This parish, with Crowan and Lelant, are dedicated to St. Uny, or St. Unine, of whom nothing is known, and therefore conjecture represents this saint as one of the missionaries from Ireland. The advowson of the rectory is appurtenant to the honor and manor of Tehidy, which has been in the Basset family since early times of the Plantagenets.
In the town a chapel has very recently been built, probably near to the spot where the one formerly stood, that was dedicated to St. Rumon, of whom little more is known than of St. Uny.
The abbey of Tavistock was dedicated to the honor of Almighty God, in the names of the Blessed Virgin and of St. Rumon, by Ordgar Earl of Devonshire, about the year 960, and confirmed by King Ethelred about twenty years
after. In Leland’s Collectanea de Rebus Britannicis, vol. IV. p. 152, are noticed the following heads of a Life of Rumon:
“Rumonus genere fuit Scotus Hiberniensis. Nemea sylva in Cornubia plenissima olim ferarum. Sanctus Rumonus faciebat sibi oratorium in sylva Nemæa Falemutha. Ordulphus Dux Cornubiæ transtulit ossa Rumoni Tavestochiam.”
Doctor Butler says of this saint:
“William of Malmesbury informs us, that the History of St. Rumon’s life was destroyed by the wars, a misfortune he says that has also happened on other occasions in England.
“He was a bishop, although it is not known of what see; his veneration was famous at Tavistock in Devonshire, where Ordulf, Earl of Devonshire, built a church under his invocation, before the year 960. Wilson, upon information given him by certain persons of that country, inserted his name on this day (January the 4th) in the second edition of his English Martyrology.”
Since there seems to be very little probability in the supposition that the name of this parish can have reference to the Druids; and as two strong objections may be alleged against its being derived from a ford of red water, from the absence of any red stream, or ford; is it too hardy to conjecture, that with variations in the orthography, and in the pronunciation of the name, and perhaps with some adjunct syllable, the long-sought-for etymology may be found in a patron saint, when three other parishes, Ruan Major, Ruan Minor, and Ruan Lanihorn, are dedicated to his name.
In consequence of the immense extension of workings on lodes of copper all round the northern and eastern junctions of the forest granite, with the killas or slate, the town of Redruth has grown into a large size, and into considerable opulence. The main street is rendered splendid on both sides by continued lines of shops, and the market on Friday is supplied in great abundance with every thing that can be wanted in the ordinary concerns of life. Large quantities of fish, of pork, and of home manufactures, especially of shoes, are brought from Penzance market, held on