The Survey of Cornwall Part 29

Bodrugan, a large demaines adioyning thereunto (which I will not deriue from Sir Bars du Ganis, though the neighbours so say) was the dwelling of Sir Henrie Trenowith, a man of great liuely-hood, who chaunged his name with the house, and lost house and holding, through attainder for rebellion, against king Henrie the seuenth.

The king bestowed it, by an intailed gift, vpon Sir Richard Edgec.u.mb.

Next, lyeth the foreremembred Caryhayes (Kery haz in Cornish, signifieth to beare his seede, or as some other define it, delighting in seede) descended to M. Charles Treuanion, the present possessioner, by a long ranke of auncestors, from Arundels daughter and heire: his father married the daughter of Morgan, and sister to the first Lord Humdons wife, which brought him an honourable ally.

Three of this Gentlemans elder brethren, Edward, Iohn, and Hugh, forewent him in succession [142] to their fathers inheritance, and pa.s.sed to the better world in a single life: himselfe by matching the daughter and heire of Witchalse, whose mother was coheire to Marwood, hath raised issue vnto them, and continueth the hope of posteritie. Sir William Treuanion, his Graundsire, tooke to wife the said Sir Richard Edgec.u.mbs daughter. The Treuanions Armes are A. a Fesse B. charged with three Escalops O. betweene two Cheurons G.

Roseland, is a circuite, containing certaine Parishes hereabouts, and benefiting the owners with his fruitfulnesse, so that though the original of his name came (perhaps) as master Camden noteth, from his former thickets, yet his present estate better resembleth a flowrie effect.

By this time we approch the limits of Falmouth Hauen, vpon one of whose Creekes, standeth the market and incorporate towne of Tregny, not specially memorable (in my knowledge) for any extraordinarie worth, or accident.

Of better regard is Truro, alias, Truru, or Trisow, as the princ.i.p.all towne of the Hauen, priuiledged with a Mayraltie, and benefited with the generall Westerne Sessions, Coynages, Markets, Faires, &c.

The shape of the towne, and Etymon of the name, may be learned out of this Cornish propheticall rime.

Tru ru, Triueth eu, Ombdina geueth try ru.

Which is to say, Truro consisteth of three streetes, and it shall in time bee said, Here Truro stood. A like mischief of a mysterie, they obserue, that in taking T. from the towne, there resteth ru, ru, which in English soundeth, Woe, woe: but whatsoeuer shall become therof hereafter, for the present, I hold it to haue got the start in wealth of any other Cornish towne, and to come behind none in buildings, Lanceston onely excepted, where there is more vse, and profit of faire lodgings, through the Countie a.s.sizes. I wish that they would likewise deserue praise, for getting, and imploying their riches, in some industrious trade, to the good of their Countrie, as the Harbours oportunitie inuiteth them.

Descending from Truro to the Hauens mouth, by water, you are ouer-looked, by sundrie Gentlemens commodious seates, as Fentengollan, in English, the Harts well, lately appertayning to master Carmynow, by interpretation often louing, and now to master Holcomb, who married the daughter of master Peter Courtney.

Master Sayers house, Ardeuora, inhabited by master Thomas Peyton, a Gentleman for his age and vertues, deseruing a regardfull estimation, [blank] Master Bescawnes, [blank] Master Sayers: but amongst all, vpon that side of the riuer, Taluerne, for pleasant prospect, large scope, and other hous-keeping commodities, challengeth the preeminence: it was giuen to a yonger brother of Lanhearne, for some six or seuen descents past, and hath bred Gent. of good worth and calling: amongst whom, I may not forget the late kind, & valiant Sir Iohn Arundell, who matched with G.o.dolphin, nor Iohn his vertuous, and hopeful succeeding sonne, who married with Carew; though this remembrance renew that sorrow, which once I partly expressed in the ensuing Epitaph.

[143]

Seeke not, blind eyes, the liuing with the dead, Tis earth you see : our Arundel is gone, To ioyne with Christ, as member to his head, And skornes, and pities, this our bootlesse mone.

Yet pardon vs, sweete soule, mans nature beares, We, to thy losse, should sacrifice our teares.

Thou time hast changed to eternitie, But timelesse was that time, in our regard, Since nought thou leau'st vs, faue the memorie Of thy deare worth, so soone not to be spar'd.

Soft be the graue, vnto thy resting bones: Short be the date, that vs againe atones.

Vpon the East side of the Hauens entrance, Saint Maryes, alias, S. Mawes Castle, with his Point-blanke Ordinance, comptrolleth any s.h.i.+pping, that deserue a deniall of admission or pa.s.sage, and is commaunded by master Viuian, a Gentleman, who through his worth deserueth, and with due care and judgement dischargeth, the Martiall and ciuill gouernments committed to his trust: hee beareth partie per fesse Ar. and Vnsase 6. in chiefe, a Lyon rampant G.

We will close vp this Hundred, after our vsuall maner, with the Gentlemen of marke, but not orderly marked. Such are Tanner, who married the daughter of Roscarrock: who beareth A. on a chiefe S.

three Morions heads O. Pomeroy, a branch of Bery Pomeroy in Deuon: he beareth O. a Lyon rampant G. who matched with Tanner, and whose daughter & heire apparant, hath taken to husband the yong Penkeuil, who beareth A. two Cheurons, and in chiefe a Lyon pa.s.sant G.

Polwheele, whose name is deduced from his dwelling: and his dwelling may be interpreted, The miry worke, linked in wedlock with the coheire of Trencreeke, in English, The towne of the borough.

His mother was Lower of Trelask. Polwheel beareth S. a Saultier engrayled Erm.

Hearle, lineally descended from sundry Knights, who wedded Treuanion: and his sonne Treffry. Hee bearth A. a Fesse G. betweene 3. Sheldrakes proper.

Sawle, who espoused Rashleigh: and his father, Kendall, &c.

and beareth A. a Cheuron betweene 3. Faulcons heads erased S.

Pider Hundred.

I Must now, for a while, bid the South sea farewell, vntill a new oportunity call mee to end the other part of Falmouth hauen, and take the Hundred of Pider in taske, which confineth with Powder in situation, as it resembleth the same in denomination.

Pider in Cornish is 4. in English, and this is the fourth Hundred of Cornwall, if you begin your reckoning from the Wester part, at Penwith, which (signifying a head) doth seeme so to require it.

In entring this Hundred, Padstowe first presenteth it selfe, a towne and hauen of suteable quality, for both (though bad) are the best, that the North Cornish coast possesseth. The Borough gaue name to the harbour, and borroweth it of Petrock and Stowe, contracting the same into Padstowe. It hath lately purchased a corporation and reapeth greatest thrift, by traffiking [144] with Ireland, for which it commodiously lieth.

The harbour is barred with banks of sand, made (through vniting their weak forces) sufficiently strong, to resist the Oceans threatening billows, which (diuorced from their parent) find their rage subdued by the others lowly submission.

M. Nicholas Prideaux, from his new and stately house, thereby taketh a ful and large prospect of the towne, hauen, & countrey adioyning, to all which, his wisdome is a stay, his authority a direction.

He maried one of Viels coheires; and though endowed with fayre reuenues in Deuon, maketh Cornwall beholden to his residence.

He beareth A. a Cheuron S. in chief a fyle with three Lambreaux G.

The salt water leauing Padstowe, floweth up into the countrey, that it may embrace the riuer Camel, and hauing performed this naturall courtesie, ebbeth away againe, to yield him the freer pa.s.sage, by which meanes they both vndergoe Wade bridge, the longest, strongest, and fayrest that the s.h.i.+re can muster. It tooke his name of a foorde adioyning, which affoordeth a way, not so safe, as compendious, when the tyde is out.

Wade bridge delivereth you into a waste ground, where 9. long and great stones, called The sisters, stand in a ranke together, and seeme to haue bene so pitched, for continuing the memory of somewhat, whose notice is yet enuied vs by time.

Neere to Belowdy, commonly, & not vnproperly, termed Beelowzy, the top of a hill is enuironed with deep treble trenches, which leaue a large playne s.p.a.ce in the midst: they call it Castellan Danis, of which my former booke maketh mention; and it seemeth (in times past) to haue bin a matter of moment, the rather, for that a great cawsey (now couered with gra.s.se) doth lead vnto it.

Saint Colombs is a bigge parish, and a meane market towne, subiect to the Lords.h.i.+p and patronage of the Lanhearn Arundels, who for many descents, lye there interred, as the inscriptions on their graue stones doe testify.

Theire name is deriued from Hirundelle, in French, a Swallow, & out of France, at the conquest they came, & sixe Swallowes they giue in Armes. The Countrey people ent.i.tle them, The great Arundels: and greatest stroke, for loue, liuing, and respect, in the Countrey heretofore they bare.

Their sayd house of Lanhearne, standeth in the next parish, called Mawgan: Ladu is Cornish for a bank, and on a banke the same is seated, what hearne may mean, ignorance bids mee keepe silence.

It is appurtenanced with a large scope of land, which (while the owners there liued) was employed to franke hospitality; yet the same wanted wood, in lieu whereof, they burned heath, and generally, it is more regardable for profit, then commendale for pleasure.

The Gent. now liuing, maried Anne the daughter of Henry Gerningham: his father (a man of a goodly presence and kinde magnanimity) maried the daughter of the Earle of Darby, and widdow to the L. Stourton.

He beareth S. 6. Swallowes in pile A.

Little Colan hath lesse worth the obseruation, vnlesse you will deride, or pity, their simplicity, who sought at our Lady Nants well there, to foreknowe what fortune should betide them, which was in this maner:

Vpon Palm Sunday, these idle-headed seekers resorted thither, with a palme crosse in one hand, & an offring [145] in the other: the offring fell to the Priests share, the Crosse they threwe into the well; which if it swamme, the party should outliue that yeere; if it sunk, a short ensuing death was boded: and perhaps, not altogether vntruely, while a foolish conceyt of this halfening might the sooner helpe it onwards. A contrary practise to the G.o.ddess Iunoes lake In Laconia: for there, if the wheaten cakes, cast in vpon her festiuall day, were by the water receiued, it betokened good luck; if reiected, euill. The like is written by Pausanias, of Inus in Greece, and by others touching the offrings throwne into the fornace of mount Etna in Sicill.

From hence, by the double duety of consanguinitie and affinity, I am called to stop at Cosowarth, which inhabitance altered the Inhabitants from their former French name Escudifer, in English, Iron s.h.i.+eld, to his owne, as they prooue by olde euidence, not needing in the Norman Kings new birth, to be distinguished with the Raigners number.

Cosowarth, in Cornish, importeth The high groue: and well stored with trees it hath bene, neither is yet altogether dest.i.tute.

Iohn the heire of that house, hauing by the daughter of Williams, issue only one daughter Katherine, suffered part of his lands to descend vnto the children of her first husband, Alen Hill: another part hee intayled in her second marriage, with Arundel of Trerice, to their issue. The house of Cosowarth, and the auncient inheritance there adioyning, he gaue to the heires male of his stock, by which conueyance, his vncle Iohn succeeded, who married the daughter of Sir Wil. Lock, King H. the 8. marchant, and by him knighted, for that with equall courage, and hazard, hee tooke downe the Popes Bull, set vp at Antwerp against his Soueraigne. He had issue Thomas, Edward, Michael, Iohn, and Robert. Thomas maried the daughter of Samtabyn, on whom he begat Iohn and Dorothy: Iohn the elder and Robert, neuer tasted the sweet and sowre of bridale fruit.

Michael tooke to wife Sidenhams daughter of Dulverton in Somerset s.h.i.+re, and is father onely of issue female.

Hee addicteth himself to an Ecclesiasticall life, and therein ioyning Poetry with Diuinity, endeuoureth to imitate the holy Prophet Dauid, whose Psalmes, of his translation into English meeter, receiue the general applause, beyond a great many other wel-deseruing vndertakers of the same taske.

Iohn the youngest, succeeding in this inheritance, vpon iust cause, good conscience, and gratefull kindnesse, renewed the intayle which his father Thomas had cut off, and in a single estate, and the vniuersall loue of all that conuersed with him, made a short period of his long hoped life: whose decease I bewayled in these rimes.

HE that at sea and land amidst his foes, By courage guided, sought, and scapt his death, Loe, here, amongst his friends, whom liking chose, And nature lent, hath vp resign'd his breath.

Vnripened fruit in grouth, precious in hope, Rare in effect, had fortune giuen scope.

Our eyes with teares performe thine obsequy, And hearts with sighes, since hands could yeeld none aid, [146]

Our tongues with praise preserue thy memory, And thoughts with griefs, since we behind are staid.

Coswarth farewell, death which vs parts atwaine, E're long, in life, shall vs conioyne againe.

His sister maried Kendall.

Edward his vncle, and heire, by vertue of these entayles, married the daughter of Arundel of Trerice, and from a ciuill Courtiers life in his younger yeers, reposeth his elder age, on the good husbandry of the country, hauing raised posterity sufficient, for transplanting the name into many other quarters. He beareth A. on a Cheuron betweene three wings B. fiue Bezants.