according to him, William’s journey was performed in 1473; but this is evidently nothing more than a misprint. In one of our county histories, the journey is stated to have occurred in 1460: it is probable, however, that the writer had never seen the Itinerary.
He set out from Norwich, on Monday the 17th of August, and reached London on the Thursday following. On the first of September he came to Bristol, and took his departure for Cornwall on the next day. He arrived at Launceston on Sunday the 13th, and on Monday pursued his journey towards the west. Near Bodmin his horse fell with him, but it does not appear that he received any injury. On Tuesday night he slept at Polwhele; and having visited the preaching friars at Truro on Wednesday, he came in the evening to Marazion. The next morning, Thursday 17th of September 1478, he attended mass in the chapel on the Mount. In the afternoon of the same day, he departed for Penryn; and going thence to Bodmin, he returned eastward, through the towns on the south coast. The towns and villages on the north coast of Cornwall he did not visit; and the statements which he makes respecting them, were merely the result of his inquiries. He seems, indeed, to have been as diligent in seeking information from others, as in making observations of his own; and no persons, whether smiths, ropers, or ferrymen, were considered unfit to furnish him with the knowledge which he wanted for his journal. Amongst those in Cornwall, from whom he learned most, was his cousin, Robert Bracey, at Fowey; but it is likely that he depended mainly upon the secular and regular clergy, who entertained him on the road, and gave him access to their chronicles and registers.
With regard to the nature and purpose of this journey, from the manner of the record itself, it would not be easy to conjecture, whether it was undertaken with feelings of devotion or of curiosity. The coldness of the whole narrative, and the careless brevity with which the accomplishment of the acknowledged object is related, were scarcely consistent with a fervid and lively devotion; and the insertion of so many facts and observations, which must have been useless when they were written, and now owe their value to their subsequent antiquity, while the documents of early times, and the traditions of the people, were almost wholly neglected, could not have happened
under the influence of an active and judicious curiosity. And besides this, when William of Worcester was in Cornwall, it was impossible for an intelligent visitor to overlook the state of our ecclesiastical architecture. Many of our present churches had been recently built, and others were then building; and some account of their style and condition, of their founders and builders, and of the circumstances attending their erection, would have been far more amusing to his contemporaries than what he wrote, and of unspeakable interest in after times. And any other man, we may suppose, would have found something to say of the manners and habits of the people, and of their mines and fisheries; but from William of Worcester we know only by implication or accident, that he travelled in an inhabited country.
Yet without devotion he would not have visited the Mount, and without curiosity he would have made no observations by the way. The shrine of St. Michael, which had been the resort of superstitious people in remote times, had lately recovered its ancient reputation, after an interval of some accidental obscurity; and pilgrims were again attracted by the privileges conferred on it in the eleventh century, and were coming even from distant places in considerable numbers. William of Worcester was one of these; and as his penitence had brought him so far, it might be thought that his admiration would have delayed his return.
But the hospitalities of a place so ‘kind to strangers,’ the natural beauties of the Mount, and the venerable antiquity and romantic traditions of the castle and monastery, were not enough to detain him for a day; and with scarcely any regard to such things, he stayed but a few hours. In that short space he could not occupy himself with many inquiries; and we have received from him only a few bare facts, which he appears to have recorded rather as the justification of his pilgrimage, than with any precise knowledge of their value.
His subsequent pursuits, and the time of his death, are not known, nor have we any account of the number and the fortunes of his children. It is certain, however, that he was married; and he is reported to have taken a wife in opposition to the wishes of his patron. For Sir John Fastolf had designed for him some ecclesiastical preferment, and had consequently advised him to obtain orders
in the church. Tanneri Biblioth.—Paston Letters.—Lelandus de Script. Brit.—Henry’s Hist. of Engl.
Incipiunt notabilia per W. Worcestre scripta in viagio de Bristolia ad Montem Sancti Michaelis in anno Christi 1478.
* * * * *