learning liuely-hood or authoritie Of like fortune but lesse number are the Phisiciōs by how much the fewer by so much the greater witnesses of the soyles healthfulnes The most professours of that science in this County sauing only one 10. Williams can better vouch practise for their warrant then warrant for their practise Amongst these I reckon Rawe Clyes a black Smith by his occupation and furnished with no more learning then is suteable to such a calling who yet hath ministred Phisike for many yeres with so often successe general applause that not onely the home-bred multitude beleeneth mightily in him but euē persons of the better calling resort to him from remote parts of the realme to make trial of his cūning by the hazard of their liues sundry either vpon iust cause or to cloke their folly report that they haue reaped their errands end at his hands But farre more commendable is M. Atwel sometimes Parson of Caluerly in Deuon now of S. Tue in Cornwall For besides other parts of learning with which he hath bene seasoned he is not vnseene in the Theoricks of Phisike can out of them readily and probably discourse touching the nature and accidents of all diseases Besides his iudgement in vrines commeth little behind the skilfullest in that profession Mary his practise is somewhat strange varying from all others for though now and then he vse blood-letting and doe ordinarily minister Manus Christi and such like cordials of his owne compounding a poynt fitting well with my humour as enabling nature who best knoweth how to worke yet mostly for all diseases he prescribeth milk and very often milk and apples a course deepely subiect to the exception of the best esteemed Practitioners and such notwithstanding as whereby either the vertue of the medicine or the fortune of the Phisicion or the credulitie of the Patient hath recouered sundry out of desperate and forlorne extremities This his reputation is of many yeeres standing and maintayneth it selfe vnimpayred But the same soareth to an higher pitch by the helpe of another wing and that is his liberalitie On the poore he bestoweth his paines charges gratis of the rich he taketh moderately but leaues the one halfe behind in gift amongst the houshold if he be called abroad to visit any The rest together with the profits of his benefice rather charitably accepted thē strictly exacted from his Parishioners he powreth out with both hands in pios vsus and will hardly suffer a penny to sleepe but neuer to dwell with him Few Townes there are in Cornwall or any other shire between that and London which haue not in some large measure tasted of his bountie None commeth in kindnes to see him but departeth gratifyed with somewhat if his modestie will accept it Briefely his sound affection in religion is so wayted on by honesty of life and pleasantnesse of conuersation that in Fabritius his voluntary pouertie he is an equall partner of his honour and possesseth a large interest in the loue of his neighbours My loue to vertue and not any particular beholdingnes hath expressed this my testimony For persons imployed in state affaires and therethrough stept to preferment that I may not outstride late remembrance Sir Richard Edgecumb the elder was Comptroller of the houshold and priuie Counseller to King Henry the seuenth being sent by him also in diuers Ambassades in one of which to the Duke of Britaine he deceased King Henry the eight made like vse in this last kind of Iohn Tregonwel who graduated a Doctor and dubbed a Knight did his Prince good seruice and lest faire reuenewes to his posterity Sir Thomas Arundel a yonger brother of Lanhearn house maried the sister to Queene Katherine Howard in Edward the 6. time was made a priuie Counseller but cleauing to the Duke of Somerset he lost his head with him Sir Henry Killigrew after Ambassades and messages and many other employments of peace and warre in his Princes seruice to the good of his Countrey hath made choyce of a retyred estate and reuerently regarded by all sorts placeth his principall contentment in himselfe which to a life so well acted can no way bee wanting Master George Carew in his younger yeeres gathered such fruit as the Vniuersitie the Innes of Court and forrayne trauell could yeeld him vpon his returne he was first called to the Barre then supplyed the place of Secretarie to the Lord Chauncellour Hatton and after his decease performed the like office to his two successours by speciall recommendation from her Maiestie who also gaue him the Prothonotaryship of the Chauncery and in anno 1598. sent him Ambassadour to the King of Poland and other Nothern Potentates where through vnexpected accidents he vnderwent extraordinary perils but God freed him from them he performed his duety in acceptable maner and at this present the common wealth vseth his seruice as a Master of the Chauncery Cornwall no doubt hath affoorded a far larger proportion of well deseruing and employed members to the good of their Prince and Countrey albeit they fall not within the compasse of my knowledge it is likely that the succeeding age wil much encrease the nūber by meanes of her Highnes bounty who to that end hath established seed-plots of free Schooles with competent pentions out of her owne cofers for the teachers at Saltash Launceston and Perin three market townes of the County In descending to martiall men Arthur claimeth the first mention a Cornishman by birth a King of Britaine by succession the second of the three Christian worthies by desert whom if you so please that Captayne of Armes and Venery Sir Tristram shall accompany From them I must make a great leap which conuinceth me an vnworthy associat of the antiquary Colledge to Sir Iohn Naphant who if I mistake not was by country a Cornish man though by inhabitance a Calisian where H. 7. vsed his seruice in great trust and Cardinal Wolsey owned him for his first master More assured I am that Sir Iohn Arundell of Trerne vpon a long fight at sea took prisoner one Duncane Camel a hardy Scottish Pirate and presented him to K. H. the 8 for our Chronicles report it Towards the end of that Kings raigne Sir Wil. Godolphin also demeaned himselfe very valiantly in a charge which hee bare beyond the seas as appeared by the skarres hee brought home no lesse to the beautifying of his fame then the disfiguring of his face Whose Nephew of the fame name dignity hath so inriched himselfe with sufficiency for matters of policy by his long trauell for martial affaires by his present valiant cariage in Ireland that it is better knowne how far he outgoeth most others in both then easily to be discerned for which he deserueth principall commendation himselfe So did Sir Ric. Greinuile the elder enterlace his home Magistracy with martiall employments abroad whereof the K. testifyed his good liking by
vvhich it vvas graunted them to keepe a Court and hold plea of all actions life lymme and land excepted in consideration vvhereof the sayd Lords accorded to pay the Earle a halfpeny for euery pound of Tynne which should be wrought and that for better answering this taxe the sayd Tynne should bee brought to certayne places purposely appointed and there peized coyned and kept vntill the Earles due were satisfied Againe the Lords of these Tithings were for their parts authorised to manage all Stannerie causes and for that intent to hold Parliaments at their discretion and in regard of their labour there was allotted vnto them the toll-Tynne within those Tithings which their successours doe yet enioy This Charter was to be kept in one of the Church steeples within those Tithings and the Seale had a Pick-axe and Shouell in faultier grauen therein This I receiued by report of the late master William Carnsew a Gentleman of good qualitie discretion and learning and well experienced in these mynerall causes who auouched himselfe an eye-witnesse of that Charter though now it bee not extant Howbeit I haue learned that in former time the Tynners obtained a Charter from king Iohn and afterwards another from king Edward the first which were againe expounded confirmed and inlarged by Parliament in the fiftieth yeere of Edward the third and lastly strengthened by king Henrie the seuenth King Edward the firsts Charter granteth them liberty of selling their Tynne to their best behoofe Nisi saith he nos ipsi emere voluerimus Vpon which ground certaine persons in the Reignes of K. Edward 6. Queene Marie sought to make vse of this preemption as I haue beene enformed but either crossed in the prosecution or defeated in their expectation gaue it ouer againe which vaine successe could not yet discourage some others of later times from the like attempt alleadging many reasons how it might proue beneficiall both to her Highnesse and the Countrie and preiudiciall to none saue onely the Marchants who practised a farre worse kind of preemption as hath beene before expressed This for a while was hotely onsetted and a reasonable price offered but vpon what ground I know not soone cooled againe Yet afterwards it receiued a second life and at Michaelmas terme 1599. the Cornishmen then in London were called before some of the principal Lords of her Maiesties Council and the matter there debated by the Lord Warden in behalfe of the Countrie and certaine others deputed for the Marchants who had set this suite on foote In the end it grew to a conclusion and Articles were drawne and signed but they also proued of void effect Last of all the said Lord Warden in the beginning of Nouember 1600. called an assembly of Tynners at Lostwithiel the place accustomed impanelled a Iurie of twentie foure Tynners signified her Maiesties pleasure both for a new imposition of sixe pound on euerie thousand that should bee transported ouer and aboue the former fortie shillings and sixteene shillings alreadie payable as also that her Highnesse would disburse foure thousand pound in lone to the Tynners for a yeres space and bee repayed in tynne at a certaine rate By the foreremembred ancient Charters there is assigned a Warden of the Stanneries who supplieth the place both of a Iudge for Law and of a Chauncellour for conscience and so taketh hearing of causes either in Forma iuris or de iure aequo Hee substituteth some Gentlemen in the Shire of good calling and discretion to be his Vice-Warden from whome either partie complainant or defendant may appeare to him as from him a case of rare experience to the Lords of the Councill and from their Honours to her Maiesties person other appeale or remoouing to the common law they gaynsay The Gayle for Stannery causes is kept at Lostwithiel and that office is annexed to the Comptrolership The Tynners of the whole shire are deuided into foure quarters two called Moores of the places where the Tynne is wrought viz. Foy moore and Blacke moore the other Tiwarnaill and Penwith To each of these is assigned by the L. Warden a Steward who keepeth his Court once in euery three weekes They are termed Stannery Courts of the latine word Stannum in English Tynne and hold plea of whatsoeuer action of debt or trespasse whereto any one dealing with blacke or white Tynne either as plaintife or defendant is a party Their maner of triall consisteth in the verdict giuen by a Iurie of sixe Tynners according to which the Steward pronounceth iudgement He that will spare credit to the common report shall conceiue an ill opinion touching the slippings of both witnesses and Iurours sometimes in these Courts For it is sayd that the witnesses haue not sticked now and then to fasten their euidence rather for seruing a turne then for manifesting a truth and that the Iurours verdict hath sauoured more of affection then of reason especially in controuersies growne betweene strangers and some of the same parts And such fault-finders voutch diuers causes of this partialitie One that when they are sworne they vse to adde this word my conscience as the Romans did their Ex animi meisententia which is suspected to imply a conceyted enlargement of their othe Another that the varietie of customes which in euery place welneere differ one from another yeeldeth them in a maner an vnlimited scope to auerre what they list and so to close the best Lawyers mouth with this one speach Our custome is contrary And lastly that they presume vpon a kind of impunity because these sixe mens iuries fall not within compasse of the Star-chambers censure and yet the L. Wardens haue now then made the pillory punishment of some a spectacle example and warning to the residue For mine owne part I can in these Tynne cases plead but a hearesay experience and therefore will onely inferre that as there is no smoke without a fire so commonly the smoke is far greater then the fire Strange it were and not to be excepted that all poore Tynne Iurours and witnesses should in such a remote corner alwayes conforme themselues to the precise rule of vprightnesse when we see in the open light of our publike assises so many more iudicious and substantiall persons now and then to swarue from the same In matters of important consequence appertayning to the whole Stannery the L. Warden or his Vnder-warden vseth to impannell a Iury of foure and twenty principall Tynners which consist of sixe out of euery quarter returnable by the Maiors of the foure Stannery townes and whose acts doe bind the residue Next to the liuelesse things follow those which pertake a growing life and then a feeling The women and children in the West part of Cornwall doe vse to make Mats of a small and fine kinde of bents there growing which for their warme and well wearing are carried by sea to London and other parts of the Realme and serue to
and lastly from thence to Excester But this first losse receyued reliefe through a succeeding Priory which at the general suppression changing his note with his coate is now named Port Eliot and by the owners charity distributeth pro virili the almes accustomably expected and expended at such places Neither will it I thinke much displease you to heare how the gentlemans ancestour of whom master Eliot bought it came by the same Iohn Champernowne sonne and heire apparant to Sir Philip of Deuon in H. the 8. time followed the Court and through his pleasant conceits of which much might be spoken wan some good grace with the King Now when the golden showre of the dissolued Abbey lands rayned welnere into euery gapers mouth some 2. or 3. gentlemen the Kings seruants and master Champernownes acquaintance waited at a doore where the King was no passe forth with purpose to beg such a matter at his hands Our gentleman became inquisitiue to know their suit they made strange to impart it Thiâ—â—â—hile out comes the King they kneele down so doth master Champernowne they preferre their petition the King graunts it they render humble thanks and so doth M. Champernowne afterwards he requireth his share they deny it he appeales to the King the King avoweth his equall meaning in the largesse whereon the ouertaken companions were fayne to allot him this Priory for his partage The parish Church answereth in bignesse the large proportion of the parish the surplusage of the Priory a great part of whose chauncell anno 1592. fel suddenly downe vpon a Friday very shortly after publike seruice was ended which heauenly fauour of so little respite saued many persons liues with whoÌ„ immediately before it had bene stuffed and the deuout charges of the well disposed parishioners quickly repayred this ruine At the townes end Cuddenbeak an ancieÌ„r house of the Bishops from a well aduaunced Promontory which intituled it Beak taketh a pleasant prospect of the riuer In this parish lyeth Bake the mansion of the foreremeÌ„bred M. Ro. Moyle who maried Anne daughter of M. Lock as he did mistris Vaughan a Gentlewoman suppressing her rare learning with a rarer modesty yet expressing the same in her vertuous life and Christian decease Iohn father to Robert maried Agnes daughter of Semtabyn and his father 〈…〉 daughter of Forteskew to whom that dwelling first descended He beareth for his Armes G. a Moyle passant Ar. A part of this parish confineth on the maine sea offreth a faire landing place called Seaton howbeit by a handsome fence forbidding any foes inuasion it is ouerlooked vpon the one side of the riuer which there dischargeth his streame into the Ocean by Keuerel the ancient house of the Langdons Gent. in former times of faire reuennues whose Armes are Ar. a Cheuron betweene 3. Beares heads erased Sa. The house perhaps borowing his name of Cheâ—ereal al French word signifying a wild Goat as those high elifs affoord them a commodious inhabitance and on the other by Tregonnock the dwelling of M. Tho Smith who in a quiet honest retirednes findeth that contentmet which many ambitious heads far and wide doe vainely seeke for he maried Tre 〈…〉 his father Robert one of the daughters and heires to Killigrew and his sonne Iohn Priscilla the daughter of M. Geo. Wadham His Armes B. a Soultier Ar. betweene 4. Martlets O. Leauing S. Germanes and passing through Laurake parish in which M. Peter Courtney hath an high seated house called WottoÌ„ you descend to Noddet or bridge where the riuer Lyner first mingleth his fresh streame with the brinish waues touching whose name and quality one delighted in the solitary solace of his banks more affecting his owne recreation then hunting after any others good liking descanted thus WHo first gaue Lyners name Or from what cause it came Hard 't is for certaine to expresse Experience yet directs By tryall of effects Thereatto ayme and frame a gesse Is 't that as she thee bear'th So thou doest line the earth With purfeld streames of blew and white Or at a line doth guide So thou doest leuell slide And throw'st into the sea thy mite Is 't that with twisted line The Angler doth vntwine The fishes life by giuing-breath Or as the threshing lout Rusheth his Lyners out So Lyner on his course rushetht Or as some puppy feat Liueth a mastiue great And getteth whelps of mongrell kinde Lyner the sea so lines And streame with waue combines Begetting waters freshly brin'de Item WHen Sunne the earth least shadow spares And highest stalles in heauen his seat Then Lyners peeble bones he bares Who like a lambe doth lowly blear And faintly sliding euery rock Plucks from his foamy fleece a lock Before a riuer now a rill Before a fence now searce a bound Children him ouer-leape at will Small beasts his deepest bottome sound The heauens with brasse enarch his head And earth of yron makes his bed But when the milder-mooded skie His face in mourning weedes doth wrap For absence of his clearest die And drops teares in his Centers lap Lyner gynnes Lyon-like to roare And scornes old bankes should bound him more Then second Sea he rolles and bear's Rockes in his wombe riekes on his backe Downe-borne bridges vptorne wear's Witnesse and wayle his force their wracke Into mens houses fierce he breakes And on each stop his rage he wreakes Shepheard adiew's his swymming flocke The Hinde his whelmed haruest hope The strongest rampire fear 's his shocke Plaines scarce oan serue to giue him scope Nor hils a barre whereso he stray'th Ensue losse terrour ruine death In following the course of Lyner you fall downe by Master Bonds auncient house of Earth descended to his auncesters from the daughter and heire of that name to that of Master Wiuels newly and fayrely builded on which abbutteth Ma. Bullers Shillingham not so much beholden to the owners inhabitance as to natures pleasant and commodious seating Bond married with Fountaine his father with Fits his Armes are Ar. on a Cheuron Sa. three Befants Next wee take view of Trematon Castle as it doth of the Hauen and Countrie adioyning It is or rather was one of the Dukes foremencioned foure houses for now all the inner buildings are sunke into ruine onelythere remaine the Iuie-tapissed wals of the Keepe and base Court and a poore dwelling for the keeper of the Gayle to which prisoners are brought vpon actions from al places appurtenaÌ„t to that large Lordship if they cannot by suretiship discharge themselues from the Bailiefes arrest I haue receiued information from one auerring eye-witnes that about fourescore yeres since there was digged vp in the Parish Chauncell a Leaden coffin which being opened shewed the proportion of a verie bigge man but when the hands went about to ascertaine themselues as well as their eyes the body verified that Omnis caro puluis The partie farder told me how a writing graued in the Lead expressed the same to bee the
her selfe vpon the family of the Dimocks Robert second sonne to the last mentioned Raphe saue one had issue Will. who maried Alice the daughter and heire of Tho. of Edmerston Wil. had another Wil. and he had Iohn and Iohn againe had Wil. This Wil. had Roger who vpon Iulian sister and coheire of Iohn Hill of Fleet begat Iohn and Richard father to the Gentleman now liuing and he matched with Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Southcott and one of the heires to her mother the daughter of Barnehouse besides which hee succeeded to his vncle Iohns inheritance who deceased issuelesse and being yet scarcely entred the limits of an healthfull olde age seeth his pedigree extended into two farther descents As for those outreaching mans memory I haue seene them very sufficiently verified his Armes are O. an Eagle displayed B. pruning her wing armed and langued G. Vpon the top of a creek hereby lyeth Crocadon the mansion of M. Treuisa a Gent. deriuing himselfe from the ancient and weldeseruing Chronicler of that name he beareth G. a garbe O. A mile aboue Halton standeth Cuttayle another house of M. Edgecumbs so named as wee may coniecture of the French Courtaile in English short cut because here the salt water course is straightned by the incroching banks The buildings are ancient large strong and fayre and appurtenanced with the necessaries of wood water fishing parks and mils with the deuotion of in times past a rich furnished Chappell and with the charity of almes-houses for certaine poore people whom the owners vsed to releeue It is reported credited thereabouts how Sir Ric. Edgecumb the elder was driuen to hide himself in those his thick woods which ouerlook the riuer what time being suspected of fauouring the Earle of Richmonds party against King R. the 3. hee was hotely pursued and narrowely searched for Which extremity taught him a sudden policy to put a stone in his cap tumble the same into the water while these rangers were fast at his heeles who looking downe after the noyse and seeing his cap swimming thereon supposed that he had desperatly drowned himselfe gaue ouer their farther hunting and left him liberty to shift away and ship ouer into Brittaine for a gratefull remembrance of which deliuery hee afterwards builded in the place of his lurking a Chappell not yet vtterly decayed And thus hauing coasted the Cornish side of Plymmouth hauen I hold it not amisse to make report of such great voyages as by the memory of our Chronicles or our owne view from this harbour tooke their beginning or ending Heere the neuer inough commended black Prince attended by the Earles of Warwick Suffolk Sarisbury and Oxford the Lord Chandos and others committed himselfe to the sea with a nauy of 300. bottoms for landing and maintayning his fathers right in France and hither after his glorious battell at Poictiers he returned with the captiue French King and his nobles Here the Lady Katherine daughter to the King of Spaine and wife to our Prince Arthur tooke land at her first arriuall in England Heere shipped himselfe the Lord Darcy sent by King Henry the 8. with a lusty crew of soldiers for that Ferdinands iust assistance against the Infidels but vsed by him as a stale for the vniust conquest of Christian Nauar. Here mostly haue the troups of aduenturers made their Rendez vous for attempting newe discoueries or inhabitances as Tho. Stukeleigh for Florida Sir Humfrey Gilbert for Newfound-land Sir Rich. Greynuile for Virginea Sir Martyn Frebisher and Master Dauies for the North-west passage Sir Walter Raleigh for Guiana c. Here Count Mongomery made forth with a more commendable meaning then able meanes or welspeeding effect for relieuing the hard besieged and sore distressed Rochellers Here Sir Fra. Drake first extended the point of that liquid line wherewith as an emulator of the Sunnes glorie he encompassed the world Here Master Candish began to second him with a like heroicall spirit and fortunate successe Here Don Antonio King of Portugall the Earles of Cumberland Essex and Notingham the Lord Warden of the Stanneries Sir Iohn Norrice Sir Iohn Hawkins and who elsewhere and not here haue euer accustomed to cut sayle in carrying defiance against the imaginarie new Monarch and heere to cast anker vpon their returne with spoyle and honour I omit the infinite swarme of single ships and pettie fleetes dayly heere manned out to the same effect And here in eightie eight the foreremembred Lord Admirall expected and set forth against that heauen-threatning Armado which to bee tainted with the shamefuller disgrace and to blaze our renoume with the brighter lustre termed it selfe Inuincible But I may not grow ouer-lasciuious in extolling King R. the 2. Anno 5. of his raigne by Act of Parliament restrained all passengers from shipping themselues in any other Ports theÌ„ such as are there set down of which Plymmouth was one From Plymmouth hauen passing farther into the countrie Hengsten downe presenteth his waste head and sides to our sight This name it boroweth of Hengst which in the Saxon signifieth a horse to such least daintie beasts it yeeldeth fittest pasture The countrie people haue a by word that Hengsten downe well ywrought Is worth London towne deare ybought Which grewe from the store of Tynne in former times there digged vp but that gainfull plentie is now fallen to a scant-sauing scarcitie Those workes afford store of the formentioned Cornish Diamonds The neighboring Inhabitants obserue also that when the top of Hengsten is capped with a cloud the same boadeth a showre within short time after Roger Hoâ—â—den reporteth that about Anno 806. a fleete of Danes arriued in West-wales with whome the Welsh ioyned in insurrection against king Egbright but hee gloriously discomfited them at Hengistendune which I take to bee this place if at least West-wales may by interpretation passe for Cornwall because the other prouince of that name is more commonly diuided into North and South This down is edged by Carybullock sometimes a parke of the Dukes but best brooking that name now it hath lost his qualitie through exchaunging Deere for Bullocke A little aside from hence lyeth Landwhitton now Lawhitton which as I haue elsewhere noted was exempted vnto Edwulff Bishop of Creditune from the Cornish Diocesse to which yet both for the temporaltie and spiritualtie the same oweth present subiection Mary into what new names PontiuÌ„ Coilleng there also mentioned are now metamorphized I must say amplio Those buildings commonly knowne by the name of Lauriston and written Lanceston are by the Cornishmen called Lesteeuan Lez in Cornish signifieth broad those are scatteringly erected and were anciently termed Lanstaphadon by interpretation S. Stephens Church they consist of two boroughs Downeuet and Newport that perhaps so called of downe yeeding as hauing a steep hill this of his newer erection With them ioyne the parishes of S. Thomas S. Stephens The parish
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
Church of Launceston it selfe fetcheth his title of dedication from Mary Magdalen whose image is curiously hewed in a side of the wall and the whole Church fayrely builded The towne was first founded saith M. Hooker by Eadulphus brother to Alpsius Duke of Deuon and Cornwall and by his being girded with a wall argueth in times past to haue caried some valew A newe increase of wealth expresseth it selfe in the Inhabitants late repayred and enlarged buildings They are gouerned by a Maior and his scarlet-robde brethren and reape benefit by their fayres and markets and the County Assizes The Statute of 32. Henry 8. which tooke order touching Sanctuaries endowed this towne with the priuiledge of one but I find it not turned to any vse To the town there is adioynant in site but sequestred in iurisdiction an ancient Castle whose steepe rocky-footed Keepe hath his top enuironed with a treble wal and in regard thereof men say was called Castle terrible The base court compriseth a decayed Chappell a large hall for holding the shire Assizes the Constables dwelling house and the common Gayle About 60 yeeres past there were found certaine leather coynes in the Castle wall whose faire stamp and strong substance till then resisted the assault of time as they would now of couetousnesse A little without the towne were founded a Friery and anno 1128. an Abbey furthered by Reignald Earle of Cornwall About 2. miles distant from Launceston Penheale mannour coasteth the high way claiming the right of anciēt demain sometimes appertaining to the Earles of Huntingdon but purchased not long sithence by the late M. George Greinuile who descended from a yonger brother of that family and through his learning and wisdome aduanced his credit to an especiall good regard in his Countrey He maried Iulian one of the 6. daughters and heires of William Viel and Iane the daughter to Sir Iohn Arundel of Trerne Richard his father tooke to wife one of Kelwayes heires and Degory his graund-father one of the inheritors to Tregarthen which helps together with his owne good husbandry haue endowed his sonne with an elder brothers liuelyhood he beareth G. three Restes O. In Lezant parish heereby master Christopher Harris owneth a third part of Trecarell the proiect and onset of a sumptuous building as coheire to the last Gentleman of that name but admitteth no partner in the sweetly tempered mixture of bounty and thrift grauity and pleasantnes kindnesse and stoutnes which grace all his actions Hee beareth Sa. three Croissants within aborder A. Neither may wee forget Master Coringtons house of Newton old to him by succession yet new in respect of his owne antiquitie diuers his auncestors haue reaped the praise and reputation of a stayed carriage howbeit one of them through his rash but merrie prankes is to this day principally remembred by the name of the mad Corington I haue heard him deliuer an obseruation that in eight liniall descents no one borne heire of his house euer succeeded to the land hee beareth A. a Saultier Sa. Trebigh a priuiledged franchise is by his Lord Master William Wray conuerted to a generall welcomer of his friends and neighbours Hee married the daughter of Sir William Courtney his father the coheire of Killigrew Hee beareth Sa. a Fesse betweene three battel-axes A. Poole for his low and moyst seate is not vnaptly named houseth Sir Ionathan Trelawny farre beneath his worth calling he married Sir Henry Killigrews daughter his father the coheire of Reskimer his graundfather Lamellyns Inheritrix Poole standeth in Mynhinet parish where Sir Ionathan hath a large priuiledged Mānour of the same name the Benefice is giuen by Excester Colledge in Oxford none but the fellowes admittable wherethrough it hath sccessiuely beene graced with three well borne well learned and welbeloued Incumbents Doctor Tremayne Master Billet and Master Denis Out of Sir Ionathans house is also descended Master Edward Trelawny a Gentleman qualified with many good parts Their armes are A. a Cheuron S. betweene three Oke-leaues Vert. Sundrie other Gent. rest beholden to this hundred for their dwellings who in an enuiable mediocritie of fortune do happilie possesse themselues and communicate their sufficient means to the seruice of their prince the good of their neighbours and the bettering of their own estate of which sort are M. Becket who beareth S. a Fesse betweene three Boares heads coped sixe Crosses crosselet Fichee O. M. Tregodecke who beareth A. a Cheuron betweene three Buckles S. M. Spurre G. on a Cheuron O. a rose of the first and 2. mullets pearnd S. M. Bligh B. a Griffon legreant O. armed G. betweene 3. Croissants A. M. Lower B. a Cheuron engrayled O. betweene three Roses A. M. Treuisa G. a garb O. M. Chiuerton A. a Castle S. standing on a hill V. Manaton A on a Bend S. three mullets of the field and some others Stratton Hundred STratton Hundred extendeth the breadth of Cornewall to the North as that of East beginneth it on the South and therefore it shall next succeede His circuit is slender but his fruitfulnesse great and the Inhabitants industrie commendable who reape a large benefit from their orchyards and gardens but specially from their Garlick the Countreymans Triacle which they vent not onely into Cornwall but many other shires besides Stratton the onely market towne of this Hundred gaue the same his name and if I mistake not taketh it from Strota a street other memorable matter to report thereof I finde not any Vpon one side of the towne lyeth master Chamonds house and place of Launcels so called for that it was sometimes a Cell appertaining to the Abbot of Hartlond This Gentlemans father late deceased receiued at Gods hands an extraordinarie fauour of long life Hee serued in the office of a Iustice of peace almost 60. yeeres He knew aboue 50. seuerall Iudges of the westerne cercuit He was vncle and great vncle to at least 300. wherein yet his vncle and neighbour master Greynuile parson of Kilkhampton did exceed him He married one of the daughters and heires of Treuenuer and by her saw fiue sonnes and two daughters the yongest out-stepping 40. yeeres Sir Iohn Chamond his father a man learned in the common lawes was knighted at the Sepulchre and by dame Iane widdowe to Sir Iohn Arundell of Trerice and daughter to Sir Thomas Greynuile had an elder sonne called Thomas whose two daughters and heires by Arscot caried part of the lands to Tripcony and Treuanion with whome they matched Master Chamond beareth A. a Cheuron betweene 3. flowers de Luce G. In Launcels parish also standeth Norton the house of M. Tristram Arscot a Gēt who by his trauailing abroad in his yonger yeres hath the better enabled himselfe to discharge his calling at home He tooke to wife Eulalia the widdow of the wise and vertuous M. Edmond Tremayne and daughter of Sir Iohn Sentleger whose stately house of Anery in Deuon he purchased
thither hath lately remoued his residence he beareth party per Cheuron B. et E. in chiefe two stagges heads cabased O. Vpon the North-sea thereby bordereth Stow so singly called Rer eminentiam as a place of great and good marke scope and the auncient dwelling of the Greynuiles famous family from whence are issued diuers male branches and whither the females haue brought in a verie populous kinred Master Bernard Greinuile sonne and heire to Sir Richard is the present owner and in a kind magnanimitie treadeth the honourable steps of his auncestors Tonacumb late the house of Master Iohn Kempthorne alias Lea who married Katherine the daughter of Sir Peers Courtney is by his issuelesse decease descended to his brothers sonne hee beareth A. three Pine-apple trees V. Returning to the Westwards wee meete with Bude an open sandie Bay in whose mouth riseth a little hill by euerie sea-floud made an Iland and thereon a decayed Chappell it spareth roade onely to such small shipping as bring their tide with them and leaueth them drie when the ebbe hath carried away the Salt-water Vpon one side hereof Master Arundel of Trerice possesseth a pleasant-seated house and demaines called Efford alias Ebbingford and that not vnproperly because euerie low water there affordeth passage to the other shore but now it may take a new name for his better plight for this Gentleman hath to his great charges builded a Salt-water Mill athwart this Bay whose causey serueth as a verie conuenient bridge to saue the way-farers former trouble let and daunger It is receiued by tradition that his belsire Sir Iohn Arundel was forewarned by I wot not what Calker how he should bee slaine on the sands For auoyding which encounter he alwaies shunned Efford dwelt at Trerice another of his houses But as the prouerb sayth Fata viam inuenient and as experience teacheth mens curiosity Fato viam sternit It hapned that what time the Earle of Oxford surprized S. Michaels mount by policy and kept the same by strong hand this Sir Iohn Arundel was Sherife of Cornwall wherethrough vpon duety of his office and commaundement from the Prince hee marched thither with posse Comitatus to besiege it and there in a skirmish on the sands which deuide the mount from the continēt he fulfilled the effect of the prophecy with the losse of his life and in the said mounts Chappell lieth buried So Cambises lighted on Ecbatana in Egypt and Alexander Epirot on Acheros in Italy to bring them to their end So Philip of Macedon and Atis the sonne of Croesus found a chariot in a swords hilt and an Iron poynted weapon at the hunting of a Bore to delude their preuentiue wearinesse So Amilcar supped in Siracusa the Prince of Wales ware a Crown thorow Cheapside in another sort and sense then they imagined or desired And so Pope Gerebert and our King H. the 4. trauailed no farther for meeting their fatall Hierusalem then the one to a Chappell in Rome the other to a chamber in Westminster S. Marie Wike standeth in a fruitfull soyle skirted with a moore course for pasture and combrous for trauellers Wic by master Lambert signifieth a towne by master Camden Stationem vel Sinum vbi excercitus agit This village was the birth-place of Thomasine Bonauenture I know not whether by descēt or euent so called for whiles in her girlish age she kept sheepe on the fore-remembred moore it chanced that a London marchant passing by saw her heeded her liked her begged her of her poore parents and carried her to his home In processe of time her mistres was summoned by death to appeare in the other world and her good thewes no lesse then her seemely personage somuch contented her master that he aduanced her from a seruant to a wife and left her a wealthy widdow Her second mariage befell with one Henry Gall her third and last with Sir Iohn Perciual Lord Maior of London whom she also ouerliued And to shew that vertue as well bare a part in the desert as fortune in the meanes of her preferment she employed the whole residue of her life and last widdowhood to works no lesse bountifull then charitable namely repayring of high waies building of bridges endowing of maydens relieuing of prisoners feeding and apparelling the poore c. Amongst the rest at this S. Mary Wike she founded a Chauntery and free-schoole together with faire lodgings for the Schoolemasters schollers and officers and added twenty pound of yeerely reuennue for supporting the incident charges wherein as the bent of her desire was holy so God blessed the same with al wished successe for diuers the best Gent. sonnes of Deuon and Cornwall were there vertuously trained vp in both kinds of diuine and humane learning vnder one Cholwel an honest and religious teacher which caused the neighbours so much the rather and the more to rewe that a petty smacke onely of Popery opened a gap to the oppression of the whole by the statute made in Edw. the 6. raigne touching the suppression of Chaunteries Such strange accidēts of extraordinary aduancemēts are verified by the ample testimonie of many histories and amongst the rest we read in Machiauell how beit controuled by the often reproued Iouius that Castruccio Caestracani climed from a baser birth to a farre higher estate For being begotten in Lucca by vnknowne parents and cast out in his swadling clouts to the wide world he was taken vp by a widdowe placed by her with a Clergy man her brother giuen by him to a Gent called Francesco Guinigi and by Guinigi left tutor to his onely sonne From which step his courage and wisedome raysed him by degrees to the soueraignty of Lucca the Senatorship of Rome the speciall fauour of the Emperour and a neere hope only by death preuented of subduing Florence Lesnewith Hundred LEsnewith Hūdred taketh his name of a parish therein as Stratton doth of a towne memorable for nothing else It may be deriued either from Les which in Cornish signifieth broad and newith which is new as a new breadth because it enlargeth his limits farther into Cornwall on both sides whereas Stratton is straightned on the one by Deuon or from Les and gwith which importeth broad Ashen trees g for Euphonias sake being turned into n. The first place which heere offreth it selfe to sight is Bottreaux Castle seated on a bad harbour of the North sea suburbed with a poore market town yet entitling the owner in times past with the stile of a Baron from who by match it descēded to the L. Hungerford resteth in the Earle of Huntingdon The diuersified roomes of a prison in the Castle for both sexes better preserued by the Inhabitants memorie then discerneable by their owne endurance shew the same heeretofore to haue exercised some large iurisdiction Not farre from thence Tintogel more famous for his antiquitie then regardable for his present estate abbutteth likewise on the
sea yet the ruines argue it to haue beene once no vnworthie dwelling for the Cornish princes The cyment wherewith the stones were layd resisteth the fretting furie of the weather better then themselues Halfe the buildings were raysed on the continent and the other halfe on an Iland continued together within mens remembrance by a drawe-bridge but now diuorced by the downefalne steepe Cliffes on the farther side which though it shut out the sea from his wonted recourse hath yet more strengthened the late Iland for in passing thither you must first descend with a dangerous declyning and then make a worse ascent by a path as euerie where narrow so in many places through his sticklenesse occasioning and through his steepnesse threatning the ruine of your life with the failing of your foote At the top two or three terrifying steps giue you entrance to the hill which supplieth pasture for sheepe and conyes Vpon the same I saw a decayed Chappell a faire spring of water a Caue reaching once by my guides report some farre way vnder ground and which you will perhaps suspect of vntruth an Hermites graue hewen out in the rocke and seruing each bodies proportion for a buriall But if that in Wales carrie an equall veritie the myracle will soone reape credite for this is so sloped inwards at both ends that any tall stature shal find roome by a little bending as the short in the bottome by extending The fardest poynt of this hill is called Black head well knowne to the coasting Mariners The high cliffs are by sea vnaccessible round abouts sauing in one only place towards the East where they proffer an vneasie landing place for boats which being fenced with a garretted wall admitteth entrance thorow a gate sometimes of yron as the name yet continuing expresseth and is within presently commaunded by a hardly clymed hill Vnder the Iland runnes a caue thorow which you may rowe at ful sea but not without a kinde of horrour at the vncouthnesse of the place M. Camden deliuereth vs these verses out of an olde Poet touching Tintogel Est locus Abrini sinuoso littore ponti Rupe situs media refluus quem circuit aestus Fulminat hic latè turrite vertice Castrum Nomine Tindagium veteres dixêre Corini Which import in English There is a place within the winding shore of Seuerne sea On mids of rock about whose foote The tydes turne-keeping play A towry-topped Castle heere wide blazeth ouer all Which Corineus auncient broode Tindagel Castle call It is not layd vp amongst the least vaunts of this Castle that our victorious Arthur was here begotten by the valiant Vter Pendragon vpon the fayre Igerna and that without taynt of bastardy sayth Merlyn because her husband dyed some houres before Of later times Tintogel hath kept long silence in our stories vntill H. the 3. raigne at which time by Mat. Paris report his brother Earle Ri. grew into obloquy for priuy receyuing there abbetting his nephew Dauid against the King After which being turned from a Palace to a prison it restrained one Iohn Northamptons libertie who for abusing the same in his vnruly Maioralty of Londō was condemned hither as a perpetuall Penitenciary A fee of ancienty belonging to this Castle was cancelled as vnnecessary by the late L. Treasurer Burleigh One collecting the wonders of Cornwall rimed touching this as followeth TIntogel in his ruines vauntes Sometimes the seate of Kings And place which worthy Arthur bred Whose prayse the Breton sings A bridge these buildings ioynd whom now The fallen clifs diuorce Yet strength'ned so the more it scornes Foes vayne attempting force There caue aboue entrie admits But thorowfare denies Where that beneath alloweth both In safe but gastly wise A Spring there wets his head his foote A gate of Iron gardes There measure due to eche ones length The Hermits graue awards IN the mids of the wilde moores of this Hundred far from any dwelling or riuer there lyeth a great standing water called Dosmery poole about a mile or better in compasse fed by no perceyued spring neither hauing any auoydance vntill of late certaine Tynners brought an Audit therefrom The countrey people held many strange conceits of this poole as that it did ebbe flow that it had a whirle-poole in the midst thereof and that a fagot once throwne thereinto was taken vp at Foy hauen 6. miles distant Wherefore to try what truth rested in these reports some Gent. dwelling not farre off caused a boate and nets to be carried thither ouer land Fish they caught none saue a fewe Eeles vpon hookes the poole prooued no where past a fathome and halfe deepe and for a great way very shallow Touching the opinion of ebbing and stowing it should seeme to bee grounded partly vpon the increase which the raine floods brought thereinto frō the bordering hils which perhaps gaue also the name for Doz is come and maur great and the decrease occasioned by the next drowth and partly for that the windes doe driue the waues to and fro vpon those sandie bankes and thus the miracle of Dosmery poole deceased Of this other wonder hee sayd Dosmery poole amid the moores On top stands of a hill More then a mile about no streames It empt nor any fill Camelford a market and Fayre but not faire towne fetcheth his deriuatiō from the riuer Camel which runneth thorow it and that from the Cornish word Cam in English crooked as Cam frō the often winding stream The same is incorporated with a Maioralty nameth Burgesses to the Parliamēt yet steppeth little before the meanest sort of Boroughs for store of Inhabitants or the Inhabitants store Vpon the riuer of Camel neere to Camelford was that last dismal battel strooken betweene the noble king Arthur and his treacherous nephew Mordred wherein the one took his death and the other his deaths wound For testimony whereof the olde folke thereabouts will shew you a stone bearing Arthurs name though now depraued to Atry Master Camden letteth vs vnderstand that this towne is sometimes termed Gaffelford wherethrough we may marke it for the lists of a great fight betweene the Bretons Deuonshire men which Houeden assigneth to haue bene darrayned at Gauelford and perhaps the same which the saide Master Camden voucheth out of Marianus Scotus and describeth by these verses of an elder Poet Naturam Cambelafontis Mutatam stupet esse sui transcendit inundans Sanguineus torrens ripas ducit in aequor Corpora caesorum plures natare videres Et petere auxilium quos vndis vita reliquit The riuer Camel wonders that His fountaines nature showes So strange a change the bloody streame Vpswelling ouerflowes His both side banks and to the sea The slaughtered bodies beares Full many swimme and sue for ayde While waue their life outweares In our forefathers daies when deuotion as much exceeded knowledge as knowledge now commeth short of deuotion there were many bowssening places for
of K. Alfred namely how comming into Cornwall on hunting he turned aside for doing his deuotion into a Church where S. Guorijr and S. Neot made their abode quare whether he meane not their burials or rather so resolue because Asser so deliuers it and there found his orisons seconded with a happy effect Next I will relate you another of the Cornish natural wonders viz. S. Kaynes well but lest you make a wonder first at the Saint before you take notice of the well you must vnderstand that this was not Kayne the manqueller but one of a gentler spirit and milder sex to wit a woman He who caused the spring to be pictured added this rime for an exposition In name in shape in quality This well is very quaint The name to let of Kayne befell No ouer-holy Saint The shape 4. trees of diuers kinde Witby Oke Elme and Ash Make with their roots an arched roofe Whose floore this spring doth wash The quality that man or wife Whose chance or choice attaines First of this sacred streame to drinke Ther thy the mastry gaines In this Hundred the rubble of certaine mines and ruines of a fining house conuince Burchard Craneigh the Duchmans vaine endeuour in seeking of siluer owter howbeit hee afterwards lighted on a thriftier vayne of practising phisike át London where he grewe famous by the name of Doctor Bureot Killigarth being interpreted in English signifieth He hath lost his griping or reaching and by his present fortune in some sort iustifieth that name for the same hath lately forgone Sir William Beuill whome it embraced as owner Inhabitant by his sudden death and is passed into the possession of the faire Lady his widdow by her husbands conueyance It yeeldeth a large viewe of the South coast and was it selfe in Sir Williams life time much visited through his franke inuitingâ— The mention of this Knight calleth to my remembrance a sometimes vncouth seruaunt of his whose monstrous conditions partly resembled that Polyphemus described by Homâ—â— and Virgil and liuely imitated by Ariosto in his Orco or rather that Egyptian Polyphagus in whome by Suetonius report the Emperour Nero tooke such pleasure This fellow was taken vp by Sir William vnder a hedge in the deepest of Winter welneere starued with cold and hunger hee was of staturemeane of constitution leane of face freckled of composition well proportioned of diet naturally spare and cleanely inough yet at his masters bidding he would deuoure nettles thistles the pith of Artichokes raw and liuing birds and fishes with their scales and feathers burning coles and candles and whatsoeuer else howsoeuer vnsauorie if it might be swallowed neither this a little but in such quantitie as it often bred a second wonder how his belly should containe so much yet could no man at any time discouer him doing of that which necessitie of nature requireth Moreouer he would take a hot yron out of the fire with his bare hand neuer changed his apparell but by constraint and vsed to lie in strawe with his head downe and his heeled vpwards Spare he was of speech and in stead of halfe his words vsed this terme Size as I will Size him for strike him hee is a good Size for man c. Ouer-sleeping or some other accident made him to lose a day in his accompt of the weeke so as he would not beleeue but that Sunday was Saterday Saterday Friday c. To Sir William he bare such faithfulnesse that hee would follow his horse like a spanyell without regard of way or wearinesse waite at his chamber doore the night time suffering none to come neere him and performe whatsoeuer hee commanded were it neuer so vndawfull or dangerous On a time his master expecting strangers sent him with a panier to his 〈◊〉 at the sea side to fetch some fish In his way he passed by a riuer whereinto the tide then flowed and certaine fishermen were drawing their nets which after Iohn Size had a while beheld hee casts to haue a share amongst them for his master So into the water he leaps and there for the space of a flight shoot wadeth and walloweth for swimme hee could not sometimes vp and sometimes downe carrying his panier still before him to his owne extreame hazard of drowning and the beholders great pittying vntill at last all wet and wearied out he scrambleth and home he hieth with a bitter complaint to his master of his ill fortune that he could not catch some fish aswell as the rest where so much was going In this sort he continued for 〈◊〉 yeeres vntill vpon I wot not what veâ—â—â—â— or vnkindnesse away he gets and abroad he rogues which remitter brought him in the end to his foredeferred and not auoyded destiny for as vnder a hedge hee was formd pyning so vnder a hedge hee found his miserable death through penury Sir Williams father maried the daughter of Militon his graundfather the daughter and heire of Bear whose liuelyhood repayred what the elder brothers daughters had impaired The Beuils Armesart A a Bull passant G. armed and tripped O. In the same parish where Killigarth is seated Master Murth inheriteth a house and demaynes Hee maried Treffry his father Tregose One of their auncestours within the memorie of a next neighbour to the house called Prake burdened with 110. yeeres age entertained a British miller as that people for such idle occupations proue more handie then our owne But this fellowes seruice befell commodious in the worst sense For when not long after his acceptance warres growe betweene vs France hestealeth ouer into his countrey returneth priuily backe againe with a French crew surprizeth suddenly his master and his ghosts at a Chrisemas supper carrieth them speedily vnto Lahueghey and for coth the Gent. to redeeme his enlargement with the sale of a great part of his reuenewes A little to the Westwards from Killigarth the poore harbour and village of Polpera coucheth betweene 2. steepe hils where plenty of fish is vented to the fish driuers whom we call Iowters The warmth of this Hundred siding the South hath entierd many Gent. here to make choyce of their dwellings as M. Buller now Sherife at Tregarrick sometimes the Widestades inheritance vntill the fathers rebellion for feited it to the Prince and the Princes largesse rewarded therewith his subiects Wides lades some led a walking life with his harpe to Gentlemens houses wherethrough and by his other actiue qualities hee was intitled Sir Tristram neither wanted he as some say a bele I sound the more aprly to resemble his patterne Master Buller married the daughter of one Williams a Counsellour at lawe in Deuon his father a younger branch of the ancient stocke planted in Somerset shire tooke to wise the widdowe of Courtney and daughter and heire to Trethurffe by whose dower and his owne indeuour he purchased and left to his sonne faire possessions but not vnencumbred with titles which draue
parcel of the Cornish earth extendeth it selfe wider and compriseth more parishes then any other Hundred of the shire as stretching East and West from Foy to Falmouth and South and North welnere from one sea to the other In describing the same we must begin where we left to wit at Foy hauen in Cornish Foath It receyueth this name of the riuer and bestoweth the same on the town His entrance is garded with Block-houses that on the townes side as also the towne it selfe fortified fenced with ordinance The commeÌ„dation of which iudustry is principally due to the prouidence and direction of M. Wil. Treffry a Gent that hath vowed his rare gifts of learning wisdome courage to the good of his country made proofe therof in many occurreÌ„ts to whose iudicious correctioÌ„s these my notes haue bin not a little beholden His faire ancient house Castle-Wise builded and sufficiently flanked ouerlooketh the towne and hauen with a pleasant prospect and yet is not excluded from the healthfull ayre and vse of the country which occasioned his auncestours though endowed elsewhere with large reuennues of their owne and their wiues inheritance for many discents to make here their ordinary residence as is witnessed by their to ombestones which I haue seene in the church One of them about 145. yeeres sithence valiantly defended this his dwelling against the French what time they had surprized the rest of the towne Hee married one of Tremaynes heires his father the heire of Tresithny his graundfather the daughter of Killigrew and beareth S. a Cheuron betweene three Hawthornes A. But I will returne to the towne During the warlike raignes of our two valiant Edwards the first third the Foyens addicted themselues to backe their Princes quarrell by coping with the enemy at sea and made returne of many prizes which purchases hauing aduanced them to a good estate of wealth the same was wheÌ„ the quieter conditioned times gaue meanes heedfully and diligently employed and bettered by the more ciuill trade of marchandise and in both these vocations they so fortunately prospered that it is reported 60. tall ships did at one time belong to the harbour and that they assisted the siege of Callais with 47. saile Heereon a full purse begetting a stout stomack our Foyens tooke heart at grasse and chauncing about that time I speake vpon the credit of tradition to sayle neere Rye and Winchelsea they stifly refused to vaile their bonets at the summons of those townes which contempt by the better enabled Sea-farers reckoned intolerable caused the Ripiers to make out with might and mayne against them howbeit with a more hardy onset then happy issue for the Foy men gaue them so rough entertaynment at their welcome that they were glad to forsake patch without bidding farewell the merit of which exploit afterwards entitled them Gallants of Foy and it may bee they sought to eternize this memorable fact after the Greeke and Romane maner by inuesting the towne of Golant with that name notwithstanding quaere whether a causelesse ambitioÌ„ in the postetitie turned not rather Golant into Gallant for their greater glory Once the townesmen vaunt that for teskuing certaine ships of Rye from the Normans in Henrie the thirds time they beare the armes and enioy part of the priuiledges appertaining to the Cinque-ports whereof there is some memorie in their Chauncell window with the name of Fisart Bagga their principall Commaunder in that seruice Moreouer the prowesse of one Nicholas sonne to a widdow neere Foy is deskanted vpon in an old three mans songs namely how he fought brauely at sea with Iohn Dory a Genowey as I coniecture set forth by Iohn the French king and after much bloudshed on both sides tooke and slew him in reuenge of the great rauine and crueltie which hee had forecommitted vpon the English mens goods and bodies Yet their so often good successe sometimes tasted the sawce of crosser speeding for Tho. Walsingham telleth vs that Sir Hugh Calueley and Sir Th. Percy deputed to gard the sea by R. the 2. Anno 1379. chanced there to meete a Cornish barge belonging to Foy harbour which hauing worne out his victuals and time limited for the like seruice was then sayling homewards neither would be entreated by those knights to ioyne companie with them howbeit they bought this refusall verie deare For no sooner was the English fleete past out of sight but that a Flemmish man of warre lighted vpon them and after a long and strong resistance ouermastred them as well at last in force as they did at first in number tooke the Barge sunk it and slaughtered all the Saylers one onely boy excepted who in the heate of the bickering seeing which way the game would goe secretly stole aboord the Flemming and closely hid himselfe amongst the ballast Ouer a while this Pirate â—ast Anker in an English harbor where the boy hearing his Countrimens voice that were come aboord riseth from his new buriall bewrayeth the fact so wrought meanes for their punishment and his owne deliuery Not long after our Foy gallants vnable to beare a low sayle in their fresh gale of fortune began to skum the Seas with their often piracies auowing themselues vpon the Earle of Warwicke whose ragged staffe is yet to be seene pourtrayed in many places of their Church Steeple and in diuers priuate houses as also to violate their dutie at land by insolent disobedience to the Princes Officers cutting off amongst other pranckes a Pursiuants eares whereat king Edward the fourth conceiued such indignation as hee sent Commissioners vnto Lostwithiel a towne there by who vnder pretence of vsing their seruice in sea affaires trained thither the greatest number of the Burgesses and no sooner come then laid hold on and in hold their goods were confiscated one Harrington executed the chaine of their hauen remoued to Dartmouth their wonted iolity transformed into a sudden misery from which they striued a long time in vaine to releeue themselues but now of late yeres doe more and more aspire to a great amendment of their former defects though not to an equall height of their first aboundance Where I may not passe in silence the commendable deserts of Master Rashleigh the elder descended from a younger brother of an ancient house in Deuon for his industrious iudgement and aduenturing in trade of marchandise first opened a light and way to the townesmens newe thriuing and left his sonne large wealth and possessions who together with a dayly bettering his estate conuerteth the same to hospitality and other actions fitting a Gent. well affected to his God Prince and Countrey He married the daughter of Bonithon his father of Lanyne and beareth S. a plaine Crosse betweene 2. Croissants A. Anno 28. H. 6. there was an Act of Parliament made to restraine the abuses of sea-officers in wrong exactions at Foy and some other hauens The Lord of Pomier a Norman encouraged by the ciuil warres
wise and pleasant conceited Gent. matched with Tremayue After wee haue quitted Restormel Roche becomes our next place of soiourne though hardly inuiting with promise of any better entertainement then the name carieth written in his forehead to wit a huge high and steepe rock seated in a playne girded on either side with as it were two substitutes and meritorious no doubt for the Hermite who dwelt on the top thereof were it but in regard of such an vneasie climing to his cell and Chappell a part of whose naturall wals is wrought out of the rock it selfe Neere the foote of Roche there lyeth a rock Ieuell with the ground aboue and hollow downwards with a winding depth which contayneth water reported by some of the neighbours to ebbe flowe as the sea Of these as another Cornish wonder You neighbour-scorners holy-prowd Goe people Roche's cell Farre from the world neere to the heau'ns There Hermits may you dwell Is 't true that Spring in rock hereby Doth tide-wise ebbe and flow Or haue wee foolas with lyers met Fame saies it be it so From hence ascending easily the space of a mile you shall haue wonne the top of the Cornish Archbeacon Hainborough which as little to great may for prospect compare with Rama in Palestina Henius in Medica Collà lto in Italy and Sceafel in the I le of Man for if the weathers darkenesse bounde not your eye-sight within his ordynarie extent you shall thence plainely discerne to the Eastwards a great part of Deuon to the West very neere the lands end to the North and South the Ocean and sundrie Ilands scattered therein wherethrough it passeth also for a wonder Haynboroughs wide prospect at once Both feedes and gluts your eye With Cornwals whole extent as it In length and breadth doth lie At Ladocke in this Hundred dwelleth master Peter Courtney who doubly fetcheth his pedigree from that honourable stocke and embraceth the contentment of a quiet priuate life before the publike charge in his Countrie due to his calling and to which long sithence he hath bene called His father married as I haue shewed the daughter coheire of Trethurffe himselfe Reskimers his sonne the daughter of Saintabyn he beareth O. three Torteaux and a File with as many Lambeaux B. Leo After in the delightfull and approued description of his Countrie telleth vs of a blind guide who would readily and safely conduct straunger trauailers ouer the huge Deserts with which that region aboundeth and that the meanes he vsed was in certaine distances to smell at the sand which gaue him perfect notice of the places Likewise Lewes Guicciardin in his booke of Netherland maketh report of one Martyn Catelyn borne at Weruicke in Flaunders who falling blind before he attained two yeeres age grew notwithstanding by his owne industrie without any teacher to such a perfection in Timber handy-craft as he could not only turne and make Virginals Organes Vyolons and such like Instruments with great facilitie order and proportion but also tune and handsomely play vpon them and besides deuised many seruiceable tooles for his science These examples I thrust out before me to make way for a not much lesse straunge relation touching one Edward Bone sometimes seruant to the said master Courtney which fellow as by the assertion of diuers credible persons I haue beene informed deafe from his cradle and consequently dumbe would yet bee one of the first to learne and expresse to his master any newes that was sturring in the Countrie especially if there went speech of a Sermon within some myles distance hee would repaire to the place with the foonest and setting himselfe directly against the Preacher looke him stedfastly in the face while his Sermon lasted to which religious zeale his honest life was also answerable For as hee shunned all lewd parts himselfe so if hee espied any in his fellow seruants which hee could and would quickely doe his master should straightwayes know it and not rest free from importuning vntill either the fellow had put away his fault or their master his fellow And to make his minde knowne in this and all other matters hee vsed verie effectuall signes being able therethrough to receiue and performe any enioyned errand Besides hee was assisted with so firme a memorie that hee would not onely know any partie whome hee had once seene for euer after but also make him knowne to any other by some speciall obseruation and difference Vpon a brother of his God laide the like infirmitie but did not recompence it with the like raritie Somewhat neere the place of his birth there dwelt another so affected or rather defected whose name was Kempe which two when they chaunced to meete would vse such kinde imbracements such strange often and earnest rokenings and such heartie laughters and other passionate gestures that their want of a tongue seemed rather an hinderance to others conceiuing them then to their conceiuing one another Gwarnack in this Hundred was the Beuils ancient seate whose two daughters and heires married Arundel of Trerice and Greinnile Wolueden alias Golden fell vnto Tregian by match with the Inheritrix thereof Tregean signifieth the Giants towne their sonne married in Lanherne house their Graund-child with the L. Stourtons daughter hee beareth Erm. on a chiefe S. three Marilers O. It standethin Probus Parish whose high and faire Church towre of hewed Moore stone was builded within compasse of our remembrance by the well disposed Inhabitants and here also dwelleth one Williams a wealthie and charitable Farmer Graund-father to fixtie persons how liuing and able lately to ride twelue myles in a morning for being witnesse to the christening of a child to whome hee was great great Graund-father From hence drawing towards the Southsea wee will touch at the late Parke of Lanhadron because there groweth an Oke bearing his leaues speckled with white as doth another called Painters Oke in the Hundred of East but whether the former partake any supernaturall propertie to foretoken the owners-soone insuing death when his leaues are al of one colour as I haue heard some report let those affirme who better know it certaine it is that diuers auncient families in England are admonished by such predictions Grampond if it tooke that name from any great Bridge hath now Nomen sine re for the Bridge there is supported with onely a few arches and the Corporation but halfe replenished with Inhabitants who may better vaunt of their townes antiquitie then the towne of their abilitie Of Pentuan I haue spoken before For the present it harboureth master Dart who as diuers other Gentlemen well descended and accommodated in Deuon doe yet rather make choyce of a pleasing and retired equalitie in the little Cornish Angle Hee matched with Roscarrocke Penwarne in the same Parish of Meuagesy Alias S. Meuie and Isy two nothing ambitious Saints in resting satisfied with the partage of so pettie a limit is