FALMOUTH

(Population in 1851, 4,953) was not even a fishing village in Leland's or Camden's time; but the importance of its magnificent harbour, four miles long by one mile in extent, capable of accommodating 500 sail, with an average depth of 12 to 18 fathoms, full of convenient creeks, and sheltered by highlands, was first pointed out by Sir Walter Raleigh on his homeward voyage from Guiana. On landing, he found only ten miserable fishermen's cottages on the shore. Becoming the guest of Sir John Killigrew, at Arwinnack (on the marsh), at the western end of the harbour, Raleigh pointed out its capabilities, and the knight began to build a town in 1613. The present name is derived from Valemouth. The place, in old times, was called Cassiter, the wood-land, which the Greeks rendered into Cassiterides. The Dutch were among the first traders to the place; and the village of Flushing, and range of houses called Amsterdam, commemorate their traffic. "Penny-come-quick," as the first inhabitants called it, derived its name, they said, from the speed with which the keeper of the little ale-house by the shore, which still preserves some marks of age, made his fortune by supplying the thirsty Hollanders with English beer. The name is really Pen-coom-ick, the "head of the narrow dingle, or the valley on the creek," and was afterwards Smith-ick (the smithy on the Creek), from a forge that stood near the market strand. Falmouth means the mouth of the fall of the watershed, through the broad estuary of Carrick Roads, and the name first appears in the charter of Charles II., 1661. In 1562, it returned representatives to Parliament: with Penryn, it now elects two members. The arms of the town are-Arg. a doubleheaded eagle, sable, ensigned on either wing, and on the breast, with a castle triple-towered of the field. On March

17, 1664, the new town gave the title of Earl to Charles Berkeley, who died 1665; of Viscount, Oct. 1, 1674-1716, to the family of Fitzroy-renewed June 9, 1720, to the Boscawens; of Earl to the same family, July 14, 1821;— but since Aug. 29, 1852, of Viscount only, the earldom having become extinct. In 1679, John Lord Robartes received, said the courtiers, a patent of earldom, taking the title from this town; but his lady being saluted as Countess Penny-come-quick, he resigned the inharmonious honour within six days. The church (W. J. Coope, R.) was erected immediately after the Restoration, and bears the name of Charles the Martyr. Under the east window, which contains some foreign glass, is an illuminated reredos by White.

In 1676, Sir Peter Killigrew built the quay: a packetstation, shortly afterwards established, consummated the welfare of the town. In 1688, communication was opened with Lisbon once a week, and in 1696 to the Groyne; in 1705, by 5 ships of 150 tons each, and with crews of 30 men, to the West Indies; in 1706, to Gibraltar; in 1764, to Savannah and Charlestown. In 1776 there were 9 packets, and in 1803 20, on the establishment, with 14 used for temporary and general employment. In 1846, Falmouth had 576 ships, of 24,703 tons: in 1700 there were 350; in 1750, 500; and in 1811, 647 inhabited houses. It has ceased to be a foreign packet station, but steam communication is now maintained with London, Dublin, Liverpool, Southampton, Plymouth, and Penzance.

On Jan. 18, 1403, Joan of Navarre landed here on her way to her marriage with Henry IV. On June 30, 1644, Queen Henrietta embarked here, in a Dutch vessel, for France. This shore was the scene of the story of the Cornish Lovers. Poor, but of an ancient and honourable family, after a long hindrance by their friends, they were married; but soon after the wedding the bridegroom had to proceed to foreign parts to take possession of a fortune most opportunely bequeathed to him by an unknown relative. To afford his wife a happy surprise, he lamented, by letter, that he must yet delay his departure for some

time longer, while he was joyously on his return. It was in the cool of the evening, after a storm, that his bride and a kinswoman walked along the shore, and watched a floating object on the sea, which at first appeared like a coffer, but proved to be a human body. The gentle-hearted wife turned to summon help to pay the last rites to the dead, when the corpse was thrown at the feet of her cousin, who fell upon the ground with a wild shriek. The wife stooped to raise her swooning friend, when she saw lying by her side her own husband! An aged woman, who had been the nurse of the shipwrecked youth, coming to call the ladies to supper, found the three senseless bodies. She woke the cousin from her trance and chafed the husband's limbs to life; but the bride was gone for ever, his only, even to the grave!

In the French revolutionary war, a squadron of frigates was stationed here, under the command of Lord Hugh Seymour and Pellew, afterwards Lord Exmouth. In 1748, a family intending to embark here, was compelled, owing to the scanty stage accommodation, to engage a coach and horses from London. A party of young men took the back fare, stipulating that the vehicle should bide their pleasure in any town where there was a cockfight. In the time of the Stuarts, the only mode of travelling, except for persons of fortune, to the north of York and the west of Exeter, was by pack-horses, seated between the panniers.

In Dec. 1795, Southey sailed from this port to Corunna. Lord Byron was here from June 22 to July 2, 1809, and thus describes the place: "St. Mawes is garrisoned by an able-bodied person of fourscore, a widower; he has the whole command and sole management of six most unmanageable pieces of ordnance, admirably adapted for the destruction of Pendennis, a like tower of strength on the opposite side of the Channel. The town contains many Quakers and salt fish: the oysters have a taste of copper, owing to the soil of a mining country; the women (blessed be the corporation therefor!) are flogged at the cart's tail when they pick and steal." Byron embarked

here for the Mediterranean, on the pilgrimage of Childe Harold.

At Trefusis Point, the Queen transport was wrecked, on Jan. 14, 1814, when 195 lives were lost.

In 1833, the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society was instituted at Falmouth, to promote emulation in the fine and useful arts among all classes.

The botany includes Beta maritima, Campanula hederacea, Sibthorpia Europæa, Fucus ovalis, F. loreus, linum usitatissimum, Lichen paschalis, besides the other rare plants of Cornwall, Enanthe crocata, Silene amæna, Chrysoplenum oppositifolium, Sedum Anglicum, and Bryum crispum. The Erica vagans, the "white heath,” which grows only on serpentine, will add from hence a treasure to the botanist's box. The hornblende here is schistose and compact as at Fowey and Llanteglos, and indeed always when the calcareous series forms a junction with the porphyritic.

The windmill, an invention introduced by the Crusaders, was first erected here in the 13th century: the site of the original structure is still occupied by a building which would have provoked the Knight of La Mancha.

Carlyle, in his 'Memoirs of Sterling,' has vigorously sketched, in a few lines, the appearance of the town. One of the most striking features is Pendennis Castle, at the west entrance, seated on a rock 300 feet high, with an area of three acres. It retains traces of horn and crown work, erected by Cromwell; and on the south side is the granite round tower built by Henry VIII. In 1644-5, the Duke of Hamilton was imprisoned in the gloomy cells of this castle. Col. Fortescue and Admiral Batten besieged it by sea and land during the spring and summer of 1646. Prince Charles was here in 1645; and his father's loyal follower, Sir John Arundel, of Trerice, imitating the defence of Raglan Castle, held the forts of Pendennis and St. Mawes, the last over which the royal standard floated, until he had but 24 hours' provision left in the wasted garrison. He then surrendered, but marched out with the honours of war, a gallant veteran with flowing hair, white with the

snows of 85 years, at the head of a handful of men, with drums beating and colours flying. The castle was struck by lightning Nov. 1717. The town of St. Mawes, on the opposite shore, which terminates in St. Anthony's Head with a lighthouse, and an Early Decorated chapel on the summit, bears the name of an Irish recluse. The castle round a keep, with circular bastions, was built about 1540; the church, by the Marquis of Buckingham, in July

1812.

Gyllan-Vaes (William's Grave) is said to be the burialplace of that Prince William, son of Henry I., who, with his brother and sister and many Norman nobles, perished by the shipwreck of the Blanche Nef, off Barfleur, in December 1130, after whose untimely death his father never smiled again. The Black Rock which lies between the two castles is considered by Borlase to have been the place of traffic for tin between the Phoenician and the Briton. At Mylor (so called after a Cornish prince), which stands on one of the numerous creeks, is a detached steeple. The church, of the time of Henry VI., contains an effigy of a Trefusis, a brass of T. Killygrave, gent., 1500, and a Norman doorway. Four miles distant is the church of St. Feock, in which prayers were, for the last time, said in Cornish near it is a cross. Tregothnan House, near Truro, was built by Wilkins: it is a seat of Viscount Falmouth.

From Falmouth to the Lizard Point occur the headlands of Pendennis Point and Rosemullion Head, which enclose Falmouth Bay: the estuary of the Helford river intervenes between the latter promontory and Nare Point. To these (off which are the Manacles rock, and may be heard the bells of St. Keverne, within sound of which no metal can be found) succeed Dranna Point and Chynals Point, and Black and Innis Head. Southward from the line of Helford river (near the mouth of which is Manaccan, once the residence of Polwhele, the county historian) projects the English Chersonese, terminating in the Lizard Point (Cornish, a jutting headland '). It is a stern, wild district, scarcely relieved by tamarisk (Tamarix