Nooks and Corners of Cornwall

by C. A. Dawson Scott

The Rame forms the outer boundary of Plymouth Harbour; Penlee Point the western boundary of the sound; and a little to the north lies Mount Edgcumbe, which, though few people seem to know it, is in Cornwall. This interesting house was built in the time of Mary, but the park dates from Henry VIII., when the property came to the Edgcumbes by marriage. The grounds contain a great number of fortifications, from the battery and blockhouse built to oppose the Spanish Armada to more modern defences. The second Lord Edgcumbe, when a boy, was the friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, a friendship which has resulted in the family portraits of three generations being painted by that artist. The house is as beautifully situated as the grounds are worth seeing and is on the end of a promontory several miles long and three wide.

The Tamar

The Tamar and Torridge spring from a rushy knoll on the eastern wilds of Morwenstow, three miles from the sea. From that, practically the most northern spot in the county, the larger river with some windings flows south, forming the eastern boundary of the county. It finally widens into the Hamoaze and, by way of Plymouth Sound, finds its way into the sea. Many are the bridges and ferries from the one county to the other, and every army that has come to invade, to subjugate, or even to punish the insurgent west, must have come by way of this peaceful stream. The first ferry is at Tor Point, where the Tamar is about a mile wide. It was the old coach route and thither came the people who would catch the packet at Falmouth, thither also in yet earlier times came the Cornish pack-horses, laden with tin at their going and merchandise on their return. It was the highway when roads were only tracks and the boats in which men voyaged were of wattle covered with hide. Now it is crossed by a "steam bridge" which starts every quarter of an hour!

Where another ferry crosses the estuary of the Lynher is the church and village of Antony East. Carew, whose amusing Survey supplies us with so many stories of old Cornwall, is buried here, the doggerel verses on his monument having been found in his pocket, after his sudden death when at prayer in his study. There is also a memorial to Margery Arundell, which is of interest, as it is the only example in the county of a canopied brass.

Trematon Castle

When Robert, Duke of Normandy, died, Arlette, the tanner's daughter, was sought in wedlock by one Herlwin, and in due course she bore him two sons, Odo, afterwards Bishop of Bayeux, and Robert, whom she named after the unforgotten lover of her youth. These twain, worthy half-brothers of the stern and rigorous Bastard, rode one on each side of him at the battle of Hastings—that fatal battle which delayed for so many years the consummation of our English liberties! Over against the Normans were the equally loyal brethren of Harold, the King. But William's star was in the ascendant, and two at least of the sons of Godwin and Gytha were among the slain. As soon as the Conqueror was firmly settled on the throne that he had seized, he bethought him of his favourite brother and added to Robert's earldom by the Breton march the more famous earldom of the kindred land of Cornwall. Robert of Mortain, riding gaily down to the west, found a wealth of manors awaiting him and two castles—afterwards to be mentioned in Domesday—those of Launceston and Trematon.

Trematon is on the Lynher which, rising near Five Lanes towards the centre of the county, flows steadily south until it is joined by the Tidy near Ince Castle, (the only sixteenth-century brick house in the county), and with a sharp easterly turn flows broadly and genially into the Tamar below Saltash. Above its placid waters rises the old keep, the keep that was built to keep the unruly Cornish in order. Tintagel, Restormel, and Launceston are ruinous, but Trematon is still in fairly good repair. The wall crossing the motte is of early date, probably thirteenth century, while the archway of the square entrance tower carries portcullis grooves, and the keep, once 70 ft. by 50 ft., is still about 30 ft. in height. The castle with its park and manor and the borough of Saltash was granted by Edward III. to the Dukes of Cornwall for ever. It is not generally known that in some respects this dukedom differs from all others. The eldest son of the reigning sovereign is the duke, and he comes of age as soon as he is born and preserves all the rights of the dukedom without patent of creation; the essential difference between this and the princedom of Wales being that the latter is specially conferred by the sovereign.

St. Germans

Not far from Trematon is St. Germans, birthplace of the famous Sir John Eliot, after whom Port Eliot was called. This worthy, though consistently loyal to Charles I., opposed that monarch's illegalities and died in the prison to which he was consequently consigned. He was one of the noblest of the fine band of Cornishmen who came to the front at that period of the nation's history, an honest, just, and fearless man. Port Eliot, though charmingly situated where the Tidy widens into a lake, is otherwise only interesting on account of its pictures, of which there are several by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

St. Germans is thought to have been the seat of the ancient bishopric of Cornwall, but there is no evidence in support of the theory. The "see," or bishop-stool as it was called by our fathers, was nothing more than the seat of the bishop, the church in which it rested being his cathedral church. In early times the bishop was generally attached to some monastery or else he moved from place to place, taking his "seat" with him. In course of time, a suitable place being found, the see would become fixed, but there is no evidence of any fixed see in this county until 1877, when it was placed at Truro.