Lostwithiel
On the following morning Essex proposed a parley. Before the King's answer could reach him, however, he had, with a sudden change of front, embarked on one of the ships in Fowey harbour and set sail for Plymouth. Major-General Skippon, who had been left in command, immediately capitulated with six thousand men; and then for once in its long and sleepy existence was Lostwithiel aroused. The Parliamentarians had desecrated the beautiful church; the slates of the roof were lying in heaps where a barrel of gunpowder had been touched off under the graceful octagonal lanthorn of its spire—"the Glory of Cornwall." They had plundered the Exchequer Hall, burnt the stannary records, and committed other enormities; but now the yoke of the oppressor was broken. Tho King did his humane best to protect the soldiers, but the long-suppressed hostility of the mob found vent in a sudden flame of violence, while the women set upon the officers, stripped them of all they had and rode off with their horses!
Lanhydrock House and Restormel Castle
Lanhydrock House being now the property of the King, he, as a mark of his gratitude, granted it to Sir Richard Grenville, whom he created Baron of Lostwithiel; but no sooner did the Parliament get the upper hand than the new-made baron was deprived of his property. The present house is of granite and stands low, the hills springing from the end of the gardens. On them is a little church, and in front an open and undulating park. The headquarters of Essex were in this park, through which a long avenue of sycamores leads to a barbican of fine workmanship, behind which appears the simple façade of the two-storied house. Within, a room is shown as that used by Tregeagle when steward of the estates.
A little south is Restormel Castle. Its long life has been that of a ruin slowly sinking into the earth from which it rose. In 1245 Earl Richard found it much decayed. He restored it; and the Black Prince, who twice stayed there, did the same. When the Parliamentarians came it had long been abandoned to the owls and the ivy, but as it commanded the Fowey they repaired and garrisoned it. After the surrender of their army it was once more abandoned, and now all that remains of the old fortress is the round keep with a gate-house on the west and a projecting turret on the north-east. It is on a mound surrounded by a moat and lies deep in woods and remote from human habitation. Its very name, Restormel (once Lestormel, a chief's dwelling), shows that its builder was a man of note among the people who are gone. It has seen them make merry in its halls, it has seen them pass. It has roused up now and again to groan under the tyranny of new masters; but now, deserted in its robe of ivy, a mound, and a few stones, it sleeps through the sunshine and the rain, and with every year sinks a little and a little into itself and the kind covering earth.
"The old sea here at my door,
The old hills there in the West—
What can a man want more
Till he goes at last to his rest?"
Lowry.
Nor is Lostwithiel much more widely awake. Nowadays it consists of a few rather picturesque streets, an old stone bridge, and a church with a lanthorn spire—the finest piece of church architecture in Cornwall! But it has not forgotten the days when a desperate king, gladdened by a brief gleam of success, fought his way through those same picturesque streets with an enemy that contested every stone and every house. It has not forgotten that he fought from early morning, pushing the stubborn foe before him, until by eventide he had the streets clear, and Lostwithiel, happy loyal Lostwithiel was his.
The Fight on St. Winnow's Downs
Before this came to pass, however, a curious conflict had taken place on St. Winnow's Downs. One hundred Roundheads, youths from sixteen to twenty years of age and led by Colonel Straughan, had challenged a like number of the King's troops to heroic combat on Druid's Hill. On a set day the two bodies of horse met in sight of both armies, Straughan having "nothing on his head but a hat and on the trunk of his body naught but a white shirt"—he was indeed fighting bare-sark—"while his troop consisted of men so young that on their chins never a razor had passed." Lord Digby, the Royalist leader, and his followers advanced firing their pistols as they came, whereupon Straughan and his boys charged furiously, withholding their fire until they were so close that at the deadly discharge half the Royalists were slain on the spot and there was scarce horse or man but received some hurt.
The Church of St. Winnow is beautifully placed on the very margin of this charming estuary, a little before the Lerryn creek opens to the east. Below is the pass between St. Veep and Golant, a pass taken and fortified by the Royalists.