Flushing, a little over-the-water town opposite Falmouth, shares with the neighbouring St. Gluvias the reputation of being the warmest place in England. It is said to have been founded by Dutchmen, from Flushing in Holland. Near by it is the hamlet curiously known as Little Falmouth; a place with a few waterside houses and remains of a granite-built dock, commanding views down to Falmouth and Pendennis, which looks like an island from here. Little Falmouth, with its decaying dock, forms a picturesque scene of blighted hopes.
The old town of Penryn, at the head of Penryn Creek, is even more dirty than Falmouth, and does not look prosperous. Falmouth, as Penryn surely foresaw, has filched away much of the trade, and although the shipping of granite from the neighbouring quarries of Mabe and Constantine gives employment still, it is not an increasing business. The parish church is quite apart from the town, in the village of St. Gluvias. The saint of that name appears to have been a Welshman. He spelt his name "Glywys," a fearful mouthful for a Saxon to deal with, and apparently not easy even for a Cornishman, seeing that Cornwall has modified the name. Glywys was brother to St. Cadoc, or Cadwg, and I have no doubt called cousins with half a hundred others.
Penryn is closely associated with two Lady Killigrews, who are generally confused almost inextricably with one another. The Killigrew family of Arwenack, where Falmouth town now stands, had striven from about 1602 for a new town and market to be planted there, and thus earned the undying hatred of Penryn; and so it happened that when Sir John Killigrew and his wife quarrelled and fought, he for divorce and she against it, about 1620, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to take refuge in Penryn, and there, encouraged by the bad blood of the place, to protract ruinous litigation with her husband. All the evidence seems to show that she was as bad a character as possible, even though she came of an old landed family, the Fermors, afterwards Barons Lempster and Earls of Pomfret. This Lady Jane Killigrew was at last divorced, but the unhappy Sir John did not long survive his victory, and his unamiable wife thereupon presented to the Corporation of Penryn the tall silver Killigrew Cup still in existence, inscribed: "1633 From Maior to Maior to the towne of Permarin, where they received mee that was in great misery, Jane Killygrew."
The earlier Lady Killigrew was Mary, wife of another Sir John, grandfather of the unhappy man just mentioned. It was in January 1583 that the Spanish ship Maria, upon which she exercised her piratical genius, sailed into Falmouth Harbour and cast anchor. The crew remained on board, but the two merchants who owned her cargo went to a Penryn inn. Lady Killigrew seems to have entirely originated the scheme of piracy and murder that was carried through. She procured a boatload of fishermen, sworn to secrecy, who at midnight swarmed aboard and murdered some of the Spaniards, and flung others into the sea. They then took the vessel to Ireland. The spoils of the Spanish ship consisted of holland-cloth and leather, together with two hogsheads of Spanish pieces of eight. It had been intended to cajole the two merchants aboard, on some pretext, and so to murder all concerned with the vessel, but they remained ashore. Not even in those times was it possible to commit piracy and murder in home waters altogether with impunity; and by some means the owners heard of what had really happened, and sought redress of the Government. In the end, Lady Killigrew and two of her fellow-conspirators were found guilty and sentenced to death. Unfortunately, the influence brought to bear on behalf of Lady Killigrew procured her a pardon. The others, not being persons of quality, were hanged in an expeditious and workmanlike manner.
Round Trefusis Point opens Mylor Creek, a mile and a half long, with Mylor village appearing at the opening and the much larger village of Mylor Bridge at its inland extremity. Mylor is a favourite place for afternoon excursions from Falmouth, and there are farmhouse tea-gardens amid much charming woodland scenery.
St. Melor, to whom the church is dedicated, and after whom the village of Mylor is in turn named, was traditionally martyred here. Other legends, however, place the scene of his death in Brittany. He was son of Melian, King of Cornu-Gallia, or Brittany, in the sixth century. Melian himself is said to have been killed in A.D. 537, by his brother, Rivold, and is regarded as something of a saint in Brittany. The village of Guimiliau enshrines his name.
Rivold then, having ended King Melian, mutilated his son, Melor, by cutting off his right hand and left foot; the object being to invalidate him from the succession to the throne, the Armorican laws forbidding any who suffered from physical disabilities from becoming King. The affectionate servants of Melor, however, provided him with a silver hand and a brazen foot, which became miraculously endowed with the powers and attributes of his lost natural members. Melor, sent to the monastery of Saint Corantine, became so saintly and therefore so dangerous to the usurper Rivold, that his death was resolved upon. One Cerialtan, a man-of-all-work in crime, was commissioned to end him; his promised reward being "as much land as he could see from the summit of Mount Coc"—wherever that may be. Cerialtan, in workmanlike manner, cut off Melor's head as he lay asleep, and conveyed it to Rivold, who carried out his compact to the letter, if not to the spirit; for he caused Cerialtan's eyes to be put out, and then had him to the crest of that high place and bade him look upon the land!
And that is all I know about the Life and Times of St. Melor; or at any rate, that is the most likely among the different marvellous stories from which the investigator is at liberty to choose. But legendary vagueness pervades all of them, and there is the very wide choice of dates between A.D. 411 and 537 for the speculative to select from.
Mylor church lies in a hollow, a favourite situation for churches in Cornwall. Although now chiefly in the Perpendicular style, some portions of a former Norman church, which must have been a building of considerable richness and beauty, remain, including three Norman doorways, all of unusual design. The hood-moulding of that on the north side represents a snake, with its head to the west. The south doorway, illustrated here, has, it will be observed, some curiously Flamboyant tracery added to the round arch, with an odd variety of Perpendicular panelling at the sides. The identical pattern, peculiar to Cornwall, is found in a similar position on the south porch at Lelant, near St. Ives.
A monument in the church recalls a dramatic and terrible shipwreck that happened scarce two miles away, off Trefusis Point, in Falmouth Harbour. The epitaph briefly refers to it as under:
"To the memory of the warriors, women, and children who, on their return to England from the coast of Spain, unhappily perished in the wreck of the Queen transport, on Trefusis Point, January 14th, 1814."
Three hundred lives were lost on that occasion, and one hundred and thirty-six of the drowned were buried here.
To Mylor belongs the distinction of possessing the tallest cross in Cornwall. Exactly what it is like you may see from the illustration. It does not actually look the tallest, because some seven feet of its length are embedded in the ground. It measures in all 17 feet 6 inches. No one until 1870 knew it to be a cross at all, for beyond the memory of man it had fulfilled the useful office of buttress to the south wall of the church, with its head covered up. In that year, during the restoration then in progress, its nature was disclosed. It was, however, a matter of considerable difficulty to raise so large a block of granite again upright, and help was obtained from H.M.S. Ganges, then lying in Falmouth Harbour.
The pastime of curious epitaph-hunting, which helps to occupy the time of many explorers in the country, may be indulged in at Mylor with certain prospect of reward. Here is a taste of their quality:
"In
memory of mr.
Joseph Crapp, ship
wright. who died ye 26th of
Novbr 1770. Aged 43 years
Alass Frend Joseph
His End war Allmost Sudden
As thou the mandate came
Express from heaven.
his Foot it Slip And he did fall
help, help, he cried, and that was all."
Opposite Mylor Creek, on the eastern side of the harbour, is the creek of St. Just-in-Roseland, with St. Just's church down by the waterside, among the trees.
The parson of St. Just-in-Roseland must surely be a kindly man. Instead of threatening or rebuking the numerous visitors from Falmouth, who come down the creek in boats and land to explore the place, and have doubtless in the past pillaged the ferns and other things growing in the beautiful churchyard, he displays the following notice in the lych-gate: "Visitors are requested not to touch anything in the churchyard, and then, by calling at the rectory, all those from beyond the county of Cornwall will be welcome to a gift plant or tree, as a souvenir of their visit to St. Just-in-Roseland."
In the great roomy church, which must always have been, as it is now, many times larger than the needs of the place, there may be noticed a tablet which describes how John Randall, for one thousand years from his death in 1733, has "given to ye poor Widows and fatherless children of ye parish, not having parish pay, Twenty Shillings yearly, and Ten Shillings yearly to ye Minister, for preaching a Funeral Sermon."
The next creek on the western side of the harbour is that of Restronguet, a name which appears to mean "deep channel." Dense woods line its banks, with the park of Carclew half-way along, upon the left hand, and on the right the modern port of Devoran, carved out of the parish of St. Feock in 1873, with the Penpoll Tin Smelting Works fuming away, a mile below. Devoran is at the terminus of a mineral railway from Redruth, which thus brings tin and copper-ore to deep-water quays. Restronguet Creek will, however, need dredging, for the mine-water, charged with mud, flowing down from the pits about Gwennap, is shoaling the fairway, and has almost choked the forked endings of the creek at Perran Wharf. This is the waterside extension of Perranwell and Perranarworthal, i.e. "Piran the Wonderful"; the really wonderful St. Piran, who voyaged from Ireland to the north coast of Cornwall on a millstone. The grass that grows in the mud-choked creek stretching towards Ponsanooth is in some way affected by the sea-water in the ooze, turning it to the loveliest yellowish-green imaginable.
Round Restronguet Point the channel comes to St. Feock, a tiny village on a little creek of its own. The church here has a detached belfry, standing beside the road, at a higher level than the body of the building; and over the lych-gate entrance to the churchyard is an old vestry or parish-room. A similar building is seen at the entrance to the churchyard of Kenwyn, north of Truro.
The most exquisitely wooded reaches of the Fal are found above St. Feock, where the river narrows and the banks rise more abruptly. The scenery at this point, and on to Malpas and Truro, strongly resembles that of the river Dart, and many are of opinion that it is really superior. But these comparisons form the thorniest of subjects.
At the hamlet of Trelissick is the well-known ferry of "King Harry Passage," now a steam-ferry conveying vehicles as well as pedestrians. The "King Harry" whose name gives the passage a touch of romance, is Henry the Eighth, who is said to have stayed a night at Trelissick, when on his way to inspect the site of Pendennis Castle.
The woods of Tregothnan, the wide-spreading park belonging to Lord Falmouth, come now into view, where Ruan Creek opens on the right, running three miles in an easterly direction. The creek takes its name from the village of Ruan Lanihorne, at the furthest extremity, where the waters of the Fal run white with the washings from upland clay-workings, like a river of milk, and the mud resembles cream-cheese. Midway is Lamorran, the detached tower of its church washed by another branching creek.
Returning to the main stream, Malpas is reached in another mile and a half, past Tregothnan and the hillside church of St. Michael Penkevil on the right, and the ruins of Old Kea church on the left. St. Michael's churches are generally on heights. This is on the Headland of the Horse; for that is what "Penkevil" means. Just as the Cornish word "eglos," for church, closely resembles the French église, so it will here be noted how nearly like the French cheval is the Cornish "kevil," for horse. In the restored church are monuments to Lord Falmouth's ancestors, notably to the famous Admiral Boscawen. The St. Kea who gave his name to Kea church was a fifth-century Irishman who lived awhile in Wales, in Cornwall, and in Brittany.
Malpas is said to mean "smooth passage," although the word certainly seems to be a corruption of malus passus, a bad passage. It is locally "Mopus." But whether a good or ill ferry, it is certainly a very beautiful spot.
Tresilian Creek, the ultimate extension of these waters, here branches off to the right, with the waterside village of St. Clements round the first bend, its rustic cottages and church embowered amid tall trees. There is a charming little corner, illustrated here, behind the old church, whose weathered age, and the bull's head and other symbols of the four evangelists, that look curiously down from the angles of the tower, demand to be put upon record. A very tall Cornish cross, of the fifth or sixth century, stands at the back entrance to the vicarage, with an abbreviated inscription in large letters running up the shaft. It has been expanded into ISNIOCVS VITALIS FILIVS TORRICI.
Higher up the creek, a little distance inland on the right, is the odd-looking little church of Merther, quite solitary except for one woodman's cottage. It is dedicated to St. Cohan, or Coanus, and owes most of its strangeness to the wooden, box-like finish to its tower: giving the effect of a sanctified pigeon-house. A little statue of St. Cohan, brought from his desecrated Holy Well, is within. The church is not now used for services, and is only retained as a mortuary chapel. "Merther" signifies "martyr," but history, and even tradition, are silent on the reason for conferring the name.
Tresilian Creek (the name "Tresilian" means "the place of eels") ends at Tresilian Bridge, spanning the dusty highway between Grampound and Truro. Here is the battlemented gateway to the park of Tregothnan.
The quiet pastoral scenery, and the elms and other trees here fringing the river, present a picture very little like Cornwall.
The bridge is modern, but the spot is historic; for this is that Tresilian Bridge where the long contest in the Civil War in the West was brought to a conclusion by the surrender of the Royalist Cornish army under Lord Hopton, to Fairfax, March 14th, 1646. It was an inglorious end to a struggle that had opened so brilliantly for the King at Stratton, when Grenville and Hopton smote the Parliament men hip and thigh, close upon three years earlier; but time told continuously against the King, whose troops grew more and more undisciplined and dispirited, while the earlier raw levies of the Parliament had become the famous Ironsides, who knew little of defeat.
The final advance of Fairfax, commanding the forces of the Parliament, into Cornwall was swift and certain. He was at Exeter on February 8th; at Chulmleigh on the 14th; and took Torrington by storm on the 16th, when he got Hopton's men on the run. Thence he advanced and entered Launceston on the 25th, and had come to Bodmin Downs by March 3rd, Hopton's force retreating and dissolving before him. The Prince of Wales, who hitherto had lain at Truro, found it prudent to change his residence to Pendennis Castle, Falmouth, and soon afterwards sailed for Scilly. Hopton at last saw the hopelessness of further resistance, and, after treating with Fairfax from March 8th, surrendered here, on terms, on the 14th. The terms were mildness itself: officers and private soldiers being allowed to depart to their homes on taking an oath not to fight again against the Parliament; and the officers were, in addition, permitted to keep their arms and horses.