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)
The MS. is in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Pye, Rector of Truro, and
had been recovered by him from imminent destruction, as he told me, at
a house formerly belonging to Mr. Tonkin, and then inhabited by Mr.
Fortescue. A MS. in folio, and another in quarto, had been left in a
cupboard of the kitchen, and applied to culinary purposes. Mr. Pye’s
attention was arrested by seeing part of the quarto wrapping round
some plumb cake; he therefore begged the rest. And he found the Folio
had been used entirely, and the quarto up to the letter P. and page
406. With this account he made me (as I thought) a present of the MS.
I therefore wrote some additions of my own upon the blank places of
it. He afterwards desired me (as I thought) to lend it him awhile. But
when I sent for it back again, he denied he had ever meant to give it
me; and I thought myself obliged in honour to waive all claim to the
property, and to borrow it for transcription. But I then erased my
own remarks from the whole, and have here added many, very many
others. October 26th 1790. J. W.
THE HUNDREDS OF CORNWALL.
LES-NEWITH. New Court. (Dr. Pryce).
I notice this first, because it points out the scope and drift of the
other names. It is so called from the Court of the Hundred, Les-Newydh
(C.) New Court, as being a new Hundred, and this new Court giving name
to the place at which it was kept, near Tintagel.
STRATTON.
So called from Stratton, the seat of its Court, and therefore the head
of the hundred. The hill full of fresh springs of waters (Dr. Pryce).
POWDRE.
So called from the Court House (I apprehend) called (I suppose) Pou
Dre (C.) the house of the province. Pou Dar, the borough, country, or
hundred of Oaks. (Dr. Pryce.)
PIDRE.
Called from its house near the four burrows, which has alwas given
name to the street in Truro, leading towards it, as the house was so
called from its being at the four burrows, Pidyr Carnon perhaps. The
fourth hundred. (Dr. Pryce.)
TRIG.
From its house called Trig (C.) a dwelling, and situate at the ebb of
the sea, or on the sea shore. (Dr. Pryce.)
EAST AND WEST.
Hundreds, formed by the English since the Conquest of Cornwall, and so
named by them from the relative situation of their respective Court
Houses.
KERRIER.
From Curhar (C.) I believe a jail, a prison; the Court House of the
Hundred, I apprehend, having always a prison a jail for it.
The coast or border of the country, Kur-Urian (Dr. Pryce); which
signify, even in Dr. Pryce himself, Kur, the coast or border of a
country, and, Urian, the border, boundary, or limit of a country: so
that Kerrier, thus explained, is the same thing doubly.
PENWITH.
The head of the breach or separation, as the Land’s End is from
Scilly. (Dr. Pryce.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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