And E. W. W. Pendan·C~, Ell'l· 133 ~Otnluall
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. ' TiJ E mos& welterly county in EnJ(land, is almost an ifland, being surrounded on all sides by the ka, except towards the eaas, wbt>re it is bounded by the county of Devon, for the lenf,(th of 43 miles from north to aontb. From tbb boundary tn &he westwRrd, the land continually decreases in breadth, forming itself into a figure resembling a cornucopia; having the Bristol channel on the nol'th, and the l<~nglish chaunel on tbe 110uth; both lleas meeting in a mauuer iu a point, at the promontory called the Land's End, on the 'Nest. Tweotj ruilt.'S may bt~ regarded as its medium breadth, till approachinll' Mount•~> Bay, betWI't"ll which place and St.lvea it is not more than five and a half ntile:t wide; its t'Xtrl:'me lt>n~t his 90 miles, and its circumferenc~ estimated· at ZOO; containit1~ 1,407 square miles, and 900,480 statute acres. Detached as Cornwall is by situation from the west of Euglaud, it waa formerly still furthea· ~eparatedJ by the use of a totally different language, a dialect of the Armorican, aud l'elated to the W~lsh. The n~:~mes of many of the ancient towns, its calltles, rivers, mountain:~, mauors, seat11 and families are derived fmm the Cornish tongue; and most of tbt> technical appel lations in the arts of mining, husbandry and fishing may be tra<"ed to the same 11ourcc; but the language Itself has for two or rhree centuries ceased to he l'Ommon, and is now utterly ex"rpated. SOIL, CLIMATE, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE, &c.-Cornwall, from its soil, appearance and climate, is one of 'be least im·iting of the Engli:~h counties. A ridge of hal't~ rugged ilills, intermixed with bleak moors, runs tbrou~h the midst of its whole length, and in the narrower parts t-Xtends from side to side. 'Fbe low grounds be& we en the hills and the ilea are, in '.lorne pal'ts, rendered :sufficiently ft'rtile by the aid of manure; the chief depl'ndence for which is oo the sea sand, and on werds whkh are collected ou the coast, and-.carried on the backs nf borses. to the places whc.are the dresl'iu~ is wanted: another excellt'nt manure is formed by the mix· tore of lime aud earth with bruised and dama~eetl pilchards, and the refu~e salt used in cu•·ing them. The Mltness of t.he atmosphere, and th~ violenfe uf the winds, will scarcely sutfer tret's, or even hedges, to grow near the shm e; liO that nearly the whole euunty JH'esents a naked and almost desolare appearance. With the many natural di:oadvantages to whieb this county i,; subjected, still the agrieuhtlJ'ist, iu many palts of it, find!l himself well rewarded fur his lahours. The ~rain which succeeds best is barley, of which very large crops are produced on the banks of the Camel, and in its neigh bonrhood; potatoes also yield abundantly in some land~, and seem peculia1·ly calculated foF the cHmate. Good cider is made on the east sid~ of the county; but the dairy is but little atreuded to, and milch cows are princip•tlly kept for rearin~ the young stock. The wood· lands are not numerous ; bnt the fa~.-e of the ('Ounty, in this respt'c:t, ha !I been very g1·eatly improved of late years, as many of the resident ~entlemen have embellished their estates with plantations. The cattle are chiefly· of the Devon11hire breed, as are the sheep, with some of the Leicestershire breed ; the latter ba\·ing been intt·o· duced, some ft>w years back, by the !_H'Iltlemen of the county. Cornwall is indebted ftlr its pepulonsness and re~ative importance, to its mineral treasures, and tht' shoals of fish upon its coast. Of the gl'eat variety of the tinny tribe, none il'l so c:onsiderable an object of commerce as the pilchard, which appears ill immense shoals during tbe summer and autumn ; the fir.st swarm generally anhring at the Laud's Eud in the middle of July. Many boats aud men are t-mployed in the taking the8e fish; and, besides the jlreat l!npply tht'y afford to the miner!! a11d other poor of Cornwall, great quantities are cured aud exported, principally up the Mediterranean. Tbe CLIMATE of this county, though not so ~t'nial as mo11.t others in England, cannot be stated to be onwbole· some. The aiF is mad~ extremely moist hy the surrounding body of water; and tbe high landS.in the centre intercept th~ mists and clouds in theh· passage, so that rains or fogs are almost daily experieneed: a f. the !lame timt>, the winds are continually shiftiug from one point to another; which cit·cumstance, while it incrrea~s tbe mutability of the atmosphere, has a favourable etfect iu preventing those st~tgttations of da»1p air, which are se prejudacial to health m ~ome wet countries. The winters aa·e mild, and the frosts of shot·t duration i the summers are cool, and the autumns tOQ Wt't tQ bring the fruits of the earth to proper maturity. MINEs, MINERALS, &c.-From early antiquity this couuty has been noticed for the tin, whic!h it produce~ and which was an object of commerce to civilized nations, while Britain was a land of barbarians. Tin-mines are di3persed throughout the greatest part of Cornwall; and the quantitJ procnred is greater than in any other part of tht> world, and forms an object of ('Onsiderahle consequence, both iu domestic and foreign commerce. [For the name1 of the mines, and their several proprietors, see the succeeding page.] Some state the number of men c.amploved in the mines at 12,000, others at not abO\·e 9,000; but, including the strtamt>rs, who are a . drstinct body from the miners, the number of men, women and children employed in raisiug the ort-, washing, stamping and carrying it, will probably amount to 16,000. The king's eldest son is born Duke of Cornwall, and derives a revenue, not only from the lands appet·taining to the duchy, but from the mines of tin aud cop· pl'r: he has under him an officer, called lord warden of the staunary court, whose jurisdiction extendll over the mint's and miners of Corttwall and Dt>vonshire. The revenue arisinj{ to the duke from the tin-miut!s a\·e rages about £10,000. annually. Besides tin and copper, there are found ht>re lead, lapis calaminaris, pyrites, bismuth, r:inc, antimony, cobalt, arsenic, wolft·am, menachenite and molybdeua; thet·e is also abundance of iron ore in many parts of the county, but the mines of it have not been much worked, Soap rock, and clays of remarkable pudty, (excellent for potters' use) and fine l'ock c1·ystals, ar·e procured here. The SCILLY IsLANDS are situated in a gt·oup or chtster, about nine li-agues wesl of the Laud's End; having differettt and cbiefiy modern appellations; but deriving tl1eir general name from the small isle of Scilly, which is now only a furlong iu ell.tent. In a clear day the islands may be seen from the Lands's End, appt:aring like a cluster of duffs, Qr fragments ot ruined castles, round which the Atlantic rol111 in a vast curve. RIVERS.-The principal riv~rs are the Tamar, the Lynher, the Fowey, the Camel or Alan, the Fal and the Heyl. There are also many smaller streams, which, affer meaudriug hi devious tracks, are ah~orbed in the larger waters. There are likewise se,·eral pools or lakes o{ some maguitude, as the Looe, the Dozmery, the Swan pool, &c. The Tamar is one of the most considerable rivers in the west of England: its banks are richly diversified with rocks, woods and meadows ; and the sct-nery, in various parts of its course, is ex· tremely intt'restiug and beautiful. Cornwall is in the province of Canterbury and diocese of Exeter, and includt>d in the we11tern eh cuit. lt is divided into nine hundreds, \'iz. EAsT, KERRIER, LESNEWTH, PENRJTH, PowDER, PYDER, STRATTON, TatGG, and WEST. These divisions contain, collectively, one county town (Launcestoo), 27 othea· market t.own!!, and 198 parishes. Cornwall possesses more parliamentary boroughs than auy other county in the kin~dum, and the number of its representatives is also greater. This pre-eminence of representation is nnt very ancient; and appears to have ;.uisen from the large hereditary revenue yielded tty the duchy to the crown, or to its immediate heir, the Prince of Wales. The whole county !!ends forty-two members to par· liament, the following boroughs returning two each :- . BoDMIN, FowEv, NEWPORT, ST. MICIIAEL, BossJNEv, HELSToN, PENRYN, SALTASH, CALLINGT0:-1, LAU~CESTON, ~T. GERMANS, TREGONY, CAMELFORD, LJSKEARD, ~1'. IvEs, TRURO, EAST Loo F., LoST\\' IT fit r;L, ST. MAWES, WEsT Loot'!, a.url tl\o tM the munt~·; the prt>til'llt n·ptT:,cutatin·~ for which arc, Sir Rilhard R..twlin!:!on Vp·ydtt, Ha.a t, and E. W. W. Pendan·c~, Ell'l· 133 ~otnluall. Utgot & ~o.'l -- PoPULATION.-Acc(lrding to the census of 1821, there were houses inhahilc>d in &he coumy, 43,873 ; unin habited, J ,820; and houses buildiug, 535. The number of families then re!!idt'IJt iu the county wal! 51,202; l.'Ontprlsing 124,811 malt:s, aud 132,630 females; ·total, 251,441 ~ and by a calculation made by order of govea·nment, which Included pt•rsouH in the army and IIM'Y, for which wa.~ added after the ratio of about oue &o' thirty Jlrior to the year 1811, and one to fifty for that Jt'Rl' and the census of 1821, to the rt:tu•·ns made frorn the se\·eral di!!tticts; the popnlatinn of the conntv, in ronud uumhers, in the year 1700, waA 105,800-in 1750, 135,000-in 1801, 194.500-in 1811, 223.9oo.:...and in 1821, 262,600.