It will be unnecesary to enter on any details respecting either St.
Martin’s parish or Looe, since every thing curious or interesting may
be found in a most excellent work: “Topographical and Historical
Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West Looe, in the County of
Cornwall, with an account of the Natural and Artificial Curiosities,
and Picturesque Scenery of the Neighbourhood. By Thomas Bond, Esq.
London, printed by and for J. Nichols and Son, 25, Parliament Street.”
Since Mr. Bond’s work was published, both Looes have lost the
privilege of sending Members to Parliament; and it is said that a
spirit of active exertion has already superseded the listless reliance
on patronage which used to characterize small borough towns.
A canal has also been constructed to Leskeard, since the time of Mr.
Bond’s publication, promising to diffuse cultivation and fertility
over districts previously inaccessible to manure; and now at its
commencement the canal transports coal, lime, and other bulky
commodities, to such an extent as to amply repay the sums expended on
its formation.
Another plan of a great work is in agitation, likely to render this
beautiful and romantic neighbourhood the resort of strangers from all
parts of the kingdom. Cornwall is stretched out into the sea by an
interrupted chain of granite hills, extending from Dartmoor to the
Land’s End. The valleys follow a general course on either side,
transverse to the granite chain; so that to avoid the perpetual
recurrence of steep declivities, the main road has been carried along
the middle line, above the formation of the valleys, or, as it is
termed, on the backbone of the ridge, over a most uncultivated and
dreary tract.
It is now proposed, in consequence of the safe conveyance at all times
by steam across the Tamar river from Plymouth, and in humble imitation
of the road connecting France and Italy by the maritime Alps, to
convey a new line of road along the face of the cliffs, over the
debouches of the vallies, and across the Looe and Fowey rivers on
lofty bridges, thus to avoid the hills, and to shorten the distance
nine miles between Tor Point and St. Austell; but the very large
expense may possibly defeat the execution of a plan, which, in
addition to the essential advantages already stated, would lead
travellers to Falmouth, or to any part of the west of Cornwall,
through a district as beautiful, as that which the road now traverses
is unsightly and uncouth.
The situation of East Looe is at once singular and pleasing. The two
rivers, uniting about half a mile above the bridge, expand into a
lake, loch, or low, evidently bestowing its name on the towns, and are
then contracted into comparatively a narrow channel by the near
approach of two steep hills. A beach has nevertheless been formed on
the eastern and least precipitous side, by the meeting of the sea with
the descending stream; and on this beach, secured by artificial
mounds, and on the slope of the hill, East Looe is built.
Perhaps the only other addition that I can make to Mr. Bond’s work is
to state that he himself has been the chief ornament of Looe for many
years past, and that his ancestors may be found among the mayors and
aldermen of the corporation, up to the period when the charter was
given to the town.
Mr. Hals has detailed at great length the history of St. Martin of
Tours, the undoubted patron of this parish.
It may be sufficient to state a few particulars of this far-famed
personage. He was born in Hungary, of parents elevated in life, and
commenced his early career in the Roman army, but afterwards became an
ecclesiastic, having obtained celebrity, influence, and power, by
adopting the most baneful of all practical heresies, founded on a
belief that the favour of the Almighty may be effectually obtained by
reversing the order established by his Divine Providence, and
bestowing on idleness, profligacy, and vice, the legitimate rewards of
industry, frugality, and care; in consequence, he became the favourite
of rogues, thieves, vagrants, and impostors, and has continued so in
Catholic countries to the present time. A part of his high reputation
has however been derived from a more pure source. He supported the
orthodox faith against the Arians, who at that period are supposed to
have more than numerically divided the Christian Church.
The most absurd and ridiculous legends are related of this Saint by
his disciple St. Sulpicius, and by other writers. In one of these it
is said that our Saviour himself appeared to him on a cold winter’s
night, under the disguise of a half naked wandering beggar; and that
Martin, then a soldier, not having any thing else to bestow, divided
his cloak with a sword, and gave one portion of it to the supposed
mendicant. In another, setting at defiance the precept “Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God,” he allowed himself to be fastened with cords,
immediately under the inclining trunk of a tree, as workmen were
dividing the roots; but just as the tree was about to fall on him, he
signed it with the sign of the cross, when instantly the trunk
ascended, and reached the ground in an opposite direction. Raising
people from the dead, and resisting personal temptations of the devil,
appear to have been frequent and ordinary occurrences. He died at
Tours, in the odour of sanctity, in the year 397, having held the
bishoprick 26 years. The festival in honour of St. Martin is kept on
the 11th of November, but parish feasts are not observed in the
eastern parts of Cornwall.
The advowson of this living, appurtenant to the manor of Pendrym, came
to the family of Paulet, through the same succession as that which
brought Ludgvan Lease, including the high lordship of St. Ives; and a
peculiar although well-known relationship having continued to exist
between the two properties, the learned Mr. Jonathan Toup was
translated from the borough town to this rectory in the year 1751,
where he died, Jan. 19, 1785. A monument has been erected to Mr.
Toup’s memory by the Delegates of the Oxford Press, and he is there
related to have been born in Dec. 1713. Mr. Toup has been mentioned
under St. Ives, the place of his birth.
There are other monuments:――to Walter Langdon, of Keveril, stated to
be the last of his race; to Philip Maiowe, probably ancestor of John
Mayo, or Mayow, M.D. Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and
afterwards Physician at Bath[3]; also to the Rev. Stephen Midhope,
sometime Rector of this parish, who died in the year 1636; but this
gentleman, hurried away by the whirl of fanatical opinions, growing
out of the Reformation, had resigned his living some years before, on
professing himself an Anabaptist.
This parish measures 2,719 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815:
The parish 3469 0 0
East Looe 921 0 0
――――― ―― ――
£4390 0 0
――――― ―― ――
Poor Rate in 1831:
The parish 231 19 0
East Looe 325 5 0
――――― ―― ――
£557 4 0
Population, in 1801, in 1811, in 1821, in 1831,
The parish 344 343 411 455
East Looe 467 608 770 865
―――― ―――― ―――― ――――
811 951 1181 1320
giving an increase on the parish of 32 per cent.⎫
East Looe 42 per cent.⎬ In 30 years.
both 39 per cent.⎭