THE INHABITANTS OF FOWEY, DISSATISFIED WITH THEIR CHARTER, APPEALED TO PARLIAMENT.

this charter very little is at present known. A second charter was procured in the reign of William and Mary, in the year 1690; and by its various grants the affairs of the borough still continue to be regulated. The corporation consists of a mayor, recorder, town clerk, and eight aldermen; and the right of voting at an election is vested in the householders who pay scot and lot, and in the tenants of the dutchy manor, who are eligible to be portreeves of the borough.

The grants contained in this charter, being thought either indefinite or partial, by those who wished to participate in the envied privilege, created many disputes among the inhabitants, which led to an appeal to the house of commons; where it was finally determined in the year 1792, that the persons who were entitled to the privilege of electing the portreeve for the borough, were also eligible to the office. And these were declared to be such of the prince's tenants only as had been duly admitted on the court rolls of the manor of the borough, provided that their title to such lands had been presented to the court baron by a sworn homage or jury of the said manor. The mayor and the senior alderman are admitted to be justices of the peace in their respective capacities, and the mayor retains his power of magistracy for one year after his mayoralty expires.

The manor was sold in the year 1798, to the late Philip Rashleigh, of Menabilly, Esq. from whom it has descended to his nephew, William Rashleigh, Esq. M. P. in whose possession it still remains. It is to this manor that the privileges of the borough have been hitherto annexed. There is however, another manor closely connected with the borough of Fowey, belonging to J. T. Austen, Esq. which of late years has asserted a rival claim. These manors are distinguished by the appellations of the borough manor, and the burgage manor. Between these rival

claimants several disputes have lately arisen, which have not tended to promote the domestic tranquillity of the inhabitants. The affair is at present undecided; and probably it will not terminate without another appeal to the house of commons.

SECTION XXII.

Callington.

Among the various records in which this town is mentioned, the most ancient occurs in the reign of Henry III. This monarch, in the year 1267, granted to the inhabitants the privilege of holding a weekly market on Wednesday, and one fair annually. From that time to the present the market has invariably been held on Wednesday, and it has now five fairs. The privileges were originally granted to Reginald de Ferrars, who was then lord of the manor. From this family the

CALLINGTON THE LAST PLACE IN CORNWALL ON WHICH THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE WAS BESTOWED.

manor passed with an heiress to the Champernownes, and from these by another heiress to Lord Willoughby de Brooke. From the Willoughby family it descended after several generations, and by successive marriages, to the several families of Pawlet, Dennis, and Rolle. By an heiress of Rolle it passed to the second Earl of Orford; and on the death of his son George Earl of Orford, who left no issue, it passed, in 1791, to Robert George William Trefusis, Esq. the legal representative of the Rolles, from whom it had been carried in a preceding generation. This gentleman afterwards succeeded in establishing his claim to the barony of Clinton ; in consequence of which he assumed the title of Lord Clinton. The manor of Callington is now the property of his son Robert Cotton St. John Lord Clinton; and to the manor thus possessed by him, the privileges connected with the borough are still considered as annexed.

Callington was the last on which the elective franchise was bestowed in Cornwall. It received the privilege of sending two members to parliament in the 27th of Elizabeth, from which time to the present this right has continued uninterrupted. It does not appear that the inhabitants possess any charter of incorporation, or that their elective rights are specifically defined. Custom however, though subject to many variations, now operates with all the force of law; and to those who are interested in the issues, and are acquainted with the transactions of the borough, ancient usage is found to supply all deficiencies; and its affairs are conducted with more regularity than those of several places with indisputable titles.

In the reign of Charles I. the right of election was vested in all the inhabitants who had lived there one full year. The portreeve was the returning officer, which office he held by prescription, being annually chosen at the court-leet of the lord of the manor. The portreeve is still the returning officer; but the right of voting is now considered to be vested in all persons possessing freehold property in the borough, whether residents or not, and in all leaseholders who reside within its limits. About the conclusion of the last century, the number of votes scarcely exceeded fifty, and the right of election was restricted to burgage tenures paying scot and lot. But the number who voted in the year 1812 amounted to about sixty, and since that time they have been augmented to nearly seventy.

Such is the general outline of the origin, history, charters, and privileges, of our Cornish boroughs, the catalogue of which terminates with Callington.

CHAP. XVIII.

Ancient and modern Literary Characters of Cornwall.

SECTION 1.

Ancient Literary Characters.

IT is not to be expected that Cornwall, from the barbarous state of its ancient inhabitants, should furnish a soil congenial to literature, in the early periods of its history. We have already seen, in the survey that has been taken of the Cornish language, that some manuscripts of an early date have been preserved through the revolutions of time, and transmitted to posterity. That copies of these compositions should be very scarce, prior to the discovery of the art of printing, it is not difficult to conceive; but it is to be regretted that no care was taken to multiply copies of these venerable relics of antiquity, when this great instrument of science and literature appeared, to bless the civilized world.

When the Saxons obtained the dominion of England, they were too much intent upon conquest, to promote the interests of science. Fierce, illiterate, and barbarous in themselves, they looked down with contempt on those few, on whom the sun of science had occasionally darted some feeble rays, and literature was no farther cherished by these ferocious invaders, than as it tended to extend their power, or to ensure their conquests. Even in succeeding years, when Christianity acquired an ascendancy in their choice of moral principles, the most contemptible subtleties of casuistry every where usurped the place of truth, and became its most formidable rival, under the specious pretext of developing its sacred mysteries. In the cells and cloisters into which learning retired, the fierce disputants wasted their mental energies in giving quaintness to quibbling absurdities; while unmeaning jargons ensured to the passionate combatants the fame of erudition.

"At this juncture we have only to contemplate mental darkness wherever we turn our eyes. The prospect is doubtless dreary; but a few scattered rays from the Scandinavian muse seem to break at times through the gloom. Adhelm, a prince of the royal family of Wessex, and a bishop of Sherborne, was the best poet of his age; and the greater number of our kings, after the union of the 5 B

VOL, I.

GENERAL STATE OF LITERATURE IN ENGLAND ABOUT THE TIME OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

heptarchy, from Egbert to Harold, discovered a genius or prepossession for the poetry of the north. Alfred regularly allotted a part of his time, amidst the turbulence of war, to the Saxon poets; and Canute was a distinguished patron of the bards. As these kings, therefore, were more especially conversant with the original inhabitants of East Cornwall, and as the Saxon and Danish poetry was highly figurative, and in this respect resembled the strains of the Druids, it is probable that the best educated people in this county were not inattentive to the northern muses, both with a view to preferment, and from a disposition to amuse their minds with the fables of Odin."

When the Normans came, they "avowed themselves the friends of literature, and endeavoured to enlarge the circle of the sciences, and to introduce a taste for the fine arts. Under their influence the sciences were cultivated with increasing success, though the Aristotleian logic had spread over them a most unpleasing colour. But theology was deeply tinctured by it; and the school divinity enjoyed great triumphs in the monasteries that were rising on every side. The canon and the civil law, and even the common law, were infected with the subtleties of logic. In the mean time the study of medicine, which was almost confined to the clergy, the profession of which had become so lucrative as to draw even the monks from their cloisters, was subjected to the influence of astrology and magic. That the polite arts should have made any striking progress at this period is more than we can expect: yet the Normans were as attentive to poetry as the Anglo-Saxons, particularly Latin poetry."

Whether any schools were at this early period established in Cornwall, can only be gathered from conjecture, since no records are extant to decide the question. It is probable that the cathedrals and monasteries which were established throughout the nation, contained the chief seminaries of learning, and that the religious houses scattered over Cornwall cherished the glimmerings of science which were known, under the auspices of Exeter. To accomplish these purposes, rooms were set apart in several monasteries, and provision was sometimes made for the cultivation of the doubtful arts. It is to these asylums therefore, that we stand indebted for the scattered rays which illuminated these middle ages; and, although monsters were engendered beneath the gloom of hallowed ignorance, these mouldering ruins have a claim upon our veneration, in proportion as they once furnished a retreat for learning, and a place of retirement to its principal advocates.

Among the Cornish literary characters of antiquity, one of the most ancient and most remarkable, is Hucarius, who flourished at St. Germans before the Norman Conquest. Hals gives the following account of this author:-" In the abbey of

ANCIENT LITERARY CHARACTERS OF CORNWALL.

St. Germans, A. D. 1040, in the time of Livignus, bishop of Kirton, lived Hucarius, commonly called the Levite, as Bale and others in their writings of Britain, tell us; perhaps for that he assisted the priest at the altar, as the Levites of old did, and was more excellent, or did exceed all others in that particular. Otherwise by the appellation Levite, we must understand him a priest, and that he was universally famous in performing his function of preaching and divine service. Certain it is he was a holy and learned man, as the one hundred and ten homilies or sermons, and many other books which he wrote, declare." Of these homilies or sermons, no vestige is at present known to remain.

The next in time, but perhaps an equal in fame, was John of Cornwall, who flourished, according to Carew, about the year 1170. This John of Cornwall appears to have been well educated in the Latin tongue, and to have travelled beyond the seas, and to have studied the liberal arts in foreign universities. Rome was the chief place of his residence, in which city he grew so famous for his acquirements, that he was recommended to pope Alexander III. about the year 1180. At this time Peter Lombard, who was some time bishop of Paris, published some doctrines that were thought too favourable to Arianism. Pope Alexander having received information of his conduct, wrote to the Archbishop of France to suppress the growing heresy. This was attempted; but force was found to be ineffectual. Alexander then applied to John of Cornwall to write a book against Lombard and his doctrine. John accordingly engaged in the controversy, and soon produced a book which he called De Homine Assumpto. To this book Lombard attempted a reply; but when both appeared, so fully were his holiness and the Roman doctors satisfied with the validity of John's arguments, and of the sophistry used by Lombard, that the controversy ended, and John of Cornwall was styled by the pope a Catholic doctor.

About the beginning of the twelfth century, Simon Thurnay, or Thurnaius, a Cornishman, rendered himself so conspicuous for his acquirements in profane learning, that he surpassed all the scholars in Oxford. Proud of his attainments, he passed over to Paris, where he made such proficiency in the study of divinity, that he obtained the chief seat among the learned doctors of the Sorbonne. But unhappily, after being lifted to this exalted eminence, his head became so giddy, that he did not hesitate to prefer Aristotle to Moses and Christ, and yet to consider him as only equal to himself. But the judgments of God overtook him. On a sudden his memory so failed him, that he could not recollect any thing that he had ever known or done; and according to Hooker, he could neither discern nor know To this calamity, Fuller in his Worthies, adds, that he not only turned fool, but was struck with dumbness also. After which, according to

a letter in any book.