Is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north the river
Vale, east Kuby, south Verian, west Egles Ross or Philley. As for the
first name, if it be compounded of Ruan-Lawn-y-horne, it signifies the
iron oak grove rest, temple, or place of tranquillity and repose,
referring to the then natural circumstances of the place, heretofore
consisting of old decayed groves of oaks, whose withered tops were
like horne or iron: of which sort of timber Leland in his Itinerary
assures us the river Vale was surrounded. But if Ruan be a corruption
of, or derived from the Latin ruina, ruinæ, it signifies woe,
destruction, ruin, extreme decay, death, misery, loss, falling down,
danger, mischief. Note also, that ruo is to fall, rush, run headlong
with great violence, to subvert, overthrow, beat down, batter, or
destroy.
Probably at the time of the Norman Conquest this is that district
taxed in the Domesday Book under the name of Richan, otherwise under
the jurisdiction of Govile, Trethay, or Trefiles. In the inquisition
of the bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish
Benefices, 1294, it was rated by the name of Ecclesia de Largesshorne,
in decanatu de Powdre, cvi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521,
by the name of Ruon, alias Laryhorne, i. e. the horn or iron learn or
erudition, £12. 0_s._ 0_d._ The patronage in ――――. The incumbent
Dell. By Largesshorne, Cornish-French, is signified an iron boon,
bounty, or liberality. This parish was rated to the four shillings per
pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of Ruan Lannyhorne, £108. 11_s._
0_d._ as aforesaid. It is also vulgarly called Lary-horne, i. e. iron
floor or ground church; perhaps from the stone pavement of its floor.
Tregage, alias Tregago, alias Trejago, synonymous words, a place that
heretofore was the vokelands of a manor or tithing: which place gave
name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence after the
French mode surnamed de Tregago, or Trejago, some of which built
Trejago house and castle, situate upon the vale, creek, or river here,
and yet extant in this place, in the reigns of some of the first
Norman princes.
Note further, that Jago, Gago, in the Scotts and Irish tongues,
signifies, as innis and insula, an island, in British and Latin. (See
Floyd’s Scotts-Irish Dictionary.) Also that in this parish is the
manor dwelling called Tre-lonk, Tre-lonck, id est, the buttery or
house that hath store of food or provisions for housekeeping.