The Rivers of Great Britain, Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial: Rivers of the South and West CoastsVarious
History
The Rivers of Great Britain, Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial: Rivers of the South and West Coasts
Various
Great Britain -- Description and travel; Rivers -- Great Britain
At the foot of Brown Willy, Cornwall's highest hill, in the parish of
St. Breward, there is an aqueous locality in which the water-finder
might exercise his art of divination with the utmost confidence, if,
indeed, he did not find his occupation gone by reason of the abundance
of the surface water. This is Foy-Fenton, and here the /Fowey/
rises. As, to this day, Fowey becomes "Foy" in the naming of the boats
that boast the prettiest harbour in the county for their port, one may
easily discover a close association in the nomenclature of the sites
and scenes at the beginning and the end of this very charming stream.
In its course, curiously enough, the river changes its name. Where it
flows southward through the moorlands between St. Neot and St. Cleer,
it is called the Dranes (or Dreynes) river; and fishermen from the
"model borough" of Liskeard, who love to flog its pleasant waters for
the toothsome trout that they harbour, would be prepared to contend,
in the face of the maps and in the presence of geographers, that it
is the Dranes river, and no other. In flood-time a strong stream that
gives the road-surveyor endless trouble, the Fowey, leaping along its
bouldered way, here and there lightening its journey by falling in
picturesque cascades, scattering its showers of iridescent spray over
the thick foliage that everywhere clothes its banks, runs almost level
with the main road to St. Neot--a village noted for its window-pictured
legend of St. Neot and the miraculous supply of fish, in the parish
church--where it receives a goodly stream of that name. Increasing the
beauty and interest of its course with every mile it travels, the river
by-and-by glides into the far-stretching woodland of Glynn, the seat
of Lord Vivian, and then becomes one of the principal contributors to
the scenic charms of the railway-side from Devonport to Par, which Miss
Braddon describes as the most delightful of all journeys by rail.
[Illustration: THE HAMOAZE FROM SALTASH (_p. 59_).]
After leaving its moorland haunts, and in order to reach Glynn, the
Fowey took a westerly turn, but, Bodmin once skirted, the river runs
directly southward again, under Resprin bridge and past Lanhydrock
House, the Cornish home of that Lord Robartes who was the leader of
the Parliamentarian forces in these parts. The ancient mansion, of the
Tudor period, passed through many crises, and, together with modern
additions, was practically destroyed by fire in 1881, and rebuilt in
1883-4. The next object of interest seen from the river is the ruin
of Restormel Castle, on the summit of a bold headland a mile from
Lostwithiel. The building of the castle is ascribed to the Cardenhams,
who flourished hereabouts in the reign of the first Edward; and it was
once the residence of the Earls of Cornwall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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