Nooks and Corners of Cornwall Part 13

There is no evidence to say by whom this earthwork, which in parts is 7 ft. high and 20 ft. wide, was built. Once more let us pray for a Pa.s.smore Edwards to supply us with this evidence--by judicious excavation.

BOCONNOC

By way of Lanreath Church with its painted mediaeval rood screen we come to the manor of Boconnoc. This house has seen a succession of n.o.ble owners and some interesting visitors. Charles I. spent nearly the whole of the cold and rainy August during which he was in Cornwall under its hospitable roof, and Pitt, Governor of Madras, purchased the place with part of the proceeds of the "Pitt" diamond. The wing in which the King slept was pulled down by Pitt; and the house, which is built on rising ground in a lawn of a hundred acres, remodelled. It was here that his son, the famous statesman, was born. An obelisk has been set up in the midst of the entrenchments made during the Civil Wars--a piece of curious taste, as the man commemorated by it had nothing to do with either king or parliament, living indeed long after both were dust!

Between this obelisk and Bradock Church was fought the battle of Bradock Downs. The Royalists who had marched from Bodmin slept all night under the hedges in Boconnoc Park. Next morning, January 19, 1643, they found the Parliamentarians awaiting them on the rising ground of the common.

After keeping up a fire of small arms for some two hours, the Royalists were led forward by Sir Beville Grenville in one of his das.h.i.+ng charges.

Their opponents broke and ran, fleeing to Liskeard with great loss of arms and men. Their stay there, however, was but brief, for the Cavaliers pursued them--across the downs, by the main road, and by St.

Pinnoc--and so took the town without a blow.

CHAPTER IX

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON

_King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A Cage for Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: Sheviock: The Eddystone: Mount Edgc.u.mbe: The Tamar: Trematon Castle: Markets: Saltash: Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: Launceston._

KING DUNGARTH AND KING ALFRED

It is pleasant, after following the footsteps of an English king so foolish that his people out of sheer exasperation presently rose up and slew him, to come upon traces of one whom the nation, from his day even until now, has blessed and called great. To the north of Liskeard lies the big parish of St. Neot, once called Gueryr, and St. Neot, 'tis said, was a near relative of King Alfred, a relative noted for sanct.i.ty and of whom many wonderful stories are told. He appears to have been on friendly terms with Dungarth, King of Cornwall, who lived at Liskeard, and at whose palace Alfred stayed in order to hunt the red deer on the surrounding moors. Nor was it only for the hunting that Alfred came to Liskeard. Gueryr, St. Neot's fellow saint, was supposed to have had some medical knowledge, and the King, delicate from boyhood, was in bad health. He went across the moors to pray, and possibly to bathe in the spring of clear water, still known as the well of St. Neot; and as faith in the doctor is half the battle we may hope his ills were alleviated.

Dungarth--a fine monarch we must believe or else no friend to Alfred--was drowned in the River Fowey when hunting near Redgate, 875.

In the parish of St. Cleer is a fractured granite pillar about 8 ft.

high, and in digging near, a second fragment was found, inscribed in Latin, "Doniert (possibly Dungarth) asks you to pray for his soul."

To think that a thousand and odd years ago, Alfred was staying in this little old market town with a friend; that they were planning hunting expeditions; and that Dungarth was recommending his own doctor--"just like any other man." How queer it all is and how little human nature changes.

The corporation at Liskeard has some interesting silver, and in the church is a monument to Joseph Wadham said to have been "the last of that family whose ancestors were the founders of Wadham College, Oxford." This church is unique in Cornwall in having thirteen fifteenth-century consecration crosses cut on the north and south aisles. In the town is Stuart House, where Charles I. stayed for about a week in 1644.

A little south of Liskeard, on the way to Menheniot, is Clicker Tor, a ma.s.s of serpentine rock resembling the rocks of the Lizard. That beautiful heath (_Erica vagans_) that grows on the serpentine is found here.

MENHENIOT

Until the introduction--at the wish of the Cornish--of the English liturgy during the reign of Henry VIII., the ancient tongue was the language of the county. Dr. Mooreman, Vicar of Menheniot from 1530 to 1554, was the first parson in Cornwall to teach his paris.h.i.+oners the Lord's Prayer, the Belief and the Commandments in English. Nowadays, while it is not uncommon in Wales--which had only the Welsh liturgy--to hear the "Dim Sa.s.senach," which means that some old person is unable or unwilling to speak English, the Cornish equivalent, "Mee a navidra cowza Sawzneck," has been entirely forgotten.

Menheniot (after St. Columb Major) is the most valuable benefice in the county, and the church possesses two interesting flagons of sixteenth-century Lambeth stoneware, with lid and collar of silver dated 1578 and 1581.

ST. KEYNE

On the other side of the valley, not far from the famous old mine of Herodsfoot, is the Well of St. Keyne. Over it, in an astonis.h.i.+ngly small s.p.a.ce, are five trees, oak, elm, and ash, and although these were planted in 1750, it was only in the place of older trees mentioned in 1602. Concerning the water of this celebrated well, it is fabled that if after marriage the wife should drink of its waters before her husband she shall have the mastery and vice-versa. Southey's ballad tells us of a bride who took some to church with her in a bottle and drank it while her husband was running to the well.

At Duloe is a circle which probably encloses a burial place. The stones are all of quartz, which is unusual, and they are large, the biggest being 8 ft. high and 7 ft. wide. In this church lies gallant old Sir John Arundell, the defender of Pendennis Castle.

LOOE

East and West Looe are two quaint fis.h.i.+ng-villages divided by the estuary and joined by a bridge. They are, as usual, huddled together as near the bottom of their hills as possible and consist of a few crooked and narrow streets, with houses built anyhow and anywhere. Like Fowey, they look as if presently they might slip a little, make a tiny splash, and disappear into the water, to be talked of by succeeding generations as a "great city of seven churches and thousands of inhabitants that for some forgotten crime on the part of its people had been overwhelmed by a sea wave," and to prove this thing they would quote from the _Chronicle_ (not the Saxon this time but the _Daily_), "in this year came that great sea flood, widely through this land, and it ran up so far as never at any time before, and it drowned many towns and mankind too innumerable to be computed."

A CAGE FOR SCOLDS

Meanwhile East and West Looe still lie poised insecurely above the tide, while donkeys laden with panniers scramble up the precipitous streets, and in this way your groceries and so forth come to your door. It is thoroughly in keeping with the place that the old ducking stool and they say the cage for scolds should still exist. About the latter Mr. Bond tells the following appropriate story:

"At East Looe Hannah Whit and Bessy Niles, two women of fluent tongue, having exerted their oratory on each other, at last thought it prudent to leave the matter in dispute to be settled by the Mayor. Away they posted to his wors.h.i.+p. The first who arrived had scarce begun her tale when the other bounced in, in full rage, and began hers likewise, and abuse commenced with redoubled vigour. His wors.h.i.+p, Mr. John Chubb, ordered the constable to be called and each of the combatants thought her antagonist was going to be punished, and each thought right. When the constable arrived, his wors.h.i.+p p.r.o.nounced to him the following command: 'Take these women to the cage, and there keep them till they have settled their dispute.' They were immediately conveyed thither, and after a few hours' confinement became as quiet and inoffensive beings as ever breathed, and were then liberated to beg Mr. Mayor's pardon."

LOOE ISLAND AND THE SMUGGLERS

Except the Scillies, the only inhabited island of Cornwall is St. George (or Looe Island). It measures fourteen acres and was once exceedingly useful to smugglers. Not many years since, the floor of a respectable looking building gave way, and the reason thereof became apparent when it was found that it had been hollowed underneath to form a receptacle for those good spirits which came from France by way of the Looe galleys. The most wonderful hiding-place in this part of the country is the now well-known duckpond, said to have been at Lansallos, near Polperro. This swung on a pivot, and when moved disclosed a cavity. At all other times it presented an innocently rural appearance, so much so that the preventive officers often sat, all unsuspiciously, within a few feet of it.

East of East Looe is the little hamlet of Crafthole, with two crosses, one known locally as "Stump Cross," a fine specimen of a plain Latin cross with chamfered angles, and another of earlier date with a broken top. This bay, which stretches from Looe to Penlee, was once a valley filled with trees, but, as Florence of Worcester says, "The sea comes out upon the sh.o.r.e and buries towns and men very many, oxen and sheep innumerable."

THE ARMADA

It is a quiet strip of coast, yet it was here between Rame Head and the Dodman, that on a breezy Sunday morning the Spaniards of the Armada first caught sight of the English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham, and the volunteer flotilla that was led by Francis Drake. The Spanish plan was to divide fleet from flotilla, but as the light English boats could sail closer to the wind and were generally more easy to handle, it met with little success. The Spanish admiral was soon to discover that his little enemy's guns could carry further than his own, thus enabling the English to remain out of reach and yet pour in their raking broadsides. The light winds blew from the east, and the opposing navies fired and drifted and fired again, pa.s.sing the Rame, pa.s.sing Plymouth, and drifting up the coast. The engagement lasted till late on that Sunday afternoon, and later still the _Capitana_, first fruits of the demoralising tactics of the English, was towed into Dartmouth harbour.

"_Keepe then the sea, about in special, Which of England is the towne wall, Keepe then the sea that is the wall of England, And then is England kept by G.o.ddes hand...._"

In other words: "G.o.d helps those who help themselves."

SHEVIOCK

Above Crafthole lies Sheviock, on one of the creeks of the Lynher, with a good fourteenth-century church. The Dawneys were lords of Sheviock, and we have it from Carew that while the husband was building the church, his more practical wife was erecting a barn. When they came to compare accounts it was found that the lady's expenditure had exceeded her lord's by three half-pence, "and so it might well fall, for it is a great barn and a very little church."

THE EDDYSTONE

Henry VII., when Earl of Richmond, is said to have landed near Rame Head, and seeing that he had in his train such energetic Cornishmen as Sir Richard Edgc.u.mbe and Sir Hugh Trevanion, men who could help him to a good few of their relatives and retainers, no doubt he was well advised.

From the headland can be seen the Eddystone, which is nine miles south.

This ridge of rocks is a mile long, but has only one small rock appearing above the water and has for ages been the terror of seamen.

The first lighthouse was built in 1699, and four years later was swept away by a storm. A second, built in 1708, was burnt in 1755. The third, built by Smeaton in 1759, resisted the wind and weather for over a hundred years. The rocks on which it was built were then found to be giving way, and it was removed to Plymouth Hoe, and a new and higher lighthouse built on another part of the ridge.

MOUNT EDGc.u.mBE

The Rame forms the outer boundary of Plymouth Harbour; Penlee Point the western boundary of the sound; and a little to the north lies Mount Edgc.u.mbe, which, though few people seem to know it, is in Cornwall. This interesting house was built in the time of Mary, but the park dates from Henry VIII., when the property came to the Edgc.u.mbes by marriage. The grounds contain a great number of fortifications, from the battery and blockhouse built to oppose the Spanish Armada to more modern defences.

The second Lord Edgc.u.mbe, when a boy, was the friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, a friends.h.i.+p which has resulted in the family portraits of three generations being painted by that artist. The house is as beautifully situated as the grounds are worth seeing and is on the end of a promontory several miles long and three wide.

THE TAMAR