The roads in Cornwall are now for the most part excellent, metalled with elvan, and cyclists and motorists can have little to complain of on that score.
Two railway companies have penetrated the county; the G.W.R. in the south crosses the Tamar by the famous Saltash tubular bridge, and runs to Penzance, by Truro. There is a branch to Bodmin, another to Fowey, and another crosses the county to Newquay. After reaching Truro, the line deserts the south, but sends a branch down to Falmouth. It runs to Redruth and Camborne and reaches the sea at Hayle. It sends a short branch up to St Ives, but the main line turns south again to end in a terminus at Penzance. The L. & S.W.R., after sending out a branch to Bude, reaches Launceston, and then supplies the dreary country from Launceston to Camelford with communication. From Camelford it runs to Wadebridge; and down the estuary to Padstow, a branch to the south serving Bodmin.
In addition to the branches already mentioned are others to Looe and Helston.
Penzance is reached from Paddington in 8½ hours and Newquay in half-an-hour less.
The L. & S.W.R. leaving Waterloo reaches Launceston in 5½ hours, Bude in 6 hours, and Wadebridge in under 7 hours. From Wadebridge coaches run to Newquay.
A steamer maintains communication with the Scilly Isles from Penzance.
25. Administration and Divisions, Ancient and Modern.
Before the Conquest the divisions of the county were probably those afterwards forming the old deaneries, and followed the limits of the Celtic tribes under their several chiefs. Of these there were eight:—East and West, Kerrier, Penwith, Powder, Pyder, Trigg Major, and Trigg Minor, but at the Conquest a redistribution was made in hundreds. These were Conarton, Fawiton, Pawton, Riatton, Stratton, Tibesta or Tibesterna, and Winneton. There may have been an Anglo-Saxon redistribution. But it was a rearrangement that did not last, and never commended itself to the people, and it is not easy now to ascertain what the limits were. Conarton was Penwith. Perhaps Tibesta was Powder and Winneton Kerrier. East and West composed one district of Wyvelshire.
Cornwall was first an Earldom, and then accordingly a County, but when raised to be a Dukedom it became a Duchy. It had two chief officers, the Earl and the Sheriff, the latter appointed by the crown.