PENZANCE
Penzance, the Holy Headland--Madron--A disciple of S.
Piran--Madron Well--The Feast--Climate--The Irish
Colonisation--Penwith--S. Breage--Tregonning
Hill--Pencaer--Movements of S. Breage--Cross of coagulated
blood--Frescoes--Former extent of Breage--Sithney--Germoe
Church and Chair--Germoe's story--Pengersick Castle--The
Millatons--The Giant's throw--Godolphin Hall--Skewis and Henry
Rogers--Clowance--The Irish invaders--Gwinear--Ludgvan--The
flower farms--S. Hilary--S. Michael's Mount--Submerged
forest--Castel-an-Dinas--Chysauster huts--The
"Rounds"--Newlyn--The Breton Newlyna.
Penzance, the most western market town in Cornwall, is of comparatively
modern growth. Formerly it was but a fishing village, occupying a
promontory now distinguished as the quay, where stood a chapel
dedicated to S. Anthony. The name signifies the Holy Head, or Headland,
and there was probably a chapel on the projecting finger of land long
before the time of S. Anthony of Padua (1231), whose cult was fostered
by the Franciscan Order. It is not improbable that on this headland
there may have been a camp, in which case the dedication is merely a
misconception of An-Dinas. The town arms are S. John the Baptist's head
on a charger, also through misconception, the Holy Head being supposed
to be his.
On the east side of the town near the shore was Lis-Cadock, or the
Court of Cadock. At one time the entrenchments were very distinct, but
they have now disappeared. This Cadock is probably Cado, Duke of
Cornwall, cousin of King Arthur, and famous as a warrior in Geoffrey of
Monmouth's lying history. The termination _oc_ is a diminutive.
Penzance is in the parish of Madron, the founder of which, S. Maternus,
as he is called in Latin, is the Irish Medrhan, a disciple of S.
Kieran, or Piran. His brother Odran was closely attached to S. Senan.
Madron and Odran were but lads of from ten to fourteen when they first
visited S. Piran to ask his advice about going a pilgrimage. He very
sensibly recommended them to go to school first, and he retained them
with himself, instructing them in letters. The Irish have no tradition
that he was buried in the Emerald Isle, so that in all probability he
laid his bones in Cornwall.
There was a famous well at Madron, but it has lost its repute of late
years, and has fallen into ruin.
Children were formerly taken to the well on the first three Sunday
mornings in May to be dipped in the water, that they might be cured of
the rickets, or any other disorder with which they were troubled. They
were plunged thrice into the water by the parent or nurse, who stood
facing the east, and then they were clothed and laid on S. Madron's
bed; should they go to sleep after the immersion, or should the water
in the well bubble, it was considered a good omen. Strict silence was
observed during the performance. At the present time the people go in
crowds to the well on the first Sunday in May, when the Wesleyans hold
a service there and a sermon is preached; after which the people throw
two pins or pebbles in, or lay small crosses made of pieces of
rush-pith united by a pin in the middle, in the water and draw auguries
therefrom.
Miss Couch in her book on the Cornish holy wells says:--
"About thirty years ago I visited it, and it was then in a
ruined state. There was nothing of the shapely and sculptured
form of many of our eastern wells about it. It was merely an
oblong space enclosed by rough old walling, in which were, in
the south-west corner, a dilapidated well, with an inlet and
outlet for water, a raised row of stones in front of this, and
the remains of stone benches."
A plan exists drawn by Mr. Blight before the well was as ruined as at
present. It is a crying scandal that it should be allowed to remain
unrestored. The altar-stone remains with a square depression in the
middle to receive the portable altar placed there on such occasions as
the chapel was used for mass.
[Illustration: MOUNT'S BAY]
Penzance, on the glorious Mount's Bay, enjoys a warm and balmy climate,
and scarlet geraniums scramble up the house-fronts, camellias bloom in
the open air, and greenhouse rhododendrons flourish unprotected from
frosts that never fall.
It is a relaxing place, and the visitor, till he is acclimatised, feels
limp and lifeless. For this reason many now resort to St. Ives, on the
north coast, which is open to the Atlantic breezes straight from
Labrador, and Penzance is declining in favour.
But it is a pleasant, it is a most pleasant town, well furnished with
all that can make a winter sojourn delightful; it has in addition to
libraries and concert-halls and clubs, that may be found in any seaside
place, an unrivalled neighbourhood, and with the warm climate it enjoys
a winter may be spent delightfully in making excursions to the many
surrounding objects of interest.
In my next chapter I shall treat of the Land's End district, and in
this I shall attempt to give some idea of what is to be seen to the
east.
As already intimated, the whole of this part of Cornwall was occupied
at the end of the fifth and the first years of the sixth century by the
Irish from the south, mainly from Ossory. An invasion from Munster into
that kingdom had led to the cutting of the throats of most of the royal
family and its subjugation under the invaders, who maintained their
sovereignty there from 470, when the invasion took place, to the death
of Scanlan, the descendant of the invader, in 642. It was probably in
consequence of this invasion that a large number of Ossorians crossed
over to Cornwall and established themselves in Penwith--the Welsh spell
it Pengwaeth, the bloody headland; the name tells a story of resistance
and butchery. Unhappily we have the most scanty references to this
occupation; records we have none.
But a single legend remains that treats of it at some length; and with
regard to the legends of the other settlers we have the meagre extracts
made by Leland, the antiquary of Henry VIII., whose heart, so it is
said, broke at the dispersion of the monastic libraries, and the
destruction of historical records of supreme value. As far as we know,
the great body of settlers all landed at Hayle. One large contingent,
with S. Breaca at its head, made at the outstart a rush for Tregonning
Hill, and established itself in the strong stone fort of Pencaer, or
Caer Conan, on the summit.
Tregonning Hill is not very high, it rises not six hundred feet above
the sea; but from the sea and from the country round it looks bold and
lofty, because standing alone, or almost so, having but the inferior
Godolphin Hill near it.
The fortress consists of at least two concentric rings of stone and
earth. The interior has been disturbed by miners searching for tin, and
the wall has also been ruined by them, but especially by roadmakers,
who have quite recently destroyed nearly all one side.
Here the Irish remained till they were able to move further. S. Breaca
went on to Talmeneth (the end of the mountain), where she established
herself and erected a chapel.
Another of her chapels was further down the hill at Chynoweth, and a
tradition of its existence remains there. Finally she went to Penbro.
The church was, however, at a later period moved from that place to
where it now stands. The local legend is that she saw the good people
building this church, and she promised to throw all her bracelets and
rings into the bell-metal if they would call it after her name.
She was a favourite disciple of S. Bridget, and this latter saint
commissioned her to visit the great institution of the White House,
near S. David's Head in Wales--to obtain thence rules by which her
community might be directed. She was, it appears, the sister of S.
Brendan the navigator, and it was in his sister's arms that the saint
died. Brendan was a disciple of S. Erc, or Erth, on the Hayle river,
and as Erc was one of the party, it is probable that Brendan made one
as well.
Erc had been much trusted by S. Patrick, who appointed him as judge in
all cases brought to him for decision, regarding him as a man of
inviolable integrity and great calmness of judgment.
The church of Breage is large and fine. In the churchyard is an early
cross of reddish conglomerate. The local story goes that there was a
great fight, between Godolphin Hill and Tregonning Hill, fought by the
natives with the Danes, and so much blood was shed that it compacted
the granitic sand there into hard rock, and out of this rock Breaca's
cross was cut. The fight was, of course, not with Danes, but was
between the Cornish and the Irish. The cross is rude, with the Celtic
interlaced work on it. The pedestal was also thus ornamented, but this
is so worn that it can only be distinguished in certain lights.
In the church have been discovered several frescoes--S. Christopher,
gigantic, of course; an equally gigantic figure of Christ covered with
bleeding wounds; full-length representations of SS. Samson, Germoe,
Giles, Corentine, etc. The church has been much decorated rather than
restored. The modern woodwork screen and bench-ends are indifferent in
design and mechanical in execution. Some Belgian carved work of the
Adoration of the Magi blocks the east window, which was filled with
peculiarly vulgar glass, and this is a possible excuse for completely
obscuring it.
The sacred tribe under S. Breaca must have occupied a very extensive
tract, for four parish churches are affiliated to it--S. Germoe,
Godolphin, Cury, and Gunwalloe. This leads one to suspect that her
territory stretched originally along the coast a good way past Loe
Pool. She had as neighbours S. Crewena, another Irishwoman, and
Sithney, or Setna, a disciple and companion of S. Senan, of Land's End.
His mother was an aunt of S. David.
Sithney was asked:--
"Tell me, O Setna,
Tidings of the World's end.
How will the folk fare
That follow not the Truth?"
He answered in a poem that has been preserved. Prophecy is a dangerous
game to play at, even for a saint, and Sithney made a very bad shot. He
foretold that the Saxons would hold dominion in Ireland till 1350,
after which the Irish natives would expel them.
Sithney almost certainly accompanied Kieran or Piran, and he succeeded
him as abbot in his great monastery at Saighir.
The little church of Germoe is curious. It has a very early font, and a
later Norman font lying broken outside the church. There is a curious
structure, called Germoe's Chair, in the churchyard, that looks much
like a summer-house manufactured out of old pillars turned upside-down.
But it was in existence in the time of Henry VIII., for Leland mentions
it. A new east window, quite out of character with the church, has been
inserted, but the modern glass is good. A bust of S. Germoe is over the
porch. He is represented as crowned, as he is supposed to have been an
Irish king.
This is not quite correct. He was a bard, and perhaps of royal race,
but we do not know his pedigree. He was a disciple of S. Kieran, and
was the father of the first writer of the lives of the saints in
Ireland. He composed a poem in honour of S. Finnan of Moville, and he
had the honour of having under him, for a short while, the great
Columba of Iona. He had several brothers, who passed into France, and
are mentioned by Flodoard, the historian of the Franks. The date of his
death was about 530. I have elsewhere told a story about him tubbing
with S. Kieran, and catching a fish in the tub.
Near Germoe, but nearer the sea, is the very fine remnant of a castle,
Pengersick. It was erected in the reign of Henry VIII. by a certain man
of the name of Millaton, probably of Millaton in Bridestowe, Devon. He
had committed a murder, and to escape justice he fled his native county
and concealed himself in the dip of the land facing the sea at
Pengersick, where he constructed a tower amply provided with means of
defence. The basement is furnished with loopholes for firing upon
anyone approaching, and above the door is a shoot for melted lead. The
whole building is beautifully constructed.
Here Millaton remained in concealment till he died, never leaving his
tower for more than a brief stroll. The land had not been purchased in
his own name, but in that of his son Job, who, after his death, was
made Governor of S. Michael's Mount. Job had a son, William, who was
made Sheriff of Cornwall in 1565, and he married Honor, daughter of Sir
William Godolphin of Godolphin.
According to a local legend, William Millaton and his wife Honor lived
a cat-and-dog life. They hated each other with a deadly hate, and at
length each severally resolved that this incompatible union must come
to an end.
William Millaton said to his wife, "Honor, we have lived in
wretchedness too long. Let us resolve on a reconciliation, forget the
past, and begin a new life."
"Most certainly do I agree thereto," said she.
"And," continued William, "as a pledge of our reunion, let us have a
feast together to-night"
So a banquet was spread in Pengersick Castle for them twain and none
others.
And when they had well eaten, then William Millaton said, "Let us drink
to our reunion."
"I will drink if you will drink," said she.
Then he drained his glass, and after that, she drained hers.
With a bitter laugh she said, "William, you have but three minutes to
live. Your cup was poisoned."
"And you," retorted he, "have but five, for yours is poisoned."
"It is well," said Honor; "I am content. I shall have two minutes in
which to triumph over your dead carcass, and to spurn it with my foot."
On the death of this William, the estate passed to his six sisters, who
married into the families of Erisy, Lanyon, Trefusis, Arundell,
Bonython, and Abbot of Hartland.
On the road from Breage, before the turn to Pengersick is reached, a
stone lies by the roadside. It is one of those cast by the Giant of
Godolphin Hill after his wife, of whom he was jealous, and who was wont
to visit the Giant of Pengersick. The stone has often been removed, but
such disaster has ensued to the man who has removed it, that it has
always been brought back again. Godolphin Hill has been esteemed since
the days of Elizabeth as one of the richest of ore deposits, and it was
due to the urgency of Sir Francis Godolphin that miners were induced to
come to Cornwall from the Erz Gebirge, in Saxony, to introduce new
methods and machinery in the tin mines.
Godolphin Hall is an interesting old mansion, partly dating from the
time of Henry VII. and partly belonging to the period of the
Restoration. Some remains from a ruined church or chapel have been
worked into one of the gateways. The old house has its stewponds and a
few fine trees about it.
On the Marazion road, west of Millpool, in the hedge, are the impress
of the devil's knees. One day, feeling the discomfort and forlornness
of his position, his majesty resolved on praying to have it changed; so
he knelt on a slab of granite, but his knees burned their way into the
stone. Then he jumped up, saying that praying superinduced rheumatics,
and he would have no more of it. The holes are not tin-moulds, for the
latter are angular and oblong, but are very similar to the cup-markings
found in many places in connection with prehistoric monuments. Some
precisely similar are at Dumnakilty in Fermanagh.[26]
A strange circumstance occurred in 1734 at Skewis, close to the line
from Gwinear Road Station to Helston.
Skewis had been for many generations the freehold patrimony of a yeoman
family of the name of Rogers. There were two brothers. The elder
married and lived on the farm, but without a family. The younger
brother, Henry Rogers, was married and had several children. He carried
on for several years in Helston the trade of a pewterer, then of
considerable importance in Cornwall, although it is now at an end. A
large portion of the tin raised was mixed with lead and exported in the
form of pewter made into dishes, plates, etc., now superseded by
earthenware. At the first introduction of earthenware, called cloam, in
the West of England, a strong prejudice existed against it as liable to
damage the tin trade, and it was a popular cry to destroy all cloam, so
as to bring back the use of pewter.
The elder Rogers died, and bequeathed the house of Skewis and the farm
and everything thereon to his wife Anne. Henry was indignant. He
believed in the inalienability of "heir land." He was suspicious that
Anne Rogers would make over Skewis to her own relatives, of the name of
Millett. Henry waited his opportunity, when his sister-in-law was out
of the house, to enter it and bring in his wife and children and
servants. He turned out the domestics of Anne, and occupied the whole
house.
The widow appealed to law, but the voice of the whole county was
against her, and the general opinion was that the will had been
extorted from her husband. Even Sir John S. Aubyn, living at Clowance,
hard by, favoured him, and had Henry Rogers acted in a reasonable
manner would have backed him up. But Rogers took the law into his own
hands, and when a judgment was given against him, he still refused to
surrender.
The Sheriff of Cornwall accordingly was directed to eject him by force.
Rogers, however, barricaded the house, and prepared to defend it. He
supplied himself with gunpowder and slugs, and cut loopholes in his
doors and shutters from which to fire at the assailants.
On June 18th, 1734, the Under-Sheriff and a _posse_ went to Skewis and
demanded the surrender of the house. From two to three hundred people
attended, for the most part sympathisers with Rogers, but not willing
to render him effectual assistance.
As the Under-Sheriff, Stephen Tillie, persisted in his demands, and
threatened to break into the house, Rogers fired. The bullet passed
through Tillie's wig, singed it, and greatly frightened him, especially
as with the next discharge one of his officers fell at his side, shot
through the head.
Several guns were fired, and then the Under-Sheriff deemed it advisable
to withdraw and send for soldiers.
On the arrival of a captain with some regulars, Tillie again
approached, when Rogers continued firing, and killed a bailiff and shot
a soldier in the groin. Two more men were wounded, and then the
military fired at the windows, but did no harm. Mrs. Rogers stood by
her husband, loading and handing him his gun.
The whole attacking party now considering that discretion constituted
the best part of valour, withdrew, and Rogers was allowed to remain in
possession till March in the following year, that is to say, for nine
months. Then he was again blockaded by soldiers, and the siege
continued for several days, with the loss of two more men, when at last
cannon were brought from Pendennis Castle.
Many years after, one of Rogers' sons gave the following account of his
reminiscences of the siege:--"He recollected that his father was fired
at, and had a snuff-box and powder-horn broken in his pocket by a ball.
He recollected that whilst he himself (then a child) was in the bed
several balls came in through the window of the room, and after
striking against the wall rolled about on the floor. One brother and
sister who were in the house went out to inquire what was wanted of
their father, and they were not permitted to return. On the last night
no one remained in the house but his father, himself, and the
servant-maid. In the middle of the night they all went out, and got
some distance from the house. In crossing a field, however, they were
met by two soldiers, who asked them their business. The maid answered
that they were looking for a cow, when they were permitted to proceed.
The soldiers had their arms, and his father had his gun. The maid and
himself were left at a farmhouse in the neighbourhood."
Henry Rogers, whom the soldiers had not recognised in the darkness,
managed to escape, and pushed on in the direction of London, resolving
to lay his grievances before the king. He was dressed in a whitish
fustian frock, with imitation pearl buttons, and a blue riding-coat
over it.
As soon as it was discovered that he had decamped, a reward of £350 was
offered for his apprehension. He had already shot and killed five men,
and had wounded seven. He was not, however, taken till he reached
Salisbury Plain, where he hailed a postboy, who was returning with an
empty chaise, and asked for a lift. He was still carrying his gun. The
boy drove him to the inn, where he procured a bed; but the
circumstances, and the description, had excited suspicion; he was
secured in his sleep, and was removed to Cornwall, to be tried for
murder at Launceston along with his serving-man, John Street.
His trial took place on August 1st, 1735, before Lord Chief Justice
Hardwicke. Rogers was arraigned upon five indictments, and Street upon
two. Both received sentence of death, and were executed on August 6th.
The house at Skewis has been recently in part rebuilt, when a bag of
the slugs used by poor Rogers was found.
It is in Crowan parish.
The church of S. Crewenna stands on a hill, and has a good tower. It
contains numerous monuments of the S. Aubyn family, and some brasses
only recently restored to the church, after having lain for many years
lost or forgotten in a cupboard at Clowance.
It is hard to say whether the fulsome memorial of Sir John S. Aubyn,
who died in 1839, is more painful or amusing reading to such as know
his story.
The church has been "restored" in a cold and unsympathetic fashion.
Clowance, the seat of the Molesworth S. Aubyn family, has noble trees,
and is an oasis in the midst of the refuse-heaps of mines. There are
some early crosses in the grounds.
But to return to the Irish invasion.
A second party of the colonists was under Fingar or Gwinear, son of
Olilt, or Ailill, probably one of the Hy Bairrche family, which was
expelled their country about 480. He brought over with him his sister
Kiara, whose name has become Piala or Phillack in Cornish, according to
a phonetic and constant rule. According to the legend he had over seven
hundred emigrants with him. He and his party made their way from Hayle
to Connerton, where they spent the night, and then pushed south to
where now stands Gwinear. Here Fingar left his party to go ahead and
explore. He reached Tregotha, where is a fine spring of water, and
there paused to refresh himself, when, hearing cries from behind, he
hurried back, and found that Tewdrig, the Cornish king or prince, who
lived at Riviere, on a creek of the Hayle river, had hastened after the
party of colonists, and had fallen on them and massacred them. When
Fingar came up Tewdrig killed him also. Piala, the sister, does not
seem to have been harmed; and as in the long-run the Irish succeeded in
establishing themselves firmly in the district, she settled near
Riviere and founded the church of Phillack.
Ludgvan has a fine tower and some old crosses, the font also is early,
of polyphant stone; but the church has been badly churchwardenised and
meanly restored. It was founded by Lithgean, or Lidgean, an Irish
saint, son of Bronfinn or Gwendron. There is a representation of the
mother in the rectory garden wall, where she is figured holding what is
apparently a tree in one hand and in the other a fleur-de-lis.
Hereabouts the whole country is devoted to early potatoes and spring
flowers. In March the fields are white with narcissus or golden with
daffodil, or rich brown with the Harbinger wallflower. It is a curious
fact that yellow wallflowers meet with no sale; consequently one kind
only, and that dark, is grown.
The kinds of narcissus mostly grown are the Scilly White; of daffodils
the Soleil d'Or, Grand Monarch, Emperor and Empress, Sir Watkin, and
Princeps. These flowers are packed in baskets or boxes in bunches, a
dozen blossoms in each bunch, and four dozen bunches in each basket.
Women are employed to pick in the morning and to tie in bunches in the
afternoon.
A special train takes up the flowers daily to London. The rate charged
is £4 10_s._ per ton, but for fish £2 10_s._, as they take less room.
The flower harvest lasts from February to June, and is followed by one
of tomatoes.
Between Ludgvan and Perran-uthnoe intervenes the parish of S. Hilary.
The church is devoid of interest, but there are inscribed stones in the
churchyard. On the village inn may be read the invitation:--
"THE JOLLY TINNERS."
"Come, all true Cornish boys, walk in,
Here's Brandy, Beer, Rum, Shrub, and Gin.
You cannot do less than drink success
To Copper, Fish, and Tin."
A local riddle asked is:--
"As I went down by Hilary's steeple
I met three people.
They were not men, nor women, nor children.
Who were they then?"
The answer, of course, is one man, one woman, and a single child.
S. Michael's Mount is a grand upshoot of granite from the sea. As a
rock it is far finer than its corelative in Brittany, but the buildings
crowning the Cornish mount are vastly inferior to the magnificent pile
on Mont Saint Michel. Nevertheless, those that now form the residence
of Lord S. Levan are by no means insignificant or unworthy of their
position. The masses of granite crag, especially to the west, are
singularly bold, and if some of the modern work be poor in design, it
might have been much worse.
Within there is not much to be seen--a chapel of no great interest, and
a dining-hall with good plaster-work representation of a hare hunt
running round it. The drawing-room is new and spacious, and contains
some really noble portraits.
At the foot of the rock is a draw-well, and a little way up is a tank
called the Giant's Well. S. Michael's Mount was the habitation of the
famous giant with whom Tom Thumb tried conclusions.
In or about 710, according to William of Worcester, an apparition of S.
Michael the archangel was seen on the _Tumba_ in Cornwall. This Tumba
was also called Hore-rock in the Wood, "and there was formerly grove
and field and tilled land between the Mount and the Scilly Isles, and
there were a hundred and forty churches of parishes between the said
Mount and Scilly that were submerged.... The district was enclosed by a
most vast forest stretching for six miles in from the sea, affording a
most suitable refuge for wild beasts, and in this were formerly found
monks serving the Lord."
It is quite true that there is a submerged forest in Mount's Bay, and
that the marshy snipe-ground near Marazion Road Station covers large
timber, a portion of this great forest, but the submergence cannot have
taken place in historic times. That there was, however, an encroachment
of the sea in the middle of the sixth century, we learn from the _Life
of S. Paul_, Bishop of Leon. He came to the bay to visit his sister,
Wulvella, of Gulval, when she complained to him that she was losing
much of her best land by the advance of the sea; and he, who had been
brought up in the Wentloog levels, and taught by his master, S. Iltyd,
how to keep up the dykes against the tides in the Severn, banked out
the sea for her.
This was precisely the time when the district of Gwaelod was submerged
in the Bay of Cardigan. The king of the district was Gwyddno
Longshanks. It was the duty of the warden of the dykes to ride along
the embankments, that had probably been thrown up by the Roman
legionaries, and see that they were in order. Seithenyn was the
Dyke-grave at the time.
One night Gwyddno and his court were keeping high revel, and the
dyke-master was very drunk. There was a concurrence of a spring-tide
and a strong westerly wind, and the waves overwhelmed the banks. The
king escaped with difficulty before the inrolling stormy sea. A poem by
the king, who thus lost his kingdom, has been preserved.
In Brittany about the same time there was a similar catastrophe.
In Mount's Bay, however, an extraordinary tide may have done damage,
but certainly did not cause such a submergence as was supposed by
William of Worcester.
It has been supposed that the Mount is the Ictis of the ancients, which
was the site of the great mart for tin, but this is more than unlikely.
What would have been the advantage of making a market on this conical
rock? It is much more likely that the great tin mart was in one of the
low-lying islands of Kent.
Castel-an-Dinas commands an extensive view; it stands 763 feet above
the sea, and is within sight and signalling distance of the two other
similar castles on Trencrom and Tregonning. It is more perfect than
either, and is very interesting, as it has got its wall with the face
showing through the greater portion of the circuit. There were at least
two concentric rings of fortifications and numerous hut circles within
the area, but these have been much pulled about when an absurd
imitation ruinous tower was erected on the summit. Within the camp is a
well, and outside it on the west side is one cut in the rock, to which
a descent is made by about twenty steps.
On the side of the hill is the very interesting and indeed wonderful
group of clustered huts called Chysauster. Of these there remain four
distinct groups, two of which have been dug out. They consist of an
open space in the midst, with numerous beehive huts and galleries
running out of it.
The period to which they pertain is very uncertain. They ought to be
investigated by such as are experienced and trained in excavation of
such objects, and not be meddled with by amateurs. The tenant has begun
(1899) to destroy one of the groups. In the centre of one of the huts
may be seen neatly cut the socket-hole of the pole which sustained the
roof, and in another the lower stone of the quern in which grain was
pounded. There are other collections of a similar character, but none
so perfect.
In the neighbourhood of Penzance are some of the "Rounds," formerly
employed for the representation of sacred dramas. They are, in fact,
open-air amphitheatres. The well-known Gwennap Pit, in which John
Wesley preached, has been mistaken for one of these, but was actually a
disused mine-hole.
In these pits the miracle-plays in the old Cornish tongue were
performed. Of these plays we have a few preserved, that have been
printed by Professor Whitley Stokes. But the Cornish language ceased to
be spoken, and after the Reformation religious plays ceased to be
required. The people were learning the art of reading, and the press
gave them the Bible, then these miracle-plays were replaced by low
comedies, often very coarse in their humour, and spiced with many local
allusions and personal jokes. This continued till Wesleyanism denounced
stage-plays, and then these pits were devoted to revival-meetings and
displays of hysterical religion. There were two Rounds near Penzance,
Tolcarre, and one at Castle Horneck.
Adjoining Penzance to the south is Newlyn, a fishing village formerly,
now both a fishing village and a settlement of artists; for the
advantage of the latter a good place of exhibition for their pictures
has been provided by that generous-hearted son of Cornwall, who has
done so much for his native county, Mr. Passmore Edwards.
Newlyn takes its name probably from S. Newlyna, whose church, founded
on her own land, is near Crantock and Newquay. The name means the White
Cloud. She migrated to Brittany, embarking, it may be supposed, at this
port in Guavas Bay. She is a Breton replica of S. Winefred, for she had
her head cut off by an admiring chieftain, whose affection was changed
into anger at her resistance. In Brittany she has a fine church at
Pontivy Noyala.
A cantique is sung there by the children, the first verse of which runs
thus:--
"Deit, Créchénion, de gleuet
Buhé caër Santes Noaluen,
Ha disguet guet-he miret
Hag hou fé hag non lézen,"
which means, "Come, ye Christians, hearken all, and hear the tale of S.
Noewlyn. From her example learn to keep your faith and your innocence."
S. Paul's takes its name from a founder who was born in Glamorganshire,
and was educated by S. Iltyd. He was schoolfellow with S. David, S.
Samson, and Gildas. He is said to have gone to a King Mark, but whether
this were the Mark, King of Cornwall of the romancers, the husband of
the fair and frail Ysseult, we cannot be sure. He quarrelled with the
king, and left him, because he was refused a bell in Mark's possession,
which he admired and asked for. He settled in Brittany, in Leon.
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