ST. IVES
Some years since, when the average man spoke of Cornwall he was
thinking of St. Ives--and perhaps of Tintagel. These were the two
places whose names had taken the public imagination, the one being
typical of the Duchy's romance, the other of her everyday life. But in
those days love of the picturesque had not quite overcome a dislike of
fishy and other smells. Walter White frankly told his readers not to
disenchant themselves by going into St. Ives; he recommended admiring
it from a distance. The town's name was familiar in popular songs, and
it was known as a prosperous fishing-port. Then the artists arrived,
and--perhaps more important still--a much improved railway service. At
the present day the reputation of St. Ives is assured, yet it is
certainly less popular as a holiday resort than some other places in
Cornwall; those who come here usually prefer the suburban district of
Carbis Bay. Newquay has attained an easy supremacy in popularity; Bude
is following in its wake; while South Cornwall has Looe and Fowey, the
Lizard, Penzance, with numerous small coast-side hamlets for the
delight of quieter guests. But St. Ives maintains its position as a
typically Cornish town; its past is thoroughly interesting, and its
records ample; it is a striking and in some respects fascinating link
between the bygone and the present. Old St. Ives seems to derive
entirely from the little headland known as The Island. It was just one
of those places that the ancients loved to fortify, almost insular and
easily defensible. The dry-stone defence known as the Two Edges was
probably constructed by men of the Stone Age; it is certainly
pre-Celtic. Other strongholds of the same date may be found at
Gurnard's Head, at Trencrom, and at Bosigran, to name only a few. The
Island may have been really insular when first fortified. There are
remains of an old chapel of St. Nicholas on the point of the headland,
and it is difficult to say whether this must be associated with the
name of St. Ia; there is also an oratory of St. Leonard, known as "the
Chapel," close to the stone pier. We may fairly conclude that both
these are later than the cell of St. Ia, which was on the site of the
present parish church. This saintly woman must on no account be
connected with the dedications of the Cornish St. Ive (pronounced Eve)
near Liskeard, or the St. Ives of Huntingdonshire. She appears to have
reached Cornwall late in the fifth century, coming in the company of
the Irish prince, Fingar, who renounced his kingdom in order to preach
Christianity. Fingar is claimed as a convert of St. Patrick. St. Ia is
said to have floated to the Island, anciently named Pendinas, on a
miraculous leaf, by which is clearly meant a coracle of the kind still
to be seen in parts of Wales. Her comrades went on to evangelise other
parts of Cornwall, but she remained here, living in a beehive-hut of
the style called "Picts' houses," and doing her best to soften the
faith and manners of the rude inhabitants. It is said that she was
martyred by a local king or chieftain, Tewdrig, or Theodoric. She
resided here long enough to impress her name permanently on the
locality, whose earliest Latin name that we can trace was _Parochia
Sancte Ye_, while the Cornish name was Porthia. The existing church
stands on the site of an oratory which was either her own foundation
or was erected soon after her death by loving disciples. Till 1409 St.
Ives, being only a small fishing hamlet, belonged ecclesiastically to
Lelant; but at that date the people petitioned the Pope, through their
lord of the manor, Champernowne, that they might have a separate
church: "As it had pleased the Almighty God to increase the town
inhabitants and to send down temporal blessings most plentifully among
them, the people, to show their thankfulness for the same, did resolve
to build a chapel in St. Ives, they having no house in the town
wherein public prayers and Divine service was read, but were forced
every Sunday and holy day to go to Lelant church, being three miles
distant from St. Ives, to hear the same, and likewise to carry their
children to Lelant to be baptized, their dead to be there buried, to
go there to be married, and their women to be churched." In response
to this appeal the Pope directed the Bishop of Exeter that the chapels
both of St. Ives and Towednack should be made parochial, "with font
and cemetery, but dependent on Lelant." The people set to work at
once, bringing the necessary granite from Zennor by boat, roads being
then quite unfit for transit of heavy burdens. Completed in 1426, the
church consists of chancel, nave, and two aisles, with a tower 119
feet in height. The roofs are of decorated wagon-form, with figures of
angels at the springings of the braces. The Trenwith aisle was added a
little later. In the original church was an organ, very fine for those
days; it was destroyed in 1648 by the Puritans. There are some very
good bench-end carvings, not all in their original position, and there
is a Trenwith brass with the figure of St. Michael ludicrously
restored. Many other objects of interest may be noted, both within and
without the church, including a fifteenth-century cross in the
churchyard, thrown down by the Puritans and re-erected.
[Illustration: ST. IVES.
_Photo by Gibson & Sons._]
Historically, St. Ives has played no great part, but what may be
called its domestic annals are singularly varied and full. The chief
events that can be called historical are a landing of the French at
Porthminster during the reign of Henry VI., and the anchoring of
Perkin Warbeck in St. Ives Bay, in 1497, when he was proclaimed as
Richard IV. St. Ives was also concerned in the Western Rebellion of
1549, when the Cornishmen rose on behalf of their ancient religion.
There was a question of language also, as well as of faith, as we may
see from the articles of complaint:--
"We will not receyue the new Servyce, because it is but lyke a
Christmasse game, but we wyll have our olde Servyce of Mattens,
masse, evensong and procession in Latten as it was before. And
so we the Cornyshe men, whereof certen of us understa'de no
Englysh, utterly refuse this newe Englysh.... We wyll have holy
bread and holy water made every Sundaye; Palmes and ashes at
the times accustomed; Images to be set up again in every
church, and all other aunceint olde Ceremonyes used heretofore
by our Mother the Holy Church. Item we wyll have everye
preacher in his sermon and every Pryest at his masse, praye
specially by name for the soules in purgatory as owre
forefathers dyd."
This rising, which began in Devonshire, rapidly spread throughout
Cornwall; it was, indeed, the fiercest and most serious of all the
risings against an enforced Reformation. It ended in disaster; many
Cornishmen were killed either in the field or by hanging afterwards;
among whom was John Payne, mayor or portreeve of St. Ives. Of the
religious aspect of the quarrel nothing need be said; but it is
certain that the compulsory introduction of the English Bible and
Prayer Book proved the death-blow of the Cornish language. It did not
die at once, but it speedily began to languish, and two centuries
later was practically extinct. During the Civil War St. Ives sided
with the Parliament, and its church, therefore, does not contain the
letter of thanks from King Charles that is so commonly seen in Cornish
churches. The little town was always strong in local patriotism, and
sturdily nursed its own interests as a fishing port; yet a study of
its Borough Accounts proves that it could be generous at times, and
these accounts are such delightful reading that a few extracts must be
quoted. They begin with the year 1573; the quaintness of diction and
the "indifferent spelling" add piquancy and remoteness to some of the
entries.
Many of these have to do with expenses towards the keep of foundlings,
burying of the dead by the parish, and other charities; thus, a very
few years from the commencement, we have:--
"Pd. Eliz: Rodger to keepe a base childe founde by the p'rishe
and for half of a pecke of blye, XVIIId.
"Pd. Alce caraway who releeveth certaine children of the
parishe, VId.
"Pd. a poore man of Morestowe whose house was burnte and his
wiefe distracted of her witts, XIId."
The charitable doings of these good St. Ives folk were evidently very
numerous and very varied; but these entries are not all of almsgiving.
Thus, in the same year as above, we have the following:--
"Easter Quarter. Impmis pd. for two dele boordes to make a newe
seate to the vicar, IIId."
Also:--
"Item paid to the younge felow which is our clarke, IIs."
Many of the entries have to do with licensed beggars, or shipwrecked
seamen, or the raising moneys for the deliverance of foreign captives;
but the variety is endless and delightful. Thus, after reading of a
shilling bestowed upon "a man of Irelande that had his barke stollen
by pirats," we have the record of a similar sum paid "ffor a paire of
breches ffor John the lasar." This John seems to have cost the parish
sundry amounts for his breeches and jerkins; but in 1596 it would
appear that St. Ives was quit of him, if it is he to whom the
following refers:--
"Pd. to a cople of women that shrowded ye lazar John Nyclis:
and ther breake faste yt tyme, VIs."
Immediately after this eightpence is given "to a pore lame sowldior
hurted in the quenes servyce in yrland having a lisens." The town
could make merry at times, as we find when sixpence was paid "for a
pynte of Secke when our burgesse Mr. Harrys was chosen"--which is very
moderate compared with Falstaff's payments for the same liquor. In
1626 we read that special harbour-dues were levied to pay for the
repair of the "peere or Kay of St. Ives"; in which dues there were
special charges for English vessels and somewhat higher for "Alients."
The writer is of divided mind as to the spelling of pier, for he
passes from "peere" to "peor." It is interesting to note that "All
alients for roulinge on the sande te paye pr tonn IId."; which does
not refer to any merry sport of rolling on the sands, as sometimes
practised by exhilarated visitors, but to rolling of fish. It was
doubtless a useful provision that "noe garbadge of ffishe or stinkinge
ffishe should be cast above full sea marke att neape tide on the
sande." What with the queer wordings and the defective punctuation, it
is sometimes difficult to fathom the exact purport of entries. Thus,
about the year 1629, we have mention of two shillings given "to a
poore distressed scholler that came to our towne from Germanie the
27th of ffebruarie to seeke passadge home from Ireland." Query, where
was the poor "scholler" going? In 1640 the famous silver wishing-cup
was presented to the town by Sir Francis Basset, being about a foot in
height; it was really drunk from in old corporation festivities, but
the wine was latterly dipped from it in a ladle. It is inscribed as
follows:--
"If any discord 'twixt my friends arise
Within the Borough of beloved Saint Ies,
It is desyred that this my cup of love
To every one a peacemaker may prove;
Then am I blest, to have given a legacie
So like my heart unto posteritie."
A little later we read of sixpence paid "to one that did whipp the
mayde that would drowne herself"; from which it is clear that the
town did not encourage suicide. Just below is, "Item, more to six
distressed Bristoll men their vessell being taken att Sea, 4s. 6d."
There are many such entries, of which St. Ives may well be proud.
But these accounts also bear record of less peaceful proceedings.
Under the year 1681, after an entry of four shillings received from
"ffower offendors for their breach of the Saboth," we have a
chronicling of disturbance caused by St. Just men, and a fine on them
"for their riotous assembling into the Borough." A little later is the
item: "Pd constables to putt St. Just men to Lanceston, L6 9s. 6d.";
also 5s. "paid Mr. Robinson to dress their wounds." It is pleasant to
think that the St. Ives folk were such good Christians. In 1685 the
borough paid some attention to the condition of its drum: "Pd Henry
Anthony for new making the Towne drum 2s. 6d." Later, there is a
payment to Henry Barber for beating the same. Immediately after there
is much to-do about some sugar stolen by a man named Teage; sugar was
a costly luxury in those days. One of the items is this: "Spent by Mr.
Trentwith, Mr. Robinson, my self & Mr. May, at St. Earth, Gwynear,
Camborne and other places to discover the Sugar stollen by Teage being
out two dayes, L1 3s. 6d." It is amusing to notice how the writer's
modesty held good until he had recorded the names of Trentwith and
Robinson, after which it rebelled and insisted on taking precedence of
Mr. May. This Teage business caused a deal of trouble, and many
witnesses were carried to Launceston as evidence against him, at great
expense; yet the borough did not scruple, shortly afterwards, to
expend a shilling "for poynts to whip the boyes veiweinge the parish
bounds," and another shilling for the drummer on that occasion. In
1681 there was trouble with the vicar who served the three parishes of
St. Ives, Towednack, and Lelant, about the payment of tithes; the
vicar seems to have been non-resident, and often attended to his
pastoral duties at inconvenient times. In 1690 King William's victory
at the Boyne cost the borough a pound in merry-making, to which we may
add the following entry of 5s. 6d. "for a Tar Barrell and Syder." In
the same year an itinerant beggar seems to have won alms from the
authorities under a false ticket:--
"Given ffrancis Browne by consent who brought a Let pas by that
name, but afterwards his name apeared to bee ffrancis Jackson
1s. 0d.
"Pd. the Cryer to whip him and for thongs 1s. 1d."
Under the year 1693 we are reminded of perils, now happily impossible,
that then lurked around these shores. There is an entry of
half-a-crown paid to William Thomas "for his labour to goe to
ffalmouth to give an account that two ffrench privateers lay in our
bay"; and a little later another half-crown was given "to ffower poore
boyes that were taken by a ffrench privateer." The beginning of 1698
seems to have been especially devoted to charities; we have record of
sums given to two distressed men and their children whose houses were
burnt; to two poor Irishmen cast away at Zennor; to a poor traveller
and his wife, a seaman who had lost his hand, a captain who had lost
all his goods by wreck, and a poor disbanded soldier. Also, four
shillings given to two "poore soldiers which came from Silly." It has
generally been understood that Scillonians object to their name being
spelt in this manner; yet we have a later entry of expense "examining
the Silly Soldiers." One is tempted to quote much further from these
alluring records, and they certainly assist us considerably in
understanding the old-time ways of living, as we ramble about the
tortuous byways, nooks and corners of St. Ives. In the letter the
accounts are strictly local; in the spirit they may be taken as
typical of almost any West Country town of that date, and they have
the frequent touch of humanity that relieves bare figures from
monotony.
In connection with the flourishing condition of Methodism at St. Ives,
it is important to remember that John Wesley paid the town as many as
twenty-seven visits, beginning in 1743 and ending in 1789. There was
already a society of his followers here when he began his visits, but
they were very unpopular with the majority of the townsfolk, who
accused them of sympathy with the Pope and the Jacobites. Wesley's own
reception was very mixed; he received some countenance and a good deal
of mob violence. Not only the vicar and curate of St. Ives were
against him, but he had a still more formidable opponent in Dr.
Borlase, the antiquarian vicar of Ludgvan. When a parishioner tried to
persuade Borlase that Wesley's preaching was doing good, he exclaimed,
"Get along; you are a parcel of mad, crazy-headed fellows." Yet two
years after his first visit Wesley was able to describe St. Ives as
"the most still and honourable post (so are the times changed) which
we have in Cornwall." But when he paid his fifth visit, in 1750, it is
clear that opposition had not died out. He tells us that: "Having
first sent to the mayor to inquire if it would be offensive to him, I
preached in the evening not far from the market-place. There was a
vast concourse of people, very few of the adult inhabitants of the
town being wanting. I had gone through two-thirds of my discourse, to
which the whole audience was deeply attentive, when Mr. S. sent his
man to ride his horse to and fro through the midst of the
congregation. Some of the chief men in the town bade me go on, and
said no man should hinder me, but I judged it better to retire to the
room." We may be sure it was no personal shrinking, but a regard for
the public peace, that caused the preacher's decision. Twenty years
later he wrote: "Here God has made all our enemies to be at peace with
us, so that I might have preached in any part of the town. But I
rather chose a meadow, where such as would might sit down, either on
the grass or on the hedges--so the Cornish term their broad stone
walls, which are usually covered with grass." Of his last visit he
says that "well-nigh all the town attended, and with all possible
seriousness. Surely forty years' labour has not been in vain here."
The numberless meeting-houses and Bethels throughout Cornwall bear at
least one form of testimony to the enduring fruits of that "forty
years' labour."
There are other things besides Methodists at St. Ives; there are
painters and pilchards. The colony of artists here is almost as famous
as that of Newlyn, and there are at least sixty different studios.
Pictures from St. Ives have won world-wide fame; in fact,
artistically, Cornwall would have long since become stale were it not
for its inexhaustible charm. The painters bring something of a Latin
Quarter element with them, and are by no means limited to British in
nationality. Mr. Stanhope Forbes says: "I remember finding in a house
at St. Ives where I was calling, four painters of four different
nationalities. In that town Zorn, the well-known Swedish artist,
painted his first oil picture, which now hangs in the Luxembourg, and
for it his palette was set by an equally celebrated American painter
who at that time resided there."
The studios are specially thronged during the winter months, as the
climate allows much open-air work; in the summer many of the painters
fly to other hunting-fields, leaving Cornwall to the tourist. The
Cornish have grown accustomed to the painters by this time, and cease
to regard them with wondering curiosity; they are recognised as having
distinct local uses. Many of the pictures now displayed in exhibitions
bespeak a close intimacy between the painters and the fishermen. But
the pilchards are of still more importance to the little huddled town
where the fishers live; and these usually begin to arrive about
August, when the huers have already taken up their position on the
high places around, in order to signal the first sighting of the
shoals. The huers are on watch from August till late October, and it
is the method of taking by seine that renders their signalling of
great importance. The exact position of the fish must be ascertained
before the seine-nets are dropped to enclose them. The takes are
sometimes enormous, but seasons greatly vary, as the fish are governed
by laws of feeding whose operation we cannot easily trace. The average
annual taking of pilchards in Cornwall is estimated at 20,000
hogsheads. Gulls in countless numbers hover above the fishing-boats,
and swoop down for their share in the spoil; sometimes, however,
scared away by the more powerful gannets, with whom they dare not
dispute. At times the gulls are a distinct nuisance and something more
to the fisherman; they will snatch fish from his very boat, and the
constant loss must be very considerable; yet there is a superstitious
idea that the gull is the fisherman's friend--an idea in which we
might rejoice more if it led the men to be equally humane towards
other living creatures. The same mercy is by no means shown to the
gannet. But a more serious enemy of the men is the dogfish, who tear
their nets; and the fishers are taking their revenge by trying to
popularise this fish as an article of food, under the name of the
"flake." Besides the prevalent fishing with seines, there is much
drift-fishing from St. Ives, taking place at night; the boats being
dotted about within and outside the bay, with their headlights showing
like twinkling stars. The St. Ives men are not dependent on pilchards
only, happily for them; in winter their seines take many mullet, which
are mostly sent to Paris. The shore-seine used for these is
comparatively small; it is coiled and passed round the school, and the
two ends then drawn ashore. Here, as elsewhere, the men are usually
parcelled into companies--a kind of limited share-company; they take
turns in shooting the nets, and profits are shared. The control of
affairs by husband and wife is a different sort of share-company; the
wife is supreme mistress at home, but the man becomes "boss" as soon
as he gets his sea-boots on. Many mackerel are often brought to St.
Ives, and the men go still further afield after herring; but somehow
the catch of the pilchard seems the most distinctively local feature,
and the fish, once common much further east, is still an important
actuality to all the Land's End fishing ports. The typical Cornishman
has always been a fisher or a tin-miner; and both still flourish.
Picturesque and artistic St. Ives clusters narrowly about the harbour
and on the neck of the Island; the more modern residences and
lodging-houses stretch above Porthminster Beach, with a popular
development at Carbis Bay. More inland suburbs are chiefly devoted to
the mining that has suffered so many vicissitudes--flourishing, then
decadent, and now flourishing again. One such centre is Halsetown, a
mining settlement founded something less than a century ago by James
Halse, of the old Cornwall Hals family; he was a solicitor and a mayor
of St. Ives, intimately connected with the mines. But in this rather
unattractive quarter we are less likely to think of Halse than we are
of Sir Henry Irving, who spent his childhood here. The reputation of a
great actor becomes very much a phantom affair after a few years; but
as we still associate the name of Garrick with a brilliant period of
the Georgian age, so the name of Irving must always be linked with the
later brilliant period of the Victorian. To the younger generation of
theatre-goers he is fast becoming like a half-mythical demigod--one of
those whom the elder folk mention with regretful shakings of the head
when newer favourites are lauded. The actor was not born in Cornwall,
but in Somerset; his mother, however, was a Cornish woman named
Behenna, and one of his aunts was Mrs. Penberthy, wife of Captain
Isaac Penberthy, whose captaincy of course referred to his position as
overseer of mines here at Halsetown. Hither Irving was brought in his
fourth year, and his memories of Cornwall remained vivid to his dying
day. "I recall Halsetown," he said, "as a village nestling between
sloping hills, bare and desolate, disfigured by great heaps of slack
from the mines, and with the Knill monument standing prominent as a
landmark to the east. It was a wild and weird place, fascinating in
its own peculiar beauty, and taking a more definite shape in my
youthful imagination by reason of the fancies and legends of the
people. The stories attaching to rock and well and hill were unending;
every man and woman had folk-lore to tell us youngsters. We took to
them naturally--they seem to fit in wisely with the solitudes, the
expanses, the superstitious character of the Cornish people, and never
clashed in our minds with the Scriptural teachings which were our
daily portion at home. These legends and fairy stories have remained
with me but vaguely--I was too young--but I remember the 'guise
dancing,' when the villagers went about in masks, entering houses and
frightening the children. We imitated this once, in breaking in on old
Granny Dixon's sleep, fashioned out in horns and tails, and trying to
frighten her into repentance for telling us stories of hell-fire and
brimstone. The attempt was not too successful." Mrs. Penberthy was a
Methodist and a teetotaler, of deeply religious instincts; yet the
boy's life with his cousins was evidently free and uncramped. The
uncle was strong, somewhat passionate, but lovable. If there was some
sternness in the home atmosphere, there was also plenty of affection,
and that is the most vital point. "Halsetown gave me a good physical
start in life, at any rate," said the actor. "I attribute much of my
endurance of fatigue, which is a necessary part of an actor's life,
to the free and open and healthy years I lived at Halsetown, and to
the simple food and regular routine ordered by my aunt. We rambled
much over the desolate hills, or down to the rocks at the seashore.
There was plenty of natural beauty to look for, and I suppose we
looked for it. I know the sea had a potent attraction for me. I was a
wiry youth, as I believe, when the time came for me to join a London
school."
The Knill monument mentioned by Irving claims a little more attention.
John Knill, born at Callington in 1733, after being articled to a
Penzance solicitor, became collector of Customs at St. Ives, and in
1767 was chosen mayor. A few years later Government sent him to
Jamaica to inspect the ports; he was private secretary to the Earl of
Buckinghamshire, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; and in late life he
became a practising solicitor at Gray's Inn, as well as magistrate for
the county of Middlesex. He died in London, 1811. Long before this
date he had erected his own mausoleum on Worvas Hill, near St. Ives,
and to this his remains were brought. Among many legacies, his will
directed that certain ceremonies should be observed once every five
years, on the festival of St. James the Apostle; L10 to be spent "in a
dinner for the mayor, collector of Customs, and clergyman, and two
friends to be invited by each of them, making a party of nine persons,
to dine at some tavern in the borough; L5 to be equally divided
amongst ten girls, natives of the borough and daughters of seamen,
fishermen or tinners, each of them not exceeding ten years of age, who
shall, between ten and twelve o'clock of the forenoon of that day,
dance for a quarter of an hour at least, on the ground adjoining the
mausoleum, and after the dance sing the 100th Psalm of the old
version, to the fine old tune to which the same was then sung in St.
Ives Church; L1 to a fiddler who shall play to the girls while dancing
and singing at the mausoleum, and also before them on their return
home therefrom; L2 to two widows of seamen, fishermen or tinners of
the borough, being sixty-four years old or upwards, who shall attend
the dancing and singing of the girls, and walk before them immediately
after the fiddler, and certify to the mayor, collector of Customs, and
clergyman, that the ceremonies have been duly performed; L1 to be laid
out in white ribbons for breast-knots for the girls and widows, and a
cockade for the fiddler, to be worn by them respectively on that day
and on the Sunday following." These observances have been duly
performed, the last date being 1906, when many visitors attended to
witness the proceedings.
A little eastward of Carbis Bay is Lelant, the mother-parish of St.
Ives. Its full title is St. Uny Lelant, and the dedication is to the
Irish Eoghain or Euinus, whom we find in Brittany as Uniac. There are
other traces of him in Cornwall, as at Redruth and Sancreed; and it is
probable that he arrived in Cornwall about the same time as St. Ia,
but the fullest traditions of him relate to his Irish life. The word
"Lelant" is explained as _Lan-nans_, the "valley-church"; in old books
we still find the parish named as Lanant. The stronghold of Tewdrig,
who murdered St. Ia and other saints, is supposed to have been on the
coast here, its traces concealed by the sweeping sands that very
nearly made an end of the village entirely, as they really did
destroy its one-time harbour. A number of skeletons of prehistoric
date were discovered when cutting for the railway to St. Ives, proving
the early occupation of these coasts. Norden, writing more than three
centuries since, says that Lelant was "sometyme a haven towne, but now
of late decayed by reason of the sande which has choaked the harbour
and buried much of the landes and houses; many devises they use to
prevent the absorption of the churche." But the cultivation of the
sand-rush, _arundo arenaria_, has done what the other "devises" failed
to do; and the rushy towans have now provided an ideal golf-course,
which prospers though the little town is somnolent. It is here that
St. Ives visitors do most of their golfing, and the ground is
described as "a natural seaside course, with charming views in all
directions. The holes are rather short and tricky, and put a premium
on local knowledge. Last, but not least, Lelant can boast a climate
absolutely ideal for golf in winter." Lelant Church is interesting,
but has lost its fine old bench-ends and screen. It is connected with
the memory of a former vicar, Parson Polkinghorne, who was a renowned
ghost-layer, a redoubtable fox-hunter, and a skilled hurler. His
exorcising formula is said to have commenced with the words "in Nommy
Dommy," and we are told it was in Latin throughout--as we may believe
from this specimen. But the days of the exorcist are over now--there
are no ghosts to lay, or only such as will not be laid.
There is a ferry at Lelant, taking the traveller across the Hayle
creek to sandy Phillack, one of the mother-parishes of Hayle. This is
the narrowest section of the Cornish peninsula, and from Hayle River
to Mount's Bay is only about four miles across; a good road makes the
journey from sea to sea. It is just a neck of land dividing north from
south, and persons susceptible to climatic change say that the
difference can be noticed when they get half-way across. Hayle, a
little waterside town of less than two thousand inhabitants, is not
particularly attractive. There is a charm in the endless sand-blown
dunes that stretch on both sides of the estuary, but dismal weather
can make them desolate, and wild weather converts them into a howling
waste; while Hayle itself, with some small shipping and industry, is a
place that the lover of beauty does not often care for. But it is not
altogether to be despised, and it is conveniently situated on the main
Great Western line. This Hayle district was once the great
landing-place of saints from Ireland, who came here rather numerously
about fifteen centuries since; those who came from Wales usually
landed near Padstow or came to Cornwall by way of Devon. One such
Irish saint was Gwythian, who built his oratory a few miles north of
Hayle, and the remains of this rugged little church have lately been
rescued from the sands, with a special service of commemoration held
over it. The Irish saints brought their style of building with them,
and such relics as those of St. Piran and St. Gwythian are exactly
similar in style to the oldest memorials of the same nature in
Ireland. The masonry was of the simplest--a mere laying of rough
stones together without mortar. Some have supposed this oratory of St.
Gwythian to be the earliest religious building surviving in Britain,
but it is very difficult to say anything definite. If the little
church really survived as the saint left it its claim would be a good
one, but, like St. Piran's, it is more likely to be a century or two
later. Visitors must not expect to learn much about the saints or
about the monuments from the countryfolk, either here or anywhere else
in Cornwall. With luck they may get a few quaint notions and
superstitions out of the older people; but the younger folk are
educated in a different manner now--universal school systems tend to
uniformity and usually to a deadening of the imagination. For the
legends and traditions of the country-side it is necessary to go to
the guide-books, which are themselves often misleading. If a traveller
were to go through Cornwall compiling a book that should contain
solely what he saw and heard, it would be something quite different
from the ordinary handbook, and those who only know the Duchy by
reading about it would be chiefly struck by its omissions. The people,
here as elsewhere, no longer care much for the traditions of their
forefathers; and the delightful literary works that belong to
topography are the result and the supply of a culture in which the
ordinary men and women of the localities have small share. The visitor
should carry the best literary guide he can procure with him,
otherwise he is likely to learn little of the country's lore and its
antiquities--unless now and then he applies to a clergyman or perhaps
an intelligent schoolmaster. The days of oral tradition have passed
for ever. We need not complain when we remember that written
literature is a result of this decease.