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NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH

The Boundary between Devon and Cornwall on the north: Kilkhampton and its Association with the Grenvilles: Morwenstow and the Rev. R. Hawker: Tonacombe and Kingsley: Stowe: the Battles of Stamford Hill and Lansdowne: Tennyson and Bude: the Neighbouring Churches: a Female Dick Whittington Pp. 21-29

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM WIDEMOUTH BAY TO ST. TEATH

The Great Cliffs: Boscastle and an Ancient Form of Tenure: Otterham and Warbstow Barrows: Trevalga and Bossiney: the Legend of St. Nechtan's Kieve: Tintagel: Arthur: The Castle: The Beach and Barras Head: The Roman Occupation: Quarries: Camelford and its Battle: Arthur's Hall: Lanteglos: Henlistone and the Brewers: The Camel: The Delabole Slate: St. Teath Pp. 33-44

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM PORT ISAAC TO THE VALE OF LANHERNE

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE VALE OF LANHERNE TO HAYLE TOWANS

Hurling and St. Columb Major: Colan: The Gratitude of the Stuarts: Trevalgue: A Good Centre for Crantock, St. Cubert, and Trerice: St. Agnes and the Giant: Portreath: the Bassets: Godrevy: Gwithian: The Pilchards Pp. 67-80

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LELANT TO PENZANCE

Gold in Cornwall: Knill's Monument: The Antiquities of the Extreme West: Cliff Castles: Fogous: Menhirs: Dolmens: Oratories: Superstitions: St. Ives: Wesley: Irving: A Ripe Old Age: The Mines: Sancreed and St. Buryan: Lighthouses: Whitesand Bay: The Land's End: Mousehole and Dolly Pentreath: Newlyn: Penzance Pp. 83-98

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES TO ROSELAND

The Land of Lyonesse: The Scillies: The Law of Wrecks: Mr. Smith: The Admiral's Honour: Ding Dong Mine: St. Michael's Mount: An Old Ceremony: China Clay: Wrecks: Germoe and Breage: Pengersick: Flora Day: The Loe Pool: Serpentine: Gunwalloe and Mullion: The Lizard: Bells: The Helford River: Mawgan: Roseland Pp. 101-118

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM FALMOUTH TO TRURO

The Rise of Pendennis Castle: Sir John Arundel: The Killigrews: Sir Walter Raleigh: The General Post Office and Falmouth: Penryn: The Fal: The Stannary Courts: Old Truro: Foote and Lowry Pp. 121-129

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM ST. MAWES TO LISKEARD

St. Mawes and Gerrans: Tregony and Probus: Cornish Mutton: A Story of Cornish Vengeance: Mevagissey: Antiquarian Finds: The Capital of Clayland: Cock's and Hen's Barrow: Carglaze Mine: Luxulyan: The Civil Wars: Lostwithiel: Lanhydrock House and Restormel Castle: The Fight on St. Winnow's Downs: The Gallants of Fowey: Place: Lanteglos: Polperro: Stories of Talland, Killigarth, and Trelawne: The Giant's Hedge: Boconnoc: Liskeard Pp. 133-153

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LISKEARD TO LAUNCESTON

King Dungarth and King Alfred: Menheniot: St. Keyne: Looe: A Cage for Scolds: Looe Island and the Smugglers: The Armada: Sheviock: The Eddystone: Mount Edgcumbe: The Tamar: Trematon Castle: Markets: Saltash: Moditonham: Paleologus: Pentillie: Cotehele: Hingston Down: Polyfant: Launceston Pp. 157-172

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM LAUNCESTON TO DOZMAR?

The Upper Reaches of the Tamar: Launceston: The Old Highways: St. Clether: Altarnon: Trebartha: The Trethevy Dolmen: The Cheesewring: St. Cleer: St. Neot: Dozmar?: Tregeagle: Lake Dwellings Pp. 175-186

NOOKS AND CORNERS FROM BROWN WILLY TO CAMBORNE

Brown Willy and Row Tor: Michaelstow, St. Tudy and St. Mabyn: St. Breward and Blisland: Holland: Bodmin: Lanivet: Mitchell; Cornish Names: Blackwater and Illogan: Redruth and St. Day: Carn Brea: Camborne: A Word in Farewell Pp. 189-198

HOTELS ACCORDING TO THE ROUTE

Stratton. The Tree Inn. Bude. The Falcon; Grenville. Boscastle. Wellington. Tintagel. Wharncliffe; King Arthur's Castle; Clifton House. Camelford. King's Arms. Wadebridge. Molesworth Arms. Padstow. South-Western; St. Petrock's. Newquay. Atlantic; Victoria; Headland; Great Western. Perranporth. Perranporth; Tywarnhale. Portreath. Portreath Hotel; by Gurnard's Head, the Treryn Hotel. St. Ives. Tregenna Castle; Western; Queen's. Lelant. Lelant Hotel. Land's End. First and Last. Penzance. Queen's; Riviera Palace; Mount's Bay; Western; Railway. Scilly. Holgate's; Tregarthen's . Helston. Angel. Lizard. Housel Bay; Hill's; Caerthillian. Coverack. The Coverack Headland Hotel; St. Keverne; St. Keverne Inn. Falmouth. Falmouth; Green Bank; King's; Royal Albion. Truro. Red Lion; Royal; Union. St. Austell. Luke's White Hart; Queen's Head. Fowey. Fowey. Looe. Commonwood; Looe; Headland House. Saltash. Bray's; Railway; Green Dragon. Launceston. White Hart; King's Arms. Moors. The Jamaica Inn. Bodmin. Royal; Town Arms. Redruth. Tabb's. Camborne. Commercial; Tyack's.

NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE EXTREME NORTH

KILKHAMPTON

The coach-road from Clovelly Dykes to Bude crosses Woolley Downs, but the border on the north is the little stream that runs into Marsland Mouth. The cliff paths with their fine views and the wonderful colour of sea and sky--such colour as elsewhere only the Mediterranean gives us--are the more interesting of the offered ways. Inland lies Kilkhampton, by the Tamar, with its church of St. James, the south doorway of which is one of the richest specimens of late Norman work in the duchy. But, more interesting than the finely carved choir stalls, numerous good bench-ends and doorway, is its connection with the family of Grenville, who, descendants of the Norman dukes, lived in the parish for six hundred years, and built the church. "Never a Grenville lacked loyalty" was the saying, and the sons of the old house at Stowe proved it by confiscated property and lives laid down. From Stowe came old Sir Richard who, with his little "Revenge," fought the fifty-three galleons of Spain.

From there came his grandson, gentle, gallant Sir Beville, who after his last stand against the Parliamentarians on Lansdowne, was brought back to lie in the old church of Kilkhampton; and from there, ruined and exiled for the sake of the last worthless Stuart, went out Sir Beville's younger son.

The Earls of Bath, descendants of the Grenvilles, are buried in a vault below the south aisle, but two hundred and fifty years have passed and the name--it is a Marquisate now--is Thynne , nor is the head of the family a Beville. The servant who brought back his master's body sleeps at Stratton. A huge man this Anthony Payne, seven foot two in his stockings! When he lay dead in the Tree Inn so large a coffin was required that it could not be got into the house. He and Sir Beville may be dead and buried, but their lives have been woven into the talk of the countryside, and the traveller has only to ask a discreet question or so and he will hear of the great deeds of old.

MORWENSTOW

The main interest of this part of the country--the extreme north--is centred in the tiny hamlet of Morwenstow with its thatched inn and its association with the Rev. Robert Hawker. He was no stranger when he came, for his father had been vicar of Stratton and lay buried there. For long the son, fearing the sadness of old associations, refused to preach in the sister parish, and when at last his reluctance was overcome and he stood in his father's pulpit it was only to hesitate and break down. He explained with faltering voice, "I stand amid the dust of those near and dear to me."

Morwenstow is reached from Marsland Mouth by the Henna Cliff , from which is obtained a magnificent view of that wild coast, Dizzard, Cambeak, Tintagel, and Pentire, rising one beyond the other in shades of blue deepening to purple. The Norman doorway of the church, which like that of Marhamchurch is dedicated to St. Morwenna, is crowned with zigzag and chevron mouldings which are surmounted by a range of grotesque sea-faces--mermaid, dolphin, whale, and so forth. Mr. Hawker tells how the old piscina was found and reinstated. "The chancel wall one day sounded hollow when struck; the mortar was removed, and underneath there appeared an arched aperture which had been filled up with jumbled carved work and a crushed drain. It was cleared out and so rebuilt as to occupy the exact site of its former existence. It is of the earliest type of Saxon architecture, and for all we know may be the oldest piscina in the land."

The church roof is of wood, and shingles of rended oak occupy the place of the usual tiles. "Outside the screen and at the top of the nave is the grave of a priest. It is identified by the reversed position of the carved cross on the stone, which also indicates the self-same attitude in the corpse. The head is laid down toward the east while, in all secular interments, the head is turned towards the west."

On a spot where he had seen the lambs sheltering from wind and weather, Mr. Hawker built the vicarage. With one of his personality as architect, it was impossible it should quite resemble any other manse; therefore it is not surprising to find that in the chimney-stacks he has reproduced the forms of certain church towers that he admired, while inset over the doorway is the distich:

TONACOMBE AND STOWE

Not far from Morwenstow lie--or rather did lie, for though Tonacombe still preserves its original design, Stowe, near Coombe Valley, the home of the Grenvilles, was unfortunately destroyed in 1715--two old manor-houses. The former, which was built in the fifteenth century, has a fine stone-floored hall with timbered roof, old open fireplace, and minstrel's gallery. Some of the rooms, which have lattice windows, are panelled, and Charles Kingsley stayed in this "in some respects the most remarkable mediaeval house in the west of England," while he was writing "Westward Ho."

THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD HILL

To Stratton, a little south of Stowe, came in 1643 the Parliamentarian General, Lord Stamford. The cavaliers, not then very prosperous, but gallant gentlemen all, were lying at Launceston, and the Roundhead made the mistake of underestimating their strength. Sir Ralph Hopton and Sir Beville Grenville marched the twenty miles from the capital town without more food than a few biscuits. Intent on intercepting and driving out the intruder, they found when they reached Stratton late in the evening that he had entrenched himself strongly on a neighbouring hill. As he had the advantage in numbers, having about twice as many men and must know that they were tired, hungry, and in poor condition, the Royalists stood to their arms through the short May night in momentary expectation of an attack. Their leaders were at one of the Poughill cottages--they bear date 1620 and are still to be seen--and Sir Beville, while he waited anxiously, must have wondered how it had gone with wife and children, over above in the moated and stockaded house of Stowe.

Lord Stamford, however, did not take advantage of his enemy's weariness. No doubt he thought it would be more convenient, as the country was unknown to him, to scatter the little force by daylight. At any rate he sat still on the top of the hill and did nothing. In the grey dawn, therefore, the Royalists, the fiercer for their hunger and sleeplessness, decided not to wait any longer. Since he would not come down they must go up. Dashingly they attacked his entrenchment, doggedly they continued the fight. After nine hours of it, word was passed round that their scanty store of ammunition had come to an end. But they were nothing daunted. Grimly and in a strange silence they made the last assault; and this time were successful, the leaders of the four narrow columns meeting at the top of the hill. As they did so, Lord Stamford, who had looked on from a safe distance, set spurs to his horse, and fled headlong. Cornwall was won for King Charles, and from the battlefield Francis Basset of Tehidy could write to his wife "Dearest soule, ring out the bells, raise bonfires, publish these joyful tidings."

A year or two later, however, Stratton told a different tale. Cornwall might in the main be Royalist, but all England was for a change in the government; and presently Lord Essex, driving Sir Richard Grenville--a brother of Sir Beville--before him, crossed the Tamar and stormed the house at Stowe. It was the beginning of evil days. In 1646 Hopton, the Royalist General, retired to Stratton with a broken, dispirited and, alas! disorderly army, and from thence Sir Thomas Fairfax drove him back across the pass at Wadebridge which Cromwell--it is the only mention of him in Cornish annals--was sent to secure.

THE BATTLE OF LANSDOWNE HILL

But by then Sir Beville was dead. After the--surely the name is ironical--battle of Stamford Hill, he and his victorious troops had marched to the King's aid. At the battle of Lansdowne, on the heights above Bath, Sir Beville, sorely wounded, was struck out of his saddle by a pole-axe. The pikemen he was leading fell into confusion, and in an instant the Parliamentarians were among them, hewing them down. Then did Anthony Payne, Sir Beville's giant retainer, come to the rescue. Catching his master's riderless horse, he set on it young John, a stripling of sixteen, Sir Beville's eldest son; and led him to the head of the wavering pikemen. The appeal was irresistible. The Cornish followed their beloved leader's son like men possessed; and so, while Sir Beville lay dying on the hillside, his regiment, led by his faithful servant and his young son, swept all before them.

One is glad to remember that at the Restoration when the family's confiscated estates were restored to them, young John, in memory of his own deeds and those of his greater father, was created Earl of Bath.

TENNYSON AT BUDE

Bude with its wide sands and unsafe harbour is without historical associations, but it can be used, having hotels, as a centre from which to visit the more interesting towns and hamlets of the neighbourhood. Tennyson, when he had it in mind to write his Arthurian Idylls, came here--no doubt for local colour, though being a Victorian what he said was, "That he must go to Bude and be alone with God!" During his visit he rode out to Morwenstow to call on Mr. Hawker, and the less-known bard has left an interesting account of their interview.

"I found my guest ... a tall, swarthy, Spanish-looking man with an eye like a sword. He sate down, and we conversed. I at once found myself with no common mind.... Before he left the room, he said: 'Do you know my name?'

"I said: 'No, I have not even a guess.'

"'Do you wish to know it?'

"'I don't much care--that which we call a rose, &c.'

"So we grasped hands, and the Shepherd's heart was glad."

CHURCHES OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

With regard to certain old churches, St. Olaf's, at Poughill, has two rather crudely restored mural paintings and, set heavily in the south door, what is reputed to be one of the few genuine sanctuary rings still in existence. The church at Marhamchurch also shows the remains of frescoes, while Stratton has a fine stoup, and in the north wall of the chancel an Easter sepulchre, probably the only one in the county. That of Swithin--dear apple saint--at Launcells, has a circular font reputed to date from Saxon times, and the fifteenth century bench-ends, though rudely carved, show a play of symbolic fancy, unusual in Cornwall. On one you see the visit of Mary when she mistook the gardener for Christ, Mary being represented by a spice-box, the gardener by a spade! On another the Harrowing of Hell is represented by the jaws of a dragon, and so with the various subjects. An empty grave and cross triumphant tells the story of the resurrection, while the supper at Emmaus, though faithfully suggested, is given without the introduction of a single human figure. It is all symbolism--riddles which are interesting to guess, but not always easy.

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