Parliament for the county of Cornwall. In this letter he recapitulates what had been done towards the topography of his native county. Besides the works of Leland, Camden, Norden, and Carew, he mentions the general collections of Hals and Anstis, and those of Pearce and Gwavas on the Stannaries, the Cornish language, &c. Towards the conclusion of his epistle, he says, ‘I wish I could say that many more of my countrymen had assisted me with their kind endeavours. I do not yet despair of having several; for which reasons I have, in my proposals, enlarged the designed time of the publication of this part. I hope they will be so good as to send in contributions. If they persist in their refusal, they must be contented with such coarse fare as I am able to give them, which I will endeavour to make as palatable for them as I can; perhaps, when they come to taste of this, they may be prevailed on to supply me with something better towards the two remaining parts. All that I can promise them is, that I will give them the best account I can, without the least partiality; neither shall any one person have a just occasion given him to charge me with any wilful omission or sophisticated truth.”
Very little was done by Mr. Tonkin to the parochial department of his intended history after the date of this letter; he died in 1742, and in the latter part of his life, being unhappily involved in pecuniary difficulties, he grew less attentive to study, and died without printing any part of his intended history.
Doctor William Borlase more than meditated a parochial history, having made some collections towards it. If this design had been carried into execution, all further attempts might have been deemed superfluous.
His Antiquities and Natural History of Cornwall gave ample proof of the ability, the ingenuity, and of the diligence possessed by this excellent man, who had the deserved good fortune of being equally esteemed and admired, not by the neighbourhood alone, but by the most learned and scientific persons throughout Europe.
The Antiquities were first published in 1754.
The second edition in 1769.
The Natural History in 1758. All in quarto.
Respecting the Natural History, it may be expedient to remind the reader, that in the last edition of Chambers’s Encyclopædia, four volumes of the largest size, with one volume of plates, printed in 1783, the very word Geology does not occur; and that some years later, chemical lectures were publicly given on the phlogistic theory of Becher and Stahl.
Mr. Polwhele has published in seven parts, beginning with the date 1803, and ending with that of 1816, making in all two quarto volumes, of about 1200 pages, in small type, and abounding with notes and extracts in a type still smaller, an immense collection of matter relative to the antiquities, the biography, the literature, the history military and civil, &c. of Cornwall; arranged under distinct heads, and enriched with prints of distinguished persons, with figures of ancient castles,
churches, monuments, &c. and with views of towns, and of romantic scenery. One is astonished at the great labour bestowed on this work, and still more so when it is recollected, that the author has distinguished himself in every branch of elegant literature, and most of all in that department, where the fire of genius is believed somewhat to diminish the aptitude for patient toil.