We have already stated that the historians of Cornwall, from Leland, Norden, and Carew, downwards, have all recorded the ancient tradition of a considerable portion of the Mount's bay having been formerly woodland. They have likewise handed down the concurrent tradition relative to the supposed tract of land which once connected the islands of Scilly with Cornwall. This tract, to which we are told was given the name of the Lioness ("the Silurian Lyonois,") is said to have contained one hundred and forty parish churches, all of which were swept away by the resistless ocean! As to the Cornish word Lethowstow, or Lioness, by which the sea between Scilly and Cornwall is distinguished, we may observe, that the appropriation of such a term is sufficiently accounted for from the general violence and turbulence of the sea, just as the celebrated rock lying south of the channel between the Land's end and Scilly retains the name of the Wolf,[40] from the howling of the waves around it. Those who may wish for farther evidence upon this subject may consult Mr. Boase's excellent memoir "On the submersion of part of the Mount's bay," published in the second volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall.
We shall in this place make a short digression, in order to afford some account of the Scilly Islands, which are situated in a cluster about nine leagues, west by south, from the Land's end, and are distinctly visible from it.
The Scilly Islands were called by the Greeks Hesperides and Capiterides, or the Tin Isles, and by this name they are mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Solinus. They must, however, have undergone some material revolution since the age of these writers, for we fail in every attempt to reconcile their present state with the description which they have transmitted to us; and what is very unaccountable, not a vestige of any ancient mine can be discovered in the islands, except in one part of Trescow; and these remains are so limited, that they rather give an idea of an attempt at discovery, than of extensive and permanent mining. We are strongly inclined to believe that the Tin of those days came, in part at least, from the opposite coast of Saint Just, but of this we shall hereafter speak more fully. In the time of Strabo we learn that the number of these Islands did not exceed ten, whereas at present there are upwards of one hundred and forty, but of which the following only are inhabited, viz. Saint Mary's, Saint Agnes', Saint Martin's, Trescow, Bryer, and Sampson. It is curious that the name of the cluster should have been derived from one of the smallest of the islets (Scilly), whose surface does not exceed an acre. The number of inhabitants amounts to about two thousand, nearly half of which reside in Saint Mary's, which contains 1600 acres; it possesses three towns, a pier, a garrison, a custom house, and some monuments of British antiquity.
At Saint Agnes is a very high and strong light-house, which was erected in the year 1680. Its present machinery was designed by the ingenious Adam Walker, the well known lecturer on Natural Philosophy, although it has lately undergone some modification at the suggestion of Mr. Wyatt. The machinery consists of a triangular frame attached to a perpendicular axis, which, by means of an appropriate power, is made to revolve once every three minutes. On each face of the triangle are arranged ten parabolic reflectors of copper plated with silver, each having an argand lamp in its focus. By this device the light progressively sweeps the whole horizon, and by its regular intermission and increase is readily distinguished from every other on the coast.[41]
The civil government of these islands is chiefly managed by twelve of the principal inhabitants, who meet monthly at Heugh Town, St. Mary's, and settle differences by compromise. The Duke of Leeds holds the islands by lease for thirty-one years from the year 1800, at the rent of £40, besides paying the fine of £4000, as a renewal.
The reader is no doubt anxiously waiting to be introduced to the classical descendants of the Grecian or Phœnician race,—Whether they have been swallowed up with the "Lioness," or washed into the ocean by the tempests, we know not; but certain it is that the present inhabitants are all new comers;—Phœnician or Grecian, there are none.—Jenkins, Ellis, Hicks, Woodcock, Ashford, and Gibson[42] are names which would even defy the ingenious author of the Diversions of Purley to trace to a classical source.
The Scillonians are a robust and healthy people, and were it not for the facility with which they obtain spirits, they would attain a very advanced age. It is a common saying amongst them, and is no doubt intended to express how highly favourable the spot is to longevity, although it obviously admits of another construction, that "for one man who dies a natural death, nine are drowned." It has been remarked that a deformed person is not to be found in the islands; but we apprehend that this fact requires an explanation very different from that which is usually assigned; it cannot be received as any test of the salubrity of the spot, or of the superior healthiness of the race; the fact is simply this, that exposure to inclement weather, want of proper food, and those various privations which necessarily increase as we recede from the luxuries of civilization, kill, during infancy, those feeble subjects which might, otherwise, have become deformed during the progress of their growth. It is for the same reason that we so frequently observe the troops of barbarous countries composed of the most athletic individuals, for the hardship of their service weeds out the feeble and invalid. We have already alluded to the tenacity with which the Cornishman clings to his native soil, but the attachment of the Scillonian, if possible, is still stronger to his desolate rock. What a striking contrast does this form with the roving inhabitant of an alluvial country, where every object, it might be presumed, was calculated to excite and sustain the strongest attachment; but this principle of Nature is wise and universal,—the plant is easily loosened from a generous soil, but with what difficulty is the lichen torn from its rock.