Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

“Here lyeth the body of a virtuous and ancient gentlewoman, descended of the ancient house of the Plantagenets, some time of Cornwall, namely, Joan, one of the daughters and coheirs of John Tregarthin, of Tregarthyn, Esq.; she was first married to John Kellaway, Esq. who had by her much issue. After his death she was married to John Wadham, of Meryfield, in the county of Somerset, Esq. by whom she had children. She lived a virtuous and godly life, and died in an honourable age, in the year of our Lord 1581.” Now because this dark phrase, “descended of the house of the Plantagenets,” needs a clavis to unlock it, let the reader view the history of St. Stephen’s in Branell, and St. Stephen’s by Saltash, and he shall find one that will do it effectually. The arms of Tregarthin, whose name and whole family is now extinct, were, Argent, a chevron between three escallops Sable.

The present possessor of this barton is Richard Trevanion, Esq. that married Bond, of Earth; who had issue by her one only daughter, married to Peter Major, of Foye, merchant, now in possession thereof, whose names are the same as the Trevanions of Caryhayes.

Trewoola, Tre-wolla, or Tre-wole, gave name and origin to an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Trewolla; who, in allusion to their names, gave for their arms, Sable, three owls. This estate, in the latter end of the reign of Charles II. was sold to Charles Trevanion, of Cary-Hayes, Esq. for 900_l._ by John Trewolla, gentleman, attorney-at-law, which was the last parcel of land Trewolla had to sell of a considerable estate elsewhere, formerly sold by his ancestors; and this place was so depressed with mortgages, statutes, and judgments, that the whole consideration-money fell much short of paying his creditors, and the incumbrances that were upon it; so that, in order to make a clear title to the purchaser, several of Trewolla’s creditors came to a loss, and in particular, James Hals, of Merthyr, Gent. and Martha his wife, who had a statute staple for 700_l._ on those lands, who, to comply with Trewolla’s bad circumstances, on Mr. Trevanion’s paying them 250_l._ he and his wife levied a fine thereon, and executed a deed, then declaring the uses thereof to be for the only use of the said Charles Trevanion, Esq. his heirs and assigns for ever.

In this parish, at ――――, was the dwelling of my very kind friend Dr. James Gibbs, third son of James Gibbs, Vicar of this parish, who had his education in Exeter College, as a servitor to his kinsman Mr. Davis, son to Dr. Davis late of Plymouth; where, after he had taken his Bachelor’s degree, he declared for the study of physic in Oxford; and soon after, to better his study and experience, went with the said Mr. Davis into France, and fixed at Montpelier, where he practised physic (and also surgery in an hospital, as himself informed me) for several years; afterwards in the College of Physicians there took his degree of Doctor of that science; and, lastly, returned to this place, where he practised physic with admirable care, skill, and success, and through multitudes of patients and moderate fees, hath purchased a considerable estate. Since the writing hereof this gentleman, to the great grief and loss of his country, departed this life of the hemorrhoides sickness; and before his death (who for many years had been his patient, to the great benefit of my health, by God’s blessing, after the endeavours of all other physicians proved ineffectual,) left me this legacy,――that if I myself or friends were sick, and had occasion to make use of physic, that we should in all distempers make use only of the common, plain, and natural remedies.

Anthony Wills, of this parish, Gent. farmer of the sheaf thereof, having by misfortune much incumbered his estate with debts, quitted the same at such time as the Prince of Orange landed with his forces at Torbay, and presented himself and his six or seven sons to that Prince, for soldiers of war in his army; which proposal was graciously accepted; and they were all posted as officers of command in his bands, or troops. And after the Coronation of this Prince, King William III. they followed him in all his Flanders and Irish wars against King James II. and King Lewis XIV. and discharged their trusts with such great care, faithfulness, valour, and conduct, that (as I am informed,) before their deaths they all arrived to the dignities of Captains, and some of them to the authority or commands of Majors, Colonels, and one of them to become a standing Major-General of the field. Who afterwards, about the year A.D. 1714, being made principal commander of the army and troops of horse of King George the First, against the Pretender’s (James Henry Edward Stewart,) army at Preston, in Lancashire, where, after a furious, violent, and bloody battle with them, he obtained the victory over that pretended Prince’s forces; for which fact, and other noble deeds, he was created a Baronet of England, and is since made General of all the land forces in England next the King, his salary amounting to 7000_l._ per annum, as reported.

TONKIN.

For the name, I take it to be a contraction of St. Gordian, pronounced in Cornwall St. Gorian, who having been, like St. Paul, a violent prosecutor of the Christians, became a proportionably zealous convert, and was beheaded at Rome in the year 341.

A tradition in the parish, nevertheless, assigns the guardianship of this church to St. Gorien, or Coren, one of the missionaries from Ireland who accompanied St. Perran.

The name of Trevennen, or Tremenen, probably the town of birth, in reference to its fertility, belonged to the Priory of Tywardrith, and formed a part of the lands given by Henry VIII. to the Duchy in exchange for the manor of Wallingford.

Adjoining to Trevennen, and within the manor, is Trevasens, which was long the seat of a family of the same name, but passed to the Hoblyns of Nanswydan, in St. Columb, through an heiress.

Polgorror was heretofore a country residence of the Provost of Glasnith College, at Penryn, to which the great tithes were impropriated. This place, with the great tithes and the advowson of the vicarage, now belong to the bishopric of Exeter.

Adjoining to this is Treveor, the great town, or dwelling, formerly the seat of Treveors; and the parishioners still talk of Sir Henry Treveor, who lived here; and a part of his house is yet standing.

Pennore, or Penarth. I take nore to signify the same as in Saxon, a promontory; and that it is here applied to a point jutting out into the sea, namely, to the Dead-man, which is separated from the village by a double intrenchment, yet pretty entire, running from cliff to cliff, and cutting off about an hundred acres of coarse ground. The intrenchment is about twenty feet broad and twenty-four feet high in most places; but the outer wall is the least high. The people call it Thica Vosa, which is the Vallum, and the Hack and Cast, fabling it to be the work of a giant, who performed the whole in one night. They show also a hole in the cliff which opens into a hollow below, formed by the sea; and the people relate that this giant growing unwell, applied to a physician, who, that he might rid the world of such a monster, bled him near this spot, and recommended him to let the blood flow into this hole till it became full. The giant did so, and bled himself to death, when his body fell over on a rock, still called the giant’s house. The hole thus attempted to be filled with blood is denominated from the immense quantity of ivy growing round it.

The church is placed very conveniently in the middle of the parish. It is well built, with a handsome square tower of hewn moor stone, with four tunable bells; and by reason of its high situation this church is seen from a great distance. It consists of a large lofty nave, one south aile of the same length, and two cross ailes to the north, of which one is but small. In the chancel, near the north wall, before the communion table, is a plain marble stone, on which are seen the hollows where the figure of a woman kneeling, with arms, inscription, &c. must have been inlaid. Tradition calls it the tomb of Lady Brannell, but who this Lady Brannell was is unknown, although some conjectures are formed of her belonging to the family of Tregarthen.

Against the eastern wall, by the window, is a comely monument of black marble, to Richard Edgecombe, of Bodrigan, Esq. son of Sir Richard Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecombe, Knight, who died Nov. 5, 1755.

THE EDITOR.

The manor of Trevascus belongs by purchase to Mr. Slade Gulby, who resides on the barton of Trevenion, which has been in his family since the time of the Tudors.

Treveor belonged to the late Rev. Dr. Wynne, and was given by him to Mr. Pendarves. On this barton may be seen one of those round entrenchments usually denominated castles in the West of England. It is at least doubtful in most cases whether any permanent dwelling was ever connected with them.

The barton of Bodrigan has descended in the family of Edgecombe since the time of Henry VII.

It is generally apprehended that Sir Henry Bodrigan was present at the battle of Bosworth Field; and that, having escaped from thence to Cornwall, he endeavoured to defend his property in a private house against Edgecombe and Trevenion, who, in despoiling and endeavouring to take his life, did no more than he would have done, had the fortune of arms inclined the other way; or than what he actually did against Sir Richard Edgecombe a few years before at Cotehele. Such are the effects of civil wars, when――

Lance to lance, and horse to horse!
Long years of havoc urge their destined course,
And through the kindred squadrons mow their way.

Bodrugon’s property was mainly divided between Edgecumbe and Trevanion, who are also believed to have fought against King Richard in Bosworth Field, and then to have attacked Sir Richard Bodrugon near his own house after the defeat at that place. He effected his retreat to a vessel by the extraordinary effort already mentioned, and left the shores of England never to return. He had a brother settled in the north of Devon, but his line became soon extinct.

Goran measures 4,596 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 3487 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 950 0 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1009 | 1116 | 1203 | 1205
giving an increase of somewhat less than 19½ per cent. in
30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. David Jenkins, collated by the
Bishop of Exeter in 1824.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish forms a continuation of the calcareous series of St. Ewe. At the Deadman point the rock is for the most part siliceous, affording an example of the quartz rock of Dr. Macculloch.

GRADE.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and has upon the north Ruan Major, west Mullyan, east Ruan Minor, south Landawidnick. At the time of the Norman conquest this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Lisart.

In the taxation of benefices in Cornwall, towards the Pope’s annats, made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Grade in decanatu de Kerryer, was valued lx_s._ in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 11_l._ 1_s._ 5_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Symons; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 58_l._ 12_s._

TONKIN.

This parish takes its name from its titular female saint, St. Grada. In the taxation of 1294, in the 20th year of Edward I. it is valued by the name of Ecclesia Sanctæ Gradæ.

THE EDITOR.

The etymologies offered by Mr. Hals appear so very improbable that they are omitted. If any such person as St. Grade ever existed, she must have been among the tribe of early missionaries, of whom no traces are left except that of their names being affixed to churches.

This parish has within its limits the manor and barton of Erisey, the seat of a very respectable family bearing the same name, who gave for their arms, Sable, a chevron between three griffins segreant Or. The name has been extinct above a century, and the barton belongs by purchase to Lord Falmouth. Several monuments of different members of the family remain in the church.

The advowson of the living belongs by purchase to Mr. Rogers, of Penrose. The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to St. Luke’s day. The family of Lord Wodehouse, through his marriage with Sophia Berkeley, niece of Lord Berkeley, of Stratton, are supposed to represent the Eriseys.

This parish measures 2,005 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1357 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 208 2 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 320 | 306 | 355 | 306
giving a decrease of nearly 4½ per cent. in 30 years; but
with unusual anomalies in intermediate enumerations.
Present Rector, the Rev. John Peter, instituted in 1818.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The portion of this parish around the church, and the various insulated portions, are situated on magnesian rocks; the most abundant variety of which is serpentine. This rock is generally of a red colour, but this is evidently in some cases derived from a partial chemical change. In its perfect state this serpentine is generally of a dark-green, with shining scales of diallage, which are commonly of a bronze colour, and at other times of a fine green. The serpentine at Cadgwith may be seen to pass gradually into a schistose rock of a dark bottle-green, and very glassy and spangled on the surface of its lamellæ. This slate is generally called greenstone, but it differs therefrom, and consequently requires a distinct appellation. At Cagar there is a quarry in the serpentine; and at Kennick Cove adjoining, many varieties of these rocks may be obtained.

GULVAL.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north Ludgvan, south the Mount’s Bay, west Maddaran, east St. Hilary.

In the time of William the Conqueror’s survey of lands, anno Dom. 1087, this parish, I suppose, passed in tax under the jurisdiction of Ludgvan. In the Inquisition and Taxation of Benefices in Cornwall, by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Laneseley, in decanatu de Penwith, appropriata priori Sancti Germani, is valued lxvi_s._ viii_d._ Vicar ibidem, xx_s._ At which time it seems it was but a Vicarage church; the garb impropriated, though since restored. Neither was the name of Gulval then mentioned. However, in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is rated by the name of Gulval, also Laneseley, 6_l._ 11_s._ 0½_d._ The patronage was formerly in the Prior of St. German’s, now in the crown. The incumbent Penhellick; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of Gulval, 120_l._

This manor of Laneseley, in this parish, was, in the time of Richard I. and King John, the lands of the family surnamed De Als, now Hals, so called from the barton and dismantled manor of Als, now Alse and Alesa, in Buryan, as tradition saith, or Beer Alseton, Alston, in Devon, in possession of Trevanion and others, whereof they were lords; and in particular William de Als, in the beginning of the reign of King Henry III. that married Mary, the daughter of Francis de Bray, was possessed thereof; father of Simon de Alls, who lived at Halsham, in Yorkshire (from him denominated), that married Jane, daughter of Thomas de Campo Arnulpho (now Champernown), Sheriff of York second, third, sixth, and seventh years of King Henry III. Anno Dom. 1222, as appears from the catalogue of those Sheriffs, and the Hals’s allowed pedigree, 1483; from which also it is manifest, by an authentic deed or record therein, yet legible, that the said Simon for the health and salvation of his soul, his wife’s, his ancestors, and other relations, gave the said manor of Laneseley to the Prior of St. German’s, his canonical brothers, and their successors for ever, in these words.

In nomine Domini, &c. Ego Simon de Als, pro salute animæ meæ, et Janæ uxoris meæ, et parentum meorum, dono et concedo manerium de Laneseley, in comitatu Cornubiæ, Priori Sancti Germani, et fratribus canonicis, et successoribus eorum, cum dominicis redditibus, &c. et omnibus ibidem appendentibus, terra, sylva, pratos, et aquam, &c. ut habeant, teneant, et possideant in perpetuum, &c.; dat vicesimo sexto die Augusti, anno regni nostri Regis Henrici tertii post conquestum octavo. Hiis testibus, Thoma de Tracye, Henrico de la Pombre, Reginaldo de Valtorta, Roberto de Cheni, Radolpho de Esse. This grant, or donation, was in the year 1266. (See Lelant.)

By virtue whereof the Prior of St. German’s and his successors were possessed of this manor from that time till the 26th Henry VIII. 1536, when that Priory was dissolved, and the lands thereof vested in the crown. At which time King Henry VIII. gave the lands thereof to Champernown, Beaumont, Barry, and others; and to Beaumont’s and Barry’s share fell this manor of Laneseley; who parted with it either by purchase or in marriage with his daughter, to John Tripcony, about the year 1565; whose son, John Tripcony, having by riot and excess comparatively wasted his paternal estate, mortgaged this manor of Laneseley to Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongollan, knight, about the year 1620, who was lineally descended from Simon de Als, aforesaid, and died seised thereof about the year 1637. After his decease his unthrifty son and heir, John Hals, became possessed thereof, who assigned the mortgage thereof for 500_l._ to one Mr. Downes, A.D. 1655; and soon after, having spent his whole paternal estate elsewhere, went beyond the seas, and was never since heard of to this day; leaving issue, by Jane Arundel his wife, Major Thomas Hals, of Hals’s Savana, in Clarendon parish and province, in Jamaica, who had issue Thomas Hals, Esq. his son and heir.

After the departure of the said John Hals beyond the seas, the said Mr. Downes assigned over the mortgage of the premises to one Mr. Collwell, a scrivener of London; who dying soon after, his son, Thomas Collwell, became seised thereof; and after his death his widow, who by her last will and testament (as executrix of her said husband,) conveyed the said manor to Charles Bonython, Esq.――Spur, Longeville, and others, in trust, now in possession thereof, 1700; before which time, between the said Downes and Collwell, on pretence of the equity of redemption reserved in Downes, John Hals being beyond the seas, and that the mortgage money to Collwell was satisfied out of the profits of these lands; and a cross bill of Collwell’s against Downes, alleging the contrary, and to foreclose him; happened so many tedious and costly Chancery suits as comparatively undid them both. But, maugre all their endeavours, the old titles of Tripcony and Hals were foreclosed by a decree in Chancery, betwixt Downes and Collwell, in Hillary term 1689, yet extant and to be seen.

This manor of Laneseley, for goodness of land, jurisdiction, court leet, fishing craft, and royalties over all that part of the sea of the Mount’s Bay, between Longbridge and Chiandower, near Penzance, may equal, if not surpass, any other manor in those parts of its value, which is now scarcely worth 300_l._ per annum, though in former ages it was of far larger extent; for in the survey of Cornish acres, tempore Edward II. (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 46, p. 131, of Lord Dunstanville’s edition), it was numbered in the Exchequer to contain twenty-eight acres, that is, about six thousand statute acres;[4] every ancient Cornish acre being sixty statute acres of land; the contents of the whole now not exceeding a thousand statute acres, which lies in Gulval and Ludgvan.

In Fosses Moor, part of this manor of Lanesely, in this parish, is that well-known fountain called Gulval Well. To which place great numbers of people, time out of mind, have resorted for pleasure and profit of their health, as the credulous country people do in these days, not only to drink the waters thereof, but to inquire after the life or death of their absent friends; where, being arrived, they demanded the question at the well, whether such a person, by name, be living, in health, sick, or dead; if the party be living, and in health, the still quiet water of the well-pit, as soon as the question is demanded, will instantly bubble or boil up as a pot, clear christaline water; if sick, foul and puddle waters; if the party be dead, it will neither bubble, boil up, or alter its colour or still motion. However, I can speak nothing of the truth of those supernatural facts from my own sight or experience, but write from the mouths of those who told me they had seen and proved the veracity thereof. Finally, it is a strong and courageous fountain of water, kept neat and clean by an old woman of the vicinity, to accommodate strangers for her own advantage, by blazing the virtues and divine qualities of those waters.

TONKIN.

After copying from Hals, Mr. Tonkin adds of Lanistley manor:――It extendeth throughout the parish of Gulval from the Moreps to the Gundrons; that is to say, from above the sea to the Down Hills; it extendeth also through a part of the parish of Ludgvan.

At Kenneggy is the dwelling, by lease (the fee being in his elder brother, William Harris, of Hayne, Esq.), of Christopher Harris, Gentleman, an attorney-at-law, who married a daughter of John Foote, of Truro, Esq. His elder brother, who married the daughter of John St. Aubyn, Esq. of Clowance, in the parish of Crowan, is now in possession of Hayne, near Lifton, in Devonshire, having succeeded to it on the decease of Sir Arthur Harris, jun. the last heir male of the elder branch. On removing to Hayne he leased Kenneggy to his younger brother aforesaid; who, by reason of the elder brother’s yet want of issue, is likely to become his heir. The arms of Harris are, Sable, within a bordure three crescents Argent.

Mr. Edward Llwyd, in his letter to me, would have this parish to take its name from the inscription on the stone in Maddern parish, “Riolabran: Cunoval: Fil:” and that Cunoval is turned by corruption into Guloval, for that he found many such instances in Wales.

I should be glad to agree with so great a critic, but since there is a saint, or bishop, whose name comes very near to this――St. Gunwall, whose memory the church celebrates on the 6th of June, I cannot forbear fancying, especially the humour of the country being considered, that he is the patron and the namer of this parish.

THE EDITOR.

There cannot be any reasonable doubt of St. Gunwall having bestowed his name on this parish, more especially when the prophetic well is taken into account, since saints scarcely ever failed of imparting some supernatural quality to their favourite streams.

St. Gunwall was, moreover, a Briton, and is stated to have been in Cornwall.

Saint Gudwall, or Gunwall, was born in Wales about the year 500. Being entirely devoted to God, he collected eighty-eight monks in a little island called Plecit, being no more than a rock surrounded by water. For some reason, however, he abandoned this establishment, and passed by sea into Cornwall; and from thence he went into Devonshire, where he betook himself to the most holy, perfect, and useful state of a solitary anchorite; at length, however, again emerging, he sailed into Britany, and there succeeded St. Malo, as Bishop of that see, although he is said even then to have dwelt in a solitary cell, and to have died there at a very advanced age. His relics have been widely distributed, and various places in France have been called by his name.

Mr. Whitaker explains the ancient name of this parish, Lanisley, by Lan and Ishei, low, or lower, the low church, which appears to agree very well with the situation.

The great tithes certainly belonged to the Priory at St. German’s, for in the returns made to Henry VIII. of the property belonging to them, appears――

Gulval, decimæ Garbarum, £10. 6_s._ 8_d._

These tithes, since the law-suits mentioned by Mr. Hals, have passed by purchase into the possession of the Beauchamps of Gwenap, and now belong to the two daughters and coheiresses of the late Mr. John Beauchamp.

The vicarage, although it has risen into one of the most valuable to be found in that district, in consequence of modern improvements, and of its being situated near Penzance, is yet rated under twenty pounds a-year in the King’s Books, and therefore passes by the presentation of the Lord Chancellor. Two Mr. Pennerks, father and son, held this living in succession. It was then given, in 1789, to Mr. John Cole, afterwards Doctor in divinity and Rector of Exeter College, and his successor is the present Vicar, the Rev. Robert Dillon.

Kenegie passed from Mr. William Harris, of Hayne, accordingly as Mr. Tonkin had conjectured, to the family of his brother, Mr. Christopher Harris; and the family becoming extinct in the male line by the death of this gentleman’s grandson in 1775, by much the largest part of the estate went, under the provisions of a will, to Mr. William Arundell, then resident at Crane, in Camborne, who assumed the name of Harris; but his grandson choosing to fix his permanent residence at a very handsome seat of his own creating near Lifton, parted with all his Cornish property; and Kenegie now belongs, in fee, to the farmer, who had occupied it at an annual rent. This place having formerly belonged to the family of ―――― Tripcony, who bore for their arms, Argent, three rabbits passant Sable, and kynin and kyninger being the Cornish names for a rabbit, I cannot but suspect that kynneggy, or kenegie, must have some relation to the name of Tripeney.

Trevailer is the place next of importance in this parish. It has been long the residence of a very respectable family, the Veales. They are said to have come from Gloucestershire, their ancestor having been the first Protestant Vicar of Gulval. The Reverend William Veale, the present possessor, has rebuilt the house; the second brother of his grandfather, Mr. George Veale, made a large fortune at Penzance, by the practice of the law and by success in mines, which became divided between three daughters who married Hichens, Baines, and Jenkins. Mr. William Veale has married the only daughter of the Rev. Richard Gerveys Grylls, of Helston.

But the most beautiful place in this parish, and one of the greatest ornaments to the whole neighbourhood, is Rosemorron, the Vale of Blackberries, formed by Mr. George John. This gentleman having married Jane, the eldest daughter of Mr. Arundall, who assumed the name of Harris on succeeding to the large fortune of that family, and having been for many years at the head of his profession in Penzance, has at length retired to this delightful spot in the summer months. Nor have his decorations of the country been confined to one situation; he has shewn, by extensive plantations at Try, that the most elevated and barren tracts, even on a granite soil, may be rendered useful and decorative by the growth of trees.

The lower part of the parish, adjoining to the sea, is fertile in the highest degree, from the village of Chiandower (the house by the water), through Pendrea to the Church Town. And the vallies, abounding in trees, rival those of any country. Chiandower is also become a place worthy of the adjacent scenery, through the taste and the exertions of Messrs. Bolitho, who, in making ample fortunes, have benefited the country still more than themselves by promoting every species of productive industry. The parish feast does not certainly corroborate the supposition of the patron saint; it is held on the nearest Sunday to the 12th of November, the day of St. Martin, the first Pope of that name, a native of Todi, in Tuscany, and elected Pope in the year 649. He assembled in the same year the sixth council of Lateran, where the heresy of the Monothelites was condemned; but the schismatic Emperor, Constans, sent Olympius, his chamberlain, to Rome, to support the obnoxious sect, who arrived there while the council were deliberating; and failing in his attempts to divert them from supporting the orthodox faith, he suborned a person to murder the Pope, but in attempting to execute the atrocious deed the assassin was miraculously struck blind. Yet, nevertheless, Constans persevered in his speculative errors and in his wicked conduct, by causing St. Martin to be seized, and after suffering many casualties, to be banished to the Tauric Chersonesus, where he died in 655.

His relics were afterwards brought to Rome, and deposited in the church of St. Martin of Tours, on the 12th of November, which, from thenceforward, was observed as a festival to his honour.

The day of St. Martin of Tours, the popular patron of beggars, happens to be on the day before, and several parishes give their feasts on the nearest Sunday to November the 11th, but Gulval alone honours the Pope and Saint.

Gulval measures 3950 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 5170 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 406 8 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1076 | 1224 | 1353 | 1467
giving an increase of nearly 36½ per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The northern part of this parish rests on granite, which is for the most part a coarse crystalline rock, containing very large porphyritic crystals of felspar. The granite is, however, in some places very fine-grained, and near its juncture with the slate abounds in shorl. The schistose rocks composing the southern part of the parish, have a basis of compact felspar, assuming various appearances according as it is more or less siliceous; those rocks are often beautifully marked with crystalline patches and veins of actynolite, as may be seen in the rocks on the sea shore, and they are traversed here and there by beds of felspar porphyry, into which they gradually pass.

[4] Surely sixteen or seventeen hundred. ED.

GUNWALLO.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north the Loopoole and part of Mawgan, east Cury, south Mullyan, west the British Channel, or Ocean.

At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed either under the jurisdiction of Lisart, now Lisard, or Trevery. In the value of Benefices towards the Pope’s Annates made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Winwalli, i. e. the church of the holy, victorious, or conquering Wallo, in decanatu de Kerryer, was rated iiii_l._ iii_s._ iiii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it goes in value and consolidation with Breock, Germo, and Cury, by the name of the Vicarage of Wynnanton, i. e. the conquering, or victorious town; all doubtless referring to the conquests of King Gunwallo, or Dunwallo. The patronage, I take it, was formerly in the Prior of St. Michael’s Mount, or the Duke of Cornwall, who endowed it. It is now in the King, or Duke; the incumbent Trewinard, and parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. 53_l._ 9_s._ 8_d._ by the name of Gunwallo.

The manor of Gunwallowinton, a lordship in this parish, claimeth the royalty and jurisdiction, by sea and land, over the whole parish, and was formerly the lands of Carmenow, now of Arundell of Lanhearne, by match with one of the daughters and heirs of that name.

TONKIN.

In this parish stands a circle of rude unwrought stones in the shape of a wall heaped together, and called Earth.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Whitaker remarks in a note on Hal’s MS. that the name of this parish is clearly derived from its patron saint, Winnwallo.

I find that Winwallo was the son of a petty Prince in Wales; who, flying with his family from the Saxons, went into Britany, where he acquired the habit of undergoing monastic austerities under the guidance of St. Budock. He ultimately founded a monastery called Landevenech, about three miles from Brest. He became the first Abbat, and died on the 3d of March about the year 529. His body was buried at Landevenech; but in after ages, when the northmen extended their ravages to this part of the Continent, his relics were removed to places of greater safety; and as an effectual security against an entire loss, portions were preserved at St. Peter’s, at Blandinberg, at Ghent, at Montreuil, and at other places.

The Celtic name has given origin to various pronunciations, and to as many corresponding orthographies; the G and W at the beginning of words are well known to take each the place of the other almost without discrimination. In Picardy, where he is esteemed the patron, Winwallo is changed into Vignevaley and Walovay; in Britany into Guignole and Vennole; in other parts of France into Guingalois.

It is the more probable that St. Winwallo may be the patron saint of this parish, and that he may have given it his name, since a parish in the neighbourhood stands in that relation towards his teacher St. Budock. The parish feast, however, is held on the last Sunday in April, although St. Winwallo is honoured in the Roman calendar on the third of March.

Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Wynyaton, or Winington, called by Mr. Hals Gonwallowinton, was given about the year 1235, by Roger Earl of Cornwall, in exchange for Bossiney, to Gervase de Harnington; from whom it passed by an heiress to the family of Trevanthians, and again in the same way to Roskymers. It ultimately belonged to the Arundells till the general sale of all Lord Arundell’s property in Cornwall, when this manor was purchased by Mr. John Rogers, of Penrose, near Helston.

The church is situated among sandbanks, and very near the sea. In those banks Captain Avery, the celebrated buccaneer, is reported to have buried several chests of treasure previously to his leaving England on the voyage from which he never returned. So strongly has this opinion prevailed, that Mr. John Knill, collector of the customs at St. Ives, procured, about the year 1770, a grant of treasure trove, and expended some money in a fruitless search.

This gentleman is still remembered on account of his singularities, and his having erected a pyramid on a hill near the town where he had long resided.

In the churchyard of Gunwallo is a tombstone with the following conceit:

We shall die all,
Shall die all we;
Die all we shall,
All we shall die.

The parish measures 1175 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,405 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 150 14 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 216 | 206 | 252 | 284
giving an increase of 31½ per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish runs parallel with the sea shore from Poljew Cove to Loo Bar. The shore, where the land lies low, is covered with banks of siliceous sand, which near the church form an extensive down. At the Cove the rocks consist of a blue glassy slate, and of a compost rock of the same colour which decomposes into a white clay. Nearly the whole of the cliff is a diluvial mass; the lower part of which, just above high-water mark, is consolidated into a conglomerate sandstone, apparently through the cementing medium of a solution of carbonate of iron, derived from the percolation of rain-water through the bed of ferruginous clay that forms the upper part of this deposit.

GWENAP.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Keryer, and hath upon the north, part of Redruth, east Peranwell and Key, south Gluvius, west Stithians. That this church was extant before the Norman Conquest is plain from the name thereof, for in the Domesday Tax, 20th William I. 1087, it is rated by the name of Gwenap. In the Inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Wenap in decanatu de Kerrier, is rated at vii_l._ Vicar ejusdem xxvi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, the Vicarage of Wenap is valued 16_l._ 18_s._ 9_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it. The incumbent Bishop; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 148_l._ 3_s._ by the name of Gwenap. The garb, or rectory, in Wright or Nicholls.

Trefyns (i. e. the springs of water, or fountains town,) came to Beauchamp by marriage with the heiress of this name and land, where they have ever since flourished in gentle degree. The present possessor, William Beauchamp, Esq. that married Courtney of Trehane, his father Boaden, his grandfather Tregoze, giveth for his arms, Vairy Argent and Azure. The first progenitor of the tribe and name of Beauchamp came into England a soldier under William the Conqueror, and probably some of his posterity were planted in this province, from whence those gentlemen are descended; especially if the name, Stephen de Bellocampo, 40th Henry III. who held in Cornwall by tenure of knight’s service 15_l._ per annum land and rents, may be interpreted the same as Beauchamp (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 40), for otherwise verily I know not from what family of gentlemen those Beauchamps are descended; since none other of that name give the same arms as these do; for Guy de Beauchamp, Sheriff of Devon, 12th King John, gave for his arms, Gules, a fess between three crosses bottony Or; from whom are descended the Beauchamps of Bletsho and Hatch, in Wiltshire. Beauchamp Earl of Warwick gave for his arms, Gules, a fess between six cross-crosslets Or. William Beauchamp, Sheriff of Devon 18th Henry VI. that married the inheritrix of Henry de Ties, lord of Alverton and Tywarnhayle, summoned to Parliament as a Baron temp. Henry IV. gave for his arms, Gules, a fess between six martlets Or; from whence I gather there were diverse families of those Beauchamps heretofore in England, no way related in blood to each other. Query, whether the arms of those gentlemen living in this place be not the arms of Bochym, as I have been informed they are, which is Vaire Argent and Azure.

Notwithstanding this place of Trefyns was heretofore denominated from springs of water abounding there in winter season, yet I assure you now in summer time, by reason of the tin-mines and subterranean adits near it that carry those springs of water invisibly under ground, water is very scarce and much wanting in those lands. It is also called Trevense, and Trewince.

St. Dye chapel in this parish was heretofore a chapel of ease to Gwenap; the tutelar guardian whereof is St. Dye, of Gaul, very famous in that country for his piety and holy Christian living about the fifth century, who held the faith in opposition to Arianism and Pelagianism, then raging in the church. And there is a church in the province of Lorraine still bearing his name. If it were as easy for the Vicar to attend and perform divine service in this remote quarter of the parish where this chapel is, as it is convenient to his parishioners in the town of St. Dye, it had been doubtless still applied to the end and use for which it was erected.

Not far from this place is that unparalleled and inexhaustible tin-work called Paldys; i. e. the top or head of St. Dye’s Town, which for above forty years’ space hath employed yearly from eight hundred to a thousand men and boys, labouring for and searching after tin in that place, where they have produced and raised up for that time yearly, at least twenty thousand pounds worth of that commodity, to the great enriching of the lords of the soil, the bound owners, and adventurers in those lands.

Of those miners, or searchers for metals, hath Ovid written elegantly in Latin verse, which sounds thus in English, tempore Augusti:――

Men deep descend into the earth
With mattock, shoul, and spade,
And wicked wealth is digged up,
Which mischiefs all hath made;
Dame Nature did it hide and put
Where gristly ghosts do dwell;
So that the hurtful iron and
The glittering gold from hell
Produced is, more noisome than
The other metal vile,
Through foul desire whereof for aye
Is virtue in exile.
Shame, truth, and faith, are put to flight;
Their place do those uphold,
Both fraud, deceit, fell force, and wiles,
And wicked love of gold,
For which the laws are sold.
_Metamorph._ Lib. i. p. 138-150.

MEMORANDUM.――On Friday, 19th September, 1707, about four of the clock in the afternoon, happened in those parts divers flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder, which not only terrified the inhabitants thereof, but after one of those cracks a ball of fire, or Jupiter’s thunderbolt (as the Greeks called it), entered by the window into the house of one John Kent, a carpenter of this parish, where he was working, the windy force thereof instantly struck him dead on the place, scalded his wife and two children in that room, then passed out through the chimney wall, and so shattered the same that a great part of it instantly fell to the ground.

TONKINS.

In this parish, on the top of a lofty mountain called Carne-mark, are two or three stone tumuli, under which are doubtless interred the bodies of some distinguished persons.

The right name of this parish is St. Wenep, a female saint, to whom the parish is dedicated.

THE EDITOR.

Saint Wenep is, I believe, only remembered by the dedication of this parish; but St. Dye is a personage of more consequence. He was a native of France, and in the year 655 became Bishop of Nevres; but St. Dye happened to live at a period when the prevalent fanaticism induced persons to believe that the Author of all good was most gratified by beholding the misery of his rational creatures, accompanied by their voluntary debasements through ignorance and solitude below the level of the brute creation. With this persuasion, St. Dye resigned his bishopric, and founded a house for monks at a place called Jointures, but retired himself to an anchorite cell. He is said to have died on the 19th of June, 680.

The chapel, dedicated to St. Dye, in Gwenap, had long been in ruins; but since the eager contest has grown up between the Establishment and Dissenters for retaining or acquiring power through the media of extensive education and proselytism, and Chapels, Meeting Houses, and Schools have arisen all over England, St. Dye has seen a new and spacious building displace the ruins that remained from former times.

The Beauchamps had removed from Trewince to Pengreap; where the family became extinct in the male line about the year 1818, by the decease of Mr. Joseph Beauchamp, who had lost his only son a few years before, and the estate is now divided between the two daughters of his elder brother, Mr. John Beauchamp.

Cornmarth has been already mentioned. Mr. Whitaker says that the true name is Cornmarke, and that it means the Knight’s barrow.

On the southern declivity of Cornmarth is a large excavation, supposed by some to have been made long ago for the exhibition of games, but by others to owe its general form to the accidental running together of an old mine. It is, at all events, admirably adapted to the purpose of enabling a speaker to address an extremely large assembly; and the late Mr. John Wesley has been distinctly heard by many thousands at a time in Gwenap pit.

Scornier, which a few years since exhibited the appearance of a small village, has now become perhaps the chief place in this parish. Mr. John Williams, one of the most extensive and most successful managers and adventurous miners of the present time, built here an excellent house, and adorned it with the finest collection of Cornish minerals ever brought together. Mr. Williams, after making a large fortune, has retired at an advanced age, leaving several sons engaged in the same pursuits with equal advantage to themselves and to the public; one of whom has added a second splendid house to the village.

It is quite impossible for me to enter fully into a description of the mines, which have continued in work on the most extensive scale from the period when Mr. Leman commenced the modern system up to the present time. It is said that no district of the same extent in any part of the world ever produced so much riches.

Poldice was worked for tin about the commencement of the last century by Mr. Hearle, of Penryn. The mine happened to have very little water, and this was exhausted by rock and chain pumps moved by human labour.

Copper seldom appears near the surface, as is the case with tin; but tin lodes out of granite frequently produce copper in depth. All the lodes in Gwenap have done so, and in some places the mines have gone to the depth of two hundred and thirty or forty fathoms from the surface, more than two hundred fathoms under the level of the sea, assisted by steam engines having working-cylinders ninety inches in diameter and ten feet long.

The freehold of the land containing those mines is possessed in undivided shares between several persons; Mr. Hearle had one-third, that is now divided again into thirds between the descendants of three daughters, Mr. Tremayne, Mr. Rodd, and Mr. Stephens.

The church in Gwenap is large in every dimension, but, what is very unusual, the tower stands apart. One of our late historians very justly complains of what he terms the “mangling of modern Vandalism,” in alterations of the church; Venetian frames have been substituted for stone mullions; windows of painted glass bearing the figures of saints have been removed; and the screen, or rood-loft, of beautiful workmanship has disappeared; modern deal seats have been introduced throughout the church, and a glare of light on the white-washed walls has completed the overthrow of very thing venerable.

The interior is divided into a nave, a chancel, and two side ailes, supported on each side by seven handsome columns.

The burial-ground contains a monument of fine marble in memory of the Beauchamps.

There is a tradition in the parish of monks having been established in the church tower, and that a house now converted to an inn, was a part of the building. No notice whatever is taken of such a monastery in any authentic work. If therefore this tradition rests on any fact, the house cannot have been more than an hostelry for friars.

The parish measures 5,289 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 18,273 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 3,329 9 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 4594 | 5303 | 6294 | 8539
giving an increase of 86 per cent. in 30 years, and a numerical
increase of three thousand nine hundred and forty-five persons.
Present Vicar, the Rev. W. Marsh, presented by the Dean and Chapter
of Exeter in 1825.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Gwenap has long been one of the most important mining districts of Cornwall. Its western part rests on the same patch of granite as the eastern part of Cornborne, the one stretching to the east and the other to the west. The slate is also similar to that of Cornborne, and like that it is traversed by numerous beds of porphyry, some of which, in the vicinity of Burncoose, are of the most beautiful description, containing well-defined crystals of felspar and of quartz.

GWENDRON.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north Camburne, south Maugan in Meneage, east Stithiany, Constantine, west Sithney.

In the taxation of benefices in Cornwall, as aforesaid, 1294, Ecclesia Sancte Wendrone (I suppose together with Helston, its daughter church,) in decanatu de Kerryer, is valued xvii_l._ vi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is valued, together with Helston, at 26_l._ 19_s._ 3_d._ The patronage formerly, as I am informed, in the Hospital and Prior, or Governor, of St. John the Baptist, at Helston, or the College of regular Canons at Glasnith, or Abbat of St. Michael’s Mount; now Jago, and the Incumbent Jago. The rectory, or sheaf, in Boscawen. And the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 174_l._ 8_s._ 4_d._

Trenithike, in this parish (i. e. the town of the bridge or ford, leate or lake of waters). It is the dwelling of Sampson Hill, Esq. one of his Majesty’s Commissioners for the Peace, that married Callmady, the relict of Silly, and giveth for his arms, Or, a fess between two chevrons Sable, which is the coat-armour of the ancient family of the Seneschalls of this place, whose daughter and heir was married to the gentleman’s ancestor now in possession thereof, as I am informed.

Query, whether these arms are not the same as given by Sir John Lisle, knight, one of the first founders of the noble order of the Garter, lord of the manor of Wilbraham, in the county of Cambridge, whose posterity enjoy, as I take it, those lands and his arms to this day, viz. in a field Or, a fess between two chevrons Sable.

In this parish, by the post road, or highway, are set up, in perpendicular manner, about ten feet asunder in a line, nine large moor stones commonly called the Nine Maids, or Virgin Sisters; probably set up in memory of so many sister nuns heretofore interred there.

TONKIN.

This church, although a Vicarage, is endowed with the sheaf over all the southern part of the parish, which most abounds in grain. It carries with it Helston in the same presentation. The patronage in Mr. William Iago. The Incumbent Mr. John Jago. The sheaf not endowed in the possession of Mr. Hugh Boscowen, of Tregothnan.

At Trenithike is the dwelling of Sampson Hill, Esq. a Commissioner of the Peace, who married a sister of Joseph Colmady, of Longdon, in Devonshire, and widow of Heale of Battlesford.

All the lands in this parish lie within the great duchy, lordship, and manor of Helston in Kerrier, as it is named for distinction from Helston in Trigg. The church is certainly called Wendron, from its female patroness.

Bodilly I interpret the house by the church, from ilis, the same as eglis, a church, from which it is not far distant. There are two houses adjacent so called, Bodilly Veor and Bodilly Vear, the great and the little. Bodilly Veor was the seat of Thomas Tresilian, Gent. descended from the Tresilians of Roughtra, who, having mortgaged it to Sir Peter Killigrew, sold the freehold to Mr. William Glynn, and younger brother to Mr. Thomas Glynn, of Polkinhorne.

At Trenere there is an arched vault of moorstone adjoining to the house, said to have been a cellar, and this place a hunting seat to the ancient Dukes of Cornwall.

THE EDITOR.

It appears that the vicarage of Wendron, and perhaps the endowed portion of the great tithes, belonged to Rewley Abbey, near Oxford, founded by Edmund Earl of Cornwall, in compliance with an injunction of his father Richard Earl of Cornwall; although Richard himself seems to have commenced the foundation, for a manuscript history in the Cotton Library says,

“Frater enim hujus regis (Henrici tertii) Ricardus primus Comes
Cornubiæ, post Rex Alemaniæ et Semper Augustus, fundavit Abbatias
monachorum Cisterciensis ordinis de Royal alias Rewley Oxoniæ, et
de Hayles in Comitatu Gloucestriæ, ubi honorifice est sepultus.
Cor tamen suum Oxoniæ in choro fratrum minorum, sub sumptuosa et
mirandi operis pyramide humatum est.”

The Charter of his son Edmund begins,

“Sciant præsentes et futuri, quod nos Edmundus, claræ memoriæ
Domini Ricardi regis Alemannii filius, et Comes Cornubiæ, dedimus
concessimus et hac præsenti carta nostra confirmavimus Deo, et
ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ de Regali Loco in North Oseney juxta Oxon,
et abbati inibi commoranti et quindecim monachis capellanis
ordinis Cisterciensis ibi professis, pro anima Ricardi quondam
regis Alemanniæ patris nostri, divino celebrantibus, et eorum
successoribus ibidem commorantibus Deo servientibus et in
perpetuum servituris, omnes terras et tenementa quæ habuimus in
North Oseneye prope Oxon et (inter alia) unam acram terræ,
secundum Angliæ consuetudinem mensuratam, de dominico nostro in
terra de Bel juxta Roslyn, cum advocatione ecclesiæ de Sancta
Wendrova, et aliis pertinentiis suis in hundredo de Kerier in
Cornubia.”

And in the schedule returned to King Henry VIII. after the dissolution of property belonging to Rewley Abbey,

Com. Cornub.

Wendromo et Stadyon, firma Rector’ … £.22.