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 THE BfcMgfi B©3&3H»JUR%f MX& 
 
THE 
 
 CHURCHES AND ANTIQUITIES 
 
 OF 
 
 CURY & GUNWALLOE, 
 
 IN THE LIZARD DISTRICT, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 LOCAL TRADITIONS.. 
 
 ALFRED HAYMAN CUMMINGS, 
 
 F.F.. Hist. Soc, Member of the Numismatic Society of London, and Associate 
 
 of the British Archaeological Association ; Vicar of St. Paul's, Truro, 
 
 and late Vicar ofCury and Gunwalloe. 
 
 
 
 E. MARLBOROUGH & CO., LONDON. 
 W. LAKE, TRURO. 
 
 1875. 
 
 K\ 
 

 
 
TO 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND FREDERICK 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE, 
 
 OF WHICH CURY AND GUNWALLOE FORM A PART, 
 
 THIS EFFORT TO PRESERVE SOME OF THE ANCIENT 
 
 TRADITIONS OF WEST CORNWALL 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 

CONTENTS. 
 
 Saint Corantyn ..... 
 Cury Church ..... 
 Restoration of the Church 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 8 
 
 . 38 
 
 Bochym ...... 
 
 Ancient Stone Implements and Celtic Remains 
 
 . 46 
 . 66 
 
 Bonython ...... 
 
 Antiquities of Cury and Gunwalloe 
 
 Cury Great Tree ..... 
 
 . 80 
 
 • 94 
 108 
 
 Saint Winwaloe ..... 
 
 . 116 
 
 Gunwalloe Church .... 
 
 . 124 
 
 Wrecks ...... 
 
 133 
 
 Wreck of the Coquette .... 
 The Dollar Wreck .... 
 
 148 
 '55 
 
 Holy Well at Gunwalloe .... 
 
 182 
 
 The " Caerth " of Camden 
 
 188 
 
 Reminiscences of the Cornish Language 
 
 197 
 
 West Country Folk .... 
 
 The Supernatural . 
 
 Traditions and Old Customs . . . . 
 
 215 
 224 
 
 235 
 
 Manor of Wynyanton .... 
 
 Looe Pool ...... 
 
 245 
 
 2s2 
 
" Whereby may be discerned that so fervent was the zeal of those 
 elder times to God's service and honour, that they freely endowed 
 the Church with some part of their possessions ; and that in those 
 good works even the meaner sort of men, as well as the pious 
 founders, were not backward." — Dugdalis Antiquit. Warwickshire. 
 
 " II y a bien des auteurs dans lesquels on trouve des choses singu- 
 lieres qui ne se recontrent pas ailleurs. Cela me fait dire qu'on pourroit 
 faire un livre fort curieux, qui contiendroit, " ra aira£ eipiqixeva" 
 les choses qui n'ont e"te dites qu'une fois." — Menage. 
 
" Of your courtesy 
 I pray you read the preface." 
 
 Old Play. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HE following pages are not put forth as 
 containing very great discoveries or much 
 that is new ; they were commenced at a 
 time when the restoration of one of the 
 oldest churches in the Lizard district was in hand, 
 and the interest excited by one or two archaeologi- 
 cal discoveries in the parish seemed to favour the 
 presumption that a permanent record of these would 
 be acceptable to many beyond the immediate 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Thus the notes, which were intended by the writer 
 at first only for private use, grew and multiplied, 
 until at length they are suffered to appear in their 
 present form. 
 
 In several instances things of great interest would, 
 in a few more years, have been entirely forgotten 
 — as e.g., the custom of keeping Gunwalloe Day, 
 described on page 185, and the exact position of a 
 circle called Earth, mentioned by Camden, but for 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 the last fifty years known only to two inhabitants 
 of the parish, both of whom are now nearly ninety 
 years of age. 
 
 These particulars of historic interest I have en- 
 deavoured to rescue from oblivion, and to stereo- 
 type the record of others which might be in danger 
 of being forgotten. 
 
 In collecting together particulars and items re- 
 specting the two parishes, which might be not only 
 of local interest, but entertaining also to the general 
 reader and visitor of our Cornish districts, I have 
 availed myself freely of all the existing authorities 
 within my reach ; for while the large and cumbrous 
 histories, whose place more properly is in the public 
 library or the houses of the rich, are full of the 
 richest stores of information, they are approachable 
 by the few, not the many, and much of what they 
 contain is not generally known and received. 
 
 I have drawn then upon the information con- 
 tained in such books as are given in the list 
 appended, and my acknowledgments are due to 
 each. 
 
 For King Charles' letter and its translation I 
 am indebted to Henry Jenner, Esq., of the MSS. 
 department British Museum, who has kindly given 
 me every assistance, and whose paper on the Cor- 
 nish language read before the Philological Society 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 has materially aided me in compiling the few notes 
 I have made concerning the old language of Corn- 
 wall. 
 
 Much of the information here respecting Bochym 
 has been most ably and willingly contributed by 
 Richard Davey, Esq., whose kindness demands a 
 more than passing notice, the plate of the mansion 
 of Bochym being given to this work by him, and 
 he having lent the Bochym Celts for the purpose 
 of reproduction in heliotype, to illustrate the paper 
 on them. 
 
 I have also to acknowledge the kind aid and 
 suggestions of W. P. Courtney, Esq., the talented 
 editor of the " Bibliotheca Cornubiensis." 
 
 To Messrs. Parker of Oxford I am under obliga- 
 tion for the ready way in which they placed at my 
 disposal the block for the illustrations on p. 10. 
 
 All the heliotype plates have been prepared from 
 photographs taken especially for the work by Mr. 
 Beringer of Helston. 
 
 To all the subscribers my apologies are due for 
 the somewhat delayed publication of the work. It 
 was commenced in a period of comparative leisure, 
 and when there was every prospect of its comple- 
 tion at or about the same time as the restoration 
 of the church at Cury. 
 
 With very little warning the writer was removed 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 from the seclusion of a country parish to S. Paul's, 
 Truro, a very poor and populous district ; and for 
 months literally no opportunity was afforded of 
 putting pen to paper to complete what had been 
 already begun. 
 
 The church at Cury needed constant supervision, 
 and amid the many cares and incessant labour of a 
 town parish the projected book had to be laid 
 aside. 
 
 The prospectuses were issued, and subscriptions 
 had been received, or in all probability the work 
 had never been published. Its completion has, 
 however, been a source of great enjoyment to the 
 writer, and in the fullest sense a recreation in the 
 midst of a toiling and busy life. It is hoped that 
 its many imperfections may be overlooked in the 
 good object which prompted the undertaking. 
 
 S. Paul's, Truro, 
 Christmas, 1874. 
 
LIST OF WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 Norden's Survey of Cornwall 
 
 Camden's Britannia, fol. 
 
 Carew's Survey of Cornwall 
 
 Polwhele's Cornwall .... 
 
 Staveley's History of Churches in England, I 
 
 Glossary of Gothic Architecture, 3rd ed., 8vo 
 
 Whitaker's Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall 
 
 Journal of the British Archaeological Association 
 
 Blight's Churches of West Cornwall, 8vo . 
 
 Blight's Crosses and Antiquities of Corn- 
 wall, 2nd ed. . 
 
 Lobineau's (Don Gui Alexis) Histoire de 
 Bretagne, 2 vols, folio . 
 
 Ly son's History of Cornwall 
 
 Bloxam's Principles of Gothic Architecture, 
 8th ed 
 
 Testamenta Vetusta, 8vo 
 
 Wright's Celt, Roman, and Saxon, 8vo 
 
 The Antiquarian Itinerary, 8vo 
 
 Oliver's Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis, fol 
 
 Parochial History of Cornwall 
 
 Roberts' Early History of the Cymry, 8vo . 
 
 D. Gilbert's History of Cornwall 
 
 Collectanea Antiqua (C. R. Smith) . 
 
 Transactions of the Exeter Diocesan Archi- 
 tectural Society, 4to 
 
 History of the Borough of Liskeard, by 
 John Allen, Svo .... 
 
 Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall 
 
 Forest Trees of Britain, by C. A. Johns, Svo 
 
 Week at the Lizard, Svo. 1st ed. 
 
 Life and Raigne of Edward the Sixt, Sir 
 
 John Hay ward, Kt., 4to . . London, 1630 
 
 London, 1728 
 London, 1789 
 London, 1769 
 1803— 1806 
 vo 1773 
 
 Oxford, 1840 
 London, 1804 
 
 Oxford, 1865 
 
 1872 
 
 Paris, 1709 
 London 
 
 London, 1846 
 London, 1826 
 London, 1852 
 London, 181 5 
 Exeter, 1846 
 Truro, 1867 
 London, 1803 
 London, 1838 
 London, 1848 
 
 Exeter, 1850-60 
 
 London, 1856 
 
 Truro, 1858-74 
 
 London 
 
 London, 1848 
 
XIV 
 
 LIST OF WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 London, 1865 
 London, 1656 
 London, 1814 
 
 Vannes, 1844 
 
 1000 Facts relating to Devon and Cornwall 
 
 (Bellamy, J. C), 8vo . . . Plymouth 
 
 Danish Cromlechs and Burial Customs, Rev. 
 
 W. C. Lukis, F.S.A., 8vo . . 1861 
 
 Helston Grammar School Magazine, 8vo . Helston, 1857 
 Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West 
 
 Cornwall, 1st, and 2nd series Penzance, 1873, r ^7o 
 
 Hunt's (Robt.) Romances and Drolls of the 
 
 West of England, 2 vols, 8vo 
 Fuller's Church History, folio 
 Ogborne's History of Essex 
 Bloomfi eld's History of Norfolk 
 Guide de la Touristes dans le Morbihan, Al- 
 fred Fouquet .... 
 Brand's Popular Antiquities, John Brand, 
 
 F.R.S., Bobn, 3 vols . 
 Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall, folio 
 
 „ Antiquities .... 
 
 „ Scilly Isles, 4to 
 Andrews' Anecdotes, Ancient arid Modern, 
 
 8vo . . 
 
 Naenia Cornubise, W. C. Borlase, 8vo 
 Davies' Celtic Researches, Ed. Davies, 
 
 8vo 
 Cornwall and its Coasts, Alphonse Esqui- 
 
 ros, 8vo ..... 
 The Land's End District, Richd. Edmonds, 
 
 8vo 
 Long Ago, edited by Alexander Andrew's, 4to 
 Haunts and Homes of the Rural Population 
 
 of Cornwall, I. Tregellas, 8vo . 
 History of the Anglo-Saxons, Sharon Turner, 
 Anecdotes of British Topography, 4to 
 Polwhele's Historical Views in Devon, 8vo 
 Statistical Account of S. Just in Penwith, 
 
 Rev. J. Buller, 8vo 
 Foxes Book of Martyrs 
 Observations on the Western Part of Eng 
 
 land, W. Gilpin, M.A., 8vo . London, 1798 
 
 London, 
 
 London, 
 London, 
 
 1853 
 1758 
 1754 
 1756 
 
 1790 
 
 1872 
 
 London, 1804 
 
 London, 1685 
 
 London, 1862 
 London, 1873 
 
 London, 1868 
 1805 
 1768 
 1793 
 
 1842 
 1838 
 
 8vo 
 
 Penzance, 
 London, 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 UCH has been written, and well, of the 
 tongue of land jutting out into the sea, 
 that Meneage or Lizard district, which 
 'forms the Cornish Chersonesus of the 
 ancients, and certainly this portion of the Cornish 
 coast richly deserves all the encomiums that have 
 been lavished upon it ; the whole of the district from 
 the Looe Bar, across through Helston to Falmouth, 
 or round the coves and headlands of its shore line 
 to the harbour, which is second only to Plymouth 
 and Milford Haven, is full of interest, and a visitor, 
 whether he come as a naturalist, an archaeologist, 
 an artist, or simply a tourist, working hard in 
 search of rest, fresh air, and grand scenery, can- 
 not fail to be more than satisfied with the feast 
 here spread out for " one and all!' 
 
 The meneage is, as its name has been taken to 
 imply, a " stony " district ;* but its attractions are 
 none the less for that. 
 
 * Some have given another interpretation to the name 
 John says, in his fanciful way (" A Week at the Lizard "), 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The serpentine rocks at Kynance, or the quarries 
 of Poltesco, the lovely bit of coast scenery at the 
 former place, never to be forgotten by any who have 
 once visited it, the rare heaths and other plants 
 of the Goonhilly, the remains of Roman stations, 
 ancient sepulchral monuments, and prehistoric an- 
 tiquities, the grand old ecclesiastical buildings,* 
 still containing splendid examples of early a rt 
 both in granite and oak cavings, all combine to 
 form a rich field for investigation, and promise 
 full remuneration for the interest and labour be- 
 stowed. 
 
 the whole of the district south of Helston is called Meneage 
 a name by which antiquarians, who maintain the Oriental 
 origin of many of the Cornish names, derived from a Per- 
 sian word for "alow plant" (heath) of which brooms are 
 made. 
 
 * Within the small compass of the Lizard district are no 
 less than 12 churches, most of them of great antiquity, and 
 all full of interest to the ecclesiologist and antiquary. 
 
 The " number " has been adduced as part proof of 
 the theory that in ancient days this was a well populated 
 district. 
 
SAINT CORANTYN. 
 
 To gather whereso'er they safely may, 
 
 The help which slackening piety requires, 
 
 Nor dream that they perforce must go astray. 
 
 Who tread upon the foot marks of their sires.— Wordsworth. 
 
 |EARLY midway between Helston and the 
 Lizard lies the parish of Cury, the church 
 town, as the main cluster of cottages is 
 called (in other parts of England, the vil- 
 lage, in Cornwall always the church town), very 
 nearly a mile distant from the high road, so that 
 those who have driven only from Helston will per- 
 chance have seen the weather-beaten tower but from 
 a distance. Yet it has its attractions. 
 
 Tradition has it that, in the ages that are gone, 
 the mcneg tract of country contained dense forests,* 
 
 * Norden says (p. 21) Cornwall was all forest, " tota fuit 
 foresta," and among the fines of the reigns of Richard's and 
 John's times, the deafforestation of Cornwall. "Homines Cor- 
 nubiae . . . pro deafforestanda tota Cornubia." 
 
 The Bishop of Exeter, and the barons, knights, and all 
 others, of the county of Cornwall, gave M. ct CCC. marcis 
 
 B 
 
2 SAINT CORANTYN. 
 
 and that in the wilds thereof were the rude dwel- 
 lings of the early saints who came to convert the 
 Celtic race. 
 
 Of these Dr. Borlase names two, St. Corantyn 
 and S. Rumon, both of whom were afterwards 
 Bishops of Cornwall, and he distinguishes S. Coran- 
 tyn or S. Cury as the first Cornish apostle of any 
 note. 
 
 The early inhabitants of Cornwall seem to have 
 
 "pro deafforestatione et aliis libertatibus." — Madox, Cornubia. 
 
 A MS. in the Bodleian Lib., containing a history of S. 
 Ruan, mentions the meneg as the Sylva Nemea, a forest 
 infested with wild beasts, and Leland's Col. v. iii., pp 
 152-153, " Nemea sylva in Cornubia plenissima olim ferarum, 
 S. Rumonus faciebat sibi oratorium in sylva Nemaea." 
 
 The present state and desolation of the Goonhilly downs 
 must not be considered evidence that they were at no time 
 covered with wood, nor frequented by wild animals. In other 
 parts of the county, now equally unproductive, appearances 
 have been discovered indicative of a period when forest 
 scenery was not unknown. In 1740 large pieces of unknown 
 timber were dug up near Hayle, in such a position that they 
 must have grown near the place where they were discovered. 
 A few years later on an oak tree, with branches and leaves, 
 was found at a depth of 30 feet below the surface in th 
 parish of Sennen ; near the same spot were discovered many 
 horns, teeth, etc., of large deer. Parts of the strand between 
 Penzance and S. Michael's Mount present indications of a 
 forest of oak, willow, and hazel, the stumps of which firmly 
 rooted in the soil were only a few years since distinctly visi- 
 ble at low water — the ancient name of S. Michael's Mount 
 was Carick-Luze in Coos, or "the hoar rock in the wood." 
 
SAINT CORANTYX. 3 
 
 maintained a close connection with the Celtic in- 
 habitants of Amorica and Ireland. It certainly is 
 not a little remarkable that go back, as we will, as 
 far as tradition or history can take us, yet at the 
 earliest period that we know anything of Cornwall 
 Christianity was already established there. 
 
 The legends and names of the Cornish saints 
 are in every respect similar to those in Ireland, and 
 it is peculiarly interesting that there are several 
 of them whose names are preserved in connection 
 with churches on both shores of the channel, 
 patron saints equally well known in this peninsula 
 of the meneage and on the opposite coast of Bri- 
 tany. 
 
 The Bretons emigrated from Cornwall and 
 Wales into Armorica, circa 450-500 A.D., and car- 
 ried with them their bishops and priests. One 
 colony were Danmonii, and a district in Armorica 
 was called Danmonium.* 
 
 Many Cornish names are still extant in Britany. 
 Trevanion, Caerhayes, and Grylls Castle — the gate- 
 way of which bears the arms of the Cornish family 
 of Grylls. The inhabitants of Britany still possessf 
 
 * Lobincau's Hist, of Britany, as quoted by Polwhcle, vol. 
 I, p. 8. 
 
 + Polwhcle, writing in 1806, remarks, in his book concerning 
 the language and literature of Cornwall, p. 26, that the late M r. 
 
4 SAINT CORANTYN. 
 
 many of the British words, adulterated with an 
 impure alloy of barbarous French, and Ireland still 
 retains a dialect of the ancient British or Celtic 
 language. Speaking of the disadvantages attend- 
 ing the suppression of the Cornish language, Bishop 
 Gibson (1678- 1700), in his addition to Camden's 
 Cornwall, adduces " the loss of commerce and cor- 
 respondence with the Amoricans, under Henry 
 VII., before whose time they had mutual inter- 
 change of families and princes with them." 
 
 S. Corantyn, to whom the church of Cury was 
 dedicated by Walter Bronscombe, Bishop of Exe- 
 ter, Sep. 1, 1 26 1,* seems to have passed into this 
 country through Ireland, the nursery of so many of 
 our Cornish saints. As there are two churches in 
 the county dedicated to him so there are two ac- 
 counts of his life. Dr. Borlase says of him — " S 
 Corantine, now called Cury, was the first Cornish 
 apostle of any note. Born in Britany he first 
 preached in his own country and Ireland, till being 
 driven away by violence he betook himself to the 
 
 Trevanion/of Carhayes, in Cornwall, in a tour through Bre- 
 tagne, was greatly surprised at the echoes of his own name 
 and seat, for he found both a Trevanion and a Carhayes. And 
 the French emigrants at Bochym, in 1793, were delighted 
 with the similarity of Cornish names to their own, particu- 
 larly Bochym and Penquite. 
 
 * Bishop Bronscombe died in 1280. Pol. II, 124. 
 
SAINT CORANTYN. 5 
 
 life of a hermit, and settled at foot of a mountain 
 called Menehout (Menheniot) in the diocese of 
 Cornwall. At the entreaty of Grallonus, King of 
 the Armoricans,he was consecrated Bishop of Corn- 
 wall by S. Martin, Bishop of Tours, and died in 
 401." 
 
 Animadverting on this, another historian says 
 that he must certainly have died much earlier, as 
 Melor, who was murdered soon after the first re- 
 ception of Christianity into Cornwall, was educated 
 in his monastery. He settled first as a hermit on 
 that part of the coast where now stands the chapel 
 of Corantyn, or Cury, and from this retirement 
 seems to have been drawn by the King of Corn- 
 wall to take charge of the monastery of Menhe- 
 niot. 
 
 Certain it is that many of the very numerous 
 Cornish saints came from Ireland. Fuller quaintly 
 remarks — " Cornwall is the Cornucopia of saints 
 (mostly of Irish extraction), and the names of the 
 towns and villages the best nomenclator of the 
 devout men of this age (the 6th century)," and he 
 adds with considerable point — " If the people of 
 that province have as much holiness in their hearts, 
 as the parishes have sanctity in their names, Corn- 
 wall may pass for another Holy Land in public 
 reputation." 
 
6 SAINT CORANTYN. 
 
 One of these many Irish saints must have made a 
 perilous voyage, if all be true, as there is a tradi- 
 tion handed down among the S. Agnes Scilly 
 Islanders that S. Warna came over from Ireland in 
 a little wicker boat, covered on the outside with 
 raw hides, and that he landed here in this Sancta 
 Warna bay.* 
 
 IntheTaxatBenef., 1291, the Valor of Pope Nicho- 
 las, Cury is called Eccles. S.Ninani, which Ninianwas 
 a noble Briton, who died in 432/f- In the King's 
 Books it is called " Cap. de Corantin, alias Cury,"j 
 and this accords with a remark in Dr. Oliver in his 
 Monasticon,§ referring to the gradual altering of 
 the divisions and boundaries of the parishes, he 
 
 * Troutbeck Scilly Isles, p. 149. Respecting the influx of 
 Irish saints, Leland (Kin. v. 3, p. 4), speaking of S. Briaca 
 immortalized in the old Cornish couplet — 
 Germow mahtern, Breage lavethas. 
 Germow was a king, Breage but a midwife, 
 says, " Breaca venit in Cornubiam comitata multis Sanctis ; 
 inter quos fuerunt Sinninus abbas qui Romse cum patritio 
 fuit. Marnanus monachus, Germochus rex, Elwen, Crewenna, 
 Helena, Tecla, Breaca appulit sub Revyer cum suis, quorum 
 partem occidet Tewder. Breaca venit ad Pencair. Breaca 
 venit ad Trenewith. Breaca edificavit eccles. in Trenewith 
 et Talmeneth, ut legitur in vita S. Elwini. — Polwhele, ii. 
 129. 
 
 + Collier's Eccles. Hist. v. 1, p. 43. 
 
 X Polwhele ii., p. 129. Hichins, p. 352. Lyson,v. iii., p. 76. 
 
 § Monast. Dio Exon. p. 437. 
 
SAINT CORANTYN. 7 
 
 instances — " What is now the parish of Cury was 
 formerly within the parish of S. Corentinus,and con- 
 tained a small chapel, licensed by Bishop Stafford, 
 in favour of the monks of Hales who might come 
 down to visit their property there." 
 
 In the Exeter Martyrology it is " Festum beati 
 Corentini Episcopi et Confessoris, I Maii." 
 
THE CHURCH. 
 
 " In that most miserable period of our history, when it pleased God to 
 give those presumptuous men the power, we know too fatally how they 
 employed it. Was there anything ancient or beautiful in the House of 
 God that they spared ? Nothing. Was there anything that spoke of 
 Catholic customs, or that was likely to foster true devotion to God, that 
 met with favour at their hands ? Nothing. They tore down our altars, 
 they destroyed our painted windows. All carved work in wood and 
 stone they levelled to the dust. It is even said that Cromwell frequently 
 made the churches into lodgings for his soldiers, and, what was far v/orse, 
 into stables for his horses." 
 
 jHE Church of Saint Corantyn now stands 
 in the centre of a little knot of cottages, 
 and curiously enough, the level of the 
 turf in the churchyard and on the graves 
 is now some feet above that of the surrounding 
 road. 
 
 This has been caused, it is conjectured, by the 
 gradual raising of the ground by the interment of 
 successive generations. Its present height is sugges- 
 tive, if other evidence were wanting, of the antiquity 
 of the structure, in which, it is said, the Liturgy 
 was first read in English. 
 
to 
 
THE CHURCH. 9 
 
 The edifice itself consists of chancel and nave, 
 with a tower at the western end, a north aisle, and 
 south transept, which has belonged for generations 
 to the Bochym manor and family, and is called the 
 " Bochym aisle!' 
 
 The porch as at present is a modern invention. 
 
 There is some doubt as to whether the church 
 was originally cruciform ; it clearly belongs to 
 three periods, the sole remains of the earliest being 
 the Norman doorway at the south entrance, of 
 XL century date, the nave and chancel is XIV. cen- 
 tury, and the north aisle, which contains a window 
 of very rare type, of XV. century work. 
 
 The carved oak roof in this aisle, portions of 
 which have been denuded of whitewash and plaster 
 in the course of restoration, must have been a beau- 
 tiful one in the days that are gone. 
 
 The small remnants of carving that remain have 
 been carefully preserved and restored, as far as 
 possible, to their original positions. 
 
 In his " Churches of West Cornwall, Mr. Blight 
 thus notices the interior of the church (p. 30) : — 
 
 " The aisle, of XV. century character, is connected 
 with the nave by six four-centred arches, the piers 
 are shafted at the angles, the space between each 
 being a plain cavetto mould ; the capitals are orna- 
 mented with a simple and angular kind of foliage. 
 
10 THE CHURCH. 
 
 The east window of this aisle is the largest in the 
 building, and has four lights with geometrical 
 tracery ; the soffit of the splay is filled with quatre- 
 foil ornamentation — a very rare feature." 
 
 Below this window the masonry bears clearly the 
 traces of an altar ledge. Perhaps a reredos has 
 been let into the wall, but which, having been 
 removed, the wall has been made good, after a 
 rough-and-ready fashion. 
 
 The alabasters found in the rood-loft staircase 
 (described at page 19) may possibly have formed 
 part of the altar-piece here, and being destroyed at 
 the time of the Reformation, the pieces were buried 
 in the rubbish with which the rood-loft opening was 
 filled up. We have probably in this only an illus- 
 tration of the truth, " One extreme begets another." 
 The Homilies of 1562 contained one against the 
 peril of idolatry and superfluous decking of 
 churches; but the neglect of churches immediately 
 after the Reformation was so general as to call for 
 an additional Homily for the " repairing and keep- 
 ing clean, and comely adorning of churches."* 
 
 * 1 1. Book of Homilies, iii. — It " is a sin and shame, " as the 
 latter expresses it, " to see so many churches, and so foully 
 decayed, almost in every corner. If a man's private house 
 wherein he dwelleth be decayed, he will never cease till it be 
 restored again." 
 
 " And shall we be so mindful of our common base houses, 
 
■('// ' [,j I 
 
 i 
 
THE CHURCH. II 
 
 At the junction of the chancel and transept a 
 remarkable hagioscope is formed by a large cham- 
 fer of the angle, the superstructure being supported 
 by a detached shaft, and arches to small responds 
 of similar character. (See illustration.) 
 
 A similar arrangement exists in other churches 
 of the Lizard district, as at Landewednack and 
 S. Mawgan. In the former of these, however, there 
 is an arrangement, of which no traces exist at Cury, 
 viz., a block of stone of rude character projecting 
 from the foundation of the wall into which it is 
 built, used no doubt by those who came to the 
 window to stand upon. 
 
 In Cury the wall externally has been thickened 
 out into two rounded projections, on the inner side 
 of the smaller of which is a window, which may 
 have been used as " low side window." Within, it 
 is 4 ft. 7 in. above the floor, and its dimensions are 
 I ft. 4 in. high by 9 in. wide. 
 
 The purposes of these Lychnoscopes, low side 
 windows, and all comers' apertures, as they are 
 called, are supposed to have been very various. 
 That they were used for witnessing mass, receiving 
 
 deputed to so low occupying, and be forgetful toward that of 
 God, wherein be administered the words of our eternal salva- 
 tion, wherein be intreated the sacraments and mysteries of 
 our redemption ?" 
 
12 THE CHURCH. 
 
 the host, confession, and doles, seems pretty well 
 proven. More particularly, however, were they for 
 the solitarii, or lepers, who were not admitted to 
 the interior of the sacred edifice, and they are 
 found, as might be expected, most frequently in 
 the churches near which existed a Lazar-house in 
 the middle ages* 
 
 In Cornwall most of the churches have low side 
 windows, and this is accounted for by the fact that 
 there were hospitals for lepers at various places in 
 Cornwall, the inhabitants of which county seem 
 to have been much afflicted with the fearful 
 scourge. 
 
 M. Michel,-|- speaking of "the Cagots," a pro- 
 scribed tribe in the Pyrenees, says : — " In many 
 places, as at Lucarre, in the arrondissement of Pau, 
 and at Claracq, in the Canton of Theze (the depart- 
 ment of the Pyrenees), where the Cagots were 
 admitted to partake of the Holy Sacrament, they 
 were still kept apart from other people, and the 
 consecrated bread was reached to them at the end of a 
 rod or cleft-stick" suggesting at once the method of 
 communicating the lepers in Cornwall. 
 
 * There is an interesting article in Long Ago, Vol. I. p. 45, 
 on " Leprosy in the Middle Ages." 
 
 f Histoire des Races Mandites de la France et de 
 l'Espagne. 
 
THE CHURCH. 13 
 
 Carew has a quaint passage on this subject : — 
 u Lazar-houses, the deuotion of certaine Cornish 
 gentlemen's ancesters erected at Minhinet, by Lis- 
 kerd, S. Thomas by Launceston and S. Laurence 
 by Bodmyn, of which the last is well endowed and 
 gouerned. Concerning the other, I have little to 
 say, vnlesse I should eccho some of their complaints 
 that they are defrauded of their right. 
 
 "The much eating of fish, especially newly 
 taken, and therein principally of the liuers, is 
 reckoned a great breeder of those contagious 
 humours, which turne into Leprosie : but whence 
 soeuer the cause proceedeth, dayly euents minister 
 often pittifull spectacles to the Cornish men's eyes, 
 of people visited with this affliction ; some being 
 authours of their owne calamity by the foremen- 
 tioned diet, and some others succeeding therein to 
 an haereditarius morbus of their ancestors, whom 
 we will leaue to the poorest comfort in miserie, a 
 helplesse pittie." (Carew, p. 68.) 
 
 Hals, quoted by Polwhele,* writing of Bodmin, 
 names the Lowres Hospital, i.e., a hospital of lepers 
 (lowre, loure, or lower, is a "leper"), which was 
 founded by the piety and charity of the well- 
 disposed people in the county in former ages for 
 the relief, &c, of all such people as should be 
 
 * Population, p. 88, and Vol. II. p. 112. 
 
14 THE CHURCH. 
 
 visited with that sickness called the Elephantiasy, 
 in Latin lepra elephantiasis, in English leprosy, 
 in British lowresy. 
 
 From his account it would appear that, though 
 common in Asia, the disease was first brought here 
 by seamen and traders from Egypt about A.D. I ioo. 
 We know that, in the following century, so wide 
 spread was the disease, which had become here- 
 ditary or contagious, or both, that it was made the 
 subject of legal enactments all over Europe ; and 
 was indeed the occasion of the establishment by 
 the Crusaders of the military and religious order 
 of S. Lazarus. 
 
 About this time, the far-famed hospital at Burton 
 Lazars in Leicestershire was established and en- 
 dowed, chiefly through the exertions of a gentleman 
 named Mowbray, who was himself a leper ; and all 
 the Lazar-houses in the kingdom were afterwards 
 made subject to this one, and ultimately to S. John's 
 Hospital of Jerusalem in London. 
 
 But to return from this digression to the subject 
 of Cury Church. Little more than the foregoing 
 could have been said of it previous to the work of 
 RESTORATION being taken in hand, and which has 
 been at length accomplished in the face of un- 
 common difficulties. 
 
 That work, however, and the necessary examina- 
 
THE CHURCH. 15 
 
 tion of the walls incident thereon, brought to light 
 at least two interesting discoveries, besides the 
 rescue of the oak carving of the wall-plate from 
 its wretched covering of plaster. 
 
 During the winter of 1872-3 the gales which 
 occasioned the very many disastrous wrecks on 
 the Cornish coast wrought also serious damage to 
 the old and time-worn structure of the church. The 
 spring of '73 found the roof " riffled" and stripped of 
 its covering to such an extent that it was deter- 
 mined to make a strenuous effort to restore it in 
 the proper sense of the word. 
 
 Things were at their worst — daylight through 
 the roof, water welling up through the floor and in 
 new-made graves, the north wall bulging many 
 inches, almost feet, out of the perpendicular, fur- 
 ther patching was useless. 
 
 It was then, in the thorough examination of the 
 whole fabric, that one after another objects of inte- 
 rest were discovered, which not only evidenced how 
 ancient the building is, but suggested many ques- 
 tions of interest to the thoughtful enquirer as to 
 the records of past ages now remaining walled up 
 beneath and covered by the monstrous plaster 
 coats worn by so many of our country churches, 
 as utterly ugly as was Cury, in all their deformity 
 of paint and whitewash, but only requiring to be 
 stripped of their dirty skin and scraped to the bone 
 
1 6 THE CHURCH. 
 
 to yield as satisfactory a reward, — needing only to 
 be seen to be appreciated. 
 
 In the commencement of the work at Cury, the 
 eastern end of the north aisle contained some 
 half-dozen high chambers or pews, of the old and 
 now happily almost obsolete pattern. The removal 
 of these was determined on, and was one of the 
 first works performed. Then was seen what had 
 been hidden many a long year behind the panels 
 of these " family graves," as some one calls them — 
 a piscina in the south corner of the angle formed 
 by the pillar and the wall, which would seem to 
 support the theory before advanced that at one 
 time a sort of lady-chapel, with an altar under the 
 window, had been formed by the rood-screen, which, 
 stretching right across the aisle, would shut off the 
 eastern end of it. 
 
 Unless an altar had existed here, there could be 
 no possible use for the piscina ; and as a rule in 
 English churches, where the private altars have 
 been destroyed, the piscina generally remains to 
 mark the situation where each was placed. 
 
 In their munificence private individuals often 
 built an aisle with a chantrey-chapel at the east 
 end, partly enclosed by screen-work, or annexed to 
 the church a transept or additional chapel endowed 
 as a chantrey, in order that remembrance might be 
 specially and continually made of them in the offices 
 
THE CHURCH. 17 
 
 of the church ; and it is not improbable, looking at 
 the character of the roof and east window of the 
 aisle in Cury, so very different from the other por- 
 tions of the building, together with the evidences 
 of an altar, that a chantrey-chapel existed here. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to note a few 
 instances of such bequests for the reparation of a 
 particular church or some work connected there- 
 with : — 
 
 Wm. Bruges, Garter King of Armcs, 1449. 
 " To the whyche said chirch Y bequeth a gret 
 holy water scoppe (stoup) of silver, with a staff 
 benature (the asperges), the said benature and 
 staff weying xx nobles in plate and more." 
 
 John Wilcocks, of Chipping Wycombe, 1506. 
 
 11 My body to be buried in the church of All 
 Hallondon on Wye, before the rood. To the 
 repair of our Lady's Chapel of my grant 
 xxiii s iv d . I will that my executors pay the 
 charge of new glazing the windows in the said 
 chapel." 
 
 Testamcnta Vetusla. 
 
 Sir William de Erghum, 1346. 
 
 " Item do ct lego ad opus unius CapclLx annexes 
 Ecclesise de Somcrthy X marc." 
 
 Testamcnta Eboracensia. 
 C 
 
18 THE CHURCH. 
 
 Thomas de la Mare, Canon of York Cathedral, 1358. 
 
 " Item Ecclesise deWelwickprorenovatione mag- 
 
 nae fenestras Cancelli ejusdem Xmarcas. Item 
 
 ad Cooperacionem Cancelli de Brotherton XL S ." 
 
 (Ibid) 
 Sir Marmaduke Constable, Knight, 1376. 
 
 " Item lego pro pavimento Cancelli Ecclesiae de 
 Flaynburgh viij s xxvj d . Item lego pro cooper- 
 tura et emendacione super altare Sanctae 
 Katerinae in eadem Ecclesia cum plumbo xx s ." 
 
 (Ibid.) 
 
 John Middleton, 161 1. In Dei no ' i 'e. Amen. 
 
 " Furste, I bequeath my soull to Chr s , my bodie 
 to be buried in the Chapell of our Lady w'in 
 the Churche of Longefield. It'm. I bequeathe 
 to the highth ault' vi d . It'm to the maynte- 
 nance of the rode ligtht in the saide Churche a 
 cowe, the whiche I wille in the keping of some 
 honeste p'son, to the said use, according to the 
 discretion of myn exec'." 
 
 Testamenta Vettista. 
 Proceeding with the examination of the eastern 
 end of the north wall of the aisle, probing the wall, 
 covered with its 3-inch coat of plaster and white- 
 wash, I came upon a large upright slab of Purbeck, 
 fixed in the wall after the manner of a door, in a 
 spot highly suggestive of a hidden way to the 
 rood-loft. 
 
THE CHURCH. 19 
 
 On removing the slab, a staircase discovered 
 itself, but the whole opening was filled to the 
 height of five or six feet with debris, lime, and 
 human bones, which I proceeded carefully to 
 remove with the hands. Buried some two feet in 
 the mass, I came upon a carved alabaster head, 
 evidently that of our Saviour, about the size of 
 one's two fists doubled together ; further down, 
 other fragments turned up ; and by the time the 
 whole staircase was emptied, I had fourteen heads 
 and some hundreds of fragments. 
 
 The rood-loft staircase and doorway are perfect. 
 Sifting the earth afterwards very carefully, I re- 
 covered about fifty more pieces of alabaster, and 
 now the work remains to piece them together, and 
 discover if possible the original design of the whole. 
 This will be more difficult than at first appears. 
 The attitudes of the heads seem to suggest that it 
 was an altar-piece or reredos, and represented our 
 Lord (as a central figure) blessing the Cup, the 
 disciples all standing round in attitudes of reve- 
 rence or adoration. 
 
 The whole of the figures were originally painted 
 and gilt, and the work, so far from being of a rude 
 character, is rather the contrary. 
 
 This may have been the altar-piece in the lady- 
 chapel, if such existed. It is scarcely possible the 
 
20 THE CHURCH. 
 
 figures were a portion of the Holy Rood, as in the 
 fragments recovered there is no trace of the Cross. 
 The Holy Rood, however, though generally placed 
 at the entrance of the chancel, was not always so. 
 Sometimes it was inserted in niches, or let into the 
 wall near the entrance door, and frequently con- 
 tained other figures besides that of our Saviour, e.g. : 
 
 u This rood was not compleat without the images 
 of the Virgin Mary and St. John, one of them 
 standing on the one side, and the other on the 
 other side of the image of Christ, in allusion to the 
 passage in S. John's Gospel, xix. 26." — Staveleys 
 Hist., p. 199. 
 
 " Likewise, above the top of all, upon the wall, 
 stood the most famous rood that was in all the 
 landj with the picture of Mary on one side of our 
 Saviour, and that of S. John on the other, with 
 two glittering Archangels, one on the side of Mary, 
 and the other on the side of John." — Ancient Rites 
 of Durham — Glossary of Arch., p. 181. 
 
 From their position, and the appearance of the 
 whole place, those in Cury must have been buried 
 for a considerable period of time, probably broken 
 to pieces, pitched in the staircase, and walled up 
 by the Puritan reformers, of whose pious doings we 
 have such lasting record, both in history and per- 
 manent disfigurement of our churches. 
 
THE CHURCH. 21 
 
 It was in the first year of Edward VI. reign 
 (1548) that these images (rood) were ordered to 
 be taken down throughout England* In 1553, 
 the first of Queen Mary, they were set up again, f 
 and in 1560, the third of Elizabeth, they were again 
 removed and sold. 
 
 But the crowning acts of desecration were re- 
 served for more perilous times, more fearless 
 agents, when, in the godly zeal which prompted 
 the Parliamentary leaders, not even the stone 
 crosses on the roofs of the chancels and naves of 
 our churches, and on the steeples and porches, were 
 spared, but every ornament and embellishment, 
 whether simply such, or capable of a symbolic, 
 deeper meaning, was ruthlessly torn from its place 
 and destroyed. 
 
 By the two illegal ordinances issued A.D. 1643 
 
 * A.D. 1549,2nd Ed. VI. " Item. Sold a rod of iron, which 
 the curtain run upon before the rood — nine pence.'' — Fuller s 
 Church Hist. 
 
 These injunctions of Ed. VI. were the cause of fanning 
 the smouldering discontent of Cornwall into a flame of 
 rebellion under Humphrey Arundell. See page 
 
 t In the " Articles set forth by Cardinal Pole to be 
 enquired in his ordinary Visitation of his Diocese of Canter- 
 bury," 5th of Queen Mary, A.D. 1557 : — 
 
 " Item. Whether they have a rood in their church of a 
 decent stature with Mary and John, and an image of the 
 Patron of the same church r" — Glossary of Arch., p. 181. 
 
22 THE CHURCH. 
 
 and A.D. 1644 by the Puritan Lords and Commons, 
 in opposition to the Church and Crown, all crosses 
 and crucifixes in churches, and all organs, fonts 
 altars, and tables of stone were commanded to be, 
 taken down and demolished. 
 
 Communion tables — for stone altars and tables 
 were up to this period used indifferently in the 
 performance of the Eucharistic rite, and the term 
 altar, in the sense in which the Primitive Church 
 used it, was expressly recognized and sanctioned 
 by the Church of England in the Synod of 1640 — 
 were also ordered to be removed, candlesticks taken 
 away, and all surplices utterly defaced. 
 
 The Journal of Dowsing,* commencing in January, 
 1643, details the devastation committed on the 
 exteriors as well as the interiors of 150 churches 
 in Suffolk and some other of the eastern counties, 
 whilst it also clearly exhibits the gross ignorance 
 of the agents employed in these fanatical acts of 
 desecration. In one church, Elmset, the commis- 
 
 * "At Haver, Suffolk, Jan. 6, 1643, we broke down about 
 100 superstitious pictures, and 200 had been broke down 
 before I came. We took away two Popish inscriptions with 
 Ora pro nobis, and we beat down a great stoneing cross on 
 the top of the church." — Journal of W. Dowsing. 
 
 " One Blesse was hired in the time of the Rebellion, for 
 half-a-crown a day, to break the painted glass windows of 
 the church, which were formerly very fine." — Aubrey, in his 
 account of Croydon, Surrey. 
 
THE CHURCH. 23 
 
 sioners, finding the work had been done before 
 their visit, " rent apieces the hood and surplice." 
 
 It was in reference to these acts that Tenison, 
 Archbp. of Canterbury, 1694 — 17 15, declared in 
 his " Discourse of Idolatry" that it was "high 
 superstition in those who, in our late unhappy 
 revolutions, defaced such pictures, and broke down 
 such crosses, as authority had suffered to remain 
 entire, whilst it forbad the worship of them ; and 
 was in that particular so well obeyed, that none of 
 them ever knew one man of the communion of the 
 Church of England to have been prostrate before 
 a cross, and in that posture to have spoken to it." — 
 Bloxams Gothic Arch. : p. 305. 
 
 Alabaster carvings of one kind or another are 
 by no means uncommon in the old Cornish 
 churches,* and doubtless many more will be brought 
 to light as the work of restoring our early ecclesi- 
 astical structures goes on. 
 
 It is a little difficult to describe minutely those 
 found in Cury. The fragments are so numerous 
 and small that the attempt to join them into any- 
 
 * A few years since an alabaster group—" The Flaying of 
 St. Bartholomew " — was found in Lostwithiel Church. 
 
 At Mabe a carved alabaster relic was discovered in a 
 built-up aumbrey in the chancel, representing the martyrdom 
 of an early Bishop. Of this an account is given in No. XI 1 1 
 of the " Journal of the Roy at Institution of Cor/rcoalli" 
 
24 THE CHURCH. 
 
 thing like the original form would appear from the 
 first hopeless. 
 
 The principal head is one of our Blessed Lord, 
 about 2\ inches from the top of the head to the 
 point of the beard, standing out in bold relief from 
 a flat background quite half an inch in thickness. 
 
 The head is encircled with a twisted band, which 
 once was painted green ; the background was red, 
 and the features, hair, and beard gilt. Sufficient 
 of the pigment remains to trace this clearly, and 
 the colouring seems to have been of the richest. 
 
 It is almost impossible to attempt an identifica- 
 tion of the fragments of other figures, so broken 
 are they. The feet are nearly all in a standing 
 position on a green ground, apparently to repre- 
 sent grass, the ground being irregular and un- 
 dulating. Many of the faces are in such an 
 " uplifted " attitude, that they indicate the figure 
 of our Lord to have been somewhat elevated above 
 them, and this bears out what has been suggested 
 above as to the probable subject of the piece. 
 
 Judging from the size of the fragments, heads, 
 feet, and legs, the whole piece was probably about 
 2 feet high, and of proportionate width. 
 
 Later on, in the uncovering of the walls, another 
 doorway discovered itself on the south side of the 
 church, immediately opposite the former one, and 
 
CURY CHURCH. 
 
 SOUTH DOORWAY. 
 

 
 
THE CHURCH. 2$ 
 
 in curious combination with the hagioscope and 
 low side window. 
 
 The presence of the latter is to be accounted for 
 by the existence in old times of Lazar-houses, but 
 it is difficult to find a reason for two rood loft stair- 
 cases. 
 
 In this case, the doorway, which is in the tran- 
 sept, was blocked up, not by one slab as was the 
 opening in the north aisle, but by ordinary loose 
 rubble masonry. The stairs turn short to the left, 
 and passing over the arch of the hagioscope, emerge 
 in an opening in the chancel wall, immediately 
 where the screen originally stood. 
 
 On the stairs, buried in debris loosely thrown in 
 from above, were the remains of two human skele- 
 tons, the bones of one of them being of such immense 
 dimensions as to warrant the inference that the 
 person in life must have been of gigantic stature.* 
 
 In the south doorway of the church we have 
 preserved to us an exceedingly rich specimen of 
 Norman work. Whether from a reasonable desire 
 to retain a remembrance of the piety of the original 
 founder, or from whatever cause it proceeds, it would 
 would seem to have been usual with the architects 
 
 * Measuring the bones of the leg, the femur was 20J inches 
 long, tibia 17 inches. 
 
 In Hals' MSS. are several curious finds of bones recorded. 
 
26 THE CHURCH. 
 
 who succeeded the Anglo-Normans to preserve the 
 doors and porches of those churches they rebuilt or 
 altered ; for, as in this instance, Norman doorways 
 exist in many churches, the remaining portions of 
 which were erected at a much later period. 
 
 The variety of Norman work on the portals of 
 the churches in Cornwall ranges from extreme 
 plainness to the utmost richness of ornament, those 
 in the Lizard district being unusually handsome. 
 At Manaccan and Landewednack are beautiful 
 examples, and Cury falls not one whit behind 
 them. 
 
 The semicircular stone or tympanum at the head 
 of the Norman arch is often covered with symbolic 
 sculpture in low relief* This in Cury is exceed- 
 ingly curious, consisting of the chain of " endless 
 rings," the well-known emblem of eternity.*!* 
 
 * Over the south doorway of Pitsford Church, Northamp- 
 tonshire, S. George is represented combating with the 
 Dragon. 
 
 The tympanum of north doorway of Preston Church, 
 Gloucestershire, has a rude sculpture of a lamb, the Agnus 
 Dei, bearing a cross patee within a circle. On the south 
 doorway of Moccas, Herefordshire, is a tree, on each side of 
 it an animal destroying a child, presumably the two bears of 
 2 Kings ii. 24. — Bloxairi's Gothic Arch., p. 91. 
 
 + In S. Martin's Church, Canterbury, there is a very beau- 
 tiful font, which is full of sculptured ornamentation— circles 
 of endless rings. It is figured in the u Antiquarian Itinerary? 
 Vol. I. 
 
THE CHURCH. 2J 
 
 This doorway was some years ago restored, when 
 a modern porch was built over and before it. Exe- 
 crably designed and executed, the Goth(ic ?) archi- 
 tect has not only placed the ridge of his porch 
 eighteen inches out of the centre of the arch of the 
 doorway, but has actually cut away the eastern 
 jambs of beautiful carved work, in order to get a 
 bearing for his wall-plate. 
 
 It reminds one of the fashion of church restora- 
 tion five-and-twenty years ago, and of a sketch 
 which appeared about that time, but now rather 
 scarce, and therefore worth reproducing, contained 
 in " Hints to Churchwardens relative to the Repair 
 and Improvement of Parish Churches." A couple 
 of these hints will be enough, one for exterior^ the 
 other for interior restoration : — 
 
 Hint I. How to adapt a new church to an old 
 tower with most taste and effect : 
 
 " If the tower and spire be of stone, and Gothic, 
 let the new body of the church be built of bright 
 brick, neatly pointed with white, the windows cir- 
 cular at top, and, instead of solid mullions, light 
 iron partitions ; and as shutters are considered a 
 great convenience, that they may also serve as an 
 ornament, it is recommended to paint them yellow. 
 
 u The church should also have round windows 
 over the large ones to light the galleries ; the roof 
 
 . 
 
28 THE CHURCH. 
 
 to be of the brightest slate that can be procured, 
 and, instead of battlements, a stone balustrade with 
 vases placed on it at intervals. 
 
 " The porch brick, of course, and to enliven it, 
 the door to be painted sky-blue. Such a building 
 will secure the churchwardens a reputation for taste 
 and magnificence as long as the church remains, 
 particularly as such zealous members of the com- 
 munity are supposed, in the accustomed beautiful, 
 modest, and appropriate manner, to place in con- 
 spicuous parts of the building their names at full 
 length and the date of the achievement." 
 
 Hint. II. directs "How to place a pulpit in a 
 suitable and commodious situation." 
 
 "Let the pulpit be placed under the centre of 
 the arch, which divides the chancel from the body 
 of the church, and let its construction be of a 
 nature to contrast it as much as possible with the 
 chancel, if it should happen to be of Gothic archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 " For which purpose, let the base represent a 
 doorway, through which you may see the back of 
 the stairs of the pulpit. The body of the pulpit 
 should be hung with crimson and gold lace, with 
 gilt chandeliers. It should have a back to it, with 
 two small pilasters on each side, and a commodious 
 door to enter in at, with a large sounding board and 
 
THE CHURCH. 2Q 
 
 an angel at the top, energetically blowing a trumpet 
 of a tolerable size. All this should appear to be 
 suspended from the ceiling by a rich sky-blue chain 
 and filagree iron-work. This construction, besides 
 its contrast, has the peculiar advantage of hiding 
 the east window and altar, not to mention its 
 beauty and commanding situation, the back of the 
 pulpit being thus studiously and decorously placed 
 towards the east, and its front towards the west." 
 
 To return to Cury Church porch. 
 
 In following up a suspicion that in ancient times 
 a holy- water stoup existed near this doorway, its 
 exact position was not easy to guess, from the fact 
 that sometimes the aspersorium is found placed in 
 the porch, sometimes within the door, sometimes 
 detached from the wall, and outside the church * 
 
 A careful examination, however, of the wall, 
 which upon being struck gave forth a hollow sound, 
 
 * In the accounts of All Souls' College, Oxford, in 1458, 
 there is a charge " pro lapidibus ad aspersorium in introitu 
 Ecclesiae/' and its remains are still to be seen, but the 
 " aspersorium " was not only the stoup, but sometimes the 
 " sprinkle" placed in it. — The Will of T. Beaufort, Duke of 
 Exeter, 1426. Nicholls, p. 253. 
 
 In the will of T. Hitton, clerk, Sept. 28, 1428, he desires 
 
 to be buried' 'In Ecclesiae Conventuali Fratrum Predicatorum 
 
 Beverlaci, modicum infra ostium australe, juxtale ' kaliwater- 
 
 fatt! " — Testamenta Eboracensia, pub. by the Surtees Society, 
 
 Part. I., p. 415. 
 
30 THE CHURCH. 
 
 brought to light the niche for the basin, but the 
 basin itself has disappeared, probably at the resto- 
 ration (?) above mentioned of the Norman arch, to 
 which it is in close proximity. 
 
 It is curious to note that the stoup was not always 
 a fixture ; but the term is also applied to the vessel 
 used for carrying about holy water to sprinkle the 
 congregation, and which forms a necessary part of 
 the furniture of a Roman Catholic church. 
 
 " Holi-water stoppe, de argento pro aqua bene- 
 dicta cum aspersorio de argento." — Will of Duke of 
 Exeter, 1426. 
 
 And in another sense Shakespeare makes the 
 King say in Hamlet, act v. sc. 2 — 
 
 " Set me stoups of wine upon that table." 
 
 The font is of plain design, the bowl supported 
 by a central pillar and four slender shafts, originally 
 of granite, but which in some modern time of repair 
 have been replaced by four of polished serpentine, 
 while the granite castaways still remain in the 
 churchyard, in the spot where they were probably 
 thrown by the workmen. 
 
 Not the least interesting of the remains of bygone 
 days is a quaint alms-box formed by an ingenious bit 
 of carpentry in the oak bench end nearest the door. 
 
 As early as the year 1287, when a Synod was 
 held at Exeter, every parish was directed to pro- 
 
THE CHURCH. 31 
 
 vide " cistam ad libros,"* though long before that 
 period most of our venerable churches possessed a 
 chest or strong box, wherein were deposited the 
 sacred vessels and vestments, together with what- 
 ever of value pertained to the church. 
 
 Ancient writers speak of the almery or aumbry, 
 of which large churches very often contained more 
 than one, and in the " Ancient Rites of Durham " 
 mention is frequently made of aumbries for diffe- 
 rent purposes. 
 
 Such chests, generally placed in the chancel, were 
 not always confined to their original uses ; but 
 more than one instance is known of their having 
 been turned into money-boxes. 
 
 In a Centenary of Ancient Terms in Bloxam's 
 "Principles of Architecture " (p. 319) is given : 
 
 Almariol, Ambry, " six great plate locks with 
 keys, brought for a certain ' armariol ' in the King's 
 Chapel A.D. 1365 ; an 'armariole' in the vestry for 
 keeping the vestments in." 
 
 Here, however, we have, not a church chest 
 adapted into an alms-box, but an ordinary oak 
 bench end, in all other respects exactly like the 
 rest of the bench-ends, converted into a receptacle 
 
 * See an interesting paper on "Church Chests" in the 
 Journal of the Brit. Arch. Assoc, Vol. XXVIII., pp. 
 
 225. 
 
32 THE CHURCH. 
 
 for the alms of the worshippers, and that in a very 
 original and curious manner. 
 
 A mortice has been cut in the top of the wood- 
 work, some four inches in depth, the mouth of 
 this being protected with a thin plate of iron ; a 
 lid, moving on ordinary hinges, was placed on the 
 top of it, and, having a slit through it, the coins 
 of the charitably-disposed passed into the recep- 
 tacle below. 
 
 For safe keeping of the money so deposited* 
 the lid is furnished with two hasps, which fall. on 
 either side of the bench end into two locks pre- 
 pared for them, opening with different keys, so 
 that, with this double precaution, the money might 
 in primitive times be considered fairly safe. Per- 
 haps the custom was — who knows ? — for the church- 
 warden to have one key, the parson the other, 
 rendering unanimity of mind and purpose between 
 them, necessary to the proper disposal of the 
 church's alms to the poor. 
 
 The tower, which is weather-beaten and lichen- 
 covered, forms, from the height of its situation, a 
 conspicuous landmark from the neighbouring hills; 
 even from the road at its base the Wolf-rock light, 
 nearly forty miles distant, may be seen at night, 
 flashing its red and white gleams in friendly warn- 
 ing far beyond the Land's End. 
 
THE RESTORATION. 33 
 
 Cury tower is apparently of two stages, built 
 of granite, many of the blocks being so large that 
 it is a matter of speculation with the beholder by 
 what means in the early days of its erection such 
 huge slabs were transported so long a distance (the 
 nearest quarries are miles away) and raised to their 
 present position. 
 
 Over the western door the initials I.H.C. are cut 
 in a shield, and the tower contains three bells, the 
 oldest of which is dated 1761, and has for its 
 legend — 
 
 "Jesus de Nazareth Rex Judaeorum." 
 
 Inscribed on the tenor is — 
 
 I to the church the living call, 
 
 And to the grave do summon all. 1761.* 
 
 The parish registers go back as far as 1690 for 
 baptisms and burials, 1691 for marriages, and the 
 oldest entries are on vellum, but the books have 
 been mutilated. 
 
 * The same inscription is found on the tenor bell of S. 
 John the Baptist, Broadclist, Devon, which has also the 
 name of the often-employed maker, Thomas Bilbie, A.D. 
 1768. No maker's name is inscribed on the bells at Cury, 
 though they may have been from the same hand. 
 
 D 
 
CURY CROSS. 
 
 " Gospells at superstions crosses, deck'd like idols." 
 
 Brand's Pop. Ant., Vol. i, p. 199. 
 
 " Relics of a rude but pious age." 
 
 IsCRIPTION ON BOCONNOC CROSS. 
 
 CORNWALL contains so many antiquities 
 of the Christian • Church, that it forms 
 a rich field for the researches of the 
 ecclesiologist. Its crosses, which pro- 
 bably date back to Athelstan in 936, are very 
 numerous, though liable, on account of their con- 
 venient size and shape, to confiscation by the 
 farmer for service as gate-posts. In spite of this, 
 they are to be found everywhere — in churchyards, 
 by the roadside, in the centre of a village, or on 
 the lonely moorland ; and their use still is, and 
 will remain, a mystery. They may have been boun- 
 dary-marks, sanctuaries, praying places, or directing- 
 posts to pilgrims; certainly some, from their very 
 position and situation, served the last purpose.* 
 
 One of the tallest of the ancient monoliths 
 stands at the entrance-gate, on the south side of 
 
 * Pradanack Cross, which evidently pointed the way to 
 the chapels anciently existing at Trenance and Clahar. 
 
CURY CROSS. 
 
CURY CROSS. 35 
 
 Cury Church. It is a granite cross, nine feet high, 
 and some score years ago it was found, detached 
 from its base, lying on the ground, and has been 
 placed in its present position at a guess, its original 
 situation being unknown. Very lately, the cross at 
 Gunwalloe has been set up in the churchyard 
 there, as being the best and most likely spot to 
 secure its preservation, though there is every reason 
 to believe that its original position was by the side 
 of the small stream which runs through the cove 
 into the sea, at the point where it is now crossed 
 by Gunwalloe Bridge.* 
 
 Respecting the use and introduction of these 
 crosses, of which so many examples remain to this 
 day in Cornwall, in our churchyards, by the way- 
 side, in the market-places, and even private gardens, 
 it is pretty well acknowledged that the first Cor- 
 nish missionaries came from Ireland, where crosses 
 were by no means uncommon, and it is more than 
 probable that many of the crosses in this county 
 were erected at the period of its evangelization. It 
 has been held that, as the Christian symbol, it 
 would come with Christianity, and if so, would be 
 entitled to a still earlier date than named above, 
 somewhere about A.D. 60. 
 
 The Knights Templars, as well as the Knights 
 of S. John, held lands in Cornwall, and the peculiar 
 
 * Sec Gunwalloe, p. 132. 
 
35 CURY CROSS. 
 
 form of their cross occurs in a few instances in the 
 county. 
 
 One of the indulgences afforded to the Crusaders 
 was exemption from the usual feudal services of 
 their lords ; and a practice arose of erecting crosses 
 on their lands, to indicate that the feudatory had 
 become the soldier of the Cross, and was exempt 
 from the usual services due to his superior. 
 
 Sometimes these crosses marked the place of 
 sepulture,* but not always so, even in churchyards, 
 where one was sometimes placed near the south or 
 chief entrance to the church, suggestive of due pre- 
 paration previous to entering the sacred building. 
 From such crosses proclamations were made, and 
 occasionally congregations were addressed from 
 the same spot, as was long done at Paul's Cross. 
 
 Writing of one of the old West Cornwall crosses 
 (S. Levan) Mr. J. Seddingf thinks that it no doubt 
 marks the old path to the church, since it was a 
 custom in mediaeval times to erect crosses at in- 
 
 * In the Border warfare, Armstrong of Mangerton, having 
 been assassinated, was buried at Ettleton, and a cross was 
 set over his grave. Another cross, called the Mangerton 
 Cross, remains to this day at Millholm, on the spot where 
 the coffin rested previously to the interment. — Blight 1 s 
 Crosses, Introd., p. v. 
 
 To a similar use do the crosses at Waltham, Charing, and 
 elsewhere owe their erection by Edward I. 
 
 t Notes on S. Buryan Church. Trans. Ex. Dioc. Arch. 
 Soc, Vol. II., Part 3. 
 
CURY CROSS. 37 
 
 tervals on the road to the church, beneath which, 
 in a funeral procession, the body was set while the 
 mourners rested on their way and said psalms and 
 prayers, a custom which, in the usual processional 
 hymn-singing at a Cornish funeral, has left its traces 
 to this day. 
 
 This accounts too for the presence of crosses or 
 the fragments of crosses in all sorts of out-of-the- 
 way and unexpected situations ; perhaps in the 
 quaint words of Wynken de Worde, in Dives and 
 pauper" where he justifies their erection : — " \\ fe 
 nothing ete out a fioke or a tofeen to tlje lefooe people 
 for t!)te reasone fcen t£ro$$e$ matte fcg t^e foag tfjat fofjan 
 folfce passgnge See tfje ©rosse tljeg $I)ouloe tijmxU on 
 Ijgm t!)at oget) on ti)e C^ro^^c ant) foorsijgp J)gm abobe 
 all t&fing." 
 
 In Mr. Anstey's " Munimenta Academica " there 
 is the following from the last will and testament of 
 Doctor Reginald Mertherderwa, rector of 5. Cridce. 
 Virg. date Feb. n, 1447. 
 
 Item. Volo quod sumptibus meis et expensis 
 ordinentur, et de novo erigantur, novas cruces de 
 lapidibus, quales habentur in illis partibus in Cor- 
 nubia, incipiendo a Kayr Bcslasck usque ad Eccle- 
 siam de Camborn, et ponentur in locis ubi solebant 
 corpora defunctoram portandorum ad sepulturam 
 deponi, pro orationibus fundendis ibidem et allevia- 
 tione portantium. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 E'en such is time : which takes in trust 
 
 Our youth, our joys, and all we have ! 
 
 And pays us nought but age and dust, 
 
 Which in the dark and silent grave, 
 
 When we have wandered all our ways 
 
 Shuts up the story our days.— Sir W. Raleigh. 
 
 [he restoration of the church proved to 
 be a work of time and labour, far beyond 
 what was first anticipated, and it will 
 not be amiss to put on permanent record 
 what has been done during the years 1873-4. It 
 may prove a stimulus to those who in succeeding 
 years shall be moved to do something for the 
 house of God in that place. 
 
 The entire north wall of the church was found 
 many inches out of the perpendicular, and was 
 supported by buttresses which had been increased 
 in number from time to time. To repair this was 
 impossible, the only course open was to take down 
 the whole wall from end to end, and underpin the 
 roof while rebuilding it in its original form. All the 
 
THE RESTORATION. 39 
 
 which are of granite, being redressed and placed in 
 their original position. 
 
 An old doorway and steps on the north side of 
 the church was completely useless owing to the 
 banking up of the earth outside and the lowness 
 of the arch, which was but four feet high. The bank 
 was opened out, the jambs of the doorway, re- 
 stored and lengthened with granite, and steps built 
 outside the church, so that this entrance may be 
 made available on occasions like harvest festivals 
 when a large number of people would be gathered 
 in the building. 
 
 The wall plate of the roof of this north aisle was 
 found to be carved oak, the ordinary rope and 
 leaf-pattern so common in Cornwall, but buried 
 under three inches of plaster, it had taken no great 
 harm. The transverse ribs of the waggon roof were 
 all of oak, but the longitudinal had vanished, their 
 places being filled with plaster and whitewash. This 
 roof has been repaired most carefully, every bit of 
 the carved work preserved wherever practicable, 
 ribs placed through the whole length to match the 
 cross ribs, thus restoring the ancient waggon pat- 
 tern, the whole being lined with pine and varnished. 
 There were evident traces of bosses having once 
 been in existence here, though there were no re- 
 mains of any to be found. By the munificence of 
 

 40 THE RESTORATION 
 
 a private friend,* the whole roof has been enriched 
 with exquisitely carved oak bosses, which not only 
 enhance the beauty of the roof, but also give some 
 idea to the mind, of its originalappearance. Each 
 of the bosses is a work of art in itself, and they 
 are executed with a skill one is unaccustomed to 
 see in such wild and desolate districts as the Me- 
 neage. 
 
 Those blendings of fruits and flowers, figures of 
 men and beasts, in wondrous groupings full of 
 beauty — 
 
 " All out of the carver's busy brain,'' 
 were a fit offering of art for the House of Him 
 from whom flows first all gifts of skill and art, and 
 the power to work and fashion copies of the beau- 
 tiful in nature's world. 
 
 For those whose interest may lead them deeper 
 is appended a list in detail of the subjects of the 
 bosses, commencing from the East end. 
 
 Cornish giant and oak. Hops. Columbine foliage. 
 
 Boar's head and oak Cornish miner at 
 
 leaves. work. Filberts & foliage. 
 
 Giant and columbine 
 
 foliage. Eagle and hare. Oak and foliage. 
 
 * These bosses, 27 in number, were all designed from 
 nature, and presented by W. Webster, Esq., of Blackheath 
 and London. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 41 
 
 Tiger's head and 
 
 
 
 foliage. 
 
 Cornish miner. 
 
 Acorns and foliage. 
 
 Stag and oak. 
 
 Fox and grapes. 
 
 Cornish miner at 
 work. 
 
 Sycamore foliage. 
 
 Cornish miner. 
 
 Boar hunt and oak. 
 
 Foliage. 
 
 Hops. 
 
 Brambles. 
 
 Foliage. 
 
 Ivy. 
 
 Maple leaves. 
 
 The half bosses at each end of the aisle are — 
 Mandrake. Convolvolus. Maple. 
 
 In the nave the roof was found so very far gone 
 and rotten that an entirely new one was a neces- 
 sity. Here was the great difficulty with the ama- 
 teur who planned and overlooked the work. To 
 take off the whole roof of the nave, some 50 or 60 
 feet in length, with a 17 to 20 feet span, was a 
 giant work to an untried yet responsible mind. An 
 architect was an impossibility, the low state and 
 promise of funds forbade such a luxury ; what was 
 to be done must be done bit by bit, piecemeal, as 
 money could be found. 
 
 Nothing was to be gained by temporising, so at 
 once and boldly the old roof was removed ; the 
 author drew plans for a new one which should be 
 somewhat in keeping with the rest of the church. 
 Substituting an open roof with hammer beams and 
 king posts for a flat whitewashed ceiling, and one 
 or two dormer windows. The whole of the new roof 
 was lined with pitch pine, shewing the principals 
 
42 THE RESTORATION 
 
 and varnished. On the ends of the sweeps small 
 shields carved with sacred emblems and monograms 
 picked out in colour, preserved the whole from 
 anything approaching to monotony. 
 
 Previous to this a hideous western gallery, which 
 blocked up the tower arch, and some 15 feet of the 
 body of the nave and aisle, had been removed, and 
 so throwing open the fine old tower, a good view 
 was thus to be obtained of the whole length of the 
 church from the western door in the tower ; the 
 doorway was recut, and so far restored as to be 
 capable of use. 
 
 In the chancel, the roof being a fairly good one 
 was not meddled with exteriorly, excepting so far 
 as to make the lead gutters necessary for the proper 
 protection of the whole in the rainy season. In- 
 teriorly it was made to match the nave by casing 
 the principals, and adding hammer beams and king 
 posts. 
 
 This was also done with the Bochym aisle,* and 
 thus the whole of the church was, so far as roof 
 was concerned, made good and good to look at. 
 
 At the east end a very plain four light lancet 
 window, but in very good condition, existed, and 
 
 * The whole cost of the restoration of the Bochym aisle 
 was borne by the Davey family of Bochym, of whom see 
 p. 62. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 43 
 
 windows, this was allowed to remain, and does 
 remain, untilsome kind friend will embrace the 
 opportunity of placing stained glass there, in so 
 fitting and beautiful position for a memorial window. 
 On either side of the window, in place of two zinc 
 plates painted, are now placed four beautiful porce- 
 lain tablets upon which are illuminated in gold and 
 colour The Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Com- 
 mandments. They were made expressly for Cury 
 Church by the well-known manufacturers, Messrs. 
 Copeland and Sons, and were a gift from one of 
 the firm.* 
 
 They are of most delicate workmanship, and are 
 of the most permanent character. The frames in 
 which they are placed are of black oak, constructed 
 from the remains of some of the old bench ends 
 in the church. The design is Gothic, with trefoil 
 ornamentation. In addition to these very handsome 
 and costly tablets, the same friend of the author 
 gave a set of communion plate in silver, of very 
 plain workmanship, but exceedingly appropriate, 
 and in keeping with the rest of the appointments. 
 
 The whole of the windows were recut and glazed 
 with cathedral glass supplied by Messrs. Clayton 
 and Bell, with the exception of two, which were 
 executed in Vitremanie and Diaphanie by the 
 
 ■ W. F. M. Copeland, Esq., Russell Farm, Herts. 
 
44 THE RESTORATION 
 
 author — one in the western tower, containing the 
 figures of the Four Evangelists, each in a niche 
 surmounted by a Gothic canopy, and a small 
 window over the font (the cost of which was de- 
 frayed by Mrs. Taylor, another personal friend), 
 the subject being appropriately the Infant Saviour 
 and the Adoration of the Shepherds. 
 
 The work of draining was not an easy one, 
 but has been effectually accomplished, not be- 
 fore needed, as will be acknowledged when it is 
 mentioned that the water before the restoration 
 was commenced often welled up through the floors 
 of the seats, and that, on one occasion, a funeral 
 was delayed in the church some minutes while the 
 water was baled out of the grave in which the coffin 
 was to be placed. 
 
 The old family pews and dens having being de- 
 molished, the whole of the seats in the nave and aisle 
 have been constructed of Oregon and pitch pine, 
 varnished natural colour, and this adds greatly to 
 the pleasing effect of the whole. 
 
 Looking back upon the work, after being per- 
 mitted to see its completion, the writer cannot but 
 be thankful at the results of what it would be false 
 humility to deny has been an arduous task ; but 
 the unanimity and good feeling which all those 
 concerned in the work have evinced from beginning 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 45 
 
 to end, has made it less difficult than it might 
 well have been, and the munificence of a few has 
 enabled those" who were responsible for the work 
 to carry it out in a way that but for such assistance 
 would have been impossible.* 
 
 The church was re-opened by the bishop of the 
 diocese on the 16th July, 1874. 
 
 An early celebration fitly began the day, and at 
 the second service, which was choral throughout, 
 was mustered a strong choir, and not a few of the 
 neighbouring clergy. A very crowded congrega- 
 tion had gathered from all parts to hear the bishop 
 preach — which he did from Luke ii., 19. 
 
 The service concluded, the fine old house of 
 Bochym, with its picturesque gardens and grounds, 
 became the centre of attraction to some hundreds 
 of people who had been drawn together by the 
 day's event. Amusements and sale of work for the 
 benefit of the Restoration Fund, were carried on 
 to a late hour, and very few of these who were 
 present will easily forget the Festival and all its 
 train of reminiscences. 
 
 * The whole cost of the work, including all gifts, was 
 about ,£900 ; not one farthing of which was granted from 
 any society or public body, and a great proportion of it raised 
 by small subscriptions. 
 
BOCHYM. 
 
 Qui veull ouyr nouvelles 
 
 Etranges a compter, 
 
 Je scay les nonpareilles, 
 
 Qu, hornme ne scauroit chanter, 
 
 Et toutes advenues 
 
 Depuis long terns en ga, 
 
 Je les ay retenues, 
 
 Et scay comment il va."— Old French Song. 
 
 JN the very edge of the bare Goonhilly 
 downs stands in the parish of Cury, amid 
 a luxuriance of foliage, all the more 
 beautiful because of the succeeding bar- 
 renness, the ancient house and manor of Bochym ; 
 more than once quoted, and that truly, as "the 
 first and last " gentleman's house in England. 
 It is a familiar object to those who pass along 
 
 * From " La legende de Maitre Pierre Fai-feu." — Fifteenth 
 century. 
 
 Those who wish to hear a ditty, 
 
 Fill'd with many a wondrous thing, 
 To my sonnet let them listen, 
 
 Such no other bard can sing. 
 Many years ago, believe me, 
 
 Chanc'd these wonders to befall, 
 Yet the whole, I well remember, 
 
 And intend to tell them all. 
 
& 
 
BOCHYM. 47 
 
 the road to or from the Lizard ; that quaint old 
 picturesque building, all corners and gables, em- 
 bosomed in a bed of trees, and shrubs, and gar- 
 dens. 
 
 If just fresh from Kynance, with its bare moor- 
 land face and shining rocks, the contrast is all 
 the more striking, as the beauteous landscape bursts 
 upon the view. One single turn of the road bring- 
 ing it all before us as in a very picture, while if the 
 contrary be the wayfarer's direction, and his face is 
 set toward the Lizard, the bare Goonhilly will ap- 
 pear to him more barren for the exceeding loveli- 
 ness of the spot he has but now left behind. 
 
 It may well occur to the reader what has Bochym 
 to do with the antiquities of Cury ? It is far too 
 lovely by nature to have a share in dry and musty 
 archaeologies, much more is it likely to possess a 
 romance of sword and siege and imprisoned 
 maiden. 
 
 But it has both. It is, indeed, a remarkable 
 manor and estate, with a pedigree as long as any 
 could wish for, and a history romantic enough for 
 the most ardent imagination ; and here also was 
 made a discovery of Celtic implements, of intense 
 interest to the historian and antiquarian, which 
 may help the effort to elucidate and understand 
 
48 BOCHYM. 
 
 the habits and usages of those who lived in times 
 essentially of legend and tradition. 
 
 The Saxon Conquest of Cornwall by Athelstan 
 dates 935, though that the conquest was incomplete 
 is to be inferred from the struggles of the Britons 
 against the Normans a whole century later. In 
 997 the whole of Cornwall was desolated by 
 the Danes, of whose incursions, however, very 
 scanty records exist ; but, in to68, Godwin and Ed- 
 mund, sons of Harold, came over from Ireland and 
 overran the whole land. Then came the portion- 
 ing out of the Domesday,* when all Cornwall was 
 divided among six lords, three lay and three cleri- 
 cal, besides the royal portion. 
 
 Of the lay lords the most famous was Robert, 
 
 * This Domesday, or Domus Dei Book, called so as Stone 
 asserts because deposited at Westminster or Winchester, was 
 begun by order of William the Conqueror in 1080. The 
 reason for this survey has been given, that every man should 
 be satisfied with his own right, and not lump with impunity 
 what belonged to another ; but more probable than this (for 
 there was already a survey in existence made by order of 
 King Alfred), those who possessed landed estates became 
 vassals to the king, and paid him fee or homage in propor- 
 tion to what they held. 
 
 The survey was very strict and minute, so that the " Saxon 
 Chronicle" records — there was not a single hide, nor one 
 virgate of land, nor even an ox, or a cow, nor a swine, was 
 left that was not set down. 
 
BOCHYM. 49 
 
 Count of Mortein in Normandy, half brother to 
 William the Conqueror, and to him fell the lion's 
 share ; and, in the Domesday survey, " Buchent " 
 is included with Helston, and the surrounding 
 manors in the " Terra Comitis Moritoniensis" 
 
 To trace one's history back to the Norman Con- 
 quest is far enough for most people, but Buchent 
 was taxed before the days of the Domesday Book ; 
 for in the time of Edward the Confessor one Bris- 
 tualdus held the manor, who paid " geld " or tri- 
 bute to the amount of three shillings for an aggre- 
 gate of 230 acres, besides 20 acres of pasture, and 
 20 acres of wood, on which the four bordarii, or 
 cotters,* who tilled the soil were settled. This, 
 of course, would not include any of the waste 
 lands of the manor, which may have been very 
 extensive, the land under cultivation being alone 
 
 * Bordarii, or borders, were in a less slave-like condition 
 than the villain of Norman times ; the name originated from 
 their living in a cottage on the borders of the manor, and 
 they held some land as their own, on condition of supplying 
 the lord with poultry or other articles in kind. 
 
 But, however the serf villain, and borderer, might differ 
 in other respects, persons who were in these respective con- 
 ditions were so firmly fixed to the land on which they were born 
 that they were not able by any act of their own to separate 
 themselves from it ; they were adscripti glebe?, as much in 
 thought as in person, and probably never thought or wished 
 to change their place. 
 
 E 
 
50 BOCHYM. 
 
 described, and the 20 acres of wood probably re- 
 fers to a certain portion of the manor in which 
 the bordarii had the privilege of cutting fuel. 
 
 The name and etymology of " Bochym." "Bu- 
 chent " has been a matter of much speculation. 
 Beauchamp (Norman French), Bochim (Hebrew, 
 weeping), both suggested as connections, with 
 surely as little warrant in one case as the other. 
 Beuch (cattle), ham (house), seems more probable, 
 but who shall decide ? As a recent writer has sug- 
 gested,* let any one who feels surprised at large 
 alterations in names, especially in ancient names 
 existing long before their owners could read or 
 write, remember the vexata quaestio respecting the 
 name of Will Shakspear(e). 
 
 It may be taken for granted " that the possessors 
 of the manor took their name from the place where 
 they were born and bred, and if John begat James, 
 and James begat Charles, and Charles begat Thomas, 
 and Thomas wished to distinguish his name of 
 Thomas from other Thomases in the neighbour- 
 hood, he called himself Thomas de Bochym, from 
 the place of his birth, just as the gentleman over 
 the way called himself Thomas de Bonithon." 
 
 The name Buchent, represents a sound akin 
 
 * Rev. Aug. Jessop, Helston Gram. Sch. Mag., No. 2, 
 P- 57- 
 
BOCHYM. 5 1 
 
 to Bokint or Bokimt, and if one only realizes for a 
 moment how difficult it is in the present day to 
 write correctly a strange Cornish name, on hearing 
 it first pronounced, the mistakes and various read- 
 ings of old documents will appear less remarkable 
 If this be taken into account, there is an entry in the 
 fines of King John* which may have reference to the 
 family of Bochym. 
 
 At a court holden at Launceston in the third 
 year of King John, Sybilla, Margaret, and Juliana, 
 daughters of one William Bancan (Bocin) sold to 
 
 one Roger some land which they possessed in 
 
 Penryn, the extent of which and the price is unfor- 
 tunately illegible, f 
 
 The de Bochyms, at any rate, held the manor in 
 1549, at which time the then owner joined the re- 
 bellion raised by Humphrey Arundell, and being 
 defeated by the king's general at Clifton, the rebels 
 were attainted and forfeited their lives to the 
 crown. 
 
 The quaint historian Norden thus relates it : — 
 " Bochim, the howse wherein that instrument of re- 
 bellion Wynslade dwelled, at the time wherein he 
 vndertooke to be one of the leaders of the Cornish 
 rebellious troupes in their commotion in anno 
 
 * Printed by the Record Commission in 1835. 
 t See Fines, 7 Ric. 1, 16 ; Johan., vol. i., p. 352. 
 
52 BOCHYM. 
 
 1549; for which being attaynted and exequuted, 
 the lande was purchased by Reynolde Mohune, 
 Esquire, since whose time it came to Mr. Billet 
 by marriage." 
 
 The circumstances which led to the outbreak 
 here referred to are so much less known, than 
 might be supposed, that a short account of them 
 may be worth recording here. 
 
 The suppression of the monasteries by Henry 
 VIII. created a very wide spread discontent, more 
 especially in remote districts where monks had been 
 of some use, and the religious houses had done 
 least harm, and this feeling smouldered on until 
 the accession of Edward VI. to the throne, when it 
 only needed the injunctions of 1549, for the re- 
 moval of images from the churches, to fan the 
 smoke into a flame. 
 
 As the commissioners passed through Cornwall 
 to carry out their instructions, one of them, Mr. 
 Body, proceeding to this duty in Helston Church, 
 was stabbed by a priest, whereupon all the people 
 flocked together in a rebellion headed by Hum- 
 phrey Arundell, of S. Michael's Mount. 
 
 We learn from Hals, that the principals in the 
 murder were a priest and a Mr. Kilter, of S. Keverne, 
 and that Mr. Body, immediately on being stabbed, 
 fell down dead in the church at Helston, where the 
 
BOCHYM. 53 
 
 fiot had broken out ; and, although justice was done 
 upon the offenders, yet many of the landholders 
 sympathized with the priests, and ejected monks 
 who were furious, and the murder of Mr. Body only 
 occasioned a closer union among the disaffected, 
 who, in the words of Foxe,* " ceased not by all 
 sinister and subtle means, first under God's name 
 and the king's, and under colour of religion, to 
 persuade the people then to gather sides, to assem- 
 ble in companies, and gather captains, and at last 
 
 to burst out in rank rebellion the 
 
 number of the whole rebellion, speaking with the 
 least, amounted to little less than 10,000 stout 
 traitors." 
 
 Of those who were associated as leaders with Hum- 
 phery Arundell in this rebellion, Robert Bochym, of 
 Bochym, and his brother were among the foremost, 
 and with the exception of one other, William 
 Wynslade, of Tregarrick, were almost the only 
 men of respectability concerned in it. 
 
 Of those rebels Hals has the following notice : — 
 " The manor of Mythian was for- 
 merly the lands of Winslade of Tregorick, in 
 
 * See Polvvhele, vol. i., p. 62. Life and Raigne of K\ 
 Edward the Sixt, by Sir J. Hay ward. 
 Book of Martyrs, vol. v., pp. 730. 
 
54 BOCHYM. 
 
 Plynt, an hereditary esquire of the white spur, 
 who forfeited the same, with much other land, 
 by attainders of treason, tempore Edvardi 6. So 
 that he himself, or Queen Mary, gave those lands 
 to Sir Reginald Mohun, of Hall, Knight, or his 
 father, who settled them upon his younger son" 
 (Hals, p. 3). Again he says — " Bochym gave name 
 and original to an old family of gentlemen sur- 
 named de Bochym, temp. Henry VIII., who were 
 lords of the manor and barton, till such time as 
 John Bochym, temp. Edw. VL, entered into actual 
 rebellion against that prince under the conduct of 
 Humphrey Arundell, Esq., governor of S. Michael's 
 Mount, and others ; whose force and power 
 being suppressed by Lord John Russell, lieute- 
 nant-general of that prince, at Exon, and those 
 rebels attainted of treason, their lands were for- 
 feited to the crown. Whereupon King Edward 6 
 gave this barton and manor to Reginald Mohun, Esq., 
 sheriff of Cornwall, 6th Edward VI. , who gave this 
 barton of Bochym to one of his daughters married 
 to Bellot, now in possession thereof. The manor 
 of Bochym he settled upon his great grandson Wil- 
 liam Mohun, Esq., now in possession thereof. 
 Lastly, by this rebellion, Bochym lost not only 
 his lands but his life also (Hals, p. 79)/' 
 
 After the defeat and dispersion of the rebels 
 
BOCHYM. 55 
 
 here described, which happened on Clifton Downs, 
 August 19, 1549, the division of the confiscated 
 property very soon took place. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Arundell's possessions in Devon 
 were given to Sir Gawen Carew, and S. Michael's 
 Mount to a Job Militon, who appears to have been 
 sheriff of Cornwall, 1st Edward VI., 1547, and 
 the manor of Bochym was bestowed upon Regi- 
 nald Mohun.* 
 
 The deed by which the mansion was settled upon 
 his daughter Anne Bellott, is still extant ; it is 
 dated at Bochym, 27th Oct., 1565, and the seal of 
 one of the trustees still remains after 300 years 
 have passed away. 
 
 By this document her husband Francis Bellott 
 had only a life interest in the property, and in the 
 event of no children being born to them the estate 
 was to revert again to the Mohuns. 
 
 It is described as " totam illam mansionis domum 
 
 * He was descended through John, 8th baron, from Wil- 
 liam de Mohun who, in some authorities, is described as 
 Lord of Dunster. This William Moyne or Mohun came 
 with William the Conqueror, and was by him rewarded for 
 his services in a most substantial manner, for he received as 
 many as fifty-six lordships, and his descendants sat in Par 
 liament as Lords de Mohun until the reign of Edward III., 
 when John de Mohun, 9th baron, dying without male issue, 
 the title became extinct. 
 
$6 BOCHYM. 
 
 et bartonem de Bochim." One of the boundaries 
 is the stream named as " The Ribble," and it ex- 
 tended as " quandam arborem siccam." Apparently 
 it was only the mansion with its gardens and 
 grounds, about 300 acres of land ; for, in 16 16, the 
 manor passed from the possession of William Mo- 
 hun (to whom it had been willed by the Reginald 
 Mohun, its first possessor of that name) into that 
 of Renatus Bellott. 
 
 Doubtless a family of Bellotts had in these years 
 grown up at Bochym, and it appeared desirable 
 the owners of the mansion should possess also the 
 manor; for, in a deed dated Dec. 20, 1616, "the 
 Manor of Bochym alias Bosym" is made over to 
 Renatus Bellott, in conformity with his granfather's 
 will, for a payment of ^330 on his part; oddly 
 enough, however, only a part of the original manor 
 is surrendered — Cury, Landewednock, Gunwalloe, 
 and Goonhilly, going with Bochym — and other 
 parishes enumerated, "hitherto reputed parcel of 
 the said manor''' being retained by the Mohun 
 family. 
 
 The close of the year 16 16, thus sees Bochym 
 mansion and manor fairly settled in the hands of 
 Renatus Bellott ; but an ominous sentence in 
 Hals' writing meets us. He says — " This estate of 
 Bellott's is all spent by riot and excess, and, as I 
 
BOCHYM. 57 
 
 take it, the name extinct in those parts, and this bar- 
 ton sold to Robinson." 
 
 This was about 1 710, the Renatus Bellott who last 
 owned it having died the year before.*' What the 
 history of the family was during the century they 
 possessed this manor, we learn from another writer, 
 and his record is well worth preserving. -f* 
 
 " This same Renatus Bellott, to whom the Manor 
 of Bochym was conveyed, seems to have inherited 
 his forefather's talent for making a good match.'' 
 He married twice and well ; first, Philippa, daugh- 
 ter of William Bear, Esq., of Pengelley, in S. Neots ; 
 secondly, a sister of General Monck afterwards 
 Duke of Albermarle. The former of these was an 
 heiress, and it is not likely that a descendant of the 
 old Norman family of the Moncks of Potheridge 
 would be without a suitable jointure. 
 
 Of the six children born to Renatus Bellott the 
 eldest son did not succeed to the Bochym property, 
 which came to the second son Christopher. 
 
 A marriage settlement deed, under date 1666 
 provides that — William Pendarves, Esquire, of Ros- 
 
 * The Renatus Bellott, who died of a fever in 1709, left 
 a son of the same name, who died when eight years old, 
 July 11, 1712. 
 
 t Rev. Augustus Jessop, M.A., Old Seats of Cornwall, in 
 Helston Grammar School Mag., p. 127, et seq. 
 
58 BOCHYM. 
 
 crow, should give his daughter Bridget ^1,000 as 
 her marriage portion, while Christopher Bellott 
 should, for his part, give his wife, the said Bridget, 
 a life interest in the house and manor of Bochym. 
 
 The signatures to this deed are wanting, and 
 from this it would appear that the marriage por- 
 tion was not paid till ten years later, on or after 
 the death of Bridget's father, for it was in 1676' 
 that a second deed was executed by Christopher 
 Bellott according to the tenor of the first agree- 
 ment. 
 
 During the commotions caused by the civil war 
 the owners of Bochym seem, with most others of 
 the Cornish gentry, to have suffered somewhat 
 from the incursions of the belligerents — friends and 
 foes. It may be that, in the troublous times that 
 preceeded the Commonwealth, the Bellotts took an 
 active part : the old mansion would form a secure 
 retreat and hiding place for any of the " proscribed 
 royalists" fleeing before the victorious armies 
 which penetrated even this extreme of Cornwall — 
 then it may be, if never before, the secret staircases 
 and sliding panels in the wainscoat of the oak room 
 were called into requisition, and gave time for flight 
 and safety to the royalist refugee ; at any rate, we 
 may imagine that Bochym was on the king's side 
 and that the injury, if any, was at the hands of the 
 
BOCHYM. 59 
 
 Parliamentarians, for immediately on the restora- 
 tion Christopher Bellott appears before the House 
 of Commons as a petitioner (30th July, 1660), 
 though whether his prayer was granted or he bene- 
 fitted does not appear. 
 
 In 1692 his name appears as high sheriff of Corn- 
 wall. 
 
 The next heir to the estates of Bochym, and the 
 last of the Bellotts who posssssed them, is a Renatus 
 again, the only son of Christopher and Bridget. 
 Brought up with seven sisters, the only boy, he was 
 spoiled, and in manhood became a spendthrift, 
 borrowing, mortgaging, and never paying, till at 
 length Hals' words record the truth, and in 17 12 the 
 estates are spent and the name extinct. 
 
 He married, as his grandfather had done before 
 him, an heiress, Mary Spour, or Spur ; and, had he 
 survived his wife, would have inherited the estate 
 of Trebartha ; she, however, outlived him as well 
 as her son, and marrying again this property passed 
 away for ever from the Bellott family. 
 
 In 1698 he is borrowing on Bochym £1,600, and 
 the mortgage ten years later was not paid off, for 
 it was then transferred from Sir William Dolben, of 
 the Inner Temple, to William Pearce, of Tregoning, 
 in the parish of Breage. 
 
 How the estate and others, which belonged to 
 
60 BOCHYM. 
 
 Renatus Bellot, dwindled and melted away does 
 not transpire. Likely enough the task of embellish- 
 ing the old mansion, and laying out the terraces 
 and gardens, was an expensive work ; but there must 
 have been something more than this to make up 
 the " riotous living and excess " of the historian. 
 If, as is said, he never paid his father's bequests 
 or his own debts, and executed mortgage after mort- 
 gage to the very last, it is not difficult to under- 
 stand ; certain it is that in his will he directs that 
 all his possessions in Devon and Cornwall are to 
 be sold for the payment of his debts and his own 
 and father's legacies. 
 
 A very few words tell the remainder of the family 
 story. The son Renatus died soon after the father. 
 In 171 1, Sep. 16, died Loveday Bellott, at Exeter, 
 of small pox; which disease, in 17 17, carried off 
 her four sisters, and in 17 19 the last remaining 
 Bridget fell a victim too. 
 
 Thus the hundred years are up, and the old 
 mansion passed away into the hands of one after 
 another till, for a century more, its history is 
 little more than a mere list of names and purchase 
 deeds. 
 
 From the Bellotts Bochym passed to the Robin- 
 son family, one of whom was M.P. for Helston in 
 1661. 
 
BOCHYM. 6l 
 
 Of the owners of Bochym, George Robinson, 
 Esq., of Nansloe, there is a quaint story told by 
 Hals, which is worth the attention of the curious, 
 his death and the moral thereof, form a thrilling 
 passage of romance. His son and successor Ed- 
 mund parted with the Bochym property, in 1725, 
 to Thomas Fonnereau, Esq., for £25, 500. He 
 is famous as having built the lighthouses on 
 the Lizard head in 1762 * Having resided at Bo- 
 chym he, no doubt, carefully superintended the 
 construction in person ; at any rate, he was near 
 enough at. hand to do so. 1780, however, brought 
 other changes to the old Cornish manor, when it 
 came into the possession of Mr. Cristopher Wallis, 
 who again sold it to Sir Harry Trelawney, Bart, 
 in 1785. 
 
 Under the reign of the baronet, Bochym lost 
 nothing of its olden splendour we may believe ; 
 
 * Apropos of those Lizard lights a singular story is cur- 
 rent among the country folk. In the days before 1762 
 huge coal fires were lighted on the headland, which were 
 kept constantly going, and a blaze created by the action 
 of huge bellows like those of a blacksmith's forge. It is re- 
 corded in the "Week at the Lizard" (p. 11), that on one 
 occasion, during war time, the fire was allowed to sink so low 
 that it was scarcely visible ; a government steamer passing 
 at the time fired at the light, and the slumbering watchman 
 was effectually aroused by the cannon ball, while happily no 
 damage was done. 
 
62 BOCHYM. 
 
 in spite of the eccentricities of Sir Harry himself, 
 which find a record in the pages of more than 
 one historian of Cornwall, His son, William Lewis 
 Salisbury Trelawney, to whom the property came 
 (as appears from a mortgage deed in 1808), again, 
 parted with it to a Mr. Graham, of Penquoit, of 
 whom the remarkable record remains, that the 
 ancient tapestry hanging in Bochym was by him 
 taken down to wrap his furniture in for removal.* 
 
 From him it came to Mr. Thomas Hartley, who, 
 in his thirteen years' possession of the estate, 
 allowed things to run on their natural course of 
 decay ; and this, added to the fact that he let it 
 to a tenant farmer — who, of course, took the 
 farmer's usual care of all the ancient relics about, 
 accounts for the dilapidated state of the mansion 
 when purchased by Stephen Davey, Esq., in 1825. 
 
 Under the hands of the Davey family Bochym 
 has become once more a gentleman's mansion ; the 
 western wing of the building, which is also the an- 
 cient portion, has been restored, and considerable 
 additions made to the main building, in accordance 
 with some ancient plans and elevations which were 
 found among the papers and archives of Bochym. 
 
 * Mr. Jessop, in his able paper, falls into a mistake in 
 making Mr. Hartely the culprit who removed the tapestry ; it 
 was Graham, of Penquoit. 
 
BOCHYM. 6$ 
 
 A charming conservatory now forms a second wing to 
 the building, and the old terraces and gardens, with 
 the bowlinggreen — which, perchance, were the hobby 
 of Renatus Bellott — have once more put on the ap- 
 pearance they had in the days of William and 
 Mary, while it is quite a pride of their present pos- 
 sessor, Richard Davey, Esq., that, go where you 
 will, there is never a leaf out of place. 
 
 Certainly it is as charming a landscape as one 
 could wish ; all the more charming because in such 
 striking contrast to the rest of the district round. 
 The wild miniature woods, the babbling brook, 
 and rush of the water over the rocks, which have 
 been placed to dam its course ; the soughing 
 of the distant sea, and the cry of the Bochym 
 hounds in their kennel, as some disturbing tra- 
 veller passes the road close by at the entrance 
 lodge, form a combination of sight and sound 
 little to be expected in the far west of our rocky 
 peninsula. 
 
 And inside the mansion the restoration has been 
 carried out with an unsparing hand ; alas ! that the 
 tapestry and stained glass, of which the chroniclers 
 speak,* should have disappeared. 
 
 * C. S. Gilbert (in 18 14), " Bochym contains some frag- 
 ments of tapestry, and also some fine specimens of painted 
 
 glass." 
 
64 BOCHYM. 
 
 The ancient tapestry, removed by Graham, of 
 Penquoit, is said to have been very fine and beau- 
 tiful ; and tradition has it, that it was the. work of 
 Wynslade's wife and daughters, to represent his 
 leave-taking and departure. 
 
 The stained glass survived until Mr. Hartley's 
 time ; it was given by him to Mr. Grylls, at S. 
 Neots, and so precious were such relics of the 
 past deemed in those days that it was carried 
 loose in a frail (basket) by a man on horseback 
 into Helston ; the natural result being that, at the 
 end of the journey, there were no fragments left 
 large enough to be worth preserving ! ! ! 
 
 Had the glass and tapestry fallen into the hands 
 of such a friend to ancient relics as the present 
 owner, Richard Davey, Esq., has proved himself to 
 be, we should not have had to mourn their loss 
 and destruction. 
 
 The oak room, in which is the sliding panel and 
 secret staircase in the thickness of the wall, is lined 
 with wainscot, and there is a tradition that an under- 
 ground passage exists from here which emerges at 
 Mullion Cove, one and a half mile distant. 
 
 Although there is every reason for believing 
 this to be a gentle fiction, it is, nevertheless, true 
 that there is still existing the secret staircase, and 
 also a ladder, by means of which through an 
 
BOCHYM. 65 
 
 iperture any part of the roof can easily be 
 reached. 
 
 There was once a chapel at " Bosham," dedi- 
 cated to S. Mary, and the remnants of its ruins 
 are in a plot of ground called Clahar, which is 
 close to the house, and was undoubtedly once a 
 portion of the estate. Not many yards from the 
 front entrance are still to be seen the stone stiles 
 which led across the field to the chapel from the 
 neighbouring group of cottages at Cross Lanes, 
 stiles which are remarkable alike for their shape, 
 solidity, and antiquity. 
 
ANCIENT STONE IMPLEMENTS FOUND 
 AT BOCHYM. 
 
 How charming is Divine antiquitiy ! 
 Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
 But musical, as is Apollo's lute, 
 And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, 
 Where no crude surfeit reigns.— Milton's Comus. 
 
 jHE old mansion and estate just described 
 has a further interest for the archaeologist 
 and the antiquary, for in the most unro- 
 mantic of all places on this ancient manor, 
 a stone quarry, we have brought to the light of day 
 memorials of the Celtic race that takes us back far 
 beyond the date of any written record of Bochym. 
 There existed, in 1869, a few hundred yards 
 from the house, a high wall of rock, whether the 
 result of art or nature, is by no means certain. 
 By the side of it ran, in summer, a babbling 
 brook ; in winter, a roaring torrent. No insignifi- 
 cant feature in the landscape at any time, although 
 not dignified with a name, as is its neighbour the 
 Ribble. 
 
g«ftTS ril0.ll BMH¥M- 
 
CELTIC REMAINS 6j 
 
 being quarried ; and shortly after commencing the 
 work, the men employed discovered, lying on a 
 ledge of the stone, in a hole, the four celts (Nos. 
 I to 4) here described. They are of ironstone 
 or greenstone, not of equal coarseness. No. 1, is 
 apparently much softer than the others, to judge 
 by the manner in which it is honeycombed with 
 age or exposure ; while none of them bear the 
 traces of any amount of wear. No. 3, is of a very 
 peculiar type, being rounded off or bent at the 
 point in a mode rather more than accidental ; and it 
 is in a state of brilliant preservation, having quite 
 an edge at its broader end, without a scratch or 
 chip. 
 
 Whether celts such as these are the ordinary 
 working tools of their ancient owner, and were de- 
 posited in a hiding-place for security, or whether 
 they were the arms of a warrior, and their close 
 proximity to each other the result only of acci- 
 dent, must remain yet a problem. We know that 
 in the case of bronze implements, hoards of them 
 have been found in Norfolk, Kent, and elsewhere 
 in these islands ; and the conjecture is more than 
 probable, that when in quantities like this, and 
 unused, they form a part of the stock in trade of the 
 maker. This, too, would seem to account for their 
 
68 CELTIC REMAINS. 
 
 being sometimes discovered in sets, as it were, and 
 of every variety shape and pattern* 
 
 On the vexed questions, are they arms or 
 tools ? the author of the Collectanea Antiqua (i, 
 p. 105), no mean authority, writing of those 
 discovered at Attleborough, and communicated to 
 the Archaeological Association^ observes : "Some 
 of them have been with reason supposed to 
 be weapons, affixed to a short wooden handle 
 for close warfare. Their connexion with gouges 
 and other implements seems to render their ex- 
 clusive use for purposes of war at least question- 
 able. Found in close company with gouges and 
 implements of domestic use, they appear to be 
 tools ; when discovered in juxtaposition with a 
 sword, further evidence is still required to settle 
 the question." 
 
 It is but fair, with regard to the question of their 
 use, to mention the theory, held by Mr. Davey him- 
 self, that they were probably used for domestic pur- 
 poses, and in particular that of skinning animals and 
 cutting up food ; and this is rather supported than 
 otherwise by what we know of the primitive usages 
 of rude and uncivilised nations. Even the Esqui- 
 
 * Archceologia, vol. xv., p. 118 ; Journal, British Archaeo- 
 logical Association, i, pp. 51, 59 ; ii, pp. 9, 58. 
 + Journal, i., p. 58. 
 
CELTIC REMAINS. 69 
 
 maux use tools of bone, horn, and wood, to tear 
 off the fat from the surface of skins intended for 
 clothing* If so, why not these stone implements 
 by the early races of Cornwall to skin the animal 
 in hand, or hew it in pieces after it was skinned ? 
 Implements such as these were in use all over this 
 island, as we discover, and in many cases were 
 sharp enough to be used as chisels. Of this type 
 No. 3 seems to have been one. 
 
 No. 5, is an implement of a very different kind, 
 of a softer stone, — an axe-head of an ordinary type, 
 but broken at the end ; the interest attaching to 
 it being mainly that it was found in a heap of 
 stones from an adjoining field, which were gathered 
 up for the purpose of mending the road. 
 
 In a similar way, the curious turned boss (No. 7) . 
 escaped destruction, only after greater peril, for it 
 was discovered uninjured upon the roadway, in 
 the midst of the newly laid metal, at least six 
 months after the road had been repaired and the 
 stones laid down. The use to which this stone 
 was put must, it is feared, remain a matter of 
 mere conjecture. Without laying down any theory 
 upon the subject, I will only mention their ancient 
 use in games, as a " signum" in taking an oath 
 (Roman), and it is at least noticeable that while 
 there is no stone to be had of like character 
 
 Arch. Journal^ xxviii., p. 44. 
 
70 CELTIC REMAINS. 
 
 with the material of the boss, within miles of 
 Bochym, there is at no great distance (six miles) 
 across country, a Roman camp, and Roman coins, 
 hereafter described, were turned up within four 
 miles of the spot. 
 
 Fig. 6 carries us back to ancient days indeed. It 
 is a round quoit-shaped stone of the hard green 
 serpentine rock found in the neighbourhood. A 
 fanciful imagination has suggested that it is a 
 quoit, and as such used in the early days of its 
 manufacture ; yet there can be little doubt that 
 it may lay claim to greater antiquity, and a more 
 useful purpose, as an ancient muller for grinding tin. 
 
 We must go to the Phoenicians and Diodorus 
 Siculus ; for not far from the place of the discovery 
 lies the valley of the Looe, with its far-famed Looe- 
 pool, and its bar of sand. 
 
 To this day the tin stream works flourish on the 
 hill side, and their refuse runs down into the Looe, 
 to discolour its waters and poison its fish, and there, 
 on either side of the valley, in the old workings, may 
 be still picked up muller s of like material with this, 
 and still may be seen the flat blocks that formed 
 the nether mill stone, and upon which the tin was 
 pulverised in those primitive times.* 
 
 * Two mullers exactly like this one were found in a 
 barrow at Bolleit, and are described by Mr. Edwards in his 
 " Land's End District," p. 30. 
 
CELTIC REMAINS. 7 1 
 
 A writer in one of the local papers,* a few years 
 ago, gives a very lucid account of the remains of 
 the ancient tin workings in the Looe Pool valley. 
 
 As might be expected from the extent and rich- 
 ness of the alluvium, and the ease with which it 
 may be wrought, numerous traces are discoverable 
 of the existence of tin works in this valley from a 
 very remote date. 
 
 Along its course are the sites of three or four 
 ancient entrenchments, dignified with the name of 
 castles, though probably at no time more important 
 than earthworks, one of which, at the entrance of 
 Lowertown, " Castle Teen Urn," still exhibits an 
 isolated hillock, surrounded by a circular encamp- 
 ment, in a very perfect condition. From their 
 situation it is difficult to conceive that they could 
 be other than stations to receive the metallic 
 product of the country, on its transit to the place 
 of embarkation. The hill side, at the southern ex- 
 tremity of the bar, is deeply marked with the re- 
 mains of works apparently of a similar character, 
 in close proximity to the banks of the lake itself, 
 and curious oven-like structures were explored 
 by Mr. J. J. Rogers some years since, for which no 
 
 * Vestiges of Ancient Tin Workings in the Looe Valley, 
 Cornwall Gazette, Sept. 19, 1867. 
 
72 CELTIC REMAINS. 
 
 assignable object was apparent, except in connexion 
 with a station permanently occupied in the way 
 supposed. 
 
 Within a short distance of " Castle Teen Urn," 
 a few feet beneath the surface, in the centre of the 
 village of Lowertown, are accumulations of slag 
 and carbonaceous matter, which, by their yielding 
 on the vanning shovel particles of metallic tin, are 
 evidently the remains of smelting operations. 
 
 Frequently, about this place, boulders of hard 
 stone are found with the surfaces indented in deep 
 hollows, where the tinstone had been rudely pounded 
 into powder, preparatory to its reduction in the fur- 
 nace. 
 
 A t Trelubbus, a short distance up the . valley, a 
 portion of a machine of a much more effective de- 
 scription for the same purpose (very like that 
 at Scilly described below) was discovered by Mr. 
 John Christopher about the year 1852, beneath the 
 foundation of an old stamps' wall, which seemingly 
 had been built centuries before. This relic consists 
 of a granite stone, about three feet diameter, the 
 circumference very roughly shaped into a circular 
 form, and perforated in the centre by a hole about 
 five inches diameter. The lower side is slightly 
 conical, and directly beneath the hole in the centre a 
 clutch is roughly cut, so as to admit of its being turned 
 
CELTIC REMAINS. 73 
 
 round by an upright spindle, The whole machine 
 must have resembled a large quern, or ancient corn 
 mill, and have been set in motion by water power. 
 The hardness of the material treated has deeply 
 marked the grinding surface with concentric grooves. 
 The weight of the stone (which formed the upper 
 portion of the mill) is about six cwt. This is no 
 doubt a good illustration of the means used to pul- 
 verise tin ore previous to the introduction of the 
 present form of stamps, which is said to have been 
 invented by some of the Godolphin family in the 
 1 6th century. 
 
 If it be true what Camden says of the Me?ieA° 
 of the Phoenicians, that in discovering it they dis- 
 covered a world of tin, and secured it to them- 
 selves, may it not have been also that the Phoeni- 
 cians of whom Diodorus Siculus writes, sailed with 
 their vessels up the then open harbour of the Looe, 
 and anchoring at the head of the creek in the Cober 
 river, received there their consignment of the me- 
 tallic produce of the ancient Danmonii ? Be this as 
 it may, there still stands, looking down upon the 
 vale, — joining it, one might say, by St. John's gate- 
 way, — one of the most ancient of the old " coyn- 
 age towns," the early charter of which (one of King 
 John's in 1201) grants privileges to the town, and 
 confirms former ones, chiefly in connexion with and 
 
74 CELTIC REMAINS. 
 
 on account of the flourishing mills and stream- 
 works of tin, in the valley of the Cober below. 
 
 That the ancient Britons did use mullers, both 
 large and small, to grind their fragments of rock 
 and tin-ore, seems evident from an elaborate de- 
 scription of one in the Scilly Islands, the re- 
 mains of which are still visible. The whole pas- 
 sage is worth transcribing, as given by Hitchins 
 (vol i, 249) : " Upon the top of the hill is a natu- 
 ral rock, about nine inches above the surface of 
 the ground, with a round hole in its centre, eight 
 inches in diameter, supposed for an upright post 
 to work round in ; and at the distance of two feet 
 from this hole in the centre is a gutter cut round 
 in the rock, out of the solid stone, fourteen inches 
 wide, and nearly a foot deep, wherein a round 
 stone, four feet in diameter and nine inches thick, 
 did go round upon its edge, like a tanner's bark- 
 mill, which is worked by a horse. The round 
 stone has a round hole through its centre, about 
 eight inches in diameter. This is supposed to have 
 been a mill for pulverising the tin-ore in ancient 
 times, and worked either by men or a horse, before 
 stamping mills were known of the present con- 
 struction." 
 
 Before leaving the group of celts there is another 
 to be described, a specimen of more advanced work- 
 
CELTIC REMAINS. 75 
 
 manship. It is an unfinished hammer-head of 
 greenstone, weighing one pound twelve ounces and 
 three-quarters, pointed at the end, and the lower 
 edge quite flat, while the upper is rounded off. The 
 entire face of one side is ground down, probably by 
 wear, to a plane inclined sideways from that of the 
 original surface. Nearly in the centre of each side 
 a hole has been commenced for the insertion of a 
 handle ; but the hole remains unfinished, and the 
 perforation is incomplete. This was found in 1871, 
 in a croft at Burnow, a farm in this parish, the pro- 
 perty of John Jope Rogers, Esq., of Penrose. It 
 is of a very rare type, and a similar example is 
 shown in the Prehistoric and Ethnographical Series 
 of Photographs issued by permission of the Trus- 
 tees of the British Museum, PI. 16, No. 3. 
 
 It would appear that of these celts discovered 
 in this part of the county, there are two distinct 
 varieties. The first, celts perfectly plain, as those 
 of the Bochym find, and which would seem to 
 have been attached to their handle (if at all) much 
 in the same way that our country smiths still use 
 their chisels for cutting hot iron, with a hazel or 
 other stick twisted round the implement, and an 
 iron ring or thong passed over the ends of the 
 stick to make the grip firm. 
 
 The second type would be those celts hav- 
 
j6 CELTIC REMAINS. 
 
 ing a hole in the centre through which the han- 
 dle was passed, just as at present. A beauti- 
 ful specimen of this kind, unfortunately broken in 
 half, is in the possession of J. J. Rogers, Esq. It 
 was found at Sithney, near Helston, and was exhi- 
 bited by the writer at the March meeting of the 
 Brit. Archseolog. Association, together with the 
 other Cornish antiquities here described. 
 
 Midway between these perfect specimens comes 
 the incomplete and unfinished implement as de- 
 scribed above, which would appear to have passed 
 out of the maker's hands, and to have been lost, 
 before it has been brought to a finish. We can 
 make no other conjecture, for it would be beside 
 all reason to suppose that the perforation was not 
 intended to be complete. The cavity on either 
 side, as at present, has no meaning ; but when the 
 hole is carried through, its use is immediately ap- 
 parent. 
 
 Of bronze implements I know of none recently 
 found in this neighbourhood, with the exception of 
 one, which was discovered, not indeed in Cury, 
 but close to it, at Penvores, in the adjoining parish 
 of Mawgan, where a labouring man in 1871, while 
 working in a clay pit, three feet below the surface, 
 came upon an almost unique specimen of a double- 
 looped palstave of bronze, weighing fourteen ounces 
 
CELTIC REMAINS. yj 
 
 and a quarter, and in the very highest state of pre- 
 servation. It was presented by Mr. Rogers to the 
 British Museum, which also contains the only other 
 known specimen found in England, and is figured 
 in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 
 Second Series, vol v, No. vii, Plate I, fig. 2. 
 
 Carew, in his survey, hazards a curious theory as 
 to the origin of implements like these, and the pas- 
 sage is worth referring to, though couched in the 
 quaintest language. 
 
 He remarks — "The Cornish Tynners hold a strong 
 imagination, that in the withdrawing of Noah's 
 floud to the sea, the same tooke his course from east 
 to west, violently breaking vp, and forcibly carry- 
 ing with it, the earth, trees, and rocks, which lay 
 any thing loosely, neere the vpper face of the 
 ground. To confirme the likelihood of which sup- 
 posed truth, they doe many times digge vp whole 
 and huge timber trees, which they conceiue at that 
 deluge to haue beene ouerturned and whelmed ; 
 but whether then, or sithence, probable it is, that 
 some such cause produced this effect.* Hence it 
 cometh that albeit the Tynne lay couched at first 
 in certain strakes amongst the rockes, like a tree, 
 
 * Branches, nuts, and stems of trees have been found 
 close to Newlyn and Penzance, the submerged forest of 
 Mounts Bay. 
 
yS CELTIC REMAINS. 
 
 or the veines in a man's bodie, from the depth 
 whereof the maine load, spreadeth out his branches, 
 vntill they approach the open ayre, yet they haue 
 now two kinds of Tynne works, stream and load ; 
 for (say they) the aforemencioned floud, carried 
 together with the moued rockes and earth, so much 
 of the load as was inclosed therein, and at the 
 asswaging, left the same scattered here and there 
 in the vallies and ryuers where it passed ; which 
 being sought and digged, is called streamworke ; 
 under this title, they comprise also the Moore workes, 
 growing from the like occasion. 
 
 " They maintaine these workes, to haue beene 
 verie ancient, and first wrought by the Iewes with 
 pickaxes of Holme, Boxe, & harts-horne ; they 
 prooue this by the name of those places yet en- 
 during, to wit Attall Sarazin, in English, the " Iewes 
 off cast," and by those tooles daily found amongst 
 the rubble of such workes. And it may well be 
 that as Akornes made good bread, before Ceres 
 taught the vse of corne ; and sharp stones serued 
 the Indians for kniues, vntil the Spaniards brought 
 them iron ; so in the infancie of knowledge, these poor 
 instruments for want of better did supplie a turne. 
 There are also taken vp in such workes, certaine 
 little tooles heads of Brasse, which some terme 
 
CELTIC REMAINS. 79 
 
 Thunder-axes, but they make small shew of any- 
 profitable vse. 
 
 " Neither were the Romanes ignorant of this trade, 
 as may appear by a brasse coyne of Domitian's 
 found in one of these workes, and fallen into my 
 hands : and perhaps vnder one of those Flauians, 
 the Iewish workmen made here their first arriuall." 
 
 Time, which discovers most things, will perhaps, 
 in due course, shed a flood of light upon these, 
 and enable a more enlightened age to rightly read 
 and interpret such relics of byegone days. 
 
BONYTHON. 
 
 Once more, and yet once more, 
 I gave unto my harp a dark woven lay ; 
 
 I heard the waters roar, 
 I heard the flood of ages pass away. 
 
 O thou stern spirit, who dost dwell 
 
 In thine eternal cell, 
 Noting, grey chronicler ! the silent years ; 
 
 I saw thee rise — I saw the scroll complete, 
 
 Thou spak'st, and at thy feet 
 The universe gave way. 
 
 
 Henry Kirk White. 
 
 ,HERE is one other old seat, that of 
 Bonython, which claims a mention in 
 any record of the parish of Cury, 
 inasmuch as it was in the possession 
 of an ancient family of the same name for so many 
 centuries, with a history as full of vicissitudes as 
 its near neighbour Bochym ; but the materials for 
 its story are far too scant and meagre to render a 
 continuous narrative possible. 
 
 The scraps and jottings when one has searched 
 all that lay within reach amounts to very little of 
 what the whole history would be if it were possible 
 to present it to the reader in all its romantic 
 truth. 
 
BOXYTIIOX. 8r 
 
 As was remarked with regard to Bochym, it 
 very frequently occurred in olden time that fami- 
 lies took their name from the place where they 
 dwelt (and not vice versa, as is the prevalent but 
 mistaken notion). " The Cornish," says Carew, 
 " entitle one another with his owne and his father's 
 Christian name, and conclude with the place of his 
 dwelling ;" and we may take it the custom of add- 
 ing de was common at a veiy early period. Thus 
 the de Bochyms and Thomas de Bonython. 
 
 Many gentlemen changed their names on the 
 removal to a new home, an instance occurring in 
 this very family, the Bonithons taking to Carclew, 
 name and place. Tonkin says that the custom of 
 assuming the names of theirhabitationand changing 
 it on the next removal was quite left off (1736), 
 though he could instance some who had done so 
 within one hundred years. 
 
 In the MSS. of Hals is this brief sentence : — 
 
 " Bonython is in this parish ; from whence was 
 
 denominated an ancient family of gentlemen sur- 
 
 named deBonithon,whofor many descents flourished 
 
 here in good reputation till the reign of Queen 
 
 Anne, at which time Charles Bonython, Esq., 
 
 serjeant-at-law, sold this barton to one Carpenter, 
 
 now in possession thereof* 
 
 * It was not Charles, but his son Richard, "who sold Bony- 
 thon to the Carpenters. See p. 84. o 
 
82 BONYTHON. 
 
 C. S. Gilbert, who is a pretty reliable authority, 
 narrates that the family became extinct in the 
 elder line on the death of Richard Bonithon in the 
 early part of the last century. 
 
 One of the younger branches of the family, and 
 the most wealthy, settled at Carclew in the reign 
 of Henry IV., having made a marriage with one of 
 the co-heiresses of Daungers, and there Richard 
 Bonithon died July 31, 1697, leaving the estates to 
 an only daughter, through whom in marriage they 
 passed away for ever from the family.* 
 
 It is said a younger branch of the Bonithons of 
 Carclew were till lately residing at S. Austell. 
 
 In the 16th and 17th centuries they were a 
 powerful family. Tonkin mentions one as a man 
 of great repute in the reign of Henry V. ; and a 
 search among county and other records establishes 
 the fact that the Bonithons figured conspicuously 
 in the political events which occurred in the trou- 
 blesome days of the Stuart dynasty. 
 
 Among the State papers of James I. it is recorded 
 that a grant was made to Nicholas Fortesque and 
 Michael Vivian of £60 out of the goods of John 
 Bonithon, deceased, which were forfeited by out- 
 lawry, his death having occurred just prior to the 
 grant, viz., June, 1605. 
 
 * The arms of the family are Arg., a chevron between 
 thtee fleurs-de-lis, sable. 
 
BONYTHON. 8$ 
 
 In 1603, and again in 1604, the Comptrollership 
 of the Stannaries in Cornwall and Devon was 
 granted to Richard Bonithon, and again in 1605 
 Richard Bonithon was appointed keeper of the 
 gaol at Lostwithiel. A little later — in the 17th 
 year of James L, A.D. 1619 — Reskymer Bonython 
 was Sheriff of Cornwall * 
 
 Polwhele mentions a Thomas Bonython who was 
 a captain in the Low Country wars.-f" 
 
 And in 1625 a John Bonithon was captain and 
 serjeant-major of a regiment levied for the King in 
 Devonshire. 
 
 A Richard Bonython, doubtless one of this 
 Cornish family, was one of the first emigrants 
 to America, and settled at Saco, where he died in 
 1650.J His son John died about i684.§ 
 
 Thomes Bonython, of Bonython, married Frances, 
 the daughter of Sir John Parker, of London, and by 
 this marriage there was a son, John Bonython, who 
 married Ann, daughter of Hugh Trevanion, Esq., 
 of Trelogan. 
 
 * Gilbert's Parochial History, p. 303. 
 
 t Polwhele, Civil and Military Hist., p. 87. 
 
 X John Farmer's Genealogical Register of the First Set- 
 tlers of New England (1829), pp. 32, 36, 337. J. B. Felt's 
 Ecclesiastical Hist, of New Eng. (1855), I., 246, 396. 
 G. Folsom's Hist, of Saco and Biddeford, 1830. 
 
 § Folsom's Hist, of Saco and Biddeford, p. 52 et seq. 
 
84 BONYTHON. 
 
 This John Bonython was the father of the cele- 
 brated Serjeant Charles Bonython, who put an 
 end to himself in a fit of madness. 
 
 In " Woolrych's Serjeants " there is a memoir 
 of this Mr. Serjeant Bonython, who was steward of 
 the Courts at Westminster from 1683 to 1705. At 
 that time this was a lucrative post ; but in the 
 Sloane MSS. occurs the following paragraph ex- 
 tracted from a news-letter of the day, Feb. 18, 
 1687: — " Mr. Bonithon, steward for Westminster, 
 has been displaced in favour of Mr. Owen." 
 
 He, Charles Bonython, married Mary, the 
 daughter of — Livesay, Esq., of Livesay, in 
 Lincolnshire, by whom he had two sons, Richard 
 and John, and a daughter. 
 
 He died by his own hand, of which event this 
 brief record is left : — Boynthon " shot himself 
 through the body with a pistoll."* 
 
 Richard, the eldest son, was also called to the 
 bar ; but he must have inherited his father's mad- 
 ness, for he, having first sold portions of his estate 
 in parcels — amongst others this barton — to one 
 Humphrey Carpenter, jun., to complete the tragedy, 
 first set fire to his chambers in Lincoln's Inn, and 
 burned his papers, then stabbed himself with his 
 
 * Narcissus Luttrell's Brief Historical Relation of State 
 Affairs, I., 255 ; V., 545, 555- 
 
BONYTHON. 85 
 
 sword, and not effecting his deadly purpose imme- 
 diately, threw himself out of window and killed 
 himself on the spot. This was in 1720. 
 
 John Bonython, the second son, was educated at 
 King's Coll., Cambridge, and became an eminent 
 physician at Bristol, but died before Richard, 
 probably a Latin poem with his name appended, 
 which appeared in a volume published by some 
 Cambridge undergraduates in 17 14, was his. 
 
 The title of the work from which these verses 
 were taken is — " Maestissimae ac Laetissimae Aca- 
 demiae Cantabrigiensis Carmina funebria et trium- 
 phalia. Illis . . . Reginam Annam repentina morte 
 abreptam deflet. His . . . Regi Georgio Britanni- 
 cum Solium optimis auspiciis ascendenti gratulatur. 
 Cantabrigiae, 17 14, fol." 
 
 Quae longum exuerat luctus, nullisque tot annos 
 Pressa malis, bello victrix, nee sanguinis ultra 
 Prodiga, jam mites sub Pacem miserat hostes ; 
 Ecce ! iterum in fletus se maesta Britannia Solvit, 
 Et largo lachrymarum humectat flumine terram. 
 Scilicet Anna Parens crudelibus occubat umbris, 
 Nee dulci afflictos solatur fronde, sed, ante 
 Ouos vetuit praesens, lachrymarum postulat imbres. 
 Sic paulum, dum claustra vias opposta morantur, 
 Pax compescit aquas ; at mox, compage soluta, 
 
86 BONYTHON. 
 
 Turbida majores devolvent aequora fluctus. 
 
 Occidit et terrae, quae jam possederat Orbem, 
 Quantula pars est ipsa ? juvant quid Sydera famae 
 Terminus, imperii Oceanus ? jacet ecce sepulchro, 
 Occidit, et tumulo marcessit gloria mundi. 
 
 Quid ? parva dixi demens includier Urna ? 
 Ingentem non terra capit ; Te lucida Cceli 
 Expectant convexa, vias en ! lumine signant. 
 Hac Avus, hac Soror, hac Conjux, hac irrita Natus 
 Spes Britonum, Sophia hesterna divulsaque morte> 
 Clara diu Sophia in Terris, nunc gloria Ccelo, 
 
 Et Proavi Proavorum 
 
 At Tibi debentur laudes, Pia Mater, ademptae 
 Quo Tibi, quo regnis Dignus succederet Haeres 
 Curasti quae cauta ; Tuae crudelia mortis 
 Sic damna instaurans, sic tristia fata rependens. 
 
 Reddas, Phcebe, diem ; dulces quid protrahis horas 
 Caesare venturo ? Caesar cur Ipse moratur 
 Gaudia nostra ? Adsis, lapsae patriaeque ruinas 
 Sarcito ingentis ; revoces in pectora vires 
 Quas dolor exhausit ; magnos hie pace Triumphos 
 Dediscas ; hie spes praesenti lumine firmes, 
 O Pater, O Princeps ; sed te nee Regia Sceptra 
 Nee Patriae Te vota juvant, Quern cura remordet, 
 Quern rapta pia cura premit de Matre dolentem, 
 Communi de Matre, Tua Britonumque, dolentem ; 
 
 
BONYTHON. 87 
 
 Hinc ergo, hinc lachymas de chara abstersimus 
 Anna, 
 Ut nova scena suos luctus, sua tempora flendi 
 Posceret ? O male mors victrix ! sed fessa, precamur 
 Jam tandem desiste ; Tibi quae funere acerbo 
 Atra dies Sophiam Patriae, quaeque abstulit Annam, 
 Plus dedit Imperii, quam cum per taedia belli 
 Stravisti innumeros, Martis spectacula, Gallos ; 
 Nee querimur Sophiam, nobis dolor unicus Anna : 
 Vivit adhuc Sophia, et partu sua gloria fulget. 
 
 Joh. Bonython, Coll. Regal. Alumn. 
 
 The elder branch of this family became extinct 
 with the Richard who was laid in his grave in 1 720, 
 and the name of Bonithon was thenceforth blotted 
 out from the record of human life. Doubtless it 
 would have remained in the oblivion to which it 
 had already been consigned, but that about 1856^ 
 on the death of an ancient maiden lady who resided 
 near St. Austell (in all likelihood one of the Carclew 
 branch mentioned above) there was discovered 
 among her effects a curious old jug of stoneware, 
 which had no doubt been " laid up in lavender" for 
 years, and preserved in her family as a precious 
 heirloom. In all probability she was the last of 
 her race ; at all events, her property came into the 
 market, and the family relic passed into other hands. 
 The cup is of the period of Queen Elizabeth, and it 
 
88 BONYTHON. 
 
 is said to be unique of its kind ; the date (1598) is 
 in raised figures over the central compartment. It 
 is of brown stoneware, probably of Dutch manu- 
 facture, and on the body of the cup are three oval 
 medallions, filled with armorial devices. On the 
 central medallion the double imperial eagle is dis- 
 played, surmounted by a crown, the shield having 
 as supporters on either side coronetted lions in 
 arabesque ; the neck-band is ornamented with 
 scroll-work in relief, and lower down on the shoul- 
 ders of the jug are scroll patterns in compart- 
 ments. A label is attached to the handle of the 
 flagon with the following inscription : — " Date of 
 this jug, 1598. It was used at the coronation ban- 
 quet of James I. and VI. of Scotland, by one of the 
 Bonithon family, who officiated at the banquet." 
 
 This curious historical relic is in excellent pre- 
 servation, and has evidently been carefully treasured 
 by its former possessors through a long period, 
 during which eleven kings and queens occupied the 
 throne of England.* 
 
 From these extracts it would appear that the 
 hero of the flagon — most probably a John Bonithon 
 and his descendants — were residing periodically in 
 London during successive reigns, and that they 
 
 * Gentleman's Magazine for 1868 (pp. 179 — 82), an article, 
 " Bonython Flagon ." 
 
BONYTHOX. 89 
 
 occupied important official positions under the 
 Government from time to time with varied for- 
 tunes until the tragical death of the last Richard 
 Bonithon in 1720. 
 
 The Bonithon flagon is now in the collection of 
 a gentleman at Teignmouth, in Devon, and is much 
 admired and appreciated by archaeologists, not only 
 on account of its historical interest, but for its truly 
 regal appearance and the unique style of its orna- 
 mentation ; it is, moreover, untouched by the de- 
 stroying hand of time, and the lustre of the glaze 
 continues undiminished. 
 
 There is little that is striking about the house at 
 Bonython, which is a plain substantial building with 
 a granite front, facing the sea, which it overlooks at 
 a distance of some two miles by the valleys of 
 Poljew and Gunwalloe. 
 
 The view from the front of the house is a most 
 extensive one, unusually so, as most of the ancient 
 Cornish houses are built quite on the side of the 
 hill, or in the valley, as, e.g., Bochym. 
 
 On the lower part of the estate, in a small 
 plantation just outside the lodge gates of Bochym, 
 is a group of magnificent rocks, the grandeur of 
 which strike the beholder at the very first glance. 
 One of these — the topmost — is named the Fire, 
 or Bonfire Rock, and is no doubt one of the 
 
90 B0NYTH0N. 
 
 many which in various parts of West Cornwall 
 have been, with more or less certainty, predicted 
 to have been Druidic in their purposes. 
 
 Both Toland and Borlase write of the fires 
 wont to be kindled by the Druids, one season 
 for the lighting of which was on the eve of 
 November, when the people were compelled to 
 rekindle the private fires in the houses from the 
 consecrated fires of the Druids, the domestic fire 
 in every house having been for that purpose first 
 carefully extinguished ; and, curiously enough, this 
 Js just the season when Cury parish feast is held * 
 
 The Cornish Midsummer fires too will occur 
 to those familiar with the county. Hone says of 
 them : — u An immemorial and peculiar custom 
 prevails on the sea-coast of the western extremity 
 of Cornwall of kindling large bonfires on the eve 
 of June 24. . . . I cannot help thinking it the 
 remains of an ancient Druidical festival, celebrated 
 on Midsummer-day, to implore the friendly in- 
 fluence of Heaven on their fields, compounded 
 with that of the first of May, when the Druids 
 kindled large fires on all their sacred places, and 
 
 * " An Account of S. Just in Penrith, by Rev. John Buller," 
 p. 89. The parish feasts of S. Just and S. Corentin being 
 held about the same time, the presumption respecting these 
 fires put forward by the author holds equally respecting 
 Cury. 
 
BONYTHON. 9 1 
 
 on the tops of their cairns, in honour of Bel, or 
 Belinus, the name by which they distinguished 
 the sun, whose revolving course had again clothed 
 the earth with beauty, and diffused joy and glad- 
 ness through the creation." . . . And this agrees 
 with Toland's remarks on these vestiges of ancient 
 fire-worship. " These midsummer fires," he says, 
 " were to obtain a blessing on the fruits of the 
 earth, now becoming ready for gathering, as those 
 of the first of May, that they might prosperously 
 grow ; and those of the last of October were a 
 thanksgiving for finishing their harvest."* 
 
 In the "Land's End District"^ is a graphic 
 description of one of these festivals : — 
 
 " It is the immemorial usage in Penzance and 
 the neighbouring towns and villages to kindle bon- 
 fires and torches on Midsummer-eve ; and on Mid- 
 summer-day to hold a fair on Penzance quay, 
 where the country folk assemble from the adjoin- 
 ing parishes in great numbers to make excursions 
 on the water. S. Peter's Eve is distinguished by a 
 similar display of bonfires and torches, although 
 the ' quay fair ' on S. Peter's-day has been discon- 
 tinued upwards of forty years. 
 
 " On these eves a line of tar-barrels, relieved 
 
 * Toland, Vol. I., p. 73- 
 
 t The Land's End District, by R. Edmonds, Penzance. 
 
92 BONYTHON. 
 
 occasionally by large bonfires, is seen in the centre 
 of each of the principal streets of Penzance. On 
 either side of this line young men and women pass 
 up and down, swinging round their heads heavy 
 torches made of large pieces of folded canvass 
 steeped in tar, and nailed to the ends of sticks 
 between three and four feet long ; the flames of 
 some of these almost equal those of the tar-barrels. 
 Rows of lighted candles also, when the air is calm, 
 are fixed outside the windows or along the sides of 
 the streets. , . . On these nights Mount's Bay has 
 a most animating appearance, although not equal 
 to what was annually witnessed at the beginning 
 of the present century, when the whole coast, from 
 the Land's End to the Lizard, wherever a town or 
 village existed, was lighted up with those stationary 
 or moving fires. 
 
 " In the early part of the evening, children may 
 be seen wearing wreaths of flowers — a -custom in 
 all probability originating from the ancient use of 
 those ornaments when they danced around the 
 fires." 
 
 "At the close of the fireworks in Penzance, a 
 great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly from 
 the neighbourhood of the quay, used always, until 
 within the last few years, to join hand in hand, 
 forming a long string, and run through the streets 
 
BONYTHON. 93 
 
 playing "thread the needle," heedless of the fire- 
 works showered upon them, and oftentimes leaping 
 over the yet glowing embers. I have on these 
 occasions seen boys following one another jump- 
 ing through flames higher than themselves. But 
 whilst this is now done innocently in every sense 
 of the word, we all know that the passing of chil- 
 dren through fire was a very common act of 
 idolatry ; and the heathen believed that all per- 
 sons and all living things submitted to this ordeal 
 would be preserved from evil throughout the en- 
 suing year. A similar blessing was supposed to 
 be imparted to their fields by running around 
 them with flaming torches." 
 
 May not the burning rock on the estate of 
 Bonython have been connected in past ages with 
 some of this ? 
 
OTHER ANTIQUITIES IN CURY 
 AND GUNWALLOE. 
 
 We found the world barbarian : is it nought 
 That where we trod, arts sprang beneath our feet ? 
 The tales of virtue and of valour wrought, 
 Your children still repeat. 
 
 Our race is passed away. At dead of night, 
 The Master called us : and we did His will. 
 Ye, who through widening avenues of light, 
 Are gathering knowledge still, 
 
 r Who to the past's accumulated wealth 
 Add, day by day, fresh stores that onward roll, 
 The large experience that bringeth health 
 And wisdom to the soul. 
 
 ' Learn yet one thing. He who is wise above, 
 Leadeth in every age His children home : 
 And He, beholding, something found to love 
 Even in Pagan Rome." 
 
 All the Year Round, May 17, 1862. 
 
 jHERE are some spots in this land almost 
 void of interest either historic or anti- 
 quarian. From their isolation, they have 
 taken no great share in the events of the 
 country, and therefore, when perchance some ob- 
 ject which tells of past ages is turned up from 
 below the turf, there is little to be said beyond 
 the mere description of its form, size, and pur- 
 
ANTIQUITIES. 95 
 
 pose. Other districts there are so rich in anti- 
 quarian remains, that volume after volume has 
 been written concerning them ; and again one's 
 pen is tied, for all that one can say on a fresh 
 discovery, beyond the details of the find, is very 
 much what has been said before. 
 
 This is eminently the case of Cornwall. Its 
 tumuli, cromlechs, and kistvaens, have been well 
 dissected ; the vast number of urns, implements of 
 bronze and stone, and hoards of coins, from time 
 to time brought to light, and apparently, if we 
 may judge from recent researches, still unexhausted 
 and inexhaustible, have formed the text for many 
 a tome, many a learned disquisition. The folios 
 of intelligence that we have concerning its early 
 inhabitants and visitants carry us back to the 
 days of Phoenicia ; and it is contended that the 
 Phoenicians first discovered the Danmonium pro- 
 montory, and gave it the name of Meneog or 
 Menedg, which it bears to this very day. This 
 ancient Ocrinum, or Danmonium* promontory, of 
 Ptolemy presents a rich feast for the archaeolo- 
 gist who has the time and freedom to visit and 
 examine its multitude of antiquities, whether 
 
 * Ptolemy, ii, 3. Aa/xvoviov to kcu Ohcptvov axpov. — 
 Pohvhele, Suppl.,p. 52. 
 
g6 ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 Roman encampments or sepulchral barrows, its 
 way-side crosses or moorland cromlechs. From 
 time to time, however, it happens some memo- 
 rial of past ages is picked up by the labourer, and 
 finding its way into the hands of private indi- 
 viduals, or, what is still worse, the marine store 
 or melting pot of some country dealer, is there 
 lost in oblivion. 
 
 Anything, therefore, that rescues ancient relics 
 from this fate will be welcomed by the true archaeo- 
 logist ; even the few objects of antiquarian interest 
 here described, collected by the writer in that far 
 end of West Cornwall, the " stony district " of the 
 Lizard, may serve to swell the catalogue of those 
 remains which will one day help to elucidate the 
 history of the past. 
 
 The results of almost all recent explorations, as 
 far as the tumuli and sepulchral memorials of West 
 Cornwall are concerned, have recently been published 
 by Mr. W. C. Borlase, the descendant of the great 
 antiquarian, in his Nenice Cormibice, and there he 
 names the kist vaens of this immediate neighbour- 
 hood — few of which, if any, may be considered to 
 have contained coins. 
 
 The few coins here described as coming from 
 this immediate vicinity are unfortunately poor 
 in preservation, and but the worst specimens, 
 
ANTIQUITIES. 97 
 
 the remnant of a large and what, if it had fallen 
 into good hands, must have been a most interest- 
 ing find. 
 
 It is doubful whether any part of England has 
 yielded more varieties and numbers of ancient 
 coins than Cornwall. 
 
 The famous Carn-Bre, renowned for its temples 
 or fortifications, and the numerous finds of 
 implements and coins* thereabouts, Leland's brass 
 pot full of Roman money, found at Tredine 
 (Treryn), and the Saxon coins from Cornwall, 
 which form a part of the beautiful collection of 
 Jon n - Rashleigh, Esq., of Menabilly, are instances ; 
 while from time to time in past years, within the 
 memory of man, coins, singly or in small groups, 
 have been picked up at various spots in the Mene- 
 age, and of all no record has been taken. 
 
 Of the various kinds of money, Roman is, per- 
 haps, the most frequently found ; nor is this to be 
 wondered at, when it is remembered how very gene- 
 rally specimens of the Roman coinage are scattered 
 over the sites of their stations, villages, and camps ; 
 while, as a rule, those discovered in such situations 
 have been of the more common types, and much 
 
 * Figured in Borlase's Antiquities, PI. xxiii., p. 25, and 
 supposed by him to be British imitations of the Greek coins 
 of Phillip. 
 
 II 
 
98 ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 more worn, than those which have been stumbled 
 upon in hoards. 
 
 Here, in Cornwall, various speculations have been 
 raised as to the use such quantities of Roman copper 
 money could have served, whether it was a mer- 
 cantile or military purpose that required it, peaceful 
 barter at the mines and in the harbours, or the wages 
 of the soldiers under arms for the protection or sub- 
 jugation of the surrounding territory. 
 
 Be it as it may, we have the record in Lysorts 
 Magna Britania (vol iii, ccxxiv) and Borlase s An- 
 tiquities (p. 301), of constant finds of Roman coins 
 in the very neighbourhood where a century later 
 those in my possession were found. 
 
 " They both mention the discovery of 24 gallons 
 of Roman money of the reign of Constantine in a 
 tenement called Condorah on the Helford river ; 
 and, in one of the creeks which run up into the 
 parish of Constantine on the other side of the river, 
 were found, same date 1735, forty coins, including 
 some of Domitian, Trajan, and Faustina junior, in 
 brass." 
 
 In this exact spot, or very near to it, a labourer, in 
 1 8 17, was ploughing; in the course of his day's 
 work he turned up a flat stone with the plough, and 
 disclosed a cavity containing an urn of common 
 potter's ware ; this he, after the wisdom of his sort, 
 
ANTIQUITIES. 99 
 
 broke in pieces, in order to examine its contents 
 
 » 
 
 when lo ! there fell out about 200 coins, these he 
 brought into the town of Helston and sold, and they 
 were gradually dispersed by the buyer, some to one 
 friend, some to another; many of the best were given 
 to the late Dr. Adam Clarke, and the few that re- 
 mained, eight in all, came into my possession in the 
 commencement of the present year (1873). 
 
 From the description given to me, which was 
 fairly minute, they would appear to have been 
 mostly first brass. The urn in which they were 
 deposited, was of course lost, its destruction by the 
 hands of the ploughman being complete. 
 
 Chygarkie (in Cornish "a fortified house"), the 
 field in which they were lying, is only about two 
 miles from Gear, which seems to have been a Ro- 
 man station. This " Gear " is, no doubt, the origi- 
 nal of " Caer" Cornish for camp, and is situated 
 on one of the headmost creeks of the Helford river, 
 easily accessible by the small ships of that period. 
 The camp is in good preservation still, situated 
 on a hill, and there appears to be the remains of a 
 covered way from it to the creek. 
 
 Adjacent to this is Caervallack (query, is this 
 a corruption of caer-vclllum ?), where there arc 
 traces of deep fosses and banks ; while in the 
 neighbouring parish of St. Kcvern, at a place 
 
 Lc 
 
100 ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 called " Bahow," are some ancient graves, from 
 which were taken relics decidedly pronounced by 
 antiquaries to be Roman. There was, we know, 
 a Roman road from Dumovaria (Dorchester), 
 which, passing through Moridunum (Honiton or 
 Seaton), and stretching its length through Isca 
 Dumnoniorum (Exeter) to the rich mining district 
 of the far west, penetrated to the very extremity 
 of Cornwall. It was probably here, at Constan- 
 tine then, on the Helford Haven, that the great 
 eastern Roman road from Truro terminated. 
 
 There was a camp at Tre-Gear, in Bodmin parish, 
 occupied, as recent discoveries prove, by the Ro- 
 mans during some period from Vespasian to Tra- 
 jan ; and close to Cury we have also a Tre-Gear, 
 and in its immediate vicinity a round field enclosed 
 by high banks and ditch (very much like a Roman 
 camp), outside which the land is more than com- 
 monly fertile.* 
 
 Of the coins (eight in number which I have from 
 Chygarkie), none are in brilliant condition. I pre- 
 
 * Not fifty years ago the father of the present tenant of this 
 farm found, in digging a hole for a gate-post, some burnt 
 ashes and unctuous earth, and there is still extant the half a 
 nether millstone, which was found close to this place, whole ; 
 but, -being carried to the farm-yard, in course of time, no care 
 being taken of it, was split in two pieces, the one of which is 
 to be seen to this day. 
 
ANTIQUITIES. 101 
 
 sume they are the poorest specimens of the whole 
 find, some of the letters being quite illegible. They 
 are as follow : 
 
 FIRST BRASS. 
 
 i. Vespasian, A.D. 69, 79. Corroded, but perfectly legible- 
 Reads ; obv., (caes . ve)spasianvs . avg. ; rev. liber- 
 
 TAS PVBLIC(A). 
 
 2. Antoninus Pius, A.D. 139-161. In fair preservation. Obv., 
 
 ANTONINVS . AVG . PIVS . P . P . TR . P . COS . III. ; rev., S 
 ALVS 
 
 3. Aurelius (Marcus), afterwards Marcus Antoninus, A.D. 
 
 161-180. Fair preservation. Obv., avrelivs . caesar . 
 AVG . PI I . F. ; rev., too worn to be legible. 
 
 4. Crispina, wife of Commodus, A.D. 177-183. Good preser- 
 
 vation. Obv., CRISPINA . AVGVSTA ; rev., female figure 
 seated. 
 
 5. One of the Julias. The portrait is most like that of Julia 
 
 Domna. 
 
 THIRD BRASS. 
 i. Marius (Marcus Aurelius) the emperor for three days, A.D. 
 
 267. Poor. Obv., IMP .CM. AVR . MARIVS , AVG. ; 
 rev., worn and indistinct. 
 2. Constantine II., son of the first Constantine and Fausta, 
 a.d. 316-340. Obv., constantin(vs) PO II. 
 
 BILLON. 
 
 1. Herrenius Etruscus '(Quintus), son of Decius, a.d. 251, 
 Obv., P ET (r) decivs . NOB . C/ES. ; rev., 
 
 PIETAS . AVGG. 
 
 Perhaps the most ancient, and at the same time 
 the most interesting, of the group of antiquities 
 here described, is a bead which was found in the 
 
102 ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 parish of Mawgan in Menedge, at no great dis- 
 tance from Chygarkie (" the fortified house "), where 
 the coins just described were turned up in 1817. 
 It is very similar, almost the exact counterpart of 
 one which was found at Gilton in Kent ; the only 
 one of its kind among the numerous relics there 
 dug up by Mr. Faussett, in 1760, and so beautifully 
 figured in the Inventorium Sepulchrale (Plate v, fig. 
 2). It would seem to be composed of layers of 
 coloured clays upon a hollow tube of glass. In the 
 immediate centre of the bead its shape is roughly 
 round, about seven-eighths to one inch in diame- 
 ter ; but at each end it is tapered off to a hexa- 
 gon. The outer layer of colour is blue, which in 
 turn is divided from a broad band of red by a thin 
 circle of opaque white ; and on the inner surface, 
 again, is a white band which covers the tube by 
 which the ornament is intended to be strung. It 
 is unlike the famous productions of the island of 
 Murano. Found among or close to Roman remains, 
 the first thought is, can it be Roman ? The cor- 
 responding one at Gilton was found in a grave. 
 Here, in Mawgan, we have no such graves. Confi- 
 dently pronounced by a very good judge to be 
 Phoenician, and certainly in make and shape alto- 
 gether dissimilar to Roman or Saxon, I hesitate to 
 found a theory upon the single specimen before 
 
ANTIQUITIES. 103 
 
 me. It may be Phoenician or Druidical, or both 
 in its origin.* In any case a shrewd guess may be 
 given of its use as a personal ornament or a charm, 
 probably the latter ; worn by the owner during life, 
 and buried with him in the Kentish grave ; but 
 lost on the Cornish moorland, to lie unnoticed 
 through long periods of succeeding ages, and turned 
 up at last by a rustic's boot in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury of ours. However unlike the " bcdes " of which 
 our old poets, Chaucer and Spenser, sing, it may 
 yet have served a kindred purpose. Chaucer tells 
 of one maiden : 
 
 " A pair of bedes eke she bere 
 
 Upon a lace, all of white thread, 
 
 On which that she her bedes bede" 
 
 And in the time of Herrick the mystic globules 
 
 were potent against the enemy, be it temporal or 
 
 spiritual ; and he says : 
 
 " Bring the holy water hither, 
 
 Let us wash and pray together. 
 
 When our beads are thus united, 
 
 Then the foe will fly affrighted." 
 
 * Beads of like form and make were discovered a short 
 time since in Russia, where, in making excavations for a 
 brewery at Kiew, the workmen came upon an immense pit, 
 containing several thousand skulls, together with bones of 
 the different sexes of all ages — probably a place of massacre 
 — near to the spot was one tomb containing but one skeleton 
 with a heavy iron broadsword, a few beads, a ring, and a cross. 
 — Long Ago, p. 21. 
 
104 ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 If it be as before hinted, that the Phoenicians in 
 their visits to the Cassiterides and the adjacent 
 country for tin, did sail up the Looe creek and 
 Cobra river to the tin depots at the foot of the 
 Hellaz Hill, on the south side of Helston, — and to 
 the east of that town, on the other border of the 
 Lizard promontory, there is a creek (the Helford 
 river) once, too, renowned for its stores of tin, on 
 the shores of which we have at this day a Roman 
 station, with nearly all its parts exceedingly well 
 preserved,— then the finding a bead of Phoenician 
 work on the site of a Roman camp, and contigu- 
 ous to Roman coins, will occasion no great diffi- 
 culty. They are independent of each other, the 
 one of far more ancient deposit than the other ; and 
 what at first sight would appear to be unaccount- 
 ably mysterious, really resolves itself into a confir- 
 mation and evidence of the truth of history ; that 
 both the Phoenicians and the Romans visited the 
 peninsula of Danmonium, perhaps for the very same 
 purpose, viz., to prosecute the very profitable trade 
 in the precious metal for which the whole of that 
 region of Magna Britannia was famous. It is cer- 
 tainly not a little strange that so few Phoenician 
 remains have been brought to light in a country 
 which they visited so constantly and uninterruptedly. 
 The statement of Richard of Cirencester that iooo 
 years B.C. is the date of their first visit, must be 
 
ANTIQUITIES. 105 
 
 taken aimgrano salis ; but any rate, having regard 
 to the commercial intercourse of the Phoenician 
 merchants with the then inhabitants of Western 
 Britain, it is remarkable, not that their influence 
 should have extended even to the language of the 
 Danmonii (as I cannot but think is evident, though 
 I know still a contested point), but that there should 
 be so few substantial and tangible memorials of 
 these early colonists of our Cornubian shores. 
 
 It is probably to be attributed to the fact that, 
 whatever else they did, the Phoenicians did not 
 make any permanent settlements on these shores ; 
 they visited the few ports for the purpose of trad- 
 ing, and their influence with and upon the natives 
 depended upon the intercourse resulting from their 
 commercial dealings. 
 
 Doubtless the inhabitants of Danmonium would 
 be inclined to copy the manners, and to a certain 
 extent imitate the mode of life, which their civilized 
 visitors introduced, and it is only reasonable to 
 suppose that these merchants of the sea brought 
 with them from the East many implements and 
 articles of use in civilized life which, perfectly novel 
 to the ruder dwellers on the Cornubian shores, 
 would be prized among them, as our guns and look- 
 ing-glasses and beads, have been in later ages 
 among the aborigines of the Australian and Ame- 
 rican continents. 
 
106 ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 One such relic of the past is the " Chil " of the 
 meneage district. 
 
 Forty years ago — when the illumination of our 
 houses was not the easy matter it is now, and lamps 
 were few and costly — there was a primitive kind of 
 oil lamp used in the farm houses and fishermen's 
 dwellings in the Lizard district, which most as- 
 suredly must have been formed upon the pattern 
 of such lamps as would have been used by the 
 Phoenician traders centuries before the Christian 
 era. 
 
 Handed down from age to age, family to family, 
 father to son, its construction had undergone but 
 little modification, and even with the advance of me- 
 chanical skill it has retained the simple shape and 
 make of primitive times. 
 
 A description of this ancient form of lamp, and 
 an engraving of it, was given in a paper by Mr. 
 Robert Blight, read before the Royal Institution 
 of Cornwall in the present year. 
 
 The chil there described as the workmanship of 
 the village blacksmith and carpenter combined, 
 sometimes of the cottagers themselves, was formed 
 of an upright back about a foot high, with a hori- 
 zontal piece fitted to it, resting on two short legs, 
 much after the fashion of a chair. A small vessel, 
 made of a thin plate of iron, with edges turned 
 up, and terminating in a lip or beak, somewhat 
 
ANTIQUITIES. 107 
 
 the shape of the ordinary Tuscan lamp, was used 
 for the oil and wick, and was hooked to the upright 
 by a small handle, which contrivance allowed it 
 easily to be removed for cleaning or replenishing. 
 On the horizontal part, the seat of the chair as it 
 were, a small saucer was placed so as to catch any 
 oil that might drip from the dish above. 
 
 The wick, which was kindled in the lip or beak, 
 was usually of cotton, but retained its ancient 
 name Purvan — a Celtic word meaning " rushes " — 
 in the absence of other material, a wick, called a 
 Booba, was used — nothing more than a few strips of 
 linen plaited together. 
 
 Mr. Blight remarks, that history attributes the 
 invention of the lamp to the Egyptians, and that 
 from them it passed to the Greeks and Romans. 
 Skulls of animals and sea shells were the earliest and 
 simplest forms in which animal fat was kindled by 
 means of a wick formed of any vegetable fibre. 
 
 The " chil " of the JMcucdg, not only resembles in 
 shape the skull of animals, but is not at all unlike 
 lamps from the excavations of Herculaneum and 
 Pompeii, thus strengthening the opinion that such 
 articles of domestic use were brought to these shores 
 by the early traders, and may be classed among the 
 few vestiges that we have of the Phoenicians in 
 Cornwall. 
 
CURY GREAT TREE. 
 
 Even ash, 1 thee do pluck ; 
 Hoping thus to meet good luck. 
 If no luck I get from thee, 
 I shall wish thee on the tree. ' 
 
 HE ash-tree, if not as venerable as the 
 oak, is scarcely less remarkable, and 
 has ever held a conspicuous place alike 
 in nature, history, and mythology. 
 Under its mystic shade the gods held their assem- 
 blies, Homer's heroes go forth with weapons made 
 of ash, and Dioscorides, the physician, would cure 
 the bite of a serpent with the juice of the sacred 
 tree. 
 
 Though every village has not its row of pollard 
 ash trees like that of Selborne immortalized by 
 Gilbert White, through which, when saplings, chil- 
 dren were passed for cricks and ricks and all the 
 ills that flesh is heir to (in its infancy ?) yet many 
 an one has its great tree of some historic interest 
 and wholesale superstitions, under whose branches 
 generations have passed successively ; the old tree 
 looked on while the whole parish has been born 
 
£M¥R&»gE TB EUBY 
 
and lived and died, and perchance will still remain 
 to see another round of human destinies fulfilled. 
 Perhaps the memory of the tree has outlived its 
 • venerable self, accident or old age has laid it low, 
 while its very departure has freshened up the re- 
 membrances of the past, and stereotyped them for 
 years to come. 
 
 It is thus with Cury. Cury had its great tree, 
 till late years the pride of the whole district — in 
 former days, perhaps, the consulting chamber of 
 the profoundly wise medicine men, when credulous 
 mothers brought their children "that wouldn't 
 goode" or thrive, to have them drawn through its 
 cleft ;* or in later times the trysting-place of rustic 
 lovers whose vows were witnessed only by the 
 spreading branches of the ancient ash. 
 Where the weeping ash-tree droops, 
 'Tis the spell'd and gifted hour 
 
 When. the faeries range their troops. 
 With ear erect, and searching eye, 
 We'll wait their jocund company ; 
 And mark ourselves the while unseen 
 Their revels on the green. — Smedley. 
 
 What a story of romance entwines itself round 
 
 * The passing of children through holes in the earth, 
 rocks or trees, once an established rite, is still practised in 
 various parts of Cornwall. With us, boils are cured by 
 creeping on the hands and knees beneath a bramble which 
 has grown into the soil at both ends. Children affected with 
 
110 CURY GREAT TREE. 
 
 that old hollow tree. Superstition paid veneration 
 to it ; smugglers made it a hiding-place ; the 
 " fierce sounds of mortal blows " have risen from 
 beneath its branches. But the tree has now dis- 
 appeared altogether, and all that can be done is to 
 gather up its memories — those that are left to us. 
 
 There seems to be no chance of ascertaining now 
 whether in its young and flexible days it had been 
 cleft, as popular superstition says, but it was a very 
 remarkable tree, the largest in the Lizard country, 
 or indeed almost in all West Cornwall, and seemed 
 to be second only to the great ash of Woburn de- 
 scribed by Strutt in the Sylva Britannica. 
 
 It stood on a triangular patch of ground at the 
 junction of a lane in Cury, with the Lizard-road, 
 at a place called Trease, close to the little brook 
 which divides the parish of Cury from that of 
 Mawgan.* 
 
 hernia are still passed through a slit in an ash sapling before 
 sunrise, fasting ; after which the slit portions are bound up, 
 and as they unite so the malady is cured. 
 
 The ash is indeed a tree of many virtues ; venomous rep- 
 tiles are never known to rest under its shadow, and a single 
 blow from an ash stick is instant death to an adder ; struck 
 by a bough of any other tree, the reptile is said to retain 
 marks of life until the sun goes down. 
 
 The antipathy of the serpent to the ash is a very old popu- 
 lar fallacy. — Pliny, Hist. Mundi, lib. xvi. 
 
 * See illustrations, pp. 109 and frontispiece. A record of 
 
CURY GREAT TREE. I I I 
 
 Looking at the illustration on page 109, if Cury 
 Great Tree were now standing, it would appear 
 among the clump of foliage just in advance of the 
 horse and cart, ascending the rise from the brook. 
 It spread its giant arms over the greater part of 
 the open space (nearly 70 feet diameter) between 
 the hedgerows, and its girth immediately above 
 the ground was 27 feet. The hollow trunk, 5 feet 
 up, was 14 feet in circumference, and its internal 
 cavity 5 feet, tapering away to 3 feet. 
 
 It once had six spreading limbs springing from 
 the trunk, at about 15 feet from the base ; some of 
 these, however, were broken off close to the trunk 
 before the tree came down. 
 
 The tree attained a considerable reputation as 
 being the rendezvous of the lawless " good-for- 
 naughts " of those times ; and among the many 
 stories told in connection with it is one worth 
 giving, which was related by one of the late in- 
 habitants of the parish, he having heard it from 
 his father, who was a boy when the occurrence 
 took place. It is known as 
 
 The Faction Fight at Cury Great Tree. 
 
 On a green knoll in the centre of the inter- 
 section of the roads from Helston to the Lizard, 
 
 this wonderful tree is preserved in " Forest Trees of Britain," 
 1st ed., 2 vols., London ; but a notice of it is wanting in the 
 recent 1 vol. edition by C. A. Johns. 
 
112 CURY GREAT TREE. 
 
 and Mawgan to Cury, flourished an ash-tree of 
 magnificent dimensions. 
 
 The peculiarity of its position, together with 
 its unusual size, in the midst of a district singu- 
 larly destitute of trees, rendered it famous through- 
 out the surrounding neighbourhood ; and in desig- 
 nating a special locality, reference was, and still 
 continues to be, made to " Cury Great Tree " as a 
 position generally known. During the last fifty 
 years the tree has been gradually decaying, and at 
 present only a portion of the hollow trunk remains, 
 which is rapidly disappearing.* It stands about 
 half-way up a gentle rise facing the north ; and in 
 passing over the road, the country people speak of 
 a dim tradition of a time when the " road ran with 
 blood." 
 
 The occasion of this, which is almost forgotten, 
 was a faction fight on a large scale between the 
 men of the parishes of Wendron and Breage, hap- 
 pening about one hundred years since. A wreck 
 took place near the Lizard, and the Wendron men 
 being nearest, were soon on the spot to appropriate 
 whatever flotsam or jetsam might come in their 
 way. Returning laden with their spoils, they were 
 encountered at the Great Tree by the Breage men, 
 
 * Since this was written the tree is altogether gone, it was 
 removed in 1862, the branches having fallen a few years 
 previous, in 1857. 
 
CURY GREAT TREE. I I 3 
 
 bound on a similar errrnd, and a fight, as a matter 
 of course, ensued, which was prolonged till the fol- 
 lowing day. 
 
 The contest is said to have been a most terrible 
 one, each party being armed with staves. The 
 savage nature of the fight may be inferred from 
 the following fact : —A Wendron man, named 
 Gluyas, having been disabled, was put on the top 
 of the roadside hedge, out of the melee, when he 
 was seen by a Breage termagant known as " Prudy 
 the Wicked," and by her quickly dragged into the 
 road, " Prudy " exclaiming " Ef thee artn't ded, I'd 
 a make thee !" suiting the action to the word by 
 striking Gluyas with her patten-iron until he was 
 dead. There is some account of " Prudy 's " having 
 been taken before the " Justice," but she does not 
 appear to have been punished. These fights be- 
 tween parishes were so common in those days that 
 any death occurring in the fray was quietly passed 
 over as a thing of course and soon forgotten, and, 
 adds Mr. Hunt, " So late as thirty years since it 
 was unsafe to venture alone through the streets of 
 the lower part of Helston after nightfall on a 
 market-day owing to the frays of the Breage, Wen- 
 dron, and Sithney men. So writes a friend residing 
 in Helston."* 
 
 * All this, as far as it goes, is confirmatory of the possible 
 truth of the tale told by Jeremiah Jose's grandmother (p. 175.) 
 
 I 
 
114 CURY GREAT TREE. 
 
 The custom of passing the body of a cripple 
 through a cleft ash-tree is not essentially Cornish. 
 It is common among the Wiltshire peasantry, the 
 rites and ceremonies pertaining thereto being iden- 
 tical with those of the west. 
 
 The Rev. A. C. Smith, in a paper read before 
 the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, adduces a 
 case which he had seen, when a boy, of a labourer 
 splitting a sapling at early dawn with many rites, 
 and after passing the body of a suffering infant 
 through, he bound up the tree with moistened clay, 
 in the full belief that if the tree recovered the child 
 would also, and, vice versa, if the tree died, so 
 would the child. 
 
 A curious incident in connection with Cury Great 
 Tree* was narrated to me a short time ago, which is 
 worth transcribing : — 
 
 Quite fifty years ago John Bartlett, a farmer, 
 living on the boundary line which divides Cury 
 and Mawgan, found the following in an old 
 almanack — 
 
 " Lost where it was dropped on Saturday night 
 last, an empty bag with a cheese in it, the bag was 
 marked with a D but the letters were worn out : 
 
 * In the frontispiece the brook divides the two parishes, 
 and the house on the left was occupied by the late John 
 Bartlett, who narrated his own story, the site of Cury Great 
 Tree not being more than 160 yards from the spot. 
 
CURY GREAT TREE. 1 1 5 
 
 the one that lost it never found it wanting till it 
 was gone, so if any ore will bring it to him, they 
 shall be rewarded for their trouble." 
 
 He copied it out, with " Notice !" in large letters 
 at the top, and, by way of a joke, fastened it to 
 Cury Great Tree. 
 
 A London tourist of those days passing by, and 
 thinking it was the sober, earnest production of the 
 Cornishman's mind, carried it off in triumph and 
 published it as a specimen of the ignorance of the 
 west country folk. 
 
 The farmer, who had for the nonce turned bill- 
 sticker, was somewhat startled to read his " Notice!" 
 with appropriate comments in the newspaper shortly 
 afterwards. 
 
SAINT WINWALOE* 
 
 How many hearts have here grown cold 
 That sleep these mouldering stones amonj 
 
 How many beads have here been told ! 
 How many matins here been sung !" 
 
 N the value of benefices towards the Pope's 
 Annates made by the Bishops of Lin- 
 coln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia 
 Sancti Winwalli, i.e., the Church of the 
 Holy, Victorious, or Conquering Wallo, in decanatu 
 de Kerryer was rated iiijV i\]s m]d. 
 
 In 1 521, Wolsey's Inquisition, it goes by the 
 name of the Vicarage of Wynnanton, i.e., the con- 
 quering or victorious town, all intended to refer to 
 the conquests of King Gunwallo or Dunwallo. 
 So says quaint Hals ; but Whitaker has a note on 
 
 * There is a MS. life of this Saint in the Cottonian Library, 
 and in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, 3rd March, 
 there are several, one said to have been copied from the 
 Chartulary of Landevenac, and to have been the work of a 
 monk of that abbey named Gurdistan, A.D. 870. The Rev. 
 J. Adams, the author of several papers in the Journal Royal 
 Inst. Corn., "Churches of the Cornish Saints," contributed 
 at the last meeting in 1874 a sketch of this Saint. 
 
SAINT WINWALOE. 117 
 
 this passage in Hals' MSS. in which he asserts the 
 much more probable derivation of the name from 
 the patron saint, Winvvolaus, or Winwaloe, the 
 Abbot of Tauracum in Brittany. The G. and W. 
 at the beginning of Celtic names often change 
 places mysteriously. In Picardy, where this saint 
 is much esteemed, Winwaloe is changed intoVigen- 
 valey and Walovay ; in Bretagne, into Guignole 
 and Vennole ; and othes places into Gunigalois. 
 
 There are two churches in the Lizard district 
 dedicated to this Saint, Landewednack and Gun- 
 wallo, and the parish feasts of both these places 
 are on the same day, March 3. 
 
 Fracan, or Brychan,* father of this saint,, was 
 nearly related to Cathoun, one of the Kings or 
 Princes of Wales, and had by his wife, Gwen, three 
 
 * This Brychan has been confounded by mediaeval writers 
 with Brychan of Brecknock ; but there were three Welsh 
 chieftains of this name, two in VI. century, one in VII. and 
 all had children who founded churches and were reputed 
 Saints. The early writers, supposing them all to be children 
 of the Brecknock Brychan, attributed to him a too large 
 amily for credit. 
 
 In the Chartulary of Landewennec, now in the Library at 
 Quimper, and quoted by Rev. J. Adams, there is a tradition 
 that a third breast was vouchsafed to Fracan's wife Gwen, 
 wherewith to nourish her third son, so she is called Gwen 
 Teirbron, i.e., Gwen with three breasts, and a corbel in an 
 old chapel of Gwennoc (her eldest son), ten miles from 
 Quimper, so represents her. 
 
Il8 SAINT WIN W ALOE. 
 
 sons — Guethenoc, Jacut, and Winwaloe, the last of 
 whom they bound themselves by vow to consecrate 
 to God from his birth, because he was their third 
 son. 
 
 The invasions of the Saxons, and a deadly pesti- 
 lence, which soon after overwhelmed his native 
 country, obliged him to seek a refuge where he 
 might serve God in peace. 
 
 Riwald, with a little band of followers from 
 Wales, had before this retired to Armorica, where 
 they had been kindly received, and thither Fracan 
 went with all his family about the middle of the 
 V. century, and settled at a place called after him 
 to this day Plou-fragan (Plebs fracani), on the 
 banks of the river Gouet, which signifies blood. 
 
 Though the two elder sons were born in Britain, 
 Winwaloe, the youngest, and his sister Creiroic, 
 were born in Armorica. All the children were 
 trained and nurtured in the fear of God ; but it 
 was not until he grew through boyhood to youth* 
 that his parents placed our Saint Winwaloe in the 
 monastery of S. Budoc,* in the Isle of Laurels 
 
 * S. Budoc was an abbot in Great Britain, eminent for 
 piety and learning, and, flying from the swords of the Saxons, 
 took refuge among his countrymen in Armorica, and in this 
 little island assembled several monks and opened a famous 
 school for youth. 
 
SAINT WINWALOE. 1 19 
 
 (Lauriaca), now called Isleverte, or Green Island, 
 not far from the Isle of Brehat. 
 
 Under the discipline of this renowned teacher 
 he soon became a diligent and distinguished 
 scholar. At that time, S. Patrick's glory was 
 shining like a bright star in Ireland, and illumi- 
 nating the Church of Christ. The legend goes on 
 to say that, being anxious to visit the holy father, 
 he had obtained permission to go to Ireland with 
 some merchants, and that on the eve of the day 
 appointed for him to depart, S. Patrick himself 
 appeared before him in a vision, crowned with a 
 golden diadem, and, with the countenance of an 
 angel, informed him that he was sent to give him 
 the interview he desired, and bid him, with his 
 companions, go elsewhere. 
 
 Thereon the holy Abbot S. Budock appointed 
 him superior over eleven monks, and with them he 
 travelled the whole of Domnonia, as the northern 
 part of Armorica was called, and there, on a desert 
 island at the mouth of the river Aven or Chateaulin, 
 these wanderers settled themselves in their rude 
 huts. On this island there had formerly existed a 
 Druidical monument, evidence that in heathen 
 times it must have been of some repute. From the 
 time, however, of its occupation by these holy re- 
 clusesits name hasbeenTibidy,z>., House of Prayers. 
 
120 
 
 SAINT WINWALOE. 
 
 It appears to have been a dreary and desolate 
 spot, open to every wind and storm, and after three 
 years' patient endurance S. Winwaloe and his com- 
 panions betook themselves to the other side of the 
 bay, to the little valley of Landevenich, not far 
 from Brest. It is said a path was supernaturally 
 opened for them through the water, along which 
 they are described as walking hand-in-hand, chant- 
 ing a song of praise. 
 
 Here they built a monastery, aided by the bene- 
 ficence of Grallo, Count of Cornonailles, for he gave 
 the land and bore the expense of maintaining the 
 monastic brethren.* The buildings raised by them 
 afterwards grew into the famous Abbey of Landa- 
 viniec, sometimes called the Cradle of Christianity 
 in Armorica. It is probable that from there the 
 Saint migrated into Cornwall (and perhaps Wales),*f 
 and established churches at Landewednack and 
 Gunwalloe. 
 
 S. Winwaloe, from the time he left his father's 
 house, never wore any other garments but what 
 were made of the skins of goats, and under these 
 a hair shirt ; day and night, winter and summer, 
 
 * The Chartulary of Landevennac. A MSS. of the XI. 
 century is said to contain copies of the original grants. 
 
 + He is said to he Patron Saint of two or three churches, 
 in Wales. 
 
SAINT WIN W ALOE. 121 
 
 his clothing was the same. In his monastery 
 neither wheat-bread nor wine was used but for 
 the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. No other drink 
 was allowed to the community but water, which 
 was sometimes boiled with a small decoction of 
 certain wild herbs. The monks ate only coarse 
 barley-bread, boiled herbs, and roots, or barley- 
 meal and herbs mixed, except on Saturdays and 
 Sundays, on which they were allowed cheese and 
 shell-fish, but of these the Saint never tasted him- 
 self. His coarse barley-bread he always mingled 
 with ashes, and their quantity he doubled in Lent, 
 though even then it must have been very small, 
 only to serve for mortification and an emblem of 
 penance. In Lent he took his refreshment only 
 twice a week ; his bed was composed of the rough 
 bark of trees, or of sand, with a stone for his 
 pillow. From the relaxation in the rule of absti- 
 nence on Saturdays, it is evident that this monas- 
 tic rule, which was the same in substance with 
 that received in other British, Scottish, and Irish 
 monasteries, was chiefly borrowed from Oriental 
 rules, vSaturday being a fast-day according to the 
 discipline of the Roman Church. This rule was 
 observed at Landevenech, till Lewis le Debonnaire, 
 for the sake of uniformity, caused that of S. Bene- 
 dict to be introduced there in Si 8. This house 
 
122 SAINT WINWALOE. 
 
 was adopted into the congregation of St. Maur, 
 in 1636. S. Winwaloe was sensible that the spirit 
 of prayer is the soul of a religious state, and the 
 comfort and support of all those who are en- 
 gaged in it. As to himself, his prayer, either 
 mental or vocal, was almost continual, and so fer- 
 vent, that he seemed to forget that he lived in a 
 mortal body. From twenty years of age till his 
 death, he never sat in the church, but always 
 prayed either kneeling or standing unmoved, in 
 the same posture, with his hands lifted up to 
 heaven, and his whole exterior bespoke the pro- 
 found veneration with which he was penetrated. 
 He died on the 3rd of March, about the year 
 529, in a very advanced age. His body was 
 buried in his own church, which he had built of 
 wood, on the spot upon which the abbatial house 
 now stands. These relics were translated into the 
 new church when it was built, but during the 
 ravages of the Normans they were removed to 
 several places in France, and at length into 
 Flanders. At present the chief portions are pre- 
 served at S. Peter's, at Blandinberg, at Ghent, and 
 at Montreuil in Lower Picardy, of which he is 
 titular patron. His name occurs in the English 
 Litany of the seventh age, published by Mabillon. 
 He is titular Saint of S. Guingualoe, a Priory at 
 
SAINT WINWALOE. I 23 
 
 Chateau du Loir, dependent on Marmonticr at 
 Tours, and of several churches and parishes in 
 France. 
 
 Such is the history of this Saint as gathered 
 all available biographies, some of them containing 
 the very scantiest materials. 
 
GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 
 
 " The glory of a building is in its age, and in that deep'sense of 
 voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of 
 approval or condemnation which we feel in walls that have long been 
 washed by the waves of humanity." — J. Ruskin. 
 
 )N the eastern side of Mount's Bay, nestled 
 behind a cliff, by which it is protected 
 from the raging waves, stands Gunwalloe 
 Church, one of the oldest in Cornwall. 
 It is believed to have been erected in the XIII. 
 century, as a grateful offering of its pious founder, 
 who was saved from shipwreck on the spot. So 
 says tradition. 
 
 The tower was apparently once much higher 
 than now, and is detached from the main building, 
 a distance of fourteen feet separating them. A 
 local account of the tradition gives as the reason 
 that the two sisters, who were saved here from a 
 vessel lost on these rocks, and who vowed that if 
 spared they would build a church on the spot, 
 could not agree as to the site, and they at length 
 settled their differences by one of them choosing 
 
C5 
 
 m 
 &* 
 
 PS" 
 
 m 
 
GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 1 25 
 
 the place of the tower, and the other the spot 
 where the nave and chancel should stand. 
 
 Another tradition says, " the builders intended 
 to erect the church on higher ground nearer the 
 centre of the parish at Hingey, but as fast as 
 materials were brought to the place, they were, by 
 some mysterious agency, removed during the night 
 to the present site, and here at length the church 
 was built, as it was found useless to contend with 
 a supernatural power. 
 
 In 1870 the then Vicar of Gunwalloe, writing of 
 the building just before its restoration, says : — "All 
 traces of the original edifice have probably long 
 ago perished, for the oldest portions of the existing 
 structure (in 1870), namely, the east and west walls 
 of the nave, are considered to have been erected 
 about the XIV. century ;" adding, M So close is the 
 building to the shore, that the waves have frequently 
 broken away the walls of the churchyard." 
 
 The building at present consists of nave, chancel, 
 and north and south aisles, XV. century style, the 
 open roof of the south aisle containing some very 
 good oak carving. 
 
 It must have been at one time a handsome 
 edifice. The piers have carvings on the capitals 
 of different designs, and once there was doubtless 
 a handsome screen existing here, the remains of 
 
126 GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 
 
 which — a few panelled paintings and carved 
 tracery — have been, for preservation, fitted as 
 inner doors to each of the entrances. On page 128 
 is an illustration of one of these doors, and it will 
 be seen immediately that the tracery is very hand- 
 some. Each of the panels (four of them in each 
 portion of the screen) contains a painting of one of 
 the Apostles, each with his appropriate emblem, 
 as, e.g., S. Matthew holding the axe ; S. John holds 
 a chalice with a serpent issuing from it ; S. James 
 the Great with staff and scrip, &c. These, no doubt, 
 originally formed the lower part of the rood- 
 screen. 
 
 The outer arch of the porch is panelled, and 
 there exist the stone fragments of a handsome 
 old stone window (for an illustration of this see 
 p. 128), far superior in its tracery to any of those 
 inserted during the restoration of the church. 
 
 The font is modern — a plain octagon of granite. 
 The old bowl, which was formerly lying in the 
 churchyard, is now placed inside the church, under 
 the west window (see p. 1 28). It is an almost unique 
 specimen of the early Norman period, beautifully 
 sculptured in Pentewan stone, and bears in bold 
 relief the well-known emblem mark of the Trinity 
 House, the broad arrow /J\ one of the earliest 
 known emblems of the Holy Trinity, and is by no 
 
GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 1 27 
 
 means the least curious and interesting relic of the 
 original church of Winvvaloe. 
 
 Singular in its situation, it is still more curious 
 to notice that the tower* and church are built on 
 lines at different angles, the tower facing more to 
 the southward than the nave and aisles. 
 
 The solid rock out of which the belfry tower is 
 cut forms the south, west, and north walls of the 
 structure, which is of two stages, and on these three 
 sides the masonry of the tower only extends from 
 the pyramidal roof to the first stage. 
 
 The old roof having been struck by lightning, 
 the present one was placed there in 1868 by the 
 lord of the manor and patron of the living. 
 
 There are three bells, apparently of different 
 dates, and all more or less out of condition, one 
 being cracked. They bear inscriptions : — 
 
 1. Voce mea viva depello cuncta nociva. 
 My living voice dispels all hurtful things. 
 
 2. Ihs ois plaudit ut nee tarn sepius audit. 
 Jesus is praised, when my voice is heard. 
 
 This has been read also as — 
 
 Omnis sic plaudit qui me tarn scepius audit. 
 
 * There are but six churches in Cornwall that have a cam- 
 panile as here, separate from the main building, and these 
 are usually situated in a deep valley. The six are S. Feock, 
 S. Mylor, Gwcnnap, Gunwalloe, Lamorran, and Jetland. 
 
128 GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 
 
 3. Eternis annis resonat campana Joannis 
 Let the bell of John for ever resound. 
 
 It is but a year or two since the restoration of 
 the church was completed, and if we may judge of 
 its former state by the amount of work and money 
 expended on it, it must have been almost a 
 ruin. 
 
 From the autumn of 1869 to the summer of 1871 
 the work was in hand, and in that time, in this 
 out-of-the-way corner of the world, owing chiefly 
 to the energies of the restoration committee, the 
 sum (a very large one when the surroundings 
 and population of Gunwalloe are considered) of 
 £$47 14s. was raised and expended on the build- 
 ing. From an entry in the parish register, the 
 details appear to have been — 
 
 " New roof throughout the church, retaining the 
 carved oak in the south aisle. The chancel was 
 rebuilt and extended eastward two feet The west 
 wall of nave rebuilt and a new window inserted* 
 (as also one in chancel). A new window in west 
 end of north aisle, and the stone-work of all the 
 remaining windows restored, and the church re- 
 seated. Paving the passages with Bridgewater 
 
 * Not one of these windows is comparable to the remains 
 of the original, the fragments of one of which are now placed 
 together against the west wall of the churchyard. See Illus- 
 tration, p. 128 — 9. 
 
~v=r-' 
 
 
GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 1 29 
 
 tiles, which took the place of the previous " lime- 
 ash." 
 
 The church was opened with a festival on 5th 
 June, 1 87 1, at which the Bishop of the Diocese 
 preached to a crowded congregation of some hun- 
 dreds, gathered from all parts of West Cornwall to 
 this romantic spot by the interest of the occasion, 
 for it is seldom that a church whose foundations 
 are just above high-water mark, over whose walls 
 the salt sea spray dashes summer and winter, is 
 considered, in its rocky isolation, of sufficient in- 
 terest or worth to make so large an outlay as was 
 required here probable, if even possible. 
 
 The registers of Gunwalloe (those remaining) are 
 noneof them ancient, the earliest being 1716; more 
 ancient ones, which doubtless existed, have dis- 
 appeared. That such old books contained more than 
 the mere register of names and dates is well known, 
 and many a curious custom or circumstance owes its 
 record to the vellum page of the parish register. 
 
 Searching for curious documents of all kinds in 
 
 the old iron parish chest, I came upon a sexton's 
 
 bill for work in connection with the church in days 
 
 gone by, and among other items there appeared — * 
 
 Killing 3 Foxes ... ... 7s. 6d. 
 
 * In the adjoining parish of Mullyon such entries are com- 
 mon as late as 1856-7. 
 
 K 
 
130 GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 
 
 Again — 
 
 Killing i Fox ... ... 2s. 6d. 
 
 What would fox-hunters say to this ? 
 
 In other counties, however, sextons have been 
 paid for work quite as unsexton-like as killing the 
 noble Reynard ; for in the pages of " Long Ago "* 
 is the copy of an entry in an old town's-book at 
 Croft, in Lincolnshire, A..D. 171 8, as follows : — 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 As sexton ... 
 
 02 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 For dogs' whipping ... 
 
 00 
 
 07 
 
 06 
 
 Dressing the Church 
 
 00 
 
 02 
 
 00 
 
 For oyle (oil) 
 
 00 
 
 02 
 
 04 
 
 For ringing the bell at 8 and 4 
 
 01 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 04 01 10 
 Both these specimens pale, however, before the 
 charge made in the last century by a London 
 sexton on the churchwardens for — 
 
 3 Bushels of Dirt ... ... 4s. 6d. 
 
 Dirt must indeed have been dear in his days ! 
 
 It has been said that there once existed in the 
 churchyard a stone with the curious epitaph — 
 We shall die all 
 
 Shall die all wee 
 
 Die all we shall 
 
 All we shall die. 
 
 » 
 
 * The discontinuance of thispublication must be a matter 
 of great regret to very many lovers of the curious. 
 
GUNWALLOE CHURCH. I 3 I 
 
 But this is in all probability a mistake, as repeated 
 search has been made for it, not only by the writer, 
 but by a former Vicar of Gunwalloe, and it could 
 nowhere be found, while there is a plate with an 
 inscription in the church at Mawgan, the next 
 parish, which might be very easily the one referred 
 to. 
 
 It is commemorative of the death of Hannibal 
 Basset, in 1708-9, and it will be seen that, read up 
 and down, or in the ordinary way, they have the 
 same meaning : — 
 
 " Shall 
 Wee 
 All 
 Dye 
 
 Of crosses, something has been already said in 
 connection with that in Cury churchyard. 
 
 Those in Cornwall are justly regarded as among 
 the most ancient in England. Thinned by the 
 farmer, and the unsparing hand of destructive 
 ignorance, their name is still legion, many of them 
 retaining, in spite of their weather-beaten aspect 
 and antiquity, traces of the skill and art of those 
 early ages in the carvings and symbols inscribed 
 upon them. 
 
 Many of them are considered of earlier date than 
 the conquest of Cornwall by Athclstan in 936, and 
 
 we 
 
 all 
 
 dye? 
 
 shall 
 
 dye 
 
 all! 
 
 dye 
 
 shall 
 
 wee ? 
 
 all 
 
 wee 
 
 shall ! 
 
132 GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 
 
 have been even quoted as monuments of Christianity 
 previous to the Saxon rule, and to have been sanc- 
 tuaries, places of public preaching or prayer, perhaps 
 the record of some deed of battle or murder, ever 
 pointing the pilgrim to the adjacent chapel and 
 oratory or the distant church. 
 
 Such a cross may that of Gunwalloe have been. 
 If we may conjecture its position, it was pro- 
 bably by the side of the pathway which led 
 the wayfarer across the little stream that here 
 meanders through the sand-banks, at any rate 
 somewhere near the church formerly stood a 
 stone cross, which is mentioned by several writers 
 as being of very early workmanship. It was thrown 
 down long since, and was said, a year or two ago, 
 to be lying at the bottom of the stream which 
 empties itself into the sea. 
 
 After very diligent inquiry, however, the writer 
 found that a stone cross and base had been, in by- 
 gone years, taken from Gunwalloe to Penrose, the 
 seat of J.J. Rogers, Esq., for safety, and this cross 
 has now been placed in the angle of the south-east 
 corner of the chancel wall at Gunwalloe, not by 
 any means its original position, but at any rate 
 where, for the future, it may be safe from mutila- 
 tion or destruction. 
 
WRECKS. 
 
 TRA MOR TRA BRYTHON.-Taliesin. 
 Wide as the sea the British name extends. 
 
 'Tis night ! upon the Cornish coast 
 
 Full loud the breakers roar, 
 And helplessly yon gallant barque 
 
 Drifts on the dark lee shore ; 
 And quickly now the signal guns 
 
 Boom high above the gale. 
 O many a dark-eyed Cornish girl 
 
 At that wild sound grows pale. 
 
 The Life-boat's mann'd, stand clear ahead ! 
 
 There's death upon the gale, 
 Cheer up, dear lass, one parting kiss — 
 
 Your lips look cold and pale. 
 The Life-boat's mann'd, stand clear ahead ! 
 
 No time to sigh for home. 
 Hurrah ! the gallant Life-boat 
 
 Sweeps through the seething foam. 
 
 Bend boldly to your task, brave hearts, 
 
 It is a glorious strife ! 
 On ev'ry oar-blade flashing high 
 
 There hangs some loved one's life. 
 A cheer so faint comes down the wind, 
 
 All hands we yet may save ; 
 Now lift our gallant Life-boat 
 
 Like lightning o'er the wave. 
 
 The Life-Boat. 
 
 HERE seems to be no reason to doubt 
 the story tradition gives us of the found- 
 ing of Gunwalloe Church. 
 That in days of yore some pious indi- 
 vidual clinging to his shattered vessel, as she bumped 
 
1 34 WRECKS. 
 
 and ground upon the rocks of the Castle headland, 
 seeing his comrades one after another swallowed up 
 by the seething relentless waves, should register a 
 vow that, if saved from death, there, on that very 
 spot, would he raise a building to God's honour, is 
 far more probable than many of the wild things one 
 meets with in the villages of Cornwall, and which 
 form the " raison d'etre " of this or that curiosity 
 of antiquity. 
 
 Indeed, except in some such way as tradition says 
 it is difficult to account for the presence of a church 
 in such a place, where the sea spray sprinkles it in 
 summer, and in winter storms the waves beat 
 full against the churchyard wall, at times making an 
 open breach. 
 
 It is almost impossible for those who have never 
 witnessed the effects of a winter's gale on our rocky 
 coast, to realize what the scene is like, or what the 
 magnitude and force of the wild tearing waves will 
 do. 
 
 Should a gale be blowing from a southerly point, 
 and a vessel be unfortunate enough to get embayed, 
 unless the weather moderate, it is almost impossible 
 to prevent her loss. 
 
 Happily, since the erection of the Wolf Rock 
 Lighthouse off the dangerous corner of the Land's 
 End, the number of wrecks between Plymouth 
 
WRECKS. 135 
 
 and Cape Cornwall has greatly decreased ;* still, 
 from time to time in the savage wintry hurricane, 
 one and another gets caught, and then we have 
 the sad record in the wreckage along shore, and 
 the " stranger's " churchyard grave. 
 
 The parish register is a necessarily brief history, 
 yet how much of pathos is there in even the four 
 words of such entries as the following from — 
 
 fGuNWALLOE Parish Register. 
 1808 Joseph Dale.| Son of John Dale, drowned 
 
 * At the very time the author was writing these lines a ves- 
 sel was being dashed on the rocks not many hundred yards 
 from Gunwalloe Church. 
 
 + This list only includes such entries during the present 
 century (and appended to it are a few extracts as regards 
 Mullion, the next parish) ; as, before 1807-8, shipwrecked 
 bodies were buried, not in the churchyard, but along the shore 
 and cliff wherever found. 
 
 + This John Dale, of Gunwalloe, is immortalized by the 
 village poet in some lines on his tombstone, which introduces 
 the idea of " bathing," in a way quaintly illustrative of poeti- 
 cal liberty of thought — 
 
 When softest pity mov'd his heart 
 
 A brother's life to save, 
 Himself, alas ! a victim fell 
 
 To the relentless wave. 
 But tho' his mortal part be dead 
 
 His spirit lives above ; 
 Where he may bathe front danger free 
 
 I11 seas of heavenly love. 
 
I36 WRECKS. 
 
 while endeavouring to rescue one of the 
 crew of a Hamburgh vessel wrecked near 
 the Looe Bar, in which attempt he succeeded, 
 though with the loss of his own life. The vessel 
 was bound from Oporto to London with 
 wine, and was lost a little to the west of the 
 bar. 7 April. 
 
 1809 A body. Found on the shore. 15 Feb. 
 
 1 8 10 Two bodies. Found on the sea shore, sup- 
 
 posed to have been the remains of two sea- 
 men of the Clio sloop wrecked on the bar. 
 
 17 and 18 Aug. 
 
 1 8 1 7 Seven bodies. These nine sailors were drowned 
 on this coast, seven of whom were washed 
 on shore in this parish, one in Sithney, the 
 others not found. The vessel was the French 
 brig L'Hamecon, Capt. Guillemie, from Mar- 
 seilles to Havre de Grace. The seven buried 
 in this churchyard could not be recognized ; 
 the vessel was stranded on the 23rd. 25 Jan. 
 
 1817 Sailor's body, supposed from his dress to be 
 an officer. This body, washed ashore on 25th, 
 was supposed to have belonged to a French 
 Chasse Maree, lost on the coast (not a soul 
 saved), Jan. 24 26 Jan. 
 
 Sailor's body, with three stars on his left 
 hand and other marks on his right. Washed 
 
WRECKS. 137 
 
 on shore, Jan. 26, supposed to have belonged 
 
 to the aforesaid Chasse Maree. 29 Jan. 
 
 Sailor's body very much mangled. Washed 
 
 ashore Feb. 5, supposed to have belonged to 
 
 Chasse Maree 22 Feb. 
 
 Peter Penybrig. Sloop Dove, of Dartmouth, 
 
 bound from Neath to Plymouth, wrecked on 
 
 Gunwalloe Cove, Master Williams, 81 tons, 
 
 laden with culm. 3 July. 
 
 William Gay. Ditto ditto ditto. 3 July 
 
 1819 A body. Washed ashore. 10 Dec. 
 
 1822 Sailor's body very much mangled. Supposed 
 to have belonged to the brig Minto, wrecked 
 in March in this cove, the only sailor drowned. 
 
 24 April 
 
 1826 Three sailors. These three belonged to the 
 Swedish ketch Ida, of Stockholm, Master 
 J. C. Holtz, which was stranded near Porth- 
 leven. These men were washed overboard 
 just before the vessel struck ; there was an- 
 other man also drowned belonging to the 
 same ship. 8 Feb. 
 
 1829 A man's body. Unknown, washed in under 
 Hal Zephron cliff. 1 Mar. 
 
 1833 A sailor. Found drowned, marked on the 
 arm with the letters G. F. M., then the figure 
 of a heart, and the letters F. P. 24 Nov. 
 
I3# WRECKS. 
 
 1838 Two bodies. Supposed to belong to a vessel 
 
 wrecked at Mullion. 7 July. 
 
 1840 A female child. Found on the high seas, 
 
 brought ashore at Gunwalloe. 12 June. 
 
 1846 A lad's body. Washed ashore, 6 Oct., very 
 
 much mangled. 7 Oct. 
 
 Three men. Of the crew of the Elizabeth of 
 
 Bergen, in Norway, wrecked at Gunwalloe, 
 
 20 Nov. (fifteen hands saved by a rope).* 
 
 23 Nov. 
 
 Five bodies. Late of the crew of the barque 
 
 Isis, of Russian Finland, laden with corn, 
 
 wrecked at Poljew, on the night of Oct. 10 
 
 (the captain, mate and four seamen, only 
 
 were saved). 14 Oct. 
 
 A body very much mangled. Supposed to 
 
 have belonged to the Isis. 18 Oct. 
 
 1850 Three bodies much mangled. Supposed part 
 
 of the crew of the Windrush schooner, 
 
 wrecked on Poljew side of Gunwalloe Church 
 
 cove, Nov. 29. 10 Dec- 
 
 A body. Washed in Dec. 9 ; one of the crew 
 
 of the above. 16 Dec. 
 
 For his bravery on this occasion Henry Cuttance, a Gun- 
 walloe man, was presented with a silver cup by the King of 
 Norway. See page 145. 
 
 

 WRECKS. 139 
 
 1859 Three men. Late of the ship Chincas, ot 
 Liverpool, drowned on the Looe Bar. 9 Nov. 
 
 1862 Four bodies, three male and one female, sup- 
 posed to be the captain's wife. Late of the 
 barque (Auguste) Padre, of Trieste, laden 
 with wheat, wrecked at Poljew Cove ; only 
 four saved — thirteen in all lost — registered 
 also at Mullion. 27 Jan. 
 
 A body. Supposed to have belong to crew 
 of above vessel. 24 Feb. 
 
 1862 Brigantine Oscar wrecked ; all saved. 17 Oct. 
 
 1863 A body. 19 June. 
 
 1866 Three bodies. Part of the crew of the San- 
 
 testa, a Brazilian barque, wrecked near the 
 fishing cove, Nov. 14, 1865 ; only two out 
 of nineteen saved. 2, 10 and 14 Jan. 
 
 1867 A body. Washed ashore at Poljew, supposed 
 
 to be from a Dutch ship Jonkheer Meester 
 Van de Wall van Putteshock {sic), Capt. 
 Klass Lammerts,from Batavia to Rotterdam, 
 laden with coffee and sugar ; wrecked under 
 Angrowse Cliff, Mullion, on the morning of 
 March 26th, when out of twenty-five souls 
 on board crew and passengers, one only was 
 saved. Fifteen bodies buried at Mullion. 
 
 11 April. 
 1869 A body. Came on shore at Little Cove, sup- 
 
140 WRECKS. 
 
 posed to have belonged to a party of twenty- 
 one men who left the Calcutta Indiaman, in 
 the ship's life-boat, when she was abandoned 
 at the entrance of the English Channel, Feb. 
 8, on her voyage to Bombay with electric 
 telegraph cable. The life-boat itself came 
 ashore empty at Mullion, Feb. 9. The ship 
 was afterwards brought into Plymouth. 
 
 8 May 
 
 1872 Nov. 23. Schooner Lochleven Flower, being 
 
 embayed all hands took the boats, one was 
 swamped at sea ; other was mashed as they 
 she touched shore at Looe Bar. Every soul 
 drowned. The vessel came ashore at Halze- 
 phron, and went to pieces immediately. 
 
 1873 Dec. 18. The body of a sailor belonging to 
 
 the Coquette, wrecked at Gunwalloe three 
 weeks ago. 
 Dec. 27. On the morning of Dec. 27, was 
 brought to me a scrap of paper with some 
 words almost illegible, scribbled in pencil, 
 which had been washed ashore in a bottle at 
 Gunwalloe. The writing was at length de- 
 ciphered — " Zibriea, on board, but well, fear- 
 ful storm, probably the last day." (Signature 
 illegible.) This paper was at once forwarded 
 on to Messrs. Fox and Co., at the Lizard 
 
ym$ty 
 
 * 
 
 m 
 ft 
 
WRECKS. 141 
 
 Signal Station, who sent it to Hamburg in 
 order that the ship might be identified. 
 In the next parish, Mullion, the registers afford 
 the same sad evidence of the dangers of the coast 
 once it becomes to the mariner a lee shore. 
 
 MULLION. 
 
 1838 Nov. 24. A. Neapolitan vessel. lost 15 
 
 1858 Sept. 17. The Mary, of Bridgewater, at Polur- 
 
 rian. lost 1 
 
 The Glencoe came ashore same day at the 
 
 same spot. 
 
 Sept. 22. The Chester schooner foundered 
 
 off here. lost 3 
 
 1862 Jan. n. The brig Dolland. at the Rill, only 
 
 only one saved ; six drowned. lost 6 
 
 Jan. 22 The Austrian barque Padre, already 
 
 mentioned in Gunwalloe list. lost 13. 
 
 Dec. 10. Schooner Arwenack, of Truro. 
 
 lost 5. 
 
 1867 Jan. 6. Schooner Margaret, at Rock an Enys, 
 
 all but one lost. lost 4. 
 
 Schooner Cherub, wrecked the same day, all 
 
 saved. 
 
 Schooner Ebbw Vale also came on shore the 
 same day having been abandoned at her 
 anchors. 
 
142 WRECKS. 
 
 Oct. 21 Barque Achilles. Capt. David Kin- 
 near, at Polurrian ; all hands saved by life- 
 boat and rocket apparatus. 
 
 1868 Jan. 22. Smack Maria Louisa, of* Padstow, 
 
 struck on Mullion Island and sank. lost 3. 
 
 1869 Feb. 9. The boat of the Calcutta, S.S., which 
 
 had been in collision with the barque Emma 
 in the Bay of Biscay, found ashore near 
 Polurrain, supposed to have struck on Mul- 
 lion Island. lost 22. 
 April 12. Schooner Remedy, Capt Bouchar, 
 struck near Hugo Down and soon went to 
 pieces ; all saved in own boat. 
 
 1 87 1 Feb. 14. French lugger struck on Mullion 
 Island, the captain and crew deserted the 
 vessel and landed in their own boat at Ky- 
 nance ; the vessel soon broke up. 
 
 1873 Mar. 1. Barque Boyne, Wheelan master, 
 struck under cliffs on Merries Ledges at 
 5.30 — not discovered for an hour or more- 
 Three men and a lad saved in their own 
 boat. All the others drowned in spite of 
 utmost exertions of life-boat crew and rocket 
 apparatus. lost 15. 
 
 Most of these wrecks, if not every one of them, 
 
 are remembered by two old inhabitants of the 
 
 parish of Gunwalloe, from whom much valuable 
 
WRECKS. I43 
 
 information has been received, and their testimony- 
 being most thoroughly independent every corrobora- 
 tive incident adds weight to the whole. 
 
 The following entry in one of the Gunwalloe 
 registers is interesting, and the same particulars 
 have been since related to the present writer by Mr. 
 Cornish, who is still alive. 
 
 "On Nov. 4, 1870, the Friday before Mullion 
 Feast, Mr. Edward Cornish, of this parish (82 years 
 of age), related to the then vicar of Gunwalloe how 
 he remembered that on this day, sixty-three years 
 ago, in 1807, the transport Susan and Rebecca 
 was wrecked under Hal-zephron Cliffs. That there 
 were about 180 souls on board, all except the crew, 
 belonging to the 7th Light Dragoons, who were re- 
 turning from the expedition to Buenos Ayres, un- 
 der General Whitelock. That 28 horsemen, 10 
 sailors, and 3 children were drowned, but the 
 women, 8 in number, were saved, and that all might 
 have been easily landed but for their reluctance to 
 leave the ship, which contained "lots of plunder." 
 
 The ship came on shore about 10 at night and 
 went to pieces about 1 1 next day. He remem- 
 bered the wreck of the Anson frigate on the Looe 
 Bar in the same year, 1807, three days before new 
 year's day, being present at both wrecks, the cir- 
 cumstances were impressed on his mind. 
 
144 WRECKS. 
 
 The whole of this is corroborated by Henry 
 Cuttance, who relates that the Anson left Fal- 
 mouth on Christmas eve ; he saw her then as she 
 was being towed out of harbour by her own boats 
 — a few days after she lost her maintopmast, became 
 disabled, and came ashore at Gunwalloe. 
 
 In the same year the Despatch, Capt. George 
 Fenwick, was wrecked at Coverack and only 
 seven saved, and a sloop of war was lost on the 
 Manacles — only one man being saved — all the bodies 
 recovered were buried at St. Keverne. 
 
 He well remembered the wreck of the Susan 
 and Rebecca, and the circumstance that forty of 
 those then drowned were buried in one grave 
 on Hal-zephron Cliffs. Previous to this date it 
 was the custom to bury all bodies cast up by 
 the sea just where they were found, or in the near- 
 est convenient spot ; this, however, was the last 
 instance of the kind ; the feeling excited on this 
 occasion being so strong, that the late Mr. Davies 
 Gilbert obtained an Act of Parliament sanction- 
 ing the burial of shipwrecked bodies in conse- 
 crated ground, so that since 1808 the more happy 
 practice has been continuously observed of giving 
 them a resting place beneath the churchyard turf. 
 
 This old veteran, Cuttance, must have been pre- 
 sent at nearly all the wrecks upon the coast foi 
 
WRECKS. 145 
 
 miles. He remembered them all, and he has the 
 honour (of which he is justly proud) of being the 
 first Englishman upon whom a personal distinc- 
 tion has been conferred by a reigning prince, for 
 he possesses a silver cup presented to him by 
 Oscar, King of Norway, in recognition of his ser- 
 vices and daring in rescuing the survivors of the 
 crew from a Norwegian schooner, wrecked in Pol- 
 jew in 1846. 
 
 The inscription on the silver tankard reads — 
 
 OSCAR King of Norway, 
 
 to 
 
 Henry Cuttance, 
 
 of 
 
 Gunwalloe, 
 
 for brave and noble Actions on the 
 
 20 Nov. 1846. 
 
 (The vessel was the schooner ' Eliza- 
 beth," of Bergen ; came ashore at Poljew 
 Cove. The captain, mate, and boatswain, 
 were drowned, and it was mainly through 
 the exertions of Cuttance the survivors, 
 15 number, were saved.) 
 Johns, in his Week at the Lizard,* mentions a 
 
 1st Ed., 1848, p. 205. 
 
146 WRECKS. 
 
 wreck which occurred in the same place forty years 
 before he wrote, in which instance the yeomanry 
 were called in request to prevent depredations, and 
 a miner was killed in the scuffle that took place. 
 
 He goes on to relate the story of a wreck, at 
 which old Cuttance was the hero, and through whose 
 instrumentality mainly the three survivors were 
 saved. 
 
 The vessel was a Norwegian, laden with Indian 
 corn, and came ashore right on a large rock to the 
 westward of the cove. She had no sooner struck 
 than she went to pieces. Three of her crew were 
 washed by the waves against the base of the cliff, 
 and gaining foothold, they managed to scale the 
 rocks, and wandered inland in search of help. At 
 dawn of day, returning to search for their com- 
 rades, those who came back with them, saw some 
 dark object in a cleft of the rock, which turned out 
 to be three men huddled together, and so exhausted 
 as to be incapable of any exertion or effort to save 
 themselves. 
 
 By the skill and daring of the villagers, among 
 whom the " old smuggler " (as the author of the 
 Week at the Lizard calls Cuttance), was conspi- 
 cuous, a small cord was at length thrown to them 
 which the poor fellows managed to make fast 1 
 and by it hot coffee and bread and butter 
 
WRECKS. 147 
 
 were sent over to them. Refreshed and strength- 
 ened they aided new endeavours to establish com- 
 munication with the shore, and in a few hours this 
 was accomplished much after the fashion of the 
 rocket apparatus, by a rude chair sliding over a 
 strong rope, and in this manner they were one by 
 one brought safe to land after ten hours' exposure to 
 the gale and a sea which dashed over them the 
 greater part of the time. 
 
 The remainder of the crew, six in number, were 
 lost ; and, says Mr. Johns, " for more than a fort- 
 night the shore was crowded by poor people fish- 
 ing up the damaged corn, which, though unfit for 
 human food, found ready purchasers among those 
 who kept pigs. People came a distance of ten or 
 twelve miles to visit the scene of the wreck, and the 
 various roads to the spot were a long time sprinkled 
 with Indian corn which fell from their carts and 
 bags. 
 
 One of the most interesting narratives of modern 
 shipwreck is that of the " Jonkheer Meester," and an 
 account of it would have found a place here, but the 
 author learnt, while these pages were in the press, 
 that the respected vicar of Mullion, in whose parish 
 the wreck occurred, is about to publish it in his 
 " Mullyonania," and it is therefore here suppressed. 
 
WRECK OF THE COQUETTE. 
 
 The huge waves raise their angry crests on high 
 Into the tempest-cloud that blurs the sky, 
 Holding rough dalliance with the fitful blast, 
 
 Whose stiff breath, whistling shrill, 
 
 Pierces with deadly chill 
 The wet crew, feebly clinging to their shattered mast. 
 
 |N Wednesday night, Nov. 26, 1873, over 
 the whole of our western coast there 
 blew a gale from the S.W. Dark as 
 pitch the pitiless wind howled and 
 whistled round the houses, which even in their shel" 
 tered nooks inland, could yet not hide themselves 
 from the raging storm. 
 
 The author was busy preparing the foregoing 
 sheets, on the wrecks at Gunwalloe, and at the mo- 
 ment alouder and stronger blast than usual thundered 
 down upon and shook the house, remarked — "If this 
 gale holds till morning we shall have a wreck." 
 
 At an early hour next day a messenger arrived 
 with the intelligence that a ship had gone ashore at 
 Gunwalloe in the night, and one poor fellow drowned. 
 The French schooner Coquette was on her voy- 
 age from Bordeaux to Swansea when the fearful 
 darkness of that fateful night overtook her. 
 
WRECK OF THE COQUETTE. 149 
 
 Beating about in Mounts Bay, her sails splits one 
 after another into ribands, and when night came her 
 captain missed his reckoning and lights, and with 
 disabled vessel and not sufficient canvass to man- 
 age her, the crew anticipated the worst. 
 
 But men will dare and do much, when looking death 
 in the face, and this was the occasion of an act of 
 bravery which deserves a record, and the success 
 that attended it. 
 
 The smart little vessel was driven by the relent- 
 less storm into a small cove, where the jagged cliffs 
 rose precipitously for a height of 200 feet. 
 
 The huge waves dashed over her with crushing force, 
 and striking the solid rocks shook them to their 
 base, beating themselves all the while into a seeth- 
 ing mass of foam. 
 
 Long before daylight the vessel would be shivered 
 into atoms and her crew perish ; but one of them 
 bravely volunteered to attempt to carry a line 
 ashore ; and, fastening it round his body, plunged 
 into the darkness and boiling surf. 
 
 Clinging to the shaking wreck his comrades 
 strained their eyes to watch him, but in vain. At 
 length there came a pull at the cord, and a faint 
 cry from the rocks above, and they knew their de- 
 liverer had really managed to maintain his hold on 
 the slippery cliff, and by climbing from one crag 
 to another to reach a place of comparative safety. 
 
150 WRECK OF THE COQUETTE. 
 
 But the perilous work of saving his fellow sea- 
 men was not yet accomplished ; drawing a rope 
 ashore, and making it fast to a boulder, one by one 
 the rest scrambled across it hand over hand ; be- 
 numbed, exhausted, half drowned, they came all 
 but one. He, poor fellow, paused midway, and 
 whether from fear or numbness relaxed his hold, 
 dropped into the foam and disappeared. Three weeks 
 afterwards his body came ashore, and we laid 
 in the little churchyard, which contains so many 
 seaman's graves, all that remained of Noye, the 
 " boy," of the Coquette." 
 
 The wonder was how the first man accomplished 
 his desperate feat. To accomplish it in daylight 
 would be extraordinary enough, but for a stranger 
 to attempt it in the darkness, and succeed is little 
 short of the miraculous. Providentially the vessel 
 came into the only opening in the cliff, where such 
 a thing could possibly be done ; nowhere east or west 
 of that very spot, would there have been even the 
 one chance out of the hundred for the desperate 
 swimmer who should risk it. 
 
 The escape of the survivors was a matter of 
 astonishment to many, and the whole occurrence 
 was well described in the newspapers at the time, 
 one of which contained the following : — 
 
WRECK OF THE COQUETTE. 151 
 
 FATAL WRECK IN MOUNT'S BAY. 
 A DESPERATE EXPLOIT. 
 
 Early on Wednesday a small schooner was ob- 
 served beating in Mount's Bay, and apparently 
 making very little progress. The wind was shift- 
 ing from S.W. to N.W., and it was evident that 
 unless she cleared the Mullion land before nightfall 
 her position would be precarious. The rocket ap- 
 paratus from Porthleven, in charge of the coast- 
 guard officers, who were on the look out, was 
 taken to Gunwalloe, and before midnight the vessel 
 struck at Halzephron, a little cove about half a 
 mile from Gunwalloe Church. The cliffs here are 
 most precipitous, and nearly 200 feet high ; and the 
 night was dark, with a gale of wind blowing, and 
 a very heavy sea running. The coast guard were 
 certain the ship was ashore, but could not see her 
 distinctly. At last they made her out, and as she 
 rose and fell with the waves they fired a rocket from 
 the top of the cliffs. Whether the line crossed the 
 the ship is unknown, but it was not made fast. Soon 
 after the rocket was fired the Mullion coastguards- 
 men with their apparatus arrived. As the tide 
 was ebbing the officers got down the dangerous 
 track to the beach, and there, huddled together in 
 
152 WRECK OF THE COQUETTE. 
 
 a cleft of the rock, were four men. It was soon 
 found that the captain and his crew had all left the 
 wreck. Seeing that total destruction was inevit- 
 able if they waited, one of the crew offered to swim 
 ashore, and in the darkness of midnight, with the 
 surging water raging all around, and the tempest 
 howling, the noble fellow boldly plunged overboard 
 with a line. The perilous task accomplished, he 
 managed to make fast the rope to a projecting 
 crag, and hand-over-hand the captain and one 
 sailor landed safely. The third to go over the side 
 was a boy between sixteen and seventeen years of 
 age, but quite a man in stature, and either through 
 fear, or more probably from his hands being be- 
 numbed, he let go his hold, fell into the raging 
 sea, and was swept away and seen no more. The 
 remaining sailor then swung off and joined the 
 survivors. Not an article was saved, and there 
 the poor fellows lay shivering with cold with satu- 
 rated clothes. The officers took off their warm 
 top coats, and did all they could to alleviate their 
 sufferings. The captain spoke English, and in- 
 formed them that his vessel was the Coquette, of 
 Dourrprensey, from Bordeaux, fifty-nine tons regis- 
 ter, bound for Swansea, with a cargo of pitwood for 
 coal mines. Captain Le Signe was owner, and 
 left France only on Tuesday. He evidently was 
 
WRECK OF THE COQUETTE. 1 53 
 
 unacquainted the coast, and mistook the lights of 
 the bay, possibly seeing only one of the Lizard 
 lights he thought it was the Longships. 
 
 The schooner held together, and about three 
 o'clock the tide had fallen so that Mr. William 
 Lassiter, coastguardsman of Gunwalloe, got on 
 board, and the crew followed. In a short time, 
 through his energy, all the clothes and navigat- 
 ing instruments were got together, thrust into bags 
 or made up into bundles, and sent ashore. A bag 
 of biscuit was also landed, and the captain was 
 anxious to save two casks of brandy. These were 
 eventually thrown over the side. The tide was 
 now flowing, and all hands left the vessel. But 
 for the anchor having been thrown out when she 
 struck she would have drifted broadside on, and 
 all would probably have been drowned, but thevessel 
 swung with her stern to the shore, and thus the 
 distance was not great. About nine o'clock in the 
 morning, heavy breakers began to disturb the 
 schooner's position, and in a very short time — in 
 fact, in a few minutes — she went to pieces, and 
 the cargo floated out, and was strewed all around 
 the bay. The mass of rigging, with the keel, held 
 there by the anchor, marked the spot ; but within 
 an hour this was all that was left of the Coquette. 
 The crew were taken care of at Gunwalloe, and 
 
154 WRECK OF THE COQUETTE. 
 
 made as comfortable as possible till they could 
 be removed to their homes. 
 
 The place were this wreck took place is within 
 a few yards of the spot on which the Lochleven 
 Flower was so fatally stranded last November ; 
 and looking down Halzephron's rocky sides, where 
 the cliffs are almost perpendicular, and whose 
 name signifies the infernal heights, the escape of 
 the crew of the Coquette seemed almost miraculous. 
 In broad daylight, and with aid at hand, such an 
 adventure as the French sailor undertook would 
 be fraught with danger and hazardous to life. 
 
 During Wednesday night there was a good deal 
 of lightning over the Land's End district from 
 the S.W., and the sky was exceedingly dark in that 
 direction. The whole was exceedingly stormy, and 
 it is to be feared that many more wrecks will be 
 heard of. The Coquette was thought to be at an- 
 chor, and the Mousehole pilot boats might have got 
 to her if they had known she was in trouble. 
 
 Very seldom is it that the ideal of the poet 
 could be realized in all its fullness on that rugged 
 shore ; though nothing can exceed the loveliness of 
 a calm summer's day in an about those limpid 
 pools and rocky coves that startle one into admi- 
 ration at every turn. 
 
 
THE DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 " Far as the eye can peer, 
 The waters roll, divinely blue and clear, 
 With white sails flashing in the sunlight's ray, 
 Of countless vessels, near and far away; 
 
 Here the wild sea-gull plumes her snowy breast, 
 
 Then skims the wave or perches on the crest 
 
 Of some majestic cairn, or cromlech where 
 
 Long atjes past the Druids knelt in prayer, 
 
 Till, with stretched wing she cleaves the fields of blue, 
 
 Dips 'neath the Atlantic, and is lost to view." 
 
 |moxg the stories of the many wrecks, 
 which in themselves add to the weird in- 
 terest of this rugged bit of coast, is that 
 of one which has been the cause of much 
 speculation and adventure. More money has pro- 
 bably been spent in the endeavour to recover the lost 
 treasure than the vessel was worth when she sailed 
 out of port with her rich freight on board. 
 
 Eighty-eight years ago, on a stormy night, a 
 Spanish vessel came ashore on the point of cliff 
 which shelters the little church of S. Winwaloe ; 
 just on the outside of a ledge of rocks she struck 
 and went to pieces ; nothing of her was saved. She 
 had on board a large quantity of specie, variously 
 
156 THE DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 estimated, but generally supposed to have been 
 about seventeen to nineteen tons weight of dollars.* 
 
 There must have been a very considerable quantity 
 from the fact that, from time to time, ever since, con- 
 siderable numbers have been picked up. I have 
 even heard that, years ago, the boys on the neigh- 
 bouring farms used to go during their dinner time 
 down to the rocks, laid bare at low tide, and there 
 pick them up in pails and buckets. The pails-full 
 may be exagerations, but sufficient have been found 
 to prove that a very large quantity were on board 
 the vessel. 
 
 No measures, however, on a large scale, for re- 
 covering the precious metal, were adopted till the 
 year 1845, when people were startled to hear that 
 a party of adventurers were going to sink a dollar 
 mine in the sea. The vessel had gone to pieces 
 between two rocks at a short distance from the 
 base of the clifiQ and here it was proposed to con- 
 struct a kind of breakwater or coffer-dam, from 
 which the water was to be pumped out, and the 
 dollars picked up at leisure. 
 
 A path was cut in the face of the cliff, and iron 
 rods were fixed in the rocks. The work was begun 
 
 * The Parochial History of Cornwall says two and a-half 
 tons, but this is far too small considering the numbers which 
 are known to have been recovered from time to time. 
 
THE DOLLAR WRECK. 1 57 
 
 in lovely weather,* and a continuous calm lasted 
 for about six weeks ; had the work been prose- 
 cuted with vigour, they might have succeeded in 
 the first part of the enterprise ; but, just as the 
 breakwater was on the point of completion, a breeze 
 sprung up from the S.W., and in the course of a 
 few hours the waves knocked it and all the ma- 
 chinery away, annihilating in a single night the 
 work of so many weeks. 
 
 The attempt to recover the treasure in 1845, if 
 the first, was by no means the last venture of the 
 kind ; from time to time fresh schemes have been 
 put forward to this end, and with the same want of 
 success. The general belief is, that the ship struck 
 on the outer rock of the ledge, and heeling over on her 
 side, tumbled the dollars out into a sort of natural 
 basin in the rock, where they are supposed to have 
 remained (the main portion of them) covered with 
 sand. 
 
 Some years ago a company was formed for 
 getting them up. They sunk a shaft in a solid 
 rock, and drove from that an adit under the shore 
 for many feet, trying more than one plan to get at 
 
 * It is a very unusual thing for a calm to last many days at 
 this point. There is a certain set of tide, both in ebb and 
 flow, which creates an under swell. During the whole three 
 months that Mr. Boyd's party worked in '72, there was not 
 Ottedsy when the diver could stand under water with comfort. 
 
158 THE DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 the place where the dollars were supposed to be 
 lying. Unfortunately one day the water burst into 
 the workings, the miners took to their heels and saved 
 themselves, but not their tools. 
 
 The last, and most interesting effort to reach 
 these lost dollars, was in 1872, when a London 
 clergyman, projecting a summer's holiday, lit upon 
 the novel expedient of passing a few weeks at Gun- 
 walloe, camping out on the cliff, and making an 
 attempt to pump up the sand, and then get at the 
 coin with a diver. 
 
 It was a capitally original idea — and as thorough 
 a relaxation from the brain wearing work and anxie- 
 ties of an East London parish as could well be 
 imagined — the only regret felt by all who witnessed 
 the most interesting operations of the working party 
 was, that their labours were foiled by continued 
 rough weather and their enterprise was not re- 
 warded by the recovery of the treasure. 
 
 Itwill bewell perhaps to tell the story of "The Dol- 
 lar Mine" in the very words of the narrative written 
 during the progress, and shortly after the completion 
 of the venture, for " The British Juvenile."* 
 
 The Dollar Mine. 
 1. 
 A few weeks ago I took a tramp in dear old 
 
 * " The British Juvenile/' Vol. . pp. and 283. 
 
THE DOLLAR WRECK. 1 59 
 
 Cornwall. I wanted much to see the Land's End, 
 for often and often I had stood and looked at the 
 big map of England in our school-room, and won- 
 dered what the coast must look like, in that funny 
 little corner of our island, the " Old Woman's toe," 
 as we used to call it, for we boys always had a 
 notion that on the map England and Scotland 
 looked like an old woman sitting down, nursing a 
 baby on her lap. The baby of course is Wales. 
 
 Well, I went by the train, as far as it could take 
 me, and then I started for my tramp, and I walked 
 the old ground right round the coast that our 
 fathers, the ancient Britons, ay, and men before 
 them, walked over and over again. 
 
 I saw, in fact, all there was to see ; and wonder- 
 ful sights they were. Druidical stones and old 
 churches and granite quarries, and such cliffs. No- 
 where have I ever seen such piles of stones, many 
 of them as big as a good sized cottage, piled one 
 on top of another, just as if they had been laid 
 there by a mason from town, and yet every one of 
 these rocks so heavy no machinery man ever made 
 would move it. 
 
 And then I stood on the very tip and edge of 
 Land's End and looked out to sea. I felt as I 
 never felt before, the majesty of the ocean, the 
 mighty power of God, and the infinite wisdom of 
 his works. 
 
160 THE DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 As I stood and watched at the roaring waves 
 which dashed their spray over the lighthouse in the 
 distance out at sea, and yet made no visible impres- 
 sion on the black rocks at my feet, I thought, sup- 
 posing these rocks had been anything but granite — 
 granite hard as adamant— the sea would soon have 
 the hills down, and make short work with the cliffs 
 at their feet, but granite stands, hard and cold, and 
 the old sea cannot knock it over, cannot make very 
 much impression ; and thus the Land's End pre- 
 serves its pointed form from generation to genera- 
 tion, with little change or alteration, as the seasons 
 come and go. 
 
 In the course of my walking I saw plenty of 
 mining, and tin mines everywhere ; but one little 
 scene will long remain with me, and the Dollar 
 Mine of Gunwalloe be a pleasant memory with me 
 for many a long day. 
 
 Well, you will say, I know they dig deep for tin 
 and copper, but surely they don't go down for dol- 
 lars, and find ready made coins in the mines. 
 
 So I must explain what the villagers and fisher- 
 men called a " dollar mine." 
 
 In my walk one day along the coast, I ascended 
 the cliff higher and higher, the road winding first 
 one way then another, until I reached the top, and 
 then I saw a lovely prospect before me. The sea 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. l6l 
 
 as blue as it is possible for it to be, before me a 
 small line of rock jutting out into the sea, forming 
 on either side of it a sandy cove, and on the lower 
 land side of the rock a little church and tower 
 peeping out, its foundations only a few feet from the 
 waves, and its roof open to the spray from the 
 glistening waters. 
 
 On the top of the rocky hill above the church 
 were two tents, which looked white and clean 
 against the evening sky. 
 
 " What have we here, then ?" said I to the boy 
 I had picked up as a guide. 
 
 " Oh ! they be the dollar men." 
 
 " The dollar men ?" 
 
 " Ees !" says he. " They be diving for dollars." 
 
 This was curious enough to make me curious. 
 After a closer inspection of the tents and apparatus 
 I found* on the hill, I learnt enough of what was 
 going on to induce me to walk over the " Towans,' 
 as they call the sand hills, to the village and there 
 take up my abode for a few days, while I made 
 my observations on the dollar mine. 
 
 That night round the wood fire in the inn kit- 
 chen, while the old mother nodded in her chair, 
 and the kitten played with her knitting, which 
 had fallen all unheeded on the floor, the old mas- 
 ter told me the whole history of the dollar mine. 
 
 " Eighty-five years ago, on a stormy night, a 
 
 M 
 
1 62 DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 Spanish vessel came ashore on the point there, 
 just outside the ledge of rocks, struck, went down, 
 nothing saved. 
 
 " She went to pieces, laden with Spanish dol- 
 lars ; and strange to relate very few of the dollars 
 were washed ashore. Few comparatively. From 
 time to time some dozens were picked up. Now 
 the boys would find a few in dinner time ; then 
 a chance comer would pick up one or more ; but 
 the general belief was that she struck on the 
 outer rock, and heeling over on her side, tumbled all 
 the dollars out into a sort of natural basin in the 
 rock, and that there they have been ever since. 
 
 " Many years ago a company was started to 
 get the dollars up. They sunk a shaft in the 
 solid rock, and drove from that a passage along 
 under the shore for many feet, trying first one 
 plan and then another to get at the places where they 
 hoped the dollars would be, until one unlucky day 
 the water burst into their mine. The miners took 
 to their heels and saved themselves, but not their 
 tools. These were left, and the water took pos- 
 session of the rock once more. 
 
 " Another adventurer was struck with the idea 
 that he could build a breakwater just outside the 
 cove and set to work in lovely weather to do it 
 — indeed he nearly succeeded, but just as the 
 breakwater was complete a storm arose, and 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. 1 63 
 
 knocked it and all his machinery away, annihilating 
 in a single night the labour of weeks and months. 
 
 "Now, however, they are trying something dif- 
 ferent. They are going to pump the dollars up." 
 
 " Pump them up from the bottom of the sea ?" 
 said I. 
 
 " Ay," said the old man. " They have got a 
 pump, and they can pump 'em ; and maybe they'll 
 have the dollars yet." 
 
 Such was the story I heard that night before I 
 went to bed : nay, more, the old fellow, to satisfy 
 my longing curiosity, produced a dollar which he 
 had picked up last summer in the cove, jammed 
 tight between two rocks. Here was proof positive 
 that dollars were about. Nothing more was needed. 
 I engaged my room for a week, and made up my 
 mind to join the dollar party. 
 
 It certainly was a pretty sight : the tents, the 
 headland, and the sea. No house, no life present, 
 but ourselves. We made a lively party on the whole, 
 though my work the week through was chiefly look- 
 ing; on, and lending a hand now and then, 
 
 We, — for I felt so deep an interest in the proceed- 
 ings, as to identify myself with the whole thing, — 
 we had a couple of engineers, a couple of miners, a 
 professional diver and his mate, a sailor to cook, 
 three or four to look on and lend a hand, two dogs 
 
164 DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 to keep guard, and nothing that any one could pos- 
 sibly carry away. 
 
 In the shaft of the mine, the one that the com- 
 pany formed years ago, we fixed the pump, a huge 
 affair altogether. The diver had to clear out this 
 shaft, first of all, and there, twenty-five feet below 
 the surface of the sea, he found the mining tools the 
 men had left behind when they ran for life, a quar- 
 ter of a century ago. 
 
 At length the pump is fixed ; — now to drive it. 
 This must be done with the agricultural engine of a 
 thrashing machine, — and the rocks must be blasted 
 and cut away so as to allow the driving-bands of 
 india-rubber to run freely. 
 
 At length all is prepared. Pipes are laid and 
 fixed in the passages of the mine and shaft, which 
 protects the framework of the pump, and prevents 
 it being washed away, and now nothing to do but 
 to blow up the end of the mine into the sea and 
 pump away : and if the dollars are anywhere about 
 the cove, up they must come. 
 
 But all this preparation was not completed in a 
 minute or a day. My week lengthened itself out ; 
 for there were days when the sea was so rough 
 the men could not work at all, others when the 
 diver could only go down in his queer looking dress 
 for about an hour, and then the waves rose too high. 
 
 So that, after all, my holiday came to an end, 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. 1 65 
 
 and I saw no dollars. I was hopeful and anxi- 
 ous, and my eyes longed to see the shining money 
 in the trough where the great engine threw the 
 vast volumes of sand and water, — eight tons per 
 minute, — but day after day passed and the dol- 
 lars came not, but I trust still, for they are work- 
 ing still, and though I have nothing but a few 
 little sketches of the tents and the engine, and 
 the pretty little Gunwalloe Church, nestled in its 
 rocky home, and the memories of the many quiet 
 hours spent by the dollar mine ; yet I wish them 
 well, and hope the treasure will yet be theirs, 
 for they work with a will, earnest and undaunted, 
 and deserve success, doing what they have taken 
 in hand, with all their might and main. 
 
 THE DOLLAR MINE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 GUNWALLOE once again ! for in all my work in 
 this dusty city, my thoughts were continually going 
 back to the little Cornish hamlet with its wild and 
 beautiful coast scenes, its simple-hearted people, in 
 the midst of which I had spent my happy summer 
 holiday, watching the "dollar diving" party of 
 whom I told our young readers awhile ago. 
 
 Gunwalloe once again ! for I could not stay 
 
1 66 DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 away, and I wanted to see the end of the Dollar 
 Mine, and watch, with my own eyes, the shining 
 coins, as I pictured them to myself, coming up out 
 of the sea. 
 
 Turning my back on the busy hum of towns, not 
 many hours of travel brought me to the end of Eng- 
 land, and after a tedious drive of many miles from 
 the nearest station, I found myself standing once 
 more on the little grassyheadland, looking out to sea, 
 enjoying the fresh breeze and pure air, and anxiously 
 inquiring all the latest news from the " venturers," 
 who this time welcomed me amongst them, not as 
 a stranger, but rather as an old friend. 
 
 No dollars yet, though ! Not a shadow of one. 
 The weather had been too rough ; and many a day 
 did the little company look out seaward, watching 
 the weather, taking the measure of the sky as we 
 called it; hoping every turn of the wind would 
 bring the favourable calm. 
 
 Determined nowtowatch the " Dollar" operations 
 to the end, I gladly joined the party, and made my 
 first essay in " camping out," whieh needs to be ex- 
 perienced to be described, and is, with all its draw- 
 backs, a pleasant change from city life. 
 
 Oh, what a history I could write of our little 
 makeshifts ! How, for want of washing basins, we 
 used the good old sea himself, taking our dip every 
 morning, as soon as day-break warned every man 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. 1 6; 
 
 to turn out and roll up his blankets. And then our 
 washing day, and episodes of cooking, our little 
 journeys inland to forage, and our traffic with the 
 natives,— all would fill a book. 
 
 Our tents were pitched upon the top of the cliff, 
 not many feet from the edge, and in hot and sunny 
 weather were extremely comfortable, and always 
 convenient, being so close to the work ; but in windy 
 weather it made sharp work for us all to hold on. 
 One tent was used by the manager of the enter- 
 prise, his foreman, and any visitors who might wish 
 to stay a night or two as his guests — at the "Atlan- 
 tic Hotel" as we named it — for one might almost as 
 well be out on the Atlantic itself as within forty feet 
 of it, on a stormy night in a tent. In the other tent, 
 a large one, lived the diver and his mate, two Corn- 
 ish miners, a sailor to cook for the party, and a 
 couple of labourers, besides the engineers to look 
 after the machinery. 
 
 One night, when the sea was roaring and the wind 
 blowing so roughly that, although every one of us 
 were in our blankets snug enough, yet not one of us 
 could sleep, suddenly there was a rent, and a gust, 
 that made a noise like a gun, and in a moment all 
 was bustle and confusion in the darkness. The hur- 
 ricane had lifted one of the peg ropes that held 
 clown the tent, and before any one could lend a 
 hand to secure it, away went the flap of the tent, 
 
l68 DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 and away went blankets and clothes and everything 
 that was not secured, or too heavy to be blown 
 away. Fortunately, the wind was blowing in 
 from the sea, and not off the land, or else everything 
 would have gone out to the waves. As it was, there 
 was a general stampede in the darkness, every one 
 for himself ; some half dressed, and some trying 
 to dress, but all hurrying down the hill to catch the 
 runaway goods. 
 
 With all the agility the party possessed, some 
 of the things were not to be found till day-light 
 came and disclosed their hiding places — behind a big 
 stone, hitched in a bank, or hidden away in a ditch. 
 
 No more sleep that night for any of us, and 
 after that, we were careful to see that our fasten- 
 ings were all secure, when the wind blew more hard 
 than usual. 
 
 And then the way we amateurs did work ! At 
 the very edge of the cliff a sort of platform had to 
 be cleared, whereon the engine might stand to drive 
 the pump-bands. 
 
 This huge machine must be held back from top- 
 pling over, by strong ropes affixed to posts sunk 
 deep into the ground ; and to dig the holes for 
 these was no trifling labour, for below the surface 
 of about six inches of earth there was nothing but 
 solid rock that would only yield to a crowbar or a 
 heavy pick. 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. 1 69 
 
 It was done, however, after many a turn and 
 turn about, for during all this time, when the tide 
 allowed, we all went down on to a large flat rock, 
 where the old shaft was situated, at the bottom of 
 the cliff, and which was uncovered at half tide. 
 
 Our means of getting down to this rock was by a 
 rope made fast to the top of the cliff ; and using 
 this as a hold-fast, a man could easily walk down, a 
 sort of half-walk, half-cling, till he reached firm 
 foot-hold at the bottom. It was tiresome work, 
 though, for even the machine for pumping air to the 
 diver when he was under water had to be hauled up 
 and down here, whenever wanted for use ; and being 
 fairly heavy, it was very hard work. 
 
 Let me just give a picture of what it was like 
 when the diver went down. 
 
 All of us, ten to fifteen, all down on the flat rock, 
 surrounded by the sea, which, just outside the rock, 
 was fifteen to twenty feet deep. 
 
 Two of us get a ladder down over the side of the 
 rock, placed firm at the bottom, and secured well 
 to the rock. This is the diver's staircase. Two 
 more, including his " mate," are engaged dressing 
 the diver, a small spare man, who whiffs his pipe 
 comfortably as we go on muffling him up in a great 
 india-rubber pair of trowsers that come up round 
 his waist, over his arms, and round his neck. On 
 
170 DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 his feet, outside this, a large pair of large boots, 
 with lead attached to make him sink well. 
 
 Last of all, when every thing else is ready, we 
 fix his helmet on, a large heavy round brass cap for 
 his head, with little windows in it, and at one side 
 an india-rubber pipe fixed, one end into the helmet, 
 the other to the air machine. A little hole is left 
 open for him to breathe the outer air till the last 
 moment, and then, as this is being closed up, and 
 secured tight, the signal is given for those at the 
 apparatus to begin pumping, and as they turn their 
 handles round and round, so the air is forced into 
 the diver's dress, enabling him to breathe wherever 
 he may be, even at the bottom of the sea. If they 
 were to stop pumping, the man would die. 
 
 And now the interest is very great, for the diver 
 is going down to send up some sand and see if there 
 are any dollars about. Very slowly he walks, led by 
 each hand to the edge where the ladder is ; and as 
 he goes down, step by step, slow yet sure, it seems 
 as if he never will be able to come up again with 
 all the weight of lead he carries, — huge plates of 
 lead on his shoulders, and lead in his boots. 
 Round his waist is fixed a rope, which he will 
 pull if danger arises, or if he wants to come up ; 
 and his mate stands by with this rope in one 
 hand, and the air pipe in the other, and he pays 
 out both as the diver descends lower and lower, 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. 171 
 
 until at length a jerk on the rope tells he has 
 reached the bottom. 
 
 Minutes pass ; and nothing is to be heard or seen. 
 All stand by, watching the pulsation of the pipe as 
 the air passes along it ; the waves as they come in, 
 rolling slowly one after another : the line of rope, 
 the slightest jerk of which would denote some sig- 
 nal of the diver. 
 
 Presently the signal is made for a bucket, and 
 slowly an iron bucket is thrown over the rock, and 
 let down by a rope to the bottom of the sea. A 
 jerk, and away we haul ; carefully though, not to 
 lose any of the dollars. Up it comes, and alas ! 
 contains nothing but sand. And so we go on for 
 two hours, or more, basket after basket, and nothing 
 but stones and sand. 
 
 Then the tide begins to come over the rock, and 
 the signal is made for the diver to ascend ; and by 
 the time we have undressed him, and got all the 
 tools and pails and ladders and apparatus out of 
 the reach of the waves up the cliff, most of us are 
 wet through with the spray which has been dashing 
 over us for the last half-hour. 
 
 Never mind ! our sailor cook has something sa- 
 voury for us in his pot on the fire, and away we go 
 to our supper, with appetites so keen, we wonder 
 whether we shall ever be satisfied ; more than ever 
 
172 DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 inclined to believe in the heathen philosopher and | 
 poet, who said : " Hunger is the best sauce." 
 
 This diving is a fair sample of many days at the 
 dollar work ; but no success came of it all, and at 
 last there came an end. Patient and persevering as 
 all had been, and deserving as they did to find the 
 treasure that undoubtedly lies hidden in this corner 
 of the sea, the truth must be told. The adven- 
 turers got tired of spending money with no result, 
 for it was no little expense to keep all these men, 
 only able to work at times when wind and tide and 
 weather would permit. So at last it was determined 
 to blow up the bottom of the sea, where the dollars 
 were supposed to be. 
 
 Three holes were bored by the miners in the 
 end of the old shaft, the level of which was about 
 three feet under the waves, forty feet out from the 
 rock. 
 
 With no little trouble the mine is laid. No gun- 
 powder used, but dynamite, a composition much 
 stronger than gunpowder ; and employed on ac- 
 count of its safety. The last day has come. Ever 
 since daybreak the two miners have been at work 
 completing their preparations. Twenty-three feet 
 of safety fuse, which will burn twelve to fifteen 
 minutes, before it reaches the " holes," gives the two 
 men time to get to the top of the cliff with safety, 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. 1 73 
 
 after firing them. So, about breakfast time, the 
 eventful moment comes, and all the party gather 
 round to see the " end of the dollar mine." 
 
 Tom, the miner, is down there fixing the ends of 
 the fuse, and at his signal, when all is ready, his 
 mate races down with a smouldering piece of rope, 
 to fire the train. 
 
 A moment's hesitation — the distance is too great 
 to see very clearly, but they are both stooping over 
 the thin tape that is to carry the deadly fire down, 
 through rocks and waves, and under the water to the 
 mine waiting to be sprung. 
 
 Now they run ! The thin column of fine smoke 
 tells that the fuse is going, and up the cliff they 
 come like cats, hauling themselves up, hand over 
 hand, by the rope. 
 
 And now we all wait breathless. One minute, 
 two, ten have passed. Nothing! 
 
 At last, the earth seems to shake, and give way 
 beneath us. The report is like the deep boom of 
 thunder. Though we are sixty feet above the water, 
 the huge pieces of rock are thrown up out at sea, 
 much higher than our heads, and the water goes 
 up in one large central column, like nothing but a 
 water-spout, or the great fountains of the Crystal 
 Palace ; and long after the roar and splash have 
 subsided, the water is discoloured with the sand 
 wc disturbed from the bottom. 
 
174 DOLLAR WRECIC. 
 
 The wind did not subside, however, and our 
 diver could not descend into the open sea, so we 
 were forced to leave without being able to dis- 
 cover the whereabouts of the dollar bags after 
 all. A few more days in packing up, one more 
 Sunday in the quiet little church that stands at 
 the entrance to the cove, one more stroll along 
 the beach, and then away again to work and toil 
 of a very different sort. 
 
 We have left behind evidences of our visit. 
 Pipes and poles and barrels mark the spot where 
 our camp was pitched ; all that was worth taking 
 away we took, but there is enough left to mark the 
 spot for many a long day to come ; and Gunwalloe 
 has left its impression upon its visitors, who will 
 not easily forget the many pleasant and happy hours 
 spent upon its shore in the fruitless search after the 
 lost and buried dollars.* 
 
 Oddly enough, though the party of 1872 did not 
 succeed in recovering even a single specimen of 
 the lost dollars, proof positive that there are dol- 
 lars somewhere about the spot is afforded by the 
 fact that, a few months after they had left, the 
 
 * There is a tradition that the " notorious Capt. Avery, 
 as he is called, secreted a large quantity of treasure in the 
 sand banks of Gunwalloe, but this is generally believed to be 
 a mistake, and that the locality was Kennack Cove on the 
 other side of the Lizard Head. At any rate, about the year 
 1770, a grant of treasure trove was obtained by Mr. John 
 Knill, a collector of customs at S. Ives, who spent some 
 money in a fruitless search. 
 
 1 
 
wmu im BDmmM w&ebk. 
 
DOLLAR WRECK. 1 75 
 
 farmer occupying Winianton, in which homestead 
 the Castle Hill and "dollar mine" is situated, 
 during a low spring tide descended the shaft where 
 the pump had been fixed, and there found two dol- 
 lars on the very spot where they had been working. 
 
 These are figured on opposite plate, Nos. 1 and 2. 
 No. 3 is an ordinary pillar dollar of the same date, 
 shewing the difference between it and those which 
 have been submerged for 85 years. 
 
 No. 4 is a curiosity, one of the dollars jammed 
 between a piece of iron and rock, fixed there by 
 corrosion and the action of sea water. 
 
 Connected, however, with this finding of dollars, 
 is a singular story of a dream, which was related 
 to me by a Mullyon man, whose family had lived, 
 father and son, for more than a hundred years in 
 the place, and who recollected, when a boy, hearing 
 of the circumstances as of fresh occurrence. The 
 story is best told in his own words : — 
 
 The grandmother of Jeremiah Jose (this man is 
 now living in Mullyon) who used to live at Tre- 
 nance in Mullyon, one night dreamed she saw a 
 bag of dollars lying on the beach at Gunwalloe, 
 close to the spot where the vessel was known to 
 have broken up. She awoke her husband, and 
 begged him to go with her straight to the place in 
 order to attach the booty. He jeeringly refused, 
 and laughed her and her dream to scorn. 
 
176 DOLLAR WRECK. 
 
 " However, determined on the thing, she said 
 she would take Jerry with her and go, Jerry being 
 her son, a lad at that time. At daylight they went 
 and, sure enough, as soon as they got to the cove, 
 she saw the bag of dollars, well known to her from 
 her dream, lying on the sand. While employed 
 ripping it up, for the bag was of leather, and con- 
 tained about I cwt. of silver, some miners espied 
 her, and, coming down upon her, forced the prize 
 ro m her, and ultimately fell to among themselves 
 fighting over it. Blood was shed, and during the 
 melee, the tide coming in rapidly as it does here, 
 the waves scattered the pieces in the sand and car- 
 ried the bag away, and the end of it was that nei- 
 ther she nor they had the dollars." 
 
 It must be borne in mind, as to the latter part 
 of the story, that Cornish wrecking had not ceased 
 eighty years ago, and that to this day the miners of 
 Breage and Germoe, from whence these are said to 
 have come, are proverbially a very rough set of fellows. 
 
 That they were so then is readily to be believed ; 
 and in confirmation of the above story, which else 
 might savour of the incredible, there are plenty of 
 traditions as to the battles which used to take place 
 between rival bodies of men in search of loot and 
 plunder. One handed down from father to son in 
 a family at Cury is narrated at page in. In the 
 latter part of the last century a Mr. Knill (probably 
 
WRECKS. 177 
 
 the Mr. Knill, Custom House officer at St. Ives 
 procured leave to search for treasure trove along 
 the coast in 1770) put forth a curious proposal for 
 scheme for the prevention of wrecking, which is 
 worth a perusal.* 
 
 The march of intellect and civilization have, how- 
 ever, happily brought in their train a better state 
 of things, and the following shows that thirty years 
 since a different feeling was abroad, which has 
 spread far and wide, till, even in the corners of 
 West Barbary, the life-boat and rocket-line have 
 taken the place of the false beacon and treacherous 
 signal-light. 
 
 It was in 1845 tnat a French ship was driven 
 ashore within twelve miles of the Lizard-head, and 
 the inhabitants of Porthleven, the village just by 
 the Looe Bar, rendered every assistance to the 
 unfortunate crew, all of whom were saved. The 
 vessel was driven so high on shore, that she could 
 not be got off, and was of necessity sold as she 
 stood on the beach. Greatly to their honour, the 
 
 * A very curious paper came into my hands some time 
 since, and from evidence since adduced it would appear to 
 be the production of a Mr. Knill mentioned above as a 
 Custom House officer at St. Ives. It is entitled "A Curious 
 Scheme for the Prevention of Wrecking," and was written in 
 the end of the past or beginning of the present century. It 
 would be worth reproducing, but would make this book too 
 large and bulky. 
 
 N 
 
178 WRECKS. 
 
 poor fishermen, who had bestowed much of their 
 time and labour on the preservation of the vessel, 
 declined any remuneration, and, with one solitary 
 exception, begged that the salvage money might 
 be paid over to the houseless strangers, which was 
 accordingly done.* 
 
 Apropos of dreams, in this part of the country, 
 Carew, in his " Survey," has the following : — 
 " Some have found tynne-workes of great vallew, 
 through means no less strange then extraordinairie, 
 to wit, by dreames. As in Edward the Sixts time, 
 a gentlewoman, heire to one Tresculierd, and wife 
 to Lanine, dreamed that a man of seemely per- 
 sonage told her how, in such a tenement of land, 
 shee should find so great store of tynne as would 
 serue to inrich both herselfe and her posteritie. This 
 shee reuealed to her husband, and hee, putting the 
 same in triall, found a worke, which in foure yeeres 
 was worth him welneere so many thousand pounds. 
 
 " Moreouer, one Taprel, lately liuing, and dwell- 
 in the parish of the hundred of West, call'd S. 
 Niot, by a like dreame of his daughter (see the 
 lucke of women) made the like assay, met with 
 the effect, farmed the worke of the vnwitting Lorde 
 of the Soyle, and grew thereby to good state of wealth. 
 
 " The same report passeth as currant touching 
 * C. A. Johns. " Forest Trees of Britain." 
 
WRECKS. 179 
 
 sundrie others ; but I will not bind any mans 
 credite, though that of the Authors haue herein 
 swayed mine ; and yet he that will afford his eare 
 to astrologers and naturall philosophers, shall haue 
 it filled with many discourses of the constellation 
 of the heauens and the constitution of mens bodies 
 fitting to the purpose." 
 
 Happily, the chronicler of the above bindeth no 
 man's credit. 
 
 In a collection ot anecdotes by James Pettit 
 Andrews, in 1790, there is included a curious 
 " Cornish Tale of Naval Woe," which, because 
 relating to Gunwalloe, is worth inserting here : — 
 " A Cornish Tale of Naval Woe, which can be 
 attested by scores of living witnesses, as it 
 happened within the last twenty years. 
 " Gunwalloe Downs, which form the eastern side 
 of Mount's Bay, stretching out towards the Lizard 
 Point, lie on the top of a very high, steep, and 
 long-extended cliff, which, during a great part of 
 the year, is incessantly beaten by a tremendous 
 surge driven from the Bay of Biscay by an almost 
 constant west wind. During a space of many 
 miles, there is no inlet to the land ; but the face of 
 the cliff is occupied towards the top by sea-birds, 
 and the bottom, where there are many caverns, is 
 usually the resort of seals. One stormy winter's 
 night, signals of distress were observed, and a 
 
180 WRECKS. 
 
 large ship, which had been driven under the cliffs, 
 was known to be lost. Such an incident on that 
 coast was by no means unusual ; but in the morn- 
 ing the people assembled on the Downs to look if 
 any remains of the vessel were floating on the 
 waves, were shocked by hearing loud and united 
 cries and groans from persons below the cliff. 
 They knew that these must come from some cave, 
 to which the shipwrecked people had found means 
 to attain, for the tide left no beach, and they knew 
 too the impossibility of helping them, as no boat 
 could venture, in such weather, under such a cliff. 
 The cries, however, continuing, they tried, by let- 
 ting down baskets with ropes in different places, to 
 afford some relief, but in vain, for the over-hanging 
 cliff prevented the sufferers from reaching what 
 was intended for their relief. In short, during three 
 days the same mournful noise was heard ; it grew 
 then weaker by degrees, till hunger and fatigue 
 probably closed the wretched scene. Many of the 
 seal-holes were afterwards searched for these hap- 
 less mariners, but in vain. The surf had probably 
 washed away and dispersed their remains." 
 
 That eighty years ago wrecking had not entirely 
 ceased on the coasts of Cornwall, we may believe 
 from the fact that it was only a few years previous 
 that a scheme had been seriously propounded for 
 the prevention of the evil. 
 
WRECKS. l8l 
 
 There is a story, let us hope exaggerated, of the 
 wrecker who, prowling along the cliff in search of 
 prey, came upon a young girl clinging with dying 
 grasp to the rocks with a hand that bore a ring on 
 one of its fingers, and in a moment he had out his 
 knife and cut the ring away. It is almost too fearful ; 
 but a scrutiny of these traditions, it is feared, would 
 only prove that the Cornish wreckers did not come 
 by their reputation without reason. 
 
 Cyrus Redding relates. — and the story is taken 
 up and echoed by other writers pretty numerously — 
 that in the last century one of the " unscrupulous " 
 tied up the leg of an ass at night, hung a lantern 
 round its neck, and drove it himself along the edge 
 of the cliff where he lived, so that the halting 
 motion of the animal might imitate the plunging of 
 a vessel under sail, and thus tempt the seamen to 
 run in, imagining there was plenty of room, certain 
 destruction being of course the only and looked-for 
 result. 
 
 Happily, in these days, humanity has prompted 
 the nobler instincts of our nature to do and dare 
 to save, not to destroy ; and many are the instances 
 recorded, in almost every Cornish parish on the sea- 
 coast, of heroic deeds by the life-boat crew and the 
 fishermen of the cove in their efforts to save the 
 crews of the ill-fated vessels dashed upon their shore. 
 
THE HOLY WELL AT GUNWALLOE. 
 
 " A Well there is in the west country. 
 And a clearer one never was seen." 
 
 SOUTHEY. 
 
 " Is't true the springs in rocks hereby 
 Doth tidewise ebb and flowe? 
 Fame says it, be it soe." 
 
 " Cornish Wonder Gatherer.'' 
 
 | LOSE to the church porch, only a few 
 feet over the precipitous rock, which in part 
 forms a breakwater and protection from 
 the waves, are the remains of the Holy 
 Well, doubtless the resort in former days of many 
 a lad and maiden. 
 
 The spring that once bubbled up in its rocky 
 basin is no longer there ; sand and stones fill up 
 the well at each high tide, and though occasionally 
 cleaned out for the satisfaction of the wayfarer's 
 curiosity is yet only an imperfect semblance of its 
 former self. 
 
 In heathen times springs and fountains were ob- 
 jects of veneration, the gods delighting to honor 
 them, Diana presided over that of Arethusa, poets 
 
THE HOLY WELL AT GUNWALLOE. 1 83 
 
 sang of them, the Roman Fontinalia owed to them 
 their origin. 
 
 " O Fons Bandusiae splendidior vitro 
 Fies nobilium tu quoque fontium 
 Me dicente." 
 
 So sang Horace ; and, when the Christian era 
 dawned, saints and holy men filled the place which 
 had been given to heathen deities. 
 
 The wayside cross pointed to the holy well, where 
 saints' or angels' name, tradition and legendary lore 
 had hallowed the limped stream. 
 
 " One meek cell 
 Built by the fathers o'er a lonely well, 
 Still breathes the Baptist's sweet remembrance round 
 A spring of silent waters." 
 
 In some places in Cornwall baptismal water for 
 the font is still obtained from the holy well of the 
 village. 
 
 Writing of Madron, a very famous well near 
 Penzance, Norden remarks — " Its fame in former 
 ages was greater for the supposed virtue of healing 
 which S. Madderne had there into infused, and 
 manie votaries made anuale pilgrymages unto it ; but 
 of late S. Madderne hath denied his (or her, I know 
 not whether) pristine ayde, and as he is coye of his 
 cares, so now are men coye of comynge to his con- 
 jured well, yet some a daye resorte. ' 
 
1 84 THE HOLY WELL AT GUNWALLOE. 
 
 Many are the stories told of S. Madderne's cures, 
 and many are the virtues ascribed to the waters of 
 these venerated springs. 
 
 On the] first three Wednesdays in May mothers 
 would walk from far and near to dip their weak and 
 rickety children in the holy well, to which pertained 
 the healing qualities, and mention is made by a 
 writer of a very famous well (the spring of Alsia) 
 where on one occasion the mother-pilgrims were 
 attacked by the villagers, who caught the strangers 
 dipping their precious weaklings in the enclosed 
 part of the well, or the place whence they drew 
 their water. 
 
 To drop pins into the well for the cure of warts 
 is a common practice even at the present day. 
 
 To these springs were attributed not only medi- 
 cinal properties, but under certain conditions much 
 more wonderful and mysterious influences. 
 
 Water, water, tell me truly, 
 
 Is the man I love duly 
 
 On the Earth, or under the sod, 
 
 Sick or well, — in the name of God ? 
 
 By the credulous, Hydromancy, the divination of 
 the future by the appearance and movement of the 
 waters in the well, was commonly practised — a 
 remnant of the early creeds of the world. In their 
 simple faith, the maidens of the village have 
 
THE HOLY WELL AT GUNWALLOE. 1 85 
 
 often gathered round the holy well, and in the still- 
 ness of the summer evening, dropped their pebbles 
 and pins into the water, eager to see what sweet- 
 hearts would be united and who parted, and great 
 was the skill required to read aright the omens. 
 If the pins, when dropped into the wishing well 
 remained united or separated, such was the fate 
 foretold for the lovers. The number of bubbles 
 raised [in the water foretold the number of years, 
 etc., etc., in answer to the question. 
 
 Sometimes the sacred bramble leaves were used ; 
 sometimes the waters themselves were supposed 
 to answer the all-important questions, and many 
 are the stories on record concerning their good or 
 evil portent. 
 
 That Gunwalloe was considered by the country 
 folk a well of some importance there can be little 
 doubt, for one day in the year, which was called 
 Gunwalloe Day, was set apart for cleaning out this 
 holy well — it was quite at a different time of year 
 to this parish feast — and now only remembered 
 by two old men out of the whole population of the 
 place.* 
 
 * The parish feast is on the last Sunday in April. In the 
 Roman Calendar S. Winwalloe is honoured on the 3 March ; 
 but these two old men fix Gunwalloe, in May month, because 
 it was the time of tilling barley. 
 
1 86 THE HOLY WELL AT GUNWALLOE. 
 
 They fix the time in their memories as the 
 period of tilling barley, for they recollect that on this 
 Gunwalloe Day it was the custom for the men to 
 mend all the cliff roads (doubtless these were use- 
 ful in days of smuggling when a successful run was 
 a desirable thing), and that so strictly was it kept 
 that, if any were found labouring in the fields, a 
 party would go and take them by force, and press 
 them into the service of the holiday makers, who, 
 having mended the roads and cleared the holy well 
 at Gunwalloe, wound up the day with merriment 
 and revelry. 
 
 Oftentimes, close to the well, there stood a 
 holy cross, and these would disappear only 
 when the wells themselves began to lose their 
 sacred character. At the present time there may 
 often be seen near by the once sacred spring or 
 well, the base into which the- shaft of the cross 
 was fixed. 
 
 There is one at Gunwalloe, close to the 
 side of the churchyard wall, immediately above 
 the well, and probably by the very path which 
 was once commonly used to descend to the rocky 
 basin on the shore. 
 
 These stones, of which the one above named is a fair 
 specimen — are generally flat stones of about three 
 feet square, with a soffit in the centre of the size to 
 

 THE HOLY WELL AT GUNWALLOE. 1 87 
 
 take the foot of the cross ; in many instances the 
 base as well as the cross has vanished. It is a mat- 
 ter greatly to be regretted that such interesting 
 mementos of the piety of our forefathers have not 
 been allowed to remain unmolested, for the well and 
 cross together would form no uninteresting relic 
 of the fathers of our race, even in these enlightened 
 days of the nineteenth century. 
 
 " They had their lodges in the wilderness, 
 Or built them cells beside the shadowy sea, 
 And there they dwelt with angels, like a dream ! 
 So they unclosed the Volume of the Book, 
 And filled the fields of the Evangelist 
 With thoughts, as sweet as flowers !" 
 
THE "CAERTH " 
 
 OF CAMDEN. 
 
 " And after that, came woful Emelie, 
 With fire in hand, as was that time the gise, 
 To don the office of funeral service." 
 
 Chaucer " The Knightes Tale." 
 
 "Oppidum autem Brittanni vocant, quum sylvas iinpeditas vallo 
 atque forsa munierunt qub, incursionis hostium vitandse causa, conve- 
 nireconsueverunt."— Csesar, De Bello Gall. v. 17. 
 
 |0 much has been written on the rude me- 
 morials of Cornwall's early inhabitants, 
 that it would seem almost impossible to 
 add anything. Dr. Borlase, notably 
 having exhausted the whole subject of Cornish an- 
 tiquities so far as they had been brought to light 
 in his day, whether monoliths, or stone circles, 
 tumuli, cromlechs, implements or coins. 
 
 No new thing is attempted here ; but, as in the 
 case of the old customs observed on Gunwalloe Day, 
 they were remembered by two old men, and on 
 their death, or at most in a few years, would 
 have been entirely forgotten, so there is in Gun- 
 walloe the site of some very interesting remains, of 
 
THE CAERTII OF CAMDEN. 1 89 
 
 which there is no written record to fix the exact 
 spot, and open to the peril of oblivion, which in 
 this case, we may hope, is timely averted. 
 
 Camden mentions in his " Britannia," that near to 
 the Lizard, the Ocrinum of Ptolemy, "is a fortifica- 
 tion* called Earth, formed of stones, filled up with- 
 out any cement in a large circle, of which sort are 
 many more disposed about the country, I suppose 
 cast up in the wars with the Danes." 
 
 Sammes, frequently quoted by the historian 
 Polwhele, makes mention of the remains of an an- 
 cient fortification that in his days existed in the 
 vicinity of the Loo Pool, near Helston, which he 
 supposed to be Phoenician ; of this ancient for- 
 tress, Hitchens writes, "no vestige at present re- 
 mains!' Polwhele gives the word " Earth " a deri- 
 vation from "Arth," high, above, and certainly 
 that accords with the site of the circle lately iden- 
 tified, which is on a hill, between Gunwalloe and 
 
 * Vol. I., p. 4. Earth is not mentioned by Dr. Borlase by 
 that name ; but it may be one of the seven in a tract of eight 
 miles in the narrowest and westernmost part of the county 
 made by Danish invaders, and therefore part of the ditch or 
 vallum is unfinished, and they have British names from some 
 memorable exploit. In accordance with this the Cornish 
 villagers call them " fortifications," — much more probably, 
 however, they have been used for sepulture. 
 
190 THE CAERTH OF CAMDEN. 
 
 Poljew Coves Caerth, i.e., castle, or hill city, seems 
 to be much nearer the mark. 
 
 There seems little reason to doubt the accuracy 
 of the identification, for the author having hunted 
 fruitlessly up and down the coast line, east and 
 west of the Looe Pool, at length lighted on one of 
 the old villagers in Gunwalloe ninety years of age> 
 and from whom so much that is of interest has been 
 gathered since, and asking him if he remembered 
 a place called Earth the old man immediately de- 
 scribed the spot at Crickabella, adding that there 
 " are no stones there now, for many years ago 
 (near about seventy) the farmer, holding the land 
 and farm of Gwylls, carted away the mound, which 
 was a large one, for dressing the land." He re- 
 membered this perfectly. 
 
 On an examination of the site pointed out, there 
 are clear traces in a circle of large stones having 
 been there once, and probably a considerable 
 mound, as the surface has all the irregular appear- 
 ance of a place dug out in the hap-hazard manner 
 of a country farm labourer. 
 
 So far it is probable that to the retentive memory 
 of the old Cornish man above named we owe the pre- 
 servation of the site of Camden's " Earth." Then 
 comes the query, was it a " fortification " properly 
 
THE CAERTH OF CAMDEN. 191 
 
 so called, or was it not rather one of the many- 
 sepulchral barrows that line the cliffs at this portion 
 of the coast. 
 
 It is not of like character with any of the " cliff 
 castles " or " hill castles " whose ruins remain on so 
 many of the well-known spots of West Cornwall. 
 Castle-an-Dinas, Ch'un Castle, inland, the remains 
 of Treryn and Treryn Dinas, the one on the south 
 coast, and the other on the northern cliffs, are all 
 very dissimilar to what Caerth must have been ; 
 answering not at all to the words of the Roman 
 general (De bello Gallico), and this, with other cir- 
 cumstances to be mentioned, seems to favour the 
 opinion that it must have been a place of inter- 
 ment, perhaps containing more kist-vaens than one 
 before it was built up into one common mound.* 
 
 It is significant that not far from here, on the 
 
 * Mr. Rd. Edmonds, in his Land's End District, p. 34, well 
 remarks — " As a barrow often contains several urns or kist- 
 vaens on the same floor, without any appearance of distinct 
 periods of interment, our heathen ancestors may have buried 
 their dead almost exclusively on one day of the week (as our 
 poor neighbours do now on Sunday); the corpses being brought 
 from the surrounding districts, and laid on one common pyre 
 at such a distance from each other that, after the flames had 
 ceased, the bones of the different bodies might be readily 
 collected and deposited in and around urns, or in kist-vaens 
 without urns, previously to covering up the whole in one com- 
 mon heap. 
 
192 THE CAERTH OF CAMDEN. 
 
 next hill at Angrowse, two barrows have been 
 opened and described byW.Copeland Borlase, Esq. 
 in his "Ncenia Corunbise," and in each of them 
 were found urns, ashes, and human bones. Another 
 at Pradanack was opened by him in 1871, and 
 found also to contain a vessel filled with bones. 
 
 At Clahar Garden, once in Bochym, and where 
 stood an ancient chapel, to which the cross at Pra- 
 danack probably pointed the way, there was a large 
 barrow ; this also was found to contain several urns 
 with ashes and flints, when the mound was re- 
 moved by the tenant farmer "for agricultural pur- 
 poses." 
 
 It seems more than probable that we have here 
 the key to the whole thing. Sepulchral barrows 
 abound on the cliffs of that side of Mounts Bay, and 
 nothing more likely than that the farmer should per- 
 ceive that the dark unctuous earth, of which the 
 mounds were composed, would be very fit dressing 
 for the land. Why not this circle of " Earth ?" 
 
 It was a mound ; was carted away by the farmer 
 for the land, and probably had it been opened by 
 the learned author of " Ncenia Cornubiae," or any 
 other discreet and careful antiquarian, the chances 
 are it would have been found to contain an urn or 
 urns, standing in the black unctuous mould which 
 marked the funeral pile of the ancient dead. 
 
THE CAERTH OF CAMDEN. 193 
 
 A French writer* despairingly asks — " Que de 
 buttes Celtiques ont disparu, dont les terres ont 6t6 
 portdes dans les champs pour y nourrir les bles ? 
 Ne voyons-nous pas tous les jours encore les cultiva- 
 tes fouiller les buttes de Locmaraquer, et n'est-ce 
 pas a cette coutume, helas ! trop repandue que 
 Ton doit decouverte de la grotte du Mane-Lud ?' 
 
 This is what happens on the south coast of Brit- 
 tany ; this is what is continually happening on our 
 own coast — the barrows go to manure our land, the 
 crosses to form our gate posts. f 
 
 There is one curiosity which, found near the cross 
 and barrow at Pradanack, above mentioned, is 
 worth recording, though it has no real connection 
 with the two parishes which are subject of this 
 
 * Fouquet, "Guide des Touristes dans le Morbihan." p^ 
 126. 
 
 * This is what happened with the stone in Men-Perhen of 
 Borlase in Constantine — A stone 2ofeet above the ground, and 
 four feet in it, large enough to make more than 20 stone gate 
 posts for the farmer who destroyed it.. — Borlase Antiq., p. 
 156, edit. 1754. Later on, in 1869, in the same parish, the 
 magnificent Tolmen (or Maen Rock) was destroyed, the gra- 
 nite rocks on which it had rested for 2,000 years being blown 
 up with gunpowder, and so this monument of antiquity fell, 
 as a chronicler remarks (Journal Royal Inst, of Cornwall, 
 No. x.), before the cupidity of the XlXth century. 
 
 " Quid non mortalia pectora cogis 
 Auri sacra fames !" 
 
194 THE CAERTH OF CAMDEN. 
 
 work. It is a matrix of an antique Christian seal, 
 already noticed by the writer, in the " British Ar- 
 chaeological Journal " for 1874, and derives its main 
 interest from the surroundings of the place wherein 
 it was discovered. 
 
 It is formed of bronze, and is very rude and rough 
 in workmanship, probably of the early fifteenth 
 century, though it may be late fourteenth century 
 date. 
 
 It has in the centre a cross standing on an apex 
 formed by two lines with the letters IHC at the 
 base. Round the seal are the words VANITES 
 TOI, and the legend and monogram together will 
 read, LH.C. VANGIES TOI, (Jesus avenge thyself). 
 
PRADANACK CROSS, MULLYON. 
 
 Height ^feet 3 inches, breadth 2 feet 1 inch. On the reverse 
 
 side is cat ved in relief a plain Latin cross. 
 

 THE CAERTII OF CAMDEN. 195 
 
 It was found in 1868 or '69 by Mr. J. Thomas, of 
 Mullyon,on his own farm, who thus writes concerning 
 it : — " I accidentally discovered it near the edge of 
 the cliff on my own farm, at a place called " Men- 
 tikel Point," commonly called Pradanack Head. At 
 the time I was crouching under a large rock to 
 shelter from a heavy shower of rain, and picked up 
 the seal at my feet, the place having been trodden 
 bare by the sheep getting under the rock." 
 
 The bare hill on which it had laid so long gives 
 us no assistance in discovering to whom it could 
 have belonged, or the " how or why " it found its 
 way to its hiding place ; that it is a seal of a pri- 
 vate individual seems evident, and there are a great 
 many of similar character, but bearing different 
 legends, in the collection of the British Museum. 
 
 Not very far from " Mentikel " is another relic 
 of the Christian faith ; from time immemorial a 
 Latin cross has stood there close to the site of an 
 ancient chapel, to which in days gone by it was 
 doubtless the guide ; like the oratory itself it may 
 have been erected by some pious individual " pro 
 anima," for the sake of his soul — 
 
 " Stop, weary Pilgrim, stop and pray, 
 For the kind soul of Sybil Grey 
 Who built this cross and well." 
 
 Sir W. Scott. 
 
196 THE CAERTH OF CAMDEN. 
 
 Whether, however, the cross,* and the chapel at 
 Trenance hard by, and another at Clahar, near 
 Bochym, have any connection with the seal in ques- 
 tion must remain still a mystery, for of them in their 
 ancient condition there is no record. The fact re- 
 mains that they all bear upon and around them the 
 emblems of the ancient faith, of which they are at 
 once the memorials and witnesses. 
 
 * This cross, which is sculptured on both sides, is figured 
 in J. T. Blight's "Ancient Crosses and other Antiquities of 
 Cornwall," Plate 48 in the editions 4to, Penzance, 1856, and 
 vol. ii, 1858. 
 

 REMINISCENCES OF THE CORNISH 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 " Pie a wra why mos, moz, fettow, tek,* 
 Gen 'gas bedgeth gwin, ha 'gas blew melyn, 
 Mos tha'n ventau, sarra whek 
 Rag delkyew seve 'wra moyssy tek." 
 
 jS may be supposed, traces of the ancient 
 language spoken in Cornwall remain in 
 the names of various places and people. 
 Very much has been done by the Philo- 
 logical Society in the way of research into this 
 subject, and no learned disquisition is here in- 
 tended, merely the grouping of a few notes on 
 this interesting memorial of the past. 
 
 One of the most sure preservatives of a lan- 
 guage would be the use of it in the religious rites 
 and ceremonies of the people. It is said to have 
 been at the desire of the Cornish themselves that 
 the English service was enjoined in preference to 
 
 * The literal translation is : 
 
 " Where do you go, pretty maid, he said, 
 With your fair face and your yellow hair ? 
 Going to the well, sweet sir, 
 For leaves of strawberries made maidens fair. 
 
198 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 that of their native tongue, and this probably was 
 the surest method of suppressing its use altogether, 
 and rendering it in the end extinct ; while, in Wales, 
 the contrary system was adopted, and it has proved 
 the preservation of their language * 
 
 Dr. Moreman, Vicar of Menheniot, has the credit 
 of being the first to teach his people to say the 
 Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Command- 
 ments in the English tongue, and he " did teach 
 and catechise them thereon.-f- 
 
 Carew, in 1602, says, the principal love and 
 knowledge of the language lived in Dr. Kennall, 
 the civilian, and with him lyeth buried, for the Eng- 
 lish speech doth still encroach upon it, and hath 
 
 * W. Scawen's " Treatise on the Cornish Language." 
 + This Dr. Moreman is mentioned in the petition presented 
 to Edward VI. by the Cornwall and Devon insurgents in 
 favour of the old form of worship : " We will not receive the 
 new service because it is but like a Christmas game. We 
 will have our old service of Matins, Mass, Evensong, and 
 Procession as it was before ; and we, the Cornish, whereof 
 certain of us understa?id no English, do utterly refuse the new 
 service." The nth of these famous 15 articles is curious : 
 "We will have ' Dr. Moreman'' and Dr. Crispin, which 
 hold our opinions, to be safely sent unto us ; and to them we 
 require the King's Majesty to give some certain livings, to 
 preach among us our Catholic faith." If this be the Dr. 
 Moreman of Menheniot it is strange that he should be among 
 the first to teach his people the English service. 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 190 
 
 driven the same into the uttermost skirts of the 
 shire. Most of the inhabitants can speak no word of 
 Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English, 
 and yet some so affect their own as to a stranger 
 they will not speak it ; for if meeting them by 
 chance you inquire the way or any such matter, 
 your answer shall be, " Mee a navidra cowza Sawz- 
 neck." (I can speak no Saxonage.) 
 
 In 1663 only one person is said to have been 
 found who could write the Cornish language, but 
 in 1678 a sermon was preached in Cornish by Rev. 
 Mr. Robinson, Rector of Landewednack, and this 
 is said to have been the last occasion on which that 
 language was used in the public service of the 
 church. For some time, however, the " guaries" or 
 miracle plays, continued to be acted in Cornish. 
 
 Norden, in his Survey, gives this quaint account 
 of the language : — 
 
 "The Cornish people for the moste parte are 
 descended of British stocke, though muche mixed 
 since with the Saxon and Norman bloude, but un- 
 till of late years retayned the British speache un- 
 corrupted as theirs of Wales is. For the South 
 Wales man understandeth not perfectly the North. 
 Wales man, and the North Wales man but little of 
 the Cornish, but the South Wales man much. The 
 pronounciation of the tongue differs in all, but the 
 
200 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 Cornish is far the easier to be pronounced. . . . 
 But of late the Cornish men have conformed them- 
 selves to the use of the English tongue, and their 
 English is equal to the best, especially in the 
 Eastern parts ; even from Truro eastward is in a 
 manner wholly English. In the weste parte of the 
 county, as in the hundreds of Penwith and Kerrier, 
 the Cornishe tongue is mostly in use, and yet it is 
 to be marvelled that though husband and wife, 
 parents and children, master and servauntes, doe 
 mutually communicate in trieir native language, 
 yet there is none of them but in manner is able to 
 converse with a stranger in the English tongue un- 
 less it be some obscure persons that seldom con- 
 verse with the better sort." 
 
 In the time of the Civil War (1644) there is an 
 entry in the diary of one of the Royalist soldiers 
 to the effect that " The language is spoken alto- 
 gether at Goonhilly (in Meneage, not far from the 
 Lizard), and about Pendennis and the Land's End 
 they speak no English. All beyond Truro they 
 speak the Cornish language." 
 
 In 1707, Dr. Ed. Lhuyd gives a list of parishes 
 in which the language was then spoken, and this 
 list includes Gunwalloe but not Cury, and he adds 
 that many of the inhabitants of these parishes, 
 especially the gentry, do not understand it, "there 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 201 
 
 being no need, as every Comishman speaks Eng- 
 lish? 
 
 The famous Dolly Pentreath, whose monument 
 in Paul Churchyard nearly every Penzance visitor 
 must know, is popularly supposed to have been 
 the last person who, in the words of the celebrated 
 Peter Pindar, "jabbered Cornish." 
 
 But if the language itself be dead, its influence 
 is clearly perceptible in the modes of thought and 
 expression of the country people, and especially 
 those of West Barbarary : — 
 
 Tummuls — heaps. Croggans — limpets. Maund — 
 a basket. Cheeld vean — a little child. Pure — fine, 
 good, well, as, e.g., " a pure boy enough that ;" the 
 quaint use of the verb " to do," as " they do say." 
 for " they say." 
 
 Belong — "I belong working" to Gunwalloe. 
 
 Brave — Much, good, well ; as, How be you ? 
 Bravish ! " It's a brave long way to So-and-so." 
 11 Pepys walked to Redriffe by ' brave ' moonshine." 
 Sep. 19, 1662. 
 
 Clome — Earthenware. 
 
 Crowd— A fiddle ; to play is to " Crowdy." 
 
 Fit — Prepare. " Fit ee a cup o' tea ?" 
 
 Flasket — A linen basket. 
 
 Helling stone — Roofing stone, flat stone. 
 
202 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 " His howse were unhiled, 
 And full i yvel dight." 
 
 {Coke's tale of " Gamelyn.") 
 
 To hell the building is to cover it, slate it in. 
 
 Keenly — Having a favourable appearance. " A 
 brave keenly crop." 
 
 Plum — Soft. Dough is said to be plum when 
 raised with yeast. 
 
 A farmer near the Lizard,* who was confined to 
 his bed by illness, and complained of a distension 
 of his stomach, heard to his horror that a pitcher 
 of yeast had been accidentally upset into the well 
 from which came the water he had drank. "Then," 
 he cried, "that explains my complaint — I'm plum- 
 ming." 
 
 The Piskies, or Pixies, are a Cornish folk peculiar 
 in themselves, only noticed here, as the indifferent 
 pronunciation of the word is analogous to that of 
 hogshead, as often used" hosgead." One old fisher 
 explained, when asked how many hogsheads of 
 pilchards the catch contained : " Ted'na hogshead 
 I tell ee.' Tes' a hosged. Who ever heerd tell o' a 
 pig's head full of pilchards ? Tes' a hosged." 
 
 * Related by Thomas Garland in a paper contained in the 
 "Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall," Vol. I., April, 
 1865, p. 51. 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 203 
 
 Scat — Split or burst ; hence to " scat," or be 
 bankrupt. • 
 
 Wisht — Melancholy, forlorn. No English syno- 
 nym is expressive enough for the meaning of this 
 word. 
 
 Latimer uses it (Sermons, Parker ed., p. 
 
 115.)* 
 
 "And when they perceived that Solomon, by 
 the advice of his father, was anointed King, by 
 and by there was all whisht, — all their good cheer 
 was done." 
 
 A person looking ill and sorrowful is said to be 
 ? looking wisht." 
 
 A miner killed by accident, and having a large 
 family, would be a " wisht thing." 
 
 One correspondent suggests as the equivalent 
 the " desiderium " grief for a lost friend of Horace; 
 " Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus 
 Tarn cari capitis ?" 
 All this is included in " Wisht!' but that is not 
 enough for this expressive and simple term." 
 
 Up-raising — Applied to thanksgiving in the 
 
 * "Journal Royal Inst., Cornwall," March, 1864^.25. "A 
 List of Obsolete Words," by T. O. Couch, which, however* 
 are not all obsolete, as many of the above list are included in 
 his catalogue, and these arc all common enough still in West 
 Cornwall. 
 
204 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 churching of women. To go to be "churched" 
 is to be " up-raised." 
 
 A plum pudding or plum cake is changed into 
 figgy pudding or cake, and in the same manner 
 " raisins " are called "figs!' 
 
 Every one of these words mentioned are as com- 
 mon as possible in the Lizard district. 
 
 The well-known couplet of the old writers runs : 
 " By Tre, Pol, and Pen 
 You shall know the Cornish men." 
 And certainly there are no lack of places and 
 names to verify it: Tre-gear, Tre-gavethan, Tre- 
 widden, Tre-gidean, pronounced Treg-i-gian, and 
 meaning " a giant's dwelling ;" the famous Tre- 
 geagle, Tre-woofe, Tre-lissick, Tre-reiffe, Pol-wyn, 
 Pol-withan, Pol-tre-worgie, Pol-pyze, Pol-griggons, 
 and Pen-alverne, Pen-braze, Pen-callinick, or Pen- 
 hallinyk. These are but specimens, for in a glossary 
 of Cornish names before me at the time of writing 
 this I count 1,800 names beginning with Tre, 240 
 beginning with Pol, and 350 beginning with Pen. 
 
 Tre signifies a house or dwelling. What is usually 
 called in Cornwall a " town-place " is a farm-house 
 and its outbuildings, and even now the village or 
 cottages, few or many, gathered round the church, 
 goes by the name of Church-town ; so that none 
 would ever speak of the " village of Cury," but 
 Cury Church-town. 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 205 
 
 Pol signifies a pool, and Pen a head. 
 A dissertation on the etymology of Cornish 
 words would be beyond our present purpose, but a 
 few may be mentioned, with their corruptions, as 
 more particularly striking to the outsider and 
 tourist. 
 
 There is, for instance, " Tol Pedn Penwith," the 
 holed headland in Penwith ; " Zawn Pyg," a holed 
 cave or cavern in the same locality ; " Pen au cwm 
 cuic," the head of the creek valley, has degenerated 
 into "Penny come quick," and given rise to a 
 curious story concerning Falmouth. 
 
 " Cwm ty coed," "the valley of the wood-house," 
 has become " Come to good ;" and in the Scilly 
 Isles a very fine rock there, the " Men an Vor," or 
 great rock, is generally called the Man-o'-War, 
 although there is nothing resembling a vessel 
 about it. 
 
 Some of the names are quite poetical. 
 Als-y-farn, pronounced Halzephron, is a bold 
 and lofty cliff fronting the great Western Ocean, 
 and it has been taken literally Als, a cliff, Zephy- 
 ron, western ; but it has also been interpreted Als, 
 a cliff, and Y-farn ifarn, infcrnns, the hellish cliff, or 
 deep as hell. 
 
 Goonhilly has received a picturesque and his- 
 torical interpretation. Situated in the centre of 
 Meneg, and abounding with hares, it was anciently 
 
206 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 a favourite place for coursing ; hence Goon, a down ; 
 and hellia, to hunt — Hunting down. 
 
 These are curious in their pronunciations and 
 meanings, and their connection with a now dead 
 language ; but what shall be said of the curiosity 
 of a pronunciation such as belongs to a farm in 
 Cury, named Millewarne, pronounced by one and 
 all " Bellorian." 
 
 The antiquity of the Tre Pol and Pen is to be 
 seen in Andrew Borde's " Book of Knowledge " 
 (1542), in a few of the Cornish proverbs : — 
 " My bedaver wyl to London to try the law, 
 To sue Tre Pol and Pen for wagging of a 
 straw." 
 " Better a clout than a hole out." 
 " More rain more rest, more water will suit the 
 ducks best." 
 
 " Cornwall will bear a shower every day, and 
 two on Sunday." 
 
 " Cross a style, and a gate hard by, 
 
 You'll be a widow before you die." 
 " A Saturday or a Sunday moon 
 
 Comes once in seven years too soon." 
 "With one child you may walk, with two you 
 may ride ; 
 When you have three at home you must bide." 
 " Those that cannot work must planny, and those 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 207 
 
 that cannot planny must lowster " (i.e., hard manual 
 
 labour). 
 
 It will amuse, and may interest some readers, to 
 
 see a good specimen of the Cornish language at 
 
 different periods, and that appended is taken from 
 
 a paper read by Henry Jenner, Esq., before the 
 
 Philological Society in 1873 : — 
 
 SPECIMENS OF THE CORNISH LANGUAGE AT 
 VARIOUS PERIODS. 
 
 15th century {the end of the play , Origo Mundi). 
 
 Y vennath theugh yn tyen 
 Keffrys gorryth ha benen 
 
 Flogholeth 
 An guare yu due lymmyn 
 Ha the welas an passyon 
 A Jhesus hep gorholeth 
 A worthevys Crys ragon 
 A vorowe deug a dermyn 
 
 Hag eus pub dre 
 A barth a'nTas, Menstrel a ras 
 
 Pebough whare. 
 
 His blessing to you wholly 
 As well to men and women 
 
 (And to) children ; 
 The play is done now, 
 And to see the passion 
 Of Jesus without delay 
 Which Christ suffered for us> 
 To-morrow come in time ; 
 And go all (of you) home. 
 In the name of the Father, 
 minstrels, I pray, 
 
 Pipe at once. 
 Early ijth century {the end of Jordan's " Creation "). 
 
 Dewhe a vorowe a dermyn 
 
 Why a weall matters pur vras 
 Ha redempcon grauntys 
 Der vercy a Thew an Tase 
 Tha sawya neb es kellys 
 Menstrels, growgh theny peba 
 May hallan warbarthe down- 
 ssya 
 Dell ew an vanar ha'n 
 geys. 
 
 Come to-morrow in time, 
 You shall see matters very 
 
 great 
 And redemption granted 
 Through the mercy of God 
 
 the Father 
 To save him who is lost. 
 Minstrels, do to us pipe, 
 That we may together dance, 
 As is the manner and the 
 
 sport (guise). 
 
208 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 Circ. 1700 {from a Cornish story given by Lhuyd and Pryce), 
 
 Ha pa tera diuad an vledan 
 e vester a disquedaz daedo an 
 trei pens. " Mir, Dzhuan," 
 med e vester, " ybma de gu- 
 ber ; bez mar menta rei dem 
 arta,me a deskadiz ken pointa 
 skians." " Dreu hedna," med 
 Dzhuan. " Na," med e ves- 
 ted, " rei dem, ha me a vedn 
 laveral diz." " Kemeren dan," 
 med Dzhuan. " Nanna," med 
 e vester, " Kamer with na rey 
 gara an vor goth rag an vor 
 noweth." Enna dshei a var- 
 gidniaz rag bledan moy rag 
 pokar guber. 
 
 1776 
 Bluth vee ewe try egance 
 ha pemp Theatra vee dean 
 boadjack an poscas, me rig 
 deskys Cornouack termen me 
 vee maw. Me vee de more 
 gen cara vee a pemp dean 
 moy en cock, me rig scant- 
 lower clowes eden ger Sows- 
 nack cowes en cock rag sythen 
 war bar. No rig a vee biscath 
 gwellas lever Cornuack. Me 
 deskey Cornouack mous da 
 mor gen tees coath. Nag es 
 moy vel pager pe pemp en 
 dreau nye ell classia Cornish 
 leben,poble coath pager egance 
 blouth. Cornouack ewe all 
 neceaves ven poble younck. 
 
 And when the year was 
 done, his master shewed to 
 him the three pounds. " See, 
 John," said his master, "here 
 is thy pay ; but if thou wilt 
 give it to me again, I will 
 teach thee a point of wis- 
 dom." " Bring it here," said 
 John. " No," said his master, 
 " give it to me, and I will tell 
 thee." " Take it to thee," said 
 John. " Then," said his mas- 
 ter, " take care not to leave 
 the old road for the new 
 road." Then they bargained 
 for a year more for the same 
 pay. 
 e Letter of William Bodenor). 
 
 My age is threescore and 
 five, I am a poor fisherman, I 
 did learn Cornish when I was 
 a boy. I was at sea with my 
 father and five men more in a 
 boat, I did scarcely hear one 
 word of English spoken in the 
 boat for a week together. I 
 have not ever seen a Cornish 
 book. I learnt Cornish going 
 to sea with old folk. There 
 are not more than four or five 
 in our town can speak Cornish 
 now, old people of fourscore 
 years. Cornish is all forgot_ 
 ten by young people. 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 20y 
 
 King Charles' Letter is known to most of us 
 only in the fanciful sketches of it, occasionally to 
 be seen in those churches where it has been allowed 
 to remain a fixture on the wall, a memorial of a 
 people's loyalty and a King's gratitude : — 
 CORNISH TEXT. 
 
 An woolak da disquethye an Pow Kernow ganz y brostc- 
 rcth an kense mightern Charles ef boz gwithys in disque- 
 thyans es umma sywya, dewelas ; — 
 
 Charles Mightern. 
 
 Ytho ny mar ughell kemerys gans an pethyw moigh vcl 
 mear pernys theworth ny ganz agan Pow Kernow, an kirense 
 y the gwitha saw agan honan, han gwyr composter agan 
 curyn (en termyn a alga ny dry mar nebas tha gan sawder, 
 po aga gwerthas y ; yn termyn pan na oyagh gober vyth boz 
 gwelys, mez wherriow braz peroghas gowsas gerriow tyn 
 erbyn gwylvry ha kolonnow leall) aga braz hag ughell kolonn- 
 wik ha ga perthyans heb squithder yth mar vraz wheal erbyn 
 mar cref tns a drok scoothyes gans mar [a completely illegible 
 word] trevow leun a tuz, ha mar tek tcklys gans clethyow, 
 arghans, dafyr lathysa, ha kenyver ehan a vooz daber, ha 
 gans an merthus sawynyans o both Dew Olgallousek (saw 
 ganz coll a van tuz a bryz neb ny vyth nefra ganz ny ankevys) 
 the talviga ga kolonnow leall ha ga perthyans mysk leas 
 merthus omdowlow war tuz a drok thens y ha ny en ate[l] ol 
 pederyans mab-den hag ol an drokter alga boz kevys, kepari 
 ny yll ny ankevy mar vraz galarow, yndella ny yll ny buz 
 gawas bonogate da the kaws da anothans then bys, ha perricof 
 yn oil termyn aga oberrow da, han kemeryans da ny anothans 
 Ha rag henna theren ry agan mighterneth gorseans then 
 Pow na gans an ughella lef, ha en forth a ell moygha dyrria 
 hag a ellen kawaz mez. Ha theren ry' ger fatel reysthan ha 
 vatorow a hemma boz screfys ganz oleow horen ha danvenys 
 a leaz ha pregowthyes yn minz egliz ha Ian es enna ha boz 
 
210 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 gwethys enna bys ricar yn cef, pella (mar pell tra clap an 
 terminnyow ma han wlas dyrrya) an cof kemmys es pernys 
 theworthan ny han curyn ny gans an Pow na boz tennys 
 meas than ffleghes es tha denethy. 
 
 Reys yn gwent milchamath ny yn Castell Sudley yn dek- 
 vas dyth mys Heddra in blethan myll whegh cans dewghans 
 ha try. 
 
 LITERAL TRANSLATION. 
 
 The good regard shewn to the county of Cornwall by his 
 Majesty the first King Charles may be read in the declaration 
 that is here following, videlicet : — 
 
 Charles King. 
 
 We are so highly taken with the more than great things 
 [order, moigh vel mear pethyw] taken towards us by our 
 county of Cornwall, the love of them to guard our person, 
 and the true fitness of our Crown (at a time [when] we could 
 bring so little to our safety or their help, at a time when not 
 any reward might be seen, but bitter great dangers spoke 
 harsh words against obedience and loyal hearts), their great 
 and high courage and their patience without weariness in so 
 great work against so strong enemies [tus a drok ; lit., people 
 of evil], backed by so [the Cornish word is 'illegible] towns, 
 full of people and so fairly furnished with weapons (lit., 
 swords), money, space (lit., convenience of placing), and 
 every sort (of thing) to be eaten, and by the wonderful saving 
 of the will of God Almighty (but with the loss of high people 
 of worth who will not ever be by us forgotten) to reward their 
 loyal hearts and their patience with many wonderful victories 
 (lit., throws, a wrestling term) over enemies to them and us, 
 in spite of all probability of the sons of men and of all the 
 evil that could be imagined ; that as we cannot forget so 
 great pains, so we cannot but have good will to speak well of 
 them to the world, and to remember in all time their good 
 works, and the good reception of us to them : And for that 
 (end) we do make our royal honour to that county, with the 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 211 
 
 highest voice and in the way that can most endure that we 
 can find good. And we do make word how the reason and 
 matters of this be written with oil-iron (i.e., printed) and sent 
 abroad and read in every church and chapel that is there, 
 and be kept there for a record of the same, that (so long as 
 the report of these times and country endure) the remem- 
 brance of how much is held towards us and our Crown by 
 that county may be held good to the children that are to be 
 born (i.e., to posterity). 
 
 Given at our camp of war in Castle Sudley the loth day 
 of the month of October in the year 1643. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Page 209, line II. — Ytho ny should be ython ny. This is 
 an old form, found in the Cornish Dramas, but which would 
 hardly have been in use as late as the 17th century. 
 
 Line 14. — Alga, a late form of alse (the mutation of galse, 
 a alga ?iy — we were able. The g is soft, so it should have 
 been written alja. 
 
 Line 14. — Gan, a late form of agan (our). 
 
 Line 15. — Gwerthas, for gweres, orgweras (Welsh, gwared). 
 This insertion of th occurs again in the case of merthus 
 (line 22) for vierys. 
 
 Line 16. — Peroghas, for peroglas (Welsh, perygl ; Latin 
 periculum). 
 
 Line 18. — Squitlider. The usual Cornish form is squythens, 
 but the translator seems to have taken the Breton skuizde?' 
 pronounced in some parts of Brittany squidhder). 
 
 Line 19. — Scoothyes, a participle formed from scouth (Com. 
 Vocab., 1 8th cent., scuid), a shoulder ; hence equivalent to 
 the English " backed." I have never met with the verb else- 
 where. 
 
 Line 20. — Teklys, probably from takel, a thing or instru- 
 ment, hence "furnished ;" docs not occur elsewhere. 
 
 Line 24. — Talviga, formed from talvcs (worth, of value). 
 The g is soft ; does not occur elsewhere, the usual verb being 
 taly or dal. 
 
2-12 REMINISCENCES OF THE 
 
 Line 28. — Perricof, for fierthy cof— to hold remembrance. 
 
 Lines 30 and 32. — Theren for deren, a late form of the 
 present (1st pers. pi.) of gurthil, to do; originally gwreii 
 (by mutation 'wren, with the w hardly heard), with the inten- 
 sive prcnx de. 
 
 Line yi.—Mez, for mas (orig. mad, as in Breton), good. 
 
 In the date the translator has used " Gwent milchamath '' 
 (lit. plain of war) to signify " camp," and for some unaccount- 
 able reason, probably from a vague idea about Phoenicians, 
 has introduced the Hebrew word D^Pt/D (milchamath), as 
 
 t t : • 
 
 an equivalent for " war," though he had a very good Cornish 
 word (cos. Welsh, cad ; Irish, cat) ready to hand. As the 
 copy of this letter in the Museum MS. is in Keigwin's hand, 
 and he, according to his epitaph, composed by William 
 Gwavas (published in Borlase's History, &c), was a Hebrew 
 scholar, the presence of this word in a piece of Cornish is 
 not of the smallest value in support of either the Phoenician 
 theory or of the Jewish one (founded on an erroneous 
 etymology or Marazion, &c), for, in common with most 
 Celtic philologers of his date, he was probably infected with 
 one or both of these crazes. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 This translation of the letter of King Charles the 
 Martyr to the people of Cornwall is written (very 
 illegibly) in the hand of John Keigwin, a man well 
 known to all students of Cornish as the translator 
 of Jordan's play of " The Creation of the World " 
 and of the old 1 5th century poem of the " Passion." 
 The language used is the vulgar Cornish of the 17th 
 and 1 8th century, but it is so much diversified with 
 forms of an earlier date that it is very doubtful if 
 
CORNISH LANGUAGE. 213 
 
 the uneducated Cornish-speaking population of 1643 
 would have understood it very readily. The use of 
 .a Hebrew word (see Notes) and of what may be 
 called archaic forms seems to point to its being the 
 work of Keigwin himself. Now, as he was born in 
 1641, this cannot of course be an official transla- 
 tion, though it is probable that one was made at 
 the time of the publication of the English version, 
 seeing that (according to Symonds' Diary of the 
 Civil War) the Cornish language was then very 
 generally spoken in the extreme west, and in some 
 places to the exclusion of English. 
 
 The archaisms mentioned above are these : 
 
 1. The occasional use of the inflected form of 
 the verbs,* as in the case of ytho, a clerical error 
 for ythoji, etc. 
 
 2. Tus (people), the old form of spelling 
 used in the poem of the " Passion" and in the 
 " Ordinalia," the later spelling and probable pro- 
 nunciation (following Welsh analogy) being tis 
 or tees. 
 
 3. Kirense, instead of the later form, kirenja, 
 which appears as early as 1504 in the "Life of 
 S. Meriasek." 
 
 4. The use of the guttural gh in such words as 
 ag/ie/, moyg/ia, jlcghes, etc., which in Keigwin's 
 
 * See Norris Grammar or paper of H. Jenner. Esq., on 
 the Cornish Language, for explanation of the term. 
 
214 CORNISH LANGUAGE. 
 
 time, and indeed earlier, had been softened into 
 h, or dropped altogether. 
 
 The initial mutations are for the most part 
 disregarded, or else used without any gram- 
 matical reason, and there is a great deal of un- 
 decidedness about spelling, which, however, was 
 often visible in Keigwin's English (see his trans- 
 lations). 
 
THE WEST COUNTRY FOLKS 
 
 AND THEIR CURIOSITIES. 
 
 In winter's tedious nights sit by the fire 
 With good old folks, and let them tell the tales 
 Of woful ages long ago betid.— Kg. Richard ii 
 
 |T is far from improbable that in ancient 
 days the peninsula of the Mene&g was a 
 well-peopled district even up to the time 
 of Edward III. The extraordinary 
 number of its churches would appear to warrant 
 the supposition. In the country districts at the 
 present day the population, from emigration and 
 other causes, is surely decreasing, and it is well 
 attested that the plague at various periods made 
 extensive ravages through the whole county ; if Ave 
 may judge of the number of victims in every part 
 by the register, quoted by William of Worcester, 
 it must have been all but decimation. 
 
 " In registro apud Bodman ecclesiam Fratum Mi- 
 norum, magna pestilencia per universam mundum, 
 inter Saraenos — et postea inter Christianos ; incepit 
 primo in Anglia circa kalend, Augusti, et parum 
 
2l6 WEST COUNTRY 
 
 ante Nativitatem Domini intravit villam Bodminiae, 
 ubi mortui fuerunt circa mille quingentos per esti- 
 macionem ; et numeros fratrum defunctorum a capi- 
 tulo generali Lugdunise celebratum anno Christi 
 135 1. Usque ad aliud sequens capitulum gene- 
 rale, fuit ac fratribus tres decern millia octingenti 
 octaginta tres, exceptis sex vicariis." 
 
 And tradition says that the estates of Hawks- 
 bramble and Kiddons were annexed to the parish 
 of Exminster in Devon, in recompense of its vicar's 
 manly resolution in burying the dead of the parish 
 to which those estates originally belonged. 
 
 Certain it is that, if only a fair proportion of old 
 Cornish records be true, the people of this land 
 must have been a very hardy race, worthy succes- 
 sors of the giants of the mythic or the knights of 
 the medieval period. 
 
 Some of the native historians are very diffuse in 
 their narratives of extraordinary instances of longe- 
 vity and activity, and from them onemaybe selected. 
 Polwhele mentions a Mr. Cole, rector of Lan- 
 dewednack, who was 120 years old when he 
 died in 1683, of whom he had found the following 
 memorandum : — " Thomas Cole, minister of and at 
 the Lizard, went one morn on foot from the Lizard 
 to Penryn, which is at least 13 miles, and returned 
 again the same day on foote to Lizard, at which 
 
CURIOSITIES. 217 
 
 time he was at least 120 years, and was met going 
 and coming by Mr. Richard Erisey, of Erisey, as 
 credible authors report." This is at least a won- 
 derful performance for old age. 
 
 One of the most notable instances of female 
 strength was " The Great Betty Caddy!' or Rutter, 
 of this parish of Cury. 
 
 She is, says the historian, a very hale, tall, ath- 
 letic woman, frequents the Helston markets, and is 
 there a noted figure. It is with ease she lifts off 
 her horse, and carries on her shoulders up the steps 
 into the corn market, three (Winchester) bushels of 
 wheat. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, and much more to the 
 same purpose in the records of the past century, 
 there is a tradition* that the Lizard people were 
 formerly a very inferior race. 
 
 In fact, it is said that they went on all fours, till 
 the crew of a foreign vessel, wrecked on the coast, 
 settled among them, and improved the race so 
 much that they became as remarkable for their 
 stature and physical development as they had 
 been before for the reverse. At this time, 
 as a whole, the Lizard folks have certainly 
 
 * Mentioned in Hunt's Popular Romances, 2nd series, p. 
 267. 
 
2l8 WEST COUNTRY 
 
 among them a very large proportion of tall people, 
 many, both men and women, being six feet 
 high. Query, may not both tradition and his- 
 tory be correct — the one confirmatory of the other, 
 and bearing out the tradition — the Spanish name 
 of Jose is a common one in the headland. 
 
 Of Cornwall her sons have been always proud ; 
 and, if many of her battle fields are still hidden in 
 the obscurity which necessarily hangs over her early 
 history, enough there is to tell of Cornish prowess 
 and Cornish might. Who that has crossed the 
 Tamar has not heard the famous " Trelawny" song 
 before he returned again, and even in the days 
 of England's early kings, poets were not wanting 
 to vaunt the valour and sing the praise of Arthur's 
 sons ? 
 
 Michael Blaumpayn, or Michael of Cornwall, 
 who flourished about A.D. 1250, and cited by Cam- 
 den as the most eminent poet of his age — i.e., the 
 time of Henry III. — has well maintained his coun- 
 try's honour in lines which Fuller has translated for 
 us — 
 
 Non opus est ut opes numerum quibus est opulenta, 
 Et per quos inopes sustentat non ope lenta 
 Piscibus et stanno nusquam tarn fertilis ora. 
 
 We need not number up her wealthy store, 
 Wherewith the helpful land relieves her poor, 
 No sea so full of fish, of tin no shore. 
 
CURIOSITIES. 219 
 
 And after relating how King Arthur always put 
 
 his Cornishmen in the forefront of the battle he 
 
 concludes — 
 
 " Quid nos deterret, si firmiter in pede sternus ? 
 Fraus ni nos superet, nihil est quod non superimus." 
 
 " What should us fright, if firmly we do stand ? 
 Bar fraud, and there's no force can us command."* 
 
 There was a time when the Cornish people were 
 not so used to the inroads of tourists as they are 
 now — a time when it would have been inconceiva- 
 ble to the west country mind that any sane person 
 would travel about for the mere sake of seeing the 
 country, though now the Lizard and Land's End 
 villagers, if none others, have been thoroughly 
 routed out of such a notion. 
 
 There are curious stories extant of the contre- 
 temps that befel travellers in the early part of the 
 last century. 
 
 Dr. John Randolph, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, 
 being on a visit to a friend at Gwennap, and de- 
 tected in the act of drawing plans and exploring 
 the county, was apprehended as a spy. A Mr 
 Salisbury, then of some fame as a botanist, was 
 arrested while he was searching on the Goonhilly 
 Downs for the well-known Erica Vagans, and was 
 
 * Quoted in the Journal of the Royal Inst, of Cornwall, 
 No. viii, Apl., 1867, p. 28 1. 
 
220 WEST COUNTRY 
 
 brought before the magistrates at Helston. Captain 
 Bligh, while surveying the harbour of Helford un- 
 der the direction of the government, was seized 
 and insulted by the "bargees" of the Helford 
 river, under suspicion of being in correspondence 
 with the enemy. 
 
 But not only in war time was there trouble of this 
 kind in store for the unwary pilgrim tourist, in peace 
 there was the counter apprehension of thieves and 
 robbers. 
 
 It is related of Mr. Edward Lhuyd, the author 
 of the celebrated " Archaeologia," that he came 
 into the county at a time when this wide-spread 
 fear was at its height. He and his three companions, 
 knapsacks on their shoulders, much after the fashion 
 of the modern tourist pedestrian, were travelling 
 the county on foot, in the words of the historian, 
 for the better searching for simples, viewing and 
 taking draughts of everything remarkable, and for 
 that reason prying into every hole and corner, 
 and they raised a strange jealousy in a people 
 already alarmed, so much so indeed that, at Hel- 
 ston, as Mr. Lhuyd went about making his en- 
 quiries respecting gentlemen's seats, &c., they were 
 taken up as thieves, and only escaped from the 
 unpleasant dilemma by producing their letter of 
 introduction for the magistrate's inspection. 
 
CURIOSITIES. 221 
 
 So John Taylor,* the royalist and water poet, 
 relates of his expedition, in 1649, a like dilemma 
 only with a happier result. He says — " 9 July 
 "I left Stratton and ambled twenty miles to the 
 town of Camelford, and to a village called 
 Blistland, and there I was taken for the man I 
 was not, for they suspected me to be a bringer of 
 writs and processe to serve upon some gentleman 
 and to bring men into trouble, but with much 
 adoe I scaped a beating by beating into their be- 
 lief I was no such creature." 
 
 Lucky escape for him ! for the ancient manor of 
 Blisland had jurisdiction over life and limb, and 
 once hung a man for robbing the parish church. 
 
 That they ever sustained a character for hospi- 
 tality none can doubt who has ever found himself a 
 traveller in the county. 
 
 One pedestrian, in 1649, walking the county, 
 though under many and manifest disadvantages, 
 writes afterwards — 
 
 Cornwall is the Cornucopia — the compleate and 
 repleate Home of Abundance for high churlish hills 
 and affable courteous people. They are loving to 
 
 * This interesting character is very little known. Vide 
 John Taylor's Wanderings, etc., printed at London in the 
 yecrc 1649. 
 
222 WEST COUNTRY 
 
 requite a kindnesse — placable to remit a wrong and 
 tardy to retort injuries. 
 
 The country hath its share of huge stones, mighty 
 rocks, noble free gentlemen, bountiful housekeepers, 
 strong and stout men, handsome and beautiful 
 women. ... In briefe, they are in most plenti- 
 full manner happy in the abundance of right and 
 left-hand blessings." 
 
 Quaint phraseology, " right and left-hand bless- 
 ings," but expressive enough. 
 
 Of the domestic life of the last century in this 
 favoured county there are numerous pictures drawn, 
 but I give one, because it is that of a writer less known 
 than many, and he describes a scene worth preserv- 
 ing if only as a curious relic of the manners of the 
 times. 
 
 The narrator (Mr. Beckford) thus sketches the 
 evening occupation at a house, where he was a 
 guest, in 1787 — 
 
 " A savoury pig right worthy of Otaheite, and 
 some of the finest poultry I ever tasted, and round 
 the table two or three brace of Cornish gentlefolks 
 not deficient in humour or originality. 
 
 " About 8 in the evening 6 game cocks were 
 ushered into the eating room by 2 limber lads in 
 scarlet jackets, and after a flourish of crowings, the 
 noble birds set to with surprising keenness. Tufts 
 
CURIOSITIES. 223 
 
 of brilliant feathers soon after flew about the apart- 
 ment, but the carpet was not injured, for to do Tre- 
 fusis justice he takes no pleasure in cruelty. 
 
 " The cocks were unarmed, had their spurs cut 
 short, and may live to fight such harmless battles 
 again." 
 
 According to Carew, in his time, a gentleman 
 and his wife will ride to make merry with his next 
 neighbour, and after a day or two these couples 
 go to a third, and in which progress they increase 
 like snowballs till, through their burdensome weight 
 they break again. 
 
THE SUPERNATURAL. 
 
 GOBLINS, GHOSTS, AND MERMAIDS. 
 
 " Of witching rhymes 
 
 And evil spirits ; of the death bed call 
 
 Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd 
 
 The orphan's portion ; of unquiet souls 
 
 Risen from their graves to ease the heavy guilt 
 
 Of deeds in life concealed : of shapes that walk 
 
 At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave 
 
 The torch of Hell around the murderer's bed." 
 
 Akenside. 
 
 "In our childhood our mother's maids have so terrified us with an ugly 
 devil, having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, and a tail in his 
 breech, eyes like a basin, fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, a skin like 
 a niger [sic), and a voyce roaring like a lyon, whereby we start, and are 
 afraid when we hear one cry — Bough ! 
 
 And they have so frayed us with bul-beggars, spirits, witches, urchins, 
 elves, hags, fairies, satyrs, pans, faunes, sylens, kit with the caustick, 
 tritons, centaurs, dwarfes, gyants, imps, culcars, conjurers, nymphes, 
 changlings, Incubus, Robin Goodfellow, the spoon, the mare, the man 
 in the oak, the hellwain, the fire-drake, the puckle, Tom Thumbe, hob- 
 goblin, Tom-tumbler, boneless, and such other bugs, that we are afraid 
 of our owne shadowes, insomuch that some never fear the devil 
 Taut in a dark night," &c. — " Discovery of Witchcraft," Regd. 
 Scot, 1665. 
 
 STRONG belief in the supernatural has 
 ever been a characteristic of the dwellers 
 in this far west, and certainly the stores 
 of narratives concerning fairies, ghosts, 
 and goblins, that fill up the folk lore of west Corn- 
 wall, seems to be utterly inexhaustible. 
 
SUPERSTITIONS. 225 
 
 Giants, fairys, knockers, and mermaids, all come 
 in for their share in the legendary literature of the 
 countyside, and the parishes of Cury and Gunwal- 
 loe have furnished the theme of more than one such 
 story. 
 
 It has been said — 
 
 " The Cornish drolls are dead, each one, 
 The fairies from their haunts are gone : 
 There's scarce a witch in all the land, 
 The world has grown so learn'd and grand." 
 
 John Jewell, of Trevergy, would have told a dif- 
 ferent tale ; for of him is related a story that is 
 worth repeating — 
 
 " I cannot tell how the truth may be, 
 I say the tale as 'twas said to me." — SCOTT. 
 
 A certain John Jewell, of Trevergy, in the parish 
 of Cury, was a very superstitious man, full of dread 
 of goblins, ghosts, and uncanny things of the like 
 nature. 
 
 His neighbours, the Boadens, two or three bro- 
 thers, noted as stout strong lusty men in days 
 when such men were more numerous than now, 
 detcrtermincd to have a practical joke at his ex- 
 pense. A valley laid between their two farms, and 
 John Jewell must pass their homestead on his way 
 home from Helston market. 
 
 Q 
 
226 SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Adjoinining Millewarne was a mill, disused at 
 that time, the wheel of which was detached. One 
 day, as soon as farmer Jewell had left for market, 
 the brothers got the huge mill wheel up the hill, 
 and placing it in a convenient spot, bound 
 to it bushes of furze and ferns and combustible 
 branches. 
 
 Evening came, and with the darkness came John 
 Jewell. The watchers listened to his horse's steps 
 as they plodded slowly homeward down the hill ; 
 soon they heard Trevergy gate -slam, as the farmer 
 passed through to traverse the opposite hill ; then 
 they set light to their novel Catherine wheel, and 
 rolling it down the declivity let it run. Faster and 
 faster, as it gathered speed, jump, bump, over every 
 obstacle went the flaming wheel blazing on every 
 side. 
 
 John Jewell turned, and saw coming down the 
 hill, as he thought, the evil one enveloped in flames 
 and smoke. His imagination supplied what sight 
 denied, and his fright was intensified as the ghostly 
 apparition gained on him despite his horse's efforts ; 
 anyhow, through the gate that barred his way, he 
 smashed horse and all, and never pulled up till he 
 reaches his own door fainting and half dead with 
 fright. 
 
 The next day the whole country round turned 
 
SUPERSTITIONS. 227 
 
 out to see the tracks his majesty had made. They 
 saw the gates smashed through by the fugitive 
 farmer, and at the bottom of the hill they found 
 the wheel with its burned out covering of branches 
 charred and blackened. It is evident the Cornish 
 farmer did not believe the description of the evil 
 spirit which the poet gives — 
 
 u I'll tell you what now of the devil ; 
 He's no such horrid creature ; cloven-footed, 
 Black, saucer-ey'd, his nostrils breathing fire, 
 As these lying Christians make him." 
 
 MASSINGER'S " Virgin Martyr," 1658. 
 
 The truth of the above story is thoroughly 
 vouched for by the members of the Boaden family 
 now living in Cury, and the story was itself related 
 to me by the great nephews of the principal actors. 
 It is akin to many of the fireside tales of the coun- 
 try round ; for almost every member of the popu- 
 lation is touched more or less by the fear of the 
 supernatural ; and, to a stranger, the superstition 
 of the Cornish is wonderful — exceeding that of 
 most other counties. There has always existed 
 a popular belief in mermaids. One story is trans- 
 cribed here, though recorded elsewhere, because 
 of its connection with Cury. It is contained in 
 Hunt's " Popular Drolls and Traditions of Old 
 
228 THE MERMAID. 
 
 Cornwall"* — though I have heard the same dished 
 up with little etceteras of addition or emenda- 
 tions more than once in my rambles through the 
 west. 
 
 The Old Man of Cury. 
 
 ' In old wive's daies that in old time did live, 
 To whose odde tales much credit men did give, 
 Great store of goblins, fairies, bugs, nightmares, 
 Urchins and elves to many a house repairs." — Old Poem. 
 
 More than a ioo years since, on a fine summer 
 day, when the sun shone brilliantly from a cloud- 
 less sky, an old man from the parish of Cury, or, 
 as it was called in olden time, Corantyn, was walk- 
 ing on the sands in one of the coves near the Lizard 
 point. 
 
 The old man was meditating, or at least he 
 was walking onward, either thinking deeply or 
 not thinking at all — that is, he was "lost in thought" 
 — when suddenly he came upon a rock on which 
 was sitting a beautiful girl with fair hair, so long 
 that it covered her entire person. On the in-shore 
 side of the rock was a pool of the most transpa- 
 
 * And also related in Traditions and Hearthside Stories of 
 West Cornwall. 
 
THE MERMAID. 229 
 
 rent water, which had been left by the receding 
 tide in the sandy hollow the waters had scooped out 
 The young creature was so absorbed in her occu- 
 pation — arranging her hair in the watery mirror, 
 or in admiration of her own lovely face, that she 
 was unconscious of an intruder. 
 
 The old man stood looking at her for some 
 time ere he made up his mind how to act. At 
 length he resolved to speak to the maiden. 
 
 " What cheer, young one ?" he said, " what art 
 thee doing there by theeself, then, this time of day." 
 As soon as she heard the voice she slid off the 
 rock entirely" under the water. The old man could 
 not tell what to make of it. He thought the girl 
 would drown herself, so he ran on to the rock to 
 render her assistance, conceiving that in her fright 
 at being found naked by a man she had fallen 
 into the pool, and possibly it was deep enough 
 to drown her. He looked into the water, and 
 sure enough, he could make out the head and 
 shoulders of a woman, and long hair floating like 
 fine seaweeds all over the pond, hiding what appeared 
 to him to be a fish's tail. 
 
 He could not, however, see anything distinctly, 
 owing to the abundance of hair floating around the 
 figure. The old man had heard of mermaids from 
 the fishermen of Gunwalloe, so he conceived this 
 
23O THE MERMAID. 
 
 lady must be one, and he was at first very much 
 frightened. He saw that the young lady was quite 
 as much terrified as he was, and that from shame 
 or fear she endeavoured to hide herself in the cre- 
 vices of the rock and bury herself under the sea- 
 weeds. 
 
 Summoning courage, at last the old man addressed 
 her, " Don'tee be afraid my de-ear, you needn't mind 
 me. I wouldn't do ye any harm. I'm an old 
 man, and wouldn't hurt ye any more than your 
 grandfather." 
 
 After he had talked in this soothing strain for 
 some time the young lady took courage, and raised 
 her head above the water. She was crying bitterly, 
 and, as soon as she could speak, she begged the old 
 man to go away. 
 
 " I must know, my dearie, something about ye, 
 now I have caught ye. It is not every day that 
 an old man catches a merrymaid, and I have heard 
 some strange tales of you water ladies. Now, my 
 dear, don'tee be afraid, I wouldn't hurt a single 
 hair of that beautiful head. How came ye here ?" 
 
 After some further coaxing she told the old man 
 the following story : — She r and her husband and 
 little ones had been busy at sea all the morning, 
 and they were very tired with swimming in the 
 hot sun ; so the merman proposed that they should 
 
THE MERMAID. 23 I 
 
 retire to a cavern which they were in the habit of 
 visiting in Kynance Cove. Away they all swam, 
 and entered the cavern at mid-tide. As there was 
 some nice soft weed, and the cave was deliciously 
 cool, the merman was disposed to sleep, and told 
 them not to wake him until the rise of the tide. 
 He was soon fast asleep, snoring most lustily. The 
 children crept out, and were playing on the lovely 
 sands ; so the mermaid thought she should like to 
 look at the world a little. 
 
 She looked with delight at the children rolling 
 to and fro in the shallow waves, and she laughed 
 heartily at the crabs fighting in their own funny 
 way. " The scent from the flowers came down over 
 the cliffs so sweetly," said she, " that I longed to 
 get nearer the lovely things which yielded those 
 rich odours, and I floated on from rock to rock 
 until I came to this one, and finding that I could 
 not proceed any further, I thought I would seize 
 the opportunity of dressing my hair." 
 
 She passed her fingers through those beautiful 
 locks, and shook out a number of small crabs 
 and much broken sea-weed. She went on to say 
 that she had sat on the rock amusing herself, until 
 the voice of a mortal terrified her, and until then 
 she had no idea that the sea was so far out, and 
 a long dry bar of sand between her and it. 
 
232 THE MERMAID. 
 
 "What shall I do! What shall I do! Oh, I'd 
 give the world to get out to sea. Oh, oh, what 
 shall I do!" 
 
 The old man endeavoured to console her ; but 
 his attempts were in vain. She told him her hus- 
 band would " carry on " most dreadfully if he 
 woke and found her absent, and he would be cer- 
 tain of awaking at the turn of the tide, as that 
 was his dinner time. He was very savage when 
 he was hungry, and would as soon eat the chil- 
 dren as not if there was no food at hand. He 
 was also dreadfully jealous, and if she was not at 
 his side when he awoke, he would at once sus- 
 pect her of having run off with some other mer- 
 man. She begged the old man to bear her out to 
 sea. If he would but do so, she would procure 
 him any three things he could wish for. Her en- 
 treaties at length prevailed ; and, according to 
 her desire, the old man knelt down on the rock 
 with his back towards her. She clasped her fair 
 arms around his neck, and locked her long finny 
 fingers together on his throat. He got up from the 
 rock with his burden, and carried the mermaid 
 thus across the sands. As she rode in this way, 
 she asked the old man to tell her what he desired. 
 
 " I will not wish," said he, " for silver or gold, but 
 give me the power to do good to my neighbours ; 
 
THE MERMAID. 233 
 
 first, to break the spells of witchcraft ; next, to 
 charm away diseases; and thirdly, to discover thieves 
 and restore stolen goods." 
 
 All this she promised he should possess ; but he 
 must come to a half-tide rock on another day, and 
 she would instruct him how to accomplish the three 
 things he desired. They had reached the water ; 
 and, taking her comb from her hair, she gave it 
 to the old man, telling him he had but to comb the 
 water and call her at any time, and she would come to 
 him. The mermaid loosened her grasp ; and, slid- 
 ing off the old man's back into the sea, she waved 
 him a kiss and disappeared. At the appointed time 
 the old man was at the half-tide rock — known to 
 the present time as the Mermaid's Rock — and duly 
 was he instructed in many mysteries. 
 
 Amongst others he learned to break the spells of 
 witches from man or beast ; to prepare a vessel of 
 water, in which to shew to any one who had pro- 
 perty stolen the face of the thief ; to charm shin- 
 gles, tetters, St. Anthony's fire, and St. Vitus's dance, 
 and he learnt also the mysteries of bramble leaves, 
 and the like. 
 
 The mermaid had a woman's curiosity, and she 
 persuaded her old friend to take her to some secret 
 place from which she could see more of the dry 
 land, and of the funny people who lived on it, 
 
234 THE MERNAID. 
 
 "and had their tails split, so that they could 
 walk." 
 
 On taking the mermaid back to the sea, she 
 wished her friend to visit her abode, and promised 
 even to make him young if he would do so, which 
 favour the old gentleman respectfully declined. A 
 family, well known in Cornwall, have for some ge- 
 nerations exercised the power of charming. They 
 account for the possession of this power in the man- 
 ner related. Some remote great-grandfather was 
 the individual who received the mermaid's comb, 
 which they retain to the present day, and show as 
 evidence of the truth of their being supernaturally 
 endowed. 
 
 Some people are unbelieving enough to say the 
 comb is only a part of a shark's jaw. Sceptical 
 people are never loveable people. 
 
 " Such is life !— 
 The distant prospect always seems more fair, 
 And when attained another still succeeds, 
 Far fairer than before, yet compassed round 
 With the same dangers and the same dismay : 
 And we poor pilgrims in the dreary maze, 
 Still discontented, chase the fairy form 
 Of unsubstantial happiness, to find, 
 When life itself is sinking in the strife, 
 'Tis but an airy bubble and a cheat ! " 
 
 Henry Kirke White. 
 
TRADITIONS, OLD CUSTOMS, AND 
 SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 " Though motley images you weave, 
 
 Yet mingle with them something clear , 
 
 'Mid much that's false, and may deceive, 
 Let some small sparks of truth appear." 
 
 Goethe's *' Fausi 
 
 " Who shall tellen a tale after a man, 
 
 He mote rehearse as nye as ever he can : 
 
 Or else he mote tellen his tale untrue, 
 Or feine things, or find words new." 
 
 Chaucer. 
 
 JHAT the Cornish as a race are a very 
 superstitious people,* no one who knows 
 anything at all of them will for a moment 
 doubt. It would take far too long to 
 tell even a list of the common beliefs in the super- 
 natural. The charms and superstitious customs of 
 Cornwall would make a book themselves ; but there 
 
 * An instance may be mentioned to the point. A corre- 
 spondent in the West Briton newspaper, Jan. 4, 1867, signing 
 himself " Tre," mentions that in the latter part of the last 
 century a wealthy farmer was offered the estate of Bochym 
 at a very moderate price, but he refused to purchase, on 
 account of the name " Bochim," the vale of weeping, though 
 the meaning and derivation of the word is a moot point. 
 This incident, if true, tends to illustrate the popular super- 
 stition of the West. 
 
236 TRADITIONS AND 
 
 are a few that deserve to be remembered here, as 
 still observed among the country folk, though slowly- 
 disappearing before the materialistic opinions of a 
 matter-of-fact age. 
 
 Every one who has travelled in Cornwall will 
 recollect the large number of magpies seen, often- 
 times many together. It is due to the veneration 
 paid to the pied bird by the unlearned mind, which 
 devoutly believes in omens, though it is difficult to 
 arrive at a just conclusion as to the orthodox mag- 
 pie creed, inasmuch as I have heard both of the 
 following quoted in West Barbary : — 
 
 To see one magpie bodes no good but rather 
 bad luck ; two, good fortune ; three, a " berrin ;" 
 four, a wedding ; and the old Derbyshire couplet 
 is also common : 
 
 One is a sign of sorrow ; two are a sign of mirth ; 
 
 Three are a sign of a wedding ; and four are a sign of a birth. 
 
 While to kill a magpie is to commit an outrage not 
 easily forgiven by the Cornish yokel. 
 
 In " Notes and Queries,"* is mentioned that, in 
 some parts of Cornwall, some branches of seaweed, 
 dried and fastened in turned wooden stands, are 
 set up as ornaments on the chimney-piece, &c, and 
 thus the poor people suppose they preserve the 
 
 * Vol. Ill, p. 206. 
 
OLD CUSTOMS. 237 
 
 house from fire, while they are known by the name 
 of " Lady's Trees," in honour of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 While I question the last inference, it is yet a 
 fact that such trees of seaweed are placed in the 
 houses as ornaments. I myself have seen them in 
 the parish of Gunwalloe. 
 
 It was always considered an extremely unlucky 
 thing, and sure to bring misfortune, to remove the 
 stones or cromlechs that abound in the fields and 
 highways ; and one only regrets that this of all the 
 local superstitions has not penetrated to the present 
 day ; had it done so, we should have to mourn the 
 loss and mutilation of fewer of the memorials of 
 the early ages than now is the case ; but in Borlase's 
 time the islanders at Scilly looked upon him with 
 anything but favour* as he went about among 
 them exploring their barrows and mounds, for he 
 roused the giants, so they said, provoking them to 
 exert their baneful influence, and in thus disturbing 
 their graves was the cause of the failure of crops, 
 and indeed every other evil that came to the 
 affrighted Scillomans. 
 
 Now-a-days the difficulty is to preserve anything 
 of an antiquarian character, though it must in fair- 
 ness be said there are some remnants of the old 
 
 * Borlase's " Scilly Islands," p. 32, et scq. 
 
238 TRADITIONS AND 
 
 superstition respecting stones and cromlechs re- 
 maining, for I have heard occasionally from the 
 more elderly among the old inhabitants how un- 
 lucky it is and must ever be to the farmer, to dis- 
 turb the upright stones so often found upon the 
 land. 
 
 Reference has been made in a previous chapter 
 to the superstitions respecting the medicinal pro- 
 perties of the ash-tree in effecting a cure on weakly 
 children. 
 
 There is one charm, among the many, for sciatica, 
 which, common in Devonshire, near Exmoor, I have 
 nevertheless heard of in Cornwall, though nowhere 
 else. It is the " bone-shave." 
 
 The patient should lie on his back on the bank 
 
 of a brook or stream of water, placing a straight 
 
 stick or staff by his side full length betwixt him 
 
 and the water, the following words being repeated 
 
 near him : — 
 
 Bone-shave right, 
 Bone-shave straight, 
 As the water runs by the stave, 
 Good for the Bone- shave. 
 
 With faith (?) a perfect cure is the result. 
 
 There are many charms for sciatica common to 
 
 Devon and Cornwall — the knuckle-bone of a leg 
 
 of mutton, a raw potato, a piece of loadstone ; 
 
 either of these carried in the trouser pocket or 
 
OLD CUSTOMS. 239 
 
 round the neck is a cure. But the bone-shave cer- 
 tainly surpasses these in curiosity. 
 
 While these pages were preparing for the press, 
 a curious instance of the prevailing faith in charms 
 occurred to the writer. The child of a poor woman, 
 in one of the poorest districts of Truro, was scalded 
 dreadfully by turning over a kettle of boiling water 
 upon itself. The writer was sent for, and recom- 
 mended its removal to the infirmary, or certain 
 simple remedies. The advice was declined, as the 
 mother had just had the child charmed by a pro- 
 fessional charmer hard by, and was quite sure no 
 ill effect would therefore ensue. 
 
 In the works of John Heiwood, newlie imprinted, 
 
 1598, is the following charm : — 
 
 I claw'd her by the backe in way of a charme, 
 To do me not the more good, but the less harme. 
 
 Some of the customs in connection with Holy 
 Wells are mentioned in the chapter on Gunwalloe, 
 p. 182 ; and though the practice of consulting these 
 sainted streams is dying out, they are intensely in- 
 teresting as being relics of ancient divination, trans- 
 mitted from age to age in Cornwall. 
 
 Indeed, in old times, great must have been the 
 veneration paid to the deities presiding over the 
 elements, if we judge by the remains of ancient 
 customs. 
 
240 TRADITIONS AND 
 
 To " whistle for the wind " is the result of the 
 ancient belief that the whistling will call up spirits 
 of the air to aid the progress of winnowing the 
 corn. 
 
 The bonfires* kindled on the eves of S. John 
 Baptist and S. Peter's Day, when the people go 
 from village to village bearing lighted torches, 
 form another link which connects the present with 
 the past. 
 
 Midsummer, the time when these rejoicings are 
 held, is called by the Cornish folk Goluan, which 
 means " light and rejoicing," and other remnants 
 of ancient fire-worship are to be found in the Cam 
 Leskqz, or burning rocks, of which there are seve- 
 ral, one on the Bonython estate in Cury. 
 
 The rejoicings of the ancients at the approach 
 of spring are perpetuated in these days by the 
 modern Cornish, who, on the 1st May, deck the 
 doors and porches of their houses with boughs of 
 trees, and plant boughs before their houses ; but 
 these observances culminate in the Furry or Flora 
 at Helston on 8th May, which is perhaps THE most 
 popular of the ancient festivals. 
 
 More than one writer on these ancient customs 
 bears witness that, fifty years ago, these Maypole 
 
 * Borlase's u Antiquities," p. 130. Polwhele, Vol. I., p. 49. 
 
OLD CUSTOMS. 24 1 
 
 dances of May were common in West Corn- 
 wall, and were carried on at a still later date in the 
 eastern part of the county. 
 
 As to the word Furry, there is much difference 
 of opinion. Some think it comes from the expres- 
 sion in the Furry song — 
 
 " They both are gone to fair — O/" 
 others that it is derived from <£*/>«>, to carry ; and 
 the rites of the Furry curiously do correspond 
 with the AvOeafopia, a Sicilian festival, so named 
 a7ro tov fapeiv avOea, or " from carrying flowers, in 
 commemoration of the rape of Proserpine, whom 
 Pluto carried off as she was gathering flowers — 
 " herself a fairer flower /" * 
 
 At any rate, the 8th May at Helston is ushered 
 in by music of drums and kettles (so says Polwhele, 
 a modern band, however, has succeeded the ancient 
 music), and the day is given up to general holiday- 
 making. In the forenoon, the revellers beinggathered 
 together, they all fade into the country (fade being 
 an old English word for go), and return with flowers 
 and sprigs of oak. A procession is then formed of 
 a company of dancers, and they dance hand-in-hand 
 through the streets right round the town, going into 
 every house as they pass along, in one door, out the 
 
 * Potter's " Antiquities," Vol. I. " Gent's Mag.," Vol. LX.. 
 pp. 520, 875, 1 100. Polwhele, Vol. I., p. 41. 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 TRADITIONS AND 
 
 other. They are accompanied by a band (which 
 has ousted the ancient fiddle) playing a particular 
 tune called the Furry Song. 
 
 Two or three processions are made up during the 
 afternoon, and the proceedings conclude by a 
 ball in the evening, at which the whole neighbour- 
 hood assists, the festivities being kept up all over the 
 town till late. 
 
 The tune for the Furry dance is said to be a 
 remnant of British music, and one very like it, if 
 not the same, is known in Ireland. It is preserved* 
 in "Musical and Poetical Relics of theWelsh Bards," 
 by Edward Jones, and the following will give some 
 notion of the air as played in Helston streets every 
 8th of May to the present time : — 
 
 Con spirito. 
 
 pi 
 
 333 
 
 m m W 
 
 rrr p 
 
 ffi 
 
 i 
 
 cJCtr iB sr cg'iljWP 
 
 m 
 
 The chorus seems to be a translation of the 
 original song, and simply expresses joy at the 
 
OLD CUSTOMS. 243 
 
 departure of the winter and incoming of the 
 spring : — 
 
 And we were up as soon as any day — O ! 
 
 And for to fetch the summer home — 
 
 The summer and the May — O ! 
 
 For summer is a come — O ! 
 
 And winter is a gone- -0 ! 
 
 In the more remote corners of the county are 
 still found similar customs and remembrances 
 among the older people of others which have 
 become obsolete — the sprinkling of the apple-tree 
 with cider,* the holding up a u neck " of corn at 
 end of harvest, and the church ale, as it was 
 called, are all remnants of these — 
 With the past and with the present 
 
 Quaint old manners still are link'd ; 
 Olden customs, grave and pleasant, 
 
 Ling'ring still, though nigh extinct. — C. T. C. 
 
 One of the most curious and inexplicable cus- 
 toms among the tinners of the west (though said 
 to be common among the agricultural people of 
 Bodmin and also the Padstow fishing population)f 
 is that of keeping Paul's Pitcher Day (Jan. 24). 
 On the eve of the Feast of S. Paul, a water 
 pitcher is set up and pelted with stones until 
 
 * Also a Devonshire custom. See " Long Ago," pp. 158, 
 128; Polwhele, Vol. I., p. 48. 
 
 t Tinner's " Folk Lore," by T. A. Couch, in " Journal 
 Royal Inst," Vol. II., p. 131. 
 
244 TRADITIONS AND OLD CUSTOMS. 
 
 smashed to atoms. The revellers then adjourn to 
 the neighbouring tavern, where a new pitcher re- 
 places the old one, is repeatedly filled and emptied, 
 and the evening given up to merriment and enjoy- 
 ment. This festival seems to be intended, in a rough 
 and ready way, to commemorate the first conver- 
 sion of tin ore into metal — in other words, the 
 discovery of smelting. 
 
THE MANOR OF WYNYANTON. 
 
 We wander, alter, dye, 
 Oh ! what a vapour, bubble, puffe of berath, 
 A neast of wormes, a lumpe of pallid earth, 
 Is mudwald man ; before we mount on high, 
 Wee cope with change, we wander, alter, dye. 
 
 {Old anagram in Pelynt. Ch. ) 
 
 jHE struggles of the primitive Britons for 
 centuries with varying success against 
 their conquerors, Saxons, Danes, Saxons, 
 and finally the Normans, came to an end 
 on Oct. 14, 1066, at the battle of Hastings. 
 
 At that time Condorus, or Cadocus, a prince of 
 the royal British blood, was Earl or King of Corn- 
 wall, and neither Saxon nor Dane had ever de- 
 throned him* 
 
 The Norman Conqueror immediately displaced 
 the last of the British earls in favour of his half- 
 brother, Count Robert of Moretaigne in Normandy, 
 to whom, in the disposition of the country, nearly 
 the whole of Cornwall fell. 
 
 When Alfred the Great divided the Saxon king- 
 dom into hundreds, Winnetone was one of the seven 
 
 * Hitchens, Vol. L, p. 453- 
 
246 THE MANOR OF 
 
 into which the county was parcelled ; and at the 
 time of the Exeter Domesday (1086) Winnenton, 
 or Winnianton, was a considerable manor of thirty- 
 six and a-half hides, and belonged to the King, as 
 pointed out by the very first words of the Survey : 
 " The King holds WlNETONE," etc.* 
 
 Immediately after the Conquest, when the county 
 was re-arranged into nine hundreds, the manor of 
 Winnienton was included in Kerrier. 
 
 In 1235 it belonged to Roger Earl of Cornwall, 
 who gave it to Gervase de Harnington. 
 
 As early as 1308 (the date usually quoted is 1401) 
 it was the property of the Carminowes, and from 
 them it went, by the marriage of one of their 
 heiresses, to the Trevarthian family. 
 
 In Edward IV.'s reign, about 1470-1, it was in 
 the possession of the Reskymers, from whom it 
 passed to the Arundells by marriage, and in 1801 
 was purchased from them by John Rogers, Esq., 
 
 * About the year 900 Alfred the Great caused a Book of 
 Survey to be made, much of the same nature as Domesday 
 Book, and it was in existence at Winchester when William 
 the Norman came, but is since lost. 
 
 The present Domesday was ordered by William the Con- 
 queror, and begun in the year 1080, and completed in 1086. 
 It is known by several names as Liber de Wintonia, Rotulus 
 Wintonia, Liber Regis, Scriptura Thesauri Regis, and the 
 Liber Censualis Anglias. 
 
WYNYANTON. 247 
 
 of Penrose, in whose family the manor still con- 
 tinues. 
 
 Carminow mill, and all that remains of the house, 
 and chapel once belonging to that ancient family, 
 stands on the bank of the Carminowe creek, on the 
 east side of the Looe pool, at the extremity of 
 Gunwalloe, partly in that parish and partly in 
 Mawgan. 
 
 The house must have been one of considerable 
 pretensions, and historians say that there was a 
 fine chapel, but that both fell into decay in the 
 time of the Arundells. Sic tra?isit gloria mundi. 
 Even the buildings which would remind us of the 
 bygone chivalry of England are no more, and we 
 have to grasp the remnants of the past through 
 the ideal fields of romance. The painted window 
 the carved doorway, the shield on the corbel stone, 
 often all that is left us — ■ 
 
 Those Knights are dust, 
 
 ^\nd their good swords are rust, 
 
 Their souls are with the Saints we trust. 
 
 The writer of Iter Connubiense,* lamenting this, 
 asks mournfully, " But where are their habitations ? 
 Alas ! their escutcheons have long ago mouldered 
 from the walls of their castles. Their castles them- 
 
 * Charles Spence, Esq., in the Transactions Exeter Dioc. 
 Architec. Soc, Vol. V., p. 113. 
 
248 THE MANOR OF 
 
 selves are but green mounds and shattered ruins ; 
 the place that once knew them knows them no 
 more. How beautifully true ! No longer does the 
 champing war-horse paw in the castle-yard ! The 
 helmet which once glistened in the sunbeam has 
 long been hanging over the dilapidated tomb, and 
 the plume which floated proudly on the breeze 
 has sunk beneath superincumbent dust, or bowed 
 before the weightier labours of the spider I" 
 
 The words of the poet come with doubled force 
 to one's mind : 
 
 " Out upon Time ! It will leave no more 
 Of the things to come, than the things before. " 
 Out upon Time ! who for ever will leave 
 But enough of the past for the future to grieve 
 O'er that which hath been, and o'er that which must be : 
 What we have seen our sons shall see — 
 Remnants of things that have pass'd away, 
 Fragments of stone, rear'd by creatures of clay !" 
 
 It is true of the chivalry of Cornwall : true 
 enough of the far-famed Carminowe of Carminowe. 
 The house is gone, the chapel is gone; their only 
 memorial is in the south transept or Carminowe 
 aisle of Mawgan Church, where rest two stone figures, 
 supposed to represent a Carminowe and his wife, and 
 said to have been removed from their own chapel. 
 The Knight is cross-legged, six feet long, and his 
 shield bears the Carminowe " bend." 
 
WYNYANTON. 249 
 
 In Davies Gilbert's History of Cornwall (iii. 132) 
 is the following, from the MSS. of Hals :— " In the 
 local place of Carminow those gentlemen had their 
 ancient domestic chapel and burying-place,the walls 
 and windows whereof are still to be seen, in which 
 place also formerly stood the tombs and funeral 
 monuments of divers one notable person of this 
 family ; of which sort, in the beginning of James I. 
 reign, when the chapel was left to run to ruin and 
 decay, the inhabitants of the parish of Mawgan, 
 out of respect to the memory of those gentlemen, 
 brought from thence two funeral monuments in 
 human shape, at full length, made of alabaster, 
 freestone, or marble — man and woman, I take it — 
 curiously wrought, and cross-legged, with two lions 
 couchant under their feet, and deposited or lodged 
 them in this parish church of S. Mawgan, where 
 they are yet to be seen, though the inscriptions and 
 coat armour thereof are now obliterated and defaced 
 by time." 
 
 That there should be so very few and scanty 
 notices of so ancient a family, is not only sur- 
 prising, but a matter of great regret. What 
 romances may there not be hidden away in the 
 dim past of Carminow, if we could only light upon 
 them ! That they were as a race of great anti- 
 quity, repute, and influence, there is no doubt ; 
 
250 THE MANOR OF 
 
 indeed, it has been said that they claimed to be 
 descended in a direct male line from King Arthur, 
 and that one of them was ambassador from Edward 
 the Confessor to William the Conqueror, then Duke 
 of Normandy, but the story is quite unsupported. 
 
 Robert de Carminow, in Henry III. time, held 
 a Knight's fee, £16 per an. ; and he is supposed to 
 be the Sir Robert or Roger* who in 1270 accom- 
 panied Prince Edward (afterwards Ed. I.) in the 
 last crusade to the Holy Land. 
 
 The Robert de Carminow in 1256 was not yet a 
 Knight, though he held a Knight's fee. He might 
 therefore have been summoned to take up his 
 Knighthood before the last crusade in 1270. 
 
 Carew speaks of " Dominus Rogerus de Carmi- 
 now," who in 1297 — twenty-seven years after the 
 crusade — was summoned as a Knight to attend 
 Edward I., and a deed of 1285 mentions Johanna 
 as the widow of the Roger de Carminow,-)- who 
 probably filled up the gap between his namesake 
 Roger and the Robert of Hals. 
 
 William de Carminow, son of Robert, held also 
 
 *■ The accounts of Carew and Hals seem to have confused 
 Robert and Roger. 
 
 t From an able paper on the Carminows in the Journal of 
 the Royal Inst, of Cornwall, by J. J. Rogers, Esq., Vol. II., 
 p. 146, who conjectures this Dominus Rogerus to have been 
 the Crusader, whose effigy is in Mawgan Church. 
 
WYNYANTON. 25 1 
 
 same time as his father, in the reign of Henry III., 
 by Knight's fee, £15 per an., though this is con- 
 jectured not to be their whole estate, only what 
 they held "per servicium militare." 
 
 Sir John de Carminow (grandson of the Robert 
 above) and his son, Oliverus de Carminow, are both 
 named as men-at-arms, M Milites et Homines ad 
 arma," in the 17th year of Edward II., A.D. 1324, 
 and each of them had £40 per an. in land and 
 rents. 
 
 There is a Sir Oliver of Carminow, Knight, who 
 is mentioned as being Lord Chamberlain to Ed- 
 ward II. ; but there is a difficulty in reconciling 
 this statement with the other names and facts in 
 the pedigrees of the Carminow family, constructed, 
 so far as it is complete, by J. J. Rogers, Esq., from 
 the title-deeds of the Carminow manor in his pos- 
 session. 
 
 In the reign of Edward III. a Thomas de Car- 
 minow was Rector of Mawgan. He was admitted 
 Aug. 6, 1349, and is the first rector of that parish 
 of whom there is any record. 
 
 In the will of a representative of an ancient 
 Cornish family — that of Thomas TrethurfTe, Esq., 
 A.D. 1528 — there is a mention of a Nicholas Car- 
 minowe (cosen of the testator), who was probably 
 one of the Boconnoc branch of the Carminow family- 
 
252 THE MANOR OF WYNYANTON. 
 
 There is a memorial of the Carminowe family in 
 the church of S. Eata, or S. Teath, as it is now 
 called, where the pulpit bears the arms of Car- 
 minowe, it having been presented by one of them 
 in 1630.* Their motto, " Cala rag withlow," signi- 
 fies, " A straw for the tale-bearer " and Gilbert 
 relates that it originated from a law-suit brought 
 by Lord Scroope, in the reign of Edward II., 
 against Carminowe of Carminowe for bearing the 
 same arms as his Lordship, viz., in a field az, a 
 bend or, and which right was afterwards referred 
 to the most learned men of the day, amongst 
 whom was present John of Gaunt. Before this 
 assembly Carminowe proved his right, by his an- 
 cestors having borne the arms before the Norman 
 Conquest ; but as Scroope was a Baron of the 
 realm, it was ordered that henceforth Carminowe 
 should bear the same coat, with a pile in chief, 
 gules, for distinction. 
 
 * Iter Cornubiense, part iii., in the Transactions of the 
 Exeter Dioc. Architect. Soc, Vol. V., p. 113. 
 
THE LOOE POOL. 
 
 In Cornwaile's famed land, bye the pcole on the moore, 
 
 Tregeagle the wickede did dwelle ; 
 He once was a Shepherde, contented and poore, 
 But growing ambitious, and wishing for more, 
 
 Sad fortune the shepherde befelle.— Old Cornish Poem. 
 
 SOUNDING the parish of Gunwalloe, at 
 its western extremity, partly in that 
 parish and partly in Sithney, is the 
 famous Looe Pool and Bar which forms, 
 by its obstruction to the waters from the hills, 
 one of the largest lakes in the county. 
 
 The legend says it was the work of Tregeagle, 
 — and who, in Cornwall, has not heard of the 
 unholy spirit Treageagle ? — still employed, and ever 
 at his work, making trusses and ropes of the sea- 
 shore sand. 
 
 Time was when Ellas Town (Helston) was a 
 thriving port, with its trading vessels sailing up 
 the estuary to exchange merchandise for tin. But 
 Tregeagle, the wicked Tregeagle, whom all the 
 saints in Cornwall could not lay at rest, did all 
 the mischief. Set to work by the Holy St. Petroc, 
 at Barcppa in Gunwalloe, his task was to carry 
 
2$4 THE LOOE POOL. 
 
 sand in sacks across the Looe Pool and empty 
 them at Porthleven till the beach was down to the 
 rocks. Laden with a sack of sand of enormous 
 size, the doomed spirit was wading across the mouth 
 of the Looe, when one of the wicked demons, who 
 were always on the watch for him, tripped him up, 
 and the contents of the sack fell into the sea. There 
 it rests to this day, a bar of sand effectually block- 
 ing the entrance to the harbour, and not all the 
 saints in Cornwall or their eloquence availed to undo 
 the demon's and Tregeagle's work. 
 
 Anyhow, the bar is there, and time out of mind 
 has been there, though it is said the Phoenicians 
 sailed up the creek to the foot of the Hellaz Hill. 
 There is a curious echo on the water, in some 
 places double and very distinct. 
 
 On the western side of the pool is Penrose, re- 
 puted to have been the seat of a family of that 
 name from before the Conquest till 1744, when it 
 passed by will of the last owner of the name to his 
 niece Mrs. Cuming, and 1 she in turn sold the 
 manor to Hugh Rogers, Esq., in 1770; in whose 
 family it remains to the present time. 
 
 The lake, or pool itself, is a spot of especial in- 
 terest on account of the physical peculiarities of its 
 obstructing bank of sand ; and, more than all, the 
 legendary traditions that float around it, combine 
 
THE LOOE POOL. 255 
 
 to fix it for all time as one of the many examples of 
 the superstition of the Cornish race. 
 
 Fed by the Looe river, and enlarged by smaller 
 hill streams, it spreads itself along the valley which 
 lies between Helston and the sea, and would be 
 but an insignificant estuary indeed but for the bank 
 of sand which forms its chief peculiarity. This, how- 
 ever, bars the waters in until the whole forms a vast 
 lake stretching to the very edge of the town. When 
 the waters are so high it is then necessary to make 
 an artificial outlet, and this is done by " cutting the 
 bar," as it is called ; the modus operaiidi being this 
 — a small channel is dug in the sand bank, and once 
 the water percolates through, it speedily enlarges 
 the gap, until with a burst the whole opposing bar- 
 rier is swept away by the huge torrent into the main 
 sea. 
 
 The sight, as may be imagined, is a very grand 
 one, for the meeting of the waters, the pent up lake 
 and incoming ocean waves, throws a huge pile of 
 water into the air many feet. 
 
 It has been said this may be seen at a distance 
 of six or eight miles from the shore. 
 
 In order, however, to be duly at liberty to per- 
 form all this, certain customs and ceremonies are 
 to be observed, and they are so religiously to this 
 day. Permission to.break the bar must be asked on 
 
256 THE LOOE POOL. 
 
 behalf of the inhabitants of Helston of the lord 
 of the manor, and to this day, by ancient custom, 
 the mayor of Helston presents at Penrose, as due, 
 two leathern purseswith three halfpence in each, upon 
 which the needful permit is given. 
 
 All this reminds one very much of the ancient 
 charters of early kings of England, by which, not 
 only offices, but certain rights were granted with- 
 out any written charter, but upon observance of 
 certain customs. Edward the Confessor gave the 
 rangership of Berewood forest, with a hide of 
 land, to one Nigel and his heirs to be held by a 
 horn.* 
 
 William the Conqueror conveyed the Lordship 
 of Broke to the priory of S. Edmunsbury by 
 supplicating the saint, and laying on the altar 
 a knife wrapped up, in the presence of his no- 
 bles.f 
 
 Queen Elizabeth, whose lodge is still standing 
 in Fair Mead Bottom, High Beach, in the parish 
 of Waltham, granted the privileges of cutting wood 
 to the poor of the neighbouring parishes upon the 
 tenure of their striking the axe into the forest 
 boughs at midnight on the nth November each 
 
 * Ogborne's History of Essex, p. 164. 
 t Blomefield's History of Norfolk. 
 
THE LOOK POOL. 257 
 
 year. Failure in this was forfeiture of the Char- 
 ter.* 
 
 There is a very curious charter extant, in verse, 
 granted byAVilliam the Conqueror, found in the 
 register office of Gloucester, and it is worth trans- 
 cribing. 
 
 " I, William Kyng, the third year of my reign, 
 
 Give to the Paulyn Roydon, Hope and Hopetown, 
 With all the bounds both up and down, 
 From heven to yerth, from yerth to hel, 
 For thee and thine there to dwell, 
 As truly as this kyng right is myn, 
 For a cross-bow and an arrow, 
 When I sal come to hunt in Jarrow ; 
 And in teken that this thing is sooth 
 I bite the whyt wax with my tooth 
 Before Meg, Maud, and Margery 
 & my thurd son Herry." 
 
 If we may believe the earliest MSS. we have of 
 Cornish historians,-}* there was an instance of this 
 
 * In the pleas of the Crown, 12 Edward I., we find— 
 " Robert Hurdyn holds an acre of land and a bakehouse 
 in the town and castle of Lanceveton (Launceston) by the 
 serjeantry of being in the castle of Lanceveton, with an iron 
 helmet and a Danish hatchet (pole-axe), for forty days in the 
 time of war at his own proper costs ; and, after the forty days, 
 if the Lord of the castle chooses to detain him in the same 
 castle, it should be at the cost of the said lord." — Blount's 
 Ancient Tenures, p. 69. 
 
 t Hals' MSS. 
 
 S 
 
258 THE LOOK POOL. 
 
 very kind of charter of custom in respect of the 
 Looe. 
 
 It is said that Edward I. frequented Helston, or 
 designed to do so after the reversion to himself of 
 the earldom of Cornwall, in 1272, by the death of 
 his uncle Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of 
 the Romans, and that he granted land by the tenure 
 of grand serjeantry to William de Trevelleon con- 
 dition of bringing a fishhook and boat and nets, at 
 his own proper cost and charges, for the king's fish- 
 ing in the lake of Helston, whensoever the king 
 should come to Helston, and as long as he should 
 tarry there. 
 
 Certain it is that Hel-les-ton was a privileged 
 place long before the Norman Conquest, since the 
 whole hundred of Helston was denominated by it 
 even in Alfred's days, and the name appears in 
 Domesday Book under the title of Terra Regis. 
 In a catalogue of Cornish earls we find that the 
 privileges of the town and manor were incorpo- 
 rated by charter by Richard Plantagenet, Earl of 
 Cornwall, third son of Henry II., surnamed Car- 
 Lyon, Cceur-de-lion, by the name of Helston, and 
 the seal affixed to the charter named is a u lion 
 rampant."* 
 
 * Prooke^s "York Herald." Hals, V. I., p. 28-29. 
 
THE LOOK POOL. 259 
 
 A curious charter, granted in the second year of 
 King John, runs as follows : — Johannis Dei Gratia, 
 &c. Sciatis nos concessisse, etc burgensibus nostris 
 de Helleston villam de Helleston, cum pertinentiis 
 ad firmam, per antiquam firmam et debitam ; et de 
 cremento quatuor librarum habendum et tenen- 
 dum, quamdiu nobis bene et fideliter servierint, et 
 firmam suam bene reddiderint, reddendo firmam 
 suam per manus suas ad Scaccaria nostra, medie- 
 tatem ad pasche, et aliam medietatem ad festum 
 sancti Michaelis. Etc siendum quod crementum tale 
 erit quale est firma. Teste, Simone de Patcshull, 
 apud Dorcestriam, 18 Aprilis, Carl, anno 2 ; Jo- 
 hannis, p. 1, m. 50, p. 1, 96.* 
 
 * Among the fines and amerciaments, in " Madox's History 
 and Antiquities of the Exchequer," are the men of Helston, 
 fined in different sums with other towns, in the reigns of K. K. 
 Richard and John, for grants and confirmation of liberties 
 and exemptions of various kinds. 
 
 Homines de Helleston, r. c, dexl marcis & j palcfrido com 
 putatis in illis xx marcis & j palefrido prius promissis, pro 
 habendacarta regis quod burgus de Helleston sit liber burgus, 
 & quod burgenses ejus [dem]habeant gildam mercatoriam et 
 quietantiam per totam terrain regis de teloneo, pontagio, 
 stallagio et testagio et sullagio ; salvis, in omnibus, liber- 
 tatibus civitatis Londonia:. Et pro habendis alijs libertati- 
 bus quae in carta iUa'continentur." — Polwhele, Vol. II., p.p. 
 68, 70, 71,73. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 ERE then the author's pleasant task con- 
 cludes ; if the foregoing pages prove half 
 the interest to the reader they have been 
 to the writer, he will be rewarded. 
 In this far off land of romance, there is indeed 
 every incentive to give the rein to imagination, 
 and amid the exceeding loveliness of the rock- 
 bound coast, forget the stern realities of life. 
 
 Wandering on a calm summer's day by the 
 limpid pools and rocky nooks of Gunwalloe Cove, 
 the poet's ideal may be realized : — 
 
 Slow sank the sun into the sapphire sea, 
 
 Tinging the dimpling waters with his last 
 
 And loveliest beams of light, as the soft breeze 
 
 Of evening kiss'd the sea nymphs, and the wave 
 
 Rose gently, and as gently fell again, 
 
 Soft murmuring. I stood beside a rock, 
 
 Whose rugged head look'd up into the sky. 
 
 Grey as the handle of the scythe of Time : 
 
 But lower down, between the martin's nests, 
 
 Rich ruby lichens in the sunset gleam'd 
 
 Like golden fingers clasping them around 
 
 Lest the rude winds should tear them ; and beneath 
 
 A dark cliff beetled coldly o'er the deep, 
 
 Fringed by the lace work of frail threaded foam 
 
 That mermaids weave and hang along the shore." 
 
I NDEX. 
 
 ANCIENT mill 
 
 lamp of Mene&ge 
 charter of Helston 
 rights held by Custom 
 
 Antiquities of Cury and 
 Gumvalloe 
 
 Barrows .... 
 
 Beads . 
 
 Bells in Cury Church 
 
 Gumvalloe . 
 BOCHYM 
 
 early history of . 
 
 origin of the name 
 
 temp. 1549 . 
 
 the Bellotts 
 
 ancient tapestry 62 
 
 stained glass . 61 
 
 secret staircase . 
 
 restoration by the Davey 
 family 
 
 ancient chapel 
 Bochym aisle in 
 
 Church . 
 Bochym Celts 
 Boneshave 
 Bonfires 
 BONYTHON. 
 
 name . 
 
 the Bonythons 
 
 Latin verses 
 
 the Bonython flagon . 
 
 Bonfire rock 
 
 Druidic fires 
 Bronze implements 
 Carved Bosses in Cury roof 
 
 Cury 
 
 90, 
 
 74 
 106 
 
 259 
 
 256 
 
 94 
 
 192 
 101 
 
 33 
 127 
 
 40 
 49 
 5o 
 52 
 55 
 ,64 
 ,64 
 64 
 
 62 
 65 
 
 42 
 
 66 
 
 238 
 
 240 
 
 81 
 82 
 85 
 87 
 89 
 90 
 
 7°" 
 
 40 
 
 " Caerth " of Camden 
 Carminowes, The, 
 Celtic remains of Bochym 
 Chil, The, 
 Church Restoration 25 yea 
 
 ago 
 Charms 
 Coins 
 Cornish Language 
 
 tale of naval woe 
 
 names extant in Brittany 
 
 lamp . 
 Cornwall all forest 
 OORANTYN, Saint . 
 CURY CHURCH . 
 
 the Hagioscope . 
 
 State previous to resto 
 ration 
 
 evidence of Chantry 
 Chapel . 
 
 rood loft openings il 
 
 alabaster carvings I 
 
 Holy Rood . 
 
 S. Doorway 
 
 Holy water stoup 
 
 old alms box 
 
 tower and bells . 
 Cury great tree . 
 Cury Cross 
 
 Destruction of tumuli 
 DOLLAR WRECK 
 
 schemes for recovering 
 the treasure 
 
 history of the dollar 
 mine 
 
 PAGE 
 
 189 
 246 
 
 67 
 106 
 
 27 
 239 
 
 96 
 197 
 179 
 
 3 
 106 
 1 
 2 
 8 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 .25 
 
 .23 
 
 20 
 
 25 
 29 
 30 
 33 
 10S 
 
 [93 
 
 155 
 
 k6 
 
2-62 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 specimen of the dol- 
 
 
 lars 
 
 175 
 
 singular dreams . 
 
 175 
 
 Druidic fires 
 
 90 
 
 Dreams, singular 175, 
 
 178 
 
 Earth 
 
 189 
 
 Early Christian seal 
 
 194 
 
 Faction fight at Cury great 
 
 
 tree .... 
 
 in 
 
 Furry or Flora dance 
 
 241 
 
 GUNWALLOE CHURCH. 
 
 tradition of its founders 
 
 124 
 
 probable date 
 
 126 
 
 portions of rood screen 
 
 126 
 
 old windows 
 
 126 
 
 ancient font 
 
 126 
 
 Belfry 
 
 127 
 
 Restoration 
 
 128 
 
 Registers 
 
 129 
 
 Curious entries . 
 
 130 
 
 singular epitaphs 
 
 131 
 
 ancient cross 
 
 131 
 
 Gunwalloe day . 
 
 185 
 
 cross, site of, . 131 
 
 186 
 
 Hill castles 
 
 191 
 
 Holy well at Gunwalloe . 
 
 182 
 
 Injunctions of Ed. VI. 
 
 21 
 
 King Charles's Letter in 
 
 
 Cornish . 
 
 209 
 
 Lady's trees 
 
 237 
 
 Lazar houses 
 
 13 
 
 Language (Cornish) . 
 
 197 
 
 specimens . 
 
 207 
 
 old proverbs 
 
 206 
 
 Lizard lights 
 
 61 
 
 Looe pool valley 
 
 71 
 
 the pool 
 
 253 
 
 Looe bar 
 
 255 
 
 cutting the bar . 
 
 254 
 
 ancient custom . 
 
 256 
 
 Magpies .... 
 
 227 
 
 PAGE 
 . 241 
 • 245 
 . 227 
 
 . 228 
 
 May dances 
 
 Manor of Wynyanton 
 
 Mermaids . 
 
 Old Man of Cury (The) 
 
 Paul's Pitcher Day . . 243 
 
 Phoenicians . . 70, 104 
 
 Porcelain tablets . . 43 
 
 Pradanack Cross . . 195 
 
 Restoration of Cury Church 38 
 Registers at Cury . . 33 
 Gunwalloe . . .129 
 Re-opening of Cury . . 45 
 Roof of Cury as restored ■ 39 
 Roman coins . . .90 
 Rumon, Saint ... 2 
 
 Seal, early Christian . . 194 
 Sepulchral barrows . .192 
 
 Skeletons in Cury rood loft 25 
 
 Sprinkling the apple trees . 243 
 
 Stone implements . . 67 
 
 Supernatural (The) . . 224 
 
 Superstition of the Cornish 225 
 
 Traditions and old customs 235 
 Tradition of Cury great tree III 
 Tregeagle . . .253 
 
 
 WEST COUNTRY FOLK 215 
 
 a hardy people . 
 
 . 216 
 
 remarkably suspicious 
 
 219 
 
 hospitality . 
 
 . 222 
 
 Winwaloe, (Saint) 
 
 . 116 
 
 Windows in Curry 
 
 44 
 
 WRECKS, list of, in Gun 
 
 
 walloe Register . 
 
 135 
 
 in Mullyon 
 
 141 
 
 various incidents 
 
 144 
 
 Wreck of the Coquette 
 
 148 
 
 the Dollar . 
 
 155 
 
 Wreckers . 
 
 181 
 
 Wynyanton (Manor of) 
 
 245 
 
 temp. William I. . 
 
 246 
 
 The Carminowe fia.mil} 
 
 ' 247 
 
LONDON : 
 MARLBOROUGH, GOULD, AND CO., WARWICK LANE, E.C. 
 
JUN' 23 1902 
 
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