A Book of Cornwall

by S. Baring-Gould

The church is interesting; it possesses a fine lantern of a character nowhere else met with in the West. Anciently the tide came up as far as the town, and the portreeve had rights over the river, for which reason the town arms are represented with an oar.

Below the town the river to Fowey is full of beauty. It passes S. Winnow, with fine fifteenth-century glass; the church is beautifully situated. Here is a chapel of S. Nectan, of Hartland, to which latter was attached a college of secular priests endowed by Gytha, wife of Godwin, Earl of Kent. The priests of this college were married and allowed to marry, as all Celtic clergy were.

S. Winnow was son of Gildas the historian. Gildas and Finian were together for some time at S. David's monastery, and became close friends. Then Gildas entrusted his son Winnoc, or Winnow, to Finian to be educated, and Finian took the boy with him to Clonard and educated him. When Winnoc thought that it was time for him to leave, he returned to Britain and settled in Cornwall. As he was allied to the royal family, he received large grants of land, and certainly chose a lovely spot for his establishment. S. Veep, or Wennapa, was his aunt, and he served as her spiritual adviser. After a while, for some reason unknown, but probably on account of a breeze with his kinsman King Constantine, whom Winnow's father, Gildas, has abused in the most uncompromising terms, and Constantine's mother as well, Winnow left Cornwall and settled in Brittany. He was accompanied by his brother Madoc and his sister, whom the Welsh call Dolgar and the Bretons Tugdonia. He landed in the neighbourhood of Brest, where he was found by Conmor, Count of Pouhir, the usurper, who was killed in 555. Conmor granted him as much land as he could enclose in a day. The story goes that Madoc, or Madan, as the Bretons call him,[^[18]] took a pitchfork and drew it behind him, and it formed a ditch and a bank that enclosed a bit of land. The fosse and embankment exist to the present day, and the story means no more than that under Madoc's supervision the lis or rath was thrown up to enclose the monastic settlement.

Within this defensive work Winnow constituted his establishment, built a church, and erected a number of beehive cells. Outside he set up stones to mark the bounds of his minihi, or sanctuary, and all who took refuge in this were allowed to pass under his protection and become members of his tribe.

One day Winnow went to Quimperlé, where some building was in progress. He incautiously stood under the scaffolding, and a mason who was above let fall his hammer on his head. This killed him.

The Welsh call him Gwynnog, and the Bretons Gouzenou. A very funny story is told of his establishment. It became a custom to beat the bounds every Ascension Day. The clergy with banners, and preceded by a cross, led the procession. One day the rain came down in torrents, and the clergy did not relish being wet to the skin, so they decided not to beat the bounds. However, cross and banners would not be done out of their little flirt, and to the astonishment of all, away they trotted, none bearing them, and made the rounds by themselves. Popular tradition is prudently silent as to when this took place.

That Winnow should have been forced to leave Cornwall after his father had addressed the king in such forcible but inelegant terms as "Tyrannical whelp of the unclean lioness of Dumnonia," is not surprising. You could not well stay in the house of a man in whose face your venerable father has spat--not if you have any self-respect.

A little further down the river is Golant, or S. Samson. This is a foundation of a man better known than S. Winnow. His story deserves telling, at least so much of it as pertains to Cornwall.

Samson was son of Amwn the Black, Prince of Bro-Weroc in Brittany, that is to say, the country about Vannes which had been colonised by British settlers. There ensued a little family brawl, which obliged Amwn to fly for his life. He escaped into Wales, where he married Anne, daughter of the Prince of Glamorgan. Samson was educated by S. Iltyd in Caldey Isle, and was taught "all the Old and New Testament, and all sorts of philosophy, to wit, geometry and rhetoric, grammar and arithmetic, and all the arts known in Britain."

He devoted himself to the ecclesiastical state, and spent many years in Wales. He paid a visit to Ireland, inspected the monasteries there, and then returned to Wales, where he was ordained bishop. After a while he considered that he might just as well try to get back to Brittany, and see whether he could recover some of the authority and the lands and position of which his father had been deprived. Accordingly he crossed to Cornwall and landed at Padstow, where he dedicated a little chapel, where now stands Prideaux Place. Here he was visited by S. Petrock on his arrival, as also by S. Winnow, not the Winnow of the Fowey river, but another, a brother of S. Winwaloe, who had settled at Lewanick. He was related to Samson through his mother.