acquired the name of China. For a long time it was supposed that the
kaolin or fine white clay of which it is composed, was found only in the
Celestial Empire, and specimens of this brought to Europe fetched a high
price. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it was discovered in
Saxony in an odd way. A merchant named Schnerr, being on a journey, was
struck with the whiteness of some clay near Schneeburg, and collecting
some of it used it for powdering his wig. It succeeded, but had this
disadvantage, that wigs dressed with this new powder were very heavy. An
apothecary named Boetcher noticed the increased weight of the wig,
analysed the powder, and discovered that it was identical with Chinese
kaolin. He began to make Dresden China in 1709, and the process was
carried on with the greatest secrecy, the exportation of the earth being
forbidden under heavy penalties.
In 1748 Cookworthy discovered kaolin on Tregonning Hill, more was found
at Boconnoc, and Cookworthy and Thomas Pett began to make china in 1768.
At present St Austell is the great seat of this industry, and the
produce is shipped at Charlestown and Polmear.
[Illustration: Delabole Slate Quarries]
The important slate-quarries of the Duchy, of which the Delabole
quarry is the most renowned, have already been mentioned.
At Calstock and Gunnislake a few years ago there were numerous miners
engaged in the manufacture of arsenic from the waste product of the
abandoned copper mines. But now this has become an extinct industry.
[Illustration: Shipping Slate, Port Gavin]
Wulfram or tungsten, a metal used as an alloy for hardening steel, was
also a waste product from the tin mines, but it is now utilised. At St
Ives, pitchblende is now being worked for radium.
=17. Fisheries.=
If mining be a decayed industry in Cornwall, that of fishing shows no
diminution. In an old book of natural history published in 1776, the
principal fishery of pilchards is described. "Pilchards appear in vast
shoals off the Cornish coasts about the middle of July, and disappear at
the beginning of winter; though a few of them sometimes return again
after Christmas. The fishing employs a great many men on the sea, and
men, women, and children on land, in salting, pressing, washing, and
cleaning; in making boats, nets, ropes, casks; and all the tradesmen
depending on their construction and sale. The usual quantities exported
each year, for ten years, from 1746 to 1756 inclusive, on the average is
as follows: Fowey has exported 1732 hogsheads annually; Falmouth 14,631;
Penzance and Mounts Bay 12,149; St Ives 1282; in all amounting to 29,795
hogsheads." And the same writer thus describes the fish. "The pilchard
greatly resembles the herring, but differs from it in some particulars;
it is a third less, and the body is proportionably broader: it has a
black spot near the upper corner of the gills, and the belly is not so
sharp. It has no teeth, either in the jaws, the tongue, or the palate."
It is now held that the pilchard is identical with the sardine, but in a
different stage of growth.
The pilchards are taken generally from the middle of August to the
middle of September, when large "schools" are seen coming up the
Channel. Each fishing station generally has two or more companies or
clubs of twenty or thirty men; each company owning various boats and
generally two of the gigantic seines employed, which cost L250 or more.
These nets are about 250 fathoms or more long and about 15 fathoms deep,
and three boats go to each seine. The first boat, which is also the
largest, is called the seine-boat, as it carries the net and seven men
in it; the next is termed the "vollier," or "cock-boat," and carries
another seine, called the tuck-seine, which is 100 fathoms long and 18
deep, this boat also carries seven men; the third boat is called the
"lurker," and contains three or four men, and in this boat is the
master.
[Illustration: Pilchard Boats, Mevagissey]
The pilchards were at one time supposed to come from the Polar Sea, but
it has now been ascertained that the main body retires for the winter
into deep water to the westward of the Scilly Isles. About the middle of
spring they quit the deep seas and begin to consort in small shoals
which gradually increase to the end of July or the beginning of August,
when they combine in one mighty host and begin their migration eastward.
They strike the land a little north of Cape Cornwall, where they break
up into two portions, one following the north coast of Cornwall, the
other the south.
When the shoal is approaching, men and boys who have been lying on the
cliffs doing nothing start into activity and rush to the boats. The
gulls may be seen hovering over the advancing army, and a change appears
in the colour of the water. At once the "huers," as the signallers are
called, get out their signals--a ball at the end of a stick--and proceed
to direct the pursuing boats according to the movements of the school.
The seine-boat leads the way followed by the vollier, and the crew of
the foremost boat pass a warp, that is, throw a rope, which is fixed to
the end of the seine on board the vollier, and then shoot the net
overboard, which, having leaden weights at bottom, sinks, while the top
is buoyed up with corks. The seine-boat is rowed in a circular course
round where the fish are "stoiting" or jumping, and when they have
reached the vollier, the fish are enclosed. They then join the two ends
of the seine together with a cord to prevent the fish from breaking out,
and whilst this is being done a man is engaged in frightening the fish
away from the still open end by means of a stone fastened to a rope.
When the two ends of the net are laced together, grapes, i.e. grapples,
are let down to keep the net expanded and steady till the fish have been
taken up. This latter process is called "tucking the seine." The boat
with the tuck-seine on board passes the warp of that seine to one of the
other boats and then shoots this net within the big seine. It is then
drawn up to the edge of the water, when it is seen to be one quivering
mass of silver. The fish are now taken or dipped out with baskets into
the boats. When the boats are filled, if more fish remain in the large
seine, it is left in the water, till by successive tuckings all the fish
have been removed. In addition to seining large numbers of pilchards are
taken in drift nets.
[Illustration: The Huers' House, Newquay]
Formerly pilchards were smoked, and went by the name of _fumados_,
which name has been corrupted into "fair maids." A not over-complimentary
saying in Cornwall is that "pilchards and women when they are bad
are very bad, and when good are only middling." Pilchards constitute
an important article of food to the poorer classes on the coast, but
doubtless the Cornishmen get very tired of them as an article
of diet. Large quantities are exported to Spain and Italy. Some are made
into "sardines" in oil in the local factories.
A peculiarity of the county is that ecclesiastical dues in the nature of
tithes are levied on the persons employed in the pilchard fisheries.
The number of hogsheads packed for export every year varies
considerably, but the yearly produce averages from 20,000 to 30,000
hogsheads. In certain years the amount has reached nearly 50,000. In
1901 the fishery found employment for 3734 men, in 1905 in Penzance
alone for 1275. Beside pilchards, there are mackerel, hake, cod, etc.
[Illustration: Pilchard Boats, St Ives Harbour]
The quantity of fish taken, other than mackerel, herrings, pilchards,
and sprats in 1905 at Looe was 5841 cwt., at Mevagissey 4893, at
Falmouth 3213, at Porthleven 6132, at Newlyn 37,468. Of mackerel,
herrings and sprats, at Looe 10,403 cwt., at Mevagissey 40,236, at
Falmouth 5991, at Porthleven 26,945, at Newlyn 493,956. The total value
of the fish taken in the year at Looe was L5377, at Mevagissey L13,818,
at Falmouth L17,718, at Porthleven L11,454, at Newlyn L232,466.
Turning to the north coast, in the first category were taken at Sennen 1074
cwt., at St Ives 2431, at Padstow 4051. In the second category, at
Sennen 605 cwt., at St Ives 80,557, at Padstow but 318, at Port Isaac
2526.
The value of the fish taken at Sennen was L2065, at St Ives L39,941, at
Padstow L6660, at Port Isaac L2169.
[Illustration: Landing Fish, Newlyn]
=18. Shipping and Trade.=
There are no great seaports in Cornwall. Falmouth was by far the most
considerable when the packet service ran from it to the West Indies,
Portugal, and New York. The station was established in 1688. In 1705
five packet-boats left it for the West Indies and in 1709 as many for
Lisbon; not till 1755 did two sail for New York, but the number was
increased to four in 1763.
In 1782, eighteen packets sailed from Falmouth for the West Indies and
America. Up to 1823 the packets had sailed under contract between the
General Post Office and the commanders, who received their appointment
from that establishment and engaged to provide, equip, and man a proper
ship for the purpose, for a sum of L1800 per annum. These vessels were
from 180 to 210 tons register. But after 1823 the above system was
changed, for the service was placed under the orders of the Admiralty
instead of the Post Office; and as vessels were wanted they were
supplied by men-of-war.
[Illustration: The St Vincent's Anchor, Falmouth]
In 1827 thirty-nine packets left Falmouth; in 1834 six steamers were
employed. But in 1850 Falmouth ceased altogether to be a packet station.
This was greatly to the detriment of the town. It still remains as a
port of call for outward-bound sailing-ships. Further up the river is
Penryn, which was a town and a port before Falmouth was thought of. The
silting up of the river does not now allow other than small boats and
barges to reach it.
Letters came down on mail coaches, from London through Exeter, by
Launceston to Bodmin, and thence to Truro and Falmouth. The rate
appointed for the coaches, including stoppages, was bound to be thirteen
miles an hour. The mail spun along night and day, without a halt save
for change of horses. The stages on an average were eight miles, and the
horses, four-in-hand, went at a gallop. The guard wore the royal livery
of scarlet, and always had his blunderbus handy, in case of an attempt
by highwaymen to hold up his coach.
Charlestown and Polmear in St Austell Bay are only important for the
trade in china-clay exported thence; Marazion and Penzance, and St
Mary's in Scilly only for the conveyance of flowers to London. But these
ports and such as are on the north coast are convenient as mouths
through which Welsh coal can be imported to feed the cellars and fires
in the peninsula. Pilchards also are exported from these little ports to
Italy and Spain; and anciently a considerable trade was carried on
between them and France, Spain, and Portugal in wine, and a considerable
amount of wine and spirits entered the county through small creeks and
coves, into which smugglers conveyed their kegs. The gentry and
taverners were kept well supplied with liquor that never paid duty.
=19. History.=
The original population of Cornwall was probably Iberic, of the same
primitive race as the dark-haired population of Ireland, before the
island was invaded and subjugated by the Celts.
The branch of the Celts in Britain and Cornwall was Brythonic, and there
is nothing certain to show that the Goidels were in Cornwall before the
Brythons. It is true that some few river names, and again inscriptions
are Irish, but these latter pertain to the settlement in Cornwall of
Irish expelled from Ossory and Wicklow in the fifth century.
Popularly the dark hair and dusky complexions of some of the Cornish is
attributed to Spaniards wrecked from the Armada. But no Spanish wreck
came on shore in Cornwall. The first loss the Armada sustained was east
of Plymouth. On its way back to Spain none of the vessels came near
Cornwall. Several were wrecked on the coast of Ireland and their crews
massacred to a man by the natives.
Posidonius travelled after B.C. 123 and visited Spain, where he
collected a variety of information on points of geography and natural
history, and after spending thirty days at Gades returned to Italy. He
learned among other things something about the collection of tin in
Bolerium, a name afterwards appropriated by Ptolemy to the Land's End.
He says: "The inhabitants of that promontory of Britain which is called
Bolerium are very fond of strangers, and from their intercourse with
foreign merchants are civilised in their manner of life. They prepare
the tin, working very skilfully the earth in which it is produced. The
ground is rocky, but it contains earthy veins, the produce of which is
ground down, smelted, and purified. They make the metal up into slabs
shaped like knuckle-bones, and carry it to a certain island lying in
front of Britain called Ictis. During the ebb of the tide the
intervening space is left dry, and to this place they carry over
abundance of tin in their waggons.... Here then, the merchants buy the
tin from the natives, and carry it over to Gaul; and after travelling
overland for about thirty days, they finally bring their loads on
pack-horses to the outlet of the Rhone." It is very doubtful whether
Posidonius ever visited Britain. What he relates is doubtless due to
information received by him, either at Gades or at Massilia.
According to Timaeus, the contemporary of Pytheas, the isle of Vectis
was six days sail from Britain, "in an inward direction." Vectis, there
can be little doubt, is the Isle of Wight, formerly connected with the
mainland by a ridge of chalk since broken through by the waves. Ancient
mariners coasted, and those who came to Britain for tin followed the
Gallic shore till they could see the white cliffs of Dover, when they
crossed, and coasted down channel to the Isle of Wight.
There is no evidence that the Phoenicians ever visited Cornwall. Nor has
a single relic of Phoenician art or coin been found in Cornwall. The
traders with Britain were the Veneti of the Morbihan, in Brittany.
Moreover, as General Pitt Rivers has pointed out, bronze celts (axe
heads), which have been unearthed in Cornwall, are never found in any
parts where the Phoenicians have been.
It has been assumed with much confidence that Cornwall or the Scilly
Isles must have been the Cassiterides of the ancients. But even this is
doubtful. The Cassiterides were described as lying west of Spain, and
the description applies to the Azores; it may have been due to ignorance
or design that they were represented as islands prolific in tin.
[Illustration: The Nine Maidens, St Columb Major]
That tin was worked in Cornwall from a very early period can hardly be
questioned, in 1823 at Carnon a deer-horn pick was discovered 40 ft.
below the surface, but as a crucifix was also found there 30 ft. below
the surface, this only shows how the creeks have had their floors
turned over and silted up.
Though tin was exported from Cornwall, bronze was not manufactured there
till a comparatively late period. Bronze came from the East, and the
great centre whence radiated the trade in bronze weapons was the basin
of the Po.
What seems to be abundantly clear is that the export of tin from Britain
had come to an end by the first century of the present era. Caesar, on
invading Britain, heard nothing about it, and when Britain was finally
conquered, the Romans who worked the lead mines in the Mendips, and gold
and copper in Wales, totally neglected Cornwall, holding it to be
worthless. They never settled there, only traversed it to the Land's
End, leaving behind them a couple of square camps, some coins, few and
far between, and some Samian ware; but this shows little more than that
a traffic went on between the Britons of Cornwall and the Romans and
Romano-British beyond Exeter. The fact that the Romans had no idea that
tin was to be found in the peninsula shows that the mining for it had
ceased there for some time previous. The Brythonic Celts are held to
have invaded Britain B.C. 300; and it is probable that from that date
the industry in tin mining carried on by the Ivernian natives declined
rapidly and expired, leaving not a tradition behind.
It is noteworthy that the Dumnonii were behind the British peoples in
the east. They had no coinage, whereas those in the south-east had
theirs, copied from a stater of Philip of Macedon. No Greek coins had
reached the Dumnonii, and they had consequently none to copy, however
clumsily.
In the battle of Deorham, 577, the Britons were defeated with great
slaughter, and the West Welsh of Devon and Cornwall were cut off from
further communication with their brethren of Wales. The Saxons steadily
advanced, but for long the Parrett was the boundary. In 823 a battle was
fought between the Saxons and Britons at Gavulford, now Galford, a point
on the old road from Exeter to the west, where the hills draw together,
and whence it is commanded by a huge camp. The Britons now called the
Danes to their aid, and twelve years afterwards a battle was fought on
Hingeston Down, above Calstock, in which Egbert was victorious. This was
in 835. Hitherto the Britons had occupied one portion of Exeter, but
Athelstan, after defeating the Cornish King Howell, not only expelled
them from the city but fixed the Tamar as their boundary. Then he passed
through Cornwall, and even visited the Scilly Isles. The Count of Poher
in Brittany, of whose son Alan Barbetorte was the godson of Athelstan,
fled from Brittany with a crowd of his countrymen from the devastations
of the Northmen, and Athelstan gave them homes in England. It is
probable that he planted some in the Lizard, and others about Camborne,
for we find there church dedications to distinctively Breton saints, and
we know, moreover, that the fugitive Bretons brought with them the bones
of their patron saints. As they spoke the same tongue as the Cornish, it
would be natural for Athelstan to send them there.
In 981, the Danish pirates plundered the monastery of St Petrock, and in
997 ravaged the territories of their old allies from one end of Cornwall
to the other with fire and sword. Shortly before this, in 993, Olaf
Tryggvason of Norway, with Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, after having
attacked London, devastated the east coast, burnt Sandwich and Ipswich,
and stormed Bamborough, then harried the Scottish coast, the Western
Isles, the Isle of Man, and Ireland, where "he burned far and wide,
wherever inhabited." He then came to the Scilly Isles, where he put into
Tresco harbour. There the monks of the abbey founded by Athelstan so
impressed him, that he consented to be baptized.
In 1068, the county was plundered by Godwin and Edmund, sons of Harold,
after a battle in Somersetshire, and on their way back to Ireland.
In 1322, the craze for going on pilgrimage took possession of Cornish
men, women, and children, and they set off for the Holy Land, whence few
returned.
In 1497, in consequence of the dissatisfaction occasioned by the levy of
a burdensome tax, the commoners of Cornwall, headed by Thomas Flamank, a
gentleman, and Michael Joseph, a Bodmin blacksmith, rose in rebellion.
Having prevailed on Lord Audley to be their general, they marched as far
as to Blackheath in Kent, where they were defeated with much slaughter
by Lord Daubeny. In the same year Perkin Warbeck landed, according to
some at Whitesand Bay, near the Land's End, according to others in St
Ives' Bay, and marching to Bodmin, found the Cornish ripe for a new
rebellion. At the head of 3000 men he marched to Exeter, but was unable
to take it. He made his way to Taunton, where, despairing of success, he
deserted his army and fled, but was taken and executed.
In 1548, another rebellion broke out occasioned by the changes in
religion, which the Cornish resented. Their leader was Hugh Arundell,
Governor of St Michael's Mount. They proceeded to besiege Exeter, but
although the city was sorely distressed for want of provisions it held
out till relieved, and in a battle fought at Woodbury, they were
defeated with immense slaughter. Cornwall remained quiet in the reign of
Elizabeth, save that it sent out whole fleets of privateers to prey on
the Spanish traders and treasure vessels.
The Armada was off the Lizard on the 29th to 30th July, 1588. An English
fishing-boat was hanging near them, counting their numbers. They gave
chase, but the boat shot away down wind and disappeared. It carried the
news to Drake at Plymouth, who at once prepared to sail forth.
In the Civil War, Cornwall was almost unanimous on the side of the King.
Lord Robartes, however, threw in his lot with the Parliament. On the
side of the King were Sir Bevil Grenville, Sir Ralph Hopton, Godolphin,
Slanning, and Trevanion. A battle was fought at Boconnoc on January 19,
1643, in which General Ruthven and the Roundheads were defeated. Another
battle in which the Royalists were successful was at Stamford Hill above
Stratton, May 16, 1643.
Charles I visited Cornwall, and was so impressed by the devotion and
loyalty of the people that he addressed to them a letter of recognition,
copies of which may be seen in some of the churches. Prince Charles
spent a great part of the autumn and winter of 1645 in Cornwall; on
March 2, 1645-6, he embarked at Pendennis Castle for the Scilly Isles,
where he "was much straitened for provisions." He quitted Scilly on
April 16, and landed next day in Jersey, whence he sailed for France.
Queen Henrietta Maria had left Pendennis for France in July, 1644.
Cornwall took no active part in the Revolution; in the European War, it
sent forth many gallant sailors, among whom in the first place may be
reckoned Admiral Boscawen, "old Dreadnought." But since the Civil War
the history of the Duchy has been mainly one of social and industrial
advance. The principal events stirring the community were the
introduction of steam-engines to pump the mines, affrays with smugglers,
and the excitement and unlimited bribery and corruption at elections in
the rotten boroughs till these latter were swept away by the Reform Bill
of 1832. About these rotten boroughs a few words must be said. The old
boroughs that existed before the reign of Edward VI were Truro, Helston,
Lostwithiel, Bodmin, Liskeard, and Launceston. But the advisers of
Edward VI, conscious of insecure tenure of the throne and doubting
whether the country was willing to go with them in their sweeping
alterations in religion, and desirous of counteracting the growing
importance of the House of Commons, considered that their object would
be best attained by conferring the right of returning members of
Parliament upon the obscure dependent villages of Cornwall. Accordingly
Saltash, Camelford, West Looe, Bossiney, Grampound, Penryn, Mitchell,
and Newport were elevated into boroughs, each returning two members to
Parliament.
[Illustration: St Mawes, Falmouth Harbour]
Under Queen Mary, St Ives received the same privileges, and under
Elizabeth six more were made boroughs with the same rights, St Germans,
St Mawes, Tregony, East Looe, Fowey, and Callington. Some of these
places, as Mitchell, Tregony, and St Mawes, were mere hamlets. They all
soon passed away from the direct control of the Crown and fell into the
hands of borough mongers who returned what members they liked, by gross
bribery, expecting to be repaid with Baronetcies and with lucrative
sinecures by the Ministry of the day they supported.
=20. Antiquities: Prehistoric, Roman, Celtic, Saxon.=
The first men who inhabited our island were the merest savages. They had
no knowledge of the use of metals, they could not make pottery; they had
not domesticated the cow, the sheep, or the dog. They used extremely
rude flint weapons and tools. They were contemporary with the cave bear,
the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth, and the cave hyaena, all which beasts
then lived in Britain; and at that time the temperature was much colder
than at present. This period is called the Palaeolithic, or Old Stone
Age.
The next race that entered our island found the temperature much as it
is now. They were comparatively civilised. They still used flint
implements, but of a very superior type, and far better finished than
those of the earlier race. Moreover they were agricultural, grew corn,
had cows and sheep and dogs, and made pottery. This race it was which
erected the so-called cromlechs, stone circles, and tall upright stones.
The remains of their villages of circular stone huts are very numerous
on the moors. This period is called the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.
After a time bronze was introduced, by trade, and was at first as
valuable as gold is to us. But after a while it became much more common.
Its introduction marked the commencement of the Bronze Age.