Cornish Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Cornish Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County) -- Biography; Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
A writer in the _Transactions of the Devonshire Association_ for 1894
says: "For science he lived, and for science he laboured, even long
after the age when the average man seeks rest and quiet. Starting out in
original lines of thought, and untrammelled by traditions of years long
ago, he met with many rebuffs, and the conclusions which he derived from
his investigations and minute and patient inquiry were almost laughed to
scorn. But he adhered to his work and clung to his beliefs, with
enthusiastic devotion, and in the end he lived to see even those who had
originally stoutly opposed his views convinced of their verity, and
their inestimable value to archæological and geological science."
Pengelly himself left this piece of advice to the student:--
"Be careful in scientific inquiries that you get a sufficient number
of perfectly trustworthy facts; that you interpret them with the aid
of a rigorous logic; that on suitable occasions you have courage
enough to avow your convictions; and don't be impatient, or annoyed,
if your friends don't receive all your conclusions, or even if they
call you bad names."
It must be remembered that Pengelly and Sir Charles Lyell were those
who startled English minds with the revelation of the enormous period
of time in which man had lived on the earth, and of the slow
progression of man through vast ages in the development of
civilization. How that he began with the rudest flint implements, and
progressed but very slowly to the perfection of these stone tools; how
that only in comparatively recent times did he discover the use of
metals and pottery; how of metals he first employed bronze, and not
till long after acquired the art of smelting iron and fashioning tools
and weapons of iron. All this startled the world, and men were very
unwilling to accept the doctrine propounded and to acknowledge the
facts on which this doctrine was based.
The _Life of William Pengelly_ was written by his daughter Hester
Pengelly, and published by Murray, 1897. Reference has been made as
well to the obituary notice in the _Transactions of the Devonshire
Association_ for 1894.
SIR CHARLES WILLS, K.B.
Sir Charles Wills belonged to a very ancient and widely ramified family
in Cornwall. The first, however, of whom anything authentic is known was
Anthony Wills, of Saltash, who died in 1576. They were settled at
Landrake, at Morval, Botusfleming, Wyvelscombe, Exeter, and Gorran.
Anthony Wills, of Gorran, youngest son of Digory Wills, of Botusfleming,
had a son, Anthony Wills, who was the father of the Right Hon. Sir
Charles Wills, K.B., general of His Majesty's forces, baptized at Gorran
23rd October, 1666. Sir Charles had two brothers, Richard, of Acombe, in
the county of York, and Anthony, of the Inner Temple, who died in
Ireland 1689. The arms of the family are, _arg_. three griffins passant,
in pale, _sa._, within a bordure engrailed of the last _besantée_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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