The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 4 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 4 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
Fuller report of the excellence in wrestling and nimbleness of body,
wherewith this western people have been and are famous, you may find
in Carew’s description of his country. But to give reason of the
climate’s nature for this prerogative in them, I think as difficult as
to shew why about the Magellanic streights they are so white, about
the Cape de Buon Speranza so black,[75] yet both under the same
tropic; why the Abyssins are but tawny moors, when as in the
East-Indian isles, Zeilan and Malabar, they are very black, both in
the same parallel; or why we that live in this Northern latitude,
compared with the Southern, should not be like affected from like
cause. I refer it no more to the Sun, than the special horsemanship in
our Northern men, the nimble ability of the Irish, the fiery motions
of the French, Italian jealousy, German liberty, Spanish puft-up
vanity, or those different and perpetual carriages of state-government,
Haste and Delay, which, as[76] inbred qualities, were remarkable in
the two most martial people of Greece. The cause of Æthiopian
blackness and curled hair was long since judiciously[77] fetcht from
the disposition of soil, air, water, and singular operations of the
heavens; with confutation of those which attribute it to the Sun’s
distance. And I am resolved that every land hath its so singular
self-nature, and individual habitude with celestial influence, that
human knowledge, consisting most of all in universality, is not yet
furnish’d with what is requisite to so particular discovery. But for
the learning of this point in a special treatise Hippocrates, Ptolemy,
Bodin, and others have copious disputes.
_Of Corin Cornwal call’d, to his immortal fame._
So, if you believe the tale of Corin and Gogmagog: but rather imagine
the name of Cornwall from this promontory of the Land’s End, extending
itself like a[78] horn, which in most tongues is Corn, or very near.
Thus was a[79] promontory in Cyprus called Cerastes, and in the now
Candy or Crete, and Gazaria (the old Taurica Chersonesus) another
titled[80] Κρίου μέτωπον: and Brundusium in Italy had name from
Brendon or[81] Brention, i. e. _a Hart’s-head_, in the Messapian
tongue, for similitude of horns. But[82] Malmesbury thus: “They are
called Cornwalshmen, because being seated in the western part of
Britain, they lie overagainst a horn (a promontory) of Gaul.” The
whole name is as if you should say Corn-wales; for hither in the Saxon
conquest the British called Welsh (signifying the people rather than
strangers, as the vulgar opinion wills) made transmigration: whereof
an old[83] rhimer:
The vewe that wer of hom bileved, as in Cornwaile and Wailes,
Brutons ner namore ycluped, ac Waleys ywis.
Such was the language of your fathers between three and four hundred
years since.
[51] The western or Spanish ocean.
[52] Bretagny coasts.
[53] The farthest isle in the British ocean.
[54] The sea upon the north of Scotland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account