A supplement to the first and second books of the History of Cornwall / [by R. Polwhele] ; containing remarks on St. Michael's Mount, Penzance, the Land's End, and the Sylleh Isles. By the historian of Manchester [i.e. J. Whitaker].

  • Richard Polwhele
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A supplement to the first and second books of the History of Cornwall / [by R. Polwhele] ; containing remarks on St. Michael's Mount, Penzance, the Land's End, and the Sylleh Isles. By the historian of Manchester [i.e. J. Whitaker]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at the higheft fpring tides has about thirteen feet of water upon it, but about feven at the top of the neap tides, and feven or eight feet more at the fides, which is accidentally formed by the two currents of the tide, fweeping round the Mount, meeting in oppolite directions beyond it, and then depoliting at the place of conflict the pebbles, gravel, or fand brought along with them; had a crofs upon it, which about 75 or 80 years ago was broken down by the violence of a ftorm, notwithftanding the protection which the Mount gave it. It being fixed at the lowed part of the ildge, the clojing and unclojing (as the firft covering and laft uncovering of the ridge by the tide are denominated) always happened at this point; but have now changed to a point about 70 or 80 yards nearer Marazion, now made the loweft on the ridge, by carrying off ftone for the erec- tion of fome new houfes there. The whole ridge is about forty yards wide, not tending direCUy to the mouth of the pier, but reaching the Mount about eight yards eaft of it; compofed of peb- bles, gravel, or fand, in each of which the predominant quantity is governed by the roughnefs or ftillnefs of the tides. At neap tides, and in very bad weather, the ridge fcarcely unclofcs at all, and for only two or three hours in mild weather; but in mild weather, and at fpring tides, upwards of five hours. Formerly, yet within memory, the ridge was paflable half an hour longer than it is at prefent; and is now paflable only for about two thirds of the time, or four hours in the day. So feemingly, fo apparently, is the fea encroaching here, within thefe later ages.* IV. The fea has been fenfibly encroaching upon the land here, for ages. We fee its ravages apparent in the period part, and we feel its violence at prefent. “ The continual advances which “ the fea makes upon the land at prefent,” Dr. Borlafe obferves concerning the Sylley Ifles, “ are “ plain to all people of obfervation; and within the laft thirty years,” before this un-dated letter was publilhed, in 1756, “ have been very confiderable.”J Indeed, “ the fea is perpetually prey- “ ing upon” all “ thefe little iflands, and leaves nothing where it can reach but the Ikeleton, the bared rock.”§ Yet let us ftep back into former times, and there examine whether the fea was fo troublefome a neighbour then. “ In the bay betwyxt the Mont and Penfants,” as Leland tells us, “ be fownd neere the lowe water marke rootes of trees yn dyvers places, as a token of the “ grownde wafted.”|| “ There hath bene,” as he adds in another place, “ much land devoured “ of the fea betwixt Penfandes and Moufehole.”^[ In 1414, Bifhop Stafford of Exeter thus ex- horts all the perfons of his diocefe, to contribute towards the reparation of damages made by the fea at the latter : “ as the chapel of Mofal, formerly built in honour of the Blefled Virgin, and “ fituated near a port or creek of the fea, is now by the force of the fea entirely thrown down and “ demolified; which, while it flood, was a mark to feamen, and which, if it was rebuilt, might “ ftill be the means of the prefervation of many failing into this port or creek of the fea, which is “ very narrow, and too dangerous to give afliftance, efpecially in the time of tempefts or hurri- “ canes ; and as the revenues of the laid chapel are by no means fufficient to repair, or more 4‘ truly * Mr. Gough, 13, repeats the mifiake of Pomeroy’s “ driving out the monks” fpeaks of “ a capacious pier at the foot of “ the rock for the fifhermen, whofc tents cover itsJides j and adds, “ the Mount is joined to the main land by a lunge btaeti, *' over which the tide flows.” I Scilly Ifles, 88. § Ibid. 89.
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