_Observations on an Ancient Manuscript, entitled Passio Christi,
written in the Cornish Language, and now preserved in the
Bodleian Library; with an account of the Language, Manners, and
Customs of the People of Cornwall. By William Scawen, Esq.
Vice-Warden of the Stannaries._ (_From a Manuscript in the
Library of Thomas Astle, Esq. 1777._)
_On the Manuscript itself. On the description of the Passion
contained therein. On the tongue in which the Passion is
described, and the properties thereof, and how it relates to and
concerns the people and places of Cornwall._
CONCERNING the manuscript itself, (which is the ground of the
fabric) the first thing that presents itself is the outside, which is
not polished, but in a homely, humble simplicity, and written upon a
rough old vellum, which may be supposed to be before parchments here
came much into use; and by the rude pictures set out therewith, it may
seem to be before the art of painting became better amongst us.
Next to behold the chirography thereof, written in no other than the
old Court Hand, not of the best form, but seeming somewhat older than
we find it in other places, and some of the letters and characters
different from the common Court Hand.
As to the speech itself, it is such as the common speakers of the
Cornish now used here do not understand, nor any but such as will be
at the pains to study it, no more than the common speakers of the
vulgar nation of the Greeks do at this day Homer’s Iliad. So the
Lord’s Prayer in the year 700 was thus in English: Vren fader thic
arth, &c. In 900, Thu ure fader the eart on heofenum.
As to the antiquity thereof, we observe the name of our Saviour is all
along written IHS, after the old form used in crucifixes, and then
also the name written Chrest, not Christ. So we find it written in
Tacitus, Suetonius, and in some other Roman authors it may be found.
So Christians were called Chrestians, as Tertullian observes, Apol. c.
3.[25] And so the vulgar in Cornish speak it Chrest, and not Christ.
In this old piece are no words antiently intermixed of the Saxon
tongue or Angles, which shews, in all probability, that it was written
before their time at least, if not much further off; whereas, the
common speech of it now carries much of those latter figures, to the
disfiguring of the face thereof. But of all other intermixion, it
seems to receive in it (with a kind of delight) the tongue of the
Romans, by whom the people were easily brought to take up that tongue
which they brought with them, and afterwards more and more by degrees
in succeeding times, the Roman speech was interwoven with the Cornish,
out of a natural propensity to it, as that tongue came to be used of
all other nations afterwards, as was observed before.
Another argument there is (and that which is to be admired and
rejoiced at) that in this old piece of the Passion, there is nothing
heretical, little of error to be found, or savouring of ill opinions;
which is strange, since it has passed through so many ages, in which
so many ill broods have been hatched, and, amongst others, one of our
own, the Pelagian heresy, a brat bred here amongst us at Bangor. Nor
is there any mention made of any monastical persons, or several orders
of men so living. Nothing that refers to Monks, Friars, Priors, or to
any other orders, secular or sacred, nor any thing said in approbation
or dislike of any such thing.
There is nothing in it savouring of the old bards or their poetry, nor
having references to Merlyanisms, but a bare and sober relation of
matter of fact.
II. As to the description of the Passion and Resurrection of our
Saviour, I cannot again but admire, that it is so unpolluted with the
Arian or Pelagian heresies. There are, it is true, some inoffensive
and harmless traditions, and a word may be let slip of the Virgin
Mary; and in those traditions you may observe the concurrence of
others.
And, first, concerning this Longis: it is to be inquired whether he be
not that Longinus mentioned in our Calendar on the fifteenth of March,
or that Longinus on the first of December; for of Longinus there is
the same history to be found in Picinellus his Mundus Symbolicus;[26]
whose words are, D. P. Comestor ad Longinum vitiosos et caligantes
fuisse oculos, cum vero fluentem in Christi latere sanguinem casu
illis admovisset, videndi acumen recepisse. In eandem Septentiam canit
S. G. Nazian-zenus.[27]
Ubi fixit hastam, defluentis sanguinis
Tinctam liquore, et ecce! ut utraque manu
Hausit, oculosque hoc ungit hinc ut scilicet
Detergat oculum nocte, que cera legit, &c.
When into Christ he thrust his tainted spear,
Lo! unto both his hands the blood flow’d there,
Wherewith he anoints his eyes and then saw clear,
Which like the night till that time blinded were.
Mr. Lassells, in his Voyages into Italy, tells us, that the picture of
Longinus stands under the top of the spear with which Christ’s side
was pierced, in the cupola at St. Peter’s church at Rome. It may be
conjectured, that this tradition owes its origin to the literal sense
of that prophecy; “they should look on him whom they had pierced.”
For the wood of the cross, (another of the traditions,) Genebrard’s
account thereof, as reported by Purchas in his Pilgrimage, p. 30,
comes somewhat near it, which is, that Seth went to the Cherub which
kept Paradise, and received three grains of the Tree of Life, whereof
we read in the Apocalypse, “The leaves shall heal the nation.” With
these three grains was an oil made, wherewith Adam was anointed, and
the stones put into his mouth, whence sprang the tree whereof the
cross of our Lord was made, hidden by Solomon in the Temple, and
after in the pool of Bethesda; according to which, in a church window
at St. Neot’s, is one pictured putting something under another’s
tongue, with this inscription, Hic Seth ponit tria grana sub lingua
Adæ. If any list to see further about the timber whereof the cross was
made, let him read Mr, Evelyn’s Sylva, c. 3, Num. 17. As to that of
the smith’s wife, in forming the nails for the crucifixion, perhaps
they might think, that as the first woman had the first hand in the
transgression, so a woman must be employed in the last act of this
tragedy. We may observe,
1. What true and manifest notions these antient people had, and
faithfully retained, of the Trinity, and the reverence they gave them.
2. How distinctly and clearly they did set forth, in those dark days
they lived in, the several distinct attributes of the Deity, assigning
power to the Father, wisdom to the Son, goodness to the blessed
Spirit.
4. How well they agree and adhere to the doctrine of the true church
of Christ, in the points maintained by us concerning the loss and fall
of man and mankind, and the restoration of him, and concerning the
eternal decree and purpose of God, in the salvation of man,
notwithstanding his fall.
We may observe by the Resurrection, thus shortly declared as it is,
that it appears plainly that those people were not Nullyfidians.
Nor were they Solyfidians.
They placed the foundation of their happiness in belief.
And the superstruction thereupon in good works.
Lastly, we cannot think they were any way inclinable to the minds of
those scoffers at the day of judgment, which St. Peter meets with in
his second Epistle, 2, 9, and 10. Our people acknowledged, that at the
Great Day of account a punishment shall be upon the wicked, and a
glory expected to be given to the godly. Thus far as a taste only of
what is contained therein.
III. On the tongue in which the Passion of our Saviour is thus
described, we have, among other things, such as these observables:
1. The Idiom.
2. The Innocency and Cleanness.
3. The Wisdom.
4. Significances of it.
1. For the Idioms. They put the substantive before the adjunct or
adjective. 2. The preposition sometimes comes after the noun. 3. It is
usual to change a letter in the beginning, middle, or end of a word or
syllable, and sometimes to omit in each for sound sake. 4. They
contract several words into one for sound sake, and that very short
also; with many other changes, of which it is hard to know or find any
certain rule now, but some may be made out upon reading, due
observation and experience had on this that follows; and for the
pronunciation, the Cornish is not to be gutturally pronounced as the
Welsh for the most part is, nor mutteringly as the Armorick, nor
whiningly as the Irish (which two latter qualities seem to have been
contracted from their servitudes), but must be lively and manly
spoken, like other primitive tongues.
2. For the Innocency of it. What is most remarkable is, that it hath a
most excellent defective qualification in it, peculiar to itself; for,
whereas all other tongues abound in execrable oaths, the old Cornish
have none at all, not so much as reproachful terms. The word that
comes nearest to an oath with them is Areire, Areiaree, which is Mary,
Mary, spoken by way of wonder. The next good defective qualification
is, that there are no great titles in it, which Nutricule Tyrannidis.
3. For the Wisdom, Proverbs (which contain usually the wisdom of a
nation) they have had, but we cannot find them in any great plenty.
Yet some there are worthy observing, as these:
Cows nebas, cows da, nebas an yeveren an gevella.
Speak little, speak well, little of public matter is best.
Cows nebas, cows da, hada veth cowsas arta.
Speak little, speak well, and well will be spoken again.
Taw Tavas.
Be silent tongue.――To call one Tavas Tavas, Tongue Tongue, is as
great a reproach as you can put upon any one.
Reys yw meeras dueth ken lemmell uneth.
Look twice before you leap once.
Neb na gare y gwayn coll restewa.
He that loves not gain loss befall him.
Neb na gare y gy an gwra deveeder.
He that loves not his dog will make him a choaked sheep.
Non ges goon heb lagas na kei hebs scovern.
There is no down without eye, nor hedge without ears.
Na reys gara anvor goth ragan vor noweth.
Do not leave the way old for the way new.
Guel gw gwetha vel goofen.
Better keep than ask.――This is spoken of a wariness and
precaution concerning lending.
Grova da rag, tha hannen te yn gurd.
Do good, for thyself thou dost it.
4. Significancy of the Tongue. Adam gave names to the creatures,
according to their natures; but the people of this land, having no
better guide, have given names upon long experience had, and much
observation made of the nature of things, and those do mostly appear
now as to places and families. I shall adventure upon some instances:
Lanceston, alias Dunhevet. Camden would fain have it to be Fanum
Stephani; indeed St. Stephen’s, which is a mile off, seems to be the
mother church, Lanceston the daughter church. Others would have it to
be Lancelot’s Town, one of the Champion Knights of King Arthur, but
that is further from truth. The Chief Justice Foster, talking with me
about it, would fain have Dunhevet to be the most ancient name, from
Dune a town, and Hevet above it, which there is accordingly. I told
his lordship we must fetch the derivation higher, from the Cornish
original (and not from the Saxon), and that is Leostofen, which is a
place of large extent, or a broad end, which is properly so according
to the situation thereof, at the broad end of the county, from whence
it grows towards the west still narrower, like to the point of a
wedge. I read in a good author, that Radulphus, brother to Alfius,
Duke of Cornwall, was founder of Lanceston. I think he means the
castle there, not the town.
The names of places above, and from those places downwards, have
suffered much violence along the river from Devon side, by reason of
the mutations formerly spoken of; but from thence we shall take notice
of some that have received their names antiently, passing down the
river of Tamar (and on some of the branches thereof) where, by the
way, I may say I am astonished at some of our late Geographers, who,
in enumerating the famous bridges in all this have omitted altogether
ours in Cornwall, of which, among land, other lesser, we have three
that are very eminent, one of which, Wadebridge, stands further west;
the two others, besides many smaller, are on the river of Tamar; one
Horsbridge, the other called Newbridge. But much more I wonder at
their omission among the rivers of the famous river of Tamar, a river,
after the Thames, not behind any of note in this kingdom, which I
mention the sooner, because it is most properly ours in Cornwall; for
though it be great and very navigable far up, yet it arises in and
floats only in this little county of Cornwall, and its whole course
contains within the same, and it is the boundary thereof from other
parts, wherein other streams do flow, Linnar, Fiddy, &c. and before it
falls into the Estuarium, where it gives entertainment from Devon on
the other side to Tavy, Plym, Yeom, and others, where they all lose
their names in Tamar. And I do much more wonder that it should be
printed by some others, that this famous river should fall into the
sea near the Land’s End, whereas this alone possesses the whole
honourable harbour of Plymouth (more than sixty miles distant from the
Land’s End), and stands appropriated to the interest of Cornwall,
belonging to the Duke thereof, the Prince of Wales. And to return to
what I said last, in coming down from this broad end of the county to
that famous harbour, though our next bordering neighbour Devonshire
and the saints, have stolen away from us many of the antient British
names, and intruded upon us many strange ones, yet some left us here
and there of the antient speech all along, upon the river and the
branches thereof, which I am obliged to memorize.
Lawhit, in Glamorganshire, is said to be Fanum Iltuti, to which the
Ton being added in Cornish, makes it up. Iltutus was an ancient
British Monk in King Arthur’s time. Landue may be the church or chapel
of St. David, though Landuan in Cornish is the black church or chapel.
And for Lezant, that is the holy saint, meaning St. Michael, to whom
that church was dedicated.
As Cargreene, which is a rock in the gravel standing in a green place.
Carbeele or Carbilly, a rock mentulæ formæ. Carkeele of the same
signification.
Landulph, where St. Dulpho is memorized by the church’s name, and the
well there so called St. Dulpho’s well. Halton, i. e. Haelton, a green
place near the water.
Pillaton, a round or clue by a green.
Larrake I did formerly suppose to have been from Laun or Lun, which is
usually set for a church or chapel; but on better consideration I
think otherwise of it now, because I find several other places
hereabouts written Larrake, which have no reference to church; and
because the manor antiently was written and called Larrake, which is
antienter than the church, and it signifies a place of content in
Cornish.[28]
Blerrake I take to be of the same signification too; a little from
which latter place, if content may be had from a prospect, it is there
in my opinion. A place formerly called Ballahow, now the fairest and
amplest I know any where, excepting such as are dignified by the sight
of a metropolis, or such places of eminency, though it stands not on a
promontory, and but a little from the sea in a plain, though but a
rough one, and from it you may look directly into the sea, as far as
human eye-sight can enable you.
Towards the sea-shore on the one side, you have in eye the Start in
Devon, and westward the Lizard, for your boundaries. Towards the land
northward, the wild moors of Devon, called the East Moors, and the
other side the West Moors in Cornwall. Between those you may observe
the vale countries of both, two rich valleys, one in Devon side, and
the other in Cornwall, and take the sight of Tamar as their
boundaries, and you will wonder, looking at it from above, to know how
to think that river should find a way through those countries to the
sea, especially if you consider that you seldom see water in those
tracts of land by which it passes, yet you see also as it passes
Plymouth the royal citadel, Plymton, Millbrooke, and abundance of
small villages and boroughs in a country on each side pleasant, and
the whole prospect not obscured by hills, or any thing else by which
you may be hindered from the sun in any part of the day; besides this
overlooks the Eddy-rock or stone, a dreadful place about a league out
in the sea, where many hundred of ships have been wrecked, being in
the trade way to the harbour from the west; yet I have heard some
antient skilful mariners to aver, that if a good artist should go
about to strike on this rock purposely, he would not be able to do it,
so far doth chance go beyond art.
Cuttenbrake is a concealed head, and E. Trematon, a place on three
hills.
Inesworth, which is Ineswartha, the island above, or the higher
island, in respect to the situation of the island of St. Nicholas
below, where the saint hath gotten the mastery again.
Ints or Ince, which is a proper name for an island, though this be
joined, as Insworth is, by a short neck to other parts of the parish
of St. Stephen’s. Here passing, we come by the mouth of the river to
Pembernose, which is in Cornish the head of the night, or midnight, as
if it were said that there is safe coming in there at any time; and
from thence we pass to the uttermost point westward, called Penlee,
which is the headland to the leeward; and so sailing along by the sea
side to the two Gayers, the East and West Gayers near Ramehead, which
may give nomination to families of that name in the west, which are
now worn out there, and have had a good recruit in Plymouth, and from
thence a better in London, by a late Lord Mayor, there so called, but
taking his descent from Cornish original, according to the word.
Rame is a long ridge of rocks, and here called Ramehead, because it is
so formed towards the sea like a ram’s horn, which hath turnings in it
to put mariners in mind thereof: in Cornish Pendenhar. Sailing along
from thence by the sea side, we come to Millan Dreth, that is, a mill
on the sea sand at Loo,[29] or Lough, which is a common name with most
nations for a low or watery place, and so Port-Loo, and Port-pinnion,
the little port, nigh to which also is Denloe, or Delough; and
stepping a little from thence in the land, is Minhinnitt, which is a
hill on a highway, and so indeed it is rightly styled; and the well of
St. Lollo, and the foot of Liskeard. Near to it is Liskeard (a near
neighbour thereto), some say a place affected; others take it from the
Cornish word Leskeveres, like length, like breadth, a square, so it
anciently was, and so fortified, as the castle walls yet in part
remaining show. Some would not have us go so far back, but would have
us take it from a physician so named, and a miracle supposed to be
wrought by him there, and this may be right also; but then we must
suppose that to be St. Luke the physician, and some ground there is
for that also, for the most antient street thereof is to this day
called St. Luke’s street. Luke’s Day also is their day of feasting,
and for choice of their Governor. This agrees well enough with the
former as the fortification of it; and towards the sea again we come
to Lestwithiel. Some hold that to be lion’s tail or lion’s train;
others take it to be ‘enough together.’ The place, though now grown
much in decay, hath formerly been held the only shire town, and where
the Knights of the Shire have been still chosen, and the Convocation
of the Stanneries held, &c. A great hall was lately there, which was
used for those purposes in my knowledge, belonging to the Dukes of
Cornwall, who did the like when under them; and here also they kept
their court and residence, near to which stands yet their castle
Restormell, in Cornish a bellyfull of money, a place of honey; besides
which the Dukes had seven others, Liskeard, Tintagell, Lanceston, and
Trematon, which is in Cornish three hills on a green top, though that
came to the Crown by attainder. As for the river Vz or Vzell, which
some speak of, I suppose is a mistake; the river there is the river of
Fowey, in Cornish Foath, which hath its head spring in the moors above
it, Venton Foath, in English called Foycombwell and Aqua de Fowey. As
it comes further down near Foath, is a town or place called
Tywardreth, in Cornish, a town on the sand, or above the sand, which
agrees well with its situation, where heretofore there stood a priory,
the buildings whereof are now decayed. I may not forget as next to
Foath the town of Polruan, which is now a small village of fishing,
but heretofore famous, standing on the top of an ancient hill, where
are the ruins of a spacious fair church, called yet by the name of St.
Saviour’s, Polruan is in Cornish, a frosty bottom, or frosty pool,
this being seated over against Foath; between those two towns
heretofore there went athwart the river a chain of iron from a small
castle on each side, for their security against foreigners by sea, but
by their neglect of preserving it in time of peace, was stolen away
from them by some boats that came from Dartmouth in Devon, and carried
there, where the river is of equal breadth, and the harbour is much
like that of Fowey, and hath over against the town of Dartmouth a
little town called King’s Way, which answers to Polruan against Fowey.
The Fowey men have attempted the restitution of their chain, but never
could obtain it, because they had been so careless, it being the means
of their own preservation formerly. Between these two neighbouring
towns of Fowey and Polruan, standing one against the other, in the
harbour between them, there used to be antiently a solemn contention
of justing performed upon the river every May-day, upon two boats
singled out of equal strength, from the one side and from the other,
to encounter each other upon the water, there being a stage made on
each of them, upon the end of the boat, for the several champions to
stand on. Several boats were to row with six oars a-piece, rowing
fiercely against one another. The champions were arrayed only in
white, slightly but better armed about the breast and neck, and
holding a lance rebated in the form of an oar (according to their
trade); but a fierce attempt they make upon each other, and one or
both of them is usually carried by the push to sound the depth of the
harbour, and then a new supply of others for fresh encounter is called
for again.
This I have seen to be performed in my time, and it usually drew
abundance of people together to behold the sport from the hills on
both sides, and from the town, with many others, with boats likewise
upon the river, and not without need, to receive up and recover their
dejected champions, who end their encounters in peace, not without
liquor, the element of their contention.
Mevagissy, or Mevagissey, a hill to keep mares in.
Penwarn, a head beloved.
Bodrigan, a hill by the ebbing of the sea.
Dudman or Gubman, a place where much ore is cast in.
This spot of land called Bodrigan, a spacious fair barton looking
towards the sea, was not very long since possessed by gentry of the
same name, whose estate was great; and being forfeited to King Henry
the Seventh, part thereof was given to Trevanion, a noble family of
this county; but this Bodrigan, with many other lands, to Edgcombe,
that Sir Richard Edgcombe, of whom let me deliver my judgment, that he
was a witty, valiant, wise, good man, and a good commonwealth’s man.
Witty, as appears by his hiding himself and throwing his cap and coat
away for his preservation, O quantum est subditis casibus ingenium.
Valiant, in that he was made a Knight Banneret at Bosworth field.
Wise, in that he was made choice of for one of the Commissioners for
the happy treaty of marriage of Margaret, the King’s eldest daughter,
with James the Fourth, King of Scots, a happiness to the kingdom at
this day. A good man, and not a pilferer of the people (as many were
in those days); otherwise he would be named in Perkin Warbeck’s
Declaration, set down by Chancellor Bacon. A good commonwealth’s man,
as appears by that stately and costly fabric of Newbridge built by
him.
Peale, a spire, lies to the north of Tolpenwith a mile, and it is the
true Land’s-end. This spire, called the Pele, stood on a little
island; between it and the shore there is room for a boat to pass with
oars; the spire was ten fathom or more above the ordinary flux of the
sea, very narrow on the top, hardly room for a man to sit on it; in
the floor it was and is fourteen feet square. In the year before King
Charles the First was beheaded, it was prodigiously cut off in the
floor by a storm, and falling broke in three pieces.
Herles, truly interpreted Hercules’ Pillars, are a ridge of rocks a
quarter of a mile in length, standing like pillars divided into small
islands, and distant from the Pele a mile. From these by the north
coast we come to St. Ives, in Cornish Port Eer of Geer, a port with a
pool. Paddestow, so called by Saxon Angles, being Patherickstow.
Another place near by, called Little Petherick, which partakes not of
the Cornish at all; for in the Cornish it is Lethanneck, a place of
much sea-sand, which agrees well with the site, much sea and much sand
there is driven. A little above which is the house of Edmund Prideaux,
esq. my kinsman, now called Place, formerly Guarandre, or Warthantre,
i. e. above the town or above the sand; but that we may do right to
latter times also, we find much mention to be made also of
Patrickstow, and that St. Patrick, after much time spent in Ireland,
and endowments of learning by long study were obtained, he came into
Cornwall, and built a monastery there not far from the river of
Severn, which comes home to that which is said by Archbishop Usher, as
also to the name of the place. Locus ubi Petrocus consedit in
Cornubia, Petrocstow, hodie Padstow nominatur, prius Laffeneck. Antiq.
p. 292; and after thirty years went to Rome, &c. By other authors it
is said, that at Bodmyn his body was buried but stolen from thence,
and carried by one Martinus to the abbey of Menevy or Mein, in Little
Britany; but upon complaint to the king it was restored, and brought
back undiminished to the Prior of Bodmyn. b. §. p. 293. But whether
this were to be understood of St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, it
is altogether to be doubted, since as to the burial of his body there
hath been so much contention that that should be at Glastonbury; but
another Patrick there was, perhaps a third, and one of note too,
stiled Sænor Sæenex Patricius, as appears by the learned primate. He
is said to be at the same time, and that he was Domesticus Sancti
Patricii. Another there was also at some hundred years distance. With
one of these it may better accord than with the great Patricius, who
it may be said, had his name Dignitatis causa, as was usual with the
Romans and Athenians, his parental name being Moun or Muun.
The town of Stratton, in Cornish Straneton, a green dispersed with
houses. Near this town is the place where the Cornish forces, on
behalf of King Charles the Second, obtained the glorious victory over
the rebellious army, anno 1643. In memory of which battle Sir Ralph
Hopton was created Baron of Stratton, who afterwards dying without
issue, the same title was conferred upon Sir John Berkley, both which
lords were commanders in the Cornish army at that time.
There is a pretty vulgar fiction that Tamar, Tamara, being a
subterraneous nymph, was courted and sought after by Tavy and Tawrage,
who found her sitting under a bush at Morewinstow, the furthest part
of Cornwall in the north. They being weary in searching after her, sat
down by her and slept; she perceiving them to be fallen asleep, steals
away from them suddenly and goes directly to the south. Tavy being
first awakened, goes away silently after her, not acquainting his
co-rival therewith. Tawrage that awakened last, finding them both
gone, in haste rusheth out, and angrily runs away towards the north,
foaming and fretting all along as he goes, till he loses himself in
the Sabrina; whilst Tavy, on the Devon side, sends out some of his
small streams to visit and court her, and to observe which way the
nymph went, but she having got the start of him, leaves not of her
speed till she comes into the Sound.