CORNWALL is the most south-westerly portion of England, and forms a peninsula, being bounded by the sea on three sides, and along four-fifths of its Eastern border it is separated from the county of Devon by the river Tamar, except just North of Launceston, where a small portion of Devonshire juts into Cornwall. The length of the county, from Devonshire to the Land’s End, is 80 miles, and its greatest breadth, which is at its junction with Devonshire-viz. from Rame Head in the south to Marshland Mouth in the north-is about 45 miles. Other parts of the county are about 24 miles wide, but between St. Ives and Mount’s Bay it is only seven miles. The area of the county is 868,208 acres, or 1,356 square miles. Its population steadily increased up to the year 1861, when it numbered 369,390, since which it has decreased, chiefly in consequence of emigration, to 330,686 in 1881, of which 155,115 were males and 175,571 females. In 1891 the population was 322,571, viz. : males, 149,259, and females, 173,312. The number of houses were, inhabited 70,558; uninhabited 5,191; building 374. Vaultershome tithing was annexed to Cornwall in virtue of the Acts 2 and 3 William IV. cap 64, and 7 and 8 Vic. cap. 61; and part of the township of Bridgerule, with 1,010 acres, was dissevered and annexed to Devonshire. The SCILLY ISLANDS, situated about 30 miles from the Land’s End, are a part of Cornwall, have an area of 4,041 acres, with a population in 1891 of 1,911 persons and 406 inhabited houses, and are reached by steamer from Penzance; they are composed of granite, but the soil is productive and furnishes large quantities of early vegetables.

Cornwall was first made known to the West of Europe by the Iberians of Spain, who supplied the Phoenicians and traders of the East with tin. Whether Cornwall was ever visited by the Phoenicians is doubtful, but not improbable. The Iberian navigators very likely came on a gold-seeking expedition, and in searching for gold in the river beds of the West, came upon tin. The Iberians settled here, and long carried on a trade. On their decline Cornwall was left to its fate, and the Celts made some progress in it. Of the Iberians there are many relics, including spear-heads and pieces of copper swords, lumps of fine copper, celts and gold coins. There are many Iberian monuments, as monoliths, circles of stone and logan stones.

On the conquest of Cornwall by the Romans, they found there two British, or mixed British and Iberian tribes, the Damnonii and Cornubii, but the mineral industry was neglected. The Romans were long settled there, and Roman roads remain, but, unless in East Cornwall, their settlements cannot now be readily traced.

On the fall of the Romans, the natives relapsed quickly into their former barbarism. On the advances of the West Saxons, Cornwall became the retreat of the Welsh, who were named by the English, Cornwelsh. Many of the British, however, fled to Brittany. A league was formed of the Cornwelsh, Bretons, Welsh and Cumbrians, but they were not able to hold Cornwall against the English. In 680 Ivor, a king of Brittany, for a time drove back the West Saxons, and held Devon and Somerset, but Kentwin, king of the West Saxons, defeated him. The West Saxons made themselves masters of East Cornwall and thickly settled it, and Athelstan brought Cornwall and the Scilly Isles fully under English sway.

The Cornish took part with the Lancastrians, Perkin Warbeck and Charles I.

The whole of East Cornwall is full of English names, and nearly the whole people are English, though a grea.many of the places retain the famous Cornish prefix tre In West Cornwall the places have mostly Cornish names, and the people are chiefly of British origin, although much mixed with English. The Cornish language gradually went out of use, but in the 16th and 17th centuries its decay was most rapid, so that in the beginning of the last century few but the fishermen spoke it, and it has ceased to be a living tongue, though many single words survive. There are few manuscripts in it, some of which have been carefully edited by Mr. Norris.

In East Cornwall, the topographical nomenclature is that common to the West of England. The terms applied to Roman settlements, as ford, cold, wool, borough, broom and way, are found in considerable number, though not so common as in other English districts ; there is a Coldharbour at Ladock, one at Gwinear, and one at Towednack, however, in West Cornwall.

Ton, worth, worthy, stow, stock, ham, stoke, home and thorne, are common. There is only one stead, and no thorpe or hope. Comb, hill, tor, down, lea, hay, land, well, cot, barton, lake, hole, bear, or beer, wood, ey, slade and ett are common. Cleave, moor, hill, brook, bourn, pool, grove, hanger, hurst, week or wick, ash, oak, croft, mouth and clapper are rare. Venton, Polventon, and Peventon are very common names.

Old English clan names, or the form in ington are rare ; but erton is to be found more freely.

Of the Cornish names, those following the old saw of Tre, Pol and Pen are most common.

About eight hundred varieties of names with the prefix tre are given in this work, but the whole number of places beginning with tre is much greater, for some of the names are used very frequently. Pen is here given about 150 times, and Pol about 70.

In East Cornwall Tre, Pen and Pol are often applied with English and Norman names, and constitute the chief vestiges of Cornish connection.

The surface of the county is very hilly. The highest hills are-Brown Willy, about 1,368 feet in height; Rough Tor, 1,296; Caradon hill, 1,208; Sharppoint Tor, 1,200; Tober Tor, 1,127; Mennaclew, 1,124; Kit hill, 1,067; Trewartha Tor, 1,500; Hensbarrow, 1,034; Caden Barrow, 1,011. The rocks belong chiefly to the primary strata, and include large masses of granite, but grauwacke or “killas is the chief rock. The coast is rocky and indented by many bays, some of large area. The principal are-Bude, Port Isaac, Watergate, Ligger or Perran, and St. Ives on the north shore; Whitesand and Mount’s Bay on the west; and Falmouth, Gerran, Veryan, St. Austell, Fowey, Looe, Whitesand and Cawsand Bays on the south. The principal river is the Tamar, which rises in the north and flows almost due south to the sea, separating this county from Devonshire ; it receives in its course the waters of the Inny, and is navigable about 24 miles north from Plymouth, for 19 miles of which it is a tidal river. The Lynher is also a tributary of the Tamar, and is navigable to Notter Bridge. The river Tidi is navigable to St. German’s. The Looe flows into the sea on the south coast and forms a haven at Looe. The Fowey takes first a westerly course for a short distance, then flows south to Lostwithiel, whence it is navigable to the sea at Fowey harbour. The Fal takes a winding course south-westerly to the sea, forming an estuary called Carreg Roads; it is navigable for about ten miles. The Hel, which in its course receives numerous small streams, forms the Helford haven, a little below Gweek, to which place it is navigable. The Heyl, in the west of the county, flows into St. Ives Bay, forming in its course the estuary of Hayle. The Camel, which rises in the north, flows westerly and, receiving the De Lanke and other smaller streams, enters the sea at Padstow; it is navigable for a distance of 8 miles of its course; besides these there are many small streams. The canals are few, viz.-the Bude and Holsworthy, easterly into Devonshire; the Bude and Launceston, in a south-easterly direction. In the south is the Liskeard and Looe canal, which commences at Tarras Pill and terminates a mile west of Liskeard; a part of the canal is still navigable, but the remainder has been abandoned and a railway substituted. The climate of Cornwall is mild, and on the southern shore so much so, that many invalids dwell there for the sake of their health.

The main railway communication is divided into sections called the Cornwall and West Cornwall railways, but worked by the Great Western Railway Company. The Cornwall railway enters the county at Saltash, by the Royal Albert Bridge across the Tamar, passing through Liskeard to Bodmin Road, where there is a branch to Bodmin and Wadebridge; turning due south the main line runs through Lostwithiel to Par, whence a line goes south to Fowey, and another westward to New Quay, the main line now proceeds south-west to Truro (passing through St. Austel) and divides into two branches, one going south to Falmouth, the other due west through Redruth, Camborne and Hayle to Penzance, throwing out a branch south to Helston and one north to St. Ives. The broad gauge having been found to interfere with the uniformity of traffic with the rest of the system of the Great Western Railway, although it insured a high rate of speed and comfortable travelling, was terminated, after an existence of over half a century, by a remarkable feat of engineering, performed by an army of 5,000 workmen, employed May 21st and 22nd, 1892, who substituted the narrow gauge system through the county in two days, Saturday and Sunday, when traffic was stopped, thus ending what has been known as the “battle of the gauges” in favour of the narrow. The other lines carrying passengers are a branch from Plymouth, on the Great Western, through Tavistock, Tunning almost entirely in Devonshire to Launceston. On the London and South Western railway is a short line from Bodmin to Wadebridge ; the latter company have also opened a line from Launceston through Camelford, Delabole and Port Isaac road to Wadebridge, which will be continued to Padstow, and the branch from Wadebridge to Bodmin is carried on to Wenford Bridge. There is also a mineral line from Caradon to Looe, crossing the Cornwall railway near Liskeard and one from Cam Brae to Portreath. The East Cornwall Minerals railway have a branch from Calstock to Callington.

The quarries and mines, and the smelting of ores, provide employment for a large portion of the population, in addition to which are the fisheries, which are of great importance.

Various kinds of fish are caught, but pilchards are the principal, and are peculiar to the coast of this county; pilchards are taken in September and October, when large “schools ’’ or shoals are seen coming up the channel. These are caught either by ordinary process of “drift-net” fishing at some distance from the shore, or by “seining in comparatively shallow water; by the latter method the pilchards are encircled by a wall of nets which do not mesh the fish as other nets but prevent their escape; the fish are cured, and while packed in casks are subjected to pressure to extract the oil; quantities are exported to Spain and Italy, while some are made into “sardines” in local factories. For many centuries the southern coast has been the principal resort of the pilchards, but within the last thirty years the north coast has been more frequented, and St. Ives has become the centre of the fishery; about 20,000 bogheads is the average annual take of pilchards ; mackerel and herrings are also caught in large numbers; the total number of fishing boats registered in the 5 ports of Falmouth, Fowey, Hayle, Padstow and Truro being 557, with an aggregate tonnage of 5,318 tons and employing 2,238 men and boys ; oysters are procured from the creeks of the Helford river.

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 method of levying varies according to the ports; in scarcely any two is it paid alike-as instances of the methods in which it is charged, it may be said that in some cases the sum depends on the number and nature of nets employed; in some it is a charge on the boat, and in others on the number of men employed, and in many it is a proportion of the value of the fish taken.

A considerable industry is the making of casks, many being required for exportation of pilchards.

The woollen manufacture is carried on in a small way, also the construction of mining and other machinery. Gunpowder, safety fuse and paper are made to some extent, and as most of the ports shipbuilding is carried on.

Tidal Streams in the Bristol and English Channels.

— It has been found, by a careful investigation of the tides in the Irish and English Channels, that the movements of the several streams may be referred to a common standard, viz.: the time of high water on the shore at the entrance of Liverpool for the former, and for the latter, the time of high water at Dover; off the mouth of the English Channel, the stream, though materially influenced by the indraft and outset of the channel, is found to run northward and eastward while the water is falling at Dover, and southward and westward while it is rising at that port. South of the parallel of Scilly, the stream is constantly changing owing to the varying force and direction with which the channel and offing tides blend at that point, from which towards the Bristol Channel, the stream is more regular, and while the water is falling at Dover, sets northward, turning sharply round Trevose Head into the British Channel, and while the water is rising at Dover, running with equal speed out of the channel and along the coast towards Scilly. At Trevose Head, the northern tide has been found, by repeated observations, to make 12 minutes after Dover, the stream turning progressively later as a vessel advances up the Bristol Channel. As a general rule, in all the space eastward of a direct line joining Scilly and the Tuskar, the stream will be found making towards the Bristol Channel while the water is falling at Dover and Liverpool, and vice versa setting to the north-east on the southern side of the channel, and to the south-east on the northern side.

Time of high Water on Full and change Days at places on The Coast of Cornwall with the rise of the Tide at Springs and Neaps :—

* By the rise of the tide is meant its vertical rise above the mean low water level of spring tides.

A great part of the land is moor and down; the western part largely yields early crops of potatoes, broccoli and other vegetables, which are sent to London, and the construction of the Saltash bridge, which has connected the Cornwall railways with the general railway system, has extensively developed the trade in market garden produce. The geranium and myrtle flourish in the open air. The harvest is, however, late. Norway firs abound in the locality of Kea, near Truro.

Cornwall is noted for its various minerals and for its mines ; it is under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Cornwall, under which a Stannary Court is held, which decides on matters relating to mines and miners. The chief court is held at Truro, and its jurisdiction extends into West Devon. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales is hereditary Duke of Cornwall and appoints his chancellor, lord warden or lord-lieutenant of the mines, attorney-general, solicitor-general and sheriff. The general law regulating the Militia does not apply to the miners; the statute of 42 George III. cap. 72, regulates the militia of the Stannary. The workings for tin ore have been carried on from a very early period. From the “Mineral Statistics” for 1895 we learn the quantity of tin ore (black tin) delivered to smelters in Cornwall was 9,557 tons; the quantity of tin obtained after smelting being 6,212 tons, value of ore at the mines being £343,474; in addition, black tin, obtained from streams and rivers by washing, amounted to 1,000 tons, valued at £25,000. Copper was not extensively worked until the latter part of the seventeenth century, and of late years the produce of thin mineral has again declined. The quantity of ore raised in 1862 was 141,800 tons from 177 mines, but since that date the produce has very considerably decreased, the quantity raised in 1881 from 37 mines being only 24,509 tons, valued at £104,387, and 1,881 tons of copper, and in 1892, 2,813 tons, and 200 tons of copper, valued at £6,359; in 1895 5,504 tons of ore, valued at £18,033 were raised and produced 391 tons of metal. Cornwall is still, however, the great copper district of the United Kingdom. Of miscellaneous minerals there, wolfram, of which large quantities have been raised, is not now worked, ochre, arsenical pyrites, 1,821 tons; value, £16,502. Besides the above, kaolin, or china clay, is a great staple; it is formed from the decomposition of granite, and is used for the manufacture of porcelain, for which it is admirably adapted, and for which purpose it is exported to the pottery districts, and is also sent largely into Lancashire for use by the manufacturers of cotton goods; in 1895 were produced 413,471 tons of china clay and china stone, valued at the mines at £245,874, the china stone being also used in the pottery manufacture. The china clay and stone are principally found in the parishes of Roche, St. Stephen's-in-Brannell, and St. Dennis, near St. Austell. Granite is obtained in large quantities, the rocks in various parts of the county being composed of this material; it varies in tint, but it is very hard, and of a durable nature, many churches and public buildings throughout the county being built of it; the produce from the county in 1895 being 50,457 tons, valued at £34,654; the Cheeswring quarries are the largest in the county, and highly celebrated. At the Lizard, the rocks are of a dark-green colour, with veins of various hues, and form a beautiful marble, known as Cornish serpentine, and used largely for ornamental purposes. Cornish slate is also an article of commerce, 24,028 tons being raised in 1895. Stone for building purposes is found in various parts of the county, and 2,356 tons of limestone were quarried in 1895, and 20,629 tons of sandstone, and 53,345 tons of whinstone. The only mine in England for uranium ore is in this county.

The county contains 223 civil parishes, but none are very extensive in area; the following are the largest: —

East, Stratton, Trigg Major, Trigg Minor, and West; Cornwall archdeaconry is subdivided into the deaneries of Austell, Carnmarth, Kirrier, Penwith, Powder and Pyder.

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, in the extreme north-east of the county, are now held at Bodmin. It is divided into 176 Petty Sessional Divisions.

The number of townships in Cornwall is few and their area is wide. The townships and parishes have commonly the same bounds.

Boscastle, population in 1891, 298; Breage, 2,751; Callington, 1,888; Camborne, 14,700; Charlestown, 2,749 ; Hayle, 1,142; Mevagissey, 2,200; Padstow, 1,559; Redruth, 10,324; St. Agnes, 4,249; St. Austell, 3,477; St. Blazey, 2,705 ; St. Columb Major, 2,612; St. Germans, 2,384; St. Just-in-Penwith, 6,119; St. Mawes, Stratton 823, and Torpoint, 2,425, are small towns.

The havens are numerous. Among them are Falmouth, Fowey, Padstow, St. Mawes, Looe, St. Ives, Bude. Penzance, Porthleven, Mevagissey, Polperro, Saltash and Wadebridge.

In 1877 the diocese of Truro, taken from the diocese of Exeter, was formed, comprising the whole of the county of Cornwall, and the parishes of Broadwood Widger, North Petherwyn, St. Giles-in-the-Heath, Virginstow and Werrington in Devonshire, and divided into the archdeaconries of Bodmin and Cornwall. Bodmin archdeaconry is sub-divided into the deaneries of Bodmin.

Hundreds and Petty Sessional Divisions

The Hundreds and Petty Sessional Divisions are coextensive and are as follow, with the places in each:-Hundred of East (Middle Division):-Callington, Landulph, Menheniot, Pillaton, Quethiock, St. Dominick, St. Ives, St. Mellion, South Hill.

Her Majesty’s Prison, at Berrycombe (Burcom), about half a mile north-west of the town of Bodmin, on the slope of an eminence facing southwards, was originally erected under a local Act of Parliament, 18 George III. c. 17 (1777—8), and rebuilt in 1855—58 from designs by Mr. Porter, architect, of London; it includes cells for 129 prisoners, residences for the governor and chaplain, and a chapel: in 1888 two blocks of buildings, formerly used for imprisoned debtors and women, were detached, and constituted by Admiralty warrant a Royal Naval prison, and were opened as such 3rd April in that year. Civil Prison :-William Repulsa Shelton, chief warder-in-charge; Rev. Charles Boutflower Simpson M.A. chaplain; Bartholomew Gidley Derry L.R.C.P.Lond. medical officer; Joseph Barker, clerk. Royal Naval Prison:-Commander Pearson Campbell Johnstone R.N. governor; chaplain and medical officer, same as civil prison; Rev. Cuthbert McAdam, Catholic chaplain; Joseph Edmunds, clerk and storekeeper.

The County Lunatic Asylum, for the reception of private patients and pauper lunatics, a little to the west of the town of Bodmin on a site of about 9 acres, consists of eight blocks of buildings radiating from a centre, with annexes and detached blocks subsequently erected and residences for the various officers. The first portion, for 100 patients, was built in 1820; in 1842 the “high building” was added, and in 1848 a “new building ’’ was built; a further enlargement was made in 1867 by the erection of the Carew block; in 1873 an additional building was erected, and in 1884 another: there is a dining and recreation hall, 80 by 34 feet, ; the asylum is now available for 760 patients; the average being, males 305, and females 366, 24 of the former and 23 of the latter being private patients. In an outer enclosure is a chapel, erected 1859—61, at a cost, with subsequent enlargement, of £1,515 ; it consists of apsidal chancel, nave of three bays, south aisle, transept and porch, vestry, and a turret containing one bell: below the chapel is a crypt: there are sittings for 350 persons. Richard Adams L.R.C.P.Edin. medical superintendent; Henry Albert Layton L.R.C.P. Edin. and William Francis Adams M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. Lond. assistant superintendents; Rev. William Iago B.A. chaplain and librarian; Charles H. Rowe, clerk to the asylum and steward; John Budere Crocker, storekeeper; Miss Eliza Templar Vicary and Miss Lill Hope, matrons.

The Royal Cornwall Infirmary, Truro, on an eminence at the top of Calenick street, near to the old road formerly leading to Falmouth, is a plain and spacious building of stone, erected by public subscription in 1799, but chiefly by the munificence of Francis, Lord de Dunstanville and Basset, and supported by voluntary contributions; it is well arranged and conducted, and contains 52 beds : in the hall of the chief entrance is a marble tablet recording the munificent liberality and unwearied exertions of Francis, Lord de Dunstanville: the number of in-patients admitted during the year ending May 31, 1896, was 314; number of operations, 147; accidents, 39; out-patient, casualties, 158; out-patients, 627. H. G. Sharp and Alfred Lidgey Salmon, surgeons; Maurice C. Barber, house surgeon; Rev. Frederick William Newman, chaplain; J. C. R. Crewes, secretary; Miss L. E. Burgess, head nurse and housekeeper.

East Cornwall Hospital and Dispensary, Mount Folly, Bodmin, established in 1844, is a substantial building of stone, arranged to receive 15 in-patients, and is supported by voluntary contributions; the average number of in-patients is about 64, and out-patients 616; Reginald Bean Anderson, surgeon ; Henry Dufett Foster, hon. sec.; R. T. Cardell, dispenser; Miss Beatrice A. Sharp, matron.

The West Cornwall Infirmary, Penzance, established in 1874, and the Dispensary, an older institution, dating from 1809, now form one establishment in St. Clare street; a new wing was added in 1887 at a cost of £1,000, the joint donation of Edward Thomas and William Bolitho esqrs., and in 1896 a new wing was added at the cost of £650: there are 18 beds and 2 cots: during 1896 there were 180 in-patients and 2,000 out-patients: the institution is supported by voluntary contributions, and is efficiently conducted : James Barclay Montgomery M.D. consulting physician; Hugh Mayer Montgomerie M.D., C.M. physician; John Symons, surgeon; Major John James Ross, hon. treasurer; John Batten Cornish, hon. sec.; William Harvey Julyan, assistant sec. and dispenser ; Miss Annie Eliza Whitaker, matron.

The Royal Cornwall Sailors’ Home and Infirmary for Seamen of all Nations, at Falmouth, established May 17, 1852, is a large structure of brick, available for about 60 inmates.

The Cornwall Home for Destitute Little Girls, at Falmouth, opened in October, 1871, is a building of local stone, relieved with granite and brick, and commands very extensive views of both land and sea; Miss Mary Ann Thomas, matron.

Parliamentary Representation of Cornwall

Cornwall formerly returned four members in two divisions, but under the provisions of the “Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885,” it now returns six members in six divisions.

No. 1.-The Western or St. Ives division comprises the sessional division of Penwith West (including the Scilly Islands), the municipal boroughs of Penzance & St. Ives, & the parishes of St. Erth & Uny-Lelant.

No. 2.-The North Western or Camborne division comprises the sessional division of Penwith East (except so much as is comprised in division No. 1) & the parishes of Gwennap & St. Agnes.

No. 3.-The Truro division comprises the sessional divisions of Kerrier East (except so much as is comprised in division No. 2), Kerrier West & Powder West (except so much as is comprised in division No. 2) & the municipal boroughs of Falmouth, Helston, Fenryn & Truro.

No. 4.-The Mid or St. Austell division comprises the sessional divisions of Powder East, Powder South & Pyder & the parishes of Ladock & St. Blazey.

No. 5.-The South Eastern or Bodmin division comprises the sessional divisions of East South, Powder Tywardreath (except so much as is comprised in division No. 4) & West Hundred, the municipal boroughs of Bodmin & Liskeard & the parishes of Bodmin, Helland & Lanivet.

No. 6.-The North Eastern or Launceston division comprises the sessional divisions of East Middle, East North, Lesnewth, Stratton & Trigg (except so much as is comprised in division No. 5)

Under the provisions of the above mentioned Act, the boroughs of Bodmin, Helston, Launceston, Liskeard, St. Ives & Truro were deprived of independent representation & merged in the county, & Penryn & Falmouth lost one member.

Members of Parliament for the County

Mid Division, William Alexander McArthur esq. 28 Wilton street S W; & Reform, Devonshire & National Liberal clubs S W & City Liberal club, E C London North Eastern Division, Thomas Owen esq. Henley grove, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol; Belmont house, Landaff, Cardiff; & National Liberal club, London S W North Western Division, Arthur Strauss, 1 Kensington Palace gardens, Bayswater W South Eastern Division, Right Hon.Leonard Henry Courtney P.C., M.A. 14 Chevne walk; & Reform & Athenaeum clubs, London S W Truro Division, Edwin Lawrence esq. J.P. King’s Ride, Ascot, Berks & 13 Carlton House terrace S W; Athenaeum, Reform, Burlington, Devonshire & City Liberal clubs, London; St. Michael Caerhays, St. Austell; & Werrington park, Launceston Western Division, Thomas Bedford Bolitho esq. D.L., J.P. Trewidden, Penzance; Greenway house, Brixham, S. Devon; & Union clubs, London S W.

Military

The troops in Cornwall are under the Western District Command (Head Quarters, Devonport) ; Commanding the Forces, Lt.-Gen. Sir F. W. E. F. Forestier-Walker K.C.B., C.M.G. Bodmin is the depot of the Regimental District No. 32, Territorial Regiment, the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, which is formed of the 1st Battalion (32nd Foot), the 2nd Battalion (46th Foot) & the 3rd Battalion (Royal Cornwall Rangers Militia), the depot of the Regiment & the head quarters of the Militia Battalion being both in Bodmin.

Artillery Militia

The Cornwall & Devon Miners’ Artillery Militia, Western Division, has its head quarters at Falmouth.

Engineer Militia

The Falmouth Division Submarine Miners’ Royal Engineer Militia has its head quarters at Falmouth.

The Plymouth Volunteer Infantry Brigade

1st Volunteer Battalion the Devon Regiment, Exeter.

2nd Volunteer Battalion the Devon Regiment, Plymouth.

3rd Volunteer Battalion the Devon Regiment, Exeter.

4th Volunteer Battalion the Devon Regiment, Barnstaple.

5th Volunteer Battalion the Devon Regt. Newton Abbot 1st Volunteer Battalion the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, Falmouth.

Fairs and Markets

Alternun (Five Lanes), Mon. week after June 24 & on last Mon. in September for cattle.

Blisland, Mon. after September 11, the Festival of St. Prothus, for horses, cattle & sheep; & a fair is held at Pounds Cawnse the last Mon. in November.

Bodmin, January 25, on one day at Easter & two days at Whitsuntide, July 6 & December 6, for cattle & horses ; market days, Wed. & Sat.; a cattle market is held the first Mon. in every month except those on which fairs are held.

Boscastle, August 5 & Nov. 22, for lambs, sheep & cattle.

Bridgend (St. Winnow), third Tues. in January & February.

Bude, September 22.

Callington, market day, Wed.; a large cattle market the first Wed. in every month. Camborne, March 7, Whit Tuesday, June 29 & Nov. 11.

Camelford. first Fri. after March 10, May 26, July 17 & 18, Sept. 6, first Fri. in October & first Fri. after Nov. 10; market day, Fri.

Canworthy (Jacobstow), first Wed. in June & Sept. 18.

Chacewater, June 24; market day, Sat.

Cury, a feast on the nearest Sun. to November 2, or to All Souls’ day.

Devoran, market on Fri.

Falmouth, market day, Sat.

Fowey, Shrove Tuesday, May 1 & Sept. 10; market day, Sat.

Grampound, market day, Fri.

Grampound Road, cattle market the fourth Mon. in every month.

Helston, Whit Monday, July 20, September 9 & October 28; market day, Sat.; cattle markets, the second & last Wed. in each month.

Kilkhampton, Thur. before Holy Thursday, first Thur. in July & August 26.

Lanreath, third week after Shrove Tuesday, also on Whit Tuesdav & November 18, for cattle.

Lansallos, July 10.

Launceston, market day, Sat.; cattle market, last Wed. in each month.

Lelant, August 15, for cattle.

Liskeard, cattle market, second Mon. in every month, excepting in October, when St. Matthew’s fair for cattle & pleasure is held ; market day, Sat Looe, East, market days, Wed. & Sat.

Looe, West, May 6, for cattle & pleasure; market days, Wed. & Sat.

Lost withiel, market day, Fri.; cattle markets, thir. Tues. in every month.

Ludgvan, second Tues. in October, for cattle.

Marazion, September 29.

Mevagissey, St. Peter's day; market day, Sat.

Michell, October 15, for cattle.

Mullion, feast on the nearest Sun. to November 4.

Mylor, feast on the nearest Sun. to October 25.

Padstow, first Tues. in May, for cattle, sheep & horses; market day, Sat.

Pelynt, first Tues. in February & June 24, for cattle.

Penrose (St. Ervan), May 25.

Penryn, Wed. after March 6, May 12, July 7, October 8 & December 21, for cattle; market day, Sat.

Penzance, Corpus Christi day & two following days ; market days, Tues. Thur. & Sat.; cattle market, third Thur. in January, February, April, July, August, October & December.

Pillaton, Whitsun Tuesday, for pleasure & cattle.

Polbathic, Cattle market 3rd Mon. in each month.

Praze (Crowan), July 15, for cattle & pleasure; a feast on the nearest Sun. to Candlemas (Feb. 2).

Quethiock, last Mon. in January, for cattle.

Redruth, Easter Tuesday, May 2, August 3 & October 12 & a holiday fair on Whitsun Monday; market days, Tues. & Fri.

Roche, day before Holy Thursday, third Tues. in July &; second Tues. in October; parish feast, first Sun. after the first Tues. in June.

St. Agnes, market on Thur. for the sale of all sorts of wares.

St. Austell, April 5, May 31, July 26, October 19 & November 30, for cattle; market day, Fri.

St. Blazer, market day, Sat.

St. Breward, first Thur. after June 24 & the Thur. nearest September 25.

St. Buryan, fair, first Tues. in March, for sheep & cattle, & a feast on the Sun. nearest May 13.

St. Columb Major, cattle market, third Mon. in every month, except March & November, when fairs are held on the first Thur. after Mid Lent Sunday & first Thur. after November 12; market day, Thur.; the parish feast is held on the nearest Sun. to the 17th November.

St. Columb Minor, June 9, for oxen, horses & sheep ;parish feast, nearest Sun. to November 15.

St. Day, third week after Whitsuntide; market day, Sat.

St. Dennis, a feast on October 9 if it fall on a Sun. if not, on the Sun. following.

St. Dominick, first Thur. after May 12, for cattle.

St. Germans, May 28, for cattle.

St. Ives, Sat. nearest St. Andrew’s day.

St. Just-in-Penwith, market day, Sat.

St. Lawrence (Bodmin), October 29, for sheep & October 30 for horses & bullocks; August 21st for horses, sheep & cattle.

St. Merryn, Mon. before the second Tues. in May, for cattle & sheep.

St. Neot, first Tues. in April & November, for cattle.

St. Stythians, nearest Mon. to July 13, for horses & cattle.

St. Teath, last Tues. in February & first Tues. in July.

Stoke Climsland, on the last Mon, in May, for cattle & sheep.

Stratton, May 19, November 8 & December 11; market day, Tues.

Summer Court, September 25, for cattle & horses.

Tintagel, Mon. following October 18 for cattle.

Treganatha (St. Wenn), May 6 & August 1.

Trewithian (Gerrans), in May, for cattle.

Truro, Wed. in Whitsun-week, November 19 & December 8 & a horse fair in September; market days Wed. & Sat. ; cattle markets, the first & third Wed. in every month.

Tywardreath, June 10, for cattle; parish feast on St. Andrew’s day.

Wadebridge, July 22; market days, Tues. & Wed. ; cattle market, second Tues. in every month.

Wainhonse Comer (Jacobstow), Mon. before Lady day, June 94, Mon. before the last Wed. in July, September 29 & November 5, for bullocks, sheep & horses.

Week St. Mary, July 29, September 15 & Wed. before Christmas day.

Wendron, May 18, July 27 & October 25, for cettle & sheep.

Cornwall County Council

Local Government Act, 1888, 51 & 53 Vic. c. 41.

Under this Act the county of Cornwall, after the 1st April, 1889, for the purposes of the above Act, became an administrative county (sec. 46), governed by a County Council, consisting of chairman, aldermen and councillors, elected in the manner prescribed by the Act (sec. 2).

The chairman, by virtue of his office, is a justice of the peace for the county, without qualification (sec. 46).

The police for the county is under the control of a standing joint committee of the Quarter Sessions and the County Council, appointed as therein mentioned (sec. 9).

The coroners for the county are elected by the County Council, and the clerk of the peace is appointed by such joint committee, and may be removed by them (sec. 83—2).

The clerk of the peace for the county is clerk of the County Council (sec. 83—1).

The administrative business of the county (which would, if this Act had not been passed, have been transacted by the justices), is transacted by the County Council.

The Scilly Isles have a separate council, formed in 1892.

Meet at Municipal buildings, Truro.

Natural History and Scientific Societies.-Cornwall Royal Polytechnic Society; Falmouth: Annual Report.-Royal Institution of Cornwall; Truro : Journal. Miners’ Association of Cornwall and Devonshire ; Truro : Papers and Proceedings. Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History Society; Plymouth : Annual Report and Transactions. Royal Geological Society of Cornwall; Penzance : Transactions and Reports. Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society.

Museums.-Falmouth Museum ; Natural History and Antiquarian Society’s Museum, Penzance ; Museum of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, Penzance ; Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro.

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SITUATION, BOUNDARIES, AND EXTENT

CORNWALL forms the most western and southern extremity of England; its western termination is the Land's End. Its most southern point is the Lizard. It is bounded by the sea on the north, west, and south; and its eastern end butts against Devonshire. The river Tamar, which runs between the two counties, may, allowing a few exceptions, be called the natural and general boundary of Cornwall towards the east, till it joins the ocean near Plymouth, after a southern course of about forty miles. The form of this county is a cornucopia. As to its extent, the two most distant points in the county, are the north eastern angle of the parish of Morwinstow, near the source of the Tamar to the east, and the promontory called the Land's End, in the parish of Sennan to the west, a distance of 78 miles and a half in length, in a line nearly south-west and north-east. Its greatest breadth from Morwinstow on the north to the Ram Head on the south, is about 43 miles and a half; its medium breadth between Padstow and Fowey, about 18 miles, and its least breadth from Mount’s Bay on the south to Hayle river on the north, not more than four miles. Its computed surface, however, is 210 miles; this statement is made according to Mr. Martyn’s map done from actual survey, from which it also appears that the whole area contains 753,484 statute acres, or 1185 square miles. The total population of Cornwall, according to the returns of 1811, was 216,667, making an increase within the last ten years of 28,398, since the census of 1801.

This county and Devonshire was inhabited by the ancient Britons called Dunmonii, and Danmonii, from dun, a hill, and moina, a mine; because these parts have always been famous for their hills of ten mines.

NAME

By the later Roman writers this part of Britain is called Cornubia, by the British inhabitants Kernaw; probably from the land terminating in a point and projecting into the sea in the form of a horn, Corn signifying in the British a horn, a promontory; Kern the plural of the same word.

The ancient inhabitants were also called Carnabii or Cernyw, and Gwyr Cevnyw, or men of the promontory. They occupied the whole of the tract now called Cornwall, except a small part lying on the north side of the river Tamar.

Dr. Borlase, the very respectable historian of the antiquities and natural history of this county, supposes that the Latin name Cornubia was “retained till the Saxons imposed the name of Weales on the Britons driven by them west of the rivers Severn and Dee, calling their country, in the Latin tongue, Wallia; after which, finding the Britons had retreated not only into Wales, but into the more western extremities of the island, the Latinists changed Cornubia into Cornwallia; a name not only expressive of the many natural promontories of the county, but also that the inhabitants were Britons of the same nation and descent as those of Wales; and from this Cornwallia is derived the present name of Cornwall.”

The local division of the county is 9 hundreds, 201 parishes, 27 market towns, and about 15,000 houses. Cornwall raises 1000 militia in the county, and 1000 for the stannaries, and sends 44 members to parliament.

The advantages which this county derives from its maritime situation are incalculable; four parts out of five of its outline being exposed to the sea. It is this which fills the bays and harbours, makes a number of fishing creeks, and brings the native products, sand, sea-weed, and fish, as well as foreign merchandize, home to the doors in many places. Its numerous promontories, notwithstanding, are allowed to augment the distresses of sailors in stormy weather, and ships by the inequality of the tides on this coast, often mistake one another, or are warped out of their true course. These tides, irregular from the prominence of the headlands, are rendered more so at the extremity of Cornwall, by the Sylleh (Scilly) Islands, which narrow the channel whether the tide sets to the north or to the south, and consequently increasing the velocity of the current occasion a more than ordinary indraught into both channels.

Climate

According to the most recent and accurate observations on this head, its general character, like all other peninsulated situations, lying far to the southward and westward, is inconstancy as to wind and rain; and mildness as to heat and cold. Nor is it so subject to thunderstorms as some inland counties are. There is a saying in Cornwall, “That it will bear a shower every week day, and two upon a Sunday.” Another usual saying is, “There cannot be too much rain before Midsummer, nor too little after.” It is indeed found that when other parts of England suffer by drought, Cornwall has seldom reason to complain. The cause of more frequent rains here is, that for three fourths of the year the wind blows from the intermediate points of the west and south, and sweeping over a large tract of the Atlantic Ocean, collects vast bodies of clouds, which being broken by the narrow ridge-like hills of the county, descend in frequent showers. Still the rains here, though frequent, cannot be said to be heavy or excessive. The situation of Cornwall is also a reason why the north-west winds are extremely violent and desolating on the north side of the county, but are generally dry and bring fair weather. The plants, shrubs, and even the most hardy trees on the sea-coast, sustain much injury from the violence of the westerly wind and the salt spray of the sea; hence crops of wheat and turnips have been partially or totally destroyed, in proportion to their distance from the coast.

After a storm, the plants have their roots much torn, and their leaves corroded and shriveiled as if scorched. Trees and shrubs shrink and lean away to the eastward, and appear as if clipped by the gardener’s shears. The tamarisk is the only shrub that bears the sea air. However, the air of Cornwall passing over the sea, accounts for its mild and equal temperature; so that balm of Gilead, hydrangea, geraniums, myrtles, and many other tender plants and shrubs live and thrive in the open air. Snow seldom lies more than four or five days on the coast, and a skaiter may sometimes pass a winter in Cornwall without partaking of his favourite amusement. A kind of languid spring prevails through the winter, and is too often disappointed by blighting north-east winds in March, April, or May. As to the effects of the climate upon the people, these are particularly healthy and genial, and there are numerous instances of longevity.

The whole county of Cornwall, with few exceptions, is remarkable for inequality of surface. Some of the hills are very steep and tediously prolong a journey; and as the great post, roads run for many miles together over rugged, naked, and uncultivated heaths and moors, the traveller is impressed with a more unfavourable opinion than the country deserves. The minute observer, however, will often find it pleasingly broken into hill and dale; some of the valleys are beautifully picturesque, and richly diversi fied with corn, woods, coppices, orchards, running waters, and verdant meadows. The ad mirers of sublime scenery will be highly gratified in viewing the stupendous rocks, which form the great barriers against the ocean, particularly about the Land’s End and Lizard; and the numerous Druidical and Roman remains of karns, rock basons, cromlechs, circles, religious and military enclosures, dispersed over the country, will be highly interesting to the antiquary, whilst the agriculturist will see much to approve and much to reprehend. The north and south parts of the county are divided by a ridge running from east to west, like a distorted back bone. The highest hills are Caradon, Roughtor, Brown Willy, and Hinsborough. Caradon is 1208 feet above the level of the sea, and Brown Willy 1368.

It has been remarked, that the harvest in Cornwall, though the most southern county in England, is later than in the midland counties, owing to the sea breezes keeping the air cool. Near the Lizard Point, there have been frequent instances of barley being sown, reaped, and thrashed in less than nine weeks, and sometimes sooner. And as the sea air suffers no forest trees to grow upon the coast, it is only in the sheltered vallies that woods of any size are to be found.

Rivers

Nature has been bountiful in her supplies and distribution of water in this county. Springs are abundant on the high, as well as the low grounds, which, gliding away to the vallies, unite, and form numerous streams, rivulets, and some not inconsiderable rivers.

The most considerable are the Tamar, the Lynker, the Loce, the Fowey, the Camel or Alan, and the Fal. The Tamar rises on the summit of a moor in the parish of Morwinstow, the most northern in the county; it immediately takes a southern direction, which, with very little variation, it pursues for a course of forty miles, collecting several tributary streams, when it falls into the spacious harbour of Hamoaze. This river, with a trifling exception, forms the boundary line between Cornwall and Devonshire..

The Lynker rises about eight miles west of Launceston, and after running a devious course of twenty-four miles, it spreads itself into the form of a lake, named Lynkor Creek, and joining the Tamar below Saltash, issues with it into Hamoaze.

The Looe rises in the parish of St. Cleer, and running a course of seven or eight miles, meets the tide at Sand Place, and falls into the sea between the two ancient boroughs of East and West Looe.

Fowey Well, near Roughtor, is the source of Fowey river; it flows some miles in a southern direction, meets the tide at Lestwithel bridge, whence it is navigable to Fowey, where it forms a harbour and joins the sea, after a course of upwards of twenty miles.

The river Fal rises near the Roach Rock, and after a course of twelve miles, meets the tide a mile below Tregony, and passing Tregothnan park, joins Truro and St. Clement’s Creeks, which are navigable to Truro quay and Tresilian bridge; from its junction with the above creeks, after flowing four or five miles, it forms the principal branches of Falmouth harbour, named Carrik and Kingsroad.

The river Alan, or Camel, the greatest on the north coast, has two sources, one about two miles north of Camelford, the other under Roughtor. These rivers join below Kea-bridge; and after a course of eight or nine miles, meet the tide above Wade-bridge, whence the stream is navigable to Padstow Harbour. On all these rivers, as well as on others of less note, great quantities of sea-sand are carried in barges for manure.

Lakes or Pools. —There are three waters in Cornwall which come under this description; the first in point of extent is the Looe, lying between the parishes of Sithney on the west, and Wendron on the east. It may be about two miles long, and one mile broad, formed by a bar of sand, pebbles, and shingle, forced up by the sea against this creek by the south-west winds. This bar dams up the waters which come down principally from the Looe river. It is from three, to upwards of twenty feet deep, and affords water for two creeks called Penrose and Carminow. A peculiar and delicious trout is an inhabitant of this lake.

Dozmery. —This is a circular piece of water, lying about four miles north of St. Neot's church, in the parish of St. Cleer; it may be about a mile in circumference, and from nine to fifteen feet deep. It is formed and supplied by waters which drain from the surrounding hills and moory grounds.

Swan Pool.—Is about half a mile long, and a quarter wide; it lies between the parishes of Budoc and Falmouth, in the hundred of Kerrier, and is severed from the sea by a bar of sand and shingle. It had its name from the swans kept in it formerly. The eels of this lake are reckoned extremely good.

AGRICULTURE

With respect to the soil of the county; in the western parts, and those districts where the granite or moor-stone prevails, it is not uncommon to see the surface of the ground encumbered with immense fragments of the rock, disposed in broad slabs and huge blocks, some rising to a considerable height. Yet such is the industry and perseverance of the farmers, that they cultivate the intervening soil, using the pick-axe for breaking the ground where there is not room for the plough.

The Mines

Nothing can be more dreary than the surface and scenery in the mining districts. The principal mines commence about St. Austel, thence, with an interval of rich land, westward to Kenwyn, Kea, Gwenap, Stythians, Wendron, Breageon the South, and to St. Agnes, Redruth, Illogan, Camborn, and Gwinear, in a straight line through Lelant, Towednack, and Morvah, to the parish of St. Just. There are also mines to the eastward, bordering upon Devonshire, on Hengston Downs, Linkenhorn, and Caradon. Soils.

The soils of Cornwall may be arranged under the three following heads: —1st. The black growan or gravelly. 2d. The shelfy or slaty. 3d. Loams differing in texture, colours, and degrees of fertility. Growan consists of a light, moory, black earth, intermixed with small particles of the granite rock, called growan, from grow, a Cornish word for gravel, with which it is more or less charged. The earthy parts of this are so exceedingly light, that, in a dry summer, as Dr. Borlase observes, the sun quickly exhales its moisture; and in a wet summer or winter much of the vegetable soil is washed from the tilled grounds. —This soil is in general very productive. The shelfy or slaty soil, forming the second class, is by far the most prevalent, and derives its name from Laving a large proportion of the schistus or rotten slaty matter mixed with a light loam. —The disposition of its lamina renders it fertile, or otherwise a greedy, hungry soil. This soil is not unfrequently mixed with more or less of the quartz, provincially called spar; and according as it prevails its value is diminished. If a dun or iron stonte be met with, forming a substratum, this is a fortunate circumstance, being a certain indication of the incumbent soil. There are some very rich and fertile patches of the loamy soils interspersed in different parts of the county, and the low grounds, declivities, banks of the rivers, and town lands, are composed of them. Some of these incumbent on a subsoil of clay partake of it more or less in their composition. Of the clays there are endless varieties; good bricks are made from some of them: and in Lelant parish they have an excellent kind for making furnaces and ovens. A clay of a slaty nature, but soapy to the touch, near Liskeard, has fertilizing powers; but the serpentine, with veins of steatite near the Lizard, are among the most curious of all the earthy substances found in Cornwall. This is commonly called soap rock; it is soft, and of various colours; the purest white is most coveted for porcelain; and from the parish of St. Stephen’s Brannel, large quantities of a white clay are shipped annually for the porcelain and earthen-ware manufactories.

Stones

The worst sort of stones found in many parts of Cornwall is an opaque whitish debased crystal, provincially, but not properly, called spar; and this lies loose on the surface of the ground in almost every parish, in all sizes, from that of rocks to granules. In some places it is found a few inches under ground like a close pavement; and, till these stones can be eradicated by digging, ploughing, or picking, it is thought little hopes of success can be entertained even from the best modes of cultivation. Mr. James, of St. Agnes, cleared a large field of spar by screening the whole mass of spar and earth as deep as the yellow sub-stratum, in the same manner as masons screen the earth for their mortar; and the experiment answered well, although it cost 40l. per acre. The land was afterwards let for three pounds an acre, and the stones were purchased to make a road, and they are not inferior to growan for this purpose. This stone also makes a good facing for fences, and, from its angular, rough surface, forms a safe pavement in pitchwork.

Another stone very general throughout Cornwall is distinguished by the name of killas, though Dr. Woodward says every stone is so called in Cornwall that splits with a grain. It is a schistos, and varies in texture and colour, some being hard, others more friable and laminated; the colours are blueish, yellow, and a ferrugineous brown; and the whole form excellent materials for building.

Slate

There are quarries of slate on the north and south coasts of the country; that called Dennybole, near Tintagel, is supposed to afford the finest in England. St. Neots, St. Germans, and Padstow, have slate quarries, but of an inferior quality. In some parts there are strata of freestone, in quality approaching to Portland stone, of great value for building, as is another stone of a coarser texture, the moor-stone or granite. In the western parts of the county this is so plentiful, that it presents itself to the traveller in large slabs on all the tors or rocky hills, as well as on moors and in valleys, &c. It is adapted to a great variety of uses. Many of the churches and gentlemen’s seats are built with this stone. It is wrought into columns eight or ten feet long, which are used as supporters to sheds and out-houses, as gateposts, and bridges over rivulets; and is also the material of common rollers, malting troughs, salting and pig troughs; in short it is a highly useful stone, and forms an article of commerce. Of this stone there are several sorts; but, besides stones of use, Cornwall affords many of ornaments; such are some of the marbles, pebbles, flints, serpentine or porphyry, talc, stalactites, and the asbestos and small gems. The curious investigator of fossils will discover a great variety of these, many of them beautiful in colour; and some clear and transparent, which have obtained the name of Cornish diamonds.

Cornwall is famous for tin and copper mines. Iron, lead, and even gold and silver are mentioned among its metallic productions. But husbandry, as Dr. Borlase observes, can employ and subsist “a people without mining; but mining can do neither without husbandry.” The Doctor wrote his observations about fifty years ago; agriculture has since been more attended to.

Even the uncultivated parts of Cornwall have now their appropriate uses. A hardy race of herds and flocks depasture the coarse herbage of the more level parts; goats climb and browse the rocky summits, and the wild conies feed and burrow among the sandy hillocks. These lands in Cornwall present a wide field for speculation. The pasturage of the moors, downs, and crofts, as the wastes here are called, is generally considered as belonging to the tenantry in the right of some manor or lordships; and consequently, as in most cases of common-land, the pasturage is by no means equal to the stock. —A general enclosure bill would therefore be a public benefit.

Enclosures

As enclosing has considerable effect upon rural economy, it has been remarked, that though there has been no case of enclosure in this county till very lately, yet there are numerous instances of parcels of land being taken up from the waste and enclosed, with temporary dead fences, for the purpose of securing two or three crops of corn, after which the land is consigned to waste again. Of late years some farms have been considerably extended by enclosing many contiguous acres with good substantial stone or turf fences for permanent improvement; for instance, a considerable tract of waste land has been recently enclosed and cultivated with great effect by Charles Rashleigh, Esq. near St Austel; E. J. Glynn, Esq. of Glynn, has followed this example; and Lord Grenville afterwards obtained an act for enclosing a very great extent of waste lands in the vicinity of Boconnoe.

Fences here are of three classes: stone hedges principally in the western part and the sea-coast; earth hedges, capped with stone, brushwood, &c. chiefly used on the moors; and, lastly, hedges planted with thorns, hazel, and other brushwood, or trees, and formed generally of earth alone, faced with sods or stone. The latter class, upon which bushes and trees are planted, is raised much higher than in any other countries. In situations favourable to the growth of wood, these hedges find the farm-house in fuel; and these, in low and swampy grounds, act as so many open drains: they also carry a great deal of grass on their sides, whilst the shelter they afford to cattle, and to the tender grasses, is very great, All injury, from confined circulation of air to corn is prevented by the hedges about it being cut, plashed, and double-dyked, “that is, all the wood from the middle of the hedge is first cut out, leaving a sufficient quantity on each hedge for the purpose of plashing, which is done by cutting the plants about half through, fastening them down to the hedge, and casting on them the earth and sub-soil found in the ditch. This is generally done when lands are sown to wheat; but the advantages are so many to the occupiers of these fences, that the objection of a waste of land is futile. In the mean while the attention of the farmers, whose lands are exposed to the western ocean, has been directed to the tamarix gallica, which forms an admirable shelter; and, being of quick growth, soon comes to answer the end proposed. A hedge of it, planted about seven years ago, has risen to twelve feet in height, and is feathered to the bottom. The tamarisk bears cutting perfectly well, and may be kept close and low to much advantage. —Tamarisk, however, will never stand the frost; and is, of course, unfit for situations exposed to severe weather.

Ploughing and Fallowing

As the generality of farmers, in Cornwall, have an idea, that there is nothing like corn in sacks, the tillage for white crops is large; probably, one full third of the cultivated lands are under the plough. The mode of ploughing, termed ribbing, in Cornwall, is turning to rot, or combing; but if the land is intended for the immediate reception of seed, where the ground is moderately level, the common country plough is used; where hilly, the turn-rist plough. The draught is occasionally performed by four or six oxen in yoke, commonly with two oxen and two horses, and sometimes by two horses alone, with a driver generaily, or the ploughman with whip-reins. With either of these they turn a furrow, from four to six inches in depth, and six or eight in breadth, laying it more or less on its edge, according to the crop intended to be sown.

Harrowing

This is performed by oxen or horses. Scarifying, scuffling, or tormenting, in some few instances, supersede the use of the plough for a barley tilth after a crop of turnips. As to fallowing, there is scarcely any branch of husbandry, in Cornwall, so incompletely performed as this. The general course of crops here is said to be extremely reprehensible, which is too frequently evinced by the wretched, exhausted, foul appearance of the grounds laid down with grass seeds; nor can it be otherwise after having been cropped with corn, as long as they will bear any.

Hoeing

There are however many instances in opposition to this impoverishing system. The Eastern dictrict and some intelligent cultivators in the West, shew the vast utility of the diligent use of the hoe; not only in the growing crop, but that which succeeds it; for the same reason the turnip culture is rapidly increasing here. Potatoes are hoed, but the culture is not sufficiently extensive to be named among the hoeing crops. The following rotation of crops prevails in Cornwall. No. I. Wheat, barley, oats, with grass seeds. II. Turnips; barley; wheat, barley, or oats, with grass seeds. III. Wheat; turnips; turnips, barley, or oats, with grass seeds. IV. Potatoes; wheat; or barley; if the latter, with seeds. V. Wheat, barley, with grass seeds. The second course of these ruinous crops was introduced in the year 1801, when the high price of corn induced many farmers to adopt it. It is however much to be lamented that a custom arising from accidental circumstance should still in some degree be continued.

Sowing

The crops commonly cultivated here are wheat, barley, and oats; the avena nuda of Ray, in Cornwall called pilez, is also sown in small patches in the western district; it bears the price of wheat, and is used for fattening pigs, or for rearing calves. The green and root crops in common cultivation here, are red and yellow clovers, trefoil, and rye-grass (called cuver in Cornwall) turnips, ruta baga, potatoes, and in some instances, flat-pole, or drum head cabbage.

Reaping and Shocking

The manner of sowing is almost universally by the broad cast method. Reaping and harvest is performed by small hooks or sickles; women and men, even girls and boys make up the busy group. The scythe is seldom used, and only when there is a want of reapers. As the wheat is cut it is immediately bound into sheaves; and in the eastern part of the county put into shocks of eight or ten each, with a cap formed of a single sheaf, with the ears turned downwards, and if the weather permit, carried in a few days; but in the western part it is formed into what are called arish or errish mows, where it remains for a fortnight or more in three rows. The barley harvest usually commences in August, and is cut with the scythe; barley bread was formerly eaten in almost every farm-house, but is now confined to small farmers and labourers. The potatoe oat has been lately introduced into this county, and appears heavier, at least two or three pounds per Winchester, than good oats of the common sort.

Potatoes

These in Cornwall are at all times a standing dish at the humble board of the labourer. Two of the red kind have been long established here, the painted lady and the painted lord; a varied red and white smooth skin distinguishes the former, and a red rough skin the latter; the lady at present takes the precedence at table, coming earlier to maturity than the lord; the old red rough, formerly common in the growan soils, is hardly now to be met with. Cornwall has also the merit of supplying other counties with large quantities of potatoes. Most of the labouring people keep a pig or two, and by this root alone feed and fatten them, making delicious pork.

Trees—Cyder

Fruit trees are every where found to thrive, particularly the apple; and in the eastern part of the county a great deal of cyder is made of very good quality, particularly near Launceston: very little is produced west of Truro. The mulberry tree flourishes well in Cornwall in the western parts, and trees of most kinds will grow and thrive on high plantations even when exposed to the sea. The trees which form these are the pineaster, spruce, Scotch and silver firs, the larch, Dutch, Cornish, and wychelms, beech, oak, ash, Spanish, and horse chesnut, lime, alders, and the plane tree, which was introduced into Cornwall in 1723, by Sir John St. Aubyn of Clowance. The pineaster and Scotch fir are found to be the best nurses, and consequently are arranged so as to take off the brunt of the sea-winds; and as most of the proprietors of the lands are directing their attention to planting, in thirty or forty years Cornwall will present extensive woodland scenery, both useful and ornamental.

Manure

Besides sea-wrack or oreweed, sea-sand is another inestimable treasure in Cornwall. Long experience has proved that sea-sand is a fertilizer of the soil; good for corn, causing it to kern, or corn well, as well as for pulse or roots, and excellent for pasture. It is frequently carried fifteen miles inland. The sand, highest in value, is taken up about Falmouth Harbour, in Carreck-road. Mixed with some sand there is a slimy earthy matter (the recrement of leaves, wood, and perhaps of animal, remains; this is called leg or ligger. All along the north coast, from the Land’s End to Bude Haven, the sands are very good, containing a large portion of shelly fragments.

Farm Houses and Offices

Many old farm houses in this county have a singular appearance, being built with mud walls and covered with thatch of wheaten straw; the lower divisions consist of a kitchen, and an apartment dignified with the name of parlour, or provincially the higher side, a cellar, and a dairy room; but these latter are frequently under a lean-to roof; the rooms very low, not cieled, and two bed-chambers over them; the floor of the chambers are of oak plank; the ground floor, earth, lime ash, or flag-stone.

The farm offices, built of the same materials, consisting of a barn, cow, and ox sheds and hog-sties, stand in confusion about the dwelling. The intervening and circumjacent grounds are called the farmer’s town place; for, as to that essential appendage, a regular farm yard, it is a convenience not often met with, even at this day, in any part of the county.

The modern farm houses are built upon a more liberal plan, the walls of stone, and the roofs of slate. The farm offices also now assume a more regular mode in their arrangement and construction; the plan adopted in the latter buildings, is to throw every convenience possible under one roof, particularly in what is called a chall barn; the ox and cow challs, being under the chamber for threshing the corn.

Cottages, Carriages, and Implements

Of the cottages in this county it is observed, the meanest generally, has that source of comfort, a garden attached to it. Respecting carriages, no county affords a greater variety of wheel and other vehicles than this. In most parts the waggon, the wain, one and two horse carts, the ox butt, gurry butt, slide and sledge, may be met with. Their construction varies according to their intended use. A waggon peculiar to Cornwall is a light and really elegant carriage used for carrying hay and corn in harvest time, faggot wood, &c. The body is open, a lade of five bars fixed before and behind, gives it great length, and an arch over the hind wheels, gives it breadth; the fore wheels turn clear under the body, so that it can sweep round in a very narrow compass; the load is secured by two ropes tightened by a winch fixed behind the waggon; it carries about 300 sheaves of corn. A tongue (or middle) tree, or shafts, are alternately fixed to the axle of the fore wheels, as it is meant to be drawn by oxen or horses. Another simple carriage is the sledge or dray, to be met with on most farms, shod with thick rough pieces of timber; to some two low wheels are fixed. The ox-butt is a kind of cart, of long standing in Cornwall; its body is nearly an oblong square; many of them have a heavy iron axle fixed to one wheel, the other one turning round upon it by which the draught is very much increased; lately most farmers have adopted the wooden axles with iron arms, on which both wheels go round. The slide butt, is merely a strong oblong box, holding about three or four common wheel-barrows of earth or compost. Some of these with wheels, are called gurry butts. Another vehicle called dung pots is in use here for carrying dressing a short distance; they are slung over a horse, mule or ass, having wooden pack saddles at their sides; the contents drop through a falling door at the bottom, on each side the animal. These are indispensable conveyances on the hilly ground. Longhand short crooks as they are termed, are also used for carrying of sheaf corn, hay, faggot, billet wood, slate, &c. Besides kand-bar rows, grass barrows are used on a few farms, where they adopt the economical, and highly to be commended practice of soiling cattle in the houses and yards; they are so constructed as to hold a large quantity, the weight of which bearing upon the wheel or wheels, requires only the exertion of pushing it forward. As to ploughs, some few wheel, foot, and other country ploughs have been introduced, and trials made with them; but the old Cornish plough still maintains its ground. Harrows being either single or double, and of the old-fashioned form, are of all implements here the most defective. Some few gentlemen have the improved harrows of other counties. The implement called a tormentor is in general use here. Cook's cultivator is coming into use; and thrashing machines are become very general, mostly worked by horses, a few by water or steam. The prices vary from 30l. to 100l.; and a thrashing machine to be wrought by hand, has been invented by a Cornish gentleman, but not answering, a horse and horse tackle have been applied to it. The usual manner of thrashing corn in the lower parts of Cornwall, is upon a frame which they call barn boards, formed of four or five sycamore or ash plank, or three ledges, or transverse beams; this frame is about seven feet by four, and about ten inches in height, care is taken that each plank is set about the third of an inch from its neighbour, that the grain may fall through. By this mode, little or no corn is bruised or wasted. Wheat in some places, is beat out on a barrel, or in an inclined plane, by women.

Cattle

The celebrated Mr. Bakewell visiting this county, candidly observed to Sir Harry Trelawny, who had introduced some of the Dishley breed, that he had no occasion to send so far for neat cattle, while he could have as good as Devonshire produced. But it is only among the more enlightened and spirited breeders, that the genuine North Devon are to be met with. Still the larger breed of cattle, of which there are great numbers in Cornwall, are annually sold to graziers, &c. There are many fine models of these, dispersed over the county. Lord Falmouth’s bull in 1808, was equal, if not superior to most. To Mr. J. Peters of Creegmurrion, the county is indebted for his various and excellent exhibitions of cattle and sheep at the different meetings of the Cornwall Agricultural Society. The Rev. H. Tremayne, and the Rev. R. Walker, as well as Messrs. Jefferies and Pike, have excellent cattle for proportion and symmetry. Some farmers however still prefer the bony system, “give me,” says the still prejudiced farmer, “a snug tight bullock, with a stout frame of bone, to build my flesh and fat upon, and a good thick hide to keep out the cold and wet; they be strong and hardy, Sir, cost little or nothing in keep, range the moors, live and thrive on furze and heath in summer, and in winter too with a little straw; get as fat as moles when put on turnips; the butcher likes them; they tallow well, and hide tells in the tanners’ scale.” Such is the colloquial information from the more rustic sous of agriculture.

The late Lord Elliot introduced a large long horned breed from Gloucestershire; some of them yet remain about St. Germains. The Irish cattle in Cornwall are remarkable for thickness of hide, are bad provers, and coarse flesh; the Scotch thrive well, and make excellent beef. The native cattle are very small, of a black colour, short horned, coarse boned and large offal; very hardy black cows and bulls, of a small size have been met with, weighing from three to four hundred.

In no county does the ox stand in higher estimation for all kinds of work than in Cornwall. Oxen are every where to be met with drawing the butt, the wain, and the waggon, on the road; or the plough and harrow in the fields. They are shod, or as it is provincially termed cued, and are extremely docile and active, going at a full trot with the empty carriages in the bustling seasons of hay time and harvest, and driven by a little boy, who cheers and excites them by the song and the goad. Cattle in Cornwall are pretty healthy, and it is well they are so, as there are no very skilful farmers, and there is a disease called the head flay, which will soon kill the animals, as the head swells to an enormous size, unless two deep incisions are made under the tongue and filled with salt; these effect a cure almost immediately. Under this head it must be observed, that from the general deficiency of house room, and comfortable farm yards, as also of more extensive winter green crops, all cattle, particularly young stock, sustain much injury for want of more generous food, and warm shelter, and not one quarter of the dung is raised, that might be. Gentlemen, and some superior farmers, however, house all their cattle, giving their cows, cabbage, rape, the tops of turnips, and ruta baga, with straw and hay.

Horses

Few horses in Cornwall are kept for ostentation, or to live in idleness and luxury. The gentleman’s horse is often put to the cart or the plough, when not wanted for the coach or chariot. The farm horses are excellently adapted to the hilly surface of the county; they are rather small, but hardy and active, and it may be truly said, they “eat no idle oats.” Most farmers keep up their stock, by breeding a colt or two annually; but one eighth of the horses, for saddle and draught, are supposed to be brought into the county by eastern dealers.

Cornish Sheep

Mr. Worgan observes, that curiosity induced him to see what they still call the true Cornish breed of sheep; “the animals pointed out to me as such, have grey faces and legs, coarse short thick necks, stand lower before than behind, narrow backs, flattish sides, a fleece of coarse wool, weighing about two or three pounds of eight ounces, and their mutton seldom fat, from eight to ten pounds per quarter.” From the various crosses which have been made by rams introduced into this county, a pure Cornish sheep is now a rare animal, nor from its properties, need the total extinction be lamented. With respect to the wool, it is a pretty general opinion, that the climate and soil of Cornwall are particularly favourable for the finest fleeces; but for the want of a wool fair, and the wool dealers giving no better price for fine than for coarse wools, the object of the wool grower has been weight, and not fineness of fleece, for this reason the gentlemen here first turned their attention to a wool fair.

Mr. Worgan further observes, that “the mongrel flocks, that live upon the downs, heaths, and moors, summer and winter, are a hardy race, weighing 10 or 12lbs. per quarter; the mutton very good; bearing fleeces from 2 to 4lbs. each, of moderate quality. Some have horns; they are not nice in feeding, for I have seen them cropping the furze and the heath as well as depasturing the grasses; they are as active as deer, and if they cannot leap over a fence, they will contrive to creep through it, so that they are a great nuisance to enclosures, near the commons particularly, when they have got the shab, or skab.” On the towans, or sand hillocks on some parts of the north coast, they have a small compact sheep, the mutton of which is of a particularly superior flavour, weighing about eight pounds per quarter; the fleece of finer wool approaching the South down, may weigh two or three pounds. The grass of the towans is of a short thick and sweet nature; but in the mornings and evenings, innumerable small turbinated snails come out from the sand, on which these sheep seem to make a delicious repast, and on which it is said they get fat. “I saw them myself eating these snails.“

A number of mules are also bred in this county, and employed in the mining district, conveying away the produce and carrying supplies to the mines. Troops of fifty at a time of these sure-footed animals are frequently to be met on the roads in the mining country, loaded with copper or tin ore, particularly between Redruth and the Heyl copper-works.

In the Mining District Mr. Marshall saw many goats. At every cottage door are two or three of these useful animals, with the hind and fore leg tied together, to prevent their escaping to the summit of the mountains, or wandering from home. —A much greater number of these animals is to be seen in Cornwall than in any part of South Wales.

Tithes

The great and sheaf tithes here, are for the most part the property of laymen, and are by them farmed out to persons called proctors. The small tithes, which comprise all titheable things, are in the hands of the clergy, who in general compound at 1s. to 1s. 6d. in the pound of the rent for Vicarages; and for Rectories, where the great tithes also belong to the clergyman, from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. in the pound. In general, it may be observed, they are compounded for on very moderate terms when held by the clergy; when held by a layman, they are sometimes taken in kind, but generally valued and agreed for in the field, about the time of harvest.

Provisions

The most common food of the labouring class is barley bread, with tea and salted fish. The pilchards which are caught in great abundance on this coast, and cured for foreign markets, supply the poor also with wholesome and nutritious food. Being salted, they give a relish to the tea and are eaten with potatoes at other meals. Many labourers who gain better wages, or are not butthened with large families, use wheaten bread, and are able to indulge in some meat for their pasties, as well as for their suppers; and the poor are in general better fed and clothed than in other counties.

Fuel

The principal articles of fuel in the western parts of Cornwall, are turf, furze, and Welsh coals; in the eastern part, hedge and coppice-wood, and coals. This necessary article of comfort, it is owned, is so scarce, that many of the poor are obliged to take a great deal of pains to collect a scanty burthen of miserable short Cornish furze from the commons.

Weights and Measures

It is necessary to observe, that divers weights and measures prevail throughout Cornwall, to a mischievous and vexatious degree, and are productive of much inconvenience, perplexity and error, as a snare to the ignorant, and a handle to the artful. Corn, for instance, is sold in the eastern parts of Cornwall by the double Winchester of 16 gallons, and in the western parts by the treble Winchester of 24 gallons; oats by the hogshead of 9 Winchesters: but with some farmers, the double Winchester will run 17 or 17 ½ gallons. Again, if a farmer in the eastern part buys a bushel of seed wheat from the western farmers, it will run short a gallon or two by the eastern measure. Butter is generally sold at eighteen ounces to the pound. The customary perch for land measure is also 18 feet; but this is giving way to the statute perch of 16 ½ feet. As there is a statute with a penalty against selling corn by any but the Winchester bushel of 8 gallons, and a legal pound of meat or butter must weigh 16 ounces, it is hoped the remedy will be applied to these evils by an enforcement of the laws already existing.

Roads

The two great post entrances into Cornwall, are by Launceston and Tor Point; if you enter by the latter, you have to cross the harbour of Hamoaze, which at times is rough and turbulent. Mr. Worgan has noticed with due reprehension, the straw traps which the farmers lay in some of the cross roads, and which, concealing the deep ruts, endanger their horses and gigs, and their own necks. The quartz stone, so abundant in most parts of Cornwall, is an admirable material for repairing the roads, which are very much in want of it between Devonshire and Budehaven.

The parochial roads are numerous, narrow and intricate; some of them mere gullies, worn by torrents; their high banks and tall overhanging hedge-wood render many of them dark labyrinths. Guide posts in this county still remain a desideratum among travellers.

A bill is now before parliament for making a road from Truro to Falmouth, by way of Flushing. It is intended to have a flying bridge over the creek, which runs up to Penryn. There is a turnpike road branching oft from the Plymouth road, near Crofthole, which passes through Milbrook and Maker, commonly called Cremble passage. Here, though the horse boats are sometimes (though never for an entire day) delayed during the strong gales of wind, the foot boats pass constantly without interruption; the accommodations of the ferry at Torpoint are peculiarly good, particularly as to the embarkation and disembarkation on both sides.

Bridges

These are numerous in Cornwall, both for foot and horse travellers; those for the former, to cross the rivulets and deep gullies, consist only of one flat stone: if there was a rail to lay hold of, and this painted white, they would be better. On the whole, they are kept in good repair. The largest in the county is, Wade Bridge, consisting of sixteen Gothic arches over the Camel and Alan united.

It is in contemplation to make a turnpike road from Redruth over the head of the river Hayle to Penzance, and also to shorten and improve the road from Catchfrench to Torpoint.

Commerce and Manufactures

The principal places of trade in Cornwall are Padstow, Boscastle, and the river Hayle on the north coast; Penzance, Falmouth, Truro, Fowey and Looe, on the south. The three great staple commodities for export, are tin, fish, and copper; the moor-stone, and China-stone for porcelain; barley, oats, potatoes, and some wheat. The imports are goods and consist of groceries from London, Bristol, and Manchester; coals, balk, iron, and various other articles. Great quantities of flour are annually imported at Falmouth and Penryn, chiefly for the miners. A great many neat cattle, pigs, and some sheep are driven annually out of the county. The manufactures are few and inconsiderable, some coarse woollen, several paper, and a carpet manufactory, make ap the principal. A wool-fair, it was justly observed in “The General View of the Agriculture of the County of Cornwall,” is much wanted; and one of this description has since been established at St. Mitchel’s.

The Manner in which Land is possessed

In ancient times the whole of the mountainous and waste lands in Cornwall in which tin was found, belonged to the King; this territory was anciently reputed a duchy, but a little before the Norman conquest was an carldom. By Edward III. it was again constituted a duchy; the first that was created in England after the conquest, and conferred on Edward the Black Prince, with the special limitation to the first-begotten son and heirs apparent of him and his heirs Kings of England for ever.

A very great part of these wastes and moors still are parcels of the said duchy, to which also other manors, lands, and hereditaments, have been added by subsequent acts of parliament, in lieu of other lands in other counties taken from the same by act of parliament with the obvious intention of preserving the value of the duchy entire.

The duchy lands are still by far the most extensive of those belonging to any proprietor in the county. The lands of the other proprietors are much intermixed with the duchy lands and with each other. Property is very much divided, there are very few who possess of landed rental within the county more than 3000l. per annum exclusive of the produce of the mines.

The duchy lands are in general occupied in very small farms. In the eastern and more fertile parts rents in general do not exceed thirty or forty pounds per annum; the greater part not above 10 or 15 pounds per annum; some few are as high as 100l. and from that to 2001. per annum. All the farms are on leases for lives. In the western and mining district they are very small indeed, chiefly cottage holdings.

Mr. Fraser gives the following list of duchy lands in Cornwall, as granted by charter 11 of Edward III.

1. The Castle, Manor, and Park and Borough of Launceston, with its appurtenances.

2. The Castle and Manor of Tremarton, and the Borough of Saltash, and the Park there, with the appurtenances.

3. The Castle, Borough, and Manor of Tyntagell, which is supposed to be the place of birth and seat of King Arthur.

4. The Castle and Manor of Restormel, and the Park there.

5. The Manor of Clymesland, and Park of Kerry Bollock.

6. The Manor of Tibesta, with the Bailiwick of Powdershire.

7. The Manor of Tevwynton, with the appurtenances.

8. The Manor and Borough of Helston in Kerrier, with the appurtenances.

9. The Manor of Moresk, with the appurtenances.

10. The Manor of Penkneth, with the appurtenances.

11. The Manor of Penlyn, with the Park there.

12. The Manor of Relaton also Rillaton, with the Beadlery of Eastwyvelshire.

13. The Manor of Helston in Trigshire with the appurtenances, and the Park of Hellesbury.

14. The Manor and Borough of Liskeard and the Park there.

15. The Manor of Kallestock, with the Fishery there, and its other appurtenances.

16. The Manor of Talskydo, with the appurtenances in the said county of Cornwall.

17. The Borough or Town of Lestwithiel, together with the Mills.

King Henry VIII. at his parliament holden at Westminster the thirty-first year of bis reign, and prorogued on divers occasions until the twenty-fourth day of July, in the thirty-second year of his reign, in lieu of other lands severed from the duchy, did annex to the said dukedom the manors of Westanton, Port Low, North-hill, Port Pigham, Laudren, Treloweia, Tregoroe, Trelagan, Crosthoie, Trevithern, Courtney, Landulph. Leigh Durant, and Tinton, and all other his laud in the said places, which came to the said King by the attainder of treason of Henry Courtney, Marquis of Exeter; also the manors of Austel, Fentregan, Tremeynalls, Tremagwon, Fowey, Cudgrave, and Port Neaprior, in the county of Cornwall, which came to the King’s hands by the dissolution of the Priory of Trewerdreth, in that county; also all the manors of Breadford, Caverton, Clymesland, Pryor, Treworgy, Stratton, Eastway, Bowyton, Bradissey, Bucklaurue and Bonyalvey, which came into the king’s hands by the surrender and suppression of the priory of Launceston.

By the above, and other accounts and records, it appears that the said duchy of Cornwall consisted formerly of ten several castles, which in ancient times were places of great consequence and strength; they are now all in ruins and gone to decay. There were in ancient times nine parks, and one chase or forest, all of large extent, and replenished with deer. They have long been deforrested, and by various incroachments are rendered of little or no value to the Prince. The duchy also contained fifty-three manors, many of which were of great yearly rent of assize. Of ancient boroughs and towns there are within the said duchy 13 in number, formerly of great power and influence. There are nine several hundreds, parcels of the said duchy, besides extensive tracts of waste and moory grounds included in or adjoining to the various manors.

At present what remains of the extensive possessions are farmed in leases for lives, subject to small annual quit rents, and renewable for fines, in some instances certain, and others arbitrary. The revenues of the duchy of Cornwall, as appears from the accounts of the receiver of it, in the fifteenth year of King Henry VIII. amounted of clear yearly value to 10,095l. 11s. 9 ¼d. This is a large sum for those days; and this without the casual revenues from reprises, &c. The coinage dues, which form part of it, amounted to 2,771l. 3s. 9 ¼d. so that the clear revenue from the duchy lands amounted to 7,324l. 8s. In the reign of James I. the revenues belonging to the Prince of Wales, from the duchy of Cornwall, the principality of Wales, earldom of Chester, and various other lands, amounted to 100,000l. per annum, being a clear rent from lands. In the troubles that followed, and afterwards from the various necessities of the crown, the whole of these lands, in the principality of Wales and earldom of Chester, were alienated, and the duchy lands of Cornwall are the only part of these valuable hereditary revenues which now remain to the heir apparent.

The lands of the duchy of Cornwall being formed on leases of lives renewable, some for a fine certain, others upon a calculation of the improved value, it is not easy to ascertain the yearly value which depends upon the falling in of lives. The great number of small rents are expensive in the management and collecting. The lines also to be calculated upon improvements, operate directly against all improvements on so precarious a tenure as that of lives. It has therefore happened that the value of the duchy has not been improved, in an equal degree, with the land around belonging to private proprietors, unless in situations favourable to improvement. The chief and greatly-improved part of the revenues of the duchy, is not that which arises from the lands, but that part which arises from the duty upon the coinage of tin, which is under the direction and management of the officers of the Stannaries, a distinct branch of his Royal Highness’s establishment from that under which is the management of the lands. On account of the exportation of this metal to the East Indies and China, this trade has been restored to a very flourishing state: and the revenues arising from the coinage, are likely not only to be more steady than formerly, but in all probability will be considerably iucreased. To give therefore an idea of the revenues of the duchy, the coinage dues cannot be stated higher than 10,000l. on the average. The landed revenue may amount to 5,000l. per annum.

Besides some censures upon tenures held upon lives and estates during that time, racked unmercifully, Mr. Worgan observes, in respect to entailed estates, that he was in hopes he had been the only sufferer in Cornwall from this kind of deceptive tenure. In many of his excursions, he had met with fellow sufferers, and with others who are likely to become so; he therefore thought it behoved every man about to occupy a farm by lease, to make enquiry whether it be an entailed estate or not; because the possessor having the power of letting it for his own life only; in case of his death, the occupier is left entirely at the mercy of his successors.

MINES AND MINERALS

There cannot be a more important object of enquiry to the curious traveller, or more worthy of particular notice in the history of this county than its numerous mines, which have for time immemorial been the source of employment to a great portion of its whole population, and furnished an article which for ages has been the chief staple of the commerce of Great Britain. “In a narrow slip of barren country, „says the Author of the General View of Cornwall, “where the purposes of agriculture would not employ above a few thousand people, the mines alone support a population estimated at nearly 60,000, exclusive of the artizans, tradesmen, and merchants, in the towns of St. Austel, Truro, Penryn, Falmouth, Redruth, Penzance, and some others.” The number of men, women, and children, deriving their whole subsistence from the mines, by raising the ore, washing, stamping, and carrying it, has been estimated at 14,000.

The mines of Cornwall consist chiefly of tin, copper, and some lead. The strata in which these metals are found, extend from the Land's End, Cornwall, in a direction from West to East, a very considerable distance into Devon, to the furthest part of Dartmore Hills. These strata consist chiefly of the various species of the Schistus, here called Killas, and of the Granite or Growan. This extensive range forms the high ground, in the middle of Cornwall, from which the winds, rain, and storms, have washed much of the vegetable earth to enrich the vallies, and in which they have been aided by the operation of the miners.

The high lands on the east of the county, bordering upon Devon, particularly the parish of Linkinhorn, and Hengsten or Hingston Downs, were famous for tins in the earliest times, and from St. Austel westward, to Kemyn, Gwenap, Stythians, Wendron, and Breage on the south, and to St. Agnes, Redruth, Illogan, Cambourne, Gwinear, in a straight line through Lelant Senor, and Morvas, to the parish of St. Just on the north, the mining grounds maintain a breadth of about seven miles at a medium.

In some creeks of Falmouth harbour tin is found among the slime and sands; and in Mount’s Bay, it is sometimes thrown up by the sea, in a pulverized state. —Tin disseminated in the sides of hills, in single stones, are called shodes: such stones found together in great numbers, making a continual course from one to ten feet deep, are called a stream. (Polwhele's History of Cornwall.)

The Romans not only traded to this part of Britain for tin, but they also, after fixing their military stations at Danmonium, became miners themselves. The Jews very early worked the Cornish mines; but when they came hither cannot be exactly ascertained. Carew, in his survey of Cornwall, says, “Albeit the tynne lay couched at first in certain strakes amongst the rockes, like a tree or the veines of a man's body, from the depth whereof the maine lode, spreadeth out his branches, until they approach the open ayre; yet they have now two kinds of tynne workes, stream and lode; for (say they) the floud, carried together with the moved rocks and earth, so much of the lode as was inclosed therein, and at the asswaging, left the same scattered here and there in the vallies and rivers where it passed; which being sought and digged is called stream work: under this title they comprise also the moor works, growing from the like occasion. They maintain these works to have been very ancient, and first wrought by the Jewes with pickaxes of Holme box and hartshornes, they prove this by the name of those places yet enduring, to wit Attal Sarazin, in English the Jewes offcast; and by those tools daily found among the rubbish of such works. And it may well be that as acorns made good bread before Ceres taught the use of corn; and sharp stones served the Indians for knives, until the Spaniards brought them iron: so, in the infancy of knowledge, these poore instruments for want of better did supply a turn. There are also taken up in such works certain little tooles, heads of brass, which some terme thunder axes, but they make small shew of any profitable use. Neither were the Romans igno rant of this trade, as may appear by a brass coyne of Domitian’s, found in one of these works, and fallen into my hands, and perhaps under one of those Flavians, the Jewish workmen made here their first arrival.“

Tin Mines

Formerly immense quantities of this metal were found, in the eastern parts of this county, where the remains of innumerable ancient workings are still to be observed.

The tin of Cornwall, of the adjacent isles of Scilly, and of Devon, has from time immemorial constituted a great branch of foreign commerce. Some years before the Invasion of Julius Ciesar, a Roman merchant, of the name of Publius Crassus, stimulated the Cornish Britons to improve their mines, and increase their traffic with the continent, and persuaded them to export their tin to the neighbouring shores of France. His advice was taken, and even the islanders of Scilly, are spoken of by Festus Avuenus, in the fourth century, for men of high minds, great prudence as merchants, and for great skill as pilots, in steering their vessels of skins with dexterity through the vast ocean.

The working of the mines was entirely neglected during the period of the Saxon dominion, and the constant state of warfare in which the British were afterwards involved with the Danes allowed them no opportunity of attending to peaceful employments. —It does not appear that the Romans derived any great advantage from the Cornish mines, and in the reign of King John they produced so inconsiderable a revenue that the tin farm amounted to no more than 100 marks, and the king, to whom the rights of working the mines then belonged, was so sensible of their low state that he bestowed some valuable privileges on the county, relieving it from the operations of the arbitrary forest laws, and granting a charter to the tinners.

On the contrary, in the time of Richard, King of the Romans and Earl of Cornwall, the produce of the tin mines was immense. In the reign of Edward I. the mines were again neglected, till the gentlemen of Blackmoor, proprietors of the seven tythings, affording the greatest quantity of tin, got a charter from Edmund Earl of Cornwall, containing “more explicit grants of the priviledges of keeping a court of judicature, holding pleas of actions, managing and deciding all Stannary causes, of holding parliaments at their discretion, and of receiving, as their own due and proportion, the toll tin; that is the one fifteenth of all tin raised. „Regulations were also made respecting the right of bounding or dividing tin grounds into separate portions, for the encouragement of searching for tin. By these regulations the labouring tinner became entitled to a certain property in the soil of waste and uninclosed lauds, in which he discovered tin, and upon giving proper notice in the Stannary Court to the proprietor, was enabled to register the intended boundaries without opposition. The bounds confine the particular portions of ground to the extent of the claim, and are made by digging a small pit at each angle of the lot and circumscribing it by a line drawn from each pit: this is the present practice, and the person making these boundaries is obliged to keep the pits in repair, by preventing the growth of the turf, and removing any dirt or rubbish that might fill up his land-marks.

To the charter granted by Edmund, Carew says, in his survey, that there was affixed “a seal with a pick-axe and shovel in saltire.” It was again confirmed towards the latter end of the reign of Edward I. and the tinmen of Cornwall were made a distinct body from those of Devonshire; having before been accustomed to assemble on Hengston Hill every seventh or eighth year, in order to concert the necessary measures for securing their respective interests. The laws and privileges of the Cornish miners were further explained in the reign of Edward III. and confirmed and enlarged by several acts of parliament passed under Richard II. and Edward IV. These acts divided the tinmen into four divisions, under the superintendance of one warden, and reserving an appeal from his decisions in all suits of law and equity to the Duke of Cornwall in council; or, in case this title should be in abeyance, to the crown.

A vice-warden is appointed every month by the lord warden to determine all stannary disputes; he also constitutes four stewards (one for each precinct) who hold their courts (called stannary courts from the Latin word Stannum, tin) every three weeks, and decide by juries of six persons, with a progressive appeal to the vice-warden, lord-warden, and lords of the Frince of Wales’s council, —Five towns were appointed in the most convenient parts of the county, to which the tinners were to bring their tin every quarter of the year. The original towns for this purpose were Launceston, Lestwithiel, Truro, and Helston. In the reign of Charles II. Penzance was added, for the accommodation of the western tinners. In the time of Henry VIII. there were only two coinages, at Midsummer and Michaelmas; two more have been since added, held at Lady-day and Christmas, for which the tinners pay an acknowledgment of 4d. for every cast of white tin then coined. There are officers appointed to assay it; and, if well purified, it is stamped with the dutchy seal, viz. the arms of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, a lion rampant, gules, crowned, or with a border of bezant silver, and this is a licence to the coiner to sell, and is called coining the tin. The Duke of Cornwall receives for every cast of white tin so coined 4s. and the annual produce at present of the tin mines is estimated at about 25,000 blocks; which, after deducting the duties, may be valued at 260,000l. According to this calculation the income of the Duchy of Cornwall, arising from the tin mines, is not less than 10,000l. annually.

One of the most considerable of the tin mines in the county lies about two miles south-west of St. Austel; produced upon an average about 2,500 blocks per annum for many years. In the parish of St. Agnes, and its adjoining parish Peranzaboloe, there are a great number of mines, the joint produce of which is very great.

Kenwin, Kea, and Gwennap, afford considerable quantities of tin. In Gwennap is the mine called Poldice, very ancient and deep. It has yielded sometimes 1000 blocks yearly. It may now be denominated with more propriety a copper mine. In this, and many other tin mines, when they get to a great depth, the tin wears out and leaves a lode or vein of copper.

In Wendron, north east of Helston, the tin mines are numerous and productive. Between Helston and Marazion are the tin parishes of Sithney, Breage, Germoe, &c.

Immediately beyond Penzance there was, until within these few years, a tin mine worked under the sea. The shaft, through which the miners went down to work, was situated nearly one hundred yards below water-mark. This was the famous wherry mine, which was wholly given up in the year 1798. “The opening of this mine,” says Dr. Maton, “was an astonishingly adventurous undertaking. Imagine the descent into a mine through the sea, the miners working at the depth of seventeen fathoms below the waves; the rod of a steam-engine, extending from the shore to the shaft, a distance of nearly 120 fathoms; and a great number of men momentarily menaced with an inundation of the sea, which continually drains, in no small quantity, through the roof of the mine, and roars loud enough to be distinctly heard in it.” This mine not only produced a great quantity of rich tin stuff, but also some cobalt; the latter was chiefly mixed with pyrites and nickel. Cobalt when purified is used in the potteries and porcelain manufactories, in printing and painting the blue colour so much admired: from this substance zaffar and smalts are prepared. The great expence incurred in working this mine, and the danger the miners were constantly exposed to, occasioned it to be discontinued.

Westward from Penzance there are only a few scattered mines. In the parish of St. Just, in which stands Cape Cornwall, one of the western promontories, there are several mines, the produce of which is considerable. North and north-east of Penzance, to St. Ives Bay, are many mines very productive.

The principal stream works are in the parishes of Lanlivery, Luxilvan, St. Blazy, St. Austel, St. Mewan, St. Stephens, St. Culumb, St. Enoden, and Ladbrook, east and north-east of Truro, from five to twenty miles. The principal stream work in the county is at Carnon, about half-way between Truro and Penryn; west of this place there are but few stream works.

Copper Mines

Copper ores are found in great abundance and variety in Cornwall; and native copper is not unfrequently found within the fissures of rocks, in thin films, deposited by the impregnated water that runs from the lodes, or horizontal layers, of the copper ore. Veins of copper are also frequently discovered in cliffs that are left bare by the sea; but the most certain sign of a rich ore is the gossan, an earthly ochreous stone, of a ruddy colour, which crumbles like the rust of iron. The presence of copper is further indicated when the ground is inclinable to an easy free-working blue Killas, inter mixed with white clay. A white crystaline stone is also found to contain a great proportion of yellow copper. The lodes of copper ore generally he deeper than those of tin, and its ores are chiefly of the pyrintous and sulphurated kinds, with a small proportion of arsenic. “The lodes both of tin and copper, appear most frequently to have granite for their country, and to make an angle of 60° to 76° with the horizon.” The matrices of copper ore are found in great number and variety. Among the blue ores there is one of an extremely fine blue earth. The grey ore is often spotted yellow and purple; but this ore is deemed the most rich when of an uniform lead colour throughout. Octahedral crystals of red vitreous copper ore are found in one of Gwenuap mines, called Cahanack, which also produces the arsenide of copper.

The ore is cleansed and dressed by the same process as employed for tin; but requires less washing, from being generally raised in large masses. In the smelting-houses they use reverberating furnaces, and those for the process of roasting will contain about three tons and a half of ore, broken into small pieces, at one time. After the ore has been wasted twelve hours, it is removed into a smaller furnace, and melted by the aid of slacked lime in a crude state, and occasionally, powdered coal. The scoria is removed every three or four hours, and the same quantity of the mixture added. After twelve hours, it is let out by a trough, from a hole near the bottom of the furnace, into a tub of wood sunk into a pit full of water, by which operation it is forced into small grains; in this form it is again roasted in a third furnace, once more in a fourth, and at length cast into quadrangular moulds. To be further refined it must pass through successive roastings and meltings, until its being fit to be finally laded off, has been ascertained by the refiner, by the following method: viz. half a pound of the liquid metal is taken out and immersed in water, this is afterwards hammered and cut, and the grain examined; when it has arrived at the proper degree of refinement, the scoria is removed, and with ladles, coated with clay, the metal is taken out of the furnace, and poured into oblong moulds, also coated with clay, each containing about 150lbs. weight. The annual produce of the copper mines has been calculated to amount to 4,700 tons of copper, worth, upon a moderate computation 350,000l.

The most productive copper mines now working, are at Huel Alfred, near Hayle; Crennis, near St. Austel; Dolcoath, in Camborne, Huel Unity, United Mines, Huel Damsel, and Treskerby, in Gwennap; Huel Abraham, in Crowan; Huel Towan, in St. Agnes; and Gunnis Lake, in Calstock. These mines, however, owing to the low price of copper, and the great expence of working them, yield little profit to the adventurers, Crennis, and Huel Alfred, excepted.

There are but few lead mines in Cornwall, though the ore has frequently been found incorporated with silver. The kind of ore most frequently found is that denominated Galena, or pure sulphuret of lead, both in crystallizations and in masses, generally of a blueish grey colour, and foliated texture.

Lead, when refined, is the softest of all metals, and its uses are multifarious. Its oxydes or calxes are employed in painting and dying, and likewise for medicinal purposes. The principal lead mines are Huel Pool, and Huel Rooe, near Helston. Mr. Fraser mentions a few small ones on the British Channel, in Perran, Cubert, &c. and on the same coast, north-east of Padstow, on St. Minver, St. Cue, and Endillion, in which last parish was also the most considerable mine of antimony which this country has produced.

Although gold has certainly been found in this county, yet it has been in such small quantities, that it can hardly be mentioned as one of its productions. The largest mass of it ever discovered, of which Dr. Borlase gives an account, weighed fifteen penny-weights and sixteen grains. Extremely minute particles of gold are very often discovered among the stream tin, and some specimens have been met with incorporated with tin crystals in streaks. The miners carry about them a quill, in which they put the grains of gold found, and when the quill is filled they sell it to a goldsmith.

Several years ago a lode of silver was discovered near the sea, between St. Agnes and St. Michael, and the mine which is called Huel Mexico has been worked to much advantage.

The lode runs in a direction, almost perpendicular, from north to south, and the depth of the mine is about thirty fathoms. Since the discovery of Huel Mexico, silver has been got out of the Herland copper mine in the parish of Gwinear. A particular account of this discovery, given by the Rev. Malachi Hitchins, was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, for 1801, in which he observes that the numerous veins of lead in Cornwall are richly impregnated with silver, and occasionally yield small quantities of silver ore, and even some specimens of native silver; yet hitherto no instance had been known of their yielding this precious metal in such abundance (as in this instance); nor had any circumstance, in the natural history of the mineral veins of this county, borne any analogy to those which accompanied the discovery of the presence of silver, in the Herland copper mine.

The Herland mine is of considerable extent, and described, by Mr. Hitchins, to commence in a valley on the west, and passing through a hill, which is first of steep and then of moderate ascent, for upwards of half a mile eastward; when the principal copper lodes which follow this direction, meet with a cross lode, by which, and by other cross courses, and flookans, which intersect them in their further progress, they are repeatedly heaved, and so disordered by these heaves in their form and position, and so changed by them in respect to their composition, as hardly to be recognized. It is about twenty years since the first discovery of the silver ore in a particular part of the mine, in the neighbourhood of one of the intersected copper lodes, at a distance of no fathoms from the surface.

Iron

There is abundance of iron ore in many parts of the county; but there are no iron mines which have been much worked. Many tons indeed were sent to Wales, which the proprietors are said to have found to be so rich, that they had not been able to discover a proper flux for it.

The Sulphuret of Iron, or Pyrites, called Mundic by the Cornish miners is found in great abundance, intermixed with both tin and copper ore; also the semi-metals Bismuth, Zinc, Antimony, Cobalt, Arsenic, Wolfram, Menachanite, and Molybdena, and the Lapis Calaminaris, an ore of Zinc.

Mr. Fraser, after some judicious observations upon the value and importance of the business of mining, not only to the county of Cornwall, but also to the nation at large, mentions that it had been remarked to him by a gentleman of much discernment, and thoroughly acquainted with the county, as well as with most parts of England, “that there are more men, who possess fortunes, sprung from the mines, of five and from that to twenty thousand pounds, than there are in any other county of England, excepting the metropolis and its vicinity; and there are some instances of individuals acquiring from fifty to two hundred thousand pounds, from the mines, and by a fortunate course of trade.“

The county of Cornwall abounds in several other mineralogical substances of a value comparatively little inferior to those we have already described: of these the moor-stone or granite [Granite is an aggregate of Felspar, Quartz, and Mica.], is the first in consequence. It is found in greater quantity and variety here than in any other part of South Britain. The whole chain of mountains, commencing at Dartmoor, and running through the county to the sea at Land’s End, are entirely composed of this stone, in an infinite variety, both with respect to the size and colour of its component parts. The variety of this stone, which bears the Cornish name of Moor-stone, is applied to many useful purposes, and the most white is a beautiful material for building. “The method of splitting it is by applying several wedges to holes cut (or pooled) in the surface of the stone, at the distance of three or four inches from each other, according to its size and supposed hardness. The harder the mass, the easier it may be cut into the required form, the softer the less regularly it separates. —We saw some pieces used for posts, instead of wood, 14 or 15 feet in length, and not more than six inches thick. —Dr. Maton’s Observations.

In the parish of St. Stephen, near St. Austel, is found a fossil, called the China stone, from the circumstance of its being used by the potteries in Staffordshire, as an ingredient in the earthenware manufacture there. It is supposed to be a decomposed granite. Great quantities after being carefully washed and cleansed from all discolouring particles, packed in hogsheads, are sent from Charlestown every year. Excellent retorts and crucibles are manufactured from this stone at Truro.

There are several varieties of the granite free from schoerl or metallic particles, which alone might be advantageously used in the manufacture of porcelain; the proportion of the component parts being properly attended to.

There are many varieties of clay found in this county serviceable for every purpose of manufacture. In the parish of St. Kevran there is a yellow clay, considered equal to any other for casting in silver, brass, or lead. The clay dug near Lenant is excellent for building furnaces, the bricks made with it being capable of enduring a more intense heat, for a greater length of time without alteration, than any other.

In a copper mine near Redruth is a curious production, called the swimming stones. It consists of quartz, in right lined laminae, as thin as paper, intersecting each other in all directions and leaving cavities between them. The stone is rendered so light by this cellular structure that it swims on water, and thence obtains its name.

At the Lizard Point, in the parish of Landwednock, the rocks are entirely of the Serpentine stone and hornblend, of the most beautiful colours, particularly at Kynance Cove. “These rocks are extremely interesting to a mineralogist; here the gradations and transitions of various substances into each other will employ his speculation; for, besides those already mentioned, asbestos appears in small portions, and veins of steatites may be traced in numerous directions. Native copper, in a thread-like form, as well as in lumps, is found also in the fissures of the serpentine stone. The latter is a very beautiful stone, and would be very ornamental for chimney-pieces, slabs, &c. being scarcely distinguishable from marble. Among the fragments on the shore, polished by the attrition of the waves, there were some of an olive green, variegated with black, and others red with waving stripes of purple. Two colours seem necessary to constitute a serpentine, which indeed the name implies, being taken from the undulated marks on a serpent’s back. “—Dr. Maton.

De Costa, in his history of fossils, correctly describes the situation of the soap-rock in this neighbourhood. —“The new soap-rock lately discovered is at Gew Grez or Cres Cove, in the tenement of Kynance, in Mullion parish; it is about three miles from Mullion town, and about a mile from the old soap-rock or cove, which lies farther southward. The entrance into the creek or cove is very steep, craggy, and horrid; at the right hand (on descending into the creek) the hills are crested with naked rocks or caverns, as the Cornish people call them; the sides have also many, but they are small. About half way down the cove a small current of water traverses it in a serpentine manner, and discharges itself near the lode or principal vein of Steatites. On the right hand, as you descend the cove, it grows more craggy, and much narrower; and a few yards lower, on the same side, lies the main vein or lode of steatites; the various sorts are all blended together in spots, sometimes in greater quantities in one place than another. [The Soap Earth or Steatites of De Costa is thus described by him; “This is a fine and beautiful clay, of a firm, compact, and regular texture, considerably weighty and hard, of a smooth and unctuous surface, much more so than any other clays; from whence these clays have obtained the name of Soap Earth.

“It does not colour the fingers; but drawn along a board, &c. marks a white line. It does not adhere to the tongue, nor does it melt in the mouth; but when chewed has an unctuous softness, and is quite pure and free from ail grittiness; it is not at all diffusible in water. The finest is generally white, sometimes with a yellowish hue, elegantly veined and spotted with different degrees of purple, from the slightest cast of that colour to near black; at other times it is as elegantly veined with red, and sometimes, though rarely, has veins and spots of green; at other times the ground is red or purple, variegated with white; but in all these appearances it so greatly resembles hard soap, that it has from thence more particularly obtained its English name of Soap Earth or Soap Stone, and that of Steatites from the Greek word Stear, suet; from its resemblance to the hard fat of animals. In the fire it acquires a stony texture, and grows whiter.”—De Costa's Natural Hittory of Fossils.]” He then goes on to observe, that, according to Monsieur Reaumur, no true porcelain can be made only of clays, but that other necessary substances are needful to hinder their perfect vitrification: and for such substances we must have recourse to the Talcy class, the fossils of which class almost evade the force of fire, and of these none can be finer or fitter for the making of porcelain than the steatites of Cornwall.

“The obvious scarcity of spar in this county is absolutely proved in the almost total abseuce of limestone, whence it is mineralized.” The Cornish, however, denominate every species of quartz and crystal indiscriminately, except the pseudo-adamantes, spar. Beautiful specimens of quartz are frequently found in every part of the mining strata, crystallized in hexagonal pyramids of a fine pellucid water, becoming the pseudo-adamantes of the pure kind, and are thence called Cornish diamonds, reckoned superior to the Bristol stone, and every other diaphanous crystallization in Great Britain.

Lime-stone is only to be found at Mount Edgcumbe and the immediate neighbourhood.

FISHERIES

“The sea,” says Dr. Borlase, “is the great storehouse of Cornwall, which offers not its treasures by piecemeal, nor all at once, but in succession, all in plenty in their several seasons, and in such variety, as if nature was solicitous to prevent any excess or superfluity of the same kind.”—And in his very excellent work upon the natural history of the county, he describes at large the numerous species of fish that are taken upon the coast: of these the pilchard is almost peculiar to the county, and, being the source of great commercial advantages to a numerous portion of its inhabitants, will demand our particular notice.

“The Cornish,” says Camden, make a gainful trade of those little fish called pilchards, which are seen upon the sea-coast, as it were in great swarms, from July to November. These they catch, garbage, salt, smoke, barrel, and press; and so send them in great numbers to France, Spain, and Italy, where they are a welcome commodity, and are named Fumados.“

The Pilchard in size and form very much resembles the common herring, except that it is somewhat smaller, and not sofiat-sided. “The dorsal fin of the pilchard (observes Dr. Maton) is placed exactly in the centre of gravity; so that the ordinary mode of distinguishing it from the herring is, to try whether, when taken up by the fin, it preserves an equilibrium or not. The body of the herring dips towards the head, and the scales are also observed to drop off, whereas those of the pilchard adhere very closely.”— They come from the North Seas, in great quan tities, during the summer months, and about the middle of July reach the islands of Scilly and the Land’s End of Cornwall; shifting their situation as the season prompts and the food allures them. The pilchards are sometimes taken in prodigious quantities at Mevagissy, in the creeks of Falmouth and Helford Havens, in the creeks of St. Kevran and in Mount’s Bay; and there are other fisheries at Mullion Cove, St. Mawes, Charles Town, Polkerris, East and West Looe, and Polgarrow. On the northern side the principal fishing is at St. Ives. The pilchards are taken in what they call sean or drift nets, and the fishermen are directed to the shoals of fish by persons posted on the high lands near the shore, who discover them by the colour of the water, and make signs to the boats where to cast their nets. The nets are managed by three boats, containing about eighteen persons. The seans are 220 fathoms long, 16 fathoms deep in the middle, and 14 at each end.

The fish, immediately upon being brought on shore, are taken to the storehouses or cellars, where they are laid up in broad piles, and salted as they are piled up with bay-salt. All the small and the broken fish, and such as have been bitten by the dog-fish, being picked out by women, and taken away to be dressed. In this manner they lie soaking twenty or thirty days, during which time a great quantity of blood, dirty pickle, and bittern, drains from the fish.-When taken out of the pile, there remains a great deal of salt, &c. at the bottom, which, with the addition of fresh salt, serves for another pile. The next process is to wash them in seawater, to clear off the dirt and blood; and, when dry, they put them into hogsheads, pressing them down hard to squeeze out the oil, which issues through a hole at the bottom of the cask; and in this state they are sent to market.

This fishing is of the greatest advantage to the county of Cornwall, affording employment to great numbers of fishermen in catching the fish, and many more, besides women and children, are employed in the various processes of washing, salting, pressing, and cleaning; in building boats, making nets, ropes, casks, &c. The poor are fed with such fish as are not fit to be packed up, and the waste and damaged fish and salt enrich the land. It has been calculated, that upon an average of seven years, one sean will take about 400 hogsheads of fish: the number of pilchards in each hogshead is 3000.

The quantity of salt used yearly is about bushels, at 84lb. to the bushel; half this quantity is used in curing the fish, one half the residue is spoilt and sold for manure, and the remainder is left in stock to be used a second time. The price of the spoilt salt is 10d. per bushel; price of broken fish, 1d. per gallon; garbage sold to the soap-boilers at 6d. per gallon; dregs are bought by the curriers at 10d. per gallon. Each hogshead requires ten women to salt the fish, at 20d. per hogshead; each cask for the fish costs about 3s. Seventeen men employed on each sean, at 8s. per week; the tythe of each sean 1l. 13s. 4d. yearly.

Forty-eight hogsheads of pilchards generally yield a tun or 252 gallons of oil, the price of which is about 281. per ton, perhaps, or dearer during war, in peace the price is not so high.

One hogshead of fish takes 420lb. of salt; upon which there is an import duty of 2 ½d. per bushel of 84lb. The total expences of taking, curing, and packing an hogshead of fish is about twenty shillings, out of which nearly six shillings is paid for salt only. Upon every hogshead of fish taken Government allows a bounty of 8s. 6d. and we have been informed that it is calculated that this bounty and the value of the oil in general nearly reimburses the whole of the expence the fisheries incur.

The craft necessary for an undertaking in this fishery are as follow: —A stop sean, or net, with lead weights at bottom and corks at top, the cost of which is about 350l.; an open boat for carrying the sean, about 15 tons burthen, costs 70l.; another open boat of the same tonnage, to assist in enclosing the fish, of the same value as the last; a smaller boat, to carry the men to and from the shore, and for any occasional use, costs about 12l.; a boat for carrying the fish to the shore, cost 70l.; a truck sean, made similar to the stop sean, 108 fathoms low and 10 deep, costs 120l. Some other necessary articles will increase this calculation to about 1200l.

The number of persons employed in this fishery cannot be estimated at less than 12,000, men, women, and children. In salting, packing, pressing, and preparing the fish for exportation, there are at least 5,000 persons employed; about four-fifths are women, the rest men. The rope-makers, blacksmiths, shipwrights, sail-makers, &c. are upwards of 400. The twine-spinners are women, about 150 in number. The makers and menders of nets are chiefly women and children, employed by the twine-manufacturers, in all about 600. Nets are also made, during the winter seasons, by the fishermen and their families.

The capital engaged in the pilchard fishery cannot be estimated at less than 350,000l. and this is increasing every season, by new adventures in the trade; the speculation being very popular in the county.

The season for fishing commences towards the middle of July, and continues about ten weeks, when the pilchards disappear. The quantity taken is very uncertain. There have been instances of one sean taking and curing from 1,000 to 1,500 hogsheads and upwards in a season; when, at the same time, other neighbouring fisheries have not taken a single fish. It has been calculated, that there are about 60,000 hogsheads, of 40 gallons each, and 3,000 fish in each cask, taken in a season.

Among other fish visiting the Cornish coasts, are frequently seen:

The Blower, or Fin-fish (the Physeta of the ancients.)

The Grampus.

The Blue Shark.

The Monk, or Ansel Fish.

The Sea Adder, and the Sun Fish.

In summer and autumn turbot are caught in great plenty. In Mount's Bay, particularly, there have been instances of thirty of them being taken in an evening, with a hook and line. Upon the southern coast, mackarel are also caught in great abundance; upon the southern coast, and upon the whole of the coast westward of Plymouth, those delicious fish, Red Mullets and John Dory. The Conger Eel, of a very large size, is frequently met with near the shores.Stolen from Fore-bears

All sorts of shell-fish are extremely plentiful, particularly oysters, the best of which are found in the creeks in Constantine parish, on the river Heyl.

In addition to the advantages derived from the fisheries, the inhabitants of Cornwall find in the sands of their sea-shores another source of profit and employment for the industrious: and we have already mentioned what immense quantities of this article are used for manure. Of these sands there is, perhaps, a greater variety than can be found in any other of the maritime counties of England; the sands of every creek or bay being different. “The sands of Ch’andour Creek, near Penzance, and thence to Marazion, are of a pale blue colour, like the rocks at Ch’andour, and the shingle on the strand; on the Isles of Scilly it is a bright-coloured shining sand, composed, for the most part, of the mica and crystals of the granite, commonly called Moorstone, which edges all these islands. The same may be said of most other parts of Cornwall, where the sands are reddish, yellow, bright, and blue, according as the stones of each particular hue prevail in the lands adjoining. „The sands chiefly valued for manure, are those which appear to be composed of broken shells, and are found on the shores near Falmouth, in Kynance Cove, Trereen Cove, Whitesand Bay, and upon considerable tracts of the Northern Coast.

Among the sub-marine plants found on the Cornish coast, are the Fucoides purpureum elegante plumosum, and the Fucoides rubens vario dissectum of Ray, which are extremely beautiful, and of the finest lake colour. There is also found another variety of this genus of plants, called the Sensitive Fucus, on account of its shrinking from the touch of the fingers, after its edges have been warped by being exposed to a slight heat before the fire. Sponges are frequently found on the rocks, upon which a great variety of beautiful white and red corralimes are also to be met with.

HINTS TO THE CAPITALIST,

And to Persons disposed to enter into beneficial Speculations

Upon taking a retrospective view of our account of the commerce, mineralogy, fisheries, and agriculture of this county, it cannot but occur to the reader how many opportunities are presented for the advautageous exercise of capital. Perhaps there is no other county in the kingdom affording so much scope for speculation. The number of adventurers in the mining concern are daily increasing: shares are to be continually purchased to any extent, in the most established and profitable works, or divided into very inconsiderable subscriptions towards new undertakings.

The multitude of mineral productions will afford another almost boundless field for speculation, which may in this instance be exerted and pursued, as much to individual profit as national advantage.

With respect to the fisheries, it must be obvious to every one that there can be no limits fixed to this important concern; and there is very little wanting beyond capital to carry it on to any extent. The success that has universally attended this branch of business, renders it very popular in Cornwall; perhaps more so than mining, where the advantages are in some degree precarious.

Although the article of fuel is not so cheap here as in the manufacturing counties, still it is not so dear as to present an insurmountable obstacle to the success of manufactures in general; and we are of opinion that there might be some advantageously established.

Here are innumerable streams of water, affording all the facilities imaginable for the erection and use of machinery, to be rented upon the most moderate terms.

The manufacture of paper and of porcelain, in particular, might be conducted with almost certain success; for, although the latter requires a great expenditure of fuel, the advantage of having all the raw materral for the manufacture upon the spot with other advantages of situation, would probably more than counterbalance the extra price of fuel.

CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS

The first of these is to be found at large under the General Description of the County: —With respect to the latter, Cornwall is in the diocese of Exeter, in the province of Canterbury. It is an arch-deaconry comprehending the Deaneries of East, West Trigge Major, Trigge Minor, Pider, Powder, Kerrier, Pensith. Within it are thirty-two parishes of exempt jurisdiction.