Mr. Hals has a very long dissertation on the claims of another person,
a male St. Colomb, to be accounted patron saint of this parish.
It is well known that Cornwall received the Christian faith from
various individuals who came from Munster, in Ireland, where the
learning and the religion of these times certainly flourished: all
those persons were held in veneration by their converts, and were
distinguished by them as saints. These missionaries were, moreover, so
numerous in all parts that Ireland was called the Land of Saints. St.
Colomb may possibly be one of those missionaries; but the subject is
of little importance, and I am unwilling to bestow the elegant
appellation of the Holy Dove, on any other than a female saint.
Nanswhyden, unquestionably the White Vale, is mentioned by Mr. Hals as
belonging to the Hoblyns. Mr. Robert Hoblyn, of Nanswhyden, who died
in 1756, was a very distinguished person. He was generally a man of
letters; but, what is rarely to be found in a country gentleman, he
excelled in the recondite learning of the East. He built a magnificent
house at Manswhyden, and established there a library so extensive, and
so rich in manuscripts, as to be valued at thirty thousand pounds.
This gentleman received a great addition to his fortune from a most
productive copper mine, called Herland, or the Mane Mine, in the
parish of Gwineat, and he married a daughter of Mr. Coster, an
Alderman of Bristol, at that period the most extensive smelter of
copper ores. In consequence of this connection, and his deserved
reputation, Mr. Hoblyn was chosen one of the representatives of
Bristol.
The house was entirely consumed by an accidental fire in 1803. The
property has descended to his collateral relation, the Reverend Robert
Hoblyn, who inherits also a large portion of his classic taste.
Castle-An-Dinas[34] is situated on one of the highest hills in the
hundred of Penwith, commanding an extensive view over the western
extremity of Cornwall, from St. Ives to the Land’s End. Borlase gives
the following description of its remains: “Castle-An-Dinas consisted
of two stone walls, one within the other in a circular form,
surrounding the area of the hill. The ruins are now fallen on each
side the walls, and show the work to have been of great height and
thickness. There was also a third, or outer wall, built more than
halfway round. Within the walls are many little inclosures of a
circular form, about seven yards diameter, with little walls round
them of two or three feet high, they appear to have been so many huts
for the shelter of the garrison. The diameter of the whole fort from
east to west is four hundred feet, and the principal ditch sixty feet.
Towards the south, the sides of the hill are marked by two large green
paths, about ten feet wide. Near the middle of the area is a well,
almost choked up with its own ruins, and at a little distance a narrow
pit, its sides walled round, probably for water also, now filled up.”
It is to be regretted that Borlase did not publish a plan to
illustrate his description of this Castle, as it has been much
dilapidated since his time. A tower was built on the site of the outer
wall about forty years ago, by Mr. Rogers, of Penrose; and subsequent
reparations have not contributed towards a restotation of the old
walls. Nor are there any perceptible remains of the inclosures.
This parish measures 12,045 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 10,581 0 0
Poor Rates in 1831 1186 3 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1816 | 2070 | 2493 | 2790;
giving somewhat more than an increase of 53½ per cent. in thirty
years.
Parish Feast, the nearest Sunday to the 17th of November.