48 Cornish proverbs have lived on after the extinction of Cornish, and even as translated into English they naturally continue to exercise their own peculiar spell on the minds of men and children. Such proverbs are:—

"It is better to keep than to beg."

"Do good; for thyself thou dost it."

"Speak little, speak well, and well will be spoken again."

"There is no down without eye, no hedge without ears."

49 A critical edition, with some excellent notes, was published by Mr. Whitley Stokes under the title of The Passion. MSS. of it exist at the British Museum and at the Bodleian. One of the Bodleian MSS. (Gough, Cornwall, 3) contains an English translation by Keigwyn, made in 1682.

50 In the MS. in the British Museum, the translation is said by Mr. Norris to be dated 1693 (vol. ii. p. 440). It was published in 1827 by Davies Gilbert; and a critical edition was prepared by Mr. Whitley Stokes, and published with an English translation in 1862. Mr. Stokes leaves it doubtful whether William Jordan was the author, or merely the copyist, and thinks the text may belong to an earlier date, though it is decidedly more modern than the other specimens of Cornish which we possess in the dramas, and in the poem of The Passion.

51 Guare, in Cornish, means a play, a game; the Welsh gware.

52 According to Lhuyd, guirimir would be a corruption of guarimirkle, i.e. a miracle-play. Norris, vol ii. p. 455.

53 In some lines written in 1693, on the origin of the Oxford Terrae filius, we read:—

"These undergraduates' oracles Deduced from Cornwall's guary miracles,— From immemorial custom there They raise a turfy theatre! When from a passage underground, By frequent crowds encompassed round, Out leaps some little Mephistopheles, Who e'en of all the mob the offal is," etc.

54 The following extract from a Cornish paper gives some curious words still current among the people:—

"A few weeks since a correspondent in the Cornish Telegraph remarked a few familiar expressions which we West country folks are accustomed to use in so vague a sense that strangers are often rather puzzled to know precisely what we mean. He might also have added to the list many old Cornish words, still in common use, as skaw for the elder-tree; skaw-dower, water-elder; skaw-coo, nightshade; bannel, broom; skedgewith, privet; griglans, heath; padzypaw (from padzar, four?), the small gray lizard; muryan, the ant; quilkan, the frog (which retains its English name when in the water); pul-cronach (literally pool-toad) is the name given to a small fish with a head much like that of a toad, which is often found in the pools (pulans) left by the receding tide among the rocks along shore; visnan, the sand-lance; bul-horn, the shell-snail; dumble-dory, the black-beetle (but this may be a corruption of the dor-beetle). A small, solid wheel has still the old name of drucshar. Finely pulverized soil is called grute. The roots and other light matter harrowed up on the surface of the ground for burning we call tabs. The harvest-home and harvest-feast, guildize. Plum means soft; quail, withered; crum, crooked; bruyans, crumbs; with a few other terms more rarely used.

"Many of our ordinary expressions (often mistaken for vulgar provincialisms) are French words slightly modified, which were probably introduced into the West by the old Norman families who long resided there. For instance: a large apron to come quite round, worn for the sake of keeping the under-clothing clean, is called a touser (tout-serre); a game of running romps, is a courant (from courir). Very rough play is a regular cow's courant. Going into a neighbor's for a spell of friendly chat is going to cursey (causer) a bit. The loins are called the cheens (old French, echine). The plant sweet-leaf, a kind of St. John's wort, here called tutsen, is the French tout-saine (heal all). There are some others which, however, are not peculiar to the West; as kickshaws (quelque chose), etc. We have also many inverted words, as swap for wasp, cruds for curds, etc. Then again we call a fly a flea; and a flea a flay; and the smallest stream of water a river."—W. B.

55 Quoted in Petrie, Eccles. Architecture of Ireland, p. 107.

56 Borlase, Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 162.

57 Strabo, iv. 197: τοὺς δ᾽ οἴκους ἐκ σανίδων καὶ γέῥῤων ἔχουσι μεγάλους θολοειδεῖς, ὄροφον πολὺν ἐπιβάλλοντες.

58 Cf. Photius, Bibliotheca, ed. Bekker, p. 148, 1. 32: περὶ τῆς παρὰ τὸν ὠκεανὸν Γιγωνίας πέτρας, καὶ ὅτι μόνῳ ἀσφοδειλῷ κινεῖται, πρὸς πᾶσαν βίαν ἀμετακίνητος οὖσὰ.

59 The following extract from a Cornish newspaper, July 15, 1869, shows the necessity of imperial legislation on this subject to prevent irreparable mischief:—

"The ruthless destruction of the Tolmen, in the parish of Constantine, which has been so much deplored, has had the effect, we are glad to say, of drawing attention to the necessity of taking measures for the preservation of the remaining antiquities and objects of curiosity and interest in the county. In a recent number of the West Briton we called attention to the threatened overthrow of another of our far-famed objects of great interest,—the Cheesewring, near Liskeard; and we are now glad to hear that the committee of the Royal Institution of Cornwall have requested three gentlemen who take great interest in the preservation of antiquities—Mr. William Jory Henwood, F. G. S., etc., Mr. N. Hare, Jr., of Liskeard, and Mr. Whitley, one of the secretaries of the Royal Institution—to visit Liskeard for the purpose of conferring with the agents of the lessors of the Cheesewring granite quarries—the Duchy of Cornwall—and with the lessees of the works, Messrs. Freeman, of Penryn, who are themselves greatly anxious that measures should be taken for the preservation of that most remarkable pile of rocks known as the Cheesewring. We have no doubt that the measures to be adopted will prove successful; and with regard to any other antiquities or natural curiosities in the county, we shall be glad to hear from correspondents, at any time, if they are placed in peril of destruction, in order that a public announcement of the fact may become the means of preserving them."

60 See p. 245.

61 See Isaac Taylor's Words and Places, p. 212. The Ock joins the Thames near Abingdon.

62 See the learned essay of M. Rossignol, "De l'Orichalque: Histoire du Cuivre et de ses Alliages," in his work, Les Metaux dans l'Antiquite. Paris. 1863.

63 There is another Penny come quick near Falmouth.

64 Isaac Taylor, Words and Places, p. 402.

65 It has been objected that Marchadyon could not be called the original form, because by a carta Alani comitis Britanniae, sealed, according to Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, by Alan, anno incarnationis domini MCXL., ten shillings per annum were granted to the monks of St. Michael, due from a fair held at Merdresem or Merdresein. Until, however, it has been proved that Merdresem is the same place and the same name as Marchadyon, or that the latter sprang from the former, Marchadyon in the charter of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, 1257, may for our immediate purpose be treated as the root from which all the other names branched off. See Oliver, Monasticon Exon. p. 32.

66 If a market was held on the "dimidia terrae hida" granted by Robert to the monks, this difficulty would disappear.

67 In the Additional Supplement (p. 4), Dr. Oliver gives the more correct reading, "de Markesiou, de parvo Mercato, Brevannek, Penmedel, Trewarbene." It depends on the comma after Markesiou whether parvus Mercatus is a separate place or not.

68 Dr. Bannister remarks that Markesion occurs as early as 1261, in the taxation of Bishop Walter Bronescombe, as quoted in Bishop Stapledon's register of 1313. If that be so, the original form and its dialectic varieties would have existed almost contemporaneously, but the evidence that Markesion was used by Bishop Bronescombe is indirect. See Oliver, Monast. Exon. p. 28.

69 On the termination of the plural in Cornish, see Mr. Whitley Stokes's excellent remarks in his edition of The Passion, p. 79; also in Kuhn's Beitraege, iii. 151; and Norris, Cornish Drama, vol. ii. p. 229. My attention has since been called to the fact that marhas occurs in the plural as marhasow, in the Cornish Drama, vol. i. p. 248; and as sunder such circumstances may become j (cf. canhasawe, Creat. line 29, but canhajowe, Creat. line 67), Marhajow would come still nearer to Market Jew. Dr. Bannister remarks that in Armorican, market is marchad, plural marchadou, corrupted into marchajou.

70 The following note from a Cornish paper gives some important facts as to the date of the name of Market Jew:—

"Among the State Papers at the Record Office, there is a letter from Ralph Conway to Secretary Cope, dated 3d October, 1634, which mentions the name of Market-jew.

"In another, dated 7th February, 1634-5, Sir James Bagg informs the Lords of the Admiralty that the endeavors of Mr. Basset, and other gentlemen in the west of Cornwall, to save the cargo of a wrecked Spanish galleon which broke from her moorings in Gwavas Lake, near Penzance, were opposed by a riotous multitude, consisting of the inhabitants of Mousehole and Marka-jew, who maintained their unlawful proceedings with the cry of 'One and All!' threatening with death the servants of the Crown, and compelling them to avoid their fury by leaping down a high cliff.

"In another of the same date, from Ralph Bird, of Saltram, to Francis Basset, the rebels of Mousehole, with their fellow-rebels of Market Jew, are spoken of, as having menaced the life of any officer who should come to their houses to search for certain hides that mysteriously disappeared from the deck of the galleon one boisterous night, and were probably transferred to Mousehole in the cock-boat of Mr. Keigwin, of that place; and various methods are suggested for administering punishment to the outrageous barbarians.

"In consequence of these complaints, the Lords of the Admiralty wrote to Sir Henry Marten, on the 12th of February of the same year, concerning 'the insolency' committed by the inhabitants of Mousehole and Markaiew requesting that the offenders may be punished, and, if necessary, the most notorious of them sent to London for trial.

"In Magna Britannia et Hibernia, 1720, p. 308, Merkju is mentioned as being 'a little market-town which takes its name from the market on Thursdays, it being a contraction of Market-Jupiter, i.e. as 'tis now called Market Jew, or rather Ju.'

"Norden, who was born about 1548, says in his Specul. Britanniae, which was published in 1728, that Marca-iewe (Marca-iew in margin) signifies in English, 'market on the Thursday.' In an old map, apparently drawn by hand, which appears to have been inserted in this book after it was published, Market Iew is given, and in the map issued with the book Market Jew.

"The map of Cornwall, contained in Camden's Britannia, by Gibson, 1772, gives Market-Jew. The edition 1789, by Gough, states at page 3, that 'Merkiu signifies the Market of Jupiter, from the market being held on a Thursday, the day sacred to Jupiter.'

"Carew's Survey of Cornwall, ed. 1769, p. 156, has the following:—'Over against the Mount fronteth a towne of petty fortune, pertinently named Marcaiew, or Marhas diow, in English "the Thursdaies market." ' In the edition published in 1811, p. 378, it is stated in a foot-note that Marazion means 'market on the Strand,' the name being well adapted to its situation, 'for Zion answers to the Latin litus.' "

71 H. B. C. Brandes, Kelten und Germanen, p. 52.

72 Capgrave, Legenda Angliae, fol. 269.

73 "Within the land of Meneke or Menegland, is a paroch chirche of S. Keveryn, otherwise Piranus."—Leland. "Piran and Keveryn were different persons." See Gough's edition of Camden, vol. i. p. 14.

74 Carew, Survey (ed. 1602), p. 58. "From which civility, in the fruitful age of Canonization, they stepped a degree farder to holines, and helped to stuffe the Church Kalender with divers saints, either made or borne Cornish. Such was Keby, son to Solomon, prince of Cor.; such Peran, who (if my author the Legend lye not) after that (like another Johannes de temporibus) he had lived two hundred yeres with perfect health, took his last rest in a Cornish parish, which there-through he endowed with his name."

75 Hunt's Popular Romances, vol. ii. p. 19.

76 Saxon Chronicle, ed. Earle, p. 14, and his note, Preface, p. ix.

77 This how, according to Professor Earle, appears again in the Hoe, a high down at Plymouth, near the citadel; in Hooton (Cheshire), in How-gate, Howe of Fife, and other local names. See also Halliwell, s. v. Hoes, and Hogh; Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus, Nos. 563, 663, 784.

78 Hunt, vol. i. p. 187.

79 Matthew Paris, Opera, ed. Wats, p. 902.

80 See Reymeri Foedera, A. D. 1255, tom. i. p. 543.

81 See Adam Bremensis' De Situ Daniae ed. Lindenbruch, p. 136; Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. i. p. 275.

82 Carew, Surrey (ed. 1602), p. 8: "and perhaps under one of those Flavians, the Jewish workmen made here their first arrival."

83 Gibbon, chap. i. "The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a more confined, by Ammianus and Procopius in a larger sense, has been derived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely from the village of Saraka, more plausibly from the Arabic words, which signify a thievish character, or Oriental situation. Yet the last and most popular of these etymologies is refuted by Ptolemy, who expressly remarks the western and southern position of the Saracens, then an obscure tribe on the borders of Egypt. The appellation cannot therefore allude to any national character; and, since it was imported by strangers, it must be found, not in the Arabic, but in a foreign language."

84 See R. Williams, Lexicon Cornu. Britannicum, s. v.

85 "It may be given as a rule, without exception, that words ending with t or d in Welsh or Briton, do, if they exist in Cornish, turn t or d to s."—Norris, vol. ii. p. 237.

86 "The frequent use of th instead of s shows that (in Cornish) the sound was not so definite as in English."—Norris, vol. ii. p. 224.

Another explanation of Attal Sarazin has been suggested by an eminent Cornish scholar: "I should explain sarazin," he writes, "as from saratin, a Med. Lat. saritinus, cf. ex-saritum, ex-saritare in Diez, E. W. ii. 283, s. v. Essart. Atal cannot be W. adhail. I would identify it with the Fr. attelle, splint. It occurs in O. 427, meaning 'fallow.' Atal sarazin I should explain as 'dug-up splinters or shingle,' and towle (toll) sarazin as a 'dug-up hole or excavation.' "

87 See p. 311, l. 30.

88 "History of the Exchequer," London, 1711, p. 168: "Et quod nullus Judaeus receptetur in aliqua Villa sine speciali licentia Regis, nisi in Villis illis in quibus Judaei manere consueverunt" (37 Henry III).

89 Read before the Ashmolean Society, Oxford, November 25, 1867.

90 In Gough's edition of Camden the name is given "Careg cowse in clowse, i.e. the heavy rock in the wood."

91 Baronii Annales, anno 493.

92 Baronii Annales, anno 709.

93 I have added church, for Mr. Munro, who kindly collated this passage for me, informs me that the C. C. C. MS. gives distinctly aedem where the editor has left a lacuna.

94 Thomas Crammer sends a dispensation, in 1537, to the Rev. John Arscott, archpresbyter of the ecclesia St. Michaelis in Monte Tumba Exoniensis diocesis. (Monasticon Dioc. Exon. p. 30.) Dr. Oliver remarks, "It may be worth while to observe, that when St. Michael 'in procella,' or 'in periculo maris,' is named in the old records, the foreign house is meant. But St. Michael 'in Tumba,' or 'Monte Tumba,' is a name occasionally applied to both houses." It would have been interesting to determine the exact date when this latter name is for the first time applied to the Cornish Mount.

95 Passion, ed. W. S. p. 95. Coth, Bret. koz=O. Celtic cottos (Atecotti "perantiqui").

96 It was suggested to me that the opacissima sylva may even have a more distant origin. There seems as little evidence of a dense forest having surrounded Mont St. Michel in Normandy as there was in the case of St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall. Now as the first apparition of St. Michael is supposed to have taken place in Mount Garganus, i.e. Monte Gargano or Monte di S. Angelo, in Apulia, may not "the dense forest" have wandered with the archangel from the "querceta Gargani" (Hor. Od. ii. 9, 7) to Normandy, and thence to Cornwall?

97 A Memoir of Baron Bunsen, by his widow, Baroness Bunsen. 2 vols. 8vo. Longmans, 1868.

Christian Carl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen. Aus seinen Briefen und nach eigener Erinnerung geschildert, von seiner Wittwe. Deutsche Ausgabe, durch neue Mittheilungen vermehrt von Friedrich Nippold. Leipzig, 1868.

98 Translated by G. A. M.

99 No date, but about December, 1849.

THE END