 163 + Head, 136, 161-2 + Redgate, 157 + Redruth, 195-7 + Restormel Castle, 144, 145-6 + Reynolds, Sir J., 163, 166 + Rialton, 69 + Richard III., 135 + Robartes, Lord, 142 + Robert of Mortain, 164, 166, 175 + Roche Rock, 140 + Rockferry, 55 + Rocky Valley, 37 + Round, The, 74 + Row Tor, 189 + Rye, 147 + + Saltash, 8, 165, 167 + Sancreed, 92 + Scilly Isles, 92, 93, 101, 106 + Sennen Cove, 93 + Seven Stones Lightship, 93 + Sheviock, 162 + Skippon, Maj.-Gen., 144 + Smith, Mr., 104 + Stamford Hill, Battle of, 24-5 + Stannary Courts, 127-8 + Stephen's, St., 139, 177 + Stepper Point, 55 + Stowe, 21, 24-26, 54 + Stratton, 22, 24-26, 28, 29 + Straughan, Col., 147 + Swan Pool, 112 + + Talland, 150, 151 + Tamar, The, 8, 9, 21. 163 _et seq._ + Teath, St., 43 + Tehidy, 76 + Tennyson, Lord, 27, 94 + Tidy, The, 165 + Tillie, Sir Wm., 169 + Ting Tang Mine, 106 + Tintagel, 5, 22, 37-40 + Toborough, 190 + Tol-Pedn, 5, 94 + Tonacombe, 24 + Tor Point, 163 + Torridge, The, 163 + Trebartha, 180 + Trebarwith, 41 + Trecarrel, Sir Henry, 177 + House, 171 + Treffry, 121, 149 + Treffry, Elizabeth, 149 + Treffry's Aqueduct, 141 + Tregarrick, 140 + Tregeagle, John, 52, 185 + Tregian, Francis, 134-5 + Tregony, 134 + Tregoss Moor, 178 + Tregothnan, 127 + Trelaske Beacon, 172 + Trelawney, John, 151 + Jonathan, 151 + Trelowarren, 117 + Trematon Castle, 164 + Treneglos, 178 + Trerice, 71, 74-5 + Treryn Dinas, 84, 86 + Tresco, 102 + Tresco Abbey, 104-5 + Tresillian Bridge, 52 + Tresparret Down, 33 + Trethevy Dolmen, 181 + Trevalga, 36 + Trevalgue, 70 + Trevanion, Hugh, 136 + Trevellick, 104 + Trevelyan, 101, 179 + Trevemper, 72 + Treveniel, 181 + Trevethan, 62 + Trevose Head, 33, 48, 58-9 + Trewartha Marsh, 182 + Trewen, 178 + Trewhiddle, 138 + Trewithian, 133 + Trewoofe, 84 + Truro, 125, 127-9, 166 + Tudy, St., 190 + Turner, 94 + + Veep, St., 147 + Veryan Beacon, 133 + Victoria, Queen, 127 + + Waddon, Col., 167-8 + Wadebridge, 26, 51, 52 + Wadgworthy, 167 + Wadham College, 158 + Warbstow Barrows, 35 + Wardour Castle, 63 + Warna, St., Well of, 102-3 + Waterpit Downs, 35 + Wedgwood, 139 + Week St. Mary, 28 + Weir Head 169 + Wellington, Duke of, 141, 195 + Werrington, 175 + Wesley, John, 8, 89, 196 + Wheal Owles, 91 + Whitesand Bay, 93 + Widemouth Bay, 33 + Willapark Head, 36 + Winchelsea, 147 + Winnow's Down, St., 143, 147 + Wolf Rock Lighthouse, 93 + Wolveden, 134 + Woolley Downs, 21 + Worwas Hill, 83 + + Zennor, 85, 90, 110 + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nooks and Corners of Cornwall, by +C. 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