Mary, it passed by sale to Renphry, whose son sold it, tempore James I. to Parkings, whose great-grandson Francis Parkings is now in possession thereof. The arms of Parkings are, in a field —— three pigeons ——.
In this parish stands Damelsa Castle, a treble entrenchment of earth on a high mounted bank or hill, on the south side of, and contiguous with, Damelsa House and lands. Probably it was erected before the Norman Conquest, to resist the incursions of the Danes, since those three rampiers consist of rude stones and earth after the British manner, as a hedge, not a wall. (See Castle an Dinas, in St. Colomb). For after the Conquest aforesaid, castles in England were generally built of lime and stones after the manner of the French. Probably it was demolished tempore King Stephen or King Henry II. when, many hundreds of those castles by their decree were pulled down in this island, as our chronologers all tell us.
In this parish, at Treganatha, i. e. the Spinster’s Town or dwelling, is held annually a fair or mart on St. Mark’s day, April 25, and another on August 1.
TONKIN.
St. Wenn is in the hundred of Pider, and hath to the west St. Colomb Major and St. Ennodor, to the north St. Breock, to the east Withiell, to the south St. Roche. This parish takes its name from St. Wenna, its female patroness.
This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £16. 6s. 8d. The patronage in Philip Rashleigh, Esq. the incumbent Mr. John Bedford.
In an. 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory here was valued (Tax. Ben.) at vil. xiiis. iiijd. being appropriated to the Abbey of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire; and the vicarage at xiiis. iiijd.
The manor of Borlase, id est, the green summit or rising [as Bar Glas or Las (C.)] This lordship was given by King William II. surnamed Rufus, to —— Lord of the
Castle of Palfer in Normandy, ever since which his posterity have flourished here and at Treluddero, &c. in great esteem, by the name of Borlace (V. Upton de re militari). [N. B. This is a singular, perhaps a single, instance of a Norman or Saxon family assuming a Cornish name. Indeed I suspect it not to be true; and what is more certain, that species of apples which in Cornwall we call a Borlase, and more commonly a Treluddera, pippin, appears plainly to have taken its name from this family and that place, and serves as a good opening for explaining all those other names of apples which are merely Cornish in themselves like this. Whitaker.]
THE EDITOR.