[1] The foundations of this article first appeared in Mr. Blight’s “Ancient Cornish Crosses,” Penzance, 1850; in an article entitled “A Cornish Churchyard,” in Chambers’s Journal, 1852; also, as the “Legend of Morwenstow,” in Willis’s Current Notes, 1856; and in its present extended form, in “Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall,” 1870, embodying the author’s latest corrections and impressions.

[2] Woolley Moor.

[3]

[4]

[5] Breachan figures as a saint on a window in St. Neot’s church, called “The Young Women’s Window,” erected in 1529 at the cost of the maidens of the village. Mr. Baring-Gould says that “Brychan” lived in the fifth century, and that Morwenna was probably his grand-daughter.

[6] According to Mr. Baring-Gould, this story is full of anachronisms, arising from the confusion of three different saints, Morwenna of Cornwall, Modwenna of Burton-on-Trent, and Monynna of Newry.

[7] Compare Hawker’s poem “A Croon on Hennacliff.”

[8] This prose description of Morwenstow church has its metrical counterpart in “MorwennÆ Statio.” The poetry in stone has never been more beautifully expressed than by those strong and simple lines.

[9] See Appendix A.

[10] A mistake for “Tunnacomb.” See Appendix A.

[11] See Appendix Aa.

[12] The water for baptisms at Morwenstow is always drawn from this well, which Hawker won for the glebe by a law-suit soon after his appointment to the living.

[13] See Appendix A.

[14] In Blight’s book on “Ancient Cornish Crosses,” etc., there is an engraving of the Morwenstow Piscina and a Hebrew altar, with a note by Hawker.

[15] Among some unpublished MSS. of Hawker’s is the following verse, dated 1840:—

[16] Hawker had a seal engraved with this pentacle. Compare the lines in his poem “Baal-Zephon.”

In a letter to Miss Louisa Twining, Hawker writes: “The pentacle of Solomon, or five-pointed figure, was derived from his seal wherewith he ruled the genii. It was a sapphire, and it contained a hand alive which grasped a small serpent, also alive. Through the bright gem both were visible, the hand and the ‘worm’ as of old they called it. When invoked by the king, the fingers moved and the serpent writhed and miracles were wrought by spirits which were vassals of the gem.... Because of this mystic Hand the pentacle or five-pointed (fingered) figure became the Sigil of Signomancy in the early ages.”

[17] For an instance of its use in exorcism, see the “Botathen Ghost” story, p. 158.

[18] “And Solomon built ... Baalath, and Tadmor in the Wilderness” (1 Kings ix. 17-18).

[19] This screen was constructed by Mr. Hawker from the rescued remnants of an older screen, pieced together with ironwork. It has since been taken down, and the old carving placed in other parts of the church.

[20] See Appendix Ab.

[21] The chancel has been restored by Lord Clinton. The old altar ornaments used by Mr. Hawker are preserved in the vestry.

[22] See note on p. 6. Two new lancet windows have since been placed in the chancel, one by Mrs. Waddon Martyn, of Tonacombe, in memory of her husband, the other by friends of the Rev. J. Tagert, to commemorate the restoration of the church during his vicariate. A larger memorial window has also been placed by the Martyn family at the east end of the north aisle.

[23] This appears to be an error, as the date on the pillar (in Roman figures) is 1564. (See Appendix A.)

[24] See Appendix Ab.

[25] Compare the apportionment of the regions among the four great knights, Lancelot, Perceval, Tristan, and Galahad, in “The Quest of the Sangraal.”

The mystic attributes of the four regions are told in lines of incomparable grandeur.

[26] More about this village is to be found in the article “Holacombe.”

[27] This dislike is disappearing. When I was at Welcombe recently a grave was being dug on the northern side of the church. The grave-digger said he had been christened and married by Mr. Hawker: “one of the best passons,” he added, “us ever had.”—Ed.

[28] See p. 62.

[29] These initials are still to be seen at Stanbury, now a farmhouse. The scene of Mr. Baring-Gould’s novel “The Gaverocks” is partly laid there.

[30] Richard Cann, who died February 15, 1842. Compare Hawker’s head-note to the poem in “Cornish Ballads,” where it is called “The Dirge.”

[31] It may be said that the first editions of some of Hawker’s poems are on the grave-stones in Morwenstow churchyard. Other verses of this kind are those “On the Grave of a Child,” and some of the prose inscriptions bear traces of the same authorship.

[32] From Notes & Queries, 1st ser., vol. ii. p. 225. 1850. See Appen. B.

[33] Compare “The Silent Tower of Bottreaux.”

[34] The scene of this legend is pointed out in the garden at Tonacombe Manor.

[35] From Household Words, vol. vi. pp. 515-517. 1853.

[36] A character in “Guy Mannering.”

[37] A cove some six miles S.W. of Bude. Hawker has a poem on the death of a noted smuggler, “Mawgan of Melhuach.”

[38] A mistaken spelling: see Appendix A.

[39] The allusion is to a passage in Æschylus, “Prom. Vinct.” 90.

It was a favourite metaphor of Hawker’s, and occurs over and over again in his poetry. The best instance is in “The Quest of the Sangraal,” where he apostrophises Cornwall.

[40] From Household Words, vol. viii. pp. 305, 306. 1853.

[41] From All the Year Round, vol. xiii. pp. 153-156. 1865.

[42] 1834.

[43] The Tamar.

[44] The Torridge.

[45] John Wesley.

[46] And like Daniel Gumb. See p. 107.

[47] Vide p. 32, et seq.

[48] See the essay, “Cruel Coppinger,” and Appendix F.

[49] These are still preserved. They are little sand-glasses, shielded with brass, cylindrical in shape. The sand in one takes twenty-eight seconds to run, that in the other fourteen.

[50] Hawker is not forgotten in Arbroath. A lecture was delivered there on February 18, 1903, by the Rev. A. E. Crowder, on “Cornwall: its Scenery, People, Antiquities, and Folklore.” The lecturer referred to Hawker and the wreck of the Caledonia.

[51] For Hawker’s poem on this occasion, see p. 22.

[52] “Gebir,” Book I., lines 216, 217. The usual version has “hard wet sand.” Hawker and Landor (it may be remarked by the way) were in many respects kindred spirits.

[53] Bude.

[54] Probably Mr. George Casebourne, Civil Engineer, who married a sister of Mr. Hawker’s, and was for some years superintendent of the Bude Canal.

[55] From All the Year Round, vol. xiii. pp. 454-456. 1865.

[56] See Appendix C.

[57] Compare Hawker’s fine description of the feast at Dundagel in “The Quest of the Sangraal”—

[58] Another version of the story says that he was a shoemaker come on business, and that he never made boots for Mr. Arscott again. For the fate of the other toad, see end of Appendix C.

[59] The Rev. Robert Martyn, then Vicar of Stratton.

[60] On another occasion Black John awoke from a less serious trance. The parson in his sermon was speaking of “that blessedness which on earth it is impossible to find,” when a well-known voice from the gallery shouted, “Not find! Us be sartain to find un to-morrow in Swannacott Wood!”

[61] In another version of the tale, Black John said to the preacher, “Only just take your hat off and say two words of gospel to ’im, and her won’t touch ’ee.”

[62] This is one stanza from Hawker’s own poem, “Tetcott, 1831; in which year Sir William Molesworth caused the old house to be taken down, and a new one built.” (See Appendix C.)

[63] These lines are from Hawker’s poem, “A Legend of the Hive.”

[64] From All the Year Round, vol. xv. pp. 206-210. 1866. See Appendix D.

[65] Spelt “Routorr” in the lines quoted on p. 234. It seems more natural to take the word as meaning “rough, or rugged, tor.” Hawker spells it “Roughtor” on p. 124.

[66] Now called “Brown Willy.” See the lines quoted on p. 80.

[67] Compare the lines on Sir Lancelot in “The Quest of the Sangraal,” and Hawker’s note—

The ballad on “The Doom Well of St. Madron” records a similar test of innocence. For Carew’s description of a logan-rock, see end of Appendix D.

[68] See Appendix Da.

[69]

[70] William Cookworthy (1705-1780) started life as a small druggist in Nut Street, Plymouth. He had been educated by the Society of Friends, and at thirty-one he retired from trade, became a Quaker minister, and continued so for twenty-five years. About 1758, having discovered a new process of making porcelain, he set up a manufactory at Plymouth, which was after his death transferred to Bristol, and thence to the Potteries. “Cookworthy is said to have been a believer in the dowsing or divining-rod for discovering mineral veins, and we learn that he became a disciple of Swedenborg.... As a lover of science he was much appreciated, as is proved by the fact that Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, and Captain Cook, dined with him at Plymouth before their voyage round the world” (“Dictionary of National Biography”). His duties led him to travel about the mining districts of Cornwall, and he was a great friend of Nancarrow of Godolphin, a superintendent of mines. It would be on these journeys, no doubt, that he came across Daniel Gumb. Cookworthy died on October 16, 1780, aged 76.

[71]

[72] It was not Agag, but Og, the king of Bashan, who had the bedstead of iron. See Deuteronomy iii. 11.

[73] This is probably a slip of the pen for “Virgilian.” The line occurs in Virgil’s “Eclogues,” 8, 43. There is no stop at “illum.” The sentence is carried on to the next lines—

Conington translates the passage thus: “Now know I what love is; it is among savage rocks that he is produced by Tmarus or Rhodope or the Garamantes at earth’s end; no child of lineage or blood like ours.” Hawker’s translation, it must be owned, is preferable as far as it goes.

[74] Evidences of thought and style make it almost certain that these ingenious “fragments” are Hawker’s “own invention.” See note on p. 104.

[75] It was a trick of Hawker’s style to end a sentence with this or similar adverbs. Instances occur on pp. 17 and 172. Elsewhere he writes: “As the lightning leaps from the dark cloud suddenly.” Little points like this suggest the real authorship of Daniel Gumb’s diary.

[76] Numbers xxiv. 21, “And he (Balaam) looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock.”

[77] From All the Year Round, vol. xvi. pp. 247-249. 1866. See Appendix E.

[78] See Appendix B.

[79] Compare Hawker’s poem, “Sir Beville—the Gate Song of Stowe.” See also Appendix Ea.

[80] It is said locally that Antony’s stocking would hold a peck of wheat.

[81] C. S. Gilbert in his “History of Cornwall.”

[82]

[83] There is a description of this battle in Q’s novel, “The Splendid Spur,” one of the most vivid and stirring battle pictures in modern fiction.

[84] In a letter dated September 21, 1866, to his brother-in-law, the late Mr. John Sommers James, Hawker says, “He (Antony Payne) was an Ancestor of Captain Parsons and Sam. He was going to bury your Great Grandfather at Stamford Hill alive, wounded among the other Rebels, but he spared him, and, as I have stated, his ‘descendants are among the most conspicuous of the Inhabitants of Stratton to this day.’”

[85] The authenticity of this letter is doubtful. If spurious, however, it is interesting as an example of Hawker’s Chattertonian propensities and his skill in catching the antique style. (See Appendix E.)

[86] Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), a German by birth, was Court painter to five English sovereigns, Charles II., James II., William III., Anne, and George I. He came to England in 1675, and if Charles II., who died in 1685, commanded him to paint the portrait of Antony Payne, it must have been between those years that the picture was executed. According to the dedication under Gilbert’s engraving, however, it was done at the expense of the Earl of Bath. The Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro, has published a pamphlet (price 2d.) entitled “A Short Account of Anthony Payne, the Cornish Giant, and the History of his Portrait.” This states that the picture was painted in 1680. “Ten reigning sovereigns in all sat to Kneller for their portraits. His sitters included almost all persons of rank, wealth, or eminence, in his day, and examples of his brush may be found in nearly every historic mansion or palace in the kingdom.... Kneller can best be studied at Hampton Court” (“Dictionary of National Biography”).

[87] In the letter to Mr. J. Sommers James quoted above Hawker refers to Antony Payne as “owner of the spear your brother Henry gave me years ago.”

[88] This flagon was given by Mr. Hawker to Mr. Thomas Shephard, of Stratton, whose daughter, Mrs. William Shephard, of Barnstaple, has presented it to Truro Museum. (See illustration facing p. 14.) The Shephards are descendants of Antony Payne, and Mr. William Shephard has in his possession a pewter shaving cup that belonged to Antony’s father.

[89] Gilbert says “in the north aisle.” Possibly Hawker altered this in accordance with the superstition mentioned on p. 21. See end of Appendix E.

[90] From All the Year Round, vol. xvi. pp. 537-540. 1866. For the historical basis of this article, see Appendix F.

[91] In the original form of this article, a second verse was added, and the first was slightly different.

[92] See p. 38.

[93] Hawker himself used a seal engraved with the one word, “Thorough,” the motto, as he said, of Archbishop Laud.

[94] Mr. Baring-Gould, in his “Vicar of Morwenstow” (Edition 1899, p. 110), gives another reason for Coppinger’s wrath:—“The Kilkhampton parson hated rook-pie. Coppinger knew it. He invited him to dine with him one day. A large rook-pie was served at one end of the table, and roast rooks at the other, and the parson, who was very hungry, was forced to eat of them. When he departed he invited Coppinger to dine with him on the following Thursday. The smuggler arrived, and was regaled on pie, whether rabbit or hare he could not decide. When he came home he found a cat’s skin and head stuffed into his coat pocket, and thereby discovered what he had been eating.”

[95] From All the Year Round, vol. xvii. pp. 276-280. 1867. For the origins of this story, see Appendix G.

[96]

[97] One of Mr. Hawker’s sisters was the wife of John Dineham, surgeon, of Stratton.

[98] Hawker has a pretty poem for children with this title—

[99] The love of the Lady Katherine Gordon for Perkin Warbeck is the subject of Hawker’s poem, “The Lady of the Mount.”

[100] The remains of this old building have been embodied in some cottages. The doorway shown in the illustration forms the front door of one of these. The other is occupied by the Cornwall County Police, and the unsuspecting pilgrim who rambles round without permission is liable to be startled by the gruff remark, “You’m trespassing!” Thus are we recalled from “the baseless fabric” of the past to the stern realities of the living present.

[101] Hawker gives a romantic turn of his own to this part of the story.

[102] From All the Year Round, vol. xvii. pp. 501-504. 1867. The story occurs in C. S. Gilbert’s “Historical Survey of Cornwall,” in Mrs. Bray’s “Trelawny of Trelawn,” and in “Histories of Launceston,” by R. and O. B. Peter.

[103] All this is singularly applicable to Hawker himself.

[104] See p. 45.

[105] John Ruddle, or Rudall, A.M., was instituted Vicar of St. Mary Magdalene, Launceston, on Christmas Day, 1663, on which day he began his ministry. He is entered in the Visitation Book of 1665 as vicar, and in that of 1692 as curate. He became a prebendary of Exeter. On July 15, 1671, he married Mary Bolitho, a widow. He was buried on January 22, 1698. (See Appendix H.)

[106] It is a question whether these documents ever existed outside Hawker’s brain. See note on p. 101.

[107] See Vivian’s “Visitations of Cornwall,” p. 148.

[108] For the pedigree of the family of Bligh, of Botathen, see Vivian’s “Visitations of Cornwall,” p. 38. William Bligh, baptized May 18, 1657, was the son of William, who was baptized June 9, 1633, and was, therefore, only thirty-two in 1665. According to ancestries given by Carew and Gilbert, it is probable that the Earls of Darnley are descended from the Blighs of Botathen. (See App. H.)

[109] This is no doubt a mis-spelling for “Dingley.” A James Dingley was vicar of the parish of South Petherwin, where the ghost appeared, in the same reign, and assisted Parson Rudall in his ministrations at Launceston. The name Dingley exists in that town and district at the present day.

[110] See p. 15.

[111] The pentacle of Solomon. See p. 14.

[112] Compare the lines on Merlin in “The Quest of the Sangraal”—

to which Hawker appends the following note: “Igdrasil, the mystic tree, the ash of the Keltic ritual. The Raun, or Rowan, is also the ash of the mountain, another magic wood of the northern nations.”

[113] See Appendix Ab.

[114] See note on p. 104.

[115] Hawker was quite capable of submitting a poser of this kind to his own bishop, Dr. Phillpotts. It is on record that he once exorcised a rebellious vestry, but whether he obtained the bishop’s licence in this case is not stated.

[116] From Belgravia, vol. iii. pp. 328-337. 1867.

[117] The author and Rev. Dr. Jeune, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, father of Sir Francis Jeune.

[118]

(See Appendix A.)

[119] Compare Tennyson, “In Memoriam”—

[120] Such things have been known to occur even in these degenerate days.

[121] A variant of a line in Hawker’s poem, “A Legend of the Hive.”

[122] The Oxford crone speaks with a Cornish accent, and some think that she hailed from Stratton.

[123] Hawker came in contact, however, with some of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, as we learn from a letter where he says: “How I recollect their faces and words—Newman, Pusey, Ward, Marriott; they used to be all in the common-room every evening, discussing, talking, reading.” Hawker went up to Oxford in 1822, and won the Newdigate in 1827, when Newman was a Tutor of Oriel and Keble was publishing “The Christian Year.”

[124] One of the kind so often used by Wesley for his open-air sermons in Cornwall. See p. 160.

[125] Compare Hawker’s poem,“Trebarrow,” and his footnote thereto.

[126] From the description of Carradon in “The Quest of the Sangraal.”

[127]

[128] Compare Hawker’s well-known ballad, “The Silent Tower of Bottreaux.”

[129] There were no “earls” of Bottreaux. Knights, or barons, would be more correct.

[130] Wizard.

[131] See Appendix J.

[132] Compare Tennyson—

[133]

It was, perhaps, in commemoration of this episode that Hawker when afterwards curate of North Tamerton, kept a tame Berkshire pig. Another parson-poet, Robert Herrick, is also said to have had a pet porker.

[134] Compare p. 204.

[135] Compare p. 202.

[136] An escapade with pigs occurs in Tennyson’s poem, “Walking to the Mail.”

[137] Pembroke.

[138] Welcombe, to which Mr. Hawker became curate in 1850, and which he continued to serve until his death. There is an allusion to Welcombe church on p. 21.

[139] Hawker writes in one of his letters: “And now enough of myself. Solitude makes men self-praisers, and a BemÖÖster Herr—as the Germans call lonely readers—a mossy vicar likes to talk about his own importance.”

[140] Compare p. 196.

[141] A similar sacrilege occurs in Hawker’s poem, “A Legend of the Hive.”

[142] See Appendix Ab.

[143] An echo from Shakespeare—

[144] Compare p. 194.

[145] Horace, “Ars Poetica,” 185—

[146] Charity is the full name.

[147] There is a chapter on charms in Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England.”

[148] Compare Hawker’s poem, “Modryb Marya”—

[149] Compare the poem, “A Croon on Hennacliff.”

[150] Hawker was no doubt reminded of his own impersonation of a mermaid at Bude. For many quaint legends about mermaids and mermen, see Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England.”

[151] Compare Browning’s lines—

[152] The same conceit, humorously applied, occurs in Calverley—

[153] See pp. 196, 202.

[154] Perceval was Prime Minister from 1809 to 1812, in the time of the Regency and the Peninsular War.

[155] The “Dictionary of National Biography” gives the following account of this event: “There was a certain bankrupt named John Bellingham, a man of disordered brain, who had a grievance against the Government originating in the refusal of the English Ambassador at St. Petersburg to interfere with the regular process of Russian law under which he had been arrested. He had applied to Perceval for redress, and the inevitable refusal inflamed his crazy resentment. On Monday, May 11 (1812), the House of Commons went into Committee on the orders in Council, and began to examine witnesses. Brougham complained of Perceval’s absence, and he was sent for. As he passed through the lobby to reach the house, Bellingham placed a pistol to his breast and fired. Perceval was dead before a doctor could be found.... Bellingham was tried at the Old Bailey on May 15, and the plea of insanity being set aside by the court, he was hanged on May 18.”

[156] Robert Hunt has a delightful chapter on “The Elfin Creed of Cornwall,” in his “Popular Romances of the West of England.”

[157] Compare “The Doom-Well of St. Madron”—

[158] A reference to a custom, still followed to some extent in Devon and Cornwall, of paring the turf of grass-fields and burning the sods. It is called “bait-burning,” or “burning bait.”

[159] “Full of wise saws and modern instances.”—As You Like It.

[160] Hawker’s account (on p. 11) of the discovery of the piscina in the chancel wall at Morwenstow is, however, very circumstantial. If “the jumbled carved work and a crushed drain,” which, he says came to light when the mortar was removed, proceeded from his imagination, it is a touch of genius in fabrication. In a letter to Mr. Richard Twining dated October 25th, 1855, Hawker writes: “Will you have the kindness to present the inclosed drawing to Miss L. Twining in my name and with my best regards. It is of a piscina discovered by me in the south wall of my chancel, where it has been hidden by mortar full 300 years, and existed there before that date full 500 years more.”

The whole passage from Mr. Baring-Gould is as follows: “The ancient piscina in the wall is of early English date. Mr. Hawker discovered under the pavement in the church, when reseating it, the base of a small pillar, Norman in style, with a hole in it for a rivet which attached to it the slender column it supported. This he supposed was a piscina drain, and accordingly set it up in the recess beside his altar.” Mr. Baring-Gould evidently uses the word “piscina” as meaning the whole “recess” beside the altar. Mr. Chope appears to use it for the pillared structure within the recess. Hawker’s own words seem to show that he found the whole piscina, i.e. the recess with the drain inside it, “in the chancel wall.” He says nothing of any discovery “under the pavement,” and Mr. Baring-Gould does not give his authority for this statement.

At any rate, if the piscina, or piscina drain, or pillar-base, whichever it be, was abstracted from the ruined chapel at Longfurlong, it presumably was not discovered under the pavement of Morwenstow Church, unless by another stroke of genius.

It may be of interest to add that, on thrusting a piece of grass down the hole which Hawker took for a piscina drain, and which Mr. Baring-Gould says is a rivet-hole, I found that it went right through to the floor of the recess, a depth of about 13 inches. It is quite possible, therefore, that, if connected with another hole through the wall, it might at one time have served the purpose of a drain.—Editor.

[161] The inscription runs as follows: “THIS · WAS · MADE · IN · THE · YERE · OF · OURE · LORDE · GOD · 1575.” The pew bearing it now stands (1903) at the east end of the north aisle, facing south.—Editor.

[162] The foumart is now extinct in England, though, I believe, to be met with in parts of Scotland.

[163] See note on p. 118.

[164] The cedar wainscot which lined the chapel is said to have been bought out of a Spanish prize, and the carving is mentioned by Defoe, in his “Western Tour,” as the work of Michael Chuke, and not inferior to Gibbon’s. (C. S. Gilbert, “Survey of Cornwall,” vol. ii. p. 554.)