away with the ball if they can catch it at aduantage But they may not so steale the palme for gallop any one of them neuer so fast yet he shall be surely met at some hedge corner crosse-lane bridge or deepe water which by casting the Countrie they know he must needs touch at and if his good fortune gard him not the better hee is like to pay the price of his theft with his owne and his horses ouerthrowe to the ground Sometimes the whole company runneth with the ball seuen or eight miles out of the direct way which they should keepe Sometimes a foote-man getting it by stealth the better to scape vnespied will carry the same quite backwards and so at last get to the goale by a windlace which once knowne to be wonne all that side flocke thither with great iolity and if the same bee a Gentlemans house they giue him the ball for a Trophee and the drinking out of his Beere to boote The ball in this play may bee compared to an infernall spirit for whosoeuer catcheth it fareth straightwayes like a madde man strugling and fighting with those that goe about to holde him and no sooner is the ball gone from but hee resigneth this fury to the next receyuer and himselfe becommeth peaceable as before I cannot well resolue whether I should more commend this game for the manhood and exercise or condemne it for the boysterousnes and harmes which it begetteth for as on the one side it makes their bodies strong hard and nimble and puts a courage into their hearts to meete an enemie in the face so on the other part it is accompanied with many dangers some of which doe euer fall to the players share For proofe whereof when the hurling is ended you shall see them retyring home as from a pitched battaile with bloody pates bones broken and out of ioynt and such bruses as serue to shortē their daies yet al is good play neuer Attourney nor Crowner troubled for the matter Wrastling is as full of manlinesse more delightfull and lesse dangerous which pastime either the Cornish men deriued frō Corineus their first pretended founder or at least it ministred some stuffe to the farcing of that fable But to let that passe their cōtinual exercise in this play hath bred thē so skilfull an habit as they presume that neither the ancient Greek Palestritae nor the Turks so much delighted Pelrianders nor their once countrymen and stil neighbours the Bretons can bereau them of this Laurell and matchlesse certes should they be if their cunning were answerable to their practise for you shall hardly find an assembly of boyes in Deuon or Cornwall where the most vntowardly amongst them will not as readily giue you a muster of this exercise as you are prone to require it For performing this play the beholders cast themselues in a ring which they call Making a place into the empty middle space whereof the two champiō wrastlers step forth stripped into their dublets and hosen and vntrussed that they may so the better commaund the vse of their lymmes and first shaking hands in token of friendship they fall presently to the effects of anger for each striueth how to take hold of other with his best aduantage and to beare his aduerse party downe wherein whosoeuer ouerthroweth his mate in such sort as that either his backe or the one shoulder and contrary heele do touch the ground is accounted to giue the fall If he be endangered and make a narrow escape it is called a foyle This hath also his lawes of taking hold onely aboue girdle wearing a girdle to take hold by playing three pulles for tryall of the mastery the fall-giuer to be exempted from playing againe with the taker and bound to answere his successour c. Many sleights and tricks appertaine hereunto in which a skilfull weake man wil soone get the ouerhand of one that is strong and ignorant Such are the Trip fore-Trip Inturne the Faulx forward and backward the Mare and diuers other like Amongst Cornish wrastlers now liuing my friend Iohn Goit may iustly challenge the first place not by prerogatiue of his seruice in her Maiesties gard but through hauing answered all challenges in that pastime without blemish Neither is his commendation bounded within these limits but his cleane made body and actiue strength extend with great agility to whatsoeuer other exercise of the arme or legge besides his abilitie vpon often tryall to take charge at Sea eyther as Master or Captayne All which good parts hee graceth with a good fellowlike kinde and respectfull carriage Siluer prizes for this and other actiuities were wont to be carried about by certaine Circumferanei or set vp for Bidales but time or their abuse hath now worne them out of date and vse The last poynt of this first booke is to plot downe the Cornish gouernment which offreth a double consideration the one as an entire state of it selfe the other as a part of the Realme both which shal be seuerally handled Cornwall as an entire state hath at diuerstimes enioyed sundry titles of a Kingdome Principality Duchy and Earledome as may appeare by these few notes with which I haue stored my selfe out of our Chronicles If there was a Brute King of Brittaine by the same authority it is to bee proued that there was likewise a Corineus Duke of Cornwall whose daughter Gwendolene Brutes eldest sonne Locrine tooke to wife and by her had issue Madan that succeeded his father in the kingdome Next him I finde Henninus Duke who maried Gonorille one of King Leirs daughters and heires and on her begat Morgan but whiles he attempted with his other brother in law to wrest the kingdome from their wiues father by force of armes before the course of nature should cast the same vpon them Cordeilla the third disherited sister brought an armie out of Fraunce to the olde mans succour and in a pitched battell bereft Henninus of his life Clotenus King of Cornwall begat a sonne named Mulmutius Dunwallo who when this Iland had beene long distressed with the ciuil warres of petty Kings reduced the same againe into one peaceable Monarchy Belinus brother to that great terror of the Romanes Brennus had for his appaunage as the French terme it Loegria Wales and Cornwall Cassibelane succeeding his brother Lud in the kingdome gaue to his sonne Tennancius the Duchy of Cornwall After this Iland became a parcell of Iulius Caesars conquests the same rested it self or was rather vexed a long time vnder the gouernment of such rulers as the Romanes sent hither But the Bretons turning at last their long patience into a sudden fury rose in armes slewe Alectus the Emperour Dioclesians deputy and inuested their leader Asclepiodotus Duke of Cornwall with the possession of the kingdome Conan Meridock nephew to Octauius whome the Emperour Constantine appoynted gouernour of this Iland was Duke of
by apparant veritie Notwithstanding in this question I will not take on me the person of either Iudge or flickler and therefore if there be any so plunged in the common floud as they will still gripe fast what they haue once caught hold on let them sport themselues with these coniectures vpon which mine auerment in behalfe of Plymmouth is grounded The place where Brute is said to haue first landed was Totnes in Cornwall and therfore this wrastling likely to haue chaunced there sooner then elsewhere The Prouince bestowed on Corineus for this exployt was Cornwall It may then be presumed that he receiued in reward the place where hee made proofe of his worth and whose Prince for so with others I take Gogmagog to haue beene hee had conquered euen as Cyrus recompenced Zopirus with the Citie Babylon which his policie had recouered Againe the actiuitie of Deuon and Cornishmen in this facultie of wrastling beyond those of other Shires dooth seeme to deriue them a speciall pedigree from that graund wrastler Corineus Moreouer vpon the Hawe at Plymmouth there is cut out in the ground the pourtrayture of two men the one bigger the other lesser with Clubbes in their hands whom they terme Gog-Magog and as I haue learned it is renewed by order of the Townesmen when cause requireth which should inferre the same to bee a monument of some moment And lastly the place hauing a steepe cliffe adioyning affordeth an oportunitie to the fact But of this too much Cornwall is seated as most men accompt in the Latitude of fiftie degrees and thirtie minutes and in the Longitude of sixe The Shire extendeth in length to about seuentie miles the breadth as almost no where equall so in the largest place it passeth not thirtie in the middle twentie and in the narrowest of the West part three The whole compasse may hereby be coniectured It bordereth on the East with Deuon diuided therefrom in most places by the ryuer Tamer which springing neere the North Sea at Hartland in Deuon runneth thorow Plymmouth Hauen into the South For the rest the maine Ocean sundreth the same on the North from Ireland on the West from the Ilands of Scilley on the South from little Britaine These borders now thus straightned did once extend so wide as that they enabled their inclosed territorie with the title of a kingdome Polidore Virgil allotteth it the fourth part of the whole Iland and the ancient Chronicles report that Brute landed at Totnes in Cornwall a Towne now seated in the midst of Deuon Moreouer vntill Athelstanes time the Cornish-men bare equal sway in Excester with the English for hee it was who hemmed them within their present limits Lastly the encroaching Sea hath rauined from it the whole Countrie of Lionnesse together with diuers other parcels of no little circuite and that such a Lionnesse there was these proofes are yet remaining The space betweene the lands end and the Iles of Scilley being about thirtie miles to this day retaineth that name in Cornish Lethowsow and carrieth continually an equall depth of fortie or sixtie fathom a thing not vsuall in the Seas proper Dominion saue that about the midway there lieth a Rocke which at low water discouereth his head They terme it the Gulfe suiting thereby the other name of Scilla Fishermen also casting their hookes thereabouts haue drawn vp peeces of doores and windowes Moreouer the ancient name of Saint Michaels Mount was Cara clowse in Cowse in English The hoare Rocke in the Wood which now is at euerie floud incompassed by the Sea and yet at some low ebbes rootes of mightie trees are discryed in the sands about it The like ouerflowing hath happened in Plymmouth Hauen and diuers other places In this situation though nature haue shouldred out Cornwall into the farthest part of the Realme and so besieged it with the Ocean that as a demie Iland in an Iland the inhabitants find but one way of issue by land yet hath shee in some good measure counteruailed such disaduantage through placing it both neere vnto in the trade way betwene Wales Ireland Spaine France Netherland The neerenesse helpeth thē with a shorter cut lesse peril and meaner charge to vent forth make returne of those cōmodities which their owne or either of those Countries doe afford the lying in the way bringeth forraine shipping to claime succour at their harbours when either outward or homeward bound they are checked by an East South or Southeast wind and where the horse walloweth some haires will still remaine Neither is it to bee passed ouer without regard that these remote quarters lie not so open to the inuasions of forraine enemies or spoyles of ciuil tumults as other more inward parts of the Realme which being seated neerer the heart are sooner sought and easlyer ransacked in such troublesome times or if the Countries long naked sides offer occasion of landing to any aduerse shipping her forementioned inward naturall strength increased by so many Lanes and Inclosures straightneth the same to a preying onely vpon the outward skirts by some pettie fleetes For the danger of farder piercing will require the protection of a greater force for execution then can there be counteruailed with the benefit of any bootie or conquest were they sure to preuaile And if to bee free from a dammage may passe for a commoditie I can adde that the far distance of this Countie from the Court hath heretofore afforded it a Supersedeas from takers Purueyours for if they should fetch any prouisiō from thence well it might be masked with the visard of her Highnes prerogatiue but the same would verie slenderly turne to the benefit of her Maiesties house keeping for the foulenesse and vneasinesse of the waies the little mould of Cornish cattel and the great expence of driuing them would defaulke as much from the iust price to the Queene at the deliuering as it did from the owners at the taking Besides that her Highnesse shipping should heerethrough bee defrauded of often supplies which these parts afford vnto them Vpon which reasons some of the Purueyours attempts heretofore through the suite of the Countrie the sollicitation of Sir Richard Gremuile the credite of the Lord Warden and the graciousnesse of our Soueraigne were reuoked and suppressed and the same vnder her Highnesse priuie Seale confirmed Notwithstanding when her Maiestie made her pleasure afterward knowne that shee would haue a generall contribution from euerie Shire for redeeming this exemption Cornwall opposing dutie against reason or rather accompting dutie a reason sufficient yeelded to vndergoe a proportionable rate of the burthen So they compounded to furnish ten Oxen after Michaelmas for thirtie pound price to which by another agreement with the Officers they should adde fortie markes of of their owne Vpon halfe a yeeres warning either partie might repent the bargaine This held for a while but within a short space either the carelesnesse of the Iustices
this Gentleman to salue them all by new compositions with the pretenders and for compassing the same to get an extraordinary experience in husbandry His ancestours bare S. on a playne Crosse A. quarter pierced 4. Eagles of the field At S. Winowe in habiteth M. Thomas Lower commendable through his double prouision against the warres as hauing both furnished himself with great ordinance for priuate defence of the County and thrust forth his sonnes to be trayned in martiall knowledge and exercises for the publike seruice of the Countrey His wife was one of Reskimers daughters and heires his mother the daughter of Treffry his house descended to his auncestour by match with Vpton Hee beareth B. a Cheuron engrayled O. betweene three Roses A. Laureast is the inheritance of M. Iohn Harris a Gent. employing his sound iudgement and other praise-worthy parts to the seruice of his Prince and country the good of his friends and himself His wife was daughter and heire to Hart his mother sister to M. Chr. Harris which by his vncles yet want of issue intitleth him with a faire expectancy Hee beareth S. 3. Croissants within a border A. Treworgy is owed by M. Kendul and endowed with a pleasant and profitable fishing and command of the riuer which flitteth vnder his house He maried with Buller his mother was daughter to Moyle of Bake and beareth A. a Cheuron betweene 3. Dolphins S. Master Glyn of Glynfoord manifesteth by this compounded name the antiquitie of his descent and the ordinary passage there ouer Foy riuer The store of Sammons which it affoordeth caused his ancestours to take the Sammon speares for their Armes for hee beareth A. a Cheuron betweene three Sammon speares S. Sundry more Gentlemen this little Hundred possesseth and possessioneth as Code who beareth A. a Cheuron G. betweene three Crowes May G a Cheuron vary betweene three Crownes Athym A. a Maunche Maltaile S. within a border of the first charged with Cinquefoyles as the second Grilles c. But want of information and lothnes to waxe tedious maketh mee fardle vp these and omit the rest It is hemmed in on the West by the East side of Foy hauen at whole mouth standeth Hall in Cornish a moore and perhaps such it was before better manurance reduced it to the present fruitfulnesse The same descended to Sir Reignald Mohun from his ancestours by their match with the daughter and heire of Fits-Williams and amongst other commodities is appurtenanced with a walk which if I could as playnly shew you as my selfe haue oftentimes delightingly seene it you might would auow the same to be a place of diuersified pleasings I will therefore do my best to trace you a shaddow thereof by which you shal in part giue a gesse at the substance It is cut out in the side of a sleepe hill whose foote the salt water washeth euenly leuelled to serue for bowling floored with sand for soaking vp the rayne closed with two shorte hedges and banked with sweete senting flowres It wideneth to a sufficient breadth for the match of fiue or sixe in front and extendeth to not much lesse then halfe a London mile neyther doth it lead wearisomely forthright but yeeldeth varied yet not ouer-busie turnings as the grounds oportunity affoordeth which aduantage encreaseth the prospect and is conuerted on the foreside into platformes for the planting of Ordinance and the walkers sitting and on the back part into Summer houses for their more priuate retrait and recreation In passing along your eyes shall be called away from guiding your feete to descry by their fardest kenning the vast Ocean sparkled with ships that continually this way trade forth backe to most quarters of the world Neerer home they take view of all sized cocks barges and fisherboates houering on the coast Againe contracting your sight to a narrower scope it lighteth on the faire and commodious hauen where the tyde daily presenteth his double seruice of flowing and ebbing to carry and recarry whatsoeuer the Inhabitants shall bee pleased to charge him withall and his creekes like a young wanton louer folde about the land with many embracing armes This walke is garded vpon the one side by Portruan on the other by Bodyneck two fishing villages behinde the rising hill beareth off the colde Northren blasts before the towne of Foy subiecteh his whole length and breadth to your ouerlooking and directly vnder you ride the home and forraine shipping both of these in so neere a distance that without troubling the passer or borrowing Stentors voyce you may from thence not only call to but confere with any in the sayd towne or shipping Mounsieur la Noüe noteth that in the great hall of iustice at Paris there is no roome left for any more images of the French Kings which some prophetically interpreted to signifie a dissolution of that line if not of the monarchy But this halsening the present flourishing estate of that kingdome vtterly conuinceth of falshood A farre truer foretoken touching the Earle of Deuons progeny I haue seene at this place of Hall to wit a kind of Fagot whose age and painting approueth the credited tradition that it was carefully preserued by those noble men but whether vpon that prescience or no there mine author failes me This fagot being all one peece of wood and that naturally growen is wrapped about the middle part with a bond and parted at the ends into foure sticks one of which is againe subdiuided into other twayne And in semblable maner the last Earles inheritance accrued vnto 4. Cornish Gent. Mohun Trelawny Arundell of Taluerne and Trethurffe and Trethurffes portion Courtney of Ladocke and Viuian do enioy as descended from his two daughters and heires Sir Reig. Mohun is widdower of two wiues the one daughter to Sir Henry Killigrew the other to Sergeant Heale his father Sir William married first the daughter of Horsey and one of the heires by the common law to Sir Iohn her late brother and next the widdowe of Trelawny who ouerliuinghim enioyeth this Hall as part of her ioynture a Lady gracing her dignitie with her vertue and no lesse expressing then professing religion Reignald father to Sir William wedded the daughter of Sir VVilliam Treuanion The armes of the Mohuns are O. 2 Crosse engrayled Sa. Powder Hundred SOme impute the force of Powder vnto this that the same is conuerted at an instant from his earthy substance to a fiery and from the fire into ayre euery of which changes requireth a greater enlargement one then other wherefore it finding a barre ouer vnder and on the back and sides by the pieces strong imprisonmēt by consequence breaketh forth with a sudden violence at the mouth where the way is least stopped driueth before it the vnsetled obstacle of the bullet imparting thereunto a portiō of his fury To which through want of a probable Etymon I may in part resemble the hundred of Powder not only for the names sake but also because this