Derivation of the name Fowey--The Fowey river--Lostwithiel--A rotten borough--Old Stannary Court--S. Winnow--His Settlement in Brittany--Beating the bounds--Golant--S. Samson--Dol--Tower of Fowey--Place--S. Finbar--The "Lugger Inn"--Polruan--The Mohun family--Death of Lord Mohun--The Rashleigh family--Sale of the borough. Although pronounced Foye, the name of the place is spelled Fowey; it takes its appellation from the river. Mr. Ferguson, in his _River Names of Europe_, derives this from the Gaelic _fuair_, sound, _faoi_, a rising stream, and instances the Foyers in Inverness, and the Gaur in Perthshire, for _fuair_ takes also the form _gaoir_, signifying din, and the Foyers is noted as forming one of the finest falls in Britain. But this won't do. The Foye is the meekest, quietest, and most unbrawling of rivers. The name is identical with that of the Fal, but the _l_ has been dropped, and both derive from _falbh_, running, waving, flowing. [Illustration: FOWEY HARBOUR] The river takes its rise on High Moor under Buttern Hill on the Bodmin moors, a mile north-west of Fowey Well that is under Brown Willy, which probably takes its name from being supposed to ebb and flow with the tide, which, however, it does not. The river has a fall of nine hundred feet before it reaches the sea. It does not present anything remarkable till it comes in sight of the highway from Liskeard to Bodmin, as also of the railway, when at once it turns sharply to the west, at right angles to its previous course, and runs through a well-wooded and picturesque valley under the camp of Largin. Then, after flowing side by side with road and rail till it reaches Bodmin Road Station, it turns abruptly south, attending the railway to Lostwithiel, slipping under Restormel Castle. [Illustration: LOSTWITHIEL BRIDGE] Lostwithiel is not Lost-wi'in-a-hill as is the popular derivation, but Les-Gwythiel, the palace in the wood, as Liskeard is that on the rock. It is charmingly situated. It is an old rotten borough, once in the hands of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. But before that it was a seat of the Stannary Court for Cornwall, and here the Dukes of Cornwall had their palace. Of this considerable remains exist, but it has been meddled with, and vulgarised by the insertion of quite unsuitable windows. The church is interesting; it possesses a fine lantern of a character nowhere else met with in the West. Anciently the tide came up as far as the town, and the portreeve had rights over the river, for which reason the town arms are represented with an oar. Below the town the river to Fowey is full of beauty. It passes S. Winnow, with fine fifteenth-century glass; the church is beautifully situated. Here is a chapel of S. Nectan, of Hartland, to which latter was attached a college of secular priests endowed by Gytha, wife of Godwin, Earl of Kent. The priests of this college were married and allowed to marry, as all Celtic clergy were.