The Survey of Cornwall - Richard Carew

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Dunbar Megalo-Britannus in Epigrammat. suis, cent. 6. numb. 53. (Q) Wood, ibid. (R) Wood, ibid. (S) Camdeni Epistolae, &c. pag. 106.

       Table of Contents

      S V R V E Y

      OF

      C O R N W A L L

      Written by Richard Carew, of Antonie, Esquire.

      [Abstract graphics]

      To the Honorable, Sir Walter Ra-

       leigh Knight, Lord Warden of the

       Stannaries, Lieutenant Generall of

       Cornwall, &c.

      This mine ill-husbanded Survey, long since begun, a great while discontinued, lately reviewed, and now hastily finished, appealeth to your L. direction, whether it should passe; to your correction, if it doe passe; and to your protection, when it is passed. Neither unduely: for the same intreateth of the Province, and Persons,ouer whose bodies, and estates,you carrie a large, both Martiall, and ciuiil commaund, by your authoritie, but in whose hearts, and loues, you possesse a farre greater interest, by your kindnesse. Your eares, and mouth, haue euer beene open, to heare, and deliuer our grieuances, and your feete and hands, readie to goe, and worke their redresse, and that, not onely, alwayes, as a Magistrate, of your selfe, but also verie often,as a suiter, and solliciter to others, of the highest place. Wherefore, I, as one of the common beholden, present this token of my priuate gratitude. It is dutie, and not pre- sumption, that hath drawne me to the offering; and it must be fauour,and not desert, that shall moue your Lordship to the acceptance: and so I take humble leaue, rest- ing no lesse willing to serue you, then vnder you.

      Your Lordships poore kinsman,

      Richard Carew of

       Antonie.

      To the Reader.

      When I first composed this Treatise, not minding that it should be published in Print, I caused onely certaine written copies to bee giuen to some of my friends, and put Prosopopeia into the bookes mouth. But since that time, master Camdens often-mencioning this worke, and my friends perswasions, haue caused my determination to alter, & to imbrace a pleasing hope, that charitie, & good construction resteth now generally in all Readers. Albeit, I well know, how Opere in vario, no lesse then in longo, fas est obrepere somnum. And I acknowledge, this playing work to come so farr short, of satisfying, euen myselfe (though Suus cuiq; placet partus) as I haue little reason, to expect the applause of any other.

      Besides the state of our Countrie hath vndergone so manie Alterations, since I first began these scriblings, that,in the reuiewing, I was driuen, either likewise to varie my report, or else to speake against my knowledge. And no maruaile, for each succeeding time, addeth, or raueth, goods, & euils, according to the occasions, which it selfe produceth : rather a wonder it were, that in the ceaselesse reuolution of the Vniuerse, any parcell should retaine a stedfast constitution. Reckon therefore (I pray you) that this treatise plotteth downe Cornwall, as it now standeth, for the particulars, and will continue, for the generall. Mine Eulogies proceede no lesse, from the sinceritie of a witnesse, then the affection of a friend: and therefore I hope, that where my tongue hath beene good, no mans eye will bee euill: and that each wel-minded Reader will wish a merrie passage, to this my rather fancie-sporting, then gaine-fseeking voyage. Farewell.

      [1]

      The Prosopopeia to the Booke.

      I Crave not courteous ayd of friends,

       To blaze my praise in verse,

       Nor, prowd of vaunt, mine authors names,

       In catalogue rehearse:

      I of no willing wrong complaine,

       Which force or stealth hath wrought,

       No fruit I promise from the tree,

       Which forth this blooth hath brought.

      I curry not with smoothing termes,

       Ne yet rude threats I blaste:

       I seeke no patrone for my faults,

       I pleade no needlesse haste.

      But as a child of feeble force,

       I keep my fathers home,

       And, bashfull at eche strangers sight,

       Dare not abroad to rome,

      Saue to his kinne of neerest bloud,

       Or friends of dearest price,

       Who, for his sake, not my desert,

       With welcome me entice.

       Table of Contents

      S V R V E Y

      O F

      CORNWALL.

      The first Booke.

      Cornwall, the farthest Shire of England Westwards, hath her name by diuers Authors diuersly deriued. Some (as our owne Chroniclers) draw it from Corineus, cousin to Brute, the first Conqueror of this Iland: who wrastling at Plymmouth (as they say) with a mightie Giant, called Gogmagog, threw him ouer Cliffe, brake his necke, and receiued the gift of that Countrie, in reward for his prowesse: Some, as Cerealis, (no lesse mistaken perhaps in that, then in his measures) from Cornu Galliae, a home or corner of Fraunce, whereagainst nature hath placed it: and some, from Cornu Walliae, which (in my conjecture) carrieth greatest likelyhood of truth.

      For what time the Saxons, after many bloudie inuasions [Anno Dom. 586.] as Pirates, began at last to plant their dwellings [2a] and take roote in this Iland, as Conquerors, the Britons, by them supplanted, were driuen to seeke their safegard in the waste Moores, craggie Mountaines, and wild Forrests of Wales and Cornwall, where the Countries barrennesse barred their pursuers from victuals, and the dangerousnesse of the passages laid them open to priuie inuasions. Such as had in this sort withdrawne themselves, the Saxons termed Welshmen, by interpretation strangers, for so they were to them, as they to the Countrie: and their place of abode they called Welshland, sithence turned to Wales, euen as by the same reason, they giue still the same name to Italy. Now, Cornwall being cast out into the Sea, with the shape of a horne, borrowed the one part of her name from her fashion, as Matthew of Westminster testifieth, and the other from her Inhabitants; both which conjoyned, make Cornwalliae, and contriued, Cornwall: in which sence, the Cornish people call it Kernow, deriued likewise from Kerne a home. Neither needeth this composition to be accompted any way vncouth, seeing the same is made familiar vnto vs by the like in other Countries, as of Herbipolis in Germanie, Lombardie in Italy, Paleocastrum in Crete, and Neoportus in Carniola: all which, with many other, are likewise compacted of double languages.

      This ill-halfening hornie name, hath (as Corneto in Italy) opened a gap to the scoffes of many, who not knowing their owne present condition, or at least their future destinie, can be contented to draw an odious mirth from a publike infamie. But seeing the wisest Enditer, hath directed the penne of his holiest writers to vse this terme, not only in a good meaning, but also in a significant sense, and to sanctifie the thing itselfe in sundrie parts of his seruice: such iesters dishonest indiscretion is rather charitably to bee pittied, then their exception either angerly to be grieued at, or seriously to bee confuted.

      I am not ignorant, how sorely the whole storie of Brute, is shaken by some of our late writers, and how stiffely supported by other some: as also that this wrastling pull betweene Corineus and Gogmagog, is reported to have befallen at Douer. For mine owne part, though I reuerence antiquitie, and reckon it a kind of wrong, to exact an ouer-strict reason for all that which vpon credite shee deliuereth; yet I rather incline to their side, who would warrant her authoritie

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