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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    violent, would it comport with the truth. For of what channel is Penzance thus fuppofed to be the head ? Of the Britifh, as mention of “ the channel” implies ? How then is Penzance the head of this ? juft as it is the tail of it, and no otherwife. The other derivation, indeed, has been uni- verfally adopted, ever fince Bifhop Gibfon produced it; was declared by himfelf at the moment, and is re-declared by Mr. Gough now, to be “ beyond difpute” the juft one. Yet it is as falfe as the former, though not as ridiculous. The folitary village on the ftiore had a name, long be- fore it was important enough to have any arms. It could not have had any, before it was incor- porated in 1614. Nor would it then have had the head of the baptift in a charger, if it had not been a part of the parifh of Maddern, and thus in its tithes appropriated to the priory of St. John of Jerufalem.* Such is this indifputable etymon! But what then is the true etymon ? It is this, I believe. The large compafs of Mount’s Bay has only two points particularly diftinguifhed in it, one called Gwavas Lake, and ranging along the fouth-weftern fide of the bay ; but the other denominated Penzance, and comprehending all the northern. “ Yn the bay,” cries Leland, “ be eft the fame towne” of Moufehole, “ ys a good roode for Jhyjifes, cawled Guaves Lake.” f This is, he adds in another place, “ a bay from Newlin to Moufehole, caullid “ Guaverjlak.”% Here is ftill the greateft depth of water throughout the whole bay ; and the gun-boat, that is now ftationed to guard the bay, lies here; while the general depth from Penzance to the Mount, upon an ebb-tide, is only fix fathoms at high water. But the fifhery in this part of the fea was given to the church of the parith of Paul, a church here ftanding high upon the hill, and a parifh ex- tending along the fea from the north of Newlyn to the fouth of Moufehole; went at the appro- priation of the reftory to the abbey of Hayles, in Gloucefterlhire ; § and was very valuable to the proprietors, while the law of fifh-tithe flood upon that original balls of common-fenfe, the pay- ment of the tithe to the church in which the fifhermen received divine offices, but has been frit- tered into atoms by a refinement lately introduced, of paying them to the minifter of the parifh in which the nets are laid up, the men ftill refiding in Paul parifh, but laying up their nets in Madern, even laying them up (I believe) on the bare ftrand there. Another part of Mount’s Bay had the Cornifh appellation of Penzance, not (as Pryce expounds the name ||) from being “ the “ head of the bay,” when Chendower (or the houfe in the water) is much more fo; but, agree- ably to the genius of the Britifh language, and conformably to the mode of impofing appellations in Cornwall, from being “ the bay of the head” or hill. Thus Penzance is the fame in Cornifh, as Mount’s Bay is in Englifh. Thus too the village of fifhermen on the beach at Penzance, with their petty chapel of St. Anthony behind, naturally (like Falmouth) took the very title of the bay on which it flood; ages before it was important enough to be incorporated and have arms, even years, probably, before its parifh-church was appropriated to the priory of St. John of Jerufalem.^f And the proper Mount’s Bay extends only over the northern part of the bay, even “ as far north “ as * “ Madron, alias St. Madern, V. with the chapel of Penzance (St. Mary) and Morva.—Pri Sti. Johannis Jerufalem “ Propr.” (Henry’s Valor). t Itin. vii. ) ] 7. J Itin. iii. 17. § Founded by Richard, King of the Romans, and Earl of Cornwall, in 1246. (Monafticon i. 928.) But the appropriation was later even than the Valor of 1291, Paul being then a rectory. |1 Under Zcins. f In the Valor of 1291, we fee that it was then appropriated; “ Eccles. Sti Maderni, cvi. S. viii. D. Prior Hnfpital. Sti
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