UNKNOWN

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1704, 22 March 1913, Page 11

UNKNOWN

. Who that has 'travelled y, t :t ; lie ffamar < River has'not boeiiiWfi'n' 'v»st<ed by tho place names 0$ okl, Copj'l? '•Who has not iii imagination beet ■off, so to speak, iroin ntf.dern tim' v Vn„ >. places of mere mush, ; growth, sjn-ht to lands watered by tho Jordan ~? ihc Euphrates? . ;, , " To cito just "tie-iftrtt fciv tfc ■r-'fuiy to me—Zennor, M-Arab,.-Gom:i. S,creed, Maraziou, . jfcmjiael,' A 1 upi.iV. Morveh. .Is th«»/-not • something eiu-iv ,ly Eastern in tife 'conjunction thi) 'syllables? Do/not these and a other., namesyoften upen tho toi). ;;c\> C west-co\mtr\v folk suggest waste, -JibX places ujufer unfamiliar stars, odours' Und spices, hillside villi far sun-.smitt'sn , dost i'.j Sjirii; .-old; forgotten citics whosi reaches Tiack -aeons of long, drama'ill?- ' ytriTSi . ; . . ■ ( Shadows of Past Clerics, ; For -1110 they. breathe. magic, poetry; glamour; for, ice they hint at epochs ci .history stranger thafi fiction. One learmj moreover, as one ((elves for _ laiop'ledgE) sometimes winning rewards in '. unlikell soil, tho't thero is meaning aiul survivnof iljo story of otticr. days wrought inj< fcluse designations'of lonely cairns, bold;:' jutting headlands, cliff castles, , and k tiblo little villages Imhtyi away ill sjl ■ ! fared valleys, .where roiujh -winds g2j ; seldom, and where waysido flowers s-x j the-blo'teoms cf couimerco prosper ' 'ingly :-tlirough ull tlte months of \ calendar. 1 Quito a .group of names'in'oiiiir/y 1 usa to'<lay can bo quoted, showing V•portions of earth which -bear, theia.ij j liav.o been sacrosaiict in other ■ tijes. \ 'Zennor, in tho strange, beautiful distt"'. ' ; of St,' Ives, was just "tho Saint's Plad" ■ .probitbly tho abode of one of tho missr_ary Saints bf"-whom • one learns so mi': 1 in tlw literature of. the diicjiy. A chuty .» school, the vicarngo, and a little bui S of houses maker up Zennor Church-toii;. From hero tho sea appears to use a hi 1 , molten sapphire, changing.by tho subt):..?, gradations of colour to pale "jade greeii i, the sTialloiys. ' . -■ Gohnt signifies "Holy Place," ■ am' l . the ; early hours of a morning- ! of spring, when- pure rainbow shades aii-reflected-in the wido Teaches ,'of the FOl •' Riyer, when tho.cotta'g-n orchards makr ;■■ foam of blossom, and tho sunshine lights ■up the old gTey tower, cf St.. Wiimo\ niid smiles, bonignantly upon, the fane'■■ £ St.. Sampson, the name and it-s nieanii:

seem peculiarly "vitty," as the ancient folk ■ hereabouts would-ray. ! ' Lanaillos stood , for "Place of Altars," whether Christian or . I'agaii who' shall say? .so .far' back into tho past do.these names reach. Lansallos Head, .with its glorious views of the, coastline and . its open outlook upon the. great heaving waters ' may well liavo held altars to strange gods in those dim ages before the Irish saints came to preach. Christianity through tho whole length' 'of .tho littoral.. The church dies 'half 'a mile inland, well away -from breakers -and tompests, which war liiadl.v against nature's grand barricade of dill's at the chansjo of the seasons. Old L'yonassJ. • . Peiiaance, too, .means "holy place," and Gulvnl, on its, outskirts, stands for "holy vale." It' is a busy- centre (if flower, culture, and, if labour is indeed prayer, then it is as holy .a place as. of old, for every Btjuaro j-arcl ■ of" the good mil is tilled, watered, -planted, and reaped most industriously. The narcissi, wallflowers, and goldpn daffodils which gladden your rooms in I'ebruary, and. Jlarcli may have been born and I,red in just this blest vale ofOld Lyone?se. Sancreed is really "sacred," to :tho initiated, and l'edruth is another "holy place" of old lime, and there aro very, many other spots in this land of saints which were once hallowed,, as their name in tho old Cornish tonguo clearly shows.

"Tho Country, of Splendour and Terror." Cornwall teems with t'heso scraps of romance, surely founded on veal history at least. If much embroidery has been woven round about' the facts with the coming nnd gain;; of'thc.centu'rks,lono feels timt ii. germ of truth is there nevertheless. St. Blazcy, St. Endellioii, lit. «\'eot, St. J'robus, St. Kvtil, St. Enodoc, St; Creed, St. Burien, St. MonveimaJ St. Austell, St. Cleer, St. Constantino, St. Kuan, St. Kcverne, one might cnumerato many mora, without exhausting tho list. Then'there ore names of sinister import. names heard with a shiver of dread; Penolver, on the coast, meaning "Head of Lamentation"; Penwith, "tho Promontory of Blood"; Toel Mouth. "Devil's Mouth"; Alzaphron. "Hellish"; Troverthy, "tho l'laco of Grave." Carnewas is old Cornish for "Cairn of Desire'; Treraunance is a "Placo of Springs ; 'lrevolgue, the dun headland projecting into tho sea at Forth, is "Dark Moor": Penpol is a generic term for ' Lake End ; rregurrcl isian alluring "Palace of Gold"; Polzenth,' the "Pool of the Arrow." The nddit'on of Dinas to apy namo plnoe tells us that it was fortified against maraudin" trib?s or foes from overseas. Penjcrsu meant "Marshy"; Lantegloss described the "Church Place"; Pedn-an-Laaz is the veritable "ciul of the earth ■ as far a. 4 Cornwall, i? concorunl, benitf tho oM name for- lianU's- End/ /Perranuthno, lit-erallj tho "Manor of TJthiio," lVono of the trinity of parishes claiming St; Piraii

as patroii "saint,' 'Uthno w;as : probably 0110' of.tho.great Cornish chiefs or kings who flourished hero before tho dawn of authentic history, when .lremar meant "Chief's Abode," nnd the Gathering-Place," From Tyre the Magnificent. Marazion, under the shadow of lofty St. Michael's Mount, stood for Market .law/' nnd Penziince to-day lias its Jew Street, recalling vividly the traditions ot 1 thoso old dusky traders irum Tyre whoso flests floated upon tho tides of Mount; s Bay and sailed away freighted with tin from the Cornish mines. Koscraulhon is, hi the cold .English of to-day, "Purpto Moor." Peudeen again reminds us of the period when' the land , was parcelled out .d occupied by separate tribes, for it ans.tho "Headman's P ace, or chiefs . - idenco. Nanjizel is "Under the Hill, .• lovely bay with some of tho .. ,isito -cofounng to alo:n»JLhe'••••irea. Wlioro the . tints are especially ' ;-utiful. Purple, pale gMcn. 1 ii.r silver grey gleam the restless waters, d .whe? sunset'floods sky. w>U ' infiuite gradations of rtffe tiM and Umn Mn;; Grimsons, .soft " n i pli „"lly ttrcens, Nanjir.el is almos. unbelu\aDiy i lovely .-Tram "The Queen.