Chapter XIII: Appendix: V (2)

I had thoughts formerly, and made preparation to give many more instances, where many amongst us have been mistaken in those two particulars; but since it is a hard thing to convince men of old errors, and a harder to make a question against any concerning their gentelicions and the old forms thereof, though intended more for their honour, I shall forbear the further prosecution thereof; but in this, however, I shall do them right, that they, i. e. their ancestors, in this way thus trodden, have walked generally as antiently as any other gentry of this nation, and to my seeming, it had been better if they had stood still _super vias antiquas avorum suorum_, since most of those ancient families who have strayed abroad as aforesaid, have yet some of them, and many more had, lands and places of their own names in their possession long enjoyed; and a nearer passage it had been to their journey’s end, viz. their honour, if they had not adventured abroad: a testimony whereof we have in that great contention which happened in the time of King Edward III. between Carminow of this county (a family to which most of the ancient gentry here have relation) and a great person[41] of the nation, for bearing of one and the same coat armour, Azure, a bend Or. After many heats about it, a reference was made of it by the king to the most eminent Knights of that time, of which John of Gaunt, King of Castille, was one, before whom Carminow proved his right by the continual bearing thereof, and that before the Conquest, which was not disapproved nor disallowed, but applauded: yet, because the other contendant was a baron of the realm, Carminow was adjudged to bear the same coat still, but a file in chief for distinction sake. The decision was no way dishonourable, and the remembrance of the contention continued to the glory of his posterity, to which his motto in Cornish seems to have an allusion――in English, “A Straw for Whifflers or Dissemblers;” or as some have said to be, “A Fig Cala Rag Whetlow;” but we may take the same better, I think, from the very name of Carminow being in Cornish a rock immoveable, as a sign of his resolution, from thence, or formerly taken up.

Having gone through this passage, which I know not how it may be taken by my countrymen, let me make this observation, that since the gentry here have thought fit, or endeavoured by mistake, to forsake the antiquity of their Cornish names, and thereby their greatest interest, might perhaps prognosticate that their language, which was their ancient glory, should in revenge forsake them, as now it hath almost done; and I shall proceed to assign some other causes of the decay thereof.

XI. The vicinity, or near neighbourhood with Devon. I may say that vicinity only with the Devonians, we having none else, which next to the corruption of tongues by time and superstition to saints, hath most devoured the names of places, especially on the borders of Cornwall with Devon; and there is the worst language commonly spoken, and spoken rudely too, which corrupts not only their own country tongue but ours also, in the places that are nearest to them, and those infect others nearest to them. The names of the places are thereby also much altered in the Cornish, which antiently they had generally, and the particulars that do yet appear, do stand as marks only to shew that what were formerly had are now much eaten away, on the borders especially. ’Tis observed also elsewhere in this county furthest west, where the Cornish hath been most spoken, that the English thereabouts is much better than the same is in Devon, or the places bordering on them, by being most remote from thence from whence the corruption proceeds.

XII. Our gentry, and others, antiently kept themselves in their matches unmixt, commonly at home in their own country, both sons and daughters desiring much to do so, whereby they preserved their names here, and races the better; and when their names changed, it hath been observed to be to the places of their abode, sometimes willingly, sometimes by accident. So it hath continued the Cornish names to the places, and consequently the tongue. But indeed of late our gentry have frequently sought out foreign marriages in other counties, whereby, though it may be confessed they have brought in much wealth, and have goodly inheritances abroad, yet their offsprings have been dissipated, and their affection less intire to the county, the country-men, and country speech; yet it is to be observed, that not many of them have been very prosperous or of long continuance in other counties, where they cannot muster up very many of our names of gentry, Prideaux, Trevilian, Tregonwell, Penruddock, and a few others excepted, which shews that our Cornish are like those trees that thrive best and live longest in their own peculiar soil and air, which yet is fruitful and durable to those that come in amongst us. Not only gentry, which are very many, that have great inheritance by their matches here with Cornish families, but many others also, which seldom leave this country when they have been planted here.

XIII. The coming-in of strangers of all sorts upon us, artificers, traders, home-born and foreigners, whom our great commodities of tin (more profitable to others than ourselves) and fishing, have invited to us to converse with, and often to stay with us; these all, as they could not easily learn our tongue, for which they could not find any guide or direction, especially in these latter days, nor the same generally spoken or affected amongst ourselves, so they were more apt and ready to let loose their own tongues to be commixed with ours, and such, for the novelty sake thereof, people were more ready to receive than to communicate ours to any improvement to them. But ministers in particular have much decreased the speech; this country being far from academies, strangers from other parts of the kingdom have sought, as they still do, and have had their promotions here, where benefices are observed to be very good, and those have left their progenies, and thereby their names, remaining behind them, whereby the Cornish names have been diminished, as the tongue also: so that, as the reputed saints heretofore where they seated themselves, have robbed the places where their churches now stand for the most part of the Cornish names they had before, so the ministers since those times coming from other places, and other strangers, have filled up in many places the inhabitants and places here with their new names and titles brought amongst us, to the loss of many of the old. Here too we may add what wrong another sort of strangers have done to us, especially in the civil wars, and in particular by destroying of Mincamber, a famous monument, being a rock of infinite weight, which, as a burden, was laid upon other great stones, and yet so equally thereon poised up by nature only, as a little child could instantly move it, but no one man or many remove it. This natural monument all travellers that came that way desired to behold; but in the time of Oliver’s usurpation, when all monumental things became despicable, one Shrubsall, one of Oliver’s heroes, then governor of Pendennes, by labour and much ado caused to be undermined and thrown down, to the great grief of the country, but to his own great glory as he thought, doing it as he said, with a small cane in his hand. I myself have heard him to boast of this act, being a prisoner then under him.

XIV. Another cause I shall mention as a great loss of the tongue, though it be a great and wonderful advantage to the people otherwise: the orders of the church and state, commanding all the people young to learn the Lord’s Prayer, Belief, &c. in the vulgar tongue, supposing that to be intended the English, if a mother, surely a stepmother to us. Younglings take in that most, and retain longest, wherewith they are seasoned and bred up in their education.

Herein we must complain also of another new neglect to our speech, that the like care was not taken for us as for our brethren in Wales, in the making of the late act of Parliament for the uniformity of the Common Prayer, by which the five Bishops for Wales were commanded to see the Service Book to be printed in the Welch tongue. If it had been so here it had been a good counterpoise for the loss formerly mentioned concerning the young people; this might also perhaps have saved us some labour in this our undertaking, and it would have been of good use for some of our[42] old folks also, for we have some among these few that do speak Cornish, who do not understand a word of English, as well as those in Wales, and those may be many in some of the western parts, to whom Mr. Francis Robinson, parson of Landawednack told me, he had preached a sermon not long since in the Cornish tongue, only well understood by his auditory. This should have been taken into consideration by our gentlemen burgesses in that and other Parliaments, and by our bishops also; but better it had been if our ancient bishops when they fled hither from their invaders, had brought with them a character of their ancient speech, or left books written therein; or, in defect thereof, they or any other had done for us as Ulphius the bishop did for the Goths when they came to be seated in Italy, who there invented new Gothic letters for his people, and translated the Holy Scriptures into that language for them. This indeed had deserved our greatest thanks from our bishops, as no doubt they had them from those persons who received so great a benefit by their former and latter kindness therein; nor let that good old bishop Ulphius be censured (as he seems to be) for doing a superfluous work, because he might perhaps know that the then service of the church was celebrated in the Greek and Latin tongues, but rather let him be commended for his zeal in religion, and his love to his country and to his country people then with him, dwelling with strangers in another land, that continued so mindful of them and their speech, as we have been neglectful of ours. He by that means continued that tongue in use; we by his example might have regained ours, if the like care had been taken; but our people, as I have heard, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, desired that the Common Liturgy should be in the English tongue, to which they were then for novelty’s sake affected, not out of true judgment desired it. But, besides negligence, fatality is to be considered; fatality is a boundary beyond which nothing can pass; it hath been eminent in kingdoms and states, and those have had commonly fatal periods, as to a time determined five hundred years commonly. But more usual it is, that upon such mutations of kingdoms there have happened losses and mutations of tongues; it may therefore be the more wondered at, that this of the British, being none of the learned tongues to which the Lord had intrusted the writing of his Sacred Scriptures, should have here lasted so long through so many mutations, and that there is yet such a record thereof, as our old manuscript imports, with the purity of the doctrine therein contained, and some other small things in the Bodleian Library.

XV. The little or no help, rather discouragement, which the gentry and other people of our own have given in these latter days, who have lived in those parts where the tongue hath been in some use. In the time of the late unhappy civil war, we began to make some use of it upon the runnagates that went from us to the contrary part from our opposite works, and more we should have done if the enemy had not been jealous of them, and prevented us. This may be fit to be improved into somewhat, if the like occasion happen, for it may be talked freely and aloud to advantage, to which no other tongue hath reference. The poorest sort at this day, when they speak it as they come abroad, are laughed at by the rich that understand it not, which is by their own fault in not endeavouring after it.

XVI. The want of writing it is the great cause of its decay; for, though there wanted a proper character for it, yet we might have written it in the character now in use, but I never saw a letter written in it from one gentleman to another, or by any scholar; which is to be wondered at, and blamed as a thing unbecoming such as ought to be studious in every thing that is ancient: but since I began to set about this work, I prevailed upon those that translated it to write me several letters, which they at first found very hard to be done; but after some practice it seemed easier.

Here I cannot but lament the want of such persons, books, records and papers, which were late in being, and not now to be had, and my misfortune in not having translated them, that most unhappily escaped me; one was the manuscript of Anguin, who had translated out of Cornish into English ―――― his relations, after his decease, (having suits before me as Vice-Warden of the Stanneries for tin bounds) promised me the favour of those translations, but before their return to their houses, their people tearing all about for their controverted goods, had torn to pieces all those papers. In another place I was promised the sight of a Cornish Accidence; but that by another such-like accident was totally spoiled by children before it could be brought me. I have heard also that a Matins in Cornish was amongst the books of Dr. Joseph Maynard, but I could never attain to it. But besides the no helps by which I lie in this labyrinth, I have likewise had discouragements amongst ourselves at home. I have been often told that, besides the difficulty of the attempt, it would be thought ridiculous for one to go about the restoring of that tongue which he himself could not speak nor understand truly when spoken, to which I have made answer with these two following instances: one is of a countryman of ours, Langford by name; who being blind was yet able to teach others the noble science of defence, only he desired to know still the length of the weapon of his fellow combatant, with a guess of his posture, and this he practised with good success. The other is of one Grizling, of whom Mr. Camden says, that he being deaf could see words; that is, that notwithstanding his deafness he could answer any man’s question that set at table with him by the motion of his lips. This man I have seen also, and he would complain of such men as in those days wore great munchadoes, as they then called them, i. e. nourishing of much hair, by which he was hindered somewhat of the observation of their lips.

I may place these two men, one blind, the other deaf, for these qualities among the observable things of the county, knowing them to be true,――if the mentioning these examples in their comparison do not excuse me from being laughed at by those men that have censured me for my attempt.

_Hic facit Adam et dicit Deus._

Dol ony onen ha try, Tas ha Sap yn Trynyte
Ny ad eura ty then abry, haual dagan fare whare
Ny a euhyth yn the vody sperys sans hylly beene
Han been nans pan yn kylly, then dozty a del arte

Adam saf yn van yn clor, ha tryt the gyk ha the woys
Preder my theth wull a dor, haual theym an pen then troys
Myns us yntryr hag yn mor, evarnethe kemer halloys
Yn bysma rag dry astor ty a veea bys mafy toys.

Adam del of Den aras, bos guythys a uronty af thys
Kybar Paradys myathas saen gara un dra a govys
War bup, frut losoen ha has, avo hynny hy teays
Sacu yn frut ny fyth kymmyas, yea proen askyens hyulkis.

Nara tybbryth a henna, yen hyneuis pren askyens
Ynnes a lena tya, hag a fyth marroeu vernens.

_In English thus_:

So are we one and three, Father and Son in Trinity,
We make thee to us of clay like to our face anon,
We will breath in thy body spirit holy, and ointment on his head,
And life when lost to the earth thou must again.

Adam rise thou up in strength, and turn to flesh and blood;
Think I came all of earth like me from head to foot;
All that’s on land and sea upon them take thou authority,
In this world from bring forth thou shalt have thee allowed.

Adam so of God’s grace but keep what’s granted thee;
Take Paradise I appoint, only leave the thing thou ought.
On each fruit herb and seed that in it is growing,
Except the fruit thou shalt not take――that’s the tree of knowledge
forbidden.

Do not eat of that’s named the tree of knowledge,
Out from thence thou must and shalt die the death.

By this small part of a greater piece given (as I conceive) for Welsh, by a Welsh gentleman, it appears how near the Cornish and Welsh tongues are affined.

ANGLICK. CORNWALLECK.

Our Father which art in Ny Taz oz yn neau, bonegas
heaven, hallowed be thy yw tha hanaw, tha
name, thy kingdom come, gwtakath doaz, tha bonogath
thy will be done on earth as bo gwrez en nove porarag
it is in heaven; give us this en neau, roe thenyen
day our daily bread; and dythma gon dyth bara giuians
forgive us our trespasses, as ny gan cabu ura chen;
we forgive them that trespass ledia ny ara idn tentation,
against us; and lead us buz diluer ny thact deog.
not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil.

I believe in God the Father Mea greez en du Taz olgologack
Almighty, maker of heaven y wrig en neu han
and earth; and in Jesus noare. Ha yn Jesu Crest
Christ his only son our y vabe hag agan arlyth avy,
Lord, who was conceived by conseviys daz an Speriz
the Holy Ghost, born of the Sanz, geniz thurt an voz
Virgin Mary, suffered under Mareea, sufferai dadn; Pont
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, Pilatt, ve gocis dan vernans
dead, and buried. He ha bethis, ha thes kidnias
descended into hell; the the yffarn, y sauas arta
third day he rose again from yn trysa dyth, ha deriffians
the dead; he ascended into da neau ha seth war deghow
heaven, and sitteth at the dornyndue taz olgologack
right hand of God the Father Thurt ena eu za
Almighty, from thence doaz tha juga yn braw han
he shall come to judge the vazaw.
quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Me a greez yn Spiriz
Ghost, the Holy Catholic Sanz, Sanz Cathalick Eglis,
Church, the forgiveness of yn Communion yn Sanz, yn
sins, the resurrection of the geiyanson pegh, yn derivyans
body, and the life everlasting. yn corff, han bowians
ragnuera andellazobo.

[25] Dr. Hammond’s Exposition to the Apocalypse.

[26] Tit. Dij et Homines, 1. 3. p. 457, cap. 163.

[27] Gr. Naz. in Trag.

[28] Here passing down the river, I would willingly have
given by the way an account of the antient Cornish name of
that eminent place now called Mount Edgcombe, but by reason
that the present, and some other generations, have been so
much inclined to the name it now bears, and the other
generations before them had given it the name of West
Stonehouse, as in relation to that on the eastern side of
the river East Stonehouse, where the mansion of those
gentlemen formerly was, (according to which I have seen an
entry of it, Cum Perco et Passagio, in an antient Ouster le
main) I could not attain to it.

[29] Off from Seaton, a valley between Ramehead and Loo,
there is to be seen in a clear day in the bottom of the sea,
a league from the shore, a whole wood of timber on its side,
uncorrupted.

[30] Cæsar de Bello Gallico, lib. VI. ch. 14. Neque fas esse
existimant, ea literis mandare cum in reliquis Græcis
utantur literis. Id mihi duabus de causis instituisse
videntur; quod neque in vulgum disciplinam efferi velint;
neque eos, qui discant literis, confisos minus memorise
studere.――Ed.

[31] The two first lines are from Lib. VII. Ep. 88. The last
line from Lib. XI. Ep. 3.――Ed.

[32] Signification of which word in Cornish is “speeches
great.”

[33] And so were the other devotions exercised, sub Dio, as
you may see by the discourse of Ed. Jones.

[34] Gualterius, mentioned by Archbishop Laud in a speech in
the Star Chamber.

[35] These bones must evidently have been found in a Cavern,
the nature of which has been most ably ascertained and
described by Doctor Buckland; and the Rev. Richard Hennah
has examined another cavern of precisely the same nature,
comprising bones of various large Mammalia, in the limestone
formation, not far from Plymouth.――Ed.

[36] At St. German’s, the place of the author’s nativity,
endowed by King Etheldred with lands, liberties, and
privileges, but what or where non patet.

[37] Archbishop Usher, in Primordiis. Bishop of St. Asaph.
Dr. Stillingfleet, Orig. Britt.

[38] Bishop Hall, in his Mystery of Godliness, says, that a
cripple, who for sixteen years together was fain to walk
upon his hands, by reason the sinews of his legs were
contracted, upon monitions in his dreams to wash in St.
Mardren’s Well, was suddenly so restored to his limbs, that
he saw him both able to walk and get his own maintenance.

[39] Godolanac, in the Phœnician, is a place of tin.

[40] So Molenneck, signifying Goldfinches, a chevron Sable,
between three goldfinches Proper.

[41] Lord Scroope.

[42] Amongst which, as one of the fresh antiquities of
Cornwall, let not the old woman be forgotten, who died about
two years since, who was 164 years old, of good memory, and
healthful at that age, living in the parish of Gwithian, by
the charity mostly of such as came purposely to see her,
speaking to them (in default of English) by an interpreter,
yet partly understanding it. She married a second husband
after she was 80, and buried him after he was 80 years of
age. Her maiden name no one could remember, nor perhaps she
herself. She was usually called after her two husbands’
several names severally and sometimes together, as it is
usual for the meaner sort of people to do. As for her maiden
name, she might say with a wench in Petronius, “Junonem meam
iratam habeam si unquam meminerim me virginem fuisse.”