If the variety of Armes disclaime from any of these names, I will not stand vpon a stiffe iustification: and yet it is to bee noted, that diuers Cornish Gentlemen, borne yonger brothers, and aduanced by match, haue left their owne coats, & honoured those of their wiues with the first quarter of their shields. Which error their posteritie likewise ensued, as also, that before these later petty differences grew in vogue, the Armes of one stocke were greatly diuersified in the younger braunches.
I had also made a more paynful, then perfect collection of most of the Cornish Gentlemens names & Armes: But because the publishing thereof might perhaps goe accompanied with diuers wrongs, to my much reuerenced friends the Heralds, by thrusting my sickle into their haruest; to a great many my Countrymen, whom my want of information should be forced to passe ouer vnmentioned; and to the truth it selfe, where my report (relying vpon other mens credits) might through their errour intitle me the publisher (though not the author) of falshood: I rather thought fit altogether to omit it, and to note onely, that of diuers Gentlemen there haue bene in Cornwall, either their names are worne out, or their liuings transferred by the females, into other families: as likewise, sundry of those there now inhabiting, are lately denized Cornish, being generally drawne thither (besides other more priuate respects) through eyther the desire of change, which the disease of discontent affecteth, or the loue of quiet in so remote a corner, or the supposall of commodities there arising, and accruing, or the warrantize from ouerlooking & bearing, where little difference in quality tendeth to an [66] equality in estates.
From Gentility, we wil descend to ciuility, which is or should be in the townesmen. Those in Cornwall do no more by nature, then others elsewhere by choyce, conceiue themselves an estranged society from the vpland dwellers, and cary, I will not say a malice, but an emulation against them, as if one member in a body could continue his wel-being without a beholdingnes to the rest. Their chiefest trade consisteth in vttering their petty marchandises, & Artificers labours at the weekly markets. Very few among them make vse of that oportunity, which the scite vpon the sea proffereth vnto many, for building of shipping, and traffiking in grosse: yet some of the Easterne townes piddle that way, & some others giue themselues to fishing voyages, both which (when need requireth) furnish her Maiesties nauy with good store of very seruiceable Mariners.
There are (if they be not slaundered) that hunt after a more easie then commendable profit, with little hazard, and (I would I could not say) with lesse conscience. Anno 32. H. 8. an act of Parliament was made for repayring, amongst others, the Borough townes of Launceston, Liskerd, Lostwithiel, Bodmyn, Truro, and Helston in Cornwall, but with what fruit to their good, I cannot relate.
Within late yeeres memorie, the sea-coast Townes begin to proclaime their bettering in wealth, by costly encrease of buildings; but those of the Inland, for the most part, vouch their ruined houses, and abandoned streets, as too true an euidence, that they are admitted no partners in this amendment. If I mistake not the cause, I may with charitie inough wish them still the same fortune: for as is elsewhere touched, I conceyue their former large peopling, to haue bin an effect of the countries impouerishing, while the inuasion of forraine enemies draue the Sea-coast Inhabitants to seeke a more safe, then commodious abode in those Inland parts.
Strangers occasioned to trauaile through the shire, were wont, no lesse sharply then truly, to inueigh against the bad drinke, course lodging, and slacke attendance which they found in thosehouses that went for Innes: neither did their horses better entertainment, proue them any welcomer ghests then their masters: but in stead of remedy, they receyued in answere, that neither such an outcorner was frequented with many wayfarers, nor by hanging out signes, or forestalling at the Townes end, like the Italians, did they inuite any; and to make great prouision vpon small hope of vtterance, were to incurre a skorne-worthy losse, seeing Aspettare, & non venire (saith the same Italian) is one of the tre cose da morire.
Touching the Yeomanarie of Cornwall, I can say little, worth the observing, for any difference from that of other shires, and therefore I will step downe the next staire to husbandmen.
These in times not past the remembrance of some yet liuing, rubbed forth their estate in the poorest plight, their grounds lay all in common, or onely diuided by stitch-meale: little bread-corne: their drinke, water, or at best, but whey: for the richest Farmour in a parish brewed not aboue twyce a yeere, and then, God wotte what liquor: their meat, Whitsull, as they call it, namely, milke, sowre milke, cheese, curds, [67] butter, and such like as came from the cow and ewe, who were tyed by the one legge at pasture: their apparell, course in matter, ill shapen in maner: their legges and feet naked and bare, to which sundrie old folke had so accustomed their youth, that they could hardly abide to weare any shooes; complayning how it kept them ouer hote. Their horses shod onlie before, and for all furniture a pad and halter, on which the meaner countrie wenches of the westerne parts doe yet ride astride, as all other English folke vsed before R. the 2. wife brought in the side saddle fashion of straw.
Suteable hereunto was their dwelling, & to that their implements of houshold: walles of earth, low thatched roofes, few partitions, no planchings or glasse windows, and scarcely any chimnies, other then a hole in the wall to let out the smoke: their bed, straw and a blanket: as for sheets, so much linen cloth had not yet stepped ouer the narrow channell, betweene them and Brittaine. To conclude, a mazer and a panne or two, comprised all their substance: but now most of these fashions are vniuersally banished, and the Cornish husbandman conformeth himself with a better supplied ciuilitie to the Easterne patterne, which hath directed him a more thriuing forme of husbandrie; and our halcion dayes of peace enabled him to applie the lesson: so as, his fine once ouercome, he can maintaine himselfe & his familie in a competent decencie to their calling, and findeth monie to bestow weekely at the markets, for his prouisions of necessitie and pleasure: for his quarterlie rent serueth rather as a token of subiection to his Land-lord, then any grieuous exaction on his tenement.
One point of their former roughnesse, some of the Westerne people do yet still retaine, & therethrough in some measure, verifie that testimonie which Mathew Westm. giueth of them, together with the Welsh, their auncient countrimen: namely, how fostering a fresh memorie of their expulsion long agoe by the English, they second the same with a bitter repining at their fellowship: and this the worst sort expresse, in combining against, and working them all the shrewd turnes which with hope of impunitie they can deuise: howbeit, it shooteth not to a like extremitie in all places and persons, but rather by little and little, weareth out vnto a more milde and conuersable fashion. Amongst themselues they agree well, and companie louingly together: to their gentlemen they carrie a verie dutifull regard, as enured in their obeysance from their ancestors, and holding them as Roytelets, because they know no greater. Onelie it might be wished, that diuers amongst them had lesse spleene to attempt law-suits, for pettie supposed wrongs, or not so much subtiltie and stiffenesse to prosecute them: so should their purses be heauier, and their consciences lighter: a reporter must auerre no falshood, nor conceale any truth.