Opposite Mylor Creek, on the eastern side of the harbour, is the creek of St. Just-in-Roseland, with St. Just's church down by the waterside, among the trees.
The parson of St. Just-in-Roseland must surely be a kindly man. Instead of threatening or rebuking the numerous visitors from Falmouth, who come down the creek in boats and land to explore the place, and have doubtless in the past pillaged the ferns and other things growing in the beautiful churchyard, he displays the following notice in the lych-gate: "Visitors are requested not to touch anything in the churchyard, and then, by calling at the rectory, all those from beyond the county of Cornwall will be welcome to a gift plant or tree, as a souvenir of their visit to St. Just-in-Roseland."
In the great roomy church, which must always have been, as it is now, many times larger than the needs of the place, there may be noticed a tablet which describes how John Randall, for one thousand years from his death in 1733, has "given to ye poor Widows and fatherless children of ye parish, not having parish pay, Twenty Shillings yearly, and Ten Shillings yearly to ye Minister, for preaching a Funeral Sermon."
ST. JUST-IN-ROSELAND.
The next creek on the western side of the harbour is that of Restronguet, a name which appears to mean "deep channel." Dense woods line its banks, with the park of Carclew half-way along, upon the left hand, and on the right the modern port of Devoran, carved out of the parish of St. Feock in 1873, with the Penpoll Tin Smelting Works fuming away, a mile below. Devoran is at the terminus of a mineral railway from Redruth, which thus brings tin and copper-ore to deep-water quays. Restronguet Creek will, however, need dredging, for the mine-water, charged with mud, flowing down from the pits about Gwennap, is shoaling the fairway, and has almost choked the forked endings of the creek at Perran Wharf. This is the waterside extension of Perranwell and Perranarworthal, i.e. "Piran the Wonderful"; the really wonderful St. Piran, who voyaged from Ireland to the north coast of Cornwall on a millstone. The grass that grows in the mud-choked creek stretching towards Ponsanooth is in some way affected by the sea-water in the ooze, turning it to the loveliest yellowish-green imaginable.
Round Restronguet Point the channel comes to St. Feock, a tiny village on a little creek of its own. The church here has a detached belfry, standing beside the road, at a higher level than the body of the building; and over the lych-gate entrance to the churchyard is an old vestry or parish-room. A similar building is seen at the entrance to the churchyard of Kenwyn, north of Truro.
The most exquisitely wooded reaches of the Fal are found above St. Feock, where the river narrows and the banks rise more abruptly. The scenery at this point, and on to Malpas and Truro, strongly resembles that of the river Dart, and many are of opinion that it is really superior. But these comparisons form the thorniest of subjects.
At the hamlet of Trelissick is the well-known ferry of "King Harry Passage," now a steam-ferry conveying vehicles as well as pedestrians. The "King Harry" whose name gives the passage a touch of romance, is Henry the Eighth, who is said to have stayed a night at Trelissick, when on his way to inspect the site of Pendennis Castle.