The church of this parish is situated in the midst of sand, at the
very extreme point inclosed by the sea, and by the estuary of Hayle.
It is said to have been almost entirely covered towards the early part
of the last century by one of these immense drifts of shell-sand which
occasionally overwhelm this coast, originating, as is supposed, from
the Nympha Bank, lying about midway between the Land’s End and Cape
St. Clear. The Editor has in his possession the following receipt for
money contributed by his collateral ancestor towards clearing the
church, and accommodating it for the celebration of divine service;
which was then done, and the old church restored――not a new one
constructed, as some writers on Cornwall have erroneously stated.
August 11th, 1738.
Mr. Hugh Powley and Mr. John Pears received of Mr. Henry
Davies for bounty money towards Lelant church, twenty-six
pounds five shillings, as appears by the church book.
THOMAS KNIVETON.
Several great inundations of sand appear to have covered this coast at
distant and uncertain periods; but the comminuted shells are
perpetually increasing on the sea-shore, from whence they are drifted
over the adjacent lands: their progress has, however, been checked,
and in some places almost arrested, by the simple expedient of
planting the Arundo Arenaria of Linnæus, named by others,
Calamagrestis Arenaria. This rush grows readily in the sand, where it
mechanically opposes all motion on the surface, and ultimately favours
the production of a grassy turf.
Tradition asserts, that a town of some magnitude, having a market, and
the establishment of a custom-house, stood near the church, when Hayle
afforded deep water without the aid of artificial works, and before
St. Ives had risen into consequence. Foundations of houses have
undoubtedly been discovered here under the sand; and the tradition is
somewhat confirmed by a distinction paid to the principal village,
which is universally called Lelant Town, and not Church Town, as in
other parishes.
The town is divided into two separate portions, usually distinguished
as higher or lower, but the latter was formerly called Tredreath, the
town on the sand or beach. This parish has several other villages:
Brunion, Trecrobben, giving name to the most picturesque granite hill
in that whole district, Polpear, Trink, &c.
In the taxation of Pope Nicholas, Lelant, under the name of Lanvanta
or Laventa, is rated at 15_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ without any notice of St.
Ives or Towednack.
Lelant, as the mother church, is alone of the three parishes provided
with a glebe; but this land, although more extensive than what falls,
on an average, to neighbouring incumbents, is rendered of very little
value, and totally unfitted for a residence, by the encroachment of
sand. An ancient vicarage house is believed to have disappeared with
the town at the last great inundation, and the parish has remained
longer than the period of memory, without a resident clergyman; but in
this very year (1835) the Reverend Uriah Tonkin having been most
liberally accommodated with an elevated situation at some distance
from the sea, by Mr. Praed, is now constructing a house adequate to
every thing that can be wished.
The rectorial tithes are said by Mr. Lysons to have been given by
Robert de Cardinham, in the reign of Richard Cœur de Lion, to the
monastery of Tywardreath; but that afterwards they were appropriated
to the College of Crediton. Although this college has in part survived
the general devastation of King Henry the Eighth, yet the tithes of
Lelant were taken from it, and after passing through various hands,
they now belong to Mr. Praed.
Mr. Lysons also states, but without giving any authority, that St. Uny
(a brother of St. Herygh), patron of Lelant, Crowan, and Redruth, was
buried in this church.
If St. Uny and St. Herygh ever existed at all, they were probably two
of the missionaries from Ireland.
The parish feast is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to Candlemas day,
but supposed to be in commemoration of the Saint.
Trembetha is said to have been the seat of John Hals, one of the
judges in the reign of King Henry the Fifth, and to have been sold by
him to the Godolphins. In the time of Queen Elizabeth it belonged to
the Mahons. The barton and manor are now the joint property of Mr.
Praed and Mr. Champernowne, of Dartington, near Totnes, as to
two-thirds; and the remaining share is divided between Mr. Tremayne,
Mr. Rodd, and Mrs. Stephens, as coheirs of the family of Hearle.
Lelant was for centuries the residence of three old and respectable
families――Praed, Hoskin, and Pawley. The Hoskins still remain
possessed of their ancient freehold, and other property; and Mr. Henry
Hoskins, the present head of the family, resides in a house at the
northern extremity of Tredreath, or Lower Lelant Town, bearing all the
marks which distinguished the dwellings of private gentlemen in the
times of the Tudors or Plantagenets. The Pawleys are extinct, having
declined through a series of years; Goonwhyn, or Gunwin, (the White
Croft) where the family had long resided, together with some other
remnants of property, came to Miss Jane Pawley, sufficient, however,
to give her the reputation of an heiress: but misfortunes and
disgraceful conduct reduced her so very low, that the Editor
recollects her soliciting charity from those who once looked up to her
superior station; and this representative of an ancient family closed
her mortal career in a parish workhouse.
The Praeds are also extinct; but the name has, with singular felicity,
arrived at tenfold splendour in a new dynasty.
The original family became at last represented by two brothers: the
elder distinguished as Colonel Praed, married a Basset of Tehidy, but
died soon after, leaving all the personal property to his widow: the
younger brother succeeded to the real estate; but having been
unsuccessfully engaged in trade, and finding the farms mostly leased
on lives with the payment of small quit-rents, according to the custom
of those times, he became more and more embarrassed; till, meeting
with a gentleman of the family of Mackworth, in Glamorganshire, bred
to the higher department of the law, he arranged with this gentleman,
that on being freed from all pecuniary difficulties, and receiving a
certain annuity for life, the whole Cornish estate should be
transferred to Mr. Mackworth; on the further conditions of his taking
the name of Praed, and what seems almost ludicrous, of his engaging,
so far as the consent of one party could be sufficient, to marry Miss
Penrose, of Penrose, near Helston, the heiress-at-law to Mr. Praed’s
estate.
Mr. Praed died about the years 1716 or 1717, when Mr. Mackworth came
into possession, having performed every engagement to the utmost of
his power; for the Editor recollects having heard from his son, the
late Mr. Humphrey Mackworth Praed, that his father went to Penrose in
execution of the condition dependent on another; but that, so far from
obtaining success, he found some difficulty in escaping with his life.
The validity of the transfer was ultimately disputed on the part of
Miss Penrose; and Mr. Humphrey Mackworth Praed has told the Editor
that he was present at the trial in his nurse’s arms, when the
agreement was finally established. The lady married a gentleman of the
name of Pearse, and left an only daughter, who married Mr. Cumming;
and their great-grandson, Sir Alexander Cumming Gordon, of Elginshire,
is the present representative of the former family of Trevethow.
Mr. Mackworth Praed settled at Trevethow, where he was succeeded by
his eldest son, Mr. Humphrey Mackworth Praed, one of the most
distinguished men in his adopted country, for abilities, acquirements,
wit, knowledge of the world, kindness, and unbounded hospitality. He
once represented the county in Parliament, and on another occasion the
borough of St. Ives. He married a lady of the eminent family of
Forrester, in Shropshire, widow of Sir Bryant Broughton Delves, and
had six children: William, his eldest son and heir; Herbert, Rector of
Ludgvan, who died in early life; and four daughters,――Catherine, Mary,
Arabella, and Julia.
Mary married the Reverend William Sandys, Vicar of St. Minver, and
died without leaving any family. The other three never married.
Mr. William Praed married Miss Backwell, of Tyringham, in
Buckinghamshire, eventually sole heiress to her very opulent family.
He represented St. Ives in several Parliaments, and Banbury in one.
Endowed with a strong mind and with an active disposition, Mr. Praed
did not confine his public services to the discharge of duties in the
House of Commons. To him the nation is mainly indebted for one of the
most useful and most successful of our public works――The Grand
Junction Canal.
Three extensive chalk ridges issue from the great central nucleus
forming Salisbury Plain; the most southern terminates at Beachy-head,
constituting what is called the South Downs. The middle range, passing
through Hampshire, Surrey, and Kent, extends to Dover, inclosing
between them the wealds of Kent and Sussex, with the Hastings sand
formation, and the great alluvial deposits of Romney and Pevensey
Marshes. The northern range is still more extensive than the other
two: this, passing through Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, traverses
Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire; then, after being cut through by the
Wash, re-appears in Yorkshire, and finally terminates its long course
at Flamborough Head. These two latter ranges intercept all water
communication between the capital and the interior of England, except
by the Thames, which finds its way through the northern ridge of chalk
above Reading. Most river navigations beyond the reach of tides, are
impeded by shallows in summer, by floods in winter, by artificial
rights of mills, drainages, &c., all of which are avoided by the Grand
Junction Canal, which, availing itself of cross valleys, and
perforating narrow ridges, has opened an inland navigation from the
metropolis to the British Channel, to the Irish Sea, and to the German
Ocean.
Mr. William Praed closed his useful and honourable career of life at
Trevethow, in Oct. 1833, having completed his eighty-fourth year; and
is succeeded by his eldest son, Mr. James Praed, recently elected
member for Buckinghamshire, the county in which he principally
resides. Mr. Praed married Miss Chaplin, of Lincolnshire, and has
several children.
If this distinguished family should now unfortunately be lost to
Cornwall, it is curious to remark that, after remaining there much
above a century, no permanent connexion has been formed, and not a
single relative will be left behind.
Trevethow is by its natural situation one of the finest places in the
west of Cornwall. The house looks to the estuary of Hayle, over a park
variegated by rising ground and vales; and immediately behind the
house stands Trecrobben or Trencroben-hill, crowned by an ancient
fortress, corresponding with those described by Dr. Barham in the
third volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of
Cornwall; this hill is the last towards the killas formation of a
granite district, extending from the Land’s End, and covered with
rocks of a magnitude to create strong impressions of grandeur. The
house was so much enlarged and decorated by Mr. Humphrey Mackworth
Praed, as almost to claim him for its founder; and it is sheltered by
trees more numerous and of a larger size than can usually be found in
a country unfavourable to their growth.
But the great artificial ornament of this place is its extensive
plantations. Mr. Humphrey Mackworth Praed displayed on this
comparatively trifling subject, the same acumen which distinguished
him in matters of importance, throughout a long life. Having observed
a single pinaster fir, the Pinus Pinaster of Linnæus, growing in an
exposed situation, and braving the violence of our west wind, Mr.
Praed immediately conjectured that this tree might be rendered
available not merely for ornament, but as affording a shelter for
better trees; the experiment was immediately tried, and with complete
success.
The pinaster loses all its beauty when it gets beyond the dimensions
of a shrub: its wood in this climate is almost useless, and no tree
ceases to live after so short a period; but it grows rapidly at first
in all situations, and almost in any ground, so that mixed with
deciduous trees, and planted round the exterior, it acts as a nurse,
and the office is fully performed long before the termination of its
short existence.
By this use of the pinaster fir, Cornwall is now acquiring valuable
and decorative plantations of the best timber trees, for all which it
is indebted to the example given by Mr. Praed.
Lelant measures 3,279 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 3165 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 462 15 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1083 | 1180 | 1271 | 1602
giving an increase of 48 per cent. in 30 years.