Chapter X: Part 10

This parish has its name from St. Melina, and is dedicated to her. It is a vicarage valued in the King’s Book at £9. 4_s._ 4_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter. The incumbent Mr. Wills. The great tithes belong to the Chapter of Exeter, with the exception of an endowment to the vicar made by Robert Lyddra, sometime Provost of Glassney College, as may be seen in the registry of Exeter.

In the valuation of Pope Nicholas anno 1291, the 20th of Edward the First, this church is valued at £8; but since it is there called Ecclesia Sancte Melanie, and that in Usherde Brit. & Eccles. Primordiis, pp. 145 and 146 (I presume Archbishop Usher De Christianarum Ecclesiarum, in Occidentis præsertim partibus, Successione et Statu, London, 1613, 4to. Hamburgh, 1658, London, 1687, with a continuation. Edit.) the famous St. Malo is called St. Mellonus, St. Melanius, and Meloninus Britannus, I rather take him to have been the patron of this church, and to have given his name to the parish.

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish has the appearance of antiquity, and the windows contain some remains of painted glass, exhibiting the arms of several families heretofore connected with the parish, the De Ferrers and the Eriseys. There is a marble monument to the Rev. T. Flavell, on which he is stated to have received his education at Tiverton school, and to have been a member of Trinity College, Oxford; and that in addition to this vicarage he had the rectory of Ruan Major, and that he held a prebend of Exeter Cathedral. He died in 1682.

At the foot of the inscription, which is in Latin, was the following:

Earth take mine earth, my sin let Satan have it,
The World my goods, my soul my God, who gave it;
For from these four, Earth, Satan, World, and God,
My flesh, my sin, my goods, my soul I had.

The tower was built by Mr. Robert Luddra, probably an inhabitant of the parish, in 1500.

The great tithes do not form a part of the general funds belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, but they are specially appropriated to support the vicars choral of the Cathedral Church.

The manor of Pradannack is said by Mr. Lysons to have belonged to the family of Serjeaux, and to have passed from them by a coheiress to the De Veres, Earls of Oxford. It is now divided into Higher and Lower Wortha and Wollas, one belonging to Mrs. Agar, heir of the Robartes family, the other to the Vyvyans of Trelowarren, and the manor of Clahar to the family of Boscawen.

The parish feast is held on the nearest Sunday to November the 4th; St. Malo’s day is November the 15th, just with an interval of eleven days, but in the wrong direction for reconciling the difference by our change of style. St. Melina is not noticed in the Roman calendar.

The Rev. T. L. Bluett died Vicar of Mullion in 1834.

This parish measures 4663 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2478 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 299 13 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 529 | 571 | 692 | 733
giving an increase of 38½ per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

By far the greater part of this parish rests on serpentine, the nature of which is beautifully displayed in Kinance Cove, where many rocks are highly polished by the action of the waves, exhibiting a mottled and variegated surface not unlike the skin of a serpent, from which resemblance the rock derives its name.

Between Pradanack and the sea, and between the church and the sea, bounded on the south by the rivulet which flows to Mullion Cove, there are two patches of hornblende rocks, both massive and schistose. These rocks are not of the same nature as the greenstone which occur near the granite, but resemble those of Porthoustock, Cadgwith, Landowednack, and other places near the serpentine: it is therefore very probable that the analysers may detect magnesia in both the hornblende and the felspar, of which these rocks are composed. North of a line drawn from the church to about the middle of Bolerium Cove, the rocks appear to belong to the calcareous series.

* * * * *

The Editor cannot pass by the mentioning of Kinance Cove without remarking on the extreme beauty and elegance of its appearance.

Whenever the granite reaches the shore, and it does so only with some interruptions for a few miles round the Land’s End, the cliffs are composed of angular blocks piled on each other, seeming with masculine strength to defy the utmost strength of the ocean. At Kinance, on the contrary, the whole scenery appears feminine. The rocks are rounded, smooth, polished, and variegated with beautiful colours; and although they are of large dimensions, yet every face and every turn is elegant; the very sand that lies between them is of the most fine and shining texture. No one desirous of viewing the beauties of Cornwall should neglect to visit this Cove. The serpentine formation, one of the most rare, is highly interesting to geologists, with its accompanying diallage, and veins of asbestos and of steatite, frequently shot through by native copper in the form of dendrites. Here too the botanist will find various plants besides the Erica Vagans, peculiar, in Cornwall at least, to this formation, among which one of the most rare is the Asparagus Officinalis; and, lastly, the serpentine of Kinance is now turned in lathes, and made into some of the most pleasing ornaments for chimney pieces or cabinets.

ST. NEOT.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

St. Neot is situate in the hundred of West, and is bounded to the west by Cardinham and Warleggon, to the north by Alternun, to the east by St. Clair, and to the south by St. Pinnock and Leskeard.

This parish takes its name from, and is dedicated to, the famous St. Neot, whose fabulous miracles are painted in one of the windows of this church.

It is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book at £9. 11_s._ The patronage in Mr. John Pomeroy, the widow of Mr. John Robins, and Mr. Jonathan Randill, for one turn, and in Mr. Christopher Grylls, for the other; all in right of the manor of St. Neot, to which the great tithes are annexed. The incumbent Mr. John Parsons.

In 1291, the 20th Edward I. on the taxation of Pope Nicholas, this church is valued at £10, being then, or since, appropriated to the priory of Montacute, in Somersetshire; and the vicarage at twenty shillings.

THE MANOR OF ST. NEOT.

This in Domesday Book is called Neoteston, that is Neot’s Place, and it was one of the manors given to the Earl of Morton.

In p. 49 of Carew’s History, St. Neot is printed by mistake St. Wot. (This error is corrected in Lord de Dunstanville’s edition, p. 135. Ed.)

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Tonkin has not stated with his general accuracy the value assigned to the vicarage of St. Neot in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas. The entry in the parliamentary publication stands thus:

Ecclesia Sancti Rufati (Neoti) £10 0 0
Vicar’ ejusdem 6 13 4

The following entry occurs in the valuation of property belonging to the priory of Montacute, at its surrender to the king, preserved in the First Fruits Office.

Sanctus Neotus.――Valet in exit’ x^{mar’} [~p]dial’ ꝑsonal’ cum
al’ casual’ i[~b]^m cõib; annis £14. ult^a
13_s._ 4_d._ in feod’ Jo[~h]s Calwey, ball’
i[~b]^m, ꝑ annu’ clare £13. 6_s._ 8_d._

Mr. Lysons gives a very detailed account of the different manors in this parish, and of the descents and alienations of each, but wholly uninteresting to any others than the proprietors.

The principal manor and advowson of the church, which had been both divided, are most fortunately again united in the Rev. Richard Gerveys Grylls, since we are indebted to the taste and to the liberality of this gentleman, for more than restoring the beautiful decorations of the church to their original splendour.

The church is situated in a pleasing and retired vale, watered by a branch of the Fowey river, and abounding with trees; while the country surrounding it, on almost every side, is even now little cultivated, and must in former times have been a desert. No situation could be more adapted for the retreat of an anchorite; and monkish legends inform us that St. Guevor, or Guervier, or Guerer, fixed his abode at this place; and in after times, the sound of his name being found to somewhat resemble the French verb Guerir, to heal, tales were invented of his performing miraculous cures; and in particular of his having enabled King Alfred to sit on a horse at the precise moment when his presence in the field became indispensably necessary to oppose the pagan Danes.

If St. Guerir ever resided here at all, he must have very opportunely made way for St. Neot, since it is well ascertained that he also occupied this retreat in the reign of his brother or relation the Great Alfred.

St. Neot, having withdrawn from the Abbey of Glastonbury, founded by St. Joseph of Arimathea, retired into this solitude; where he adopted the singular penance of plunging himself daily into a well of cold water, and there remaining immersed to his neck till he had repeated the whole Book of Psalms. The miraculous powers however bestowed on him by the Almighty, in recompense for conduct so conducive to the happiness and well-being of his creatures, forbad St. Neot to remain secreted. Multitudes flocked to him from all parts; he founded a monastery, and repaired to Rome for a confirmation and for blessing at the hands of the Pope: these were readily obtained. He returned to his monastery, where frequent visits were made to him by King Alfred, on which occasions he admonished, instructed, and informed the great founder of English liberty; and finally quitted this mortal life on the 31st of July, about the year 883, in the odour of sanctity so unequivocal, that travellers all over Cornwall were solaced by its fragrance. Nor did the exertions of our Saint terminate with his existence on earth; he frequently appeared to King Alfred, and sometimes led his armies in the field. But if the tales of these times are deserving of any confidence, the nation is really and truly indebted to St. Neot for one of the greatest blessings ever bestowed on it. To his advice, and even to his personal assistance as a teacher, we owe the foundation by Alfred of the University at Oxford.

The relics of St. Neot remained at his monastery in Cornwall till about the year 974, when Earl Alric, and his wife Ethelfleda, having founded a religious house at Eynesbury, in Huntingdonshire, and being at a loss for some patron saint, adopted the expedient of stealing the body of St. Neot; which was accordingly done, and the town retains his name, thus feloniously obtained, up to the present time. The monastery in Cornwall continued feebly to exist after this disaster through the Saxon times; but having lost its palladium, it felt the roiner’s hand; and almost immediately after the Norman Conquest, it was finally suppressed; yet the memory of the local saint is still cherished by the inhabitants of the parish and of the neighbourhood, endeared perhaps by the tradition of his diminutive stature, reduced in their imaginations to fifteen inches of height; and to these feelings we in all probability owe the preservation of the painted glass, the great decoration of this church, and one of the principal works of art to be seen in Cornwall.

The church itself is of the best description, having a nave and two aisles of equal length, with a square tower at the western end, and with the rare addition of an embattled parapet towards the south, but probably not older than the fifteenth century, with the exception of some parts of the walls near the chancel, which seem to have been a part of the former church. Soon after the new building had been completed, individuals in some cases, and associations in others, as the unmarried men of the parish, the unmarried women, and the wives, contributed a window, either in honour of the local saint, or of their particular patrons; and the peculiar attachment felt for the little saint seems to have preserved these fragile materials at the two important periods of our modern history, the time when the great change of religion took place, and at that of the Civil Wars. It may however be recollected that no violent change occurred here, the monastic institution having been dissolved by the Earl of Morton, half brother of the Conqueror; and no place could be more retired from the observation of strangers, or from the passage of fanatical armies.

From the time of the Reformation, however, all care about maintaining these decorations ceased, and the whole in a few years more would have fallen into utter decay, if Mr. Grylls had not nobly stepped forwards, not to support or repair, but to renew these gems; which he has most effectually done, at an expense not short of two or three thousand pounds. The church has now sixteen windows entirely filled with painted glass of the most beautiful colours and designs; about half of the whole consisting of the old glass most carefully preserved, and the new added in a style completely harmonizing with the former: all executed in London by Mr. J. P. Hedgeland, an eminent artist, to whose work, with sixteen coloured plates, the reader is referred for a full description of each window, and of the various subjects it contains:

“A Description of the Splendid Decorations recently made to St. Neot’s Church, in Cornwall, by J. P. Hedgeland, price £2. 2_s._ To which are added some Collections and Translations respecting St. Neot, &c. by Davies Gilbert, M.A. F.R.S. F.A.S.” Printed for the Author in London, 1830, and sold by Messrs. Nichols.

This parish contains a natural curiosity which must not be omitted.

On an elevated part of the uncultivated lands which extend for many miles to the north and east of St. Neot Church Town, there happens to be a depression without any channel leading from it; the hollow is, of course, filled with water, and resting on the granite soil of these moors, the margin all round is covered by a white siliceous sand, one of the constituent parts of this compound rock.

Most marvellous stories used to be current respecting this little lake; no lead could sound the depth of the water, which rose and fell with the tide, &c.:――but the depth nowhere exceeds two or three fathoms, and any consent with the tide is obviously impossible. A tale of a very different nature, connected with this lake, was as universally repeated, and more than half believed, sixty years ago.

Tregagle is the name of a family not long extinct. Mr. Lysons says Tregagle, of Trevorder, in St. Breock; arms, Argent, three bucks passant Or. One of this family having, for some reason, become unpopular, the traditions respecting a mythological personage have been applied to him. The object of these tales of unknown antiquity was, like Orestes, continually pursued by an avenging being, from whom he could find refuge only from time to time, by flying to the cell or chapel on Roach Rock; till at last his fate was changed into the performance of a task, to exhaust the water from Dozmere, with an implement less adapted, if possible, for its appropriate work, than were the colanders given to the daughters of Danaus:

Hocc’, ut opinor, id est, ævo florente puellas,
Quod memorant, laticem pertusum congerere in vas,
Quod tamen expleri nulla ratione potestur.

Tregagle is provided simply with a limpet shell, having a hole bored through it; and with this he is said to labour without intermission; in dry seasons, flattering himself that he has made some progress towards the end of his work; but when rain commences, and the “omnis effusus labor” becomes apparent, he is believed to roar so loudly, in utter despair, as to be heard from Dartmoor Forest to the Land’s End.

The name of this small lake, about a mile in circumference, has excited much curiosity, remaining still unsatisfied. I approach etymology with diffidence, proposing nothing but as a conjecture. On the second syllable of Doz-mere indeed there has not been a doubt, it is understood on all hands to mean a lake; now Doz is said in our glossaries to agree with the English verb to come, but that joined with water it means the tide; may not Doz-mere then represent the currently received opinion of these waters ebbing and flowing, and mean literally the tide lake? The English termination, utterly destructive of its dignity or importance, is at all events unnecessary to the sense.

St. Neot measures 12,789 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815: 4635 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 701 18 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 906 | 1041 | 1255 | 1424
giving an increase of 57 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Richard Gerveys Grylls, instituted in 1793.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

A line drawn N. W. and S. E. about half a mile north of the church town, will divide this parish so into two unequal parts, that the northern, by far the most extensive, will be found to rest on granite, forming a barren waste for several miles in extent; its valleys, however, have afforded stream tin in considerable quantities, and of the very best quality, rendering it therefore probable that this valuable and rare metal may exist in the granite more than has generally been supposed. The other portion of the parish is situated on slate, resembling that of the parishes of Cardinham and St. Clear, immediately in the vicinity.

NEWLIN, OR ST. NEWLIN.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Newlin is in the hundred of Pider, and joins to the west with St. Piran in the Sands and St. Cuthbert, to the north with Crantock and Lower St. Columb, to the east with Little Colan and St. Enador, and to the south with St. Allen.

This parish takes its name from, and is dedicated to, a female saint, Sancta Newlina. It is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Books at £16. 13_s._ 4_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter. The sheaf appropriated to the Chancellor of Exeter, and held under lease by Richard Arundell, esq. uncle and heir presumptive to the present John Lord Arundell, of Trerice. The incumbent Mr. Reginald Trenheale.

The manor of Cargaul, or Cargol, which signifies the holy town, as having been for a long time, ever since the settling of the Bishop’s see at Bodmin, part of the lands belonging to the bishoprick still appertaining to the Bishop of Exeter. I take this to be what in Mr. Camden is called Caeling, or I do not know where else you will find that place. There are many ruins at Cargol, which show that it must have been once a considerable place. A large prison is still standing there, although now scarcely used, and a barn of the same size; both show something of its pristine glory, although as to the rest it be but a sorry village of three or four poor houses.

Treluddero, or Treludra, which is not far from Cargol, and is held from it.

Humphrey Borlase, esq. of this place, was Sheriff of Cornwall in the third and fourth years of King James the Second, in the commission of the peace and lieutenancy, and also a member of parliament; but following the fortunes of that king, (by whom it is said that he was created Baron of Mitchell, at St. Germain’s,) he ran out a large estate, and died a prisoner for debt in the Fleet; and soon after his decease, this place, with several other lands, were sold under a decree in chancery, to Sir William Scawen, and the lease of the manor of Cargol held under the Bishop to Philip Hawkins, esq. to whose son, the Rev. John Hawkins, D.D. it at present belongs. From hence originated the well-known apple, the Treludra or Borlase’s pippin; but the place is so much fallen to decay that no traces remain of the house, nor even of the orchard. [The small dwelling of a farmer, and a few stumps of trees, alone mark the spot. Ed.]

To the south of Treludra, just in from the downs, stands the borough of Mitchell, the best part of which being in this parish, as the rest is in St. Eroder, Mr. Browne Willis thus describes it: “Mitchell is a small hamlet, scarce containing thirty houses, all cottages save one, which is a public inn, not long since erected, which is the only healed (slated) house in this poor borough. Concerning the antiquity of this borough, and when it was created so, I have little to say; but that it first sent members to parliament in the sixth year of Edward the Sixth, in which return it is called villa Mychell, as it is in all the ancient indentures, styled burgus or villa Mychell, Mitchell, or Modishole. Mr. Carew calls it Meddleschale, the name Mitchell never occurring till in modern times.

The manor of this place is still in possession of the ancient family of Arundell, of Lanherne, whose ancestor, Ralph de Arundell, purchased the same in the time of Henry the Third, by whose interest, I presume, with Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, this little town obtained the privileges of a market and fairs. In anno the thirtieth Edward the First, John de Arundell (grandson of the aforesaid Ralph, who had been Sheriff of Cornwall in the forty-fourth of Henry the Third,) certified his claim to a market and fair in his manor of Modishole, which he challenged by hereditary descent from Ralph de Arundell, his ancestor, and pleaded that the said Ralph purchased this manor of Piers de Ralegh, heir of Walter de Ralegh.

The manor of Degembris was one of those forfeited by Francis Tregian, esq. (see Probus). It was either given or sold to John Arundell, of Trerise, esq. by King Charles the First.

In this manor Pallamaunter, or Palmaunter, was formerly a gentleman’s seat, and gave name to an ancient family since removed to Trevyrick, in St. Columb Minor.

The manor of Tresulion. Here it is said was born Sir Robert Tresulion, or Tresilian, Lord Chief Justice of England under Richard the Second, though some say he was born at another place. It certainly however belonged to a family of that name, till it went, or rather the barton, with a female heir, to a branch of the Carnes of Glamorganshire. The manor went probably, by purchase, to the Arundells. But in the year 1599, Thomas Davies, of Canon Teign, in Devon, esq. seized the barton under a mortgage, and his descendant, Mary, widow of Sir George Cary, of Clovelly, in Devonshire, sold it to ―――― Gully, gent. who settled himself there, from whom, having lost all his children, it devolved on his nephew Samuel Gully, esq.

The manor of Treworthen was the seat of a very considerable family, of which Walter de Treworthen, or Treworden, was Sheriff of Cornwall 7th of Henry the Third, as was Sir Otho de Treworthen 4th Henry the Fifth, and Sir John de Treworthen was knight of the shire 21st Richard the Second. The arms of Treworthen were Argent, three boar’s heads couped Sable, armed Gules. This manor, now reduced nearly to the barton, is the property of Wills, of Wivelscomb, a minor.

MANOR OF TRERICE.

Mr. Carew says, in Edward the Third’s reign Ralph Arundell matched with the heir of this land and name, since which time his issue hath there continued, (not so, for their chief seat was at Efford, Carew, p. 119, till the reign of Edward the Fourth,) and increased their livelihood by sundry like inheritors, as St. John, Jew, Durant, and Thurlebear.

John Arundell, mentioned by Mr. Carew, p. 146, and his father-in-law, lived to a very great age, being the same who was called “the Tilbury,” and “John for the King.”

The arms of Arundell of Trerice were, Sable, three chevrons Argent, but of later times the same as Arundell of Lanherne.

THE EDITOR.

In the taxation of Pope Nicholas, Newlin is valued:

Ecclesia S’ce Neweline £9
Vicar ejusdem 1

The Great Tithes are held on lease by John Hawkins, esq. having been purchased by him.

The church stands on an elevated ridge, and is conspicuous, with its lofty tower, from great distances; both are built with stone common in that district, which is hard, and capable of forming permanent structures; but the laminated surface of the stone, and its colour, approaching to olive, are quite unfavourable to exterior beauty. The inside of the church consists of two long aisles, extending east and west, with a short cross aisle on either side; the north cross aisle being appropriated to the manor of Cargol, and that on the other side to Tresilian. The old carved work of this church has not been destroyed, and therefore much decoration may be seen on the seats, presenting the arms of various families, figures, monograms, &c.

Under the eastern part of the church remains a vault appropriated to the Arundells of Trerice, and against one of the walls over it is a handsome monument to Margaret Arundell, wife of John Lord Arundell, and daughter of Sir John Acland, who died in 1691. From this connection, and from various settlements and arrangements growing out of it, Trerice, with a considerable estate annexed, has devolved on Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, late member for Devonshire.

There is also a monument to the Rev. Henry Pooley, the late vicar, who departed this life in Sept. 1821, esteemed as a clergyman, as a gentleman, and in his domestic relations. On his decease Doctor William Carey, then Bishop of Exeter, bestowed the living on the Rev. Richard Polwhele, in consideration of his eminence in almost every department of literature.

MANOR OF CARGOLS.

The leasehold property of this manor, purchased by Mr. Philip Hawkins, remained in his family till his great grandson, the late Sir Christopher Hawkins, acquired the freehold in the year 1804 or 5, under the authority of parliament, for redeeming the Land Tax from the See of Exeter.

The other portion of the Borlase property, sold to Sir William Scawen, has not remained so permanently in the possession of any family. Treludra, and its appendages, had certain incorporeal rights, which made them objects of peculiar attention. Mr. Scawen, who inherited this property from the original purchaser, sold it to Mr. Basset, afterwards Lord de Dunstanville; and about the year 1798 it was finally sold to Sir Christopher Hawkins, who thus united again the Borlase property in this neighbourhood.

It is now needless to investigate the constitution of the little borough of Michell, further than to state that the right of voting for Members of Parliament had been determined to reside in five individuals, holding certain nominal tenures within the borough, and denominated mesne lords, and in such persons living within the borough, as paid scot and lot. These last were in latter times reduced to four, so as to constitute the five mesne lords a majority.

Nothing could primâ facie appear more absurd, or bear more the appearance of a childish mockery of representation. But in point of fact, this and other close boroughs had nothing to do with representation at all, in the sense usually applied to that word: they were fortuitous contrivances giving weight to property, and restraining an assembly partly delegated, and thereby possessing a strong spirit of freedom, within such bounds as allowed distinct branches of government to co-exist with this otherwise all powerful body. They are now swept away, and new institutions seem fast arising; but whether these shall prove advantageous to the happiness and to the welfare of mankind, or the contrary, our posterity will be more able to decide. They may perhaps discover that the apparent obstacles in our Constitution, really contained the secret springs which gave a regulated motion to the British Government, when it was esteemed the wonder and the admiration of the world.

A large extent of waste ground, belonging to the Treludra purchase, having been enclosed, and efforts made to bring it into cultivation by various methods, and among these by folding sheep, it received the name of Shepherds. The late Sir Christopher Hawkins continued with eagerness what he found commenced; and trying the expedient of ploughing deep, to remove the stratum of shattered siliceous spar, which occurs immediately under the peaty turf of all such lands throughout Cornwall, lead ore was brought to the surface; when this spirited individual, who is said to have expended five thousand pounds a year in wages for a considerable length of time, began a mine at his own expense, and encouraged by its first efforts he brought in an adit, erected more than one steam engine, and wrought the mine to a very considerable depth. The quantity of lead raised from the mine proved sufficient to pay all the expenses, and in addition, the lead was found to be rich in silver, much above the general average of such as are usually tested.

All the operations were conducted on the place. The ores were smelted, silver to the amount of some tens of thousands of pounds value was extracted from the lead, and the litharge again revived.

In all these matters Sir Christopher Hawkins was mainly assisted by one whose name I am happy to record.

His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani
Munere.

Mr. John Giddy was born in January 1760, and having received the common school education, he found himself compelled to waste the greater part of his life in an inferior situation at a tin smelting house. He had however the advantage of much leisure, which he employed in the cultivation of his mind and in the acquirement of knowledge; and without any apprehension of my judgment being warped in favour of one, whom I have esteemed more as a brother than a relation, throughout a period exceeding fifty years, I will venture to say that in matters connected with chemistry and practical science, few excelled him; that in honour and integrity he was excelled by none; and that in more recondite studies, even in the acquirement of foreign literature, his progress much more resembled what might be expected from persons having every artificial advantage in life, than from him who had been in a great measure deprived of them all. He never married, and died suddenly in last January (1835), at Shepherds, having just completed his seventy-fifth year.

I am myself approaching the age of man, and but that children, and grandchildren, carry our views forward and enliven old age, I should acquiesce in the sentiment of Juvenal:

Hæc data pœna diu viventibus, ut renovata
Semper clade domus; multis in luctibus, inque
Perpetuo mœrore, et nigra veste senescant.

And, darker as it downward bears,
Is stained with past and present tears.

Mr. Lysons says that a manor, called the manor of Newlyn, belonged to the other branch of the Arundells――that of Lanherne. It may, however, be remarked that a manor bearing the name of a parish is frequently limited to a very small part of that with which it would seem to be co-extensive: in such cases the manor probably derives its name from the church having been built on it.

Sir John Arundell, who was Sheriff of Cornwall in the 10th year of Edward the Fourth, lost his life in an attack on St. Michael’s Mount, then recently seized by Richard de Vere, Earl of Oxford. This gentleman had removed his residence from Efford, on the coast near Stratton, and amidst the sands, to Trerice; and these circumstances gave origin to one of the thousand idle tales invented on such occasions, and which the diffused intelligence of the present time has scarcely yet eradicated,――that some foreteller of future events had warned him of dying in the sand, that he went from Efford to counteract the will of fate, which became accomplished however at the foot of St. Michael’s Mount.

The Sir John Arundell, mentioned by Mr. Tonkin as known by the name of “John for the King,” and as living to a great age, defended Pendennis Castle with the utmost bravery, after he had passed his eightieth year; and his son, Sir Richard Arundell, distinguished himself at several battles in the Civil War. This gentleman, soon after the Restoration of King Charles the Second, was created Lord Arundell, of Trerice; his grandson, the last heir male, died in 1773.

The house retains the appearance of a splendid mansion in times passed by. The south-western wing has been repaired and beautified internally by Sir Thomas Acland.

Tresilian, improved of late years into a handsome seat, is now the residence of Richard Gully Bennet, Esq.

The parish feast is kept on the last Sunday in April.

Newlyn measures 7683 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6,663 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 451 9 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 735 | 798 | 1045 | 1218
giving an increase of 65½ per cent. in thirty years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Henry Pooley, collated by Bishop Pelham in
1815.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is composed of the same kind of rocks as the neighbouring parishes of Cubert, Colan, and St. Columb Minor. It is entirely placed within the calcareous series. At Trevemper bridge is a bed of compact limestone, similar to that which is so common in many parts of Cornwall, and is provincially known by the name of black lime. This rock has been noticed under the head of St. Germans, and it is very abundant at Rock Ferry, in St. Minver, opposite Padstow.

* * * * *

It may be proper to add that Newlyn, west of Penzance, grown to be in reality a town of some importance, is legally no more than a village in the parish of Paul, without any separation whatever.

OTTERHAM.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Otterham is in the hundred of Lesnewith, and is bounded to the west by St. Juliot, to the north by St. Gennis, to the east by Jacobstow, to the south by Davidstow and Warbstow.

This church, in the taxation of Pope Nicholas, 1291, was valued at £2 by the name of Otham. It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £6. 14_s._ The patronage in John Saltren, Esq. The incumbent Mr. Crewys.

There is the manor of Otterham. In Domesday Book it is called Othram, being one of the 288 manors in this county, which were given by William the Conqueror to his half brother the Earl of Morton. Mr. Carew says, “3 H. 4, Will. de Campo Arnulphi held in Otterham 1 fee,” p. 40.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons states that the manor of Otterham belonged in the reign of Edward the Third to the Champernownes, that it came afterwards to the family of Copleston, that John Saltern died possessed of the manor and the advowson in 1639, in whose family it continued for about a hundred years. The manor belongs at present to George Welch Owen, Esq. and the advowson to Mr. William Chilcott, of Tiverton. Mr. Lysons adds, that a barton in this parish, sometime the property and the residence of a family called French, is now the property of Charles Chichester, Esq. The church is said to be small, and not to contain any thing worthy of attention.

Otterham measures 2694 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,186 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 67 0 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 141 | 176 | 212 | 227
giving an increase of 61 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is of the same structure as Lesnewith, in its vicinity, being both situated on the Dunstone and other rocks of the calcareous series.

PADSTOW.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to Padstow is lost.

TONKIN.

Padstow, in the hundred of Pider, is bounded to the west by St. Merrin, to the north and east by the sea, its own harbour, and the river Alan, to the south by Little Petherick.

Leland (Itinerary, vol. ii. fol. 75), speaking of the town here saith, “this town is ancient, bearing the name of Lodenek in Cornish, and in English after the true and old writings Adelstowe, Latin, Athelstani locus, and the town there taketh King Adelstane for the chief giver of privileges unto it.” In Tax. Benef. 20 Edw. I. it is also called Eccles’ de Aldestowe, and valued――the rectory in 106_s._ 8_d._ and the vicar in 13_s._ 4_d._ being appropriated to the priory of Bodmin. Notwithstanding which I take it that it has its name from the famous St. Petrock, an abbreviation of Petrockstow, St. Petroc’s Place, to whom this church is by all allowed to be dedicated, and who most probably was born here; as more certain it is that he was buried in St. Petroc’s church in Bodmin, as you may see there.

But Fuller (Worthies in Wales, p. 13), from Bale calls Petrok, a Welsh-Irish-Cornish man, as having his birth in Wales, his breeding in Ireland (according to the custom of that age), from whence after twenty years’ studying he came into Cornwall, and fixed himself at Petrok’s-stowe, now corruptly Padstowe, from a small oratory so called from him; that he wrote a book of Solitary Life, whereto he was much addicted, and flourished anno 560; but Collier from Harpsfield, whose authority I prefer, makes him to go from Cornwall into Ireland, so that as I said before we may claim the honour of his birth.

This church is a vicarage, valued at £11. 3_s._ The patronage in Edmund Prideaux, Esq. the impropriation of the sheaf in Sir John Prideaux, of Netherton in Devon, Bart.; the present incumbent Mr. Charles Guy.

THE EDITOR.

The most probable opinion respecting the name of Padstow seems to be, that St. Petroc originally fixed his hermitage or his monastic establishment at this place, from whence he afterwards removed to Bodmin.

At the taxation of Pope Nicholas this parish stands, Ecclesia de Aldestowe £5. 6_s._ 8_d._; Vicarius ejusdem 13_s._ 4_d._

In the Valor Ecclesiasticus, 26th of Henry the Eighth, preserved in the First Fruits Office, among the property belonging to the monastery at Bodmin, the following entries occur with respect to Padstow:

£. _s._ _d._
Padistowe, Decimæ garbæ 14 9 6
Decimæ piscatoriæ 4 0 0
Oblac’ 2 0 0
Reddita et Firmæ Temporalium 10 7 5

Leland says, that the name of this Athelstow indicates its being founded by Athelstan on his conquest of Cornwall, but this appears mere conjecture, unsupported by the slightest authority; in contradiction to the orthography used in the Valuation by the Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln in 1291, where the name is Aldestowe, not Athelstowe; and Athelstan’s conquest took place more than three centuries and a half after the death of St. Petroc.

Mr. Whitaker conjectures that the original monastic establishment of this Saint occupied the spot, since inhabited by one of greater learning, and we may fairly presume imbued with a more deep infusion of real piety, the well known and respected author of the Connection of The Old and New Testament, and of a variety of other works, all evincing his profound erudition, strong abilities, and goodness of heart.

The Prideauxes are understood to have held this property before the Reformation under a lease for lives from the priors of Bodmin, who appear to have been high lords, at least, of the whole town.

Mr. Carew, after noticing Padstow, and referring to a charter of incorporation which unquestionably never had any existence, says, “Mr. Nicholas Prideaux, from his new and stately house thereby, taketh a full and large prospect of the town, haven, and country adjoining, to all which his wisdom is a stay, his authority a direction. He married one of Viel’s coheirs; and, though endowed with fair revenues in Devon, maketh Cornwall beholden to his residence. He beareth, Argent, a chevron Sable, in chief a file with three lambeaux Gules.” P. 144; 340, Lord de Dunstanville’s edit.

This family appears to have been greatly benefited by the confiscations of those times, since the Devonshire branch acquired all the ecclesiastical possessions of Bodmin Priory, and what had been held under lease from the monastery about Padstow, became converted into freehold; and soon after the possession could be considered as assured, Mr. Nicholas Prideaux built this house, which continues to be one of the most handsome and imposing of all the gentlemen’s houses in Cornwall. The exterior retains its original appearance, the interior has received various and recent improvements; a splendid staircase is understood to have been brought from Stowe in Kilkhampton. The late Mr. Charles Prideaux went into holy orders during the life of his elder brother; and afterwards assumed the name of Brune in addition to Prideaux on his succeeding to the estate of that family. He married Miss Patten, sister of Mr. Peter Patten Bowles; they have left one son, who is married to Miss Glynn, and three daughters, the eldest married to Mr. Sawle, of Penrice.

The church is handsome and spacious, and is said to have been built by Thomas Vivian, Prior of St. Petroc’s, Bodmin, and titular Bishop of Megara in Greece. It contains several monuments to the Prideaux family, and to others.

The town is not large, and the harbour is so surrounded by rocks and obstructed by sand, that vessels even of a small size are unable to find shelter there when the wind blows on the shore, and security is much wanted. Plans have been suggested for constructing a mole from the eastern side of the harbour, near its entrance, so as to greatly narrow the opening, and by so doing give power to the very extensive back-water to deepen the channel, and this work, with the removal of some rocks, would, it is believed, make Padstow a safe place of refuge for all ships navigating St. George’s Channel or the Severn sea; but the expense must far exceed all that could be contributed to a private undertaking, and therefore no hope can be entertained of such an improvement being made, unless the forming of a safe harbour in such a situation should be deemed worthy of becoming a national work.

A considerable trade was brought to this part about the middle of the last century by Mr. William Rawlings, who, emerging from a shop at St. Columb, raised himself, and conferred benefits on all around him by an union of talent, industry, and integrity. He was succeeded by his son Mr. Thomas Rawlings, who served the office of Sheriff in the year 1803, and built a large house just out of the town, named Saunder’s Hill; but various concerns having proved less successful in the latter part of his life, and leaving a large family, the property has been sold, and the house taken down.

It is a curious and singular occurrence respecting the tithes of this parish, that they have been split; probably in consequence of leases granted by the priory of St. Petroc. The Prideaux family have continued to possess the tithe of fish, and some other advantages, while the general tithes of the parish belong to a gentleman of the name of Hall.

There are said to have been several chapels in the parish; one dedicated to St. Sampson, not to the Jewish Hercules, but to a native of Glamorganshire, born in the fifth century, who after spending years in solitude, converting whole nations, performing miracles, and in Britany raising a man from the dead, founded the splendid abbey of Dole in Franche Comté, where he died on the 6th of July in 564. This chapel is believed to have been built on the ruins of St. Petroc’s monastery, destroyed by the Danes in 981, and therefore on the spot now occupied by Mr. Prideaux’s house, which would be called Padstow Place, but for the alliteration.

Another chapel stood in a direction from the town, now distinguished by one of the most beautiful walks any where to be seen, when the high water overflows the sand of this extensive estuary.

This chapel, called St. Saviour’s, in common with various others in similar situations, was dedicated by navigators to our Lord, in a capacity very limited with respect to that of the Redeemer of the whole world from the destruction caused by original sin; they made it only as a votive offering in return for their own temporal preservation from shipwreck.

An account is given in a black-letter pamphlet, written by G. Classe, of Torrington in Devonshire, of a most melancholy domestic tragedy which took place in this town early in the reign of King James the First, arising entirely from the violent spirit of fanaticism then raging in men’s minds with ten-fold fury in consequence of recent persecution and existing intolerance. The details had better be forgotten.

The latitude and longitude of St. Minver spire are given in the Trigonometrical Survey. Lat. 50° 33′ 31″, long. 4° 51′ 28″; in time 19m. 26s. west of Greenwich; therefore, Trevose Head will be in latitude 50° 32′ 52″, longitude 4° 57′ 16″; Pentire point in latitude 50° 35′ 15″, longitude 4° 55′ 16″.

Stepper Point, forming the mouth of the harbour, is about a sea mile south of Pentire Point, and less than half as much to the west. The time of high water at the change and full of the moon must be between half past four and five o’clock.

This parish measures 3073 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6934 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1004 0 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1332 | 1498 | 1700 | 1822
giving an increase of nearly 37 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. William Rawlings, instituted in 1790.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are somewhat similar to those of St. Mervyn, which is already stated to belong to the calcareous series. The rocks are well exposed on the shores of Padstow harbour, and therefore they merit a more particular description.

The southern part of this parish consists chiefly of a blue slate, which in some strata is very fissile, and in other strata it separates into thick lamellar pieces, and passes in the adjoining strata into calcareous schist. This slate at Dinah’s Cave contains a bed of black limestone, which may be a continuation of that on the opposite side of the harbour at Rock ferry. At the latter place, the transitions between the blue slate and the limestone are beautifully displayed.

The limestone is of the same nature as that in Veryan on the south coast. Proceeding towards Slepper Point, at the entrance of the harbour, after passing the town of Padstow, the cliffs consist of alternate beds of compact and of schistose greenstone; these continue to line the shore with broken rocks for more than a mile, and they are succeeded by red and greenish slates, which are lamellar, of a fine texture, and rather hard, resembling the mineral called novaculite or hornestone; and connected with this slate occurs a compact crystalline rock like that of Trevose Head in St. Mervyn, consisting of small crystals of glossy felspar, and of a scaly pulverulent mineral of a greenish colour, the nature of which is not very apparent. This singular rock may be the equivalent of diallage rock, a member of the serpentine series, as its position bears a great resemblance to that of the Lizard magnesian rocks.

At Penniscen Bay, on the north side of the parish, the cliff exhibits many alternations of limestone and slate; this limestone is more crystalline than the black limestone of Rock Ferry, approaching nearer to the Plymouth limestone in its appearance; but organic remains have not yet been discovered in it.

The slate between the beds of limestone is a calcareous schist, and is of a white colour, and earthy where it has been weathered; but when perfect it is found, especially near the limestone, to be of a blue colour with broad diagonal bands or stripes of brown, precisely like the calcareous slate which occurs in Werrington, near Yealm Bridge, where it is extensively quarried for chimney-pieces, and for other domestic or ornamental purposes.

PAUL.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Paul is in the hundred of Penwith, and is bounded to the west by St. Burian and Sancreed, to the north by Maddern, to the east and south by the Channel and Mount’s Bay.

This parish is dedicated to the famous St. Paulinus (and not the apostle Paul, as it is commonly thought), who was sent by Pope Gregory the First in 601 from Rome, with St. Justus, to accompany St. Austin the Monk for the conversion of the Saxons. In 625 he accompanied the Princess Ethelburgha, daughter to Ethelbert King of Kent, when she married Edwyn King of the Northumbrians, where he laboured so effectually that he converted that king and the greatest part of his people,[7] so that he was consecrated the first Archbishop of York, and Pope Honorius sent him the pall about the year 630; but, Edwyn being killed in battle in 633 by Cadwallo King of the Britons, and Penda King of Mercia, he was forced to fly back into Kent with Queen Ethelburga and her children, where her brother Eadbald, King thereof, receiving them with all kindness, made Paulinus Bishop of Rochester, where he ended his days on the 10th of October 644.

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book at £13. 11_s._ 6_d._; the Patronage in the Crown; the Impropriation of the sheaf and tithes of fish in William Guavis, esq.; the Incumbent Mr. Henry Pendarves.

In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued at £9. 6_s._ 8_d._ being then appropriated to the Abbey of Hailes, in Gloucestershire. To this abbey the tithes of corn and fish were appropriated, and so became lay-fees at the dissolution of the abbey.

THE EDITOR.

It is universally understood that this parish is not dedicated to the great apostle of Tarsus; and it is rather a curious circumstance that the word saint, so generally used as a prefix to the names of parishes in Cornwall, should invariably be omitted in this instance.

The honour of protecting the parish of Paul has been given by conjecture to St. Paul de Leon, a native of Cornwall, celebrated as a founder of monasteries, as a zealous and successful champion of the faith in converting the Pagans of Britany, where he was made the first bishop of the town, since called from him St. Pol de Leon; but, not satisfied with the services that he might render to God and man, in this important station, amidst newly converted Christians, he endeavoured to make himself more useful by retiring into a solitude, where he died on the 12th of March, about the year 573, and nearly in the hundredth year of his age.

The parish feast is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to October the 10th; and although this saint is generally commemorated on the 12th of March, the day of his decease, yet in his own city of Leon the very 10th of October is consecrated to his memory: which, together with his being a Cornish man, seems to fix St. Paul de Leon as the Patron Saint, in opposition to St. Paulinus the first Archbishop of York, who was sent by Pope Gregory the Great into England shortly after the mission of St. Austin; his festival is held on October the 12th.

This church and that of Breage were attached to the mitred abbey of Hailes in Gloucestershire, as founded by one of the greatest promoters of monastic establishments on record, Richard King of the Romans and Earl of Cornwall. He began the building in 1246; and in 1251, when he had expended ten thousand marks in finishing the monastery, he had the church dedicated to St. Mary on the 9th of November, in the presenee of the King and Queen, thirteen Bishops, most of the Barons, and above three hundred Knights, all of whom he entertained with incredible state and plenty, letting fall this generous and devout expression: “I wish it had pleased God that all my great expenses in my Castle of Wallingford had been as wisely and soberly employed.”

Edmund Earl of Cornwall, son and heir of Richard the founder, having, in his travels through Germany with his father, obtained a relic considered to be blood of our Saviour, gave a third part to this monastery in 1272, thereby causing a great increase in the number of people resorting to it.