It is well known that Cornwall received the Christian
faith from various individuals who came from Munster, in Ireland, where the learning and the religion of these times certainly flourished: all those persons were held in veneration by their converts, and were distinguished by them as saints. These missionaries were, moreover, so numerous in all parts that Ireland was called the Land of Saints. St. Colomb may possibly be one of those missionaries; but the subject is of little importance, and I am unwilling to bestow the elegant appellation of the Holy Dove, on any other than a female saint.
Nanswhyden, unquestionably the White Vale, is mentioned by Mr. Hals as belonging to the Hoblyns. Mr. Robert Hoblyn, of Nanswhyden, who died in 1756, was a very distinguished person. He was generally a man of letters; but, what is rarely to be found in a country gentleman, he excelled in the recondite learning of the East. He built a magnificent house at Manswhyden, and established there a library so extensive, and so rich in manuscripts, as to be valued at thirty thousand pounds.
This gentleman received a great addition to his fortune from a most productive copper mine, called Herland, or the Mane Mine, in the parish of Gwineat, and he married a daughter of Mr. Coster, an Alderman of Bristol, at that period the most extensive smelter of copper ores. In consequence of this connection, and his deserved reputation, Mr. Hoblyn was chosen one of the representatives of Bristol.
The house was entirely consumed by an accidental fire in 1803. The property has descended to his collateral relation, the Reverend Robert Hoblyn, who inherits also a large portion of his classic taste.
[Castle-An-Dinas][34] is situated on one of the highest hills in the hundred of Penwith, commanding an extensive view over the western extremity of Cornwall, from St. Ives to the Land’s End. Borlase gives the following description of its remains: “Castle-An-Dinas consisted of two stone walls, one within the other in a circular form, surrounding the area of the hill. The ruins are now fallen on each side the walls, and show the work to have been of great height and thickness. There was also a third, or outer wall, built more than halfway round. Within the walls are many little inclosures of a circular form, about seven yards diameter, with little walls round them of two or three feet high, they appear to have been so many huts for the shelter of the garrison. The diameter of the whole fort from east to west is four hundred feet, and the principal ditch sixty feet. Towards the south, the sides of the hill are marked by two large green paths, about ten feet wide. Near the middle of the area is a well, almost choked up with its own ruins, and at a little distance a narrow pit, its sides walled round, probably for water also, now filled up.”
It is to be regretted that Borlase did not publish a plan to illustrate his description of this Castle, as it has been much dilapidated since his time. A tower was built on the site of the outer wall about forty years ago, by Mr. Rogers, of Penrose; and subsequent reparations have not contributed towards a restotation of the old walls. Nor are there any perceptible remains of the inclosures.
This parish measures 12,045 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 10,581 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rates in 1831 | 1186 | 3 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 1816 | in 1811, 2070 | in 1821, 2493 | in 1831, 2790; |