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CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES
General Editor: F.H.H. GUILLEMARD, M.A., M.D.
CORNWALL
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
~London~: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C.F. CLAY, MANAGER
[Illustration: Coat of Arms]
~Edinburgh~: 100, PRINCES STREET
~Berlin~: A. ASHER AND CO.
~Leipzig~: F.A. BROCKHAUS
~New York~: G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
~Bombay and Calcutta~: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
[_All rights reserved_]
_Cambridge County Geographies_
CORNWALL
by
S. BARING-GOULD
With Maps, Diagrams, and Illustrations
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1910
~Cambridge~:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CONTENTS
PAGE
1. County and Shire. Meaning of the Word 1
2. General Characteristics 3
3. Size, Shape, Boundaries 5
4. Surface and General Features 8
5. Watershed, Rivers 13
6. Geology and Soil 19
7. Natural History 26
8. Around the Coast. From Morwenstow to Land's End 31
9. Around the Coast. From Land's End to Rame Head 41
10. The Coast--Gains and Losses 51
11. The Coast--Tides, Islands, and Lighthouses 57
12. Climate--Rainfall 61
13. People--Race, Dialect, Population 67
14. Agriculture--Main Cultivations. Stock 72
15. Industries and Manufactures 79
16. Minerals and Mining 80
17. Fisheries 88
18. Shipping and Trade 94
19. History 97
20. Antiquities: Prehistoric, Roman, Celtic, Saxon 106
21. Architecture: (_a_) Ecclesiastical 114
22. Architecture: (_b_) Military--Castles 125
23. Architecture: (_c_) Domestic and Monastic 128
24. Communications--Roads, Railways 132
25. Administration and Divisions, Ancient and Modern 135
26. Roll of Honour 140
27. The Chief Towns and Villages of Cornwall 148
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Luxulyan Village 3
Dozmare Pool 4
The Tamar, near Calstock 6
Grimsby Channel and Eastern Islands, Scilly 8
Bodmin 9
Rough Tor 11
St Keyne's Well, Liskeard 12
On the Camel 13
Wadebridge 15
Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash 16
The Cheesewring 24
In a Cornish Garden 29
Bude Breakwater 32
King Arthur's Castle, Tintagel 34
Bodruthan Steps 36
Newquay Harbour 37
The Wharf, St Ives 39
Land's End 41
Newlyn Pier 42
St Michael's Mount 43
Kynance Cove and the Lizard 45
Mullion Cove 47
Falmouth, from Flushing 48
Polperro 49
Looe 50
Perranporth Rocks 54
Round Island, Scilly 58
The Longships Lighthouse 59
Eddystone Lighthouse 60
Miners: Camborne 70
"First and Last House," Land's End 73
Flower Farming, Scilly 77
Poldhu Hotel and the Marconi Station 79
King Edward Mine, Camborne 81
China Clay Quarries, Porthpean 84
Delabole Slate Quarries 86
Shipping Slate, Port Gavin 87
Pilchard Boats, Mevagissey 89
The Huers' House, Newquay 91
Pilchard Boats, St Ives Harbour 93
Landing Fish, Newlyn 94
The St Vincent's Anchor, Falmouth 95
The Nine Maidens, St Columb Major 99
St Mawes, Falmouth Harbour 105
Lanyon Cromlech 108
The Merry Maidens, St Buryan 109
St Cleer: Monument to Doniert, son of Caradoc, died
A.D. 872. 112
Mawgan Cross 113
St Buryan Cross 114
Buried Church, Perranporth 117
Norman Doorway, St Germans Church 118
Tympanum, Egloskerry Church 119
Lanteglos Church 120
Launceston Church 121
Landewednack Church 123
Dupath Well, Callington 124
St Mawes Castle 127
Cothele 130
The Old Post Office, Tintagel 132
A Cornish Stile 134
The Old Guildhall and Pillory, Looe 138
Captain Bligh 141
Sir Humphry Davy 143
John Opie 146
Fowey 150
Helston from Bullock Lane 151
Launceston 152
Looe 153
Cross in Churchyard, St Columb 156
Truro 158
Diagrams 160
MAPS
Cornwall, Topographical Front Cover
" Geological Back Cover
England and Wales, showing Annual Rainfall 63
The illustrations on pp. 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 24, 32, 36, 37,
39, 41, 42, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 59, 60, 70, 73, 79, 81, 84, 86, 89, 91,
93, 95, 99, 105, 112, 113, 114, 117, 118, 120, 121, 123, 127, 138, 150,
151, 152, 153, 156, 158 are from photographs supplied by Messrs F. Frith
& Co.; those on pp. 8, 43, 45, 58, 77, 94, 108, 109, 134 by Messrs
Preston, Penzance; those on pp. 141, 146 by Mr Emery Walker, and those
on pp. 6, 29, 34, 87, 119, 124, 130, 132 by Messrs Hayman & Son,
Launceston.
=1. County and Shire. Meaning of the word.=
If we take a map of England and contrast it with a map of the United
States, perhaps one of the first things we shall notice is the
dissimilarity of the arbitrary divisions of land of which the countries
are composed. In America the rigidly straight boundaries and rectangular
shape of the majority of the States strike the eye at once; in England
our wonder is rather how the boundaries have come to be so tortuous and
complicated--to such a degree, indeed, that until recently many counties
had outlying islands, as it were, within their neighbours' territory. We
may guess at once that the conditions under which the divisions arose
cannot have been the same, and that while in America these formal square
blocks of land, like vast allotment gardens, were probably the creation
of a central authority, and portioned off much about the same time; the
divisions we find in England own no such simple origin. Our guess would
not have been wrong, for such, in fact, is more or less the case. The
formation of the English counties in many instances was (and is--for
they have altered up to to-day) an affair of slow growth. King Alfred
is credited with having made them, but inaccurately, for some existed
before his time, others not till long after his death, and their origin
was--as their names tell us--of very diverse nature.
Let us turn once more to our map of England. Collectively, we call all
our divisions counties, but not every one of them is accurately thus
described. Cornwall, as we shall see, is not. Some have names complete
in themselves, such as Kent and Sussex, and we find these to be old
English kingdoms with but little alteration either in their boundaries
or their names. To others the terminal _shire_ is appended, which tells
us that they were _shorn_ from a larger domain--_shares_ of Mercia or
Northumbria or some other of the great English kingdoms. The term county
is of Norman introduction,--the domain of a _Comte_ or Count.
Although we use the term county for Cornwall, we should not in accuracy
do so, as just stated, for it is a Duchy, and has been such since March
17, 1337, when Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of King Edward III, was
created Duke of Cornwall. Nor can it be called a shire, for Cornwall was
a territory to itself. In 835 Athelstan drove the Britons across the
Tamar and made that river the boundary between the Briton and the West
Saxon of Devon.
The ancient name of Cornwall and Devon was Totnes, i.e. _Dod-ynys_, "the
projecting island," and the Celtic population was that of the Dumnonii.
It was not till the tenth century that the name Cornweales appears,
signifying the Welsh of the Horn of Britain. The Latin form of Cornwall
is Cornubia. The ancient British settlers in the present department of
Finistere called that portion of Gaul Cornouaille.
=2. General Characteristics.=
On many accounts Cornwall may be regarded as one of the most interesting
counties of England, whether we regard it for its coast scenery, its
products, or its antiquities. It has lain so much out of the main
current of the life of England that it was hardly mixed up with the
politics of the nation till the time of the Civil War.
Its situation, projecting as it does into the sea, by which it is washed
on all sides but one, has naturally caused the natives to take to the
water, and has made Cornwall to be the mother of a hardy breed of
fishermen and sailors. But the county being also rich in mineral wealth
has from an early age caused a large portion of the manhood of the land
to seek their livelihood in mines; and the peculiar conditions of
Cornwall have thus determined the professions of a large proportion of
its males to be either on the water or under ground.
[Illustration: Luxulyan Village]
The interior of the county cannot be regarded as beautiful, consisting
of a backbone of elevated land, wind-swept, and over a large area
covered with mine-ramps and the skeletons of abandoned machine-houses
standing up gaunt amidst the desolation. But the valleys are always
beautiful, and the Bodmin moors, if not so lofty and broken as
Dartmoor, are yet fine, and Brown Willy, Rough Tor, and Kilmar are
really noble tors.
On the Bodmin moors is Dozmare Pool, the only lake, excepting Loe Pool,
that exists in Cornwall. It is small and shallow. There were others
formerly, now encroached on or smothered by morass.
[Illustration: Dozmare Pool]
In Cornwall it is quite possible to take a stride from the richest
vegetation into the abomination of desolation. It has been said in
mockery that Cornwall does not grow wood enough to make coffins for the
people. The old timber was cut down to supply the furnaces for smelting
tin, and it is true that there is not in Cornwall as magnificent timber
as may be seen in other counties, but the valleys are everywhere well
wooded, and the Cornish elm, that grows almost like a trimmed poplar,
stands up lank above the lower trees and coppice.
=3. Size, Shape, Boundaries.=
Cornwall bears a certain resemblance to Italy, each is like a leg or
boot, but Italy stands a-tiptoe to the south, whereas Cornwall is thrust
out to the west. But, whereas Italy is kicking Sicily as a football,
Cornwall has but the shattered group of the Scilly Isles at its toe.
It touches but one other county, Devonshire, on the east; on all other
sides it is washed by the sea, the Atlantic on the north and the English
Channel on the south. The heel is the curious projection of the Lizard,
and the toe is Land's End. On the east the river Tamar forms mainly the
boundary between itself and Devon, except just north of Launceston,
where a small portion of Devonshire juts into Cornwall, bounded on the
south by the river Attery, and comprising the parishes of North
Petherwin and Werrington. This is due to the land in these parishes
having belonged to the Abbey of Tavistock, and the monks desiring to
have all their lands comprised in one county. The area of Cornwall is
886,384 acres, or 1385 square miles.
[Illustration: The Tamar, near Calstock]
It is the most westerly county in England, and also the most southerly.
Its greatest length from the N.E. corner beyond Morwenstow to the Land's
End is 80 miles; and its greatest breadth between Marsland Mouth and
Rame Head is 46 miles. But it shrinks towards the toe, and between St
Ives' Bay and Mounts Bay it is not five miles across.
The Scilly Isles, situated twenty-five miles S.W. from the Land's End,
are a part of Cornwall, and have an area of 4041 acres. Formerly, a part
of the township of Bridgerule, with 1010 acres on the Devon side of the
Tamar, belonged to Cornwall, but has now been dissevered and annexed to
Devonshire.
The north coast is sadly deficient in harbours. Bude Haven can
accommodate only the smallest vessels, Boscastle is a dangerous creek,
Padstow Harbour is barred by the Doom Bank lying across the entrance,
and there is none other till we reach St Ives' Bay. On the south coast
are Mounts Bay, Falmouth, Charlestown in St Austell Bay, Par, Fowey,
Looe, Cawsand Bay, and the Hamoaze that opens into Plymouth Sound. Of
these only Falmouth Harbour, once the great station for the packet
boats, is good.
The Scilly Isles comprise 145 rocky masses, six only are large islands,
and five only are inhabited. The other inhabited islands about Cornwall
are very small, these are St Michael's Mount and Looe Island. The
promontory of Lleyn in Cardiganshire presents a curious resemblance to
Cornwall, and as Cornwall has its detached group of islands in Scilly,
so Lleyn has its Bardsey.
[Illustration: Grimsby Channel and Eastern Islands, Scilly]
=4. Surface and General Features.=
[Illustration: Bodmin]
To the east and north-east is the large granite mass of the Bodmin
moors. It is these striking granitic masses, here and further west--at
the Land's End, at St Breage, in the district north of Helston, and
again north of St Austell--which form the bolder features of the
county. A remarkable depression lies between Marazion and St Ives' Bay,
utilised by the railway from Hayle to Marazion road. It almost seems as
if the whole of Penwith, the portion west of this trough, had at one
time been an island, with a channel of sea between it and the mainland.
On the other hand, at a remote period there can be no doubt that there
extended far out broad low-lying lands which are now covered by the sea,
for forest beds have been found in Mounts Bay, in Padstow Bay, at St
Columb Major, and elsewhere, showing that there has been a subsidence of
the land. This has given rise to the fable of a drowned realm of
Lyonesse, but this Lyonesse never existed in or near Cornwall; it was
Leon in Brittany. But if there has been subsidence, there has also been
an elevation of the land, as is shown by the raised beaches that can be
traced along the coast. In the south are found flint pebbles in these
raised beaches, showing that the wash at one period was not as now from
west to east, but the reverse. It was from these flint pebbles in the
elevated beaches that prehistoric man in Cornwall obtained the material
for the fabrication of his tools and weapons. The elevation of the land,
which dried up the channel between the Land's End and the mainland,
preceded the depression which sunk the now submerged forests.
To the north of the great granite boss that forms the Bodmin moors a
ridge of cold moors rises, setting its back against the Atlantic and
feeding the rivers that flow south with the rain that pours over it.
Very little can be grown on these heights: they produce a little barley,
but are mainly covered with rushes, coarse grass, and furze bushes. No
considerable heights are reached till we come to Carnmarth and Carn
Brea, each only 700 ft. above the sea. Then there is no distinct height
till we reach Godolphin and Tregonning hills of 560 ft. and 600 ft.
Towards Land's End there are greater heights--700 ft. and a little over,
but this is naught compared with Brown Willy, 1368, and Kilmar, 1297, in
the east. But it must be understood that grand mountain, or even fine
hill scenery is not to be met with in western Cornwall. Its glory is in
its magnificent coast-line; and its beauty is to be found in its lovely
valleys and coombes.
[Illustration: Rough Tor]
The general features of a country depend on its geological structure.
Granite formation, slate rock, sandstone, limestone, chalk--all have
their special characters, unmistakable. When we are among the granites
in the west of England we expect a tent-like shape of hill with a tor of
rock at the summit; the sides strewn with a "clatter" of fallen rock,
and clothed in heather and furze. When we come to the slates, and the
overlying cold clays, we expect little except in the gorges and valleys
cut through the strata by the streams. Of sandstone, or of chalk,
forming breezy rolling downs, there is none in Cornwall, nor of
limestone with its bold scars, such as are met with in the western
hills of Yorkshire. We must take what we can find--and much can be found
in Cornwall if we do not expect too much, nor look for what is not
there, and under existing geological conditions could not be there.
[Illustration: St Keyne's Well, Liskeard]
=5. Watershed, Rivers.=
From what has been already said, it will be seen that the great spinal
column of Cornwall is in the north and that consequently the principal
rivers must flow to the south. It is true that the Camel and its
tributaries rise in the north and flow north to debouch into Padstow
estuary, but that is the only river of the smallest consequence that
directly feeds the Atlantic.
[Illustration: On the Camel]
The Camel rises in the wind-swept, sodden, clay land above Boscastle,
and dribbles down to Camelford, passing under Slaughter Bridge and the
stone of LATEINOS which traditionally mark the scene of King Arthur's
last fight and death. After leaving Camelford, it plunges through a
beautiful wooded valley, under Helsbury Castle occupying a bleak conical
hill--a castle of the Dukes of Cornwall, but consisting only of a stone
camp of prehistoric date and a ruined chapel in the midst dedicated to
St Sith or Itha, an Irish saint. It passes Lavethan, a hospitium of the
monks of Bodmin, and between wooded banks through Pencarrow and Dunmeer
woods, and having run south, it now turns north to meet and mingle
waters with the Allan, which has cleft for itself a very similar and
equally beautiful valley. The Allan rises near the slate quarries of
Delabole, and glides down by St Teath, and by St Mabyn on its bleak
stormbeaten height, itself snug between beautiful hanging woods and with
sweet old-world manor houses clustering near, and meets the Camel at
Egloshayle. Thence they flow away into the Padstow estuary under the old
15th century bridge at Wadebridge, past the Camelot of legend--the only
streams of any consequence that flow north.
With regard to the Tamar, we may call it as we please a Devonshire or a
Cornish river. It divides the counties through the principal part of its
course, but it has its source in Morwenstow, on a wretched moor, in
Cornwall. Not much can be said in its favour till it reaches Bridgerule.
From that point past North Tamerton (and Vacey, which although on the
left bank was included in Cornwall, and has two formidable earthworks)
it glides down to Werrington, where it meets the waters of the Attery
and passes under Polson Bridge within sight of Launceston. Thenceforth
the Tamar is in the full bloom of beauty. Carthamartha (Caer Tamar)
stands at its junction with the Inny. Below Polson Bridge it has
accepted the Lyd from Devon. Then through the lands and woods of the
Duke of Bedford at lovely Endsleigh, under the bold crags of Morwell, up
to which the tide reaches, then past Calstock and Cothele, and in
serpentine writhes about Pentillie Castle, and so into the Hamoaze--the
most beautiful river in England, excepting possibly the Wye.
[Illustration: Wadebridge]
The Inny, one of the feeders of the Tamar and altogether Cornish, must
not be omitted, for it is a beautiful stream. It rises in the elevated
land by Davidstowe and ripples down near Altarnon, passing in a
picturesque valley the Holy Well and chapel of St Clether and the
ancestral seat of the Trevelyan family at Basil; then, still in its
beautiful valley, past Polyphant, famous for its quarries of a stone
that admits of the most delicate carving, until it reaches the Tamar at
Innyfoot. It is a river rich in trout. An old Cornish song of the
Altarnon volunteer has the verse:
O Altarnon! O Altarnon! I ne'er shall see thee more,
Nor hear the sweet bells ringing, nor stand in the church door,
Nor hear the birds a-whistling, nor in the Inny stream
See silver trout glance by me, as thoughts glance by in dream.
It is not however the Inny but a tributary that actually passes
Altarnon.
[Illustration: Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash]
The Lynher falls into the Hamoaze, running for much of its course
parallel to the Inny. It rises in the Bodmin moors and flows through the
beautiful grounds of Trebartha where it receives a feeder from Trewartha
marsh that leaps to meet it in a pretty cascade. Trewartha marsh has
been turned over and over for tin and gold, and the Squire of Trebartha
formerly furnished his daughters with gold rings made from the precious
ore found in it. A curious settlement of the Celtic period exists above
the marsh. It has however been much mutilated by farmers, who have
carried off the stones for the construction of pigstyes. The Lynher
flows through the park of the Earl of St Germans, past the beautiful
church with its Norman west front, and then is lost in the united waters
of the Tamar and the Tavy.
Under Brown Willy is a pool called Fowey Well, which is traditionally
held to be the source of the Fowey river. This however is not the case.
It rises under Buttern Hill (1135 ft.) crowned by cairns, but as the
Fowey Well has no outlet visible, it is supposed to decant by a
subterranean stream into the river. Leaping down from the moors, the
Fowey enters a wooded valley and, turning abruptly west, flows through
another well timbered valley. Running beside the railway, and then
turning sharply south, it passes the old Stannery town of Lostwithiel,
to which the tide reaches, and plunging into a narrow glen with St
Winnow on one side and Golant on the other, finally reaches the sea at
Fowey harbour.
There are two Looe rivers, one rising in the Bodmin moors receives the
overflow of Dozmare Pool, and flowing deep below Liskeard receives the
West Looe above the estuary. Duloe, which has a small but interesting
circle of upright stones, stands between them and is supposed to be so
called as between the two Looes. Before reaching Duloe the river has
passed under St Keyne, famous for its Holy Well commemorated by Southey
in a well-known ballad.
There is no river of any importance till we reach the Fal. Rising on
Goss Moor, not far from St Columb, and passing Grampound and Tregony,
now an utterly decayed place, it meets the Tressilian and the Truro
rivers, and all three, insignificant hitherto, suddenly acquire
importance and spread out into the beautiful estuary of the Fal or
Carrick Roads. Here are Penryn creek, Mylor creek, and Porthcuel
harbour, commanded by the castle of St Mawes. None of these owe their
importance to the sweet waters they bring down; all their value is due
to the tide that flows up to Truro.
The entrance to the Roads is found between Zoze Point and Pendennis
Point, the latter at one time defended by a strong castle. Almost
halfway between the points is the dangerous Black Rock, to which a
former Trefusis conveyed his wife and there left her to be overwhelmed
by the rising tide. Happily she was rescued by some fishermen. The
Helford river is but a creek, noted for its oyster beds, into which a
little stream dribbles.
=6. Geology and Soil.=
By Geology we mean the study of the rocks, and we must at the outset
explain that the term _rock_ is used by the geologist without any
reference to the hardness or compactness of the material to which the
name is applied; thus he speaks of loose sand as a rock equally with a
hard substance like granite.
Rocks are of two kinds, (1) those laid down mostly under water, (2)
those due to the action of fire.
The first kind may be compared to sheets of paper one over the other.
These sheets are called _beds_, and such beds are usually formed of sand
(often containing pebbles), mud or clay, and limestone, or mixtures of
these materials. They are laid down as flat or nearly flat sheets, but
may afterwards be tilted as the result of movement of the earth's crust,
just as you may tilt sheets of paper, folding them into arches and
troughs, by compressing their ends. Again, we may find the tops of the
folds so produced wasted away as the result of the wearing action of
rivers, glaciers, and sea-waves upon them, as you might cut off the tops
of the folds of the paper with a pair of shears. This has happened with
the ancient beds forming parts of the earth's crust, and we therefore
often find them tilted, with the upper parts removed.
The other kinds of rocks are known as igneous rocks, which have been
melted under the action of heat and become solid on cooling. When in the
molten state they have been poured out at the surface as the lava of
volcanoes, or have been forced into other rocks and cooled in the cracks
and other places of weakness. Much material is also thrown out of
volcanoes as volcanic ash and dust, and is piled up on the sides of the
volcano. Such ashy material may be arranged in beds, so that it partakes
to some extent of the qualities of the two great rock groups.
The production of beds is of great importance to geologists, for by
means of these beds we can classify the rocks according to age. If we
take two sheets of paper, and lay one on the top of the other on a
table, the upper one has been laid down after the other. Similarly with
two beds, the upper is also the newer, and the newer will remain on the
top after earth-movements, save in very exceptional cases which need not
be regarded by us here, and for general purposes we may regard any bed
or set of beds resting on any other in our own country as being the
newer bed or set.
The movements which affect beds may occur at different times. One set of
beds may be laid down flat, then thrown into folds by movement, the tops
of the beds worn off, and another set of beds laid down upon the worn
surface of the older beds, the edges of which will abut against the
oldest of the new set of flatly deposited beds, which latter may in turn
undergo disturbance and renewal of their upper portions.
NAMES OF SUBDIVISIONS CHARACTERS OF ROCKS
SYSTEMS
{ { Metal Age Deposits }
{ Recent { Neolithic " } Superficial Deposits
{ Pleistocene { Palaeolithic " }
{ { Glacial " }
{
{ { Cromer Series }
T { { Weybourne Crag }
E { Pliocene { Chillesford and Norwich } Sands chiefly
R { { Crags }
T { { Red and Walton Crags }
I { { Coralline Crag }
A {
R { Miocene Absent from Britain
Y {
{ { Fluviomarine Beds of }
{ { Hampshire }
{ { Bagshot Beds }
{ Eocene { London Clay } Clays and Sands chiefly
{ { Oldhaven Beds, Woolwich }
{ { and Reading Groups }
{ { Thanet Sands }
{ { Chalk }
{ { Upper Greensand and Gault} Chalk at top
{ Cretaceous { Lower Greensand } Sandstones, Mud and
{ { Weald Clay } Clays below
{ { Hastings Sands }
{
{ { Purbeck Beds }
S { { Portland Beds }
E { { Kimmeridge Clay }
C { { Corallian Beds }
O { { Oxford Clay and } Shales, Sandstones and
N { { Kellaways Rock } Oolitic Limestones
D { Jurassic { Cornbrash }
A { { Forest Marble }
R { { Great Oolite with }
Y { { Stonesfield Slate }
{ { Inferior Oolite }
{ { Lias--Upper, Middle, }
{ { and Lower }
{
{ { Rhaetic }
{ { Keuper Marls }
{ { Keuper Sandstone } Red Sandstones and
{ Triassic { Upper Bunter Sandstone } Marls, Gypsum and Salt
{ { Banter Pebble Beds }
{ { Lower Bunter Sandstone }
{ { Magnesian Limestone and }
{ { Sandstone } Red Sandstones and
{ Permian { Marl Slate } Magnesian Limestone
{ { Lower Permian Sandstone }
{
{ { Coal Measures } Sandstones, Shales and
{ { Millstone Grit } Coals at top
{ Carboniferous { Mountain Limestone } Sandstones in middle
{ { Basal Carboniferous } Limestone and Shales
{ { Rocks } below
{
{ { Upper } Devonian } Red Sandstones,
{ Devonian { Mid } and Old Red } Shales, Slates and
P { { Lower } Sandstone } Limestones
R {
I { { Ludlow Beds } Sandstones, Shales and
M { Silurian { Wenlock Beds } Thin Limestones
A { { Llandovery Beds }
R {
Y { { Caradoc Beds } Shales, Slates,
{ Ordovician { Llandeilo Beds } Sandstones and
{ { Arenig Beds } Thin Limestones
{
{ { Tremadoc Slates }
{ { Lingula Flags } Slates and
{ Cambrian { Menevian Beds } Sandstones
{ { Harlech Grits and }
{ { Llanberis Slates }
{
{ { No definite } Sandstones,
{ Pre-Cambrian { classification } Slates and
{ { yet made } Volcanic Rocks
Again, after the formation of the beds many changes may occur in them.
They may become hardened, pebble-beds being changed into conglomerates,
sands into sandstones, muds and clays into mudstones and shales, soft
deposits of lime into limestone, and loose volcanic ashes into
exceedingly hard rocks. They may also become cracked, and the cracks are
often very regular, running in two directions at right angles one to the
other. Such cracks are known as _joints_, and the joints are very
important in affecting the physical geography of a district. Then, as
the result of great pressure applied sideways, the rocks may be so
changed that they can be split into thin slabs, which usually, though
not necessarily, split along planes standing at high angles to the
horizontal. Rocks affected in this way are known as _slates_.
If we could flatten out all the beds of England, and arrange them one
over the other and bore a shaft through them, we should see them on the
sides of the shaft, the newest appearing at the top and the oldest at
the bottom, as shown in the table. Such a shaft would have a depth of
between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. The strata beds are divided into three
great groups called Primary or Palaeozoic, Secondary or Mesozoic, and
Tertiary or Cainozoic, and the lowest Primary rocks are the oldest rocks
of Britain, which form as it were the foundation stones on which the
other rocks rest. These may be spoken of as the Pre-Cambrian rocks. The
three great groups are divided into minor divisions known as systems.
The names of these systems are arranged in order in the table and on the
right hand side the general characters of the rocks of each system are
stated.
With these preliminary remarks we may now proceed to a brief account of
the geology of the county.
[Illustration: SECTION FROM SNOWDON TO HARWICH, ABOUT 200 MILES.]
In Cornwall there is a succession of nodes of granite rising to the
surface, a continuation westward of the mass of Dartmoor. It has surged
to the surface in four large masses continued westward by the Scilly
Isles. These granitic masses have upheaved the superincumbent beds of
stratified rocks, partly melting them. These distinct nodes are: the
Bodmin moors, the St Austell elevation, the Carn Menelez, and the Land's
End district. Smaller masses of granite occur in the double heights of
Godolphin and Tregonning, St Michael's Mount, Carn Brea and Carn Marth,
and Castel-an-Dinas.
[Illustration: The Cheesewring]
The Elvans are dykes of quartz-porphyry which issue from the granite
into the surrounding slates, and are often mistakenly supposed to be a
bastard granite.
The granite in its upheaval has strangely altered and contorted the
superposed beds. There are as well intrusive veins of igneous rocks. In
the Lizard district is serpentine, a compact, tough rock often of a
green colour, lending itself to a high polish, and forming magnificent
cliffs with a special gloss and colour, as well as maintaining on the
surface a special flora.
The prime feature in Cornish geology is the upheaval of the granite,
distorting, folding back, and altering the superincumbent beds.
In the north-east of Cornwall from a line drawn from below Launceston,
on the Tamar, to Boscastle the rocks belong to the culm measures of
North Devon. All the rest of the peninsula, except the protruding
granite and the serpentine of the Lizard, pertains to the Devonian
series of sedimentary rocks, in which the first signs of life appear;
consisting largely of clay-slate, locally known as Killas, alternating
with beds of red or grey grit and sandstone. Although these slaty rocks
must be some thousand feet in thickness, they have been so broken up and
turned over by the convulsions of the earth that their chronological
sequence cannot easily be determined. In these convulsions they have
been rent, and through the rents have been driven hot blasts that have
deposited crystalline veins, or injections of trap and other volcanic
matter, altering the character of the rock through which they have been
driven. By the Menheniot Station on the G.W.R. is a hill of serpentine
thrown up at one jet, and now largely quarried for the sake of the
roads.
The culm measures already alluded to consist of black shales and slates
with seams of grit and chert, much undulated through enormous lateral
pressure. The granite, the lowest and most ancient formation of all, was
itself consolidated under vast pressure from above, and was not in a
molten condition when forced to the surface. Had it been so, it would
have resolved itself into lava. It was cold when upheaved, tearing apart
the superincumbent stratified sedimentary rocks, which disappeared from
the summits, and on all sides about these upheavals were twisted,
contorted, thrown back, and fissured.
Atmospheric effect and natural gravitation is constantly carrying the
soil from the upper land, from the hills into the bottoms, and
consequently it is in the latter that we find the richest land, best
calculated to repay the toil of the agriculturist. On the high moors
there is little depth of so called "meat earth," below which is clay and
grit, hard and unprofitable, commonly called the "calm" or the "deads."
But adjoining the granite is the wash from it of its dissolved felspar,
the china-clay that furnishes the inhabitants of the St Austell district
with a remunerative and ever-growing industry, of which more presently.
=7. Natural History.=
Various facts, which can only shortly be mentioned here, go to show that
the British Isles have not existed as such, and separated from the
Continent, for any great length of geological time. Around our coasts,
for instance, and specially in Cornwall, are in several places remains
of forests now sunk beneath the sea, and only to be seen at extreme low
water. Between England and the Continent the sea is very shallow, and St
Paul's Cathedral might be placed anywhere in the North Sea without
submerging its summit, but a little west of Ireland we soon come to very
deep soundings. Great Britain and Ireland were thus once part of the
Continent and are examples of what geologists call recent continental
islands. But we also have no less certain proof that at some anterior
period they were almost entirely submerged. The fauna and flora thus
being destroyed, the land would have to be restocked with animals and
plants from the Continent when union again took place, the influx of
course coming from the east and south. As, however, it was not long
before separation occurred, not all the continental species could
establish themselves. We should thus expect to find that the parts in
the neighbourhood of the Continent were richer in species and those
furthest off poorer, and this proves to be the case both in plants and
animals. While Britain has fewer species than France or Belgium, Ireland
has still less than Britain.
Small though England may be, she can nevertheless show most striking
differences of fauna and flora in different districts. On the moors of
the north, for example, the heaths and berries underfoot, and the larger
birds of prey and grouse which now and again meet our view offer a
marked contrast to--let us say--the furze-clad chalk downs of Sussex,
where the wheatear and whinchat and the copper butterflies and "blues"
are familiar objects. These differences depend upon a number of
conditions, often mutually interdependent--upon variations of soil,
rainfall, temperature, and so forth. Cornwall presents unusual
peculiarities in many ways, and we may now consider how far these have
affected the creatures and plants within her borders.
Firstly, Cornwall is remotely situated--one of the extreme points of
Western Europe--and, whether the fact be dependent on food conditions or
not, we find that there are several species of bird, common in other
parts of England, which do not occur within the county, such as the
nightingale, the wood warbler, garden warbler, redstart, and others. It
would almost seem as if some of these species had not found their way
thither since the re-peopling of the land by its present fauna, but were
in gradual process of doing so, for there is no doubt that many birds
rare or unknown in the Duchy half a century ago are now not uncommon,
and appear to be steadily moving westward. That the starling is doing so
is perhaps not remarkable, for this bird has enormously increased in
numbers of late years and has spread everywhere, even up into northern
Scotland, but it is curious that birds like the stock-dove and all the
woodpeckers and other non-gregarious sorts should show this tendency.
[Illustration: In a Cornish Garden]
Next, Cornwall is from its position constantly exposed to high winds,
and to heavy gales in winter, combined with an unusually heavy rainfall
and an "insular" climate tending to warmth and equableness. These
factors, added to the granitic formation of much of its area, have made
it a country of bleak moorland varied with thickly-wooded deep
valleys--dampness being the leading characteristic of both. With such
physical conditions, then, we should expect to find the Duchy not very
varied in its native trees, perhaps, but particularly abundant in ferns,
and this is the case, for 39 species are recorded, while lichens are not
less rich. It bears in many ways a resemblance to the climate of
Portugal, for here the camellia flourishes and displays its beautiful
flowers to perfection, and the tea plant does so well that there seems
no reason why it should not be grown for profit. It is not a land of
warblers, nor can it show the rich and varied wildfowl fauna of the
Fenlands, but there is no county in England where, in the marshy glens,
woodcocks are more abundant. The moorlands, too, abound in snipe, and at
one time blackgame were common, but the larger birds of prey have for
the most part vanished, though an occasional buzzard may be seen and the
raven is not yet extinct.
Lastly, it is to be noted that Cornwall is the nearest part of England
to America. However difficult it may be of explanation, the fact remains
that the Duchy is very rich in rare birds; so rich, indeed, that their
recorded occurrence cannot by any possibility be merely accidental.
Thus, no less than 24 species have occurred in Cornwall which have never
been found in Devonshire. But more than this, a very large number of
these--18 or more--are purely American species. The question is, whence
do they come? Professor James Clark, who has discussed the point at some
length in the _Victoria County History_, is, apparently, loth to believe
that they can come directly across the Atlantic, and it is by many
thought that they are driven back by heavy south-westerly weather when
dropping down the English Channel, having come by a circuitous route
from Northern Europe. But against this is the undeniable fact that it is
in the immediate neighbourhood of the Land's End that the chief rarities
and stragglers are obtained, while many species have been shot in the
Scilly Islands which have never been recorded from Cornwall itself.
So far as its botany is concerned, Cornwall does not differ very
markedly from Devonshire, but it has a large number of rare or peculiar
plants. The highlands and north coast are rather poor in species; it is
on the banks and estuaries of the streams that the richest flora is
seen. A number of foreign plants are found, mostly in the neighbourhood
of Falmouth and other ports. The balsam, _Impatiens Roylei_, from
India, grows extremely abundantly between Liskeard and Looe, and near
Tintagel, and a species of May-weed (_Matricaria discoidea_) has become
a troublesome pest near Falmouth. Loe Pool in the Lizard district is
noticeable for the number of rare and local plants it possesses. The
Scilly Islands own certain plants peculiar to them; thus, _Trifolium
repens_, var. _Townsendi_ and _Ornithopus ebracteatus_ are said not to
be found elsewhere in England, and _Carex ligerica_ only in Norfolk.
The chief feature of the mammals of the county is that the grey seal,
_Halichaerus gryphus_, is quite numerous in the Scilly Islands; that the
polecat, though nearly extinct, is still found; and that both badgers
and otters are very abundant. It is a curious fact that certain
freshwater fish common in other parts of England, such as pike, roach,
chub, and bream, are unknown.
The bird which bears the distinctive appellation, the Cornish chough (it
is not confined to the county, but is also found in Wales), is now not
nearly as common as formerly, but like the raven it still breeds on some
parts of the coast.
=8. Around the Coast. From Morwenstow to Land's End.=
[Illustration: Bude Breakwater]
This noble coast--so terrible to sailors--begins with the fine Henna
Cliff at Morwenstow. Morwenstow Church contains an early font and has
fine Norman arches. Here is Tonacombe, an interesting early Tudor house
quite unspoiled. At Morwenstow lived the Rev. Robert Hawker, a poet and
character. Bude Haven is a growing seaside place, with golf-links and
tolerable bathing. Stratton, of which parish it actually forms or did form
a part, has a fine well-cared for church, and above the town is Stamford
Hill, where was fought a battle in the Civil War, on May 16, 1643. Sir
Bevil Grenville and Hopton commanded the Royalist Army, and the Earl of
Stamford the Parliamentarians. The latter were defeated with the loss of
300 men killed and 1700 taken prisoners. One of the old guns marks the
site, and an inscription in commemoration of the battle is affixed to
the Tree Inn. Widemouth Bay has good sands and promises at some future
day to become a sea-bathing place superior to Bude. At Dazard the cliffs
are fine; at St Gennys is Crackington Cove with a small beach. Beyond
this, High Cliff (705 ft.) is reached, the loftiest headland on the
coast. The coast is magnificent to Boscastle. Near this is Pentargon, a
beautiful bay into which a little stream leaps in a waterfall. Boscastle
is a narrow creek into which only in calm weather can small vessels
enter. It is sheltered by a headland in which is a blow-hole. In a
lovely valley is the towerless church of Minster. In caves about
Willapark seals breed. From hence to Tintagel the cliffs are of slate
and are quarried, the slate being let down into boats in the water, when
weather permits. Before reaching Tintagel we come to St Neighton's
(Nectan's) Kieve, a small waterfall in a glen, where maidenhair fern
once abounded.
Tintagel village is separated from the church by a deep glen. The church
is on a windy height, and is interesting for its antiquity. Tintagel
castle stands on a headland, once an island, but the cliff and a portion
of the castle have fallen into the narrow gulf and choked it. The sea
has bored a tunnel through the headland, and very little of the castle
remains. The walls were of the local slate-stone set in mortar made of
sea-shells. In this castle, traditionally, King Arthur was born. There
are slate quarries in the neighbourhood, and further inland are the
Delabole quarries, from which slate is conveyed to all parts of England.
[Illustration: King Arthur's Castle, Tintagel]
The small Trebarwith Cove is passed and then we reach Port Isaac Bay,
which takes its name, not from the patriarch, but from a Cornish word
that signifies a port for corn.
[Illustration: Bodruthan Steps]
Porthqueen has its pilchard cellars cut out of the rocks; and at the
western end of its bay Pentire Head stands out boldly into the Atlantic
with a cliff castle at its extreme point. Pentire to some extent
shelters Padstow Bay, but the entrance to the harbour is made dangerous
by the Doom Bar lying across it. Here the rounded, sand-powdered Bray
Hill is supposed to have buried under the drift sand the remains of a
Roman town, but that there was such a Roman settlement is very doubtful.
Further inland is the church of St Enodoc recently dug out of the sand,
and the path to the porch has singular "Lord's Measures" that have been
collected and are here planted. They were measures for grain. Of Padstow
something shall be said elsewhere. Before reaching Trevose Head is
Harlyn Bay, where from under the sand has been dug out a cemetery of the
iron age, the skeletons crouching with their chins to their knees, in
slate kists or coffins, with bronze ornaments, glass and amber beads,
and iron instruments. Here also by the falling of the earth or sand some
gold ornaments of the Celtic period were laid bare. On Trevose Head is a
lighthouse. In Constantine Bay are the remains of a church half buried
in sand, and with bones strewn about it. The font from this abandoned
church has been transferred to St Merryn. It is of black Catacluse
stone, as are the piers and arches of the church, giving it a sombre
look. Passing the little Porthcothan we come to the noble cliffs of
Bodruthan Steps, perhaps the finest bit of the north-coast scenery, and
then reach Mawgan Porth, the estuary of the tiny stream that waters
the vale of Lanherne. Here is the ancient mansion of the Arundells,
dating from 1580, granted by Lord Arundell to Carmelite nuns, who came
to England, at the outbreak of the French Revolution, in 1794. They have
remained here ever since in seclusion. Near the door into their chapel
is an old cross with inscription and interlaced work. The church has a
beautifully proportioned tower, a good rood-screen, and many monuments
of the Arundells, as well as a remarkable Gothic cross. A grove of
Cornish elms like whips occupies the bottom of the valley. The church
and parish are St Mawgan in Pyder.
[Illustration: Newquay Harbour]
Newquay with its sands is a rapidly growing watering-place, with staring
hotels. Crantock church, which once had its canons, is interesting; it
has been carefully restored and has a fine rood-screen and loft. On the
stalls is carved a dove with a chip of wood in its beak, and the story
goes that St Carantoc--who assisted St Patrick in drawing up the Senchus
Mor, the code of laws for Christian Ireland--was guided to the site for
his church by seeing a dove carry off the shavings of his staff which he
was cutting. Perran Bay has sent its sands flying inland, causing a
widespread extent of _towans_ or dunes, which have overwhelmed first of
all the old church of St Piran or Cieran of Saighir in Ireland, who was
buried in it, and then a second church built further inland, which also
in turn had to be abandoned. These sand-dunes are a rabbit warren. The
old church of St Piran, extremely rude in construction, has been
excavated, but the only carved work found has been removed to the museum
at Truro. The church resembles one of the early Christian chapels in
Ireland. Bones are scattered about around it.
St Agnes--or St Aun's Head as it is locally termed--is but 617 ft. high,
but it stands boldly above the sea.
Portreath is a busy little place to which coal-barges come from Cardiff
with coal for the Camborne and Redruth mines. Tehidy Park, which stands
above it, is an old seat of the Bassets. After passing Navax Point the
broad Bay of St Ives opens out, with a lighthouse at each horn, and here
again begin the towans or sand-dunes. Hayle is at the mouth of a small
stream of the same name, and signifies "saltings." We come now to the
town of St Ives, with an interesting church and an old cross. St Ives
till about 1410 was but a tiny fishing village and was in the parish of
Lelant. Perkin Warbeck landed near here in 1497.
Near this is the Knill monument erected in 1782 by the eccentric John
Knill, who left money for an annual procession to it, and a dance of
children around it. He intended it to have been his mausoleum, but he
died and was buried in London.
[Illustration: The Wharf, St Ives]
Zennor has a curious little church with carved bench ends, on one of
which is represented a mermaid, and Zennor "quoit" is thought to be the
largest cromlech in England.
The Gurnard's Head has sheer cliffs on east and west, composed of slaty
felspar, horneblende and greenstone, whereas the rocks of Zennor are of
granite and slate in juxtaposition, and with dykes of granite
penetrating the slate. Hills of rock and heather and furze bend round
in a crescent terminating on one side at Carnminnis, on the other at
Carn Galva, enclosing a great basin that reaches to the cliffs. On the
isthmus connecting the headland with the mainland is a ruined chapel,
with the altar-stone entire. Three miles westward is Morvah with the
interesting Chun Castle above it, of rude stone forming three concentric
rings, and not far off is Chun cromlech.
We come now to Botallack with its famous mine, carried to a depth of a
thousand feet and extending a considerable distance under the sea. In
time of storm the booming of the waves overhead and the clashing of
stones rolled by the billows is so great that the bravest miners are
driven from their work. Tin mining is now but languidly carried on.
Although the heights are not great, yet this portion of coast is
remarkably fine.
Cape Cornwall exhibits the junction of the slate with the granite. Here
also extensive mining has been carried on, and Boswedden, like
Botallack, burrowed far under the sea. Near the church of St Just is one
of the circles or amphitheatres in which miracle plays were performed.
The "Merry Maidens" is a prehistoric stone circle in the neighbourhood
with ten stones erect and five fallen.