The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 1 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 1 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
The suddenness of this accident, and the horse’s escaping in the dark
as aforesaid, was the reason why Mr. Chapman’s servant, who went
before him, did not so soon find him wanting as otherwise he might,
which as soon as he did, he went back the road way in quest of him,
calling him aloud by his name; but receiving no answer, nor being able
to find the horse, he concluded his master had rode home to his house
some other way, whereupon, giving up all further search after him, he
hastened home to Constantine, expecting to have met him there; but,
contrary to his expectations, found he was not returned. Whereupon his
servants, early next morning, went forth to inquire after him, and
suspecting (as it happened) he might be fallen into some tin-shafts
about Redruth, hastened thither, where, before they arrived, some
tinners had taken into custody his horse (with bridle and saddle on)
which they found grazing on the Wastrell Downs. Whereupon, consulting
together about this tragical mishap, it was resolved forthwith that
some of those tinners, for reward, should search the most dangerous
shafts in order to find his body either living or dead; accordingly
they employed themselves that day till about four o’clock in the
afternoon without any discovery of him. Finally, one person returned
to his company, and told them that at a considerable distance he heard
a kind of human voice under ground; to which place they repaired, and
making loud cries to the hole of the shaft, he forthwith answered them
that he was there alive, and prayed their assistance in order to
deliver him from that tremendous place; whereupon, immediately they
set on tackle-ropes and windlass on the old shaft, so that a tinner
descended to the place where he rested, and having candle-light with
him bound him fast in a rope, and so drew him safely to land, where,
to their great admiration and joy, it appeared he had neither broke
any bone, or was much bruised by the fall; verifying together the
attribute of Divine Omnipotence that nothing is impossible with
God,――and that old English proverb, that drunkards seldom take hurt;
for, as the tinners said, if he had fallen but two or three feet
lower, he must inevitably have been drowned in the water. But maugre
all those adverse accidents, after about seventeen hours stay in the
pit aforesaid, he miraculously escaped death and lived many years
after, and would recount this history with as much pleasure as men do
the ballads of Chevy Chase or Rosamond Clifford.
In this parish is the dwelling of James Trefusis, Gent. that married
Worth; his father Penarth, originally descended from Trefusis of
Trefusis in Mylor, as I am informed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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