Cornwall (England : County) -- Description and travel
A lofty hill to the south of the town, has a pyramidical erection of
granite in memory of John Knill, born in 1733. The obelisk bears three
inscriptions: "Johannes Knill, 1782"; "I know that my Redeemer liveth";
and "Resurgam". After serving his apprenticeship to a solicitor, Knill
became Collector of Customs, and afterwards Mayor of St. Ives. Long
before his death, which took place in 1811, he erected this mausoleum on
Worvas Hill, but it was never applied to its purpose, as he was buried
in London. Among the provisions of a curious will he ordained that
"certain ceremonies should be observed once every five years, on the
festival of St. James the Apostle; ten pounds to be spent in a dinner
for the mayor, collector of Customs, and clergyman, and two friends to
be invited by each of them, making a party of nine persons, to dine at
some tavern in the borough; five pounds to be equally divided amongst
ten girls, natives of the borough and daughters of seamen, fishermen, or
tinners, each of them not exceeding ten years of age, who shall, between
ten and twelve o'clock of the forenoon of that day, dance for a quarter
of an hour at least, on the ground adjoining the mausoleum, and after
the dance sing the 100th Psalm of the old version, to the fine old tune
to which the same was then sung in St. Ives Church; one pound to a
fiddler who shall play to the girls while dancing and singing at the
mausoleum, and also before them on their return home therefrom; two
pounds to two widows of seamen, fishers, or tinners of the borough,
being sixty-four years old or upwards, who shall attend the dancing and
singing of the girls, and walk before them immediately after the
fiddler, and certify to the mayor, collector of Customs, and clergyman,
that the ceremonies have been duly performed; one pound to be laid out
in white ribbons for breast-knots for the girls and widows, and a
cockade for the fiddler, to be worn by them respectively on that day and
on the Sunday following". The observances have been duly carried out
since the death of John Knill. The next observance will be in 1911, and
when once at St. Ives the present writer was fortunate enough to witness
the quaint ceremonies that are enacted every five years around the
mausoleum of John Knill, who has succeeded in making a posthumous name
for himself at a very trifling cost.
[Illustration: LAND'S END]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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