Cornwall.] Scilly Islands

[CORNWALL.] SCILLY ISLANDS. 860 [POST OFFICE diocese. The church of San Creed has chancel, nave, aisles, Scobell, esqrs., are lords of the manor and chief landowners. transept, porch, square embattled tower with 3 bells, and The soil is killas. The chief crops are wheat, barley and contains se,·eral mural monuments. The register dates potatoes. The area is 4,471 acres; gross estimated rental, from the year 1566. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £5,636; rateable value, £5.190; the population in 1871 was £352, with residence and 135 acres of glebe, in the gift 1,182. of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, and held by the Rev. Parish Clerk, John To man. John Martyn Collyns, M.A., of Exeter College, Oxford. There is a school for boys and girls, and a Sunday school Letters through Penzance, which is the nearest money is held in the school room. There are chapels for W esleyans order and telegraph office and Bible Christians. Edward Bolitho and John Usticke School, John Squires, master PRIVATE RESIDENTS. Daniel John, farmer, Bosvenning Newton Matthew, farmer Bosence U ter Ellis Thomas, farmer, Boswens Nicholls Cyprian, farmer, Rosevean Bray Samuel, Great Sellan George A braham, miller Oats James, farmer, Brane Collyns Rev.Johnl\Iartyn,M.A.Vicarage Harvey Thomas, farmer Oats William, beer retailer, Newbridge H arvey Richard Hocking Richard, farmer, Little Sellan Olds James, farmer, Trannack Pascoe Humphrey, Tregonhoe Hocking Simon, farmer, Botrea Pearse John, farmer, Tregonebris Hollow Thomas, farmer, Boswens Peng'illy Philip, farmer, Treg-arrest COMMERCIAL. Jilbert Jeremiah, farmer Quick James, farmer, Tregonebris Bennetts Elizabeth (Miss), grocer & Ladner John, carpenter Richards l\Iary (:Mrs.), limner, Higher draper, Newbridge Maddern Elizabeth (Mrs.), shopkeeper Driff Bennetts Thomas, Newbridge inn Matthews William, farmer Rowe William, farmer, Trevean Boase Thomas, farmer, Brane Mitchell Matthew, Bird in Hand, Tippett Thomas Henry, farmer, Brane Cargeeg Matthew, farmer, Bosence & farmer Tom an .T ohn, farmer Clements Charles, smith & farrier N ankervis Henry, farmer, Begowans WarrenThomas, farmr. LowerBodennar THE ISLANDS OF SCILLY. THE ISLANDS OF SCILLY, about 40 in number, are chant, Dr. Tristram, Augustus Pechell, esq., and Cole situate 40 miles due west from the Lizard Point, and 30 Pendarves, esq.; the beneficiary interest in u,e estate will west-by-south from the Land's End, in lat. 50 N. Ion~. be chiefly in favour of Mr. Smith's nephew, Lieut. Thomas 6 W., and are reached by a sailing packet from Penzance Algernon Smith-Dorien, ofthe lOth Hussars. three times in summer and twice in winter. The situation The inhabitants were, in former times, clliefly small is wild, and the rocky scenery is beautifully grand. The farmers, fishermen, sailors and pilots, but, about forty years islands are in the hundred of Penwith, Penzance union and ago, a c9nsiderable shipbuilding trade sprung up, which is county court district, Cornwall arch deaconry, and diocese still carried on to some extent: tbe introduction of iron of Exeter. The following are the principal islands, and their shipbuilding has, however, seriously interfered with this acreage:- trade. The greatest tonnage registered here was in 1866, St. Mary's. o o o o ••••••••••• about 1,640 acres when it was 7,498 tons: but very few of the inhabitants Tresco . • . 800 .. are now engaged in fishing. After the potato famine in St. Agnes.,. 650 .. 1847, the attention of the farmers was directed to the grow St. Martin . 500 .. ing of early potatoes for the London and other markets, and Bry l1er . • . • . • . • • • • • . • . • • • • • . • . • 300 ... the exceptional mildness of the climate enables them to Sampson . • . • . 80 .. supply the earliest English grown potatoes; consequently, St. Helen's . • . • . 40 .. the whole of the farmers on these islands now look to this Annette . • • • . • • . 40 .. crop for their principal support, the average export being Tean.......................... 35 . ~ from 9,000 to 10,000 baskets of about 112lbs. each; some Great Gannilly •••••..•.•• o. • • • 35 .. asparagus and other early vegetables and flowers are also Arthur. • . 30 .. grown for the London market. Large quantities oflobsters Great and Little Ganniornick.... 10 •• are caught and sent to London. N ortb Withia1 . • • . • • • . • • • 8 •. Tbe isles are eomposed wholly of granite, consisting of a Gweal . 8 .. coarse-grained mixture of felspar, quartz, and mica, occa Little Gannilly • • . • . • • • . • . • • . • 5 .. sionally stained by iron; and in some places may be found The total acreage of the whole of these islands is about schorl, chlorite, and hornblende. Their latitude is 49.55 N., 4,180. and being situated so near Rimmel's current (an offshoot These islands are supposed to have been first known to from that mass of warm sea-water, the Gulf stream) they the Greeks by the name of the Hesperides, and to the Phreni naturally have a ,·ery mild and salubrious climate. The cianl'l as the Cassiterides, or tin islands, and were called by the temperature i" singularly equable, the winter readings of Romans, Silurre Jnsulre. In 1649, ~irJohn Grenville, the Fahrenheit's thermometer giving a mean of 46 degrees, and royalist, in his endeavours to restore Charles II ., fortified in summer a mean of 58~ degrees. Snow seldom falls, and these islands, and converted them into a fort and refuge for ice is veryrarelyseen. The average rainfall is 31 inches, and privateers, and completely commanded the adjacent seas, to the subsoil being entirely granitic, moisture never remains the serious injury of the Channel trade; at last Parliament long on the surface, but, rapidly percolating, leaves the roads fitted out and dispatched an expedition under Admiral dry and elastic; there is mostly a pleasantly cool breeze Blake and Sir George Ayscue, and in 1651 compelled Sir from the sea in the summer months, and during the winter, John Grenville to surrender. when the winds are more boisterous, they have a soothing The isles of Scilly were in 936 granted by Athelstan to effect from their comparatively high atmospheric tempera some monks who settled at Tresco, but were subsequently ture, making this locality an admirable residence for the in part granted to the Abbey of Tavistock, on its endow invalid. ment. In the reign of Edward I. the remainder of these The IsLA~D OF ST. l\IARY's is the largest, being 9 islands were held of the king, al. a rent of 300 puffins miles in circumference. H UGH TowN is the capital, and is annually, and in the reign of Henry VI. they were held chiefly built upon a sandy isthmus which connects the H ugh at a rental of only 50 puffins, or 6s. Sd. During the (or as it is now called the Garrison), with the other and reign of Queen Elizabeth they were evidently divided larger portion of the island. At the east eud of the town amongst numerous proprietors, from whom they were is the church of St. l\lary: it was commenced by King purchased by the Crown, and from that time to 1830 William IV., in 1835, and completed by Au~?:ustus 8mith, they were rented by the Godolphin family. At present esq., in 1837: it is in the Pointed style: the iuterior is all the islands are included in the Duchy of Cornwall. neat and commodious, having a chancel, nave, and west ln 183G they were granted, under a lease of about 60 gallery; the tower, which is low, contains 1 bell and a years, to the late Augustus John Smith, esq., on easy clock. The register dates from the year 172G, and is the term,;, 1\Ir. Smith undertaking to complete the pier and new only register for the whole of the islands. The clerj:!yman church of St. 1\Iary's., then in course of construction. He is appointed and paid by lhe trmtees of the late A. ~mitb, died in 1872, having held the lord proprietorship for 38 esq. The value ot the living is £150 yearly, Witb residence, •years. For the remainder of Mr. Smith's tenure of about and is held by the Rev. James Henry \\' hite, theological 2:3 ~·ears, the government of the islands is vested by his will student of St. Aidan's. A portion of the old church at Old in five trustees; namely, Col. Smith-Dorien, Col. Le Mar- Town, half a mile distant, is still standing_, but is only used .

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