ILLOGAN.
HALS.
Is situate in the Hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north the Irish sea, west Gwithian, south Camburne, east St. Agnes.
In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Illogani was valued to first fruits £8. In Wolsey’s inquisition 1521, by the same name, £22. 7s. 5d.; the patronage in Basset, the incumbent Basset; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax 1696, by the same name, £191. 16s.
The lordship of Ty-hiddy, alias Ty-lud-y, in this parish, hath from the time of Henry the Third, how long before I know not, been the seat of the ancient and knightly family of the Bassets, whose first ancestor came out of Normandy with William the Conqueror 1066, and was posted in those parts a soldier under Robert Earl of Morton and Cornwall, of whose posterity (an officer or soldier 17th Edward II.) was William Basset, who was then possessed of £40 per annum in lands and rents in knight service. Carew’s Surv. Corn. p. 51. William Basset, of Ty-hyddy, 3 Henry IV. held in that place and Trevalga, one knight’s fee of Morton, (idem liber); John Bassett was Sheriff of Cornwall 28 Henry VI. when John Chudleigh was Sheriff of Devon; John Basset was Sheriff of Cornwall 13 Henry VII. when Peter Edgecomb was Sheriff of Devon; John Basset, Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall 13 Henry VIII. when William Courtenay was Sheriff of Devon. The present possessor, Francis Basset, Esq. that married the relict of Sir William Gerrard, Knight, and after her decease Pendarves, of Roscrowe family; his father Lucy, the inheritrix of Heale, of Bradinge; his grandfather, Sir Francis Basset, Anna, daughter of Sir Jonathan Trelawney, Knight. Sir Francis Basset’s two younger brothers were bred soldiers; and in the unhappy wars between King Charles I. and his Parliament, were, for their valour and good conduct in his service, knighted, but by the unfortunate end and success of that Prince and his wars, afterwards lived and died under the pressure of misfortune.
And here I take it worth remembrance that Sir Francis Basset, Knight, aforesaid, in the beginning of the reign of King Charles II. in the morning about ten o’clock on Ty-hyddy downs, himself or his falconer let fly a goshawk or tassell to a heathpolt or heathcock, which they had there sprung or started on the wing, which birds of game and prey in a short while flew eastwards, over St. Agnes parish, and quite out of sight, so that they despaired of ever finding them again; but, the next day, before
twelve o’clock, to their wonder and amazement, a person sent from the Mayor of Camelford, brought both to Ty-hyddy to Sir Francis; the hawk well and alive, with his varvells on his legs, whereon his owner’s name aforesaid was inscribed, but the heathpolt was dead; which messenger gave this further account of this rare accident, that the day before, as near as could be computed, about a quartes or half an hour after ten o’clock in the morning, the said hawk, in the midst of Camelford town, struck down his game dead upon the spot; so that by computation their flight straight forward, only in half an hour’s space, was at least thirty-two Cornish miles.
For what reason Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, gives such a slighting relation of this famous family, I know not; his words be these: p. 154, Beyond Nants Mr. Basset possesseth Ty-hyddy, who married Godolphin, his father Coffyn, and giveth for his arms as aforesaid.
In this parish, at ——, liveth Reginald An-gove, Gent. i. e. Reginald the Smith, a sirname assumed in memory of his first ancestor, who was by trade and occupation a smith.
And of this sort of sirname in England, thus speaks Verstegan,
From whence came smith, all be it Knight or ’Squire?
But from the smith that forgeth in the fire.
This Reginald Angove is that subtle crafty tinner, whom common fame reports to have gotten a considerable estate by labouring, adventuring, and dealing in tin, both in the mines below and blowing houses above ground, by indirect arts and practices; for which, about the 8th of William and Mary, he was indicted before the jury of tinners (whereof the writer of these lines was summoned for one) amongst other things, for putting hard heads of false metal and lead in the midst of slabs of tin, melted and cast in his blowing-house, in testimony whereof some pieces or slabs thereof was cut in pieces, and the fallacy detected; whereupon the Grand Jury returned the bill of indictment,
indorsed, Billa Vera. But on his trial there was given a verdict of acquittal.
Carne Bray. Upon the top of a very high rocky mountain in this parish, which takes a large view over the land from the north to the south sea, that is to say, from St. George’s channel to the British ocean, and also towards the Land’s End and Scilly islands, stands Castle Carne Bray, erected long before the art of guns was invented. It is situate upon the summit of a large, lofty, and tremendous rock, built four-square of lime and stone, about forty feet high and twenty feet square; wherein, as appears from the beam holes, windows, and chimneys, were two planchins, besides the leads of the top thereof, though now there are not to be seen either leads or beams, only the walls, windows, chimneys, and garrets thereof are still extant and uniform, which, maugre all the force of wind and weather, are likely to stand firm till the final consummation of all things. It hath but one way of access or entrance into it, through a little hole artificially cut in the rock, under the foundation of its wall, about four feet high; the other parts thereof being surrounded with inaccessible rocks, carnes, and downfalls. Some such castle or fortification Cæsar mentions in his Commentary at Uxelodunum, for Uchell-dun-en, i. e. the lofty fort or fortress [in Gallia]. I take this castle to be the Watch Tower mentioned by Orosius, opposite to such another in Gallicia; which Mr. Carew and Mr. Camden conjecture stood near St. Ive’s. Near this castle, on the top of this mountain, are divers circular walls or fortifications, made of rocks and unwrought stones, after the British manner (see Gonwallo); and a never intermitting spring, or fountain of water, for the use of the inhabitants thereof. Probably this castle was built by some of the Brays of Cornwall, or those that came into England with William the Conqueror of that name, otherwise so called from the natural circumstances of the place, Carne.
In this parish also I take it stands another mountain, though of less magnitude, called Carne-Kye; but this place
is much more famous and notable for the great quantities of tin that have been for many ages, and are still found and brought to land from the bottoms thereof, than for its appellation, to the great enriching its lords of the soil and adventurers.
There is no tradition or memory of the person who built this costly and tremendous castle aforesaid, or tower; or for what use it was made other than to dwell in it, comparatively above the middle region of the air in those parts, more than what is expressed in the name thereof, Bray’s Castle. Undoubtedly whatever human creature it was that dwelt in it and possessed the same, he was a person that had unparalleled confidence in the strength thereof, for his safety and protection, such as never any person after his quitting ever attempted to enjoy for the pleasure of his five senses.
TONKIN.
Tehidy; this lordship of Tehidy has been for many ages in the possession of the ancient, famous, and knightly family of Bassets, whose ancestors came out of France with William the Conqueror, and were posted among the standing troops in this county under Robert Earl of Morton.
Most certainly they were possessed of this lordship some short while after the Conquest; and from hence have sprung many noble and famous men in their generation.
Then, after copying Mr. Hals, Mr. Tonkin goes on to say,
At Carnekye is a considerable tin-work, chiefly pertaining to the Bassets, out of which has been raised above a hundred thousand pounds worth of tin, to the no small profit of the adventurers and of that family.
At Nants or Nance (the valley) was the dwelling of an old and well-regarded family of gentlemen, the Trengoves of Warlegan, the name from Gove, a smith.
These gentlemen have returned to their ancient habitation
of Trengoff, in the parish of Warlegan; and the present possessors are denominated Nance from the place, giving for their arms, Argent, a cross Sable.
Mr. Tonkin then adds,
Tehidy. The first owner that I meet with of this noble lordship was Dunstanville; and then Basset, who was his grandson or nephew. Reginald de Dunstanville was a Baron of the Realm in the time of King Henry the First, and I take him to be the person meant in Testa de Neville; ever since which this lordship has been in this ancient and noted family. I shall only add, that the family now residing here, are descended from George Basset, the third son of Sir John Basset, of Umberly in Devonshire, and of Tehidy, who had Tehidy for his portion.
Leland saith, “Basset hath a right goodly lordship called Tehidy by the Cornish. There was some time a park, now defaced.” And well he might call it a right goodly lordship, since it hath the advowsons of three large parishes, this parish, Camborne, and Redruth, with the royalties of wrecks, &c. thereto belonging.
The present lord of the manor is John Pendarves Bassett, Esq. a minor, and at present a Gentleman Commoner of Queen’s College, Oxford, who is heir in expectance to his mother of all the estate of Pendarves of Roscrow, and is likely to come into the estate of the greatest of his ancestors in this county, by means of this accession, and of a rich copper mine called the Pool, within this manor, which has been and is still productive of tin and copper very rich in the ore.
The arms of Basset are, Or, three bars wavy Gules; but sometimes these bars are Dancette and the field Argent, as they are painted in the church windows of Camborne and Redruth.
The castle and park wall are still standing; and I have been informed by several old men, particularly by the late Mr. Udy West, of Redruth, that all the rocky grounds under Carnbray Castle, and from thence to Porth-Treth,
were covered with stout trees in their remembrance; so that squirrels (of which there were many) could leap from one tree to the other all the way. These were mostly destroyed in the Civil Wars, and the rest were cut down by the old Lady Basset, who had it in jointure, so that now there is not the least sign of any trees ever having grown there.
THE EDITOR.
All the attempts at etymology in relation to this parish have been omitted, on the ground of their not bearing even the slightest resemblance to probability.
It has been conjectured that Il-luggan may have some reference to St. Luke, as the parish feast takes place on the nearest Sunday to St. Luke’s day, October the 18th. But Luggan, indicating an uncultivated or uninclosed tract of ground, would seem to bear a near relation to the state of this district at no remote period.
Mr. Whitaker adheres to Saint Illuggan on account of the parish being designated as Ecclesia Sancti Illogani by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester in 1294; and by Cardinal Wolsey. It has been already remarked that many of the missionaries from the learned and zealous Convents of Ireland, have left no other trace of their existence than the names of parishes where they are usually honoured as Saints; in the sense probably of Holy, and without implying the technical deification of the Church of Rome, borrowed from ancient Mythology. Saint Illuggan may have been one of those who converted the Celts of Cornwall; but in the total absence even of tradition, this must be a mere conjecture, and the name does not seem to bear any analogy to others established by unquestionable authority.
Every attempt to decipher Tehidy has utterly failed. Mr. Angowe, who has been brought forward by Mr. Hals in a manner not likely to acquire for him much respect
from posterity, resided at Trevenson, and left a son, Mr. Abel Angowe. This gentleman was for some time a student at Oxford, but ultimately preferred the law as an attorney. He married Jane, daughter of Mr. Henry Phillips, of Carnequidden in Gulval, who lived but a very short time; and Mr. Angowe died in consequence of a fall from his horse about the year 1767. His large property became divided among a great many distant relations, and has almost entirely disappeared. The Angowes held Trevenson on lease for lives; the freehold being in the families of Basset and Praed. Mr. Thomas Kivell, steward to Lord Dunstanville, built a very excellent house there about the year 1800, which has been still further improved by his successor in the stewardship, Mr. Reynolds.
Menwinnion existed for centuries as a second house and appendage to Tehidy; but it is now reduced in size, and converted to a farm.
Few parishes in Cornwall have flourished in an equal degree with Illogan. It has abounded in the most productive mines of copper; the dense population consequent to these great sources of employment has covered the tracts formerly waste, with houses, with gardens, and with cultivated fields; and a safe harbour has been constructed at Portreath, for the reception of vessels engaged in the reciprocal trade of exporting annually more than a hundred thousand tons of copper ore to Swansea, and of bringing to Cornwall a still larger quantity of coal.
And lastly, on the 25th of October 1809, when a jubilee was held all over England, on the epoch of King George the Third commencing the fiftieth year of his reign, Lord Dunstanville laid the first bar of an iron tram road, for extending far into the country the facilities afforded by this harbour and port, which has since been done; notwithstanding a most illiberal attempt by persons interested in the trade on the opposite coast, to convert a local Act of Parliament for improving turnpike roads, the sole object of which must be to render the conveyance of individuals and
of property less expensive and more commodious, into the means of obstructing this great improvement. See the Journals of the House of Commons for the year 1817, and particularly on the 16th of May.
But these, and all other improvements in Illogan, and its general prosperity, are mainly owing to the continued residence, during six centuries, of one of the most distinguished among those families, which, having entered England in hostile array, assimilated themselves to its laws, its customs, and its institutions; and have been found, in all succeeding ages, the foremost defenders of its liberties and of its independence.
The family of Basset appears to have taken root in various parts of its adopted country. Some branches were probably Barons from the earliest times, some attained that dignity in subsequent periods; others were distinguished in the law, and all in arms; and what must not be omitted, the signature of Basset is found in the great charters of our liberties, at the ratification of Magna Charta more than six hundred years ago.
Mr. Hals brings down the family of Tehidy to Mr. John Pendarves Basset, whom he leaves a Gentleman Commoner of Queen’s College, Oxford. This gentleman married Ann, the only daughter and heiress of Sir Edmund Prideaux, of Netherton in Devonshire, by Ann Hawkins, daughter of Mr. Philip Hawkins, of Pennance, and died of the small-pox in 1789, at the premature age of twenty-five. His brother, Mr. Francis Basset, then took possession of the estate; but, unexpectedly to all parties, the widow proved to be with child, and a son was born, who lived to be sixteen, when the uncle came a second time into possession. During this interval, the guardians of young Mr. Basset finished the splendid house at Tehidy, commenced by his father; but, notwithstanding this large expenditure, so great was the product of the mines, and so considerable were the rents of the estate, that Mrs. Basset is said to have acquired above a hundred thousand pounds from her son’s
personal effects; all of which was naturally left by her among her own relations.
Mr. Francis Basset then settled principally at Tehidy; married Margaret, daughter of Sir John St. Aubyn, and represented Penryn in Parliament. Mr. Basset had three sisters; one married to the Rev. John Collins, afterwards presented to the rectory of Redruth; Lucy, the second daughter, married Mr. John Enys, of Enys, where his great grandson John Samuel Enys, is now the representative of that ancient family; the third married Nicholas Sweet Archer, of Trelaske and of Truro.
Mr. Basset died in 1769, having only completed his fifty-fourth year, leaving two sons, the eldest called after his own name; and John, who became a clergyman, held the family living of Illogan, married Miss Wingfield, and has left one son.
There were also four daughters; one married Mr. John Rogers, of Penrose, the other three remained single.
Having now arrived at the period when Sir Francis Basset, jun. came into possession of the family estate, the Editor would have found it his most pleasing task to trace an outline, however slight, of this distinguished person, in his splendid career through public and through private life. If the topics for his commendation had been in the least degree doubtful, the Editor would, indeed, have distrusted his own power of discrimination in reference to one, whom he is proud to claim, as the most liberal, generous, warm-hearted, and disinterested friend that it has been his fortune to obtain in the whole course of a pilgrimage through life, now exceeding sixty-seven years; but recent events have made recollections painful, which used to be associated with every thing most agreeable to the human mind.
Mr. Basset received the earlier part of his education at Harrow; but about the period of his father’s decease, he removed to Eton, where, in addition to useful and ornamental learning, these principles of honour and liberality
identified with the character of a true English gentleman, are imbibed, practised, and wrought into habit at the early age when sincerum est vas. After which, one can truly say
You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.
After a residence of five years, from twelve to seventeen, at Eton, Mr. Basset became a member of King’s College, Cambridge; and after taking a degree, proceeded on the usual tour through France and Italy, accompanied by the Rev. William Sandys, who, being the son of a former Steward, had received his education for the express purpose of becoming tutor to Mr. John Pendarves Basset, who is stated above to have died at sixteen.
On his return to England, Mr. Basset found himself in possession of abilities, joined to energy of mind; of a large estate, accompanied by great accumulations from the mines; and in addition, of a local influence assuring his introduction to Parliament. Thus circumstanced, it was natural for him to take an active share in the politics of his country, especially at a time when party spirit had acquired a height never to be attained but in the midst of civil commotions.
The two first Princes of the German line had remained firmly united with the Whig aristocracy, to whom they mainly owed what was then denominated their legitimate or lawful crown, as distinguished from others acquired by conquest or usurpation, or derived from a succession founded on no other title than a mere continuance of possession; but the victory of Culloden having finally extinguished all hopes in those maintaining, or rather, one may suppose, professing to maintain, indefeasible hereditary right, and having apparently established the Whigs and the legitimate crown, proved nevertheless to be the cause of their separation, and of the removal of the Whig aristocracy from power at the next accession.
A mutual feeling naturally grew up, that time must transfer rights, popularly termed indefeasible, from one
race to another, when no prospect of restoration remained; and the advisers of a young monarch might easily persuade him, that new friends, holding such tenets, would prove more acceptable supporters of their adopted crown than those who originally bestowed it on principles of limitation. Hence the parts imputed to Lord Bute and others, the re-action led by Mr. Wilkes, the letters of Junius, and the final separation of America.
From combinations of these and of other causes, Mr. Basset found Lord North first Minister of a Tory administration, and engaged in war with America, and with France, Spain, and Holland; he eagerly joined that party, and was subsequently hurried with it into the most fatal measure that had occurred up to that period, the well known and well remembered coalition.
But previously to this time, an event had taken place locally connected with Cornwall, equally honourable to him who conducted a large of body of miners to the relief of Plymouth, and to the miners themselves who volunteered their services.
In the latter part of August 1779, the combined fleets of France and Spain most unexpectedly steered into Plymouth Sound, and anchored nearer to the shore than the base of the present Breakwater.
After the splendid successes of the Seven Years’ War, marine fortifications had been wholly neglected as utterly useless, as never to be wanted in future times; but in the sixteenth year after the peace of 1763, the course of events demonstrated, that a naval force may be re-established with much less effect, and in a shorter space of time, than had been fondly imagined; and perhaps it also proved, that military navies are not necessarily based on those used for mercantile purposes.
A well-founded alarm spread immediately throughout the whole country, that Plymouth was incompetent to sustain an attack; when instantly the Cornish miners, worthy of the reputation long enjoyed by their predecessors,
rushed from all directions, and offered themselves as volunteers to assist in defending Plymouth, and to exert their skill and labour in perfecting the works; and Mr. Basset, acting as his ancestors had done before, immediately placed himself at their head. Thus a large and efficient force was, in the course of a few days, added to our most important western arsenal.
On this occasion a patent was conferred on Mr. Basset, creating him a Baronet; a gift rendered honourable by the cause for which it was bestowed.
Since the nautical events of this period have attracted but little attention from general historians, as they failed of producing any decisive result, it may be well to state the most prominent facts.
The English fleet had been detained at home by various causes, and especially by the court martial which honourably acquitted Admiral Keppel. It sailed, however, at last to prevent a junction of the French and Spanish fleets, but that junction had been effected; and the combined fleet appeared in Plymouth Sound, while the fleet of England was cruizing near Ushant, or in the Bay of Biscay.
Plymouth was undoubtedly open to their attack; and the individual having the civil government of the dock-yard, is said to have actually deliberated about taking the last desperate measure, for depriving the enemy of every advantage to be derived from acquiring such stores as might be consumed by fire.
The Ardent, a sixty-four gun ship of the line, arrived from Portsmouth; and not suspecting that a hostile fleet could appear upon our coast, and still less occupy our harbours, continued its course into the midst of the ships, and became a prize; but not without making a brave resistance, and endeavouring to escape by running ashore.
The combined fleet, instead of attacking Plymouth, sailed in quest of the adverse fleet, having manifestly taken their original course with the view of giving battle; and what must be mentioned to their honour, not a single act
of wanton hostility was committed on any part of the coast.
Every thing remained in suspense; watch and ward was established at all points. The gentlemen in every parish assembled, such as had arms, to take hasty instructions in military evolutions, while no one ventured to whisper the extent of his apprehensions to others, or even to avow them in his own mind; when, on the last day of August, both fleets appeared between the Land’s End and the Lizard. In the night, or in a fog, the fleets had passed each other; and the Editor remembers seeing the English fleet collected together in a close mass, making its way up the channel, to the amount of about forty sail of the line, pursued by the combined fleet of nearly double that number, in what is termed, line of battle a-head.
An action now seemed to be inevitable; but for some unknown cause, the combined fleet discontinued the pursuit and returned to Brest, while the English fleet anchored in Tor Bay.
On the dissolution of Parliament in 1784, Sir Francis Basset exerted himself to the utmost, and made large sacrifices of money in support of the unpopular coalition ministry, and he remained stedfast with that defeated party till the whole political hemisphere became changed in every aspect, by an event manifested in one country alone, but originating from causes long in action, and imperceptively working throughout an entire change of ancient institutions, with the very form and shape perhaps of civilized society as it previously stood.
The conflict of opinion which gave rise to the French Revolution, has but one parallel in the history of mankind; in the mental agitation, almost amounting to phrensy, which accompanied and urged forward the great change of religion three centuries before. That agitation and conflict still divides Europe, although with diminished violence; and possibly, therefore, an equal period may elapse before the questions, relative to civil government and social
order, shall have received their final settlement, if, indeed, the period is ever to arrive.
Most of those in the dawn of youth possessed of eager minds and liberal sentiments, were borne along by the torrent of passions, excited by new systems, promising universal happiness, with increased wisdom and virtue; founded on plans for reconstructing human society, derived, it was said, from philosophical investigation, to be substituted in the place of patched and mended institutions, originating with savages in the forests of Scandinavia.
But Sir Francis Basset had the advantage of several years passed in active experience with the world. He had learnt that the human faculties are unequal to the formation of systems a priori, but must submit to follow the more humble course of adaptation, tentative experiment, and induction; and it was manifest that the new political reasoners had entirely omitted to consider the real nature of the ὑλη αμεταχειριστη forming the wide basis of society; or that they were devising plans not suited to the actual state of things, but to one which they fondly imagined was about to be.
Every page of history, moreover, might prove to those willing or desirous of obtaining information from what has actually past, that the crisis of change is invariably bad; and that objects, attained by the sacrifice of an existing generation, have very frequently proved of less value than those for which they had been substituted. Parties, from their very natures, are known to run into extremes; it is probable, therefore, that the leaders opposed to Mr. Pitt professed much greater admiration of the new principles than they really felt; such professions were, however, made; and Sir Francis Basset concurring in opinion with many of the wisest, the best informed, and of those most deeply interested in the welfare of the country, that the safety of the state was at issue, added his weight to what would now be termed the Conservative scale.
Sir Francis Basset, so distinguished by personal qualities
and attainments, by the antiquity of his family, by the achievements of his ancestors, and by fortune, had long been designated in public opinion as a person proper to be placed in the House of Peers; and accordingly, on the 17th of July 1796, an hereditary seat in Parliament was bestowed on him by the King, together with the nominal Barony of Dunstanville, so called after Barons of that name, in the time of Henry the First, Henry the Second, Richard Cœur de Lion, John, and Henry the Third, who were equally connected with his family and with the reigning family of Plantagenet.
A second creation took place on the 7th of November in the following year, of Baron Basset, with a special remainder to his daughter in failure of male issue.
Lord Dunstanville has from this period continued to support the genuine character of a dignified English gentleman; discharging his parliamentary duties in the manner deemed most useful to the interests of his country; executing the office of a magistrate to the benefit, and to the entire satisfaction, of his neighbourhood; setting an example most worthy of general imitation, as the possessor of an extensive landed estate, and as a most liberal proprietor of mines. Kind and benevolent to every one, esteemed in the highest degree by his private friends and relations, and certainly placed by general acclamation, in regard to all these qualities and circumstances taken together, as by far the first man in the county which he has benefited and adorned.
The Editor has written this imperfect and inadequate sketch of Lord Dunstanville with a heavy heart; for although his countenance brightens at the presence of a friend, and memory still presents some images of things past by, and reason continues to discriminate the ideas brought into view, yet such are the ways of Providence, leading, as we hope, believe, and trust to universal good, that a wreck only remains of what used to excite our admiration, our respect, and our esteem.
Lord Dunstanville married, May the 16th 1780, Frances
Susanna, daughter of John Hippesley Cox, Esq. of Stone Easton in Somersetshire, who has left an only daughter, the Hon. Frances Basset. He married secondly, Harriet, daughter of Sir William Lemon.
Illoggan measures 8,028 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 11,334 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 1887 | 0 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 2895 | in 1811, 4078 | in 1821, 5170 | in 1831, 6072 |
giving an increase of 110 per cent. very nearly, in 30 years.
The present rector, the Rev. George Treweeke, presented by Lord de Dunstanville in 1822.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This extensive parish resembles that of Camborne in its geological structure. Its southern portion rests on granite, which at Carnarthen abounds in shorl; and at Carnkie it contains a bed of porphyry, with crystals of felspar and of shorl; and at the same place another bed, the basis of which more resembles compact shorl rock than it does compact felspar. Near Portreath, and from thence to Perth Towan, the slate appears to differ from that of Camborne; and at Perth Towan it contains short irregular veins of calcareous spar, as at Porthalla in St. Kevern, and at other places on the borders of the calcareous series.
ST. JOHN’S.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Anthony, east Maker, west Sheviock, south the British channel. The modern name John is derived from the tutelar guardian and patron of the Church, St. John
the Evangelist. In the Domesday tax this parish was rated under the district or manor of Makertone. In the Inquisition into the value of Cornish benefices, made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Johannis, in decanatu de Eastwellshire, is valued xls. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 12l. 4s. 4d.; the patronage in ——, the incumbent Tarr. The parish is rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax 1696, 72l. 0s. 8d.
TONKIN.
The manor of Insworth,
A Peninsula on whose neck, says Mr. Carew, standeth an ancient house of the Champernons; and descended by his daughters and heirs to Fortescue, Monck, and Trevilian, three gentlemen of Devon. The site is naturally both pleasant and profitable; to which the owner, by his ingenious experiments, daily addeth an artificial surplusage. Mr. Tonkin then adds, this estate (as I am better informed) being in the parish of Maker, I shall there treat more fully of it.
Sir Richard Champernon, of Madberie in Devon, Knt. had by Catherine his wife, daughter of Ralph Daubeney, Knt. two sons, Richard and John. He died in 1418, and gave this place to the said John, who lived here, and left only one son, a Richard Champernon, who by his wife, the daughter and heir of Sir John Hamley, Knt. left three daughters, one of whom married Humphrey Monck, of Potheridge in Devon, Esq.
The said Sir John Champernon was Sheriff of Cornwall 24 Henry VI. 1445, as his son Richard in the first year of Edward IV. 1461.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals has not gone into any particulars respecting this parish; but he has occupied several pages with the
real and with the legendary histories of the Evangelist, to whom the Church is dedicated; these are omitted as unsuited to a local history.
Mr. Lysons says, that the manor of Tregenhawke, situated partly in this parish and partly in Rume, and feudatory to the manor of East Anthony, did belong to the family of Eliot, by whom it was alienated in 1635 to Richard Treville, merchant; and that from the Trevilles it passed by coheiresses to the families of Cross and Trelawny. The whole now belongs to Lord Graves, who has also the manor of Withroe, called in this parish Winnow.
The right of presentation is appendant to the honour of East Anthony.
An excavation in the cliff at Whitsand Bay is noticed as having been made by Mr. Luggan, the proprietor of a farm called Freathy, by way of exercise and amusement.
The church is, perhaps, of less dimensions than any other in Cornwall, being no more than fifty-six feet long by eighteen in breadth; it bears the appearance of antiquity, and is decorated by some monuments, one to the family of Beel, with their arms, Azure, three griffins’ heads erased Argent.
This parish measures 872 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1,016 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 108 | 19 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 110 | in 1811, 143 | in 1821, 178 | in 1831, 150 |
giving an increase of about 36 per cent. in 30 years.
Present rector, the Rev. William Rowe, instituted in 1808.
Dr. Boase says of the geology of this little parish, that its rocks are precisely similar to those of East Anthony, to which it adjoins; and may almost be considered as forming a part.
ST. ISSEY.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Pedyr, and hath upon the north the channel of Padstow habour, south and east St. Breoch and part of St. Colomb, west little Pedyrick. In Domesday roll 20 William I. 1087, this district was taxed either under the jurisdiction of Polton or Burge, now Burgus (i. e. Turris). In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia de Sancti Issei, in decanatu de Pedyr, is rated iiiil. vis. viiid. Vicar ejusdem xlvis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 9l.; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Harris, the rectory in Wright. The parish is rated to the 4s. in the pound Land Tax 1696, 161l.
There hath been for many ages in Cornwall, a certain sort of unlearned men called attornies, who have taken upon them to solve all questions, debts, damages, and difficulties whatsoever, by exciting or increasing them, under pretence of friendship and good council, who are often called upon to the assistance of men of lazy or weak understanding to their undoing.
For instance thereof, I well remember in this parish of St. Issey there had lived two brethren of the surname of Warne, who having some small disputes or controversies one with the other, not determined, concerning a tenement of land in fee, containing about fifty acres, at a place called ——; they appealed to two attornies, viz. Joseph Hawkey, of St. Colomb, and Degory King, of St. Breock in Pider, who run this their controversy so far in law and equity, that they were not able to pay the cost thereof as punctually as those attornies expected; thereupon they
brought actions at law against their clients for the same, and at length obliged the two brothers of the Warnes aforesaid, to sell the inheritance of their lands aforesaid to their attornies, the one half thereof to Hawkey and the other moiety thereof to King, now in quiet possession thereof.
The inhabitants of this parish will tell you by tradition, that the tutelar guardian of this church is one St. Giggy, who in a place so called in this parish, hath yet extant a walled consecrated well, or spring of water, where heretofore he heard and judged cases of conscience for the cure of souls; but all further history of him is wanting, save that they tell me St. Issey is only a corruption of Giggy.
Hale-wyn in this parish (or Hall-wyn, the fair or white hill, as Hal is a hill, and Wyn or Gwyn white or fair. Goonwyn in Lelant the fair downs; Hale is a moor. Whitaker.) This lordship was from Edward the Fourth’s days one of the dwellings of the Champernons, of Intsworth, near Saltash; and in this place they had a great and magnificent house, as appears from the walls and ruinous rubbish and downfalls thereof yet to be seen, as also their domestic chapel and burying place; in the glass windows of which chapel was lately to be seen this inscription: “Orate pro anima Domini Ricardi de Campo Arnulphi;” and beneath the same his paternal coat armour, viz. Gules, a saltire Varry, between twelve cross-crosslets Or; which shews that he derived his blood and bones from the Champernownes, of Clyst Champernowne in Devon. For the Champernownes of Umberleigh and North Taunton, near Modbury, gave for their armes, the one Gules, a saltire Varry; the other, Gules, a saltire Varry between twelve billets Argent. [The name is originally Latin, De Campo Arnulphi, then formed by the Norman French into Champernulph, and finally formed by them, or by the Cornish, into Champernown. Whitaker.]
Cannall-Lidgye in this parish is the voke lands of a considerable manor, now in several persons’ hands; much of
those lands being in possession of Boscawen as I take it; the high rents are in Hart. As part of the same, is the possession and birthplace of my very kind friend and neighbour Thomas Carthew, Esq. Barrister-at-Law, who by his indefatigable study and labour, first in the inferior practice of the law under Mr. Tregena, without being a perfect Latin grammarian, always using the English words for matters or things in his declarations, where he understood not the Latin; who was at length, by a mandamus from the Lord Keeper North, called to the bar, and the generous practice of the law for some years, when afterwards in the latter end of the reign of King William the Third, he had a call for being made a Sergeant-at-Law, under which circumstance he grew into such great fame and reputation that he is likely to make a considerable addition of riches to his paternal estate.
He married North, a relation to the Lord Keeper North aforesaid; his father, Baker, of Lanteglos, by Fowey; his grandfather Lawry; and giveth for his arms, Argent, a chevron Azure, between three ducks Proper. The name is local, compounded of Car-dew, or Car-thew, i. e. Rock Black in this parish. Long since the writing hereof, those his lands of Canaligye are all sold by Mr. Carthew’s son and heir to two of the brothers of Trebilliocks.
Trevance in this parish, i. e. the town upon the rising or advanced land, is the dwelling of Richard Harris, Gent. that married Vivyan, of Tollskidy; his father Moyle.
Tre-vor-ike in this parish, [Pryce, in his Archæologia Cornu-Britannica says, Ick I take to signify either a creek, rivulet, or brook, as Trevorick, the town or the brook. Whitaker.] is the dwelling of William Cornish, Gent. that married Cornish, his father Tonkyn; originally descended from one William Cornish that settled here tempore Queen Mary, a Welshman. To this place belongs a sea-mill, a healing or slate stone quarry, and a lime kiln, commonly made in jointure to those gentlemen’s wives, to
win whom in marriage this argument amongst others was commonly used,
She that will this Squire marry,
Shall have the mill, the kill, and the quarry;
now all spent and wasted by ill conduct, and those lands sold to a relation of his surnamed Cornish, or some other.
At Carthew, or Legarike, in this parish, is a considerable lead or copper mine in the lands of Bearford or Bond; wherein many labouring tinners are much employed as miners, and reap much benefit thereby, as well as the lords of the lands or soil thereof.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin has not any thing in addition to what is transcribed from Mr. Hals.
THE EDITOR.
The church of this parish is called in some ancient writings, Eglos-Crock and Nansant. The Dean and Chapter of Exeter are impropriators of the great tithes, and patrons of the vicarage. The church is very old, but decorated with a lofty tower; there are monuments to Mr. Thomas Carthew, and to some of the vicars. The church town is the largest village in this parish, and lies nearly midway between Padstow and Wade Bridge. Mr. Lysons says that the manor of St. Ide, extending from this parish into the adjacent parishes of Little Petherick, St. Ervan, Breock, Padstow, and Mawgan, belonged successively to the families of Hiwis, Coleshill, and Arundell, and at a later period to the Morices. It was purchased by the late Mr. Thomas Rawlings, of Padstow.
And Mr. Lysons adds that, Blayble, a small farm in St. Issey, now belonging to Mr. Richard Williams, who occupies
it, was at an early period the seat of a branch of the Arundell family.
This parish measures 3,932 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 2,050 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 508 | 13 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 522 | in 1811, 632 | in 1821, 660 | in 1831, 720 |
giving an increase of 38 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
Dr. Boase says, that St. Issey has the same geological structure as the adjacent parish of St. Breock.
ST. IVES.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the east and north the Irish Sea, south Leland, west Tywednick; as for the modern name, it is taken from the tutelar guardian of the Church, which, as Mr. Camden tells us (upon what authority I know not) was one Iia, an Irish woman that preached the Gospel here. In the Domesday Tax, the 20th of William I. 1087, both the town and parish were taxed under the jurisdiction of Ludduham, now Lugian-lese manor, still extant here, formerly pertaining to the King or Earl of Cornwall, now to the Duke of Bolton, of whom the town of St. Ives’ privileges are held; and the same manor is held, as I take it, of the Earl of Cornwall’s Castle of Lancaster under certain rents.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of the Cornish benefices 1294, “ecclesia de Lelant in decanatu de Penwith,” is only taxed xxiil. xviiis. iiiid. without mention either of St. Ives or Tywednick, probably at that time they were neither erected
or endowed; in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, Ewny juxta Lelant and St. Ives are rated together 22l. 11s. 10½d.; St. Ewny, that is to say Tywednike, and St. Ives being consolidated in their mother church Lelant, did pass in presentation with it; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed them; the incumbent Hawkins, now Polkinhorn, the rectory in possession of Pitz; and the parish rated at 4s. per pound Land Tax 1696, 158l. 13s. 4d.
This town, as Mr. Camden saith, was formerly called Pendenis or Pendunes, the head fort, fortress, or fortified place; probably from the little island here, containing about six acres of ground, on which there stands the ruins of a little old fortification and a chapel, betwixt which island and the bending shore, or sea cliff, stands an indifferent safe road for ships to lie at anchor with some winds, which gives opportunity of trade and merchandize to the townsmen (whose town is situate thereon) and also for fishing, whereby they have much enriched themselves of late years.
The manor of Ludduham, formerly comprehending the parishes of Ludduham, Lelant, Tywednick, and St. Ives, now so many districts, is a lordship of great antiquity, and was privileged with the jurisdiction of a court leet before the Norman Conquest, for under that name it was then taxed (as aforesaid) though its now transnominated to Luggyan Lese; in which stands the borough of St. Ives, which claims the privileges thereof by prescription and tenure, all which are confirmed by a charter of incorporation from King Charles I. afterwards by another from King James II. by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses, which consists of a Mayor, ten Aldermen, and eleven Common Councilmen; the Members of Parliament elected by freemen, alias scot and lot men free there, who sign the indenture; the arms of which borough is a cluster and branch of grapes or pomegranates; and the precept on the writs for electing Members of Parliament from the Sheriff, or removing any action at law depending in the court leet of St. Ives, the writ must be thus directed: Preposits
et Burgensibus Burgi sui de St. Ives in Com. Cornub. salutem.
The chief inhabitants of this town are, Mr. Hitchins, Mr. Beer, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Hickes; in which town is held a market weekly on Saturdays, and a fair annually on Saturday before Advent Sunday.
Sir Francis Basset procured their first charter of incorporation, who, being a Burgess, gave a silver cup of 5l. value to this corporation for ever, with this inscription,
If any discord doth arise,
Within the borough of St. Ives,
’Tis my desire this cup of love,
An instrument of peace may prove.
Trenwith in this parish, was the voke lands of a considerable manor, privileged with a court leet before the Norman conquest, that heretofore extended itself over divers parishes; for by that name it was taxed in Domesday book, 20 William I. 1087, from which place was transnominated an ancient family of gentlemen, now in possession thereof, from that of Bayliff now to Trenwith, who have flourished here in good fame and reputation beyond the memory of man, since Henry VIII. The present possessor is Thomas Trenwith, Gent. that married Lanyon; and giveth for his arms, Argent, on a bend cotised Sable, three roses of the Field.
Those lands of Trenwith were of old pertaining to the Earls or Kings of Cornwall, afterwards to the Kings of England; and were held by the tenure of knight service by such as possessed them, if not from King Arthur’s days, (see Dundagall) yet from William the Conqueror’s, who, in imitation of him, gave bartons, manors, fields, large territories of land to his favourites, under the tenures of villeinage and knight service in capite, by means of which knight service those tenants were obliged to do him any necessary service, either in wars or to his royal person, for the performing whereof he took their oaths in public courts, both of homage and fealty; and by reason of this
tenure he disposed of the bodies of their heirs in marriage as he listed, and retained in his custody and wardship their whole inheritance till they accomplished the age of twenty-one years; and by those examples other men of great possessions did the like. Those lands of Trenwith, tempore Henry IV. were held by that tenure in capite by Edmund Plantagenet, alias Beaufort, Marquess of Dorset, grandchild to John Duke of Lancaster, 21 Henry VI. 1442, consisting of four knights’ fees, 3 Henry IV. (See Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 39). He was slain at the battle of St. Alban’s 1450, on the part of Henry VI. against Richard Duke of York; as also was his son Henry on the same part after the battle of Hexham, and his brother Edmund after Tewkesbury 1471, beheaded by King Edward IV. and his whole estate confiscated to the Crown; from whence Bayliff, now Trenwith, purchased part of those lands, which still pays high rent to the Kings of England. In like manner Humphrey Plantagenet, fourth son of King Henry IV. held by the same tenure in Conerton, Binerton, Drineck, and Ludgian, four knight’s fees of land in those places. He was impeached of treason at the Parliament held at St. Edmund’s Bury in Suffolk; afterwards murdered; and those and all other his lands confiscated.
TONKIN.
This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s books, together with Lelant and Towednack, with which it passeth in presentation, at 22l. 11s. 10½d.; the collation in the Bishop of Exeter; the late incumbent Mr. Hawkins, now Polkinhorne. The sheaf in possession of Edward Noseworthy, Esq.
The town of St. Ives, in Mr. Carew’s days, was of small value or consequence for wealth, buildings, or inhabitants; although it now be much altered in these particulars, and equals several other fellow corporations. Of old it hath been privileged by the Earls of Cornwall with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and with sending two Members to Parliament; also with fairs and a weekly market.
On the island (or peninsula) north of St. Ives, standeth the ruins of an old chapel, wherein God was duly worshipped by our ancestors the Britons, before the church of St. Ives was erected or endowed; betwixt which island and the shore is an indifferent roadstead with some winds for ships to lie at anchor.
This town is particularly famous for the art of catching fish; in which trade or occupation of late they have been attended with good success, to the great advancement of their wealth and reputation. The chief inhabitants of which place were Mr. Hitchins, Mr. Trevilion, Mr. Beare, &c. In this port his Majesty hath his Custom House collector, surveyor, comptroller, and waiters, both for sea and land.
Trenwith, in this parish, is the seat of an old family of gentlemen, from thence denominated de Trenwith.
THE EDITOR.
St. Ives has grown, since the time of Mr. Carew, into a place of considerable importance, participating in the general prosperity of the whole country; and deriving great local advantages from the extension of its fisheries, from the construction of a pier, and from the extraordinary increase of trade at the adjacent port of Hayle.
Fish of almost every kind, frequenting the coast of Cornwall, are taken at St. Ives; but the fishery absorbing all the others in its magnitude is the taking of pilchards.
Pilchards are taken in two different ways quite distinct from each other.
The first, most ancient, most certain, and therefore of greatest importance to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, is called drifting.
Boats sail in the open sea, drawing after them a great number of nets appended to each other, provided with small leads and corks at the opposite sides, and extending in all to a very great length. The meshes of these nets are made of such a size as to admit the head of a pilchard
to pass through them, but not the body; in consequence such fish as strike against the net are retained suspended by their gills, acting in the nature of a barb.
The second method is on a much more extensive scale, uncertain as to success; but occasionally giving fortunes to those concerned in carrying it on, by the gain of one prosperous year.
This method is founded entirely on the habit common to all the clupea genus of congregating in large shoals, and coming occasionally near the shore into shallow water, and into places where the ground is free from rocks; this latter circumstance is peculiarly favourable in the St. Ives Bay, and the ground is moreover covered to the depth of several feet by a fine sand, composed entirely of shells, reduced almost to a state of powder.
All the most favourable stations are occupied during the proper season of the year by large boats, having nets on board measuring four hundred and forty yards in length by twenty-seven yards in breadth, capable therefore of covering nearly two and an half statute acres. These nets are provided with very heavy weights at one of their sides, so as to sink them firmly on the ground, and with large corks to make them buoyant on the other. Two large boats and one smaller, as an attendant, are appropriated to each net; and when a shoal is discovered approaching, by a well-known change of colour and a ripple on the water, these boats, sometimes directed also by signals from the shore, move in opposite directions, extending the immense net to intercept the fish, and then to close it behind them. In this way a quantity sufficient to fill a thousand casks, after being pressed, have been frequently secured at one time, and on some occasions much more. The casks are hogsheads of fifty-four gallons, and contain about two thousand five hundred pilchards, so that the thousand hogsheads make two millions and a half secured by one net.
The fish are taken out of the sea by raising them to the surface of the water in smaller nets, used within the great
net forming an artificial pond; and finally they are dipped up in baskets. The first net, called a seyne, frequently remaining in its original position for several days, or perhaps gently slided towards the shore.
Pilchards are preserved for exportation in the following manner: they are laid in regular heaps along the sides of walls sheltered by roofs to a height easily reached, and to a depth suited to the ordinary length of the arm, where they are almost concealed by the great quantity of salt strewed with them; three hundred and thirty-six pounds, or three great hundred weight of salt, being allowed for each pressed hogshead. In this state they remain thirty-six days, while oil continually oozing from them is received in pits; they are then rinced in water, and laid with great care in casks made purposely with open joints, where they receive a strong pressure through the medium of a long beam and weights; more oil is then collected, and the casks, closed up, are fitted for sale. Nine of these packages, independent of the wood, are said to weigh two tons; so that in their final state, the quantity of a thousand hogsheads, not unfrequently caught at one time, must weigh above two hundred and twenty tons.
The quantity of oil is very considerable, varying from two to five gallons from each hogshead, but of inferior quality. Pilchards thus cured are called fumados, which seems to imply their having been originally smoked like red herrings; their chief consumption takes place in Spain and Italy.
The pilchards used for home consumption are invariably picked; these are opened and washed, and then rubbed with salt, about seven pounds to the hundred, and preserved in jars or troughs.
The herring, pilchard, sprat, anchovy, and several other species, are arranged by icthyologists under the genus clupea; the herring and pilchard being adjacent to each other. The pilchard is rather less in size than the herring, has larger and firmer scales, and contains much more oil.
There is one discriminating circumstance quite obvious; the pilchard, suspended by its dorsal fin, remains in equilibrio, while the herring, under similar circumstances, dips towards its head.
The pier was built under the authority of an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1767, after a personal survey and a report from the celebrated Mr. Smeaton, which is printed in his works. This shelter from every wind has equally tended to improve the fishery, to increase the general trade of the place, and to protect vessels bound for Hayle; but the fishery is indebted in a still greater degree to another Act of Parliament, carried through the legislature by the late Mr. Humphry Mackworth Praed, who had the honour first of representing this place, and then the county.
A caution had existed time of mind, by which any boat provided with a seyne net, having taken possession of one of the favourable stations or stems, might retain it till the net had been used to inclose a shoal, or, according to the technical expression, had been shot; and this right extended from one season to another: persons in possession of a stem were therefore unwilling to lose it, except for a considerable prize, and small shoals were generally allowed to escape. By Mr. Praed’s Act, so great and so beneficial a change was made, that, arranging the succession in an equitable manner, it allowed each boat to hold its stem but for twenty-four hours, and consequently every shoal, however small, was eagerly secured.
The nets are preserved for a long succession of years by steeping them in a decoction of oak bark as frequently as they are used; and, what would scarcely have been expected, the fish oil without this preservative, would destroy the twine in a very short time.
It seems that these nets must have been originally introduced from Dungarvon in Ireland, since they are still said to be braided according to the Dungarvon mesh, but no similar fishery is remembered at that place. Fish, however,
of all kinds not only migrate through distant seas, but without any known cause, frequently leave one part of a coast and resort to another, returning after uncertain intervals to their former haunts.
There is one custom at St. Ives, of which the origin and specific meaning are entirely lost. So soon as shoals of pilchards are discovered in the bay, all the people, and more especially the children, run round the town shouting, Heva! Heva! with all their might.
St. Ives was distinguished in the last century by the birth and residence for some years of a very eminent scholar, the Rev. Jonathan Toup. His father, who died in 1721, was lecturer of that Town, as the church being a daughter church to Lelant, is entitled to service from the vicar only once in three weeks; his mother was the heiress of the family of Busvargus, long settled at Busvargus in St. Just.
He was born in 1713; and it is apprehended received the rudiments of classical learning from his father. He became a Commoner of Exeter College, Oxford, and having taken the usual degree of Bachelor of Arts, obtained Holy Orders in 1736. He was Curate of Philleigh in that year, and of Burian in 1738. He continued to pursue, with extraordinary diligence, the study of Greek. He became Rector of St. Martin’s, near Looe in 1750, through some private interest; but the Vicarage of St. Merran and a Prebend in the Cathedral of Exeter in 1774, were procured from the Bishop of Exeter by his literary friend Doctor William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester.
Mr. Toup took his Master of Arts degree at Cambridge in 1756, when he had advanced towards the middle of life, and apparently as a qualification for his second living.
His chief work is, perhaps, “Emendationes in Suidam; in quibus plurima loca Veterum Græcorum, Sophoclis et Aristophanis in primis, tum explicuntur tum emaculantur.” These were printed in three parts, which came out in three volumes in the years 1760, 1764, and 1766; and
were followed in 1775 by “Appendiculum Notarum in Suidam.” All these have since been reprinted at Leipsic in four volumes octavo; and the whole has been recently incorporated into a most splendid and learned edition of Kusterus’ Suidas, by the very Reverend Thomas Gaisford, D.D., Dean of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford.
Mr. Toup gave also to the world by far the best edition that has appeared of Longinus. He also assisted the celebrated Mr. Thomas Warton in his edition of Theocritus; and added, “Curæ posteriores, sive Appendicula Notarum atque Emendationum in Theocritum, Oxonii nuperrime publicatum.” He also published a letter to Bishop Warburton under the title of, “Epistola Critica ad Virum celeberrimum Gulielmum (Warburton) Episcopum Glocestriensem.”
Nothing in particular is remembered of Mr. Toup’s private life. He died unmarried at the Rectory of St. Martin’s in 1785; and the delegates of the Oxford press, in regard for so eminent a scholar, and in return for a present of MSS. made by his niece and executrix, have erected a monument to his memory in St. Martin’s Church.
Another gentleman, although not a native of the town, may be noticed here.
Mr. John Knill was born in the eastern part of Cornwall, and served his clerkship as an attorney in Penzance, from thence he removed to the office of a London attorney, where having distinguished himself by application and intelligence, he was recommended to the Earl of Buckinghamshire, who at that time held the political interest of St. Ives, to be his local agent.
After residing for some time at St. Ives, Mr. Knill was sent on a mission to the West Indies, highly honourable to his abilities and to his character, with an authority for inspecting all the custom-houses and their establishments; and, if sufficient cause should appear, with power to suspend any one, however high, from his office.
Having executed the functions thus delegated with integrity and moderation, he returned to the collectorship at St. Ives, and engaged in a very anomalous undertaking, at that time sanctioned and encouraged by the government, which consisted in equipping small vessels to act as priviateers against smugglers. In this species of warfare he is said to have been very successful; and on the breaking out of the Dutch war in the war with America, these vessels were ready to act their part in a practice most disgraceful to a civilized nation, and which every good, honourable, and humane man must hope will never again be repeated. In this way vessels laden with private property, wholly unprepared for resistance, utterly unacquainted with the nations being at war, were plundered and robbed of whatever they contained, and unoffending passengers were exposed to insult and violence.
Mr. Knill was hurried by the force of circumstances, contrary to his inclination and habits, and to his deep subsequent regret, into doing what others did, and participating in these unhallowed gains. The Editor understands, however, that he showed every kindness in his power to some objects of compassion who were made prisoners; and that he restored several articles of their more valued property at his own individual loss.
Soon after this time Mr. Knill took up the singular fancy of erecting a triangular pyramid on a hill overlooking St. Ives, with the intention of his being buried in a proper receptacle hollowed in the base; and he invested a sum of money in trust for the support of some half ludicrous and half serious dances and processions, to be repeated every fifth year.
He however, removed, to London, resided in Gray’s Inn, was called to the bar, and became a bencher; and having departed this life on the 29th of March 1811, was buried, by the direction of his last will, in St. Andrew’s church, Holborn. The monument is ornamental to the country: on one side of the pyramid are inscribed the words, “John Knill;” on a
second, “I know that my Redeemer liveth;” and on the third the word “Resurgam.”
The monument stands on the Editor’s land, and pays him sixpence a-year, secured on a farm of some value, with a power of distress.
Mr. Knill was undoubtedly a man of considerable talent. When the Earl of Buckinghamshire took the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he selected Mr. Knill for his private secretary; but not liking the bustle, nor perhaps the responsibility of this situation, he returned to St. Ives. His philanthropy and general kindness were known to all; but a variety of idle fancies and singularities, unworthy of his talents and experience in the world, are remembered, while the estimable qualities of his heart are perhaps forgotten.
An extraordinary event took place at St. Ives on the 17th of Feb. 1780.
Some time in the month of December preceding, a large body of troops had been embarked at New York for the attack on Charlestown in South Carolina; and in a public dispatch from Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, dated March the 9th, he says, “only one ship is missing, having on board a detachment of Hessians; and supposed to have borne away for the West Indies.” The Editor has ascertained by particular inquiries, that the vessel alluded to in this dispatch nearly reached Charlestown, the place of its destination, having about two hundred and fifty German soldiers on board with provision suited to so short a voyage, when being run foul of by a ship of war in a gale of wind, and injured in the masts and bowsprit, the vessel could sail no other way than before the westerly wind, then blowing with violence; most fortunately the direction of the wind continued steadily in the same direction, and the passengers arrived safe, but nearly famished, at St. Ives on the day above-mentioned. St. Ives and the neighbourhood contended with each other in efforts, not merely to relieve the distress of these unfortunate persons, but to make them comfortable and happy;
the best attainable lodgings were provided for the private men, and the officers were daily invited to gentlemen’s houses. Their sufferings as foreigners on behalf of England, had excited general compassion, heightened by the reflection that they were not engaged in maintaining any cause in which their country had an interest, that they were not volunteers, but had been purchased by this nation from an individual entrusted with unlimited power, for the good of a portion of mankind, which he had most basely abused for the sake of private gain, in a manner that must commit his name and memory to infamy, and to the execration of mankind; nor can the administration be freed from blame that hired these human beings at so much a-day, and agreed to give the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel a certain sum for every one killed, or missing, or lamed.
Mr. Hals and Mr. Tonkin have enumerated several names of families at St. Ives. In recent times, that of Stephens has acquired an undisputed superiority.
That family, although merchants up to the decease of Mr. John Stephens in 1764, had been long in possession of landed property in St. Ives; and the Editor has seen the original of the following receipt given at the accession of King James the First.
XXIIo die Octobris, Ano Domi 1603.
Received of John Stephens of the Burrough of St. Ives in the Hundred of Penwith, within the county of Cornwall, Gent, for his composition with his Maies Commissioners for his not appearing at the Coronation of our said Souvraigne Lord the King, for to receive the Order of Knighthood, according to his Highness’ proclaymasion in that behalfe, the sum of sixteen pounds.
I saye received XVIli
Fra. Godolphin, Coll.
Mr. John Stephens married Mary, one of the three daughters of Mr. Samuel Phillips, of Pendrea in Gulval.
This gentleman appears to have been very successful in his various concerns of merchandise and fisheries, as he
added largely to his landed property by purchases in the immediate neighbourhood of St. Ives, and also in the parishes of Newlyn and St. Enoder. He acted for many years as agent to the Earl of Buckinghamshire in managing the political concerns of the town; but at last broke off the connection by getting his son, Mr. Samuel Stephens, returned on a vacancy.
Mr. John Stephens had a numerous family; his eldest son went to Holland, according to the practice of those times, with the view of continuing his father’s mercantile concerns; and the next son, Samuel, became a member of the University of Cambridge to prepare himself for the church, and probably with the expectation of obtaining Lelant and St. Ives, but the death of his elder brother caused this to be relinquished. He married Anne, daughter of Mr. Seaborn, of Bristol; and on his father’s decease about the year 1764, he disposed of every thing connected with the trade and fishery of this place, and having abandoned the sect of Presbyterians, to which all his family and relations had been strongly attached, he went so far as to pull down the meeting-house, and to withdraw his support from its minister; proceedings well remembered to his disadvantage on subsequent occasions.
About the year 1774, Mr. Stephens commenced building his new house at Tregonna; and in that and in a subsequent year proved unsuccessful at a poll, and on a petition, for the representation of St. Ives. He died in March 1794, leaving three sons, John Stephens, Rector of Ludgvan; Samuel, to whom he devised a large portion of his estate; and Augustus, all of whom have died in the present year (1834); also three daughters, Anne, Maria, and Harriet. Mr. Samuel Stephens, the second son, married Betty, sole daughter of Capt. Wallis, the discoverer of Otaheite, and coheiress of the families of Hearle and Paynter. He represented St. Ives in two Parliaments, and died February the 25th, 1834, leaving five sons, and one daughter, married to the Rev. Charles William Davy.
Previously to the Act of Parliament of 1832, St. Ives sent two Members to Parliament; and the right of voting rested in persons paying scot and lot throughout the parish. It now sends one member in conjunction with Lelant and Towednack. The present representative is Mr. James Halse, probably related to the historian: this gentleman is among the most enterprising and successful adventurers in mines of the present day.
The situation of the town would seem to be most salubrious, and perhaps it is so in ordinary times; but few places have suffered more from occasional epidemics.
The Editor remembers to have heard dreadful traditionary accounts of the plague in 1647. No market was kept in the town for a considerable space of time; but instead of it, supplies were brought to the edge of two streams of water at Polmanter and at Longstone Downs, where provisions were deposited with their prices affixed, which the inhabitants took away, leaving their money in the streams. It it said, however, that the Stephens family having retired to a farm called Aire, which they possessed just out of the town, and having there cut off all communication with others, entirely escaped, although 535 died in the course of one summer, out of a population which could not at that period have exceeded treble the amount. In the spring of 1786, a fever raged with great violence, to which the reverend Mr. Lane, then lecturer, and Mrs. Lane fell victims within a few days of each other.
The whole inscription on the cup given by Sir Francis Basset is as follows:
If any discord ’twixt my friends arise
Within the borough of beloved St. Ives,
It is desired this my cup of love,
To everie one a peace-maker may prove;
Then am I blest to have given a legacie,
So like my harte unto posteritie.
Francis Basset, Ao 1640.
The arms of the town are, Argent, an ivy bush overspreading the whole field Proper, evidently in allusion to
the name; but this bearing has afforded an obvious joke throughout the neighbouring parishes at the expense of the Mayor.
The church is unusually large and handsome, with a fourth aile at the eastern end, and a lofty tower; and few prospects are equally beautiful with that of the town and bay from the hill near Tregenna.
The parish feast is celebrated at the same time as that of Lelant the mother church; and Lelant, Redruth, and Crowan, are said to honour St. Eury by holding their feasts on the nearest Sunday to her day, February 1st, but no trace of any such saint can be found.
The parish measures 1524 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 5,560 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 1,174 | 0 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 2714 | in 1811, 3281 | in 1821, 3526 | in 1831, 4776 |
giving an increase of 76 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The north-eastern part of this parish is composed of compact and slaty felspar rocks, like those of St. Just in Penwith; the other part is situated on granite. Both these rocks are traversed by metalliferous veins, which have been for many ages the objects of mining speculations.
ST. JULYOT.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north St. Gennis, west St. George’s Channel, south Lesnewith, east Otterham. As for the modern name, it is so called from its tutelar guardian and patron thereof, St. Julius, Pope of Rome and Confessor. In Domesday Tax, 20 William I. (1087), it was rated under the jurisdiction of Lesnewith or Otterham. In the taxation of benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester in Cornwall, 1294, ecclesia de Sancta Juliot, in decanatu de Major Trigshire (id est, before Stratton was dismembered from it) is rated xiil. Again, Capella de Sancta Julyot, xxvis. viiid.; but where this latter Church or Chapel now stands, I am wholly ignorant; for in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, both are forgotten or omitted; the patronage is in Molesworth, and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 66l. 16s.
TONKIN.
This parish is a donative, the patrons Sir John Molesworth and Mr. Rawle. The name is from St. Juliet, a virgin saint and martyr.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Whitaker agrees in assigning to St. Juliet the honour of giving her name to this parish.
There seems to be some confusion in Mr. Hals’ narrative
between the appropriations of the Rectory and of the Vicarage, which Mr. Whitaker endeavours to explain in the following note.
“Mr. Hals has confounded himself by the identity of names. The Rectory of St. Julyot is placed by the first Valor in the Deanery of Trig Minor, and the Chapel of St. Julyot is placed by it; and by the second in that of Trig Major. The former too is rated so high as 12l., while the latter is only 26s. 8d. even at a period so much later. The former therefore is the only large living of Trig Minor that is unnoticed in the first Valor, Lanteglos, correspondently valued in the second at 34l. 11s. 3d. And the latter is the present St. Julyot, not a Rectory, but a mere Chapel in the first Valor, a mere Curacy Parochial in the second, once appropriated to the Abbey of Tavistock, and therefore having only 15s. certified value at present, the old allocation settled upon it by the Abbey.”
Mr. Hals has given a very long history of Julius, Pope or Bishop of Rome, from the year 343 to 358, which is omitted.
Nor is there anything worth relating in the history or legend of St. Julyot. She is said to have suffered death, having been accused by a violent and wicked person who had previously taken from her by force some ample possessions. There is extant a sermon of St. Basil in praise of this saint, who is commemorated in the Rituale Romanum on the 30th of July.
The family of Rawle, settled for some time at Leskeard, are said to have originated from Hennot, in this parish. They, together with Molesworth of Pencarrow, are joint impropriators, and alternately nominate the perpetual curate.
St. Julyot measures 2276 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1784 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 143 | 18 | 0 |
giving an increase of 36 per cent., in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Russell, instituted in 1810.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The rocks of this parish are nearly allied to dunstone, into which they pass at Tresparret Downs; some of them, however, more nearly resemble the dark-coloured pyritous rocks of Forrabury.
ST. JUST, IN ROSELAND.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north King’s Road and other parts of the Sea of Falmouth Harbour, east Phillery, south Gerans, west Anthony; the modern name of this parish and church is taken from the name of the saint to whom the same is dedicated, viz. St. Just; for in the Domesday Tax it was rated under the jurisdiction of Egles-ros, now Philley, or Tregarada, now Tregare in Gerance, both contiguous therewith. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, ecclesia de Sancto Justo, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated at iiiil. vis. viiid. This church was partly endowed by the Dean and Chapter of Exon, who received an annuity out of the same of xxxs., as appears from that Inquisition; and partly by the Prior and Convent of St. Mary de Val, or Vale, contiguous therewith, and St. Mary de Plym, its superior, who received annually out of it xiiis. ivd. In Wolsey’s Inquisition it was valued at 37l. The patronage was formerly in the Prior of St. Mary de Val, now Antony (in right of their manor of St. Mary’s, now St. Maws), annexed since the dissolution of that Priory, 26 Henry VIII., to the manor of Tolverne,
afterwards in Arundell of Tolverne, now Tredinham; the incumbent Bedford. The parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 172l. 13s. 4d.
In this parish, upon a cove or creek of Falmouth Harbour, stands the borough of St. Mawes, also St. Mary’s, so called from the manor of land on which it is situate, heretofore pertaining to the Canons Regular of the Priory of St. Mary de Plym in Devon, both dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, and thence from her denominated St. Mary’s. It is the voke lands of two ancient manors, named Tolverne and Bohurra, privileged time out of mind with the jurisdiction of court leets, held before the Steward or Portreeve, who governs the same, and is annually chosen by the majority of the homage or tenants of the manor of Tolverne Court; the lords of which formerly were the Priors aforesaid, afterwards Arundell of Tolverne, now Tredinham as aforesaid. It sendeth two Members to sit in the Lower House of Parliament, who are chosen or elected by the freeholders or freemen of the said borough. It hath a weekly market, and an annual fair on Friday next after Luke’s day; and giveth for its arms, a bend lozengy of six pieces ermine, between a castle in the sinister chief and a ship rigged without sails in the dexter.
The writ to remove an action at law depending in this Leet to a Superior Court, and the precept for election of Members of Parliament, must be thus directed: Præposito et Senescallo ville sue de St. Mawes alias St. Mary’s in Com. Cornub. salutem.
At the north end of this borough, upon a well advanced promontory, stands the Castle of St. Mawes, alias St. Mary’s, first built, fortified, and supplied with a small garrison of soldiers, by King Henry VIII. in his French wars, for defence of the harbour of Falmouth, against invasion of enemies; having now about thirty cannon, demy cannon, and culverins pertaining thereto (but scarcely so many soldiers of war). The Captain and Keeper whereof hath
from the King 54l. 15s.; his Deputy 27l. 7s. 6d.; three Gunners, in all 72l.
After the dissolution of the Priory of St. Anthony, 26 Henry VIII., 1535, this Castle and the land whereon it stands, together with the government thereof, as I am informed, was given by that King to Sir Robert Le Greice, Knight, an Arragonist or Spaniard, whose son, in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, sold the inheritance thereof to Hanniball Vyvyan, Esq. of Trelowarren, who thereupon was made Governor thereof; as some say after his decease, Sir Francis Vyvyan, Knight, his son; after his decease Sir Richard Vyvyan, Bart., his son; after his decease Sir Vyell Vyvyan, Bart., who was so far imposed upon by John Earl of Bath, by licence of King Charles II., as to sell the inheritance of the lands whereon this Castle stands, to him for 500l.; who forthwith transferred it over to Sir Joseph Tredinham, Knight, who then became Governor thereof, but was displaced by King William III., and the government thereof given to his Privy Councellor, the Right Honourable Hugh Boscawen, Esq., now in possession thereof at the writing of these lines.
There was a great controversy in Parliament, 4 James I., between Cotterell and Legrice, about Legrice’s lands. See the Memoirs of Parliament, page 68, and modus tenendi Parliamentum.
During the interregnum of Cromwell, Sir Richard Vyvyan, as a person dissaffected to his government, was displaced from the gubernation of this Castle, and one Captain Rouse put in his place, which gentleman, as I have been informed, before the war broke out between King Charles I. and his Parliament, was of such low fortune in the world that he lived in a barn at Landrake, and lodged on straw, till he got a commission to be a Captain in the Parliament Army under the Earl of Essex, which brought him into money and credit; so that at length he was posted the Commander or Governor of this Castle, who behaved himself so very proud, grand, severe, and magisterial towards the neighbouring
gentlemen of the royal party, that it gave occasion to John Trefusis, Esq., to make this short description of him in verse; which the Cavalier party, when they met to drink the King’s health, would commonly sing in derision of the Governor, and called it their passado, viz.:
In wealth Rouse abounds;
He keepeth his hounds,
Full fourteen couple and more.
When he lived in a house
With an owl and a mouse,
Oh! they say he was wondrous poor.—Oh! they say.
Part of this barn aforesaid, tempore William III., as I am informed, was converted to a dwelling house, the other part was made a Presbyterian meeting-house, by Mr. Robert Rouse of Wootton, son of the gentleman before mentioned, who with his family commonly on Sundays met there with great numbers of people of that profession, to hear the predicaments of their Priest. This Mr. Robert Rouse married Harrington of Somersetshire, and resided there during his father, the Governor, Rouse’s life, with his wife, during which stay there he had by her one or two sons; and after his father’s death, he came down to Wootton in this county.
As the Captain or Keeper of St. Mawes Castle hath a salary as aforesaid, so the Governor of its opposite Castle of Pendenis, hath yearly from the Crown 182l. 10s.; his Lieutenant-Governor 73l.; the Master Gunner 36l.; and two other Gunners 36l. each; and the like payments are made to the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor and Gunners of Scilly Castle and Islands.
TONKIN.
The patronage of this parish is in Sir Joseph Tredenham, in right of his manor of Tolvern.
A great part of this parish is included in the manor of
Tolvern, but as the capital place is in Philly I shall there treat of it.
Treveres; the town in the ways or roads, veres being the plural of ver or vere, a road, way or lane.
This place has been for several generations, by lease from the Arundells and the succeeding lords of Tolvern, the seat of the Jacks, the last of whom, Richard Jack, Esq. dying without issue, left this estate to his sister’s only daughter, heiress of William Hooker, of Trelisick, in St. Ewe, Esq. and married to John Pomeray, Clerk.
Near this place lies Rosecossa, the woody valley, which I am told was formerly the seat of Sir John Rosecossa, who had here a large house and a chapel, but lately demolished. He left two daughters coheiresses, married to Trefry and Woollcumbe. This estate, with another called Tolcarne, that is the stone with a hole bored in it, have descended to Roger Woollcumbe, of Langford Hill, Esq. the present possessor of both.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals has given a long history of St. Just, the companion of St. Austin, and his successor in the See of Canterbury, all of which is omitted. The parish is supposed to be under the patronage of St. Just, or Justus Archbishop of Lyons, about the year 350. This Saint, already a Bishop, began his career towards beatitude, by assisting St. Ambrose in his furious hostility against the Arians, and completed it by retiring into the deserts of Egypt, to prepare himself for the society of superior beings, through the favour of Him who is the author of all wisdom, of all knowledge, and of all benevolence, to be obtained by discarding or stupefying in solitude every kind affection, and every faculty of intelligence bestowed on him by the Almighty.
He is commemorated in the Roman Calendar on the second of September.
St. Mawes and its castle are by far the objects of greatest curiosity in this parish.
The shelter afforded for boats must at all times have rendered this place a resort of fishermen, but it acquired more importance and a name by the residence of St. Mawes, who seems to have come from Ireland with the other missionaries.
Accounts respecting him are extremely various. Some assimilate his history to that of St. Just, stating that he attained the episcopal dignity, and then, in compliance with the taste of that age, retired to an ascetic solitude; other legends represent him as a schoolmaster, and in early paintings he may be seen with the well-known emblem of scholastic authority in his hand.
The castle at St. Mawes was undoubtedly built by King Henry VIII. but a tradition universally believed in Cornwall is much less certain.
It is said that the King came to view the situation of his two projected castles of St. Mawes and Pendennis; that he passed two nights at Tolvorn, then a seat of the Arundells; and that he crossed the river from thence to Feock, at a passage that has ever since gone by his name. There is not, however, any trace of this journey to be found in histories of the times, nor in any public document.
The privilege of sending Members to Parliament was given to this village by Queen Elizabeth, in pursuance, probably, of the Tudor policy noticed under Michell; and if the creation of a close borough were the object really intended, it proved invariably successful up to the general disfranchisement of 1832.
This right of sending Members to Parliament, accompanied by the pageantry of maces and sergeants-at-arms, and combined with various personal advantages, could not fail of exciting feelings of envy and ridicule. In this instance the village of St. Mawes, extending in a single line of houses in the direction of the beach, has readily presented a topic, which was, to inquire whether the new mayor lived on the same side of the street as his predecessor.
Corrack Road, the best anchorage for large vessels in all Falmouth harbour, lies off this parish, called by Mr. Hals King Road, but the popular appellation is St. Just, or Sainteast, Pool.
Mr. Lysons gives the following inscriptions, said to have been written by Leland, and cut in the castle walls.
“Henricus, Octavus Rex Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ invictissimus, me posuit præsidium reipublicæ, terrorem hostibus.
Imperio Henrici naves submittite vela,
Semper honos, Henrice, tuus laudesque manebunt;
Edwardus famâ referat factisque parentem,
Gaudeat, Edwardo duce nunc, Cornubia felix.
Semper vivat Aiâ Regis Henrici Octavi, qui
anno XXXIVᵒ sui regni hoc fieri fecit.
Honora Henricum Octavum Angliæ, Franciæ, et
Hiberniæ Regem excellentissimum.”
The advowson of this parish has passed by succession from Tredinham, through Schobells, to Hawkins. The present incumbent is Edward Rodd, D.D. of Trebartha, late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and Proctor of the University in 1802.
St. Just in Roseland measures 2340 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 4714 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 817 | 8 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 1416 | in 1811, 1639 | in 1821, 1648 | in 1831, 1558 |
giving an increase of 10 per cent. in 30 years; there being a decrease of 90 in the last 10 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
This parish, which forms the eastern shore of Falmouth harbour, is composed of the same rocks as the adjoining parishes of Filley, Gersons, and St. Anthony.
ST. JUST, near Penzance.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north-east Morsa, west St. George’s Channel and Sennan, east Saneret, south Buryan. For the modern name, it is taken from the tutelar guardian to whom this church is dedicated, viz. St. Just the Roman, first Bishop of Rochester, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district passed in tax, either under the jurisdiction of Buryan or Alverton. In the taxation of benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, ecclesia Sancti Justi in decanatu de Penwith is rated viiil.; in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 11l. 11s. 0½d.; the patronage in the Crown; the incumbent Millet; the rectory in possession of Borlase, and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of St. Just, 133l. 7s.; which name is derived from the Latin words jus, justus, right, just, lawful, righteous, well-meaning, upright.
At Pen-dene, or Pen-dayn, in this parish, is the dwelling of John Borlase, Esq. Commissioner for the Peace, who married Lydia Harris, of Kenegye, and giveth the same arms as the Borlases of Borlase in St. Wenn and Newland; this gentleman’s father greatly advanced his wealth by tin adventures, and is descended from the Borlases of Sythney, as I am informed.
Bray in this parish, situate on the Irish sea coast, gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Bray who by the tenure of knight service, held in this place two parts of a knight’s fee of land, 3 Henry IV. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 39.
I take the Lord Bray of Hampshire to be descended from this family. This place is now in the possession of that well-known quaker, John Ellis, Esq.
On the south side of this parish, upon a lofty hill, stands Chapel Carne Bray, that is to say Bray’s spar-stone Chapel, and suitable to its name it is situate upon the top of the most astonishing burrow or tumulus of Carnes, or spar stones, that ever my eyes beheld; artificially laid together perhaps upon the bodies of human creatures, interred upon the mountain before the fifth century; on the top of which burrow of stones, which is about fifteen feet high from the ground, stands the chapel itself; which riseth about ten feet higher, well built with moor-stone and lime, with a window in the east, and a durns, or door, on the south of the same stones; the roof all well covered or arched over with large flat moor-stones, wrought with the hammer and strongly fastened together. The chapel being about ten feet broad and about fourteen feet long (as that on Roach Rock) on the outside; and round this chapel may be seen, the downfalls of many sparstone-stairs and walks, by which heretofore the people ascended to this chapel, and diverted themselves with a full prospect of the contiguous country by sea and land—St. George’s Channel, the British Ocean, and the Atlantic Sea towards the Scilly Islands, of which from hence in fair weather you may have a full view; which lands of Scilly seem to stand in equal height with this chapel, though the ground towards the Land’s End, in St. Leucan and St. Lennan, on the sea-shore towards it, are at least eighty fathoms lower, or under it, as is the sea itself, betwixt that and the Scilly Islands. Such another chapel as this, though not built upon a burrow of stones, is to be seen on Mountague Hill, in Somersetshire, and dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, for half a mile ascended up the hill upon stone stairs, embowed or arched over head right artificially. (See also Camden in Somerset.) Thus it appears that this tribe of Bray were heretofore men of great wealth, fame, and renown in those parts; since their name adheres not only to two local places in this parish, but divers others, as Castle Carne Bray in Luggan, Bray in Morvall, and many other places.
In this parish also was formerly St. Ewny’s Chapel, now dilapidated; see Redruth and Lelant for more of this St. Ewny.
Those spar-stone monuments of Carne Bray Castle, and Chapel Carne Bray aforesaid, will I suppose perpetuate the name and memory of those Brays till the final consummation of all things, as aforesaid. Bray, in Battle Abbey Roll, is recorded to have come into England with William the Conqueror; but by the names of those local places and the fabrics aforesaid, it is probable they were here long before.
In this parish is a large flat stone, on which, as tradition says, seven Saxon Kings at one time and day, dined thereon, at such time as they came into Cornwall to see the Land’s End thereof, and of Great Britain; which Kings are said to have been: 1. Ethelbert, 5th King of Kent; 2. Cissa, 2nd King of the South Saxons; 3. Kingills, 6th King of the West Saxons; 4. Sebert, 3d. King of the East Saxons; 5. Ethelfred, 7th King of the Northumbers; 6. Penda, 5th King of the Mercians; and 7. Sigebert, 5th King of the East Angles; who all flourished about the year 600, and were all crowned heads, as Samuel Daniell in his Chronicle tells us.[7]
TONKIN
Has not any thing in addition to what is stated by Mr. Hals, except a description of Mayne Scriffer, or the “inscribed stone,” which he ends by saying is really not in this parish, but in Madders, where he purposes to give a more full account of it.
THE EDITOR.
Pendeen claims the first attention of any place in this parish. It was for some ages the residences of the Borlases,
since removed to Castle Horneck, near Penzance. At Pendeen resided in the early part of his life Mr. John Borlase, sometime member for St. Ives. Here were born his two sons the Rev. Walter Borlase, LL.D. Vice Warden of the Stannaries; and the Rev. William Borlase, LL.D. by diploma from the university of Oxford, the justly celebrated writer of the Antiquities and of the Natural History of Cornwall.
Pendeen exhibits an excellent specimen of the large but comfortless houses, inhabited by gentlemen two centuries ago.
Near the house may be seen one of those very ancient excavations called vaus or faus. See Borlase’s Antiquities, p. 293, 2d. edit. 1769. They are conjectured to have been made for places of refuge in times when predatory descents on the coast were of frequent occurrence, and always causes of alarm. Yet the entrance could not be concealed, and the five kings of the Amorites had left an example, confirmed at no remote period by the cruel fate of a northern clan, proving the utter insecurity of such a retreat.
On the sea-shore below the house is a small cove, where boats and nets are kept for fishing; but so small is the shelter on this iron-bound coast, that the boats are drawn up by ropes or chains, and kept suspended during the winter, on the sloping surface of a steep cliff.
Some miles westward of Pendeen, and near the sea, is Botallock, the seat of the Usticks; one among the many families that resided for centuries in this remote peninsula, moderately endowed with gifts of fortune, but possessed of the honour and feelings of gentlemen.
This parish has been productive of tin from the most early periods; and Botallock would have elevated its proprietors in the scale of wealth, but times and manners had changed, so that the last Mr. Ustick of that place having spent his estate, and then got it redeemed by a productive mine, sold it at last to Admiral Boscawen, to whose grandson the property now belongs. The veins or lodes of tin
having been wrought within the last fifty years to depths unattainable before the introduction of improved steam-engines, copper has, in very many instances, been found under the tin; and this has occurred at Botallock, where situated on the edge of a cliff, the workings with the steam-engines, whims, &c. present a spectacle more unique and more imposing than any other in Cornwall.
Further from the shore is Busvargus, the seat of an ancient family of the same name, the heiress of which was the mother of the Rev. Jonathan Toup, whose eminence as a scholar has been noticed under St. Ives. He died without issue in 1785; and the estate of Busvargus, having been settled on the children of his half-sister, is now the property of his niece, Mrs. Nicholas of Looe, the present representative of the Busvargus family.
The families of most distinction in latter times, inhabitants of St. Just, were Allan and Moddern, but both names are now extinct.
The great tithes appertained to the monastery of Glaseney, in Penryn. They now belong to Borlase.
The vicarage is in the presentation of the crown, and was held for many years by Doctor William Borlase, the historian.
And here perhaps the Editor may be allowed to mention the name of one whom he esteemed and admired, although his connection with Cornwall was so little permanent as to consist only of his serving the curacy of this parish.
The Reverend John Smyth, Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, received his title for deacon’s orders from Doctor William Borlase, as vicar of St. Just, where he remained about six or seven years, till Cornwall lost one of its greatest ornaments.
Leaving St. Just, after Doctor Borlase’s decease, he became the friend and assistant of the Reverend Sir Richard Kaye, Dean of Lincoln, and through his recommendation made the tour of Europe with Mr. Langley, a gentleman of Yorkshire. He then went back to College, and on a vacancy
became tutor, and succeeded to the Headship; returning from a visit to Penzance, in 1809, he died in consequence of some local complaint at Exeter, where a monument has been placed to his memory in the Cathedral Church, with the following inscription:
Juxta conditur
Joannes Smyth, S. T. P.
Magister Collegii Pembrochiæ
apud Oxonienses,
Qui Academiam remeans, hac in Urbe,
vi morbi grassantis, cito abreptus est,
die 19 Octobris, A.D. 1809, ætatis suæ 66.
Grata recordatione ejus in Collegiam beneficentiæ,
in amicos comitatis et benevolentiæ,
imo in omnes Φιλανθρωπιας,
hoc marmor posuêre
Successor ejus et Socii.
There is also a cenotaph in the Cathedral at Gloucester, a prebend of which church is annexed to the mastership of Pembroke College, by the liberality of Queen Anne.
Few men were ever more universally esteemed, or were more deserving of being so. His abilities and learning commanded respect; kindness, generosity, and benevolence endeared him to every friend; whilst good nature and convivial manners made him the favorite of each casual acquaintance.
To him the Editor is indebted for his good fortune in being himself a member of Pembroke College.
The parish feast is celebrated on the Sunday nearest to All Saints, November the first; but the church is known to claim for its patron St. Just, the companion of St. Austin, Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Little is handed down to posterity of St. Just, but that little is entirely to his praise; at the command of Pope Gregory the Great, he undertook the perilous but successful service of converting the English Saxons; he attained the highest ecclesiastical dignity from the suffrages of those who had been brought by the
labours of St. Austin and of his followers, within the pale of the church; and he obtained deserved commendation from Pope Boniface, either the third or fourth, who with one intermediate Pope, were the successors of St. Gregory, when the apostolic confirmation of his appointment to the metropolitan see was given, and himself honoured by the investure of a pall. He is stated in the Rubrics to have died on the 10th of November in the year 627.
Nothing seems to be more obvious, or to be more congenial to the human mind, than an annual celebration of particular events. Nature has completed in twelve months the most distinctly marked of her cycles. The seasons are renewed in the same order; and, if experience did not soon convince us of the contrary, we might be induced to think that our own existence in this world was destined to tread the same perpetual round.
Birth-days appear to have been celebrated in honour of living persons from times the most remote, either by nations, provinces, or private families, in proportion as their claims to attention were more or less wide. After the decease of those who have been supposed to confer benefits on mankind, “Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo,” and more especially of those to whom nations owed their spiritual light and hopes, the days of such persons leaving this scene of trial, of sorrow, of anxiety, and of disappointment, to obtain their reward in Heaven, became epochs for uniting religious observance with joy and gladness. Churches were, therefore, dedicated to their memories and festivals instituted; but in England at least this instinctive propensity received the aid of a policy similar to that which, in still earlier periods, had fixed the Christian festivals on the very days previously occupied by the celebration of ancient superstition. Bede has preserved the following letter from Pope Gregory to St. Mellitus, who led a second band of missionaries into England, after the successful preaching of St. Austin, and became the first Bishop of London, where he is said to have founded the two Cathedrals, and finally to have attained the Archbishopric of Canterbury.
Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ Gentis Anglorum Libri Quinque, autore Sancto et venerabili Baeda. Lib. 2, ch. 30.
Exemplar Epistolæ quam Mellito Abbati Britanniam pergenti misit Sanctus Gregorius.
Abeuntaibus autem præfatis legatariis misit post eos beatus Pater Gregorius litteras memoratu dignas, in quibus apertè quàm studiosè erga salvationem nostræ gentis invigilaverit ostendit, ita scribens:
Dilectissimo filio Mellito Abbati Gregorius Servus Servorum Dei.
Post discessum congregationis nostræ, quæ tecum est, valde sumus suspensi redditi, quia nihil de prosperitate vestri itineris audisse nos contigit. Cum ergo Deus Omnipotens vos ad reverendissimum virum, Fratrem nostrum Augustinum Episcopum perduxerit, dicite ei quod diu mecum de causa Anglorum cogitans tractavi; videlicet quia Fana Idolorum destrui in eadem gente minime debeant, sed ipsa quæ in eis sunt Idola destruantur; Aqua benedicta fiat; in eisdem Fanis aspergatur; Altaria construantur; Reliquiæ ponantur, quia, si Fana eadem bene constructa sunt, necesse est ut a cultu Dæmonum in obsequio Veri Dei debeant commutari, ut dum gens ipsa eadem Fana sua non videt destrui, de corde errorem deponat, et Deum Verum cognoscens ac adorans, ad loca quæ consuevit familiariùs concurrat. Et quia boves solent in sacrificio Dæmonum multos occidere, debet eis etiam, hac de re, aliqua sollemnitas immutari; ut Die Dedicationis, vel Natilitii sanctorum Martyrum, quorum illic Reliquiæ ponuntur, Tabernacula sibi, circa easdem Ecclesias, quæ ex Fanis commutatæ sunt, de ramis arborum faciant, et Religiosis convivis sollemnitatem celebrant. Nec Diabolo jam animalia immolent; et, ad laudem Dei, in esu suo animalia occidant, et Donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias referant; ut dum eis aliqua exteriùs gaudia reservantur, ad interiora gaudia consentire faciliùs valeant. Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscindere impossibile esse non dubium est; quia et is qui summum locum ascendere nititur gradibus vel passibus,
non autem saltibus elevatur; sic Israelitico populo in Ægypto Dominus re quidem innotuit; sed tamen eis sacrificiorum usus, quæ Diabolo solebat exhibere, in cultu proprio reservavit, et eis in suo sacrificio animalia immolare præciperet, quatenus cor mutantes, aliud de sacrificio amitterent, aliud retinerent; ut etsi ipsa assent animalia quæ efferare consueverant, vero tamen Deo hæc et non Idolis immolantes jam sacrificia ipsa non essent.
Hæc igitur dilectionem tuam prædicto Fratri necesse est dicere, ut ipse in præsenti illic positus perpendet, qualiter omnia debeat dispensare.
Deus te incolumem custodiat, dilectissime Fili! Data die decima quinta kalendarum Juliarum, imperante Domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo Augusto, anno decimo novo; post consulatum ejusdem Domini anno decimo octavo; Indictione quarta. A. D. 601.
It may be presumed that the Jesuit missionaries to China and to Paraguay were not unacquainted with this letter from the Pope.
St. Just in Penwith measures 6,984 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 7776 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 817 | 8 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 2779 | in 1811, 3057 | in 1821, 3666 | in 1831, 4667 |
giving an increase of 68 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Buller, presented by the Lord Chancellor in 1825.
This parish is called St. Juest as a distinction from the name of the parish in Roseland pronounced St. Jeast.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish, with the exception of a narrow band of slate which skirts the coast from Pendeen Cove to Cape Cornwall, is situated entirely on granite. It has been long celebrated for its mines, which generally are placed on or near
to the junction of the granite and the slate; and in consequence of the narrow limits of the latter rock, their workings often extend under the sea. Botallack mine is a noted instance of this description; and its steam engine and machinery, perched on the side of a steep rocky cliff, present one of the most picturesque objects in the country. St. Just has afforded specimens of by far the greater number of British minerals. Its slate has a basis of compact felspar, and exhibits many interesting varieties of this rock; but the most rare is that which abounds with disseminated garnets at Botallack. The principal lodes of this parish exhibit some peculiarities in their direction, and the little coves are generally covered with beds of diluvium, some of which are composed of large granitic pebbles and boulders, which appear to have once formed a beach, although at present they are elevated above high-water mark. St. Just abounds with so many interesting objects as to make it impossible to enumerate them in these short notices. Ample details may be found of all these productions in the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall.
[7] This is said by modern tradition to have happened at Mean, in the adjacent parish of Sannen. Edit.
ST. KEYNE.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the east Leskeard and the Loo river, south Dulo, west Lanreth, north St. Pynnock; at the time of the Norman Conquest this district passed under the jurisdiction of Leskeard, and so in the Domesday Tax as part thereof. In the Inquisition into the value of Cornish benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, ecclesia de Kayne in decanatu de Westwellshire was rated xxl. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 5l. 18s. 6d. The patronage in ——; the Incumbent Doweringe; and the parish
rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 53l. 16s. by the name of St. Kain.
The presidual guardian of this church is one of those two holy women mentioned by writers as famous for their piety and supernatural facts; the one of the British blood, the other of Saxon race. That of the British is St. Kayne, daughter of Braghan, king and builder of the town of Brecknock in Wales, who flourished about the year 500; the which King Braghan had issue also twenty-three other daughters, all for the like reasons aforesaid entered into the catalogue or calendar of saints; and also two sons, St. Canock and St. Caddock, to whose honour and memory a chapel in Padstow parish was erected; and still, though disused from divine service, bearing his name. The other St. Kayne was born about the seventh century, upon the river Avon in Somersetshire, at a place which after her decease sprung up a town, still flourishing in fame and wealth, from her denominated Kainsham, i. e. Kain’s house, home, habitation, or dwelling. She is famous amongst agonal writers for miracle working, particularly for turning serpents into stones wheresoever she saw them, so that they had not power either to hurt man or beast; a woman very much wanted now in Cornwall, where adders or serpents abound to the great hurt of man and beast.
She is also highly praised by John Capgrave in his book of the English Saints, for her purity, piety, and chastity.
To one of these two women is also dedicated the vicarage church of Cainham, in Holderness hundred in York; as also Caynham vicarage church in Ludlow hundred in Salop.
In this parish at —— lived some of the Coplestons of Colbrook in Devon, as I take it; which place descended to them by some of the heirs of Flemmen, Berkley, Turvey, Courtney, Bonvill, Pawlet, Chichester, Bridges, Graas, Hawley, Huish, Wiedbury, Fitzwalter, or some others, which they married with successively; and thereby obtained
such a mighty estate in Cornwall and Devon that they were generally distinguished by the name of the “great Coplestons.” But, alas! maugre all their great riches and wealth, the last John Great Coplestone, tempore Elizabeth, for killing his natural son and godson in discontent, was indicted at the assizes at Exeter, tried and found guilty of wilful murder, and sentenced to death for the same; and lay in gaol till he sold thirteen manors of land in Cornwall to obtain a reprieve or pardon; and left of legal issue only one son, named John, who had issue only two daughters that became his heirs; married to Bamphield and Elford, in whom the estate, name, and blood of those Coplestons is terminated, who gave for their arms, Argent, a chevron Gules, between three leopards’ faces Azure. These gentlemen were hereditary esquires of the white spur, who, together with the Champernowns and the Carmenows, possessed and enjoyed the profits of their private estates in Devon and Cornwall, to that great degree, in former ages, that the like great riches was not then to be found in any other family for value in those counties, though now I know not of any lands in Cornwall remaining in those tribes, or any of those names now extant there.
TONKIN.
Camden, in Somersetshire, mentions Keine as a devout British Virgin, whom many of the last age, through an over credulous temper, believed to have changed serpents into stones, because they find sometimes in quarries some such little miracles of sporting nature. She is said to have been born on the banks of the river Avon in that county, at the place where after her decease sprung up a town, from her denominated Keynesham. She is famous among the agonal writers for her purity, piety, and charity, as also for many miracles, particularly for turning serpents into stones.
There was one other St. Keyne famous among the Britains of Wales, daughter to Brechanus, King, and namer
of Brecknock Town. He had twenty-four daughters and two sons, all Saints.
It is possible, however, that both these St. Keynes may be one and the same.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Lysons says, that the ancient name of this parish was Lametton, and that the manor still exists.
This manor he further states was the property of Sir Robert Tresilian, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, attainted in the reign of King Richard the Second, by whom this portion of his property was bestowed on John Hawley, of Dartmouth, supposed to have married a daughter of the Chief Justice. His daughter and heiress brought it to the Coplestones.
In the reign of James the First it belonged to the Harrisons of Mount Radford in Devonshire, and from them it passed by marriage to the Rashleighs.
Mr. William Rashleigh, of Menabilly, is now the proprietor of the whole or nearly the whole of this parish, and in it of the celebrated well, which Mr. Carew notices in the following manner, p. 305, Lord Dunstanville’s edit.
“Next I will relate to you another of the Cornish natural wonders, viz. Saint Keyne’s Well; but lest you make wonder, first at the Saint before you notice the well, you must understand that this was not Kayne the Manqueller, but one of a gentler spirit and milder sex, to wit, a woman. He who caused the spring to be pictured added this rhyme for an explanation:
In name, in shape, in quality,
This Well is very quaint;
The name to lot of Kayne befell,
No over holy Saint.
The shape, four trees of divers kind,
Withy, oak, elm, and ash,
Make with their roots an arched roof,
Whose floor this spring doth wash.
The quality, that man or wife,
Whose chance or choice attains,
First of this sacred stream to drink,
Thereby the mastery gains.”
Mr. Tonkin quotes this passage from Carew, and adds:
“Did it retain this wondrous quality, as it does to this day the shape, I believe there would be to it a greater resort of both sexes than either to Bath or Tunbridge; for who would not be fond of attaining this longed-for sovereignty?” And Mr. Tonkin adds further, “since the writing of this the trees were blown down by a violent storm; and in their place Mr. Rashleigh, in whose land it is, has planted two oaks, an ash, and an elm, which thrive very well; but the wonderful arch is destroyed.”
For a most interesting account of St. Keyne’s Well, and of all that portion of Cornwall, the reader is referred to Mr. Bond’s “Topographical and Historical Sketches of East and West Looe, and of the Neighbourhood,” 1 vol. 8vo. 1823, printed by John Nichols and Son, No. 25, Parliament Street, Westminster.
Mr. Bond says that the trees were blown down by the great storm of November 1703, and that Mr. Philip Rashleigh, who succeeded his father in the property about that time, planted soon afterwards the trees which have now acquired their full growth, and probably equalled those which stood there before them.
Mr. Bond has also printed the beautiful as well as humorous lines composed by Mr. Southey, and referred to other verses on the same subject in the Gentleman’s Magazine for June 1822, vol. XCII. i. p. 526.
Mr. Southey’s lines cannot be too frequently reprinted.
SAINT KEYNE’S WELL.
By Robert Southey.
(From Carew’s History of Cornwall.)
A well there is in the West Country,
And a clearer one never was seen;
There is not a Wife in the West Country,
But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne.
An oak and an elm tree stand behind,
And beside does an ash-tree grow;
And a willow, from the bank above,
Droops to the water below.
A trav’ller came to the Well of St. Keyne;
Pleasant it was to his eye,
For from cock-crowing he had travelling been,
And there was not a cloud in the sky.
He drank of the water so cool and clear,
For thirsty and hot was he;
And he sat down upon a bank
All under the willow tree.
There came a man from the neighbouring town,
At the Well to fill his pail;
So on the well side he rested it,
And bade the stranger hail.
“Now art thou a bachelor, stranger?” quoth he,
“For if thou hast a wife,
The happiest draught thou hast drank to-day
That ever thou didst in thy life.
“Or has your good woman, if one you have,
In Cornwall ever been?
For, and if she have, I’ll venture my life
She has drank of the Well of St. Keyne.”
“I left a good woman who never was here,”
The stranger he made reply,
“But that my draught should be better for that,
I pray you answer me why.”
“St. Keyne,” quoth the countryman, “many a time
Drank of this crystal Well;
And before the angel summon’d her hence,
She laid on the water a spell:—
“If the husband of this gifted Well
Shall drink before his wife
A happy man thenceforth is he,
For he shall be master for life.
“But if the wife should drink of it first,
God help the husband then!”—
The stranger stoopt to the Well of St Keyne,
And he drank of the water again!!
“You drank of the Well, I warrant, betime?”
He to the countryman said;
But the countryman smiled, as the stranger spoke,
And sheepishly shook his head.
“I hasten’d, as soon as the wedding was done,
And left my wife in the porch;
But i’ faith! she had been wiser than me,—
For she took a bottle to church.”
It is almost unnecessary to observe, that the stones said to originate from serpents petrified at the intercession of St. Keyne or St. Kenna, and supposed by Mr. Tonkin, according to the philosophy of his day, to be Lusus Naturæ, are the shells of extinct Nautili, called Cornua Ammonis, from their resemblance to the horns sculptured on the statues of Jupiter Ammon, found in abundance throughout the neighbourhood of Kainsham, and in most of the formations intermediate between the iron sand and red marle.
Transforming serpents into stone, seems to have been an achievement as appropriate to Saints as was the encountering
of dragons to knights errant. St. Hilda cleared her favourite Island from these venomous reptiles; and St. Patrick, more powerfully gifted, swept them from the whole of Ireland at once.
It was at last observed, with no small degree of wonder, that those metamorphosed snakes invariably wanted a head, and the times of fabricating legends having passed by, this phenomenon never received a solution from the cloister.
St. Brechan, the British Saint and King, the happy father of twenty-six children, all sainted like himself, is represented in the second plate of St. Neot’s Church, in what is called the Young Women’s Window, displaying these twenty-six Saints, small in stature, within a fold of his kingly robe.
This parish measures 769 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1,017 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 68 | 12 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 139 | in 1811, 157 | in 1821, 153 | in 1831, 201 |
giving an increase of 44½ per cent. in 30 years.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This little parish is situated entirely on rocks of the calcareous series, like those of Dulo, one of the adjacent parishes.