The greater part of the valleys in Cornwall having been long since streamed, exhibit little else than heaps of unsightly rubbish; instead of displaying, as in other districts, the most pleasing features of a country. The late Mr. Humphrey Mackworth Praed has, however, proved in the case of a valley at Lelant, that such deformities may be removed, and the meadows restored to their natural beauty, accompanied even by pecuniary advantage to the proprietor. But such improvements are greatly obstructed by an anomalous property called the right of bounds.
MABE.
HALS.
Mabe, a vicarage, is situated in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north Stithians, and west Constantine; east, part of Gluvias and Bradock.
For the name, it is plain Cornish Mab or Mabe, being a son, and in this place either to be construed in reference to Milorus (son of Melianus, King or Duke of Cornwall), who lies buried in Milor church-yard, and who was lord of this place, or had some jurisdiction over it, as Milor church at this day hath in spirituals over Mabe, to which it is considered as annexed.
Or perhaps the name of this church, Mab or Mabe, refers to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whose honour it may have been erected by our ancestors as a pledge of their orthodox faith, in opposition to the Ebiorite and Arian heresies.
At the time of the Norman conquest the district was
taxed under the jurisdiction of Tremiloret, i. e. Milor’s Town. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia de Sancto Milore in decanatu de Kerryer cum Sacello (that is to say, with this church or chapel), was rated £6. 13s. 4d. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, Milor la Vabe, or Mabe, is valued £16. 15s. The patronage in the Bishop of Exon, the incumbent. Now Milor-la-Vabe is either Milor’s son’s place, or a corruption of Milor-ha-Vabe, i. e. Milor and mabe, or Milor and son; this parish was rated to the 4s. per pound land-tax 1694, £56. 17s.