Supplement Roger Collicott Catalogue 99
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SUPPLEMENT ROGER COLLICOTT CATALOGUE 99 UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN CORNWALL ( 1828 ) The highlight of this 1828 tour is the author’s visit to the Botallack mine, a hazardous and exciting – not to say, terrifying – subterranean excursion. His extensive journey over Cornwall from Land’s End to the border of Devon is sufficiently indicated by the summary of the contents list included here. As a lover of the picturesque he expatiates over many famous Cornish houses, ruins and gardens, and the ladies of Cornwall ! He gets into conversation with locals and is full of opinions. Something of the flavour of the narrative is provided by a number of selected extracts. All in all, a lively and entertaining account of Cornwall and the Cornish nearly 200 years ago. The journal is also enlivened by many contemporary engraved plates laid-in, and a few fascinating hand-drawn or coloured illustrations, including a rare depiction of miners working underground by candle light. CONTENTS i – ii Cap 1 Visit to Botallack Mine 1 – 34 Cap 2 Mines and the Art of Mining 35 – 54 Cap 3 The Art of Mining & .... extracting & preparing Ores as at present practised 57 – 76 Cap 4 Excursion ... from Botallack Mine to the Land’s End, the Loggan Rock and back to Penzance ( includes remarks on the Scillies, arrival at Sennen, walk to Land’s End with descriptive view of the Longships Lighthouse, First and Last Inn at Sennen, St Buryan’s ) 77 -98 Cap 5 Penzance and environs, Spanish invasion, Sir H. Davy, the fishermen of Penzance, Royal Geological Society of Penzance, Falmouth, view of St Ives, pilchard fishery in St Ives bay 99 – 122 Cap 6 Falmouth and environs 123 – 147 Cap 7 From Plymouth through Devonport and environs 148 – 162 Cap 8 Up the Tamar, Cotehele House, Weir Head, Saltash, Meditonham [?] Creek, Landulph, Pentillie Castle, Chapel on the Rock, Calstock, comparison between Tamar and Dart, return to London 163 – 189. THE AUTHOR The author of this journal was born in the reign of George 111, probably about 1800. He was an educated man with classical attainments, but his scientific knowledge appears limited. He shows a considerable interest in the picturesque. He appears to have been named T. Reseigh, his surname suggesting a Cornish background, for the unusual name is commonly found in West Cornwall. He lived in London, had good social connections and some wealth, travelling extensively in 1826 and again in 1828, and abroad to Trieste and its neighbourhood in 1847. He wrote up his travels in at least three journals, of which series this is the second. He was certainly still making small footnote additions well into the 1850s. 189 pages in a neat clear legible hand on Whatman watermarked paper, supplemented with many engraved plates. Oblong folio. Half calf, marbled boards. The significance of this unpublished description of Botallack mine cannot be overstated. PRICE £5500 BOTALLACK MINE The Botallack is a mine, or rather a group of mines in west Cornwall; it is in the former tin mining area situated between the town of St Just in Penwith and the village of Pendeen. It consists of the mines Wheal Cock, Crowns, and Carnyorth, as well as Parknoweth. Crowns Mine tin mine is situated low down the cliffs north of Botallack. There are two engine houses, and the mine extends for about 400 metres out under the Atlantic Ocean; the deepest shaft is 250 fathoms below sea level. There are two arsenic works opposite the Botallack Count House. At the top of the cliffs there are the remains of one of the mine’s arsenic refining works. In about 1815 a shaft was sunk from the Crowns Rocks and a pumping engine installed to de-water this section of the mine. The miners continued to work the shallow deposits for tin and copper until the late 1820's. Ore reserves were becoming harder to locate within the sett's land boundaries. The mine struggled to survive with the low price of tin and was offered up for sale in 1835. One year later it was purchased by Steven Harvey James; however the future continued to look bleak as the new owner struggled to find new ore deposits. In 1842 a rich copper lode was discovered and the fortunes of the mine began to look up again, as the mine began to expand its workings. Production was at its highest through the 1860’s, but in 1875 tin prices fell dramatically – due mainly to the discovery of alluvial tin in Australia. Like many mines in Cornwall, Botallack struggled to survive as tin price continued to be depressed. A series of floods in the 1890s finally put paid to any future for Botallack Mine. Although a new lease was granted in about 1906, work finally ceased in 1914. The whole area is now under the protection of the National Trust. BOTALLACK MINE UNDERGROUND VISIT ‘ Uncouth but kindly ‘ or life underground 188 years ago Dressed in a blue jacket and white trousers, a Londoner newly lodged in the inn at St Just set out on foot with a companion [Tresider] one Saturday in 1828 to explore the famous mine near Land’s End, Botallack. On arrival at this cliff site, he made a cursory inspection above ground, observing the Crowns Engine, a steam engine that had to be lowered 200 ft when work first began. This was used to extract water out of the mine. There was a separate apparatus for raising the ore named the Steam Whim. But the visitor announced, to much surprise, his real intention : to go down the mine. He was taken into the Count House and met the mining captain, Mr Grenfell. A change of clothes was insisted upon, and he was placed in materials of heavy fabric, though the trousers were too small, and the ancient shoes had his toes poking out. When he arrived at the head of the shaft, he was given a candle and began the hazardous perpendicular descent down a wooden ladder. He found himself groping in almost total darkness, water oozing from the cliff that poured into the shaft, falling on the heads of all in streams and naturally drenching them. The ladders were narrow, slight and slippery, often bending outwards so that one was hanging off them, risking a fall of 40 – 70 ft and certain death. He was soon out of breath but given encouragement by the accompanying miners. And so he arrived at the entrance to the first gallery, sinking up to his knees in muddy water. He was warned to stoop but still managed to bang his head twice. He began to crawl on hands and knees. Sometimes the ladders stopped 4 or 5 ft from ground level, so that he had to crawl ‘ like a sweep boy down a narrow chimney.’ He descended along a series of ladders, crawling and groping through many passages, cross-cuts and galleries till arriving nearly 400 ft down ‘ in the bosom of the solid rock.’ Here total exhaustion leads him to recommend to fellow-explorers that they take a supply of brandy with them. He confesses that, throughout, the miners were as lively and cheerful ‘ as eels in mud.’ They try to help him by placing his feet on the ladder rungs, and, when the ladders come to an end, offering their shoulders and showing him resting-places. He regards them as uncouth but kindly, and says the miners and Cornish lower classes have much improved in recent years. But he cannot understand their instructions couched in an incomprehensible dialect, and begs to be left to make his own way down. Thereafter he becomes quite nimble and wins the miners’ respect. Pointing out the course of the lode or vein and its direction through the rock, they tell him he is now underwater [the sea]. He decides not to go to the very lowest point where he would have water up to his waist. He watches the miners break off pieces from the copper lode which is most abundant deep down. He collects some specimens himself, describing the tools of the miners. The absence of miners at work is explained by its being a Saturday when they finish early : in a gallery no more than 6 work at a time. Excavation is very slow, gunpowder is used and accidents are common. The work is very expensive. He finds ascending harder than the descent. He is shown an air-vent that puts him parallel to the base of the cliffs. Though agile, he is hampered by the tightness of his very short trousers. Bathed in perspiration, and drenched with mud and water, he feels as if dragged through a London sewer (of which he has some experience). His companion cuts his foot on the sharp stones, but he has managed to borrow some nearly new shoes and saves himself. He marvels at the miners’ barefootedness. Near the mouth of the shaft as he comes out he sees women and girls washing the ore and preparing it for sampling. He is struck by their attractiveness, especially their large, dark eyes. The respect that his elegant attire earned him on arrival has turned to laughter when they see him. He arrives at the Count House where Mr Grenfell chooses ore samples for him in a competitive tourist market he does not understand. In return he invites Grenfell to dine with him at his inn. He has been down the mine about three and a half hours, the most violent and exhausting exercise he has ever had. He could not recommend his adventure to anyone, however singular and unexpected he has found it.