adjoining, about which were the dormitories, a library, and a refectory
or room in which all had their meals in common. There would be often two
courts, one outer, the other with the cloister about it in which the
monks mainly lived and in the centre of which was the monastic
graveyard. The garden of pot herbs and herbs for medicinal purposes was
an essential feature of all monastic settlements, as was also the
stewpond or ponds for fish. The necessity under which the monks lay of
being near water, both for their fish and for sanitary purposes and for
drinking, led to all monastic establishments lying low down in valleys
by running streams.
Of monastic remains there are few. At Launceston the foundations of St
John's Priory have been laid bare. At Glasney in Penryn a few walls
alone represent what was once a stately priory. Of the great house at
Bodmin hardly a wall stands, but some remains of the sanatorium exist at
Lavethan. At Lanivet are the remains of St Benet's Monastery, till 1859
the most picturesque and best preserved of the monastic buildings in
Cornwall, except St Michael's Mount. An engraving of the remains was
published by Lysons in 1814, which shows the house to have been
beautifully situated, and as beautiful as its situation demanded. At the
date mentioned it was mutilated and spoilt.
Cornwall cannot boast picturesque cottages. Some few remain that possess
some charm, as the old Post-office at Tintagel, some slate-hung
dwellings in West Looe, the Lugger Inn, Fowey, and the almshouses at St
Germans. There are as well some that call for an artist to use his
pencil at Saltash. But, on the whole, the county is poor in the domestic
architecture of farm and cottage, and house fronts in the towns, with
rare exceptions, are not of any artistic character.
[Illustration: The Old Post Office, Tintagel]
=24. Communications--Roads, Railways.=
The great road from London to Falmouth ran through Launceston, Bodmin,
and Truro, and was kept in good order, and over it raced the mail
coaches that conveyed letters on to the packets at Falmouth. This was
the main artery of communication for more than a century, till Falmouth
was abandoned as a mail-packet station by the Government. From 18 to 20
fine vessels performed this service, carrying letters and papers to all
parts of the world, until the extension of railways caused the service
to be transferred to Southampton.
Whether there were systematically constructed Roman roads in Cornwall
has been doubted. One curious ancient road--the Giant's Hedge--is found
near Lanreath, and appears to have been a portion of a road raised on a
bank that started from a ferry over the Tamar and was carried into the
west of Cornwall. There was a road also that came from Exeter and
crossed the Tamar at Polson Bridge and then turned north to Camelford.
Another ran past Stratton to the estuary of the Camel opposite Padstow,
where Romano-British remains have been found on Bray Hill. But it is
possible enough that these roads were of British and not of Roman
construction.
In the Middle Ages little or nothing was done to keep the roads in
repair. Even in the eighteenth century all that was thought necessary
was to throw down a load of boulders into the ruts, rake them in, and
leave coach and cart wheels to grind them up. But the roads were taken
in hand at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the turnpikes
served to provide funds for keeping them in order, while Macadam's
invention of breaking the stones before laying them on the roads
assisted enormously in facilitating transit along them.
[Illustration: A Cornish Stile]
The roads in Cornwall are now for the most part excellent, metalled with
elvan, and cyclists and motorists can have little to complain of on that
score.
Two railway companies have penetrated the county; the G.W.R. in the
south crosses the Tamar by the famous Saltash tubular bridge, and runs
to Penzance, by Truro. There is a branch to Bodmin, another to Fowey,
and another crosses the county to Newquay. After reaching Truro, the
line deserts the south, but sends a branch down to Falmouth. It runs to
Redruth and Camborne and reaches the sea at Hayle. It sends a short
branch up to St Ives, but the main line turns south again to end in a
terminus at Penzance. The L. & S.W.R., after sending out a branch to
Bude, reaches Launceston, and then supplies the dreary country from
Launceston to Camelford with communication. From Camelford it runs to
Wadebridge; and down the estuary to Padstow, a branch to the south
serving Bodmin.
In addition to the branches already mentioned are others to Looe and
Helston.
Penzance is reached from Paddington in 8-1/2 hours and Newquay in
half-an-hour less.
The L. & S.W.R. leaving Waterloo reaches Launceston in 5-1/2 hours, Bude
in 6 hours, and Wadebridge in under 7 hours. From Wadebridge coaches run
to Newquay.
A steamer maintains communication with the Scilly Isles from Penzance.
=25. Administration and Divisions, Ancient and Modern.=
Before the Conquest the divisions of the county were probably those
afterwards forming the old deaneries, and followed the limits of the
Celtic tribes under their several chiefs. Of these there were
eight:--East and West, Kerrier, Penwith, Powder, Pyder, Trigg Major, and
Trigg Minor, but at the Conquest a redistribution was made in hundreds.
These were Conarton, Fawiton, Pawton, Riatton, Stratton, Tibesta or
Tibesterna, and Winneton. There may have been an Anglo-Saxon
redistribution. But it was a rearrangement that did not last, and never
commended itself to the people, and it is not easy now to ascertain what
the limits were. Conarton was Penwith. Perhaps Tibesta was Powder and
Winneton Kerrier. East and West composed one district of Wyvelshire.
Cornwall was first an Earldom, and then accordingly a County, but when
raised to be a Dukedom it became a Duchy. It had two chief officers, the
Earl and the Sheriff, the latter appointed by the crown.
The county was divided up into hundreds for administrative purposes.
Each hundred was supposed roughly to contain a hundred free families.
Each hundred had its own court, and every township its assembly under
the reeve. But the tinners were under their own laws and officers, and
their court, called the Stannary Court, sat formerly at Lostwithiel.
Every manor also had its court.
All the hundreds of Cornwall, except Penwith, from time immemorial
belonged to the Earls of Cornwall. The hundreds and Petty Sessional
Divisions are now coextensive, and are as follows:--1. Hundred of East
(Northern Division). 2. Hundred of East (Southern Division). 3. Hundred
of Kerrier. 4. Hundred of Lesnewth. 5. Hundred of Penwith. 6. Hundred of
Powder, East. 7. Hundred of Pyder, West. 8. Hundred of Pyder, East. 9.
Hundred of Stratton. 10. Hundred of Trigg. 11. Hundred of West.
Cornwall formerly returned four county members in two divisions, but
under the provisions of the "Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885," it now
returns six members in six divisions. 1. The western or St Ives
division. 2. The north-western or Camborne division. 3. The Truro
division. 4. The Mid or St Austell division. 5. The south-eastern or
Bodmin division. 6. The north-eastern or Launceston division. Under the
provisions of the above-mentioned Act, the boroughs of Bodmin, Helston,
Launceston, Liskeard, St Ives, and Truro were deprived of independent
representation and merged in the county, and Penryn and Falmouth lost
one member.
In 1877 the diocese of Truro, taken from that of Exeter, was formed,
comprising the whole county of Cornwall, together with the parishes of
Broadwood-Widger, Virginstow, Werrington, St Giles on the Heath, and
North Petherwin, which are in the county of Devon. The Stannary Court is
now at Truro, but its occupation is almost gone.
The Poor Law Unions are Bodmin, Camelford, Falmouth, Helston,
Launceston, Liskeard, Penzance, St Austell, Redruth, St Columb, St
Germans, Scilly Isles, Stratton, and Truro.
The County Council formed under the Local Government Act of 1888
consists of a chairman, aldermen, and councillors; but for the local
government of the towns and parishes another Act was passed in 1894, and
new names were given to the local bodies. In the large urban parishes
the chief authorities are now entitled District Councils, while the
smaller parishes have their Parish Councils or only Parish Meetings.
[Illustration: The Old Guildhall and Pillory, Looe]
The county is in the western circuit; the assize and quarter sessions,
which were formerly held at Launceston, a most inconvenient place for
the purpose, being at the extreme limit of the county, are now held at
Bodmin.
In Cornwall there are 223 civil parishes and the municipal boroughs are
eleven, Bodmin, Falmouth, Helston, Launceston, Liskeard, Lostwithiel,
Penryn, Penzance, Saltash, St Ives, and Truro.
The civil parishes and those that are ecclesiastical are not always
conterminous. Of the latter there are 236. There are two Archdeaconries,
Cornwall and Bodmin, and twelve deaneries, St Austell, Carnmarth,
Kerrier, Penwith, Powder, and Pydar in the Archdeaconry of Cornwall, and
Bodmin, East, Stratton, Trigg Major and Minor, and West in that of
Bodmin. There is a Bishop at Truro and a suffragan who takes his title
from St Germans.
=26. Roll of Honour.=
It would, perhaps, be invidious to say that Cornwall has produced men of
more brilliant and varied achievements than any other county in England,
but she can certainly show a very notable roll of honour. As might be
expected from her geographical position, aided by good harbours, she has
produced some great seamen who have done gallant service for England. At
the head of these must come Sir Richard Grenville, hero of the
_Revenge_, whose action off the Azores in 1591 has rendered him one of
England's immortals. Trapped by the huge Spanish fleet off Flores, Sir
Richard had many of his crew sick on shore, but declined to leave till
they had been brought on board. The _Revenge_ engaged fifteen large
Spanish men-of-war and stood at bay from three in the afternoon all
through the night till the following morning, when the last barrel of
powder was spent. Ralegh told of it, as did Gervase Markham in 1595, and
Tennyson nearly 300 years later in the stirring lines:--
"Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high-built galleons came,
Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle-thunder and flame;
Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her shame.
For some were sunk and many were shattered, and so could fight us no more--
God of Battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?"
His grandson, Sir Bevil Grenville, "the Mirror of Chivalry," was a
scarcely less notable warrior on land and fell in the Royalist victory
of Lansdowne near Bath in 1643. Admiral Edward Boscawen, "Old
Dreadnought," third son of Viscount Falmouth, distinguished himself at
the taking of Cartagena and in the Cape Breton expedition, but his most
memorable deed was the defeat of the French Toulon fleet in Lagos Bay in
1759. Captain Bligh, noteworthy as the captain of the _Bounty_, of
which the mutiny is one of the most familiar tragedies of the sea, was
perhaps in great measure the author of his own misfortunes, for he was a
man of very overbearing temper, but his journey of 3618 miles in an open
boat after having been set adrift with others by the mutineers was a
remarkable feat. The Pellew family has added at least two names to the
roll of distinguished sailors. Edward Pellew, when in command of the
_Nymphe_, manned by Cornish miners, captured the French man-of-war
_Cleopatre_ under peculiarly gallant circumstances, the first of a
series of brilliant exploits which led to his being created Baron
Exmouth. Later, in 1816, he bombarded Algiers, reduced the Dey to
submission, and put an end to the Barbary corsairs. His brother, Admiral
Sir Isaac Pellew, commanded the _Conqueror_ at the battle of Trafalgar.
[Illustration: Captain Bligh]
Cornwall being a land of mines has developed machinery and furthered
invention in this direction. The most notable of the inventors she has
produced is Richard Trevithick, who first made the high-pressure engine,
and is still more remarkable as the early pioneer of motor traffic,
putting his road locomotive on the Camborne highway on Christmas Day,
1801, and obtaining a speed with it of 12 miles per hour. In 1812 he
laid before the Navy Board his invention for a screw propeller for
ships, only to meet with a refusal. Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, born in
1793, also ran steam-motors on the roads until they were forbidden by
Act of Parliament, and the work of a lifetime and his fortune of L30,000
vanished into thin air. The oxy-hydrogen blowpipe and the steam-jet
were invented by him. The wreck of H.M.S. _Anson_ on Looe bar with the
loss of over 100 lives in 1807 had a great effect on one of the
spectators, Henry Trengrouse, a Helston cabinet-maker, who thereupon
invented the rocket life-saving apparatus and spent L3000--all his
means--in experiments and in vain endeavours to induce Government to
adopt the system. Another great benefactor to mankind was Sir Humphry
Davy, the son of a poor gilder near Penzance. His safety-lamp he nobly
refused to patent lest the sphere of its usefulness should be
restricted, and he is fittingly honoured with a statue in his native
town.
[Illustration: Sir Humphry Davy]
More than one distinguished traveller finds place among Cornish
worthies. Richard Lander, the son of a Truro innkeeper (1805-34), stands
at the head of them. He went with Clapperton to Sokoto and on his death
took up his work, tracing the mouth of the Niger on a second expedition,
and dying on a third at Fernando Po. Peter Mundy, born about 1596 at
"Penrin, a pretty towne in Corne Wall," as he describes it, was one of
the most remarkable travellers that the West of England has produced,
whether in virtue of his long trading voyages to the Far East, or of his
continental wanderings, of which he kept a not less careful record.
James Silk Buckingham, who died in 1855, wrote eighteen books of travel,
but was mainly noteworthy for his endeavours to do away with the
monopoly of the East India Company.
Among statesmen must be noticed Sir John Eliot, born at Port Eliot in
1592, and at one time friend of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
with whom he later broke, and taking up a strong line in the Parliament
of 1628 against arbitrary taxation helped to force the Petition of Right
from Charles. He was ultimately committed to the Tower, where he died
three years later in 1632. To give an adequate sketch of the life of
Sidney Godolphin would be to give the history of the times of Charles
II, James II, William of Orange and Anne, with each and all of whom he
was closely implicated. An extraordinarily able financier, his
character was such as to permit him to serve either party
indifferently. "Sidney Godolphin," said Charles, "is never in the way
and never out of the way." Lord High Treasurer under Queen Anne, he was
made Earl of Godolphin, only to be disgraced in 1710 and die shortly
after.
Samuel Drew, the "Cornish Metaphysician," who was born at St Austell,
had been a smuggler and a shoemaker in his earlier days, but developed
into a Wesleyan preacher and became the author of an essay on the
Immortality of the Soul. Of more normal mould was Humphrey Prideaux,
born at Padstow in 1648, who wrote a _Life of Mahomet_, and _The Old and
New Testament Connected_, which reached its 27th edition only a few
years ago. He became Dean of Norwich and died in 1724.
Cornwall has produced several local antiquaries, as the Rev. Richard
Polwhele, who died in 1838; the Rev. William Borlase, d. 1772; William
Hals, the historian of the Duchy; and William Sandys, who died in 1874.
She has had but few true poets, but the Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker,
though not actually born in Cornwall, spent all his life there and may
certainly come under this heading. He became Vicar of Morwenstow in
1834, and remained there till his death in 1875, having during this time
transformed his parishioners from a set of lawless wreckers to a decent
community. His poems were almost all connected with Cornish subjects,
and one of the best known of them is that on Bishop Trelawney's
imprisonment--"A good sword and a trusty sword," with the refrain--"And
shall Trelawney die? There's twenty thousand Cornishmen; Shall know the
reason why."
[Illustration: John Opie]
"A wondrous Cornishman, who is carrying all before him" is Sir Joshua
Reynolds' description of John Opie the painter, who was born the son of
a poor carpenter near Truro in 1761, became an R.A. and portrait-painter
of great note, and died in 1807. His second wife was Amelia Opie the
novelist, daughter of the Norwich physician, Dr Alderson. Henry Bone,
the enamellist, is also of sufficient distinction to deserve mention
here.
Of the astronomers of modern times few have attained the eminence of
John Couch Adams, the discoverer of the planet Neptune, who was born at
Laneast in 1819. As a shepherd boy he loved to lie on his back and watch
the stars, and he at once devoted himself to the study of astronomy when
he was sent to school at Saltash. He became Senior Wrangler at Cambridge
in 1843, and soon after taking his degree, being struck with
irregularities in the motion of Uranus, he made a series of calculations
and observations which resulted in the discovery of the new planet, the
French astronomer Leverrier having simultaneously recorded its
existence. A distinguished geologist and one of the pioneers of
scientific cave exploration was William Pengelly, whose great work was
the thorough examination of Kent's Cavern near Torquay, a labour which
lasted from 1865 to 1880. Last, but by no means least worthy of mention
in our list, must come Davies Gilbert, a great discerner of rising
genius, to which he was ever ready to lend help and encouragement. The
patron of Davy, Trevithick, Hornblower, and Goldsworthy Gurney, he was
himself a man of remarkable and varied abilities, scientist,
mathematician, and antiquary, and President of the Royal Society. He
died in 1839.
=27. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF CORNWALL.=
(The figures in brackets after each name give the population in
1901 and those at the end of each section are references to the
pages in the text.)
=Bodmin= (5353), now held to be the county town. Formerly there was a
priory here, founded in 938. The church, the largest in Cornwall, is
Perpendicular, except the tower and a part of the chancel, which are
earlier. In it is the fine monument of Prior Vyvyan (1533). Bodmin is a
municipal borough, market, and union town, and head of a county court
district. The Assizes are held here. The town is pleasantly situated
nearly in the centre of the county. A branch of the G.W.R. leads from
Bodmin Road station on the main line. The L. & S.W.R. has also a branch
to Bodmin from Wadebridge. The prison stands about half a mile
north-west of the town; and the County Lunatic Asylum a little to the
west. Bodmin has also a Hospital and Dispensary, and Barracks for
military. (pp. 9, 14, 18, 24, 67, 96, 102, 104, 111, 131, 132, 135, 137,
139.)
=Bude= (see Stratton).
=Callington= (1714), a small market town, formerly a parliamentary
borough returning two members. Callington is in the ecclesiastical
parish of North Hill, and the church is merely a chapel of ease. It is
in the Perpendicular style, and has the unusual feature in Devon and
Cornwall of having a clerestory. The L. & S.W.R. has constructed a light
railway from Beer Alston to Callington and Calstock. (pp. 105, 124.)
=Calstock= (5874) is a large village and township. The church is at a
distance from the village or town. Gunnislake, two miles north of
Calstock, is in the parish. Both places have declined in numbers and
prosperity through the abandonment of the mines in the neighbourhood.
(pp. 15, 69, 72, 87, 101.)
=Camborne= (14,726), a market town with a station on the main line of
the G.W.R. It is a great seat of mining operations. (pp. 38, 81, 101,
135, 137.)
=Camelford= (1384), a small market and union town, in a bleak and
wind-swept situation, consisting of one street. It is the head of a
county court district and magisterial division. It is in the parish of
Lanteglos, nearly two miles distant, and has not in it even a chapel of
ease. Camelford was an ancient borough with mayor and corporation. (pp.
14, 105, 133, 135, 137.)
=Falmouth= (3207), a seaport, market, and union town and a municipal
borough. It is the head of a county court district. Falmouth was
incorporated by charter 1661. It has the advantage of possessing one of
the finest and most capacious harbours in the country. As many as 350 to
400 sail have taken refuge here in winter at various times. There are
docks, factories, and building yards. Of late an attempt has been made
to turn Falmouth into a winter resort for invalids, and the coast is
advertised as "The Cornish Riviera," but it is a Riviera without the sun
of the Mediterranean. (pp. 30, 31, 48, 66, 88, 92, 94, 95, 96, 132, 135,
137, 139.)
=Fowey= (2258), once a borough, is a market town and a shipping port
with a station on a branch of the G.W.R. The church of St Finbar is a
noble edifice in the Perpendicular style but with portions on the north
dating from 1336. Place House, the seat of the Treffry family, is a
beautiful, richly-sculptured mansion of the reign of Henry VII. Fowey
consists of one very narrow street. The town was created a borough by
Elizabeth, returning two members, but was disfranchised in 1832. (pp.
49, 88, 105, 119, 128, 130, 131, 135.)
[Illustration: Fowey]
=Grampound= (491) deserves mention only as having returned two members
to Parliament before the Reform Bill, and as formerly a borough. (pp.
18, 105.)
=Helston= (3088) is a municipal borough, market, and union town, and the
resort of all who want to buy or sell in the Lizard district. It was not
formed into an ecclesiastical parish till 1845. A branch of the G.W.R.
reaches it. Below the town is the beautiful Loe Pool. The principal
streets form a cross, and have a constant flow of water through them.
(pp. 8, 104, 135, 137, 139, 143.)
[Illustration: Helston from Bullock Lane]
=Launceston= (14,310), the ancient capital, is a municipal borough,
market, and union town, and head of a county court district. The town
occupies a height, and above it towers the ancient castle, but a portion
of the town, Newport, lies in the valley at the foot. Both the G.W.R.
and the L. & S.W.R. have stations at Launceston. The church of granite
is richly sculptured throughout; but in a debased Perpendicular style.
It replaced an older church of which the tower alone remains. (pp. 7,
15, 25, 67, 96, 104, 111, 117, 121, 126, 129, 131, 132, 135, 137, 139.)
[Illustration: Launceston]
=Liskeard= (4945), a municipal borough, market, and union town, head
also of a county court district, with a station on the G.W.R. Liskeard
returned two members to Parliament till disfranchised by the
Redistribution Act of 1885. The church of St Martin is the largest in
the county next to that of Bodmin; it is in the Perpendicular style but
retains portions of earlier work. Liskeard mainly flourishes on the
granite quarries of the Cheesewring; it did at one time flourish still
more on the mines of tin and copper in Caradon. (pp. 12, 18, 31, 104,
119, 122, 125, 137, 139.)
=Looe= (2588) is composed of two towns, East Looe and West Looe,
separated by a creek and united by a long bridge. East Looe was formerly
a borough returning two members. It is the terminus of a branch line of
the G.W.R. There is a good tidal harbour, to which vessels of large
tonnage can be brought up for the shipment of ore and granite, conveyed
thither from Caradon and the Cheesewring, and thence coal is conveyed to
Liskeard and its neighbourhood. The old town hall is a picturesque
building. West Looe was also originally a borough returning two members.
(pp. 31, 49, 50, 92, 105, 131, 135, 138, 143.)
[Illustration: Looe]
=Marazion= (1252) or Market Jew derives its name from a Thursday market
there held. In ancient times the place was supported by the pilgrims
resorting to St Michael's Mount. The town was pillaged by the French in
the reign of Henry VIII. From Marazion St Michael's Mount is reached. At
the base of the Mount lies a fishing village of 38 houses, and a little
harbour. From the sea the hill rises to a height of 230 ft., the body of
the island is granite but its north base is of slate. The castle is the
property of Lord St Levan. Marazion is a station on the G.W.R. (pp. 9,
44, 96.)