LESTWITHIEL.
HALS.
The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.
TONKIN.
Lestwithiel is in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the west, north, and south, by Lanlivery; to the east it has Fowy river between it and St. Winnow. As for the name, I take it to be a corruption of Les-uchel, i. e. the lofty place, as having been from all antiquity the chief seat of the Dukes, &c. of Cornwall. Mr. Camden in Cornwall saith, “the Uzella of Ptolemy is seated, and has not yet quite lost its name, being called at this day Lestuthiell, from its situation. Now uchel, in British, signifies the same as high and lofty.” But of this more when we come to describe the town. As for Mr. Carew’s derivation, who calls it Lostwithiel, from the Cornish Losswithiall, which in English, saith he, signifieth a lion’s tail, it is so ridiculous, as not to be worth repeating; neither doth the word carry that sense. This parish is a vicarage, valued in the King’s books at £2. 13s. 4d.
The Duke of Cornwall is patron. The incumbent Mr. Baron, who succeeded Mr. Whiteford.
This church is not valued in Tax. Benefic. anno 1291; and was then appropriated to the Priory of Bodmin.
THE TOWN AND BOROUGH OF LESTWITHIEL,
“Reputed,” saith Mr. Willis, “the ancient Uzella of Ptolemy, lies situated on the river Uzella,” (I wonder how Mr. Willis came to be guilty of this mistake, since both Leland and Camden, whom he quotes, tell him that it lies on the river Fowy,) “from which it more probably had its
name, as the learned Camden thinks” (Mr. Camden says as I have quoted him above,) “than from Carew’s interpretation of the word Lestwithiel, which he would have to signify in English, lion’s tail. This town is reputed in former times to have stood on a high hill, where the old castle of Lestormel showeth its ruins, which with a park thereto belonging, lies on the north side of the town” (and is in the parish of Lanlivery, for which reason it is not treated of here). “In the park was a Chapel of the Trinity, long since defaced, as are the public buildings of the town, insomuch that little remains of them; though some small parts are repaired, and made use of for the prisons and courts belonging to the Tin Stannaries, which are appointed to be kept here, this being one of the coinage towns.”
Before I go on any further with Mr. Willis, it may be proper to insert at length what Mr. Camden saith of it. “More within the land, on the same river (Fowy), the Uzella of Ptolemy is seated; and has not quite lost its name, being called at this day Lestuthiell, from its situation; for it was upon a high hill, where is Listormel, an ancient castle; though now it is removed into the valley. Now Uchel, British, signifies the same as high and lofty; from whence Uxellodunum of Gaule is so termed, because the town being built upon a mountain, has a steep rugged ascent every way. This in the British history is called Pen-Uchel-Coit, a high mountain in a wood, by which some will have Exeter meant. But the situation assigned it by Ptolemy, and the name it has to this day, do sufficiently evince it to have been the ancient Uzella. Now it is a little town, and not at all populous; for the channel of the river Fowy, which in the last age used to carry the tide up to the very town, and bring vessels of burthen, is now so stopped up by the sands coming from the tin-mines, that it is too shallow for barges; and indeed, all the havens in this county are in danger of being choaked up by their sands. However, it is the county town, where the Sheriff every month holds the County Court, and the Warden of the Stannaries has his
prison. For it has the privilege of coinage, by the favour (as they say) of Edmund Earl of Cornwall, who formerly had his palace there. But there are two towns which especially eclipse the glory of this Uzella,—Leskerd to the east, and Bodman to the north.” Now to return to Mr. Willis. “It is a very ancient corporation, belonging to the Duchy, having had great privileges conferred upon it by Richard Earl of Cornwall (so saith Leland, Itinerary, vol. III. fol. 16,) who, when he was King of the Romans, in the twelfth year of his reign, by charter dated at Wallington, made Lostwithiel and Penknek (alias Penkneth, in the parish of Lanliversey, for Lanlivery, saith Leland, in the above cited place,) a place near adjoining, and now part of the borough, one free burgh, and granted his burgesses a gild mercatory, &c. When this place was first incorporated, I have not been informed; but it has returned Members to Parliament ever since 4 Edw. II. and once before, viz. 23 Edw. I. The Representatives are chosen by the majority of the Corporation, which consists of seven capital burgesses (whereof one is Mayor), and seventeen assistants, in whom, as I presume, the fee-farm rent of the borough is vested, who hold the same, or not many years since did, of the Duchy. This Corporation (otherwise a poor one) holds also the anchorage in the harbour, and bryhelage of measureable commodities, as coals, salt, malt, and corn, &c. in the town of Fowey; which port lies lower on this river, which was navigable to this town before the sands barred it up. The town of Lestwithiel consists chiefly of two streets, from east to west, meanly built, and has in it a church (of which more at the end).
“In August 1644, some soldiers of the Parliament Army, as may be seen in Dugdale’s Short View of the late Troubles in England, p. 560, defaced several stately edifices in this town, as the great Hall and Exchequer of the Dukes of Cornwall, who had their palace here in times past; this having been formerly reputed the shire town of the county,
a small branch of which it yet retaineth, viz. the election of knights of the shire, and keeping the county weights and measures, which it had assigned by Act of Parliament, anno 11 Hen. VII. Who held this manor (note, that this place is no manor, but Penknek,) at the making of Domesday Book, the learned Dr. Brady could not discover; but no doubt it was reckoned among those of Robert Earl of Moreton and Cornwall, the King’s brother. Though in the reign of Richard I. it was part of the demesne lands of Robert de Cardinan Lord of Fowey, who was returned debtor into the Exchequer, of ten marks due to the King for having a market at Lestwithiel. Robertus de Cardinan debet decem marcas pro habendo Foro apud Lostwithel. Mag. Rot. 6 Ric. I. Rot. 12 a. m. 2, Cornwallia. However, this town belonged, temp. Hen. III. to Richard Earl of Cornwall, King Richard’s nephew, upon the death of whose son Edmund, it became part of the King’s demesne, and anno 7 Edw. III. upon the creation of John Earl of Cornwall, the King’s brother, he had this borough, inter alia, granted him; which was afterwards assigned to Edward the King’s son, when he was made Duke of Cornwall, and became, upon his death, the jointure or dowry of Joan Princess of Wales, his wife; on whose decease, anno 9 Ric. II. the King granted it to Tho. Holland Earl of Kent, his (half) brother, who held for life the manors of Lestwithiel and Camelford; he died in the 20th Ric. II. His son Thomas was created Duke of Surrey, and was beheaded anno 1 Hen. IV.”
Mr. Willis having a little mistaken this, I have thus rectified it. After the death of which last Thomas, (who also held them for life), Sir John Cornwall, Lord Fanhope, obtained a grant of the same on account of marrying Elizabeth, the King’s sister; and obtained a grant of the same from Henry Prince of Wales to enjoy them during her life; and afterwards procured it for his own life, and died accordingly seised thereof in December 1443 (22 Hen. VI.) as may be seen in Dugdale’s Baronage.
The yearly rent of this borough, payable to the Duke of Cornwall, is in Doddridge’s History of that Duchy, p. 108, set down at £11. 19s. 10½d.
The town is situated between hills. Boats of ten and twenty tons come up hither. Here are about 70 houses; and the manor is in the duchy.
THE EDITOR.
Lestwithiel evidently owes its locality to that which determined in early times the site of all towns placed on the banks of navigable rivers. They were universally built on the highest point to which vessels or boats frequenting the estuary were capable of being carried by the tide.
Richard Plantagenet might well have been captivated by the beauties of this place and of the surrounding country, by its central situation, and by the commanding eminence of Restormal. Here the last of our real feudal princes, whether he originally built or only enlarged the castle, fixed his court, and collected those revenues with which he is said to have bought from the venal electors of Germany, the titular office of King of the Romans; conveying, however, the legal right of succession to the throne of his grandfather the Emperor Henry the Fifth.
Nummus ait pro me, nubit Cornubia Romæ.
Carew, 204, Lord Dunstanville’s edit.
To Richard King of the Romans Lestwithiel is indebted for the remains of the palace or stannary buildings, and for its privileges.
The palace, if it was ever the residence of a Prince, has long since been converted into a prison, with apartments for occasionally holding the Stannary Courts.
Various charters have been granted to this town. The last was given in the reign of King George the Second, by which seven permanent Aldermen annually chose, for one
year, seventeen other persons, misnamed freemen, who altogether formed the select body for electing Members of Parliament. The validity of this charter has never been contested; but a doubt can scarcely be entertained of all its being utterly void, at least as to constituting a Parliamentary grant, on the ground of its entire variance from the common law of the land: but this question has now lost its importance in consequence of the Reform enacted in 1832.
The church possesses a character unusual in the west of England, by having its nave elevated, with a series of windows above the two ailes. It contains several monuments, and a curious antique font.
The etymology of this town, like that of Leskeard, has suffered from modern caprice, the Les having been here changed into Los; as Dover, from some strange fancy, is rapidly passing into Dovor.
No separate measurement has been taken of this parish, not even co-extensive with the modern town; the site is included in the parishes adjacent.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1498 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 398 | 3 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 743 | in 1811, 825 | in 1821, 933 | in 1831, 1548 |
giving an increase of 108 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Bower, presented in 1816 by Lord Mount Edgcumbe.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
Dr. Boase says of the geology of this little parish, that it is composed of the same schistose rocks as the eastern part of the parish of Lanlivery.
ST. LEVAN.
HALS.
The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.
TONKIN.
St. Levan is situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is bounded to the west by the ocean, to the north by Sennon, to the east by St. Burian, to the south by the mouth of the Channel.
This parish taketh its name from the saint to whom the church is dedicated, St. Levine.
It is a daughter church of St. Burian, forming part of the deanery of St. Burian.
THE EDITOR.
St. Levan exceeds perhaps every other parish in the whole county for bold and romantic scenery.
First it possesses Trereen Dinas.
This magnificent promontory has towards the land one of those ancient entrenchments which so much distinguish the western coast, from whence the word dinas. There the point runs out into the sea, rising into a succession of natural granite towers in spires, and aiguilles, and the first presenting a perpendicular front, is crowned with the far-famed Loging Rock.
Without calling in question the religious uses made of this stone in rude and barbarous times, it may be declared as a certainty to be entirely natural. Among the thousands of rocks lying scattered in all directions, some possessing a convex surface have accidentally rested on the flat surface of another. Many such rocks are known, but this one transcends in size, and occupies a most commanding station. The rock has been measured with the greatest care, and it is
believed to weigh about ninety tons, yet any one, by applying his shoulder to the edge, and favouring the vibrations, can easily cause the stone to log through a very sensible angle.
Doctor Borlase, in his most learned and ingenious speculations on the religion and policy of the Druids, paid considerable attention to rock monuments in general, and especially to this, the most remarkable of all. In p. 180 of the Antiquities, second edition, Doctor Borlase says, “In the parish of St. Levan, Cornwall, there is a promontory called Castle Treryn. This cape consists of three distinct groupes of rocks. On the western side of the middle groupe, near the top, lies a very large stone, so evenly poised, that any hand may move it to or fro; but the extremities of its base are at such a distance from each other, and so well secured by their nearness to the stone which it stretches itself upon, that it is morally impossible that any lever, or indeed force (however applied in a mechanical way) can remove it from its present situation.”
This rather over-strong expression piqued the vanity of a gallant and intrepid officer, commanding an armed vessel on the coast, in 1824, who maintained that nothing could be impossible to the courage and skill of British seamen, and therefore, attended by ten or twelve of his men, Lieutenant Goldsmith, nephew of the celebrated novelist and poet (for it would even be unjust to withhold his name, as connected with a transaction on the whole redounding to his credit), went on the eighth of April to the rock, and there, by a continued application of their united strength, they threw this huge mass into vibrations of such extent as to cause the convex surface at last to slide from its horizontal base, most fortunately in the direction opposite to that in which they stood. The rock was saved from falling to the ground, and from thence probably into the sea, by a narrow chasm which caught it in the descent.
Mr. Goldsmith having thus achieved what had been declared impossible by the highest authority that Cornwall could produce, must have congratuled himself on such complete
success; but the sensations of all the neighbourhood were entirely at variance from those of the gallant officer; fears were even entertained for his life; and a meeting of the Magistrates and principal persons was contemplated, for the purpose of representing the affair to Government: but the Editor of this work being then in London, and having the honour of being known to all the Lords of the Admiralty, he went there, and representing the exploit that had been performed in the light of an indiscreet frolic, he proposed that the Admiralty should lend a proper apparatus, and send it from Plymouth, while he on his part would endeavour to raise an adequate sum of money; and that Lieutenant Goldsmith, having thrown down this natural curiosity, should superintend the putting it up again. The terms were accepted, and thirteen capstans, with blocks, chains, &c. were sent from the dock-yard.
The Editor having commenced a contribution of money with twenty-five pounds, raised it to a hundred and fifty; and on the 2d of November, in the presence of thousands, amidst ladies waving their handkerchiefs, men firing feux-de-joye, and universal shouts, Mr. Goldsmith had the satisfaction and the glory of replacing this immense rock in its natural position, uninjured in its discriminating properties.
In consequence of the Editor making a second application to the Admiralty, and of his commencing another contribution of money with five pounds, Lanyon Cromlech was also replaced by the same apparatus.
The walk of about a mile and a half along the cliffs from Trereen Dinas to St. Levan Church, is grand and romantic in the highest degree. Between the two points is inclosed Porth Kernow, where the water is beautifully transparent, over a fine sand composed in part of minute shells quite entire, and of various species and genera, to be collected on the beach. The church itself is in a most sequestered spot, and said by Mr. Tonkin to be dedicated to St. Levina, who was a British female, and suffered martyrdom
under the Saxons before their conversion to the Christian faith.
The relics of St. Levine or Lewine were long preserved and honoured at Seaford, about ten miles from Eastbourn in Sussex, till, in 1058, eight years before the Norman Conquest, her remains, together with those of St. Idaberga, another female, and a portion of the relics of St. Oswald, were carried beyond the seas, and deposited in the abbey of St. Winock at Bergh in Flanders, amidst a variety of miracles attested by Drogo, an eye-witness, and published in the great collection of the Bollandists.
The only object worthy of attention in St. Levan church is a plain monument to Miss Thomasin Dennis, with the following inscription:
Thomasin Dennis,
de Trembath,
ingenio, suavitate, virtute
insignis,
doctrina insignissima.
Nata xxix die Septembris, 1771,
væ!
lenta sed præmatura morte
erepta
obiit xxx die Augusti 1809,
anno ætatis xxxviii.
Miss Dennis was born at Sawah in this parish, the daughter of Mr. Alexander Dennis, one of the superior class of farmers, who occupy their own estates held at quit-rents for lives. He afterwards removed to Trembath in Maddern. Her superior genius displayed itself at a very early age, in reciting poetry from our best authors, and then in producing imitations of her own. “She lisped in numbers from her mother’s arms.” French was acquired with equal accuracy and facility; and then, observing that her eldest brother appeared to make an inadequate progress
in Latin, occasioned by the entire want of attention on the part of the schoolmaster at Penzance, this young lady under eighteen studied a classic language for the mere purpose of helping forward her brother.
The celebrity which Miss Dennis had now acquired, brought her acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Hitchins, the learned vicar of St. Hilary, with the Editor of this work, and with several others, more or less scholars, from all of whom she received the praises due to her superior talents, and such instruction or assistance as they could afford, by lending books, or by indicating the most approved methods of proceeding; and with such slender help her progress was so great and almost unexampled, that not only were all the Roman authors soon read, but the Greek writers followed in a rapid succession, till Æschylus and Pindar became her familiar acquaintance.
About this time Miss Dennis was induced to accompany Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Wedgewood from Penzance, chiefly as a friend and a visitor, but partly also, in return for their civilities and kindness, to overlook the progress of their son; but her health began to fail, her only sister fell into a consumption, she returned to nurse her, and died of the same most pitiable complaint.
Εν Μακαρεσσι πονων ανταξιος ειη Αμοιβη.
Nothing of her poetry has been given to the public; nor would it now be fair to print a few trifles. Miss Dennis proved herself adequate to the composition of any work in prose, by publishing in 1806, at Mr. Johnson’s in St. Paul’s Churchyard, “Sophia St. Clare,” in name indeed a novel, but far superior in style of writing and in correctness of sentiment, to the fictions of the day. From the want of incident, however, similar to those which are characterized in the drama by producing stage effect, the work failed of becoming popular.
This parish, after Trereen Dinas, is distinguished by
the possession of Tol-Peder-Penwith, about a mile westward from the church, the approach to which lies under romantic cliffs, and crosses a short deep vale, where boats are sheltered in a small cove apparently inaccessible to human art or daring. At the very extremity of the point an excavation has been made by the sea, of some portion less compacted than the remainder of the rock, probably of a lode, which opens to the surface in the form of an inverted cone. This place is very dangerous of access, on account of the steep descent covered by a slippery turf; but strangers are tempted to risk their lives in approaching the abyss, by the dashing of the waves within it, and by the tremendous roar of the sea. Two gentlemen from London were induced to enter the cavern leading from the sea, and were surrounded by the tide. One, who excelled in swimming, fortunately got out and communicated the perilous situation of his companion to a neighbouring farmer, who hastened with assistance and with ropes to the spot, and succeeded in lifting him to the surface through the cone. Nor must the circumstance be omitted, that, although the stranger was possessed of a very large fortune, he could not prevail on his rescuer to accept of the least pecuniary reward for preserving the life of a fellow-creature.
The villages in this parish are of small importance. Bosistow belonged in remote times to a family of the same name, giving for their arms Azure, three escallops Vaire. Mr. Bosistow, now residing at Tredreath in Lelant, is believed to represent this ancient family. In more recent times Bosistow belonged to the Davieses.
All the farms in this parish have been constantly occupied either by the freeholders or by persons possessing leaseholds, paying quit-rents, for lives; in consequence, they have taken extreme care against making parishioners, and in managing their Poor Rate, as will appear from its small amount.
The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to October the 10th.
St. Levan measures 2079 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 2063 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 94 | 4 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 400 | in 1811, 434 | in 1821, 490 | in 1831, 515 |
giving an increase of 29 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
This parish is entirely situated on granite, which in many places furnishes a good and fertile soil, as has been observed in the adjoining parish of St. Burian. Its fine sea cliffs exhibit many varieties of the granite, and distinctly show the manner of arrangement in the more common and larger masses. To enter on the details of this subject, would occupy too much space. The geologist will find ample amusement along the whole line of these cliffs, which are always viewed by the romantic tourist with great delight. Besides the elevation and grand contour of the cliffs, here will be found the celebrated Logan Rock at Trereen, and the Tunnel Rock at Tol-Peder-Penwith.
THE EDITOR.
It may be observed, that I have always used the words Log-ing Rock, for the celebrated stone at Trereen Dinas. Much learned research seems to have been idly expended on the supposed name, “Logan Rock.” To log, is a verb in general use throughout Cornwall, for vibrating or rolling like a drunken man; and an is frequently heard in provincial pronunciation for ing, characteristic of the modern present participle. The Loging Rock is therefore strictly descriptive of its peculiar motion.