Part 6

In the battle of Deorham, 577, the Britons were defeated with great slaughter, and the West Welsh of Devon and Cornwall were cut off from further communication with their brethren of Wales. The Saxons steadily advanced, but for long the Parrett was the boundary. In 823 a battle was fought between the Saxons and Britons at Gavulford, now Galford, a point on the old road from Exeter to the west, where the hills draw together, and whence it is commanded by a huge camp. The Britons now called the Danes to their aid, and twelve years afterwards a battle was fought on Hingeston Down, above Calstock, in which Egbert was victorious. This was in 835. Hitherto the Britons had occupied one portion of Exeter, but Athelstan, after defeating the Cornish King Howell, not only expelled them from the city but fixed the Tamar as their boundary. Then he passed through Cornwall, and even visited the Scilly Isles. The Count of Poher in Brittany, of whose son Alan Barbetorte was the godson of Athelstan, fled from Brittany with a crowd of his countrymen from the devastations of the Northmen, and Athelstan gave them homes in England. It is probable that he planted some in the Lizard, and others about Camborne, for we find there church dedications to distinctively Breton saints, and we know, moreover, that the fugitive Bretons brought with them the bones of their patron saints. As they spoke the same tongue as the Cornish, it would be natural for Athelstan to send them there.

In 981, the Danish pirates plundered the monastery of St Petrock, and in 997 ravaged the territories of their old allies from one end of Cornwall to the other with fire and sword. Shortly before this, in 993, Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, with Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, after having attacked London, devastated the east coast, burnt Sandwich and Ipswich, and stormed Bamborough, then harried the Scottish coast, the Western Isles, the Isle of Man, and Ireland, where "he burned far and wide, wherever inhabited." He then came to the Scilly Isles, where he put into Tresco harbour. There the monks of the abbey founded by Athelstan so impressed him, that he consented to be baptized.

In 1068, the county was plundered by Godwin and Edmund, sons of Harold, after a battle in Somersetshire, and on their way back to Ireland.

In 1322, the craze for going on pilgrimage took possession of Cornish men, women, and children, and they set off for the Holy Land, whence few returned.

In 1497, in consequence of the dissatisfaction occasioned by the levy of a burdensome tax, the commoners of Cornwall, headed by Thomas Flamank, a gentleman, and Michael Joseph, a Bodmin blacksmith, rose in rebellion. Having prevailed on Lord Audley to be their general, they marched as far as to Blackheath in Kent, where they were defeated with much slaughter by Lord Daubeny. In the same year Perkin Warbeck landed, according to some at Whitesand Bay, near the Land's End, according to others in St Ives' Bay, and marching to Bodmin, found the Cornish ripe for a new rebellion. At the head of 3000 men he marched to Exeter, but was unable to take it. He made his way to Taunton, where, despairing of success, he deserted his army and fled, but was taken and executed.

In 1548, another rebellion broke out occasioned by the changes in religion, which the Cornish resented. Their leader was Hugh Arundell, Governor of St Michael's Mount. They proceeded to besiege Exeter, but although the city was sorely distressed for want of provisions it held out till relieved, and in a battle fought at Woodbury, they were defeated with immense slaughter. Cornwall remained quiet in the reign of Elizabeth, save that it sent out whole fleets of privateers to prey on the Spanish traders and treasure vessels.

The Armada was off the Lizard on the 29th to 30th July, 1588. An English fishing-boat was hanging near them, counting their numbers. They gave chase, but the boat shot away down wind and disappeared. It carried the news to Drake at Plymouth, who at once prepared to sail forth.

In the Civil War, Cornwall was almost unanimous on the side of the King. Lord Robartes, however, threw in his lot with the Parliament. On the side of the King were Sir Bevil Grenville, Sir Ralph Hopton, Godolphin, Slanning, and Trevanion. A battle was fought at Boconnoc on January 19, 1643, in which General Ruthven and the Roundheads were defeated. Another battle in which the Royalists were successful was at Stamford Hill above Stratton, May 16, 1643.

Charles I visited Cornwall, and was so impressed by the devotion and loyalty of the people that he addressed to them a letter of recognition, copies of which may be seen in some of the churches. Prince Charles spent a great part of the autumn and winter of 1645 in Cornwall; on March 2, 1645-6, he embarked at Pendennis Castle for the Scilly Isles, where he "was much straitened for provisions." He quitted Scilly on April 16, and landed next day in Jersey, whence he sailed for France. Queen Henrietta Maria had left Pendennis for France in July, 1644.

Cornwall took no active part in the Revolution; in the European War, it sent forth many gallant sailors, among whom in the first place may be reckoned Admiral Boscawen, "old Dreadnought." But since the Civil War the history of the Duchy has been mainly one of social and industrial advance. The principal events stirring the community were the introduction of steam-engines to pump the mines, affrays with smugglers, and the excitement and unlimited bribery and corruption at elections in the rotten boroughs till these latter were swept away by the Reform Bill of 1832. About these rotten boroughs a few words must be said. The old boroughs that existed before the reign of Edward VI were Truro, Helston, Lostwithiel, Bodmin, Liskeard, and Launceston. But the advisers of Edward VI, conscious of insecure tenure of the throne and doubting whether the country was willing to go with them in their sweeping alterations in religion, and desirous of counteracting the growing importance of the House of Commons, considered that their object would be best attained by conferring the right of returning members of Parliament upon the obscure dependent villages of Cornwall. Accordingly Saltash, Camelford, West Looe, Bossiney, Grampound, Penryn, Mitchell, and Newport were elevated into boroughs, each returning two members to Parliament.

Under Queen Mary, St Ives received the same privileges, and under Elizabeth six more were made boroughs with the same rights, St Germans, St Mawes, Tregony, East Looe, Fowey, and Callington. Some of these places, as Mitchell, Tregony, and St Mawes, were mere hamlets. They all soon passed away from the direct control of the Crown and fell into the hands of borough mongers who returned what members they liked, by gross bribery, expecting to be repaid with Baronetcies and with lucrative sinecures by the Ministry of the day they supported.

=20. Antiquities: Prehistoric, Roman, Celtic, Saxon.=

The first men who inhabited our island were the merest savages. They had no knowledge of the use of metals, they could not make pottery; they had not domesticated the cow, the sheep, or the dog. They used extremely rude flint weapons and tools. They were contemporary with the cave bear, the woolly rhinoceros, the mammoth, and the cave hyæna, all which beasts then lived in Britain; and at that time the temperature was much colder than at present. This period is called the Palaeolithic, or Old Stone Age.

The next race that entered our island found the temperature much as it is now. They were comparatively civilised. They still used flint implements, but of a very superior type, and far better finished than those of the earlier race. Moreover they were agricultural, grew corn, had cows and sheep and dogs, and made pottery. This race it was which erected the so-called cromlechs, stone circles, and tall upright stones. The remains of their villages of circular stone huts are very numerous on the moors. This period is called the Neolithic, or New Stone Age.

After a time bronze was introduced, by trade, and was at first as valuable as gold is to us. But after a while it became much more common. Its introduction marked the commencement of the Bronze Age.

To the Bronze Age succeeded the Iron Age. This metal was introduced by the conquering Celts, of whom there existed two branches, one called Brythonic, of which were the Britons, now represented by the Welsh, the Cornish, the Cumbrians, and the Bretons of Brittany; the other called Goidelic, and now represented by the Irish, the natives of the Isle of Man, and the Scots. The Celts with their iron weapons speedily overcame and enslaved the earlier race, usually called Ivernian. The latter was dusky and dark haired, but the Celt probably had yellow or red hair, blue or grey eyes, and a fair complexion.

No satisfactory evidence has been produced that Palaeolithic man occupied Cornwall, but the traces of Neolithic man at the stage when he became acquainted with the use of bronze are abundant. By him were erected the rude stone monuments that are scattered over the county, and he had his favourite sites for trimming flints into scrapers and arrow-heads. One of the most notable of these was the shore of Dozmare Pool.

Of the rude stone monuments the dolmen or cromlech is sepulchral, the dolmen when large having been a tribal or family mausoleum, and the kistvaen, which is far smaller, contained the bones of one individual alone. The dolmen is composed of three or more upright stones sustaining one or more coverers, and was often buried under a cairn. The finest in Cornwall are Zennor and Lanyon Quoits, the Trethevy Stone, and Chûn Quoit.

Stone circles are numerous. Their purpose has not been determined, but on Dartmoor, where they have been examined, they exhibit a floor strewn with charcoal. They have, moreover, usually numerous cairns or barrows associated with them. The finest sacred circle is that of the Stripple Stones on the Bodmin moors, but this has of late years been sadly mutilated. The "Merry Maidens," in St Buryan's parish near Penzance, is a magnificent circle. Other circles are those of Boscawen-ûn, Dauns Môr, Wendron, the Trippet Stones on Blisland moor, Fernacre and Stannon on the St Breward moors, the Hurlers near the Cheesewring, the Nine Maidens in St Columb Major, Duloe, etc.

Menhirs or "longstones" are upright monoliths, probably set up in memorial of the dead. Of these there are many in Cornwall but none of great height. The Pipers in St Buryan are the loftiest, 13 ft. 6 in. and 15 ft.

Of stone alignments Cornwall is almost wholly barren, but one at St Breock can be claimed with confidence. This is the more remarkable as they abound on Dartmoor. But the reason probably is that the stones have been carried off to serve as gateposts, and in some cases are embedded in walls of fields. They were probably erected in commemoration of the dead and are always associated with cairns and interments.

Subterranean chambers, constructed of upright stones with coverers, were possibly store chambers for grain. The best preserved is at Trelowarren.

Upright holed stones are met with in Madron, St Buryan, St Just, Sancreed, Constantine, Wendron, etc. Their purport is unknown.

Very curious are the clusters of communal huts at Chysauster, Bosporthennis, etc. They probably belong to the Iron Age, whereas the hut circles scattered over a hill side, or within a pound, pertained to the early Bronze Age.

Arrow heads, lance heads and scrapers have been found in tolerable abundance on the Bodmin moors, on Carn Brea, at St Agnes, etc., and celts (axe heads) of greenstone and diorite have occurred, but not with great frequency.

At Harlyn Bay has been found a cemetery of the Iron Age, all the bodies in slate cists, crouching. In the cairns and kistvaens (stone coffins) on the other hand the bodies have been burnt. Numerous urns of the well-determined Bronze Age type have been recovered from cairns.

The camps of stone and earth in Cornwall are very numerous. They all--or nearly all--date back to the same period of the early bronze, but may have been used by later peoples. They are of two descriptions, the cliff castles, where a headland is protected by banks and dykes on the side of the mainland, and circular or oval camps crowning heights, with concentric rings of circumvallation. Where the hill top does not admit of the circular form the earthworks adapt themselves to the contour of the hill.

Roman remains are conspicuously rare in Cornwall. Some fragments of Samian ware, coins, and a bronze and silver metal vessel have been found in Bossens, a camp in St Erth, and the head of an ensign at St Just. A second Roman camp is Tregeare, near Bodmin. An inscribed milestone of the time of Constantine the Great is in the churchyard of St Hilary. The metal bowl at Bossens was inscribed by Aelius Modestus to the god Mars.

Of the Celtic period, gold lunettes have been found at Harlyn; a gold cup near the Cheesewring in a cairn along with a corroded iron weapon; a portion of a gold armlet at Penzance and of a brooch at the Lizard.

Of Saxon remains the principal are the hoard at Trewhiddle, a silver chalice, finger-ring, pins, etc. Coins have been found; among them one of Ethelred, struck at Launceston. On the altar slab formerly at Treslothan, now supporting a sundial at Pendarves, is inscribed the Saxon name of Ægured; and an old bell at Lanhydrock has on it "Æthelstan sumpta an[ima] sua." These are scanty remains, fewer even than the Roman.

Cornwall is, however, rich in Romano-British inscribed stones, dating from the eighth century down. At St Cleer is the memorial stone to Doniert (Dungarth) son of Caradoc. In Lewannick churchyard are stones with inscriptions not only in Latin characters but also with Ogams at the angle, showing that the Irish had settled there. Some of the inscribed stones are certainly earlier than the eighth century, to which cautious antiquaries have brought them down.

Crosses of granite are common, and some are very early, certainly earlier than Athelstan's passage through Cornwall in 938. But others are much later. They vary considerably in size and in shape. Some were used as preaching stations before churches had been built, but others marked the tracks over the moors, and some may have indicated boundaries. Some are excessively rude, some have the figure of the Saviour carved upon them, and these are comparatively late. Others--as that of St Neot--have elaborate scroll-work on them like those in South Wales.

=21. Architecture: (_a_) Ecclesiastical.=

A preliminary word on the various styles of English architecture is necessary before we consider the churches and other important buildings of our county.

Pre-Norman or, as it is usually, though with no great certainty termed, Saxon building in England, was the work of early craftsmen with an imperfect knowledge of stone construction, who commonly used rough rubble walls, no buttresses, small semicircular or triangular arches, and square towers with what is termed "long-and-short work" at the quoins or corners. It survives almost solely in portions of small churches.

The Norman Conquest started a widespread building of massive churches and castles in the continental style called Romanesque, which in England has got the name of "Norman". They had walls of great thickness, semicircular vaults, round-headed doors and windows, and massive square towers.

From 1150 to 1200 the building became lighter, the arches pointed, and there was perfected the science of vaulting, by which the weight is brought upon piers and buttresses. This method of building, the "Gothic," originated from the endeavour to cover the widest and loftiest areas with the greatest economy of stone. The first English Gothic, called "Early English," from about 1180 to 1250, is characterised by slender piers (commonly of marble), lofty pointed vaults, and long, narrow, lancet-headed windows. After 1250 the windows became broader, divided up, and ornamented by patterns of tracery, while in the vault the ribs were multiplied. The greatest elegance of English Gothic was reached from 1260 to 1290, at which date English sculpture was at its highest, and art in painting, coloured glass making, and general craftsmanship at its zenith.

After 1300 the structure of stone buildings began to be overlaid with ornament, the window tracery and vault ribs were of intricate patterns, the pinnacles and spires loaded with crocket and ornament. This later style is known as "Decorated," and came to an end with the Black Death, which stopped all building for a time.

With the changed conditions of life the type of building changed. With curious uniformity and quickness the style called "Perpendicular"--which is unknown abroad--developed after 1360 in all parts of England and lasted with scarcely any change up to 1520. As its name implies, it is characterised by the perpendicular arrangement of the tracery and panels on walls and in windows, and it is also distinguished by the flattened arches and the square hoods over the doorways, by the elaborate vault-traceries (especially fan-vaulting), and by the use of flat roofs and towers without spires.

The mediaeval styles in England ended with the dissolution of the monasteries (1530-1540), for the Reformation checked the building of churches. There succeeded the building of manor-houses, in which the style called "Tudor" arose--distinguished by flat-headed windows, level ceilings, and panelled rooms. The ornaments of classic style were introduced under the influences of Renaissance sculpture and distinguish the "Jacobean" style, so called after James I. About this time the professional architect arose. Hitherto, building had been entirely in the hands of the builder and the craftsman.

Cornwall does not furnish stately and richly adorned churches as does Devonshire, and even more so, Somersetshire. This is due to the intractable material available, granite, which unlike that of Brittany did not lend itself to rich sculpture. Only the Elvan stone, already described, could be worked with delicacy, and this is easily corroded by the weather, and the Catacluse stone is black. The beautiful Polyphant stone of Lewannick does not seem to have been largely employed. Although so close to Launceston, when the church there was reconstructed by Sir Henry Trecarrel, in the reign of Henry VIII, he employed only granite, which was sculptured with infinite labour, and with poor effect.

The most ancient churches in Cornwall were probably exceedingly rude. Only two of the earliest remain and these are in ruins, Perranporth and St Gothien, very much resembling churches of the most primitive period in Ireland.

There are some important remains of Norman architecture, notably the west front and part of the nave of St Germans, some portion of Blisland, the south door of Kilkhampton, the westernmost arches of Morwenstow, Tintagel, and some tympana of doorways with rude sculpture. In many of the churches the early fonts remain. Originally baptisms took place in tanks or barrels sunk in the earth; then, when adult baptisms ceased, square or circular troughs were placed on the floor, and later were raised on pedestals; and not infrequently the pedestal is an addition, at a later date, to the basin of the font itself.

Of the Early English period, the remains are scanty. St Anthony in Roseland is the most perfect example in Cornwall.

Of the Middle Pointed, or Decorated period, are Padstow, St Columb Major, Sheviock, Lostwithiel--where the very peculiar spire is singularly beautiful and foreign in character--and portions in Lanteglos by Fowey, and St Ive near Liskcard.

But, as in Devonshire, so in Cornwall, there was an outburst of church building in the Third Pointed or Perpendicular period. Then only--since the early sculptors of the crosses--did architects and carvers attack the granite, and most of the churches were then rebuilt. The finest are St Kewe, Mawgan in Pyder with a beautiful tower, Probus with a richly sculptured tower of the reign of Elizabeth, St Austell--also with a good tower, the carvings in Elvan--St Neot, Stratton, and Buryan. One remarkable feature is in the porches, where tracery of an ogival character is introduced in the arch. The Rev. W. Haslam, in the _Transactions of the Exeter Dioc. Arch. Society_, says of the Cornish churches that they "are low, and somewhat flat in the pitch of the roof, and without buttresses to break the long plain horizontal lines which are so conspicuous. All these are features of the Perpendicular style, I admit, but not to the extent to which they are carried in Cornwall. Besides this, the general form of a Cornish church is plain; externally, the plan of the larger ones is a parallelogram, divided into three low ridges of roof: there is a porch on the south side; this is the only break in the horizontal line I allude to. The smaller churches have generally but one aisle, and these have a transept also, but sometimes two transepts; but even these do not relieve the plainness of the exterior. This is not the character of one church, or two, or three; but more or less of all. It is their character, and I attribute it to the boisterous nature of the climate in that narrow county, exposed as it is, with very little shelter, to violent storms from the sea on both sides."

No great elaboration of tracery was possible with granite, and the architects abandoned the thought of making the churches attractive externally, devoting their attention to the internal decoration. The appearance of a large Cornish church now is that it is a long low shed, lacking in height and dignity. But the architect divided it in two by the screen, and thus brought it into proportion. Unfortunately, however, in very few have the beautiful rood-screens been left, which were generally spared in the Devonshire churches. Those of Cornwall in no way fell short of those in Devon, but the Puritans first of all, and then the barbarians of the Georgian period swept them away, and the churches in the nineteenth century fell into the hands of local architects who left them "naked, swept"--but not "garnished." They were, let us hope, the last of the Cornish wreckers. A few, but only a few screens remain.

In the interior of the Cornish churches the chief feature is the absence of a chancel arch, which is almost universal. The arch was unnecessary when the roodloft extended upwards and was backed by a painted board. In some of the churches there are interesting bench ends. At St Austell, the miners' tools are represented on them; on some rabbits running in and out of their burrows are figured, and seagulls are frequent.

In painted glass Cornwall is not rich, except in the 15 windows of St Neot near Liskeard, and in that in the north aisle, and the fragments in the south aisle of St Kewe.

The church towers in Cornwall are for the most part square without buttresses, and with four pinnacles. One peculiarity of these pinnacles is that they are often cut on a curve to lean outwards, probably to mitigate the stiffness of effect.