FLUSHING--PENRYN AND THE KILLIGREW LADIES--MYLOR--ST.
JUST-IN-ROSELAND--RESTRONGUET CREEK, DEVORAN AND ST. FEOCK--KING HARRY
PASSAGE--RUAN CREEK--MALPAS--TRESILIAN CREEK AND THE SURRENDER OF THE
CORNISH ARMY.
Flushing, a little over-the-water town opposite Falmouth, shares with
the neighbouring St. Gluvias the reputation of being the warmest
place in England. It is said to have been founded by Dutchmen, from
Flushing in Holland. Near by it is the hamlet curiously known as
Little Falmouth; a place with a few waterside houses and remains of a
granite-built dock, commanding views down to Falmouth and Pendennis,
which looks like an island from here. Little Falmouth, with its
decaying dock, forms a picturesque scene of blighted hopes.
The old town of Penryn, at the head of Penryn Creek, is even more dirty
than Falmouth, and does not look prosperous. Falmouth, as Penryn surely
foresaw, has filched away much of the trade, and although the shipping
of granite from the neighbouring quarries of Mabe and Constantine
gives employment still, it is not an increasing business. The parish
church is quite apart from the town, in the village of St. Gluvias. The
saint of that name appears to have been a Welshman. He spelt his name
"Glywys," a fearful mouthful for a Saxon to deal with, and apparently
not easy even for a Cornishman, seeing that Cornwall has modified the
name. Glywys was brother to St. Cadoc, or Cadwg, and I have no doubt
called cousins with half a hundred others.
[Illustration: LITTLE FALMOUTH.]
Penryn is closely associated with two Lady Killigrews, who are
generally confused almost inextricably with one another. The Killigrew
family of Arwenack, where Falmouth town now stands, had striven from
about 1602 for a new town and market to be planted there, and thus
earned the undying hatred of Penryn; and so it happened that when Sir
John Killigrew and his wife quarrelled and fought, he for divorce and
she against it, about 1620, it seemed the most natural thing in the
world for her to take refuge in Penryn, and there, encouraged by
the bad blood of the place, to protract ruinous litigation with her
husband. All the evidence seems to show that she was as bad a character
as possible, even though she came of an old landed family, the Fermors,
afterwards Barons Lempster and Earls of Pomfret. This Lady Jane
Killigrew was at last divorced, but the unhappy Sir John did not long
survive his victory, and his unamiable wife thereupon presented to the
Corporation of Penryn the tall silver Killigrew Cup still in existence,
inscribed: "1633 From Maior to Maior to the towne of Permarin, where
they received mee that was in great misery, Jane Killygrew."
The earlier Lady Killigrew was Mary, wife of another Sir John,
grandfather of the unhappy man just mentioned. It was in January 1583
that the Spanish ship _Maria_, upon which she exercised her piratical
genius, sailed into Falmouth Harbour and cast anchor. The crew remained
on board, but the two merchants who owned her cargo went to a Penryn
inn. Lady Killigrew seems to have entirely originated the scheme of
piracy and murder that was carried through. She procured a boatload
of fishermen, sworn to secrecy, who at midnight swarmed aboard and
murdered some of the Spaniards, and flung others into the sea. They
then took the vessel to Ireland. The spoils of the Spanish ship
consisted of holland-cloth and leather, together with two hogsheads
of Spanish pieces of eight. It had been intended to cajole the two
merchants aboard, on some pretext, and so to murder all concerned
with the vessel, but they remained ashore. Not even in those times
was it possible to commit piracy and murder in home waters altogether
with impunity; and by some means the owners heard of what had really
happened, and sought redress of the Government. In the end, Lady
Killigrew and two of her fellow-conspirators were found guilty and
sentenced to death. Unfortunately, the influence brought to bear on
behalf of Lady Killigrew procured her a pardon. The others, not being
persons of quality, were hanged in an expeditious and workmanlike
manner.
Round Trefusis Point opens Mylor Creek, a mile and a half long, with
Mylor village appearing at the opening and the much larger village of
Mylor Bridge at its inland extremity. Mylor is a favourite place for
afternoon excursions from Falmouth, and there are farmhouse tea-gardens
amid much charming woodland scenery.
St. Melor, to whom the church is dedicated, and after whom the village
of Mylor is in turn named, was traditionally martyred here. Other
legends, however, place the scene of his death in Brittany. He was son
of Melian, King of Cornu-Gallia, or Brittany, in the sixth century.
Melian himself is said to have been killed in A.D. 537, by his brother,
Rivold, and is regarded as something of a saint in Brittany. The
village of Guimiliau enshrines his name.
Rivold then, having ended King Melian, mutilated his son, Melor,
by cutting off his right hand and left foot; the object being to
invalidate him from the succession to the throne, the Armorican laws
forbidding any who suffered from physical disabilities from becoming
King. The affectionate servants of Melor, however, provided him with a
silver hand and a brazen foot, which became miraculously endowed with
the powers and attributes of his lost natural members. Melor, sent to
the monastery of Saint Corantine, became so saintly and therefore so
dangerous to the usurper Rivold, that his death was resolved upon. One
Cerialtan, a man-of-all-work in crime, was commissioned to end him; his
promised reward being "as much land as he could see from the summit of
Mount Coc"--wherever that may be. Cerialtan, in workmanlike manner,
cut off Melor's head as he lay asleep, and conveyed it to Rivold, who
carried out his compact to the letter, if not to the spirit; for he
caused Cerialtan's eyes to be put out, and then had him to the crest of
that high place and bade him look upon the land!
And that is all I know about the Life and Times of St. Melor; or at any
rate, that is the most likely among the different marvellous stories
from which the investigator is at liberty to choose. But legendary
vagueness pervades all of them, and there is the very wide choice of
dates between A.D. 411 and 537 for the speculative to select from.
Mylor church lies in a hollow, a favourite situation for churches
in Cornwall. Although now chiefly in the Perpendicular style, some
portions of a former Norman church, which must have been a building
of considerable richness and beauty, remain, including three Norman
doorways, all of unusual design. The hood-moulding of that on the north
side represents a snake, with its head to the west. The south doorway,
illustrated here, has, it will be observed, some curiously Flamboyant
tracery added to the round arch, with an odd variety of Perpendicular
panelling at the sides. The identical pattern, peculiar to Cornwall, is
found in a similar position on the south porch at Lelant, near St. Ives.
[Illustration: SOUTH PORCH AND CROSS, MYLOR CHURCH.]
A monument in the church recalls a dramatic and terrible shipwreck
that happened scarce two miles away, off Trefusis Point, in Falmouth
Harbour. The epitaph briefly refers to it as under:
"To the memory of the warriors, women, and children who, on their
return to England from the coast of Spain, unhappily perished in the
wreck of the _Queen_ transport, on Trefusis Point, January 14th, 1814."
Three hundred lives were lost on that occasion, and one hundred and
thirty-six of the drowned were buried here.
To Mylor belongs the distinction of possessing the tallest cross in
Cornwall. Exactly what it is like you may see from the illustration.
It does not actually look the tallest, because some seven feet of its
length are embedded in the ground. It measures in all 17 feet 6 inches.
No one until 1870 knew it to be a cross at all, for beyond the memory
of man it had fulfilled the useful office of buttress to the south
wall of the church, with its head covered up. In that year, during
the restoration then in progress, its nature was disclosed. It was,
however, a matter of considerable difficulty to raise so large a block
of granite again upright, and help was obtained from H.M.S. _Ganges_,
then lying in Falmouth Harbour.
The pastime of curious epitaph-hunting, which helps to occupy the time
of many explorers in the country, may be indulged in at Mylor with
certain prospect of reward. Here is a taste of their quality:
"In
memory of m^r.
JOSEPH CRAPP, ship
wright. who died y^e 26th of
Nov^{br} 1770. Aged 43 years
Alass Frend Joseph
His End war Allmost Sudden
As thou the mandate came
Express from heaven.
his Foot it Slip And he did fall
help, help, he cried, and that was all."
Opposite Mylor Creek, on the eastern side of the harbour, is the creek
of St. Just-in-Roseland, with St. Just's church down by the waterside,
among the trees.
The parson of St. Just-in-Roseland must surely be a kindly man. Instead
of threatening or rebuking the numerous visitors from Falmouth, who
come down the creek in boats and land to explore the place, and have
doubtless in the past pillaged the ferns and other things growing
in the beautiful churchyard, he displays the following notice in
the lych-gate: "Visitors are requested not to touch anything in the
churchyard, and then, by calling at the rectory, all those from beyond
the county of Cornwall will be welcome to a gift plant or tree, as a
souvenir of their visit to St. Just-in-Roseland."
In the great roomy church, which must always have been, as it is now,
many times larger than the needs of the place, there may be noticed a
tablet which describes how John Randall, for one thousand years from
his death in 1733, has "given to ye poor Widows and fatherless children
of ye parish, not having parish pay, Twenty Shillings yearly, and Ten
Shillings yearly to ye Minister, for preaching a Funeral Sermon."
[Illustration: ST. JUST-IN-ROSELAND.]
The next creek on the western side of the harbour is that of
Restronguet, a name which appears to mean "deep channel." Dense woods
line its banks, with the park of Carclew half-way along, upon the
left hand, and on the right the modern port of Devoran, carved out
of the parish of St. Feock in 1873, with the Penpoll Tin Smelting
Works fuming away, a mile below. Devoran is at the terminus of a
mineral railway from Redruth, which thus brings tin and copper-ore
to deep-water quays. Restronguet Creek will, however, need dredging,
for the mine-water, charged with mud, flowing down from the pits about
Gwennap, is shoaling the fairway, and has almost choked the forked
endings of the creek at Perran Wharf. This is the waterside extension
of Perranwell and Perranarworthal, _i.e._ "Piran the Wonderful"; the
really wonderful St. Piran, who voyaged from Ireland to the north coast
of Cornwall on a millstone. The grass that grows in the mud-choked
creek stretching towards Ponsanooth is in some way affected by the
sea-water in the ooze, turning it to the loveliest yellowish-green
imaginable.
Round Restronguet Point the channel comes to St. Feock, a tiny village
on a little creek of its own. The church here has a detached belfry,
standing beside the road, at a higher level than the body of the
building; and over the lych-gate entrance to the churchyard is an old
vestry or parish-room. A similar building is seen at the entrance to
the churchyard of Kenwyn, north of Truro.
The most exquisitely wooded reaches of the Fal are found above St.
Feock, where the river narrows and the banks rise more abruptly. The
scenery at this point, and on to Malpas and Truro, strongly resembles
that of the river Dart, and many are of opinion that it is really
superior. But these comparisons form the thorniest of subjects.
At the hamlet of Trelissick is the well-known ferry of "King Harry
Passage," now a steam-ferry conveying vehicles as well as pedestrians.
The "King Harry" whose name gives the passage a touch of romance, is
Henry the Eighth, who is said to have stayed a night at Trelissick,
when on his way to inspect the site of Pendennis Castle.
[Illustration: ST. FEOCK.]
The woods of Tregothnan, the wide-spreading park belonging to Lord
Falmouth, come now into view, where Ruan Creek opens on the right,
running three miles in an easterly direction. The creek takes its
name from the village of Ruan Lanihorne, at the furthest extremity,
where the waters of the Fal run white with the washings from
upland clay-workings, like a river of milk, and the mud resembles
cream-cheese. Midway is Lamorran, the detached tower of its church
washed by another branching creek.
[Illustration: MALPAS.]
Returning to the main stream, Malpas is reached in another mile and a
half, past Tregothnan and the hillside church of St. Michael Penkevil
on the right, and the ruins of Old Kea church on the left. St.
Michael's churches are generally on heights. This is on the Headland
of the Horse; for that is what "Penkevil" means. Just as the Cornish
word "eglos," for church, closely resembles the French _église_, so it
will here be noted how nearly like the French _cheval_ is the Cornish
"kevil," for horse. In the restored church are monuments to Lord
Falmouth's ancestors, notably to the famous Admiral Boscawen. The St.
Kea who gave his name to Kea church was a fifth-century Irishman who
lived awhile in Wales, in Cornwall, and in Brittany.
Malpas is said to mean "smooth passage," although the word certainly
seems to be a corruption of _malus passus_, a bad passage. It is
locally "Mopus." But whether a good or ill ferry, it is certainly a
very beautiful spot.
[Illustration: ST. CLEMENTS.]
Tresilian Creek, the ultimate extension of these waters, here branches
off to the right, with the waterside village of St. Clements round the
first bend, its rustic cottages and church embowered amid tall trees.
There is a charming little corner, illustrated here, behind the old
church, whose weathered age, and the bull's head and other symbols of
the four evangelists, that look curiously down from the angles of the
tower, demand to be put upon record. A very tall Cornish cross, of the
fifth or sixth century, stands at the back entrance to the vicarage,
with an abbreviated inscription in large letters running up the shaft.
It has been expanded into ISNIOCVS VITALIS FILIVS TORRICI.
[Illustration: MERTHER.]
Higher up the creek, a little distance inland on the right, is the
odd-looking little church of Merther, quite solitary except for one
woodman's cottage. It is dedicated to St. Cohan, or Coanus, and owes
most of its strangeness to the wooden, box-like finish to its tower:
giving the effect of a sanctified pigeon-house. A little statue of St.
Cohan, brought from his desecrated Holy Well, is within. The church is
not now used for services, and is only retained as a mortuary chapel.
"Merther" signifies "martyr," but history, and even tradition, are
silent on the reason for conferring the name.
Tresilian Creek (the name "Tresilian" means "the place of eels") ends
at Tresilian Bridge, spanning the dusty highway between Grampound and
Truro. Here is the battlemented gateway to the park of Tregothnan.
[Illustration: VIEW FROM TRESILIAN BRIDGE.]
The quiet pastoral scenery, and the elms and other trees here fringing
the river, present a picture very little like Cornwall.
The bridge is modern, but the spot is historic; for this is that
Tresilian Bridge where the long contest in the Civil War in the West
was brought to a conclusion by the surrender of the Royalist Cornish
army under Lord Hopton, to Fairfax, March 14th, 1646. It was an
inglorious end to a struggle that had opened so brilliantly for the
King at Stratton, when Grenville and Hopton smote the Parliament
men hip and thigh, close upon three years earlier; but time told
continuously against the King, whose troops grew more and more
undisciplined and dispirited, while the earlier raw levies of the
Parliament had become the famous Ironsides, who knew little of defeat.
The final advance of Fairfax, commanding the forces of the Parliament,
into Cornwall was swift and certain. He was at Exeter on February 8th;
at Chulmleigh on the 14th; and took Torrington by storm on the 16th,
when he got Hopton's men on the run. Thence he advanced and entered
Launceston on the 25th, and had come to Bodmin Downs by March 3rd,
Hopton's force retreating and dissolving before him. The Prince of
Wales, who hitherto had lain at Truro, found it prudent to change his
residence to Pendennis Castle, Falmouth, and soon afterwards sailed
for Scilly. Hopton at last saw the hopelessness of further resistance,
and, after treating with Fairfax from March 8th, surrendered here,
on terms, on the 14th. The terms were mildness itself: officers and
private soldiers being allowed to depart to their homes on taking an
oath not to fight again against the Parliament; and the officers were,
in addition, permitted to keep their arms and horses.