Not far from them was found a brass instrument, that had clearly, from the shade still remaining upon the covered part, once had a handle clipping it round the middle, and leaving out the two ends for striking. July 19, 1794, was promised by Lady Falmouth a sketch of all three, done by the hand of the Rev. Mr. Hennah, Rector of St. Austle; but, as he had pronounced the brass instrument to be no celt, and as I proved it to be one, he never sent the sketch.
“There are also taken up in such works,” adds Carew, “certaine little tooles’ heads of brasse, which some terme thunder axes; but they make small show of any profitable use. Neither were the Romaines ignorant of this trade, as may appeare by a brasse coyne of Domitian’s, found in one of these workes,” stream or load, “and fallen into my hands.”
Fol. 56. “Most of the inhabitants can [speak] no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English; and yet some so affect their owne, as to a stranger they will not speake it: for, if meeting them by chance, you inquire the way or any such matter, your answer shal be, Meea navidua cowzasawsneck, I can speake no Saxonage.” W.]
THE ISLANDS OF SCILLY.
THE EDITOR.
Neither Mr. Hals nor Mr. Tonkin has noticed these islands.
It may be proper, therefore, to add a few observations on their ancient history, of which however very little is known.
That the Phœnicians, and after them the merchants of Carthage, traded with the Britons for tin, is established without the slightest doubt; but no possible absurdity can be greater than the supposition that voyagers, having sailed through the Mediterranean Sea, and passed between the Pillars of Hercules into the exterior ocean, and navigated through this boundless and dreaded expanse of water for about a thousand miles, should then stop short at trifling islands, or rather rocks, and that too year after year during centuries, with the country before them, actually in sight, from whence the valuable commodity which they sought must have been manifestly taken, and where they would have been sure of an improved market for the commercial articles to be given in exchange. Yet, relying on the literal interpretation of passages from ancient authors, who never visited the land of tin, nor possibly ever conversed with the adventurous sailors who had been there, persons of account have gravely asserted that the rocks of Scilly were the ancient Cassiterides; while others, to render this strange supposition somewhat less absurd, have glossed it with the miracle, probably invented by Florence of Worcester, of a large tract of country between these existing islands and the Land’s End, having been engulphed within times of recent memory.