SENNEN.
HALS.
St. Sennen is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north St. Just, south St. Levan, east Buryan, west the Land’s End and the Atlantic Ocean. As for the name, if it be compounded of Sen-nan, it signifies the holy valley; but most likely the name is derived from the tutelar guardian and patron of this church.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Buryan, on which it is still dependant in spirituals as a daughter church. And if this church were extant, and endowed at the time of the first inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, it then was rated also under Buryan. Lastly, this parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, at £57. 12s. 0d. by the name of Sennan.
Upon view of this church 1700, the sexton shewed me the headless bodies of some images of human shape cut in alabaster, that were not long before found hid in the walls of the same, all curiously wrought, which also had been painted with gold, vermillion, and blue bice, on several parts of their garments. He also shewed me an inscription on the foot of the font stone, which he told me several Bishops of Exeter and their priests, in their triennial visitations at Buryan and this church, had viewed and inspected, but could not read it; whereupon, in like manner, I observed on the font-stone the said inscription in a barbarous strange character or letters, of which I could see but part, by reason a new pew or seat was built on a part of it; however, I interpreted that which I saw to consist of these letters, Anno Dom. mille CCCCXX or XL, in the year of our Lord 1420 or 1440. Let the curious remove the seat and explain the rest; probably this church was then erected.
At Pen-ros in this parish, i. e. the head of the valley, near some high promontory of lands, is the dwelling of Henry Jones, esq. some time Commissioner for the Peace and Taxes, who married Tonkyn of Newlyn.
Trevear in this parish, i. e. the great or greater town, is the dwelling of John Ellis, gent. Attorney at Law, who married —— Davies, and giveth for his arms in a field Argent, three eels Proper, after the English, out of a supposed allusion to the name Ellis; whereas, ellis, elles, in British, is a son-in-law by the wife; and els, ells, a son-in-law by the husband. And as gealvy is an eel fish in Scotch and Irish, so malsay is an eel in Welsh British. See Floyd, page 218; and sleane is a conger fish in Cornish; and lilly, silli, is an ele or eele, in that language. See Floyd on Anguilla.
This parish affords very little wheat corn, by reason it is a naked country exposed to the wind and sharp air of the sea in winter season, which washes or frets the same out of the ground at that time, unless it stands in the valleys or close places between the hills against the south or east; nevertheless it is abundantly supplied with barley corn, the soil producing, generally, with little husbandry or cultivation, twenty Cornish bushels in most acres; that is to say, about sixty Winchesters.
In this parish is situate the most remote north-west promontory or head-land of the Island of Great Britain, where it is not above an arrow’s flight breadth (at the end thereof), the lands naturally or gradually declining from St. Just, and Chapel Carne Braye, four miles distant, to this place, and the sea at least eighty fathom under those places; where, as it were in a low valley, it meets the waves of the Atlantic Sea, or West Ocean, and parts some of the Irish Sea and British Channel asunder by its horned promontory of land; which shows that opinion and tradition of the lands extending further west of old towards Scilly, to be a vulgar error and a fable; for if it had stretched more
westerly than it doth in this lower valley, and no higher pitch or degree, the flux and reflux of the sea or tides would inevitably overflow it. Or had there been any considerable parcel of ground there broke off from the insular continent of Britain, (as tradition saith the country of Lioness was,) by some inundation, earthquake, or accidental concussion, it must have been much higher land than the contiguous country of the Land’s End is. Otherwise it could not exist there as aforesaid; but it is not likely there was ever any such land, since no fracture or disjointing of the earth appears on the confines or summit thereof.
Though at low water there is to be seen far off towards Scilly, (probably so called from the abundance of eel or conger fishes taken there, called sillys or lillis,) for a mile or more a dangerous strag of ragged rocks, amongst which the Atlantic Sea, and the waves of St. George’s and the British Channel meeting, make a dreadful bellowing and rumbling noise at half ebb and half flood: which let seamen take notice of, to avoid them.
Of old there was one of those rocks more notable than the rest, which, tradition saith, was ninety feet above the flux and reflux of the sea, with an iron spire at the top thereof, which was overturned or thrown down by a violent storm 1647, and the rock broken in three pieces. This iron spire, as the additions to Camden’s Britannia inform us, was thought to have been erected there by the Romans, or set up as a trophy there by King Athelstan when he first conquered the Scilly Islands (and was in those parts); but it is not very probable such a piece of iron in this salt sea and air, without being consumed by rust, could endure so long a time. However it is or was, certain I am it commonly was called in Cornish, An Marogeth Arvowed, i. e. the armed knight; for what reason I know not, except erected by or in memory of some armed knight; as also carne-an peul, id est, the spile, spire, pole, or javelin rock. Again, remember silly, lilly, is in Cornish and Armoric language
a conger fish or fishes, from whence Silly Islands is probably denominated, as elsewhere noted.
This place is called by the Welsh Bards Pen-ryn-Pen-wid, that is to say, Penwith Hill Head Tree, or the hill of the Head Tree, or Penwith Cantred. By the Cornish Britains, Pedn-an-lase, i. e. the Green Head or Promontory, and by others, Antyer Deweth, the Land’s End.
TONKIN.
This parish takes its name from its tutelar saint St. Sennan, or Sinninus, an Irish Abbat, who (saith Leland) was at Rome with St. Patrick, and came over from Ireland to Cornwall with St. Breage. The church hath dedicated the 30th of June to his memory. It is a daughter church to St. Burien, and is valued, together with that and St. Levan, in the King’s Book, at £48. 12s.
[The passage alluded to above as in Leland, is this, and in Itin. III. 15, “Breaca,” he says, out of a Life of St. Breage which he met with in Cornwall, “venit in Cornubiam, comitata multis Sanctis; inter quos fuerunt Sinninus Abbas, qui Romæ cum Patritio fuit.”]
THE EDITOR.
This parish is greatly distinguished as being the most western in England, and containing within it the promontory, which, without reference to the cardinal points, evidently terminates the granite chain, which stretching out from Dartmoor, extends by links, apparent at intervals at the surface, to this point, the most distant on the continent of England. The same range appears again in the Scilly Islands, and it may possibly join the similar granitic districts in France.
It is a very curious circumstance, that, notwithstanding the great numbers of square leagues composed entirely of
granite in Cornwall and in Devonshire, that magnificent rock never appears in the cliff except for a few miles on each side of the Land’s End; but there it is seen piled in high masses one on the other, which, coupled with the great Atlantic swell of the waves, present a general effect the most magnificent that can well be imagined. And what adds still more to the grandeur of the scene, about a mile from the extreme point, a lofty range of rocks, called the Longships, rises out of the sea. On the most elevated point of this rock a light-house was constructed about fifty years ago, nearly after the model of Mr. Smeaton’s building on the Eddystone; this column has the advantage, however, of standing at a great height above the water, so as, perhaps, never to receive an actual blow from the most violent wave; yet so tempestuous is the sea, that for three months together all communication has been intercepted between the lampmen and the shore.
The latitude and longitude of the Land’s End appear, from the Trigonometrical Survey, to be, latitude 50° 4′ 7″; longitude 5° 41′ 32″; in time 22m. 46s. west from Greenwich.
The church of this parish is a very conspicuous object in every direction. It is on the usual plan of churches in this district, and is built of granite with a granite tower. In it are some monuments, particularly to the Ellises, who have relinquished the three eels mentioned by Mr. Hals as an armorial bearing, and instead have sculptured on these stones the blazon appropriated to the name throughout England, Argent, on a cross Sable five crescents of the Field.
The church town has a pretty good inn, capable of affording entertainment, and even beds to parties—
Led by the fable of Belerus old,
Or the Great Vision of the Guarded Mount.
This inn is distinguished by a sign bearing two inscriptions suited to its peculiar situation. Travellers proceeding
to the Land’s End, find the board inscribed with these words,
The last public house in England;
returning, they see on the other side,
The first public house in England.
About half a mile further eastward than the church town, is a village called Mean, probably from the great number of large rocks interspersed among the houses. In the very midst of the village is a large flat rock, on which three kings are reported to have dined together at some remote period; and a prophecy of Merlin is added to the tale, that a larger number of kings will be assembled round this rock for the same purpose previously to some great catastrophe, or to the destruction of the world itself.
Not far from Mean is Whitsand Bay, from whence Athelstan is said to have embarked for the Scilly Islands, and to have landed on his return. King Stephen is also said to have landed here; and King John on his return from Ireland; and lastly, Perkin Warbeck; but various other bays have derived a similar name from their white sands, and therefore the honours bestowed on this remote and dangerous cove may be very doubtful.
Mr. Hals has adverted to the fertility of this parish, and noticed the production of twenty Cornish bushels, equaling sixty Winchester bushels, of barley on one acre. The parish certainly is very fertile, being situated on granite peculiarly abounding in felspar; but the Cornish acre, derived from the Saxon pole of eighteen feet, exceeds the Norman acre in the proportion of six to five, therefore the produce is reduced to fifty bushels.
It is much to be lamented that a variety of measures should remain in different parts of the United Kingdom.
In Ireland the pole is 21 feet. Their mile consists, like our own, of 320 poles, but of course exceeds our measure in the proportion of 21 to 16½, or as 14 to 11.
The Irish acre, like our own, contains 160 square poles, but exceeds it in the proportion of 21 squared to 16½ squared, or as 14 squared to 11 squared, as 196 to 121, as 13 to 8 very nearly.
The patron saint selected for this parish by Mr. Hals, is stated to be a Persian of that name, who was seized at Babylon, and delivered to the fury of wild beasts at Rome, which, as in the case of Daniel, became mild and abstained from hurting him; but here the parallel ends, for Valerianus, instead of acknowledging the God of one so miraculously preserved, ordered gladiators immediately to kill the saint, and they obeyed. Reference is made to the Agonal of Baronius; but this saint is little known in England or by English writers.
A much more likely patron may therefore be discovered with Mr. Tonkin, in another St. Senan, of whom Dr. Butler gives the following account:
“St. Senan, Bishop and Confessor, was born in the county of Hy-Conalls in Ireland, about the latter part of the fifth century, and was a disciple of the Abbots Cassiolus and Natal or Naal. He then travelled for spiritual improvement to Rome, and thence into Britain. In this kingdom he contracted a close friendship with St. David. After his return to Ireland he founded many churches; and a great monastery in Inis Cathaig, an island lying at the mouth of the river Shannon, which he governed, and in which he continued to reside after he was advanced to the episcopal dignity. The abbots his successors, for several centuries, were all bishops till this great diocese was divided into three, namely, Limerick, Killaloe, and Ardfert.
“St. Senan died on the same day and year with St. David; but he was honoured in the Irish church on the 8th of March. A town in Cornwall bears the name of St. Senan. See his Acts in Colgan, p. 602.”
The Persian saint is said to be honoured on the 30th of July in the Greek church, so that the parish feast, which is
kept on the nearest Sunday to St. Andrew’s day, has not any reference to either of the supposed patrons.
Sennen measures 2223 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 2148 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 161 | 2 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 431 | in 1811, 495 | in 1821, 637 | in 1831, 689 |
giving an increase of 60 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
This parish, like the last, rests only on granite; at low water, however, some felspathic rocks may be seen.
The granite exhibits the common varieties of this part of Cornwall, and is traversed by porphyritic beds; one of which at Mean is a compound of granular felspar and shorl in various proportions. This kind is of rare occurrence; it is traversed by veins of quartz, which are occasionally much intermixed with shorl; this mineral also abounds in the adjoining granite, but more particularly in the veins by which it is traversed.
Whitsand Bay is covered with a testaceous sand like that of St. Ives, of Padstow, and of other places on the north coast; a large tract of this sand is exposed at low water to the action of the wind, by which it has been drifted in considerable quantities inland so far as Sennen Green.