Ludgvan Church, which appears upon an elevation on the right of the road leading to Penzance, and which forms so prominent a feature on the shores of the bay, will be visited by the Antiquary with sensations of respect, when he learns that it contains the mortal remains of Dr. Borlase the venerable and learned author of the Natural History and Antiquities of Cornwall. From the Latin Inscription on his tomb it appears that he was fifty-two years rector of this parish, and that he died August 31st 1772, in the 77th year of his age. Although Dr. Borlase spent the greater part of a long life in this retired district, his fame as a scholar had spread through all the literary circles of the age. If we require any other testimony of his talents than that which his own works will afford, we may receive it from no less an oracle than Pope, with whom he regularly corresponded. In a letter written by the Poet, to express his thanks for the present of a Cornish diamond, presented by Dr. Borlase for the decoration of his grotto, Pope thus expresses himself, "I have received your gift, and have so placed it in my grotto, that it will resemble the donor—in the shade, but shining."
If in the course of the present work we have ventured any remarks upon the opinions of Dr. Borlase which may be considered in the slightest degree disrespectful to his talents, we willingly offer this expiation at his shrine. His errors, whatever they may have been, were the inevitable consequence of the infant state of those sciences indirectly connected with his pursuits, not the result of literary incapacity, or of depraved judgment.
"Custodiat Urnam
Cana Fides, vigilentque perenni lampade Musæ."
About half a mile below the Church-Town, crossing the road to Marazion, is a vallum thrown up in the civil war by the Parliament forces when they besieged Saint Michael's Mount.
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Kenegie became the seat of the younger branch of Harris of Heyne, in about the year 1600.
[67] There is also a very considerable similarity in their mode of migration. The word Herring is derived from the German "Heer," an Army, to express their numbers, and order of array.
[68] The first outfit of a Seine, with its boats, oars, ropes, sails, nets, and a quantity of salt sufficient to cure five hundred hogsheads of fish, if purchased new, cannot be estimated at less than a Thousand pounds. The preparations for the water consists of three boats, i. e. two large ones and a small one; each large boat containing seven men, and in the small one are the master, another man, and two boys. The "Seine Boat" and the "Follower" are the names by which the two large boats are distinguished; and the small one is called the "Lurker."
[69] The whiteness of the sand in the Bay of St. Ives renders the shoals of fish easily distinguishable, and contributes very greatly to the success of the fishery upon this coast.
[70] The Tunny fish in the Archipelago was caught by a similar process, "Ascendebat quidam (Anglice the Huer, Græce Thunnoscopos) in ultum promontorium, unde Thunnorum gregem specularetur, quo viso, signum piscatoribus dabat, qui ratibus totum gregem includebant." Vide Blomfield's Notes on the Persæ of Eschylus, p. 148. The seine was as familiar to the Athenians, as the Pilchard fishery is to the inhabitants of Cornwall; and it is said that Eschylus took great delight in witnessing it.