Even so late as the beginning of the last century there were several ships kept here, principally employed in foreign voyages; but, for seventy or eighty years last past, few, if any, have been so employed.
Tallan Church is most romantic in its situation; it contains a curious monument to one of the Bevilles. Polbenro, divided between this parish and Lansallos, affords picturesque scenery superior to any on the southern coast of Cornwall; and the whole road from Fowey to Looe, by Polruan, Lansallas, Polperro, and Talland, will amply compensate the fatigue of climbing hills, and descending into deep vales, by the singular and striking prospects varied at every point.
The manor of Killigarth belonged at an early period to the family of Kilgat, evidently implying some relation between the names.
Kilmenawth, or Kilmenorth, formed a part of the large possessions belonging to Lord Chief Justice Trevilian, who was murdered under some forms of law in the year 1388, the 11th year of Richard the Second. This place was the residence of Admiral Sir Charles Wager.
The hamlet of Lemain or Lammana, which seems to have included a considerable portion of the parish with the island, must have been of importance, since a record exists, which states a division of the monastic property of Glastonbury, between the bishop and his chapter on one part, and the monks on the other, when about the year 1200, Pope Innocent the Third removed the see of Wells to that place.
The words are, “De Prioratibus quoque ad Glastoniensem Ecclesiam pertinentibus, ita ordinatum est. Ut
Prioratus de Hibernia ad ordinationem Episcopi, Prioratus vero de Basselake, et de Lamana ad ordinationem conventus pertineant.”
Portlooe appears to have been the principal estate of the hamlet, but no traditions are extant about its antiquity. It belonged about the middle of the last century to Mr. John Hoskins of East Looe, probably by purchase; he left an only daughter, who married first Mr. Edward Buller, a brother of the Judge, This gentleman had been educated in Holland according to the customs of those times, with a view to trade, which however he never pursued, but settled on his wife’s barton of Portlooe, and died there, leaving several children. Mrs. Buller, nevertheless, married secondly Mr. Thomas Escott, an officer in the Cornwall Militia.
The island has probably passed through different hands since the dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey. It recently belonged to the family of Mayow, by whom it was sold for a very trifling consideration, to Sir William Trelawny, afterwards Governor of Jamaica.
Pel-Vellan, (the Mill Pool,) created and named by the late Colonel John Leman, is an exquisite specimen of that gentleman’s taste. The editor remembers it a wild uncultivated uninclosed common, adjacent to the tide Mill. About twenty years after the commencement of decorations, he placed the following inscription where a rill of water formed a small cascade under the shelter of some shrubs, and of three or four trees which had stood on the Down.