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)
Maidment was the next to succumb, on September 2nd. Pearce, and
Williams the surgeon, were in the _Speedwell_, and it was as much as
they could do to obtain a few shell-fish for themselves; but they soon
lay down and died. When Gardiner also yielded up the ghost is not
known, but he had strength to make an entry in his diary on the 6th;
there is none on the 7th.
On the 21st January, 1852, H.M.S. _Dido_ arrived at Terra del Fuego
and found the remains of this unhappy party of religious enthusiasts.
The first thing seen was a direction scrawled on a rock; then a boat
lying on the beach of a small river; then the unburied bodies of
Captain Gardiner and the missionary Maidment; then a packet of papers
and books; then the scattered remains of another boat, with part of
her gear and various articles of clothing; then two more corpses; and
lastly the graves of the rest of the party.
"Their remains," wrote Captain Morshead, of the _Dido_, "were collected
together and buried close to the spot, and the funeral service read by
Lieutenant Underwood. A short inscription was placed on the rock near
his own text; the colours of the boats and ships were struck half-mast,
and three volleys of musketry were the only tribute of respect I could
pay to the lofty-minded man and his devoted companions."
DOLLY PENTREATH
Much has been written about Dolly Pentreath, but little is known of
her uneventful life. That little may be summed up in few words.
Her maiden name was Jeffery, and when she was a child her parents and
all about her spoke the Cornish language. Drew, in his _History of
Cornwall_, quoting Daines Barrington, says: "She does indeed talk
Cornish as readily as others do English, being bred up from a child to
know no other language; nor could she (if we may believe her) talk a
word of English before she was past twenty years of age."
In the year 1768 the Hon. Daines Barrington, brother of Captain,
afterwards Admiral, Barrington, went into Cornwall to ascertain whether
the Cornish language had entirely ceased to be spoken, or not, and in a
letter written to John Lloyd, F.S.A., a few years after, viz. on March
31, 1773, he gives the following as the result of his journey:--
"I set out from Penzance, with the landlord of the principal inn for
my guide, towards Sennen, or the most western point; and when I
approached the village I said that there must probably be some remains
of the language in those parts if anywhere, as the village was in the
road to no place whatever, and the only ale-house announced itself to
be the last in England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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